Nichtlustig

Mailman: It would have hurt less if he had just bitten me.
Dog: Your mother never really loved you!

Growing

I haven't updated for a little while now so this is going to be another catch all post.

I am learning an awful lot these days. Admittedly, that is a very new agey sort of thing to say, but all I can promise you that my inner child has been left well alone and my crystal collection remains, well, nonexistent.

I suppose what I mean is that I am learning what is important to me (versus what I think is important for me). Some things remain constant: languages continue to really capture my intellectual interest, doing improv continues to be when I feel most alive, and I continue to be driven by a desire to connect with my different roots (had a really great moment with Alexia over the weekend in a tiny cafeteria in the east village serving mainly church-going Ukrainians; the pirogies were much better than what I have had in restaurants here and I was very happy to use the Ukrainian I knew). I have reaffirmed some newer things as well, such as the fact that while I value hard work and do always work as hard as I can, I am not a workaholic and do not desire to be one. I just don't think it is healthy, and seeing more and more workaholic lawyers and law students preparing for themselves for that those positions, I can only say I do not think it is healthy and takes its toll on your personal life and breadth as a person. So I continue to try and balance law school and normalcy.

I have also learned that I can't be in a relationship if I don't think it is for the long term. Though I have always been adverse to relationships when I am not in a place for very long, I mainly mean it in the sense that I am unable to stay in a relationship that is comfy when I realize I am not getting the fulfillment I need in the long run. I am a big picture person and for better worse if I know there is hard work to be done I would rather get started on it today. In terms of relationships that means I'd rather get back to searching rather than stay with what I have, but ultimately am unsatisfied by.

Other than that not sure there is much else to tell. Continue to struggle a bit with being dyslexic in a field that is extremely detail oriented and finicky. My own fault really and I don't regret it though it poses frustrating challenges at times.

Generally, I have felt rather burnt out as of later. Been thinking about running away to New Caledonia. If you consider the pile of dirty laundry in the corner a suitcase you could say I have a suitcase packed and I am ready to go at any moment.

Notes:
- The subway continues to be the best free show in the entire city with Crazy people saying 'hi' and flipping out remain remarkably similar. I am thinking of a scene in Queens when a woman on the platform saw a guy she knew in a subway car. As the doors were closing she dove through blocking them. She didn't get in the train (she just stayed stuck between the doors), but proceeded to have a weird discussion with the guy she knew on the subway in which both tried to pass the buck of calling the other. It ended with the woman yelling "I'm gonna find you, I'm gonna find you!" See, she wasn't really crazy but seemed like she could break you that's what made it scary.
- I am on an ethnic neighborhoods/locals kick which I am quite enjoying. In addition to my further adventures in Little Ukraine, it has involved the Czech beer garden in Astoria (amazing kielbasa!), a great Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, and a number of rather authentic Belgian and German beer gardens. Next on the list: Little Poland, Irish part of Queens, and the Central Asian part of Queens.
- Cranes. I am supposed to be watching for them now according to my mother.
- Can China please be nice to Tibet? Okay, maybe this is a hippie post. Look it took me a long time to overcome my dislike of Richard Gear and get behind Tibet, but I did, and well I like the Dali Lama and am none too fond of China's attacks on Tibetan language and culture.
- I continue to be impressed by cute female friends ability to smile and get free stuff. Six foot tall (randomly bearded) men can be cute too right? Right? No, it's okay I know people would only give me free stuff if they thought I was about to rob them.
- I really want to see Candide at City Opera next month. Interested?
-Question: guys in your early 20s, do you get called 'sir' a lot? I do. Is it my fake-Britishness or just the scariness factor?
-The computer monitors in the L train almost make me think I am in a European metro/U-Bahn. Almost.
-Oh, Spitzer, I nearly forgot. Wow, right? These are the kinds of people who perfect scores on the LSAT. . .

Out and About

I am officially post-brief (well I have been for a little while now, but after all that writing the last thing I wanted to do was, well, write). The great things was that the brief was due on a Monday so after conned out of a weekend I then had a full week of normal law school. Still the weekend came around and fist full of pirogies (though for me good ones will forever be "pedeha") and a few German and Belgian beers later my semblance of humanity has returned.

