LV Voice

Dwindling City Density

2009-06-27T18:20:00.002-04:00

A recent hot topic in the world of urban planning is the idea of tearing down portions of cities that are largely abandoned and blighted in order to contract the city’s size. The money for most of these projects would come from state or federal funds and the goal is to remove seldom-used infrastructure and save money on the future repairs thereof. Money would also be saved, and the rest of the city would benefit, from a plan like this because the police force and other emergency vehicles would have a smaller, more densely populated, area to patrol and not be stretched quite so thinly.

All in all, these benefits sound incredible. This recession could be seen as a punishment for expanding our nation’s growth so rapidly and unsustainably and this contraction of our cities looks like an answer.

However, I’m not so sure. To be clear, I’ve not yet decided my stance on any of this and I certainly don’t know enough about the subject to make my decision any time soon. All I can do is throw the Pros/Cons that I can see out there and hope something comes out of the comments that makes me think, and think hard.

So the “Pros” of this are already listed: improved policing of remaining neighborhoods, less money spent on repairs of aging infrastructure that is seldom-used anyway, better response times from emergency vehicles, and (hopefully) increased density in remaining neighborhoods to support self-policing and bring foot traffic to local businesses.

What would be done with this land, in these grand plans, would be to return the properties to nature. I’m not sure whether this’d be done through city-run reforestation efforts (which is happening in our own parks) or simply letting the land return on its own time (which could take around fifty years, according to Andrew).

However, the “Cons” are glaring. You’re taking away homes, destroying sites of future growth (i.e. the conversion of industrial spaces into affordable artists’ lofts or the refurbishment of Victorian mansions) disconnecting many neighborhoods from each other (series of “linked islands” may force car dependency on residents if public transportation isn’t varied and frequent) and, as Roberta Brandes Gratzpoints out in her LA Times piece, there hasn’t really been a history of positive effects of massive clearance

Right now, the debate rages between those flung to the far ends of the spectrum of opinion about this: either tear it all down and reforest it, or preserve all of it.

I think there’s a compromise to be found. I’ll post about it later, since this is getting a bit long-winded right now, but I’d like to hear your opinions on the pros/cons before that. Which side do you prefer, and why? And how do you think you would feel if it were in your own Rust Belt city of Allentown that this was happening?

Seeing Green

2009-06-16T11:56:00.003-04:00

I seem to always have excuses not to update this thing. However, excuses are done with! My friend, Andrew, is putting me to shame with his "daily posting" nonsense, so I will step up to the plate* and attempt weekly postings. Maybe even more! I've been doing exciting things and want to tell you about them.

Tonight I'm off to the South Side Film Festival as soon as I get off work, but apparently there's also a Green Ribbon Committee meeting for anyone interested in the greening of Allentown. It's at the Lehigh County Government Center Public Hearing Room, 17 South Seventh Street, Allentown and will be done by 9:00, at the latest. It's a great opportunity to hear what's already getting done in the city and to voice your own opinion on what can be done and how. There's some more detail at the Good News Blog, so I guess it is definitely a Good Thing.

*hello, baseball metaphors! Maybe I've been hanging around Andrew's house a little too much. I'm starting to recognize names and such of Phillies players. All I'm saying is this cannot be good.

Recent Jaunts in Allentown

2009-06-03T23:47:00.004-04:00

I've been thin on the "posting things" but big on the "doing things" and I apologize!

In my jaunts around the city, I notice that the Liberty Street Tavern caught fire again. My friend, Steve, is a bartender there and he surprised me by showing up at the Hava Java tonight. The conversation went like this:

Me: Steeeeeeve! Steve Steve Steve! How are you! (I am kind of like a Jack Russell terrier when greeting friends)
Steve: Katie, why does my job always catch fire?
Me: What?
Steve: Some girl came into the bar and said "Uhm ... your building is shooting flames out the back..."

Apparently, a piece of marinated, raw chicken got thrown onto the grill and the flame that engulfed it jumped into the exhaust and caught the grease trap on fire! They're going to be closed until Friday or so, since all the city inspectors have to come through again once they replace the parts of the kitchen that got all "on fiyah."