*Note: it does amused me that I basically get to responses to these sort of whiny law school posts. From my fellow las students something along the lines of yeah it sucks, I had forgotten normal people don't do that stuff. Then from my normal friends (Hu-Man-Z) it generally just solicits exclamations of "thank God I am not in law school" and "wow that sucks." I mainly still think law school is funny, a funny repository of neurotic and anal youth and age.

Not much else to tell at the moment really. Tomorrow I am waiting to hear back about a summer internship I would quite like (international law and abroad). Could very well not get it, which is fine since it isn't actually late to not know it is just the time when people start to freak out about that stuff so if not I will enter into my last round of applications.

Also I am pretty much giving up on trying to stay close with a lot of people from college. Coming back from Austria I foolishly thought I could reconnect with my whole college group and after many facebook invites that never received rsvps and other attempts I am done. I am quite happy with the people I see on a regular basis and will be happy to see other friends on the more haphazard basis that they pop up on.

And now some randomness:

1. I saw Nathan Lane on the street last Monday near Time Square. He looked very tired and though no one was paying any attention to him he ran to a taxi so as to avoid human contact as quickly as possible. The cabby seemed to recognize him and be pleased. I can't stand Nathan Lane.

2. So many Russian in New York and really everywhere. One very small example was me not going to a barber where Russian speakers from Central Asia work and ending up at another barber where Russian speakers from Central Asia work.

3. The L train is very spiffy with its computer screen and counters. Most other trains, still pretty ghetto.

4. The Jersey/Long Island overflow into the city is irksome and the cultural and fashion difference is impressively strong.

5. Kosovo, at some point I would like to do a post on this. I really think it has every right to be independent. There is a lot of talk about it being a dangerous precedent in international law for regions breaking away and becoming their own countries, but if the precedent is that if you government tries to ethnically cleanse the majority in your region you get a shot at being a government opposed to ethnic cleansing, I don't think it is that bad. Either way, NATO has been administering Kosovo for some time with a governor whose power and style was compared with the British Raj's. Time a democratically elected government took up the reigns.

6. Russia had its Presidential election. I'd like to do a post on that. It is all too clear who won and there was never any question of that.

7. Lily Allen is really impressing me with her musical talent as of late.

Entering Paper Land

Going to be working on a large and rather important law school paper for the next week or so. Life is likely to start resembling the Dali painting above. Should be fun. Hopefully I should make it out the other side. See you then.

Oh Mao, Such a Kidder!

So transcripts were recently released from a 1973 meeting between Henry Kissinger and Mao. As you can see from the picture above the two clearly enjoyed themselves. Apparently Mao was quite the jokester.

Specifically, he complained about there being so little trade between the US and China and said something along the lines of "I know! We have loads of women! Why don't you take 10,000 of them?" He later increased the offer to ten million, complaining that they have too many children. Later, he added they would flood the US with disaster. Closing with the observation that if the Soviet Union invaded China it would probably win since not enough Chinese women knew how to fight (something made evident by his surviving so long making these sort of comments).

To make things all the more wonderful, the interpreter passing on all this crazily sexist dictator humor and translating Kissinger's foghorn-like chuckle into Chinese was a woman. In the end, Kissinger, afraid of making Mao lose face, was able to to talk him down to 500 Chinese women, who as a result of new state gift policies were taken off and stored in a Raider's of the Lost Ark-like warehouse under the old executive building.

Chinese women, however, continue to haunt Mao to this day, specifically questioning his choice of the moo-moo as life-long fashion choice.

Places in Time I

So this a new experimental series I am trying to start on places of significance to me. Not sure how interesting it will be or how long it will run, but here goes.

Between graduating high school and starting college I spent a year at an English boarding school in Brighton conveniently titled Brighton College. Oddly, my going was entirely self inflicted and did not involve any action on my part that horribly embarrassed my family and required me being shipped far away to learn some discipline before I could be trusted enough to go to college. No, instead I chose myself to apply to the English Speaking Union's secondary school exchange program and ended up being selected which provided me with a free year's worth of study and room and board at an English public school (the public schools in England having been the first and oldest and hence the term reffering to elitish private schools rather than schools that are actually open to everyone as it does in the US). Anyway, this was all very funny for the English because when they take a gap year, they tend to go to warm places with plenty of beach and do things that pass as community service, where I had chosen to go somewhere damp and of limited beaches to sit their exams.

On the whole I am not sure the year was a good one. It was one of a lot of growth and I wouldn't undo it for the world, but it was certainly a challenging one and I must admit that by in large I do find people from the south-east of England a bit hard to get on with if only for all of their indirectness. During that year however, I did have a fantastic opportunity to dive in German and theater to an extend I had never been able to before and it was then that I began to travel for the first time as well (quick list of countries visited: Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway, Latvia, and Estonia). It was also during that year that I had my first exposure to the EU and European politics, and ironically, because of my interests and love of continental Europe I was considered a European by or at least as some sort of expert by some of my classmates.

Perhaps the hardest barrier I experienced when in England though was the drinking culture. I am not much of a drinker and never have been. Coming straight out of a Christian school that openly preached the evils of any sort of alcohol and then going to England, however, was still more than a bit of a culture shock. Still there were elements I liked, English pubs are lovely and there is certainly always something to be said of buying a good friend a pint. Binge drinking is something, however, I am none to fond of and that was a feeling augmented at the few parties I went to when intoxicated people would come up to me and tell me what exactly they thought the problems were with America's foreign policy and how I was personally responsible (bit of a theme in my travels actually).

But back to the place. Brighton is lovely. One of the warmest places in England (i.e. not that warm and still a bit chilly and windy most of the time) and an old bathing town with some beautiful architecture and some hideous projects from the 60s and 70s mixed in. The beach is mainly for show as the water as both too cold and too rough for swimming. There is a great theater scene, loads of young artsy types, lots of cool shops (good comic book shop as well), and a giant clubbing scene I never took or wanted to take advantage of (partially because I had a 10 0'clocl curfew, we actually had role in the morning and evening, I remember there being a large bingo hall next door that was all jazzed up and which I thought was a movie theater, but was not). Brighton was my first city, not a big one (about 170,000 is memory serves), but is was the first one I had lived in and the first one I was really comfortable in. I grew a tremendous amount in Brighton, it was my first real slice of independence (my parents never even having been to the UK at that point) and taught me to balance things I didn't like (being forced to take more exams and in less time than other students because for some reason they though I would bring the school average up) with things I did (traveling, theater, public speaking [I made it to a semi-final!]).

I don't have many English friends from that time, though the few I do have mean an awful lot to me, on the whole my better friends were the other international students, in particular, and I know this will come as a huge surprise, the Eastern European students. To this day, I feel a particularly strong bond of loyalty to the other boys who were in my house (yes we had Harry Potter like houses) and with a school and host parents in the England whenever I go back it does have certain element of going home whenever I go to visit. And that is why Brighton is a place with a little extra bit of significance for me.

In the News

Well, not in ours...

Pince Andrew made some remarks critical of Bush ten days before he is supposed to leave on a trade mission to the US. They have caused quite stir in the UK. Here are a couple of them:

"[There have been] occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences."

"why didn't anyone listen to what was said and the advice that was given?" [in reference to Bush's (non-existent) post-war Iraq strategy]

Seriously though, this stuff caused a fuss? First of all, those are comments most Americans would agree with let alone Britons, a majority of whom never supported the war to begin with. The whole business is so painfully English. No one really disagrees with what he said, but is the principle of it so there has to be some sort of half-hearted uproar.

What is even better is how the government emphasized the impropriety of his actions:

"The remarks are not just unhelpful but the timing could not be much worse as the Super Tuesday primaries unfold."