Hmm...but what else is going on?

One of my jobs has me spending some time on Hamilton Street around the lunch hour. I don't often find myself on Hamilton Street unless I'm driving through it, but I've been hoofing it during the lunch hour to check out some of the events going on at the PPL Plaza and, sheesh, there are quite a few things going on! The Summer In The City series of local musicians sends out some nice background music for the lunch-goers, but the best is the Plaza Growers Market!

The Plaza Growers Market had its kick-off today. There were about six vendors, but I'm told that there will be more each week as the season progresses. The best part is that the market's at lunch time! Last year, it sort of straddled the end of the work day, but this new time is much more convenient. Also, a lunch time market can feature vendors selling prepared food! Balasia, formerly located in Emmaus, now has its own stand at the market. It's the only outlet for the restaurant and my, my! the curry hummus is delicious!

I also ran into Sarina at the Chen Arts table and my, my it seems like they've got a show coming up! "Velocity" will be in the Allentown Arts Museum starting this Sunday! You should stop in for their opening and talk to me. Just say you're "from the internet" and we will talk!

Also, did you know that the old Saylor's restaurant will be a 24-hour diner? The West Side Diner should be open by the end of the summer and will bring some traffic to the 19th street neighborhood. I'm excited, since it looks like the neighborhood could support a 24 hour diner. The coffee shop closes at 11 on weeknights and midnight on weekends and there are several bars in the area. The local late night crowd now has somewhere to migrate to once at the end of the night (or is it in the morning ...)

More to come soon as I continue meandering around the city. I should start to meander with my camera. It would be helpful.

From The Ground Up Remains Of A City

2009-05-14T15:19:00.003-04:00

There are exciting things happening in Allentown!

One of these things is called Allentown From The Ground Up. It's a small social networking/activism* community that my friends and I started. Despite Allentown’s status as a “small city,” I’ve found some difficulty getting in contact with people my age who are interested in the welfare of the city.

We work to get Allentown’s active citizens to connect with each other outside of the workplace. Right now, it’s about having a good time in the city, but in the future it just might be about fixing up the city we care about.

Andrew, Bryan and I were in Bucky Boyle park not too long ago, kicking around the trash on the waterfront and we realized that there have got to be some other people who want to do things like this with us. Then we thought that kicking trash around isn’t such an appealing thing. So we decided to do events that are fun. Like the Iron Pigs!

So, come out and join us for an Iron Pigs game on May 30th. We’ll meet outside the gates at 6:30 and, since it’s the Iron Pigs, you can be sure it’s going to be a good time.

Also, check out our Twitter and Facebook page. If you can connect to us through that, too, we'll be sure to keep you in the loop for all the activities we're planing.

*Now, when I say “social networking” you’re going to think of those websites like Facebook. Don’t get the wrong idea, we’re on facebook, but we also exist in the real world. You know. That place from which you type up your comments? Where you eat? Yes, that one.

2009-05-11T17:05:00.003-04:00

As I said in the previous post, I only vaguely remember Hess's. I remember Santa and colored sugar and the circular kinds of clothing racks that were easy to hide inside. That last bit really drove my mom up the walls when we were in there. Since I was the kind of kid who behaved AWFULLY in stores, I didn't really get to go to Hess's much in the first place.

Last night's talk on Hess's department store let me in on the incredible history of an institution that holds a special place in the collective memory of Allentown residents. The speakers, Frank Whelen and Kurt Zwikl have published a book on Hess's heyday and shared their experience with about 30 locals in the basement of The Episcopal Church of the Mediator. The evening started with a potluck and quickly turned over to Mr. Whelen's lecture on how Hess's came to be. Apparently one of the Hess brothers took the TRAIN from Easton to Bethlehem to Allentown and decided to put his store in Allentown almost immediately after walking up Hamilton street from the train station. From the start, the store had character. The grand opening ceremony in 1897 featured the Allentown band, something no other Allentown dry goods store ever thought reasonable or feasible. The store continued to undergo massive expansion, annexing all the other buildings on its block. Mr. Whelen asked those of us who had visited the store before it closed "remember how you would have to take a couple steps up and down throughout the store? You were walking between all the different bulidings the store acquired and converted."