That bit just seems to be pompously English to me. Now, I read British papers. They are quite well written and have a more international slant to them than American ones do. That being said, even if Andrew had said Hillary Clinton was a witch and he had seen her luring children into her candy house and gobble them up, I don not think it would have had the slightest effect on Super Tuesday. That is A.) because people who like Hillary know that about her already and think that is the sort of strong leadership America needs right now (if you don't already know my political leanings now would be a fun time to guess) and B.) because nobody in America cares what people outside the country think/say about our leaders or are even internationally oriented enough to notice something like this.

America's lack of real interest in the abroad does concern me, but those particular comments from the government source amused me because they make it sounds like the opinion of a minor British royal could have had a determinative effect on Super Duper Fat Tuesday and/or plunged the US into a civil war. Yes I know, figureheads are supposed to be neutral and the like, but really Andrew has a long ways to go if he is ever going to live up to his father's ability by just opening his mouth to blow diplomacy out of the water like an a-bomb going off in a kiddie pool (yes, I will miss him).

In recent memory, the only time I can remember people in the UK having an impact on a US election was the last presidential one when the Daily Mail was having readers write to undecided voters in Ohio to try and get them not to vote for Bush. The problem with that is that the list they had was not of undecided voters, but of people who hadn't voted recently. Now if there is one thing Americans like it is being told by their former colonial masters (sorry, but the revolution is still a big part if our national mythology) it is how to vote. Shockingly, a great many of the people who received the letters went to go and vote for Bush just because of the letters.

This concludes my observational rant.

Nichtlustig

A
AAAAA
AAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAA
AAAAAHH!
My head!
what kind of
doctor
are you?

Pulling It Together

I really need to get my shit together. Not in any crazy way, just there is a lot of stuff I need to be doing and I will only be able to do it all the way I need to if I throw myself into it full force. The problem is that I am just enjoying life so very much at the moment and I do not want to sacrifice that.

There is the basic stuff life law school reading, which I do enough of. But the thing is whenever I don't quite grasp something rather than leaving it for later I need to jump into it full force now not leaving it for later. so much of a law school exams is creating a store of knowledge that lets you share a vast amount of pertinent knowledge on the subject of the class. It is much easier to build up that store over time than to try and cram it full at the very end.

There are the more complicated and short term things. For example, the brief I have to write for my international legal writing class. The thing will be a monster. I have to defend a countries bombing of another under international law. I love the topic and feel pretty comfortable with international law, but I need to dive into the material and start writing. This is an important paper, but it is also what I will have to do oral arguments based on and what my Moot Court try out will be based on (Moot Court is a bit like a law school debate club, except it is very prestigious and something employers look for). It is likely I will never been in the very top of my class, by Moot Court is something I could do very well and I need to take advantage of that opportunity. I want to know the stuff in and out, I just need to make time for all the work.

Summer internship pressure has continued. As I am sick the fact that I have so far only received rejections hits a bit hard. Granted, that is not abnormal and I am applying for very particular stuff without a whole lot of specialization in my professional background. I will get something good, but for now it is something else tugging on my time strings as I wonder whether I should be using my time applying for more stuff.

For now some things have to go on the back burner. My improv class is wrapping up and as much as it pains me, I am going to have to take an improv hiatus for a while. French too after jumping back in the boat is going to have to go back on hiatus as I reallocate time. What is frustrating is yes, I could create and extremely detail and rigid schedule for myself that would allow me to do more or work more efficiently, but I don't work well with those. First, they do stress me the hell out, and second my body revolts against them. So I suppose I will continue working in my slap dash fashion where guilt continues to be a powerful motivator (i.e. groan, I can't believe I still haven't done that) while attempting to preserve some sort of a social life. Again, having one that I consider so rather pleasant makes it so very difficult to haphazardly chuck it overboard.

Lost My Voice

Thanks to a sore throat followed by lots of yelling Friday (I'm sorry it was a bar and when I can't hear myself I start talking louder without even realizing it) I have all but lost my voice. Oh sure, I can still talk, but only for short bursts and in a rather muppet like fashion. Seriously though, when I hear myself talking I wonder when I have been smoking those four packs a day all of these years.

This has been going on three days now and it is quite frustrating. I like to talk. I like to think I like to share meaningful insight unlike a rambling valley girl unable to stop the deluge of her own voice once it gets going, but I also know I just tend to talk a lot. Very frustrating knowing that any loud background noise will wash out your ability to communicate, having a brilliant point in lecture (or thinking you do) and having to let it go because you just won't be able to communicate it, and having people leaning into you to hear what you are saying like you where their octogenarian grandmother.

I would say the whole experience has taught me know understanding and compassion for the mute, but I am pretty sure they are used to not talking, where I keep getting ready to say something and then remember "oh wait, I can't talk."

I really hope it does not take too long for my voice to come back, but this probably all some sort of ironic punishment for something I did or thought. Possibly being a little sad that this float got pulled from the Rio Carnival festivities.

Yes, it is a holocaust float that was supposed to feature at least one dancing/sambaing Hitler that the Viradouro school had hoped to enter. Offensive? Incredibly. Poor taste? I did mention that it was a DANCING Hitler on top of a float of holocaust victims right? Does that sort of float have any place in any sort of a tasteful or pc Carnival celebration? Of course not.

And that is just it. Carnival is not tasteful. Come on, people used to mock the bubonic plague by dressing up as corpses and undertakers and piling on corpse wagons in the middle of the worst days of the black death. Look at a Bruegel painting, they are insane. I do realize this post will probably bar me from any sort of public office of working with people. Ever. But, that being said I still completely agree that the Viradouro school has no taste as can be seen by their replacement float/dance idea which seems to be a samba homage to Arnold Schwarzenegger's tour de force as Mr. Freeze:

(for reference):

That has to be intentional right? Sick, sick Brazilians.

And just to prove that I have some notion of political correctness after all, here is the pic I chose not to lead this post with:

Remember, it is Carnival so offensive is festive!

Nichtlustig

We meet again Sandman!


We both knew this night would come drool-on-pillow-man!

British Council

This is getting closed down

because this guy

killed this guy
and this is how Russians feel about it

Explanation:

British Councils is an organization sponsored by the British government that promotes English-language learning through courses and access to books in its libraries. It has branches abroad (would be funny if there was one in the US) and much like the Goethe Institute which is subsidized by the German government and the Alliance Francaise which is subsidized by the French government, the British Council is subsidized by the British government.

The Russian government is forcing the all British Councils offices outside of Moscow to shutdown. Russian authorities have been giving various reasons for this, the most amusing and simultaneously most ridiculous is that they are centers for British spies in Russia. That is a laugh, something the British papers are quick to point out. I have seen these places. They have some books and really just try and help people to learn a but of English at a subsidized rate. To be sure there are British spies in Russian, and rightly so, but they sure as hell aren't wasting their time in the British Council branches, just as I am sure the Russian spies in the UK don't go to too many Russian cultural events.

Basically, what is going on is part of an ongoing British-Russian feud centered around Litvinenko poisoning (pictured in his hospital gown above). To make a very long story short, Litvinenko was a former KGB agent who was poisoned with radioactive polonium. He died in the UK and had been living there before being poisoned. The Brits sent a team over to Moscow to investigate and came up with the fellow they believed to be responsible, Andrei Lugovoi (blond guy above). The Russian refused to extradite him and he was later voted into the Russian parliament , giving him immunity from prosecution.

In a tit-for-tat response, some more minor Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK last summer and things have been simmering since then. The latest element of that was the forced closure of the British Council offices outside of Moscow (most likely so the foreign ministers kids can keep going to language class), on preposterous grounds. The British government has been quite resilient, lambasting the Russian authorities and so far refusing to shut those offices claiming the claims against them are baseless and any attempt by the Russian to close those offices would violate international law (not so sure about that one, but sounds good).

Anyway, essentially banning the British Council puts Russia in the fine company of Burma and Iran, the only other two countries to do so. Hence the ironic kidney punch of the Russian political cartoon above.

Nichtlustig

Cashier: There are fifty in the box. Either you buy all of them or none of them.
Polly: Polly wants a cracker
Cashier: I'm calling the manager

* yes Oliver, I am well aware you will not find this one funny. But at least there was a glimmer of hope for a little while.