Kurt Zwikl then took over and spoke of his personal experience growing up in Allentown during Hess's "Hollywood on Hamilton" days. He listed names of celebrities that were clearly before my time and types of events I've never experienced. I can't imagine a department that doubles as a source of community pride – all I know are the monolith big boxes that land in asphalt strips like space ships. The portrait Zwikl painted of Max Hess Jr. reminded me, in a way, of Citizen Kane.

In the question and answer session, an attendee said something of interest. “Can you imagine what people would have said if they were told that Hess’s wouldn’t exist in thirty years? I don’t think anyone would believe it.”

“It’s just proof that things DO change,” said Zwikl.

Alright, Alright, I Know, I Know!

2009-05-09T17:59:00.003-04:00

I know I promised to post, but things have been hectic and I've got a particular post I am going to write tonight or tomorrow (after I go to the event tonight) and, um, is that a good enough excuse?

Tonight I am going to see Kurt Zwikl and Frank Whelan speak at the Church of the Mediator by West Park tonight and I'd like to do a write-up about it. It'll be on Hess's! I remember going to Hess's! I got my picture taken with Santa there every year until it closed because my mom insisted that it was the REAL Santa Claus. Now, I am a junior in college and I know a thing or two, but I think I may still be tricked into thinking he was real if I saw that Santa Claus again. I mean, he had a real beard and everything!

I also remember my mom complaining about Hess's a lot once it got sold. After the place closed up, we stopped going to downtown. My mom remembers that Hess's was a major "plus" to the Valley when she and my dad moved here in the eighties. She also remembers that "downtown started going downhill" pretty much right after they moved in. She cites the movie Funny Farm whenever we talk about Allentown's core; specifically the part where Chevy Chase is shouting "Release the deer!" into a walkie talkie. I am not sure if you understand what I mean, but I am officially late for this potluck and I've got to get going!

Real post; real soooooon!

A Funny Farm refresher for ya:

I Am Returned!

2009-05-08T00:43:00.001-04:00

Finals are over. Sophomore year is done. Expect a real blog post tomorrow!

Look! It's Right Behind You!

2009-05-02T19:46:00.003-04:00

I have been awash in the swashbuckling terror of finals these past weeks and posting has been scant. I am sorry, I have lots of things to post and I just haven't gotten to them. I assure you, exciting things are happening.

Posting should continue after Thursday. I will be done with finals and school by then (woo-hoo! summer!).

In the mean time, I urge you to check out a relatively new Allentown blog, Remember. It is written by my good friend Andrew Kleiner who is a lifelong Allentown resident and has quite a few opinions and ideas that have only recently found an outlet in blog format. His posts are incredibly well-written and reflective. They're a real treat. Read his latest post on Trexler Park, if nothing else.

It's Spring!

2009-04-24T23:38:00.003-04:00

Oh, Winter. We won't be seeing you for a while.

It is spring and I can tell. I do not use the feeble greens sprouting up from muddy earth to tell these things, oh no. I judge the emergence of spring by the incessant shuffle of flip flops on the quad and the appearance of low cut shirts.* And the hey baby's I get. Yesterday I got a "Wassup, Princess?" And instead of being slightly repulsed, I just smiled. Spring, indeed!

*ladies, please, you don't need sunburn there. TURTLENECKS FOR ALL.

And Now I Am One Of Those Crazy Hippie College Kids

2009-04-22T21:11:00.005-04:00

We spread a bazillion wheelbarrow loads of compost! And just look at those fence posts! Put 'em up myself (with the help of a few teammates).

Today is (was) Earth Day! To celebrate, I was supposed to finally plant seeds in the community garden my school's EcoSense club developed. This is the garden's first year, and expectations are high but I'm worried that we won't be able to get stuff into the ground in time since it's been so rainy and muddy (read: really, REALLY muddy). Today's intention was to picnic out by the garden plot and sprinkle cucumber, carrot, basil, eggplant, sunflower, marigold, lettuce and pepper seeds around. My partner and I got there, and there was a reporter waiting for us and a whole lot of mud.

So much care has gone into this garden so far! I've got a real attachment to that 100 square foot plot - I helped put up the deer fence and wheelbarrow half a ton of dirt over it. I even did my first on-camera interview about that garden!* The garden will, hopefully, be a place where students, faculty and local elementary school students can congregate and enjoy the community atmosphere that surrounds sustainably raised food. We're hoping to eventually divide the garden up into individual plots for faculty members/classrooms/student groups/departmental offices to take over while maintaining a portion of the garden for community outreach and education purposes. There's a nifty little patch of grass that could make a nice picnic area or herb garden, too! The place has got tons of potential...

...and also tons of mud. Such is the nature of gardening, I guess.

We ended up putting the row markers and leaving it be. I rolled around in the mud enough on Campus Beautification Day, anyway. Maybe this Earth Day was, for me, a bust, but we've gotta remember that EVERY day is Earth Day!

*I am pretty good at talking to reporters (especially if I know all about what I'm talking about!) but I got all nervous for the on-camera stuff and then the reporter asked a difficult question: Why is it important for young people to be involved in sustainability and green movements? I sputtered a response that included things like "setting patterns for the rest of our lives" and "creating an Earth worth inheriting for our own children" which sounds good written down, but not when it's spoken through a nervous, dirt-encrusted, visibly sweating college kid. Maybe I'm a hippie now.

Planning To Procrastinate

2009-04-20T11:57:00.005-04:00

That is one heck of a rendering, Chicago!
I am up to my ears in finals work and I am procrastinating. Just a little bit. Just enough to keep me sane. The point of procrastinating is to redirect the channel of energy from the insurmountable task at hand (which inevitably gets done and done on time, which is why it's called "procrastinating," not "leaving work incomplete") and distract oneself with that veil of productivity. I may not have written my paper on lesbian pregnancies, but I sure as hell did all my laundry, cleaned my room, updated my twitter feed, and read ALL my bookmark tabs.

This last little bit is something I'd like to post today. I know I've been thin on the posting recently but don't worry, I've just been procrastinating on procrastinating.

One site I read all the updates on is Planetizen.com. It's an incredible source for the latest news in planning and sustainability - literally. The feed I subscribe to aggregates articles written about cities and planning them and it just pulled up a nice blog post on Chicago's Burnham Plan and what made it successful. The blog is The Urbanophile and tucked neatly into a numbered list is this second point the writer makes:

It took two years to create. The Burnham Plan was not an overnight creation. It took a lot of research and deliberation. Today, it would likely take even longer. This is another reason why politicians aren't likely to be the driving force. They need solutions that show results within the election cycle. They need to cut ribbons, not produce three year studies.

He also mentions that the plan was private, and driven by businesses, which is something I don't often hear much of in what planning literature I read. Policy change is oen way to promote sustainable growth, but can it be done humanely on a big-business scale? It seems to have worked, but I haven't researched it past a wikipedia article and this blog post I just read.

Equally interesting is the comment section on the blog post. They're long, involved and thoughtful. How strange! Here's one quote about "Brain Drain" that I thought was interesting:

If you are mayor, alderman, business leader, merchant or anyone else and who thinks your commercial corridors are heinous, your urban cores are hard on the eyes and that your public realm, in general, really bites (parks, plazas, etc.), then everyone else probably thinks so, too.

Especially your nearby and newly minted college grads who now packing their suitcases.

Plain and simple.

I will put this subject on a list of things to research when I feel like procrastinating more at a later time (probably in a few hours, let's be honest). But right now I've got an analytical paper to write for a literature class. Then onto lesbian mothers for sociology. I am learning so many interesting things in college!

Best Laid Plans...

2009-03-30T23:05:00.002-04:00

There are kinds of traffic that are lovable.

If all goes as planned, I will be studying in Copenhagen this time next year! I am crossing my fingers and throwing pennies into wells and doing constructive things like keeping my grades up, setting up meetings and sprucing up my resumé in hopes that I will be accepted into the architecture and design program. I do not speak Danish, or any language other than Spanish and English and, since "the incident"* I harbor a fear of cycling in the city. But I can overcome this! My courses and homestay will be in English and maybe I can pick up a few Danish phrases along the way ...