What Lies Beneath

One of my new classes this term is property. I have to admit I was not looking forward to that one. I just pictured it being a lot of old crotchedy people trying to sue their upstart neighbors for building a fence that accidentally extends a millimeter on to their property (that's the sort of thing that happens in my home town).

There is that, but so far it has been much cooler. I mean it is funny because there are a lot of very British cases (whether we are actually talking their side of the Atlantice or ours), and the personalities are amazing! The duck catcher who is mad at his neighbor for building his new duck net too close to his, so he unloads round after round in the guys yard to scare them away. Then there was a the grumpy old man who didn't like the young nouveau riche upstart who would go on crazy fox hunts, so just as he was about to close in on the fox Mr. Crotchedy jumps out and kills the fox first. Oh and we talked about the whale mafia of Cape Cod.

I think the prof though the whale mafia was a weird idea for most people so he was explaining how rough the lobster crowd up in Maine is. There the coast is technically open to anyone so anyone can leave their lobster traps, but if you step into one of the lobster gangs turf they will cut the rope connecting your trap and your buoy. For me that was funny, they do the same in Long Island. I could relate, oh Long Island, so full of surprises.

We also had a cool case where man was suing an airline for flying over his house. This was a while ago so it didn't have to do with federal aviation regulations, but with him trying to claim all the air above his land belonged to him. And it is funny because it doesn't. We are more eager to give people what is under their land, but even then underground rivers don't belong to the people whose land they run through, but oil does (well, in this country if not in glorious Canada).

The resource stuff I found really interesting and certainly is relevant with all the underground minerals and energy sources countries and firms are fighting for -cough-Russia-cough. Anyway I thought it was really cool and will now definitely apply to the Total (the French oil/gas giant) legal internship in Paris I found. So many disputes over underground stuff! All the gas in the Caspian Sea, the legal disputes over the north sea not so far back, and over the North Pole: the new frontier! Also, Russia tends not to play nicely with others, which could work in my favor with that career wise. Though I suppose I do run the risk of become a huge douche/evil oil lawyer. I'll deal with that one as it present itself.

Oh, and I know I steal a lot of images off the internet, but I was amused to find this one:

Kamini

I love Kamini. I think it is because in our hear of hearts we are both suburban/rural white boys. Granted, he is Congolese (grew up in France) and I am about as a white as they come (though I like to think I could pass as Russian mafia at times, ok I'd need to wear more black, gold, and pointed shoes), but he just mocks everythings so well. He takes the piss out of the the snobby French, American rap stars, and pretty much everyone else and with a smile.

Anyway, I finally managed to get his album and I am loving it. It is pretty fun as every time I listen to it I get a bit more. Anyway, here are some of his best videos (I know I posted the first one before). Perhaps it is my own stylized one-dance-fits-all approach to dancing, but I love his dances. I am sure you cannot tell at all that I really do not want to do law school work today.

And They're Off!

So after a glorious one day delay for me, the second semester of law school got off to a roaring start. The classes are earlier, there are more of them, but I have a much better idea of what I need to do on my end so it really isn't too worrying. Grades are starting to come out so most people are in a situation akin to a demonic version of slots where the stakes are high and it takes forever to get the results. I really do wish everyone the best.

I'll look when they are all in. I am willing to be frustrated, depressed, elated once over all of this and that's it.

I had a really good talk today with a woman in my new international legal writing class. I was explaining my philosophy about law school, the jist of which I am neither living for law school nor willing to stop living for it. If I were a coked up rocker type that might be a problem, but for me it seems to work. Still, the woman had really good insight as an older student with a husband and some experience under her belt. Her meaning: I like my life, gonna keep it, I just want a career and I am doing this for me. Couldn't agree more.

I have a lot of young professors this term which is a big change from last year. One had what seemed to be a Russian last name and a very funky accent. Turns out he is Australian, though after consultation with my Russians we think he is probably Croatian (which would make sense considering a huge chunk of the Australian world cup team is/was Croatian). So yes, an Australian accent with Croatian overtones.

I think that is pretty much it. I am trying not to over commit myself as I am always tempted to do at the start of the semester. I seem a bit ahead of the game when it comes to applying for summer internships which is nice, especially since even if I don't get my first choice I will be doing something cool this summer. Pretty much just more of the boring same. Pretty happy and feel relatively on top of things. I'll ride that wave for as long as it lasts.

Nichtlustig

Joy

According to some artist, this is what joy looks like. Her joy sort of scares the crap out of me, but really who am I to judge?

I am really doing smashingly for some reason. I had an absolutely great break. I was able to do a lot fo fun things and just felt like I was able to make the most of living in New York.

I just feel really in control of my life for some reason. Not that I don't think there will be any surprises or that nothing bad will happen, just that I am pretty content with my lot and life and happy to play even the weaker hands life sometimes deals me.

I am reading some great books. I started up with French again tonight, discovering I could still speak it, and it looks like I will be able to continue with Russian as well.

I am applying for loads of stuff for the summer. Trying to do about an application a day. I don;t expect to get the vast majority of the stuff, but it seems likely that I will be able to get something I think is pretty cool and abroad which would make for a great summer.

So the semester is staring up again, but I am feeling pretty good about it. I feel like I have a plan and with good friends, fun, and intellectual stimulation I am feeling pretty contented.

Pretty good start for the new year.

War and Peace

Went to see War and Peace at the Met with Alexia last night. We got rush orchestra tickets, which are a good deal except you have to wait in line for about six hours to get them. I was the first one there and two crotchedy old people cut me (I know I should respect my elders, but I really really don't like them). That bothered me more than it should have. Still, it was a wait of epic proportions, and though we were inside it was really cold and there was major construction going on one room away. Still, we played Risk which was quite appropriate and made a few very bored people jealous.

Anyway, on to the opera. First half was really boring. To be fair, that isn't really the opera's fault. The first half of the book is also rather dull. It is a lot of noble people loafing about the capital being melancholic (very Pride and Prejudice like, I hate Pride and Prejudice). Yes it all looks very pretty, but it is dull. But let's be honest, war is a lot more interesting than peace. So yes it all looked very pretty, bu there wasn't much meat to grab on to.

The second half was really good. The sets and props were amazing. They had over a hundred soldiers marching in different scenes and Napoleon rode in on a massive white horse in a few scenes. Moscow burning was spectacularly done (especially a phoenix from the ashed effect they did). There was some very good commentary on war, particularly when Napoleon's manservant is trying to entreat him to eat a rather luxurious breakfast while a dead body is being carried in front of them. there is also a great bit where they use the hydrolic stage to raise Napoleon and show him to be standing on the corpses of hundreds of soldiers.

I liked an opera quite a bit. I am a sucker for romantic nationalism. The music isn't especially memorable, lacking the same dissonance of Prokofiev's more memorable pieces from Romeo and Juliette. Still, what amazed me the most was that this opera was put on in the Stalinist Soviet Union in the middle of World War II.

Throughout the opera there is a lot of talk about God, the tsar, and faith. None of those things were encouraged at the time, in fact they were pretty harshly punished. Also, though the critique of Napoleon would apply to Hitler, it easily works well as a critique of Stalin as well, who led alone and with no care for the lives he sacrificed, which is how Napoleon is characterized. There are some very Soviet things opera: the peasants are depicted as the heroes and there is a lot of talk about their strength being the greatest and of their "revolting." Without a proletariat to work with, the peasantry was used as a substitute (even though the Soviet leadership wasn't too fond of them). The use of the peasant chorus reminded me a lot of how Brecht uses Choruses in his plays (i.e. to present a collective willing to sacrifice the interests and lives of individuals to achieve a "common good").

Still, despite all of that I found it very hard to believe the opera was produced when it was. It really doesn't conform with the censorship of the time. I wondered about that until I looked at the Wikipedia discovered that the opera was never allowed to have an opening and was only allowed one very small performance equivalent to a theatrical reading. Suddenly it made a lot more sense to me. Produced in the Soviet Union, but not shown.