*ah, "the incident"! Last semester I thought it would be a good idea to go on a leisurely bike ride. Except I violated one of the major rules of bike riding in a city - I thought like a car driver. So, I took a very, very busy and car-filled road to get to one particularly picturesque street (which ended up being all uphill) and OH GOOD GOD THERE WERE SO MANY MANY CARS and they were going fast! and honking at me! and I was scared! and I haven't written my bike since. Sigh.

Oh, Those European Beauties!

2009-03-26T01:27:00.008-04:00

El Parque de Buen Retiro in Madrid (Literally, the Park of Pleasant Retreat). I did no doctoring to this photo and I'm not that great of a photographer - it's just really that beautiful.

I just read this from Planetizen.com and remembered exactly what it was like to visit Europe. My preconceptions about the place turned out to be misconceptions (I had expected even the air to smell old) and I was blinded by the beauty. It may be why I tend to see things through rose-tinted glasses around here - I can only see potential. Allentown is so beautiful! Why does no one else see it?

"As you sit near the Piazzetta in Venice, clarity of mind about the present state of cities or their future may wither. Determined to deny the clarions of sentimentality, you think “What is it precisely about contemporary urbanity that seems so much less satisfying than the urbanity here?” Is it bigness, not of the entire city but of its individual elements? Is it the bifurcation of functions, a lack of overlapping textures and details, the compartmentalization of activities, the intrusions of the automobile? Is it too much newness or the “lack of human scale”?

You snap out of it. You’re in Venice, a city besieged by tourists and short on residents. The local economy is based on visitors’ capital. The air quality is poor. The water smells and looks nasty. The city is sinking. It is sustainable due only to human stubbornness, not any contemporary criteria of environmental sustainability. Ah, but it is so beautiful!"

-Alex Krieger

Love Wash Post, Love Virginia

2009-03-22T21:27:00.003-04:00

New Virginia Rules Target Cul-de-Sacs.

"The state has decided that all new subdivisions must have through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping areas. State officials say the new regulations will improve safety and accessibility and save money: No more single entrances and exits onto clogged secondary roads. Quicker responses by emergency vehicles. Lower road maintenance costs for governments.

"When you have 350 to 400 miles a year of new roads you have to maintain forever, it's a budgetary problem," said Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who pushed the new regulations through the Commonwealth Transportation Board last month. Virginia has had to cut more than $2.2 billion from its six-year transportation spending plan. "But it's not just about the money. It's about connecting land-use and transportation planning and restricting wasteful and unplanned development.'

"If a firetruck or ambulance is stuck in traffic on the Fairfax County Parkway, they just can't turn in to a subdivision and go through local streets, because they don't connect," said Nick Donohue, assistant secretary of transportation."

Tell me that this doesn't make sense to you and I will freak out. Virginia is taking down the suburbs with rationality. I don't know if you've ever driven all the way from one end of Tilghman to another, but you may notice that, as you move westward, more and more cars stack up at the lights even though the population gets less and less dense. It is because of suburbia. All those subdivisions (have you ever driven through Green Hills? It is CRAZY) pretty much have only one option to get to the highways: Tilghman. Unless, of course, they want to take Snowdrift to 309 North and then wait at those ridiculously long lights to get on the expressway.

Urban Transfomations and Root Shock

2009-03-22T20:26:00.003-04:00

I had the Best Saturday Ever! I went to Urban Transformations, a conference hosted by my school, and learned about public housing, redlining, gentrification, food security, prison reform, root shock and crime reporting.

I've gotta say that the most interesting thing was the food justice panel, not just because I felt like I had the most to contribute in the post-panel discussion, but because of a little thing that happened - Allentown came up on the slide show. Right there. In front of me. In D.C. No one in the panel was from Allentown and the guy who brought it up had never actually been to Allentown, (he was from Portland, Ore). The whole discussion was about walking-based access to supermarkets in Portland, and showed some research he got from Lehigh County. He is going to send me the source information for his slide on Allentown, I'll post it when I get it.

The second most interesting thing was a concept I had never before heard about: Root Shock. Coined by Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove (she's a psychiatrist, not a scholar - something she made clear to us several times) and it's "a traumatic stress reaction related to the destruction of one's emotional ecosystem." So it relates directly to urban renewal and gentrification and any destruction of urban infrastructure.

I've oscillated a lot on my opinion of gentrification. The main problem with the term is just how loaded it is. It's a political weapon that automatically calls up images of Starbucks plowing over corner grocery markets. Or white people moving in and driving up housing prices that force the previous, minority, population out. Or classism. Or zoning technicalities that are intentionally indecipherable so they confuse local populations into inaction when plans come through to change all the internally-illuminated signs to wooden signs of such-and-so size and put all the shopkeepers out of business. And those are just a few problems with the word.

Many planners and urbanists have skirted the issue by using slightly less political terms, but whatever you call it, it looks the same to residents. Dr. Fullilove made the point that those who are anti-gentrification are considered to be "stuck in the past," which, in a way, they might be, but it's the current issue of racism in processes like redlining that really bring a neighborhood to the point of disinvestment and deindustrialization that make an area a target for gentrification and urban renewal.

Her suggested solution is connection: "the logic of apartheid is deeply rooted in the American conscious, it is imperative to the mental health of all to connect these neighborhoods to the greater fabric of the city." So, instead of removing busses from a particular street, there really should be more busses there that go more places (i.e. not just to the malls) and maybe not any sort of new zoning laws that target low-income shop keepers? I think that's what Dr. Fullilove would suggest.

She was really incredible. A great speaker. I can't do her any justice. She's a great writer, too. Her book is Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, And What We Can Do About It.

Weddin'

2009-03-17T18:40:00.004-04:00

LV Bridal Expo featured Bridals By Sandra gowns. My sister's dress does not look like this.

Spring break! Woo-hoo! Go crazy!

GO CRAZY AT THE LEHIGH VALLEY BRIDAL EXPO, MORE LIKE IT. Indeed, I went to Stabler Arena with my sister (the bride-to-be) and a buncha bridesmaids and we went CRAZY. It was my job to try all the flavors of all the cakes available and, by golly, I took my job seriously. What I'm confused about now is how do PROFESSIONAL PASTRY CHEFS manage to make a wedding cake that tastes like trans fat and dish soap? It was also my job to enter my sister in prize drawings and that was fun (especially because I don't know my sister's house address, so she ended up living at my house in Caribbean Cruise Vacation Prize Drawing World).

Also, my sister got her wedding gown! It was the first one she tried on and it was also only 99 dollahs! It is beautiful and fits perfectly and my mom almost cried because she didn't get to see it first.

While walking around trying all the cake samples and talking to photographers and DJs and caterers, I realized why I was getting no feedback on my whimsical girlish flirtations: they though I was a bride. GAWD, NO. EEW, BOYS HAVE COOTIES. Also, I am going to marry a Jonas brother, DUH.

I really should travel around with a ginormous Maid Of Honor sticker.

Speaking of MOH duties, does anyone have any ideas of non-alcoholic bachlorette parties? One of our bridesmaids will not be 21 by the time the wedding rolls around, and I want at least part of the day to be alcohol-free. My ideas (and these are just ideas, so far) include some sort of trip to Premise Maid to see if we can tour something chocolate-y, a Banana Factory trip to make our own glass sculptures (although my sister has already done this one), or a trip to a local winery to witness wine making! (Wait, that last one is alcohol related ... I am no good at this!)

Back In The Valley ... Again

2009-03-08T01:04:00.003-05:00

I rode Amtrak all the way from DC and now I am in the Valley again! Magic? Magic.

Magic especially because the trains ran on time. I do not own an ipod (no cell phone either, right now. It's a long story.), so I had to open up my laptop to listen to music to drown out the middle schooler who yakked on her cell phone for the whole time.

So now I am trapped in the suburbs.

I use the word "trapped" when I can't get anywhere without a car. "Trapped" when I'm stranded by gas prices. "Trapped" when all my friends live further than I can walk in a day. "Trapped" because I don't know who my neighbors are. "Trapped" when the internet is more appealing than taking the effort to arrange a meeting with people I know.

"Trapped" when I have to share my car with a younger brother whose got a very busy teenage schedule.

I've got a week to make the most of it.

Housekeeping

2009-02-19T18:33:00.002-05:00

I'm working on tidying things up around here. I realize that I've strayed from the intended content of this blog - to write about my life when it intersects the Lehigh Valley. The most obvious reason I've neglected to write about the Valley is because, of course, I'm not in the Valley right now and I've still wanted to post regularly. So, as a warning, I may not update this quite as often in an attempt to stick with the program.

Some good news is that my future posts will be "tighter" and that you can still read my nonsensical blatherings at my radio show blog: TDR Jams.

This move is mostly spurred by my rather recent realization that I was featured in the Morning Call's Blogger Tuesday page. Again. Without being asked. Again.* I realize that the content here is being monitored and I really don't want to slip up, so I'm going to be more careful. Despite what I've been told.

*I have got to learn to stop reading the comments on the mcall.com forum. Man, do they STING.

TDR Jams

2009-02-18T13:01:00.003-05:00

If you're anywhere near a computer at 8AM on Mondays (or if you're awake, because that is also a requirement), you can listen to my radio show, TDR Jams. It is not a talk show, so I won't beat your brains out with opinions on the "news" stories that pop into my AOL welcome page, it is a music show! Which means I will beat your brains out with opinions on music! My co-DJ (Nick) and I wake up extra early to play our favorite music. I play the indie, he plays the soul and R&B.

We realize that there are lots of people who are not awake at this hour! Maybe not too too many people, but pretty much all of our target market is unconscious (fun fact: college kids are not usually awake at 8 am!). To still send out the message of indie/soul/R&B/dining hall food, we've created a blog! TDRJams: The Blog! A blog as an effective means of communication? Isn't that like screaming in a room full of people screaming? That is for you to decide.

But, hey, we've got our latest playlist up there if you miss the show. Nick and I both make posts, and it is pretty clear who is writing what since we have such different styles. I mean, there is also a little by-line, but in case you ever wanted to read it and play a guessing game, you can tell Nick wrote it when it is sensible and information-ridden and you can tell I wrote it when it is silly and maybe a little bit insane. (fun fact: I do not take blogging about my radio show very seriously at all!)

Oh, dear. Some days I wonder if the part of my brain that is occupied by extensive knowledge on the entire discography of Bright Eyes could be better used as a place to store, you know, Spanish vocabulary. But then again, some days I wonder about a lot of weird things.

Fun fact: TDR stands for Terrace Dining Room. In DC, they don't call it "basement," "cellar," or "dungeon." They call it a Terrace! DC, you are clever.

Nose To The Grindstone - What I'm Doing This Semester

2009-02-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

Dearest, darlingest readers, I have decided to detail to you what I do to fill my days. Why? Because you care. I may be lying to myself, but it's a nice lie, isn't it?

Let's start with extra-curriculars. I just got back from my radio show! Every Monday from 8-10AM, I host a show called "TDR Jams!" on the school's radio station. Our dining hall here at AU is called TDR (Terrace Dining Room) and its awesomeness is debatable if you're judging based on food alone, but its music is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Honestly, we hear Stevie Wonder every time we eat lunch there. This music inspired the show. I don't think I've ever had so much fun fumbling with outdated technology in a room the size of a closet before! You can listen in if you want, since we broadcast worldwide on wvau.org (if your computer is having trouble with that link, just go for searching "wvau" in your iTunes).

Next up is EcoSense! This is the school's environmental club. I am the director of the club's garden! It sounds small and simple but it is really actually huge and complicated since a ton of people wanna help out. So that means orchestrating the people who wanna plan the garden and break soil and make videos and teach local elementary school kids and harvest and such. Since this is the first year we're doing a garden, we've got to figure out just how to break the ground and how to make it critter-and-student-safe. I know deer