In closing, the opera is very interesting both because of the strength or the original text, the modern style of the music, and viewing how the whole opera was put together to at least try and conform with Soviet censors.

Balancing Act

Had an absolutely wonderful New Year's party at my place last night. It was so good that I am still happy from it all. Just reminded me how important the people around you are. I was not drink, but still ha what was quite possibly the best night of the year. Good god I love having creative passionate friends! I would describe it all, but others seems to have documented most of it in video and pictures more than adequately.

So yes, the New Year has rung and it is time for me to reminisce about the past a bit and look to the future (that is a New Year's blog obligation right?).

This time last year I was (where): not entirely sure. I was probably still in Vienna with my family or on the train with them to Prague. New Year's in Vienna was quite spectacular (the whole city was taken over by Italian tourists) and there were concerts and fireworks everywhere (well the center of town seemed a bit like a war zone with all the people setting off illegal fireworks and fire crackers).

I was worried about: Admittedly I don't entirely remember, but most likely law school, I had applied to my first choice school and been deferred and had a quite a few more applications to get together. Well I have to say compared to last year this certainly is an improvement. I mean, I am in law school now. I was also having a tough time finding my scene in Vienna. I am not sure I ever did, though in the end I liked the people who I met through fringe theater and the Slavic languages department.

This year I feel very excellently socially adjusted (does a world of good for my view on life). I have law school friends, Austria friends, college friends, and high school friends. For me though it really isn't the quality it is the caliber. That is where my friends come through for me. People who are pursuing their passions, struggling with what life gives them instead of ignoring it or just accepting it, and with an energy for life. Passion is passed like light from a candle.

I was excited about: Travel mainly. Both the short term trip to Prague and hoping to get to Ukraine and Moscow. I did a lot of travel last year (quick list: Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine {3 times}, Luxembourg, France, Russia, and Belarus). Huh, that really is a lot. It was great especially making it to Kazan when I was in Russia. I do like traveling, but for me I am most excited when I am going to make use of a specific skill, usually a language. It is sort of like the testing phase when you go and try and apply it all. Quite exhilarating.

At the moment I don't really feel the need to travel. Oh sure, I'd like to go to Morocco, but I am really very happy to be in New York and with everything that has been coming my way. I do very much hope I make it to Ukraine or somewhere Russian speaking for the summer though. It is nice to use my languages on a more regular basis now and again and feel less like a a parlor magician with them (i.e. pulling them out to do cheap tricks at parties.

Some things I have learned: Most people aren't that bright or intellectually engaged. In college it was quite normal for my friends to have intense academic passions along with extracurricular ones (i.e. improv, arts, building mode airplanes for competitions, photography, and who knows what). There were plenty of pretentious asses, but once you found a good person they had something going on upstairs.

Generally not the case in the world.

I like making fun of pop culture, I like a good party, but if that is all you are interested in and are living for then I am out. Most people's goals are to find a better apartment, get a better job, have a hot(ter) boyfriend or girlfriend. That isn't enough for me either concerning my own goals or the people I am going to spend my time with.

I first realized this last year when I was studying in Vienna. I thought it was an American/European thing, but apparently it is really just a people thing. Generally just makes me realize how important it is I keep reading non-law text on my own and continue to seek out interesting people.

Some goals: I'd like to be a bit more secure in myself in general, and specifically in myself as a lawyer. I have made a lot strides with all of that and just want to keep on that path. The law element is new and I am quite inexperienced with it all, but I suppose the goal I am trying to verbalize (textualize?) is to have carved out a bit of a legal specialty by this time next year. To have a bit more direction with my legal studies.

Things to have done by this time next year:

1.) Started to learn Ukrainian
2.) have gone to the French conversation group and be actively improving my French in some way
3.) Pretty much the same with Russian.
4.) Have expanded my circle of friends by actively having sought out new and interesting people (sounds a bit like Star Trek that one doesn't it).
5.) Have a regular occurring artistic outlet (probably improv, but I'm open).

That's all folks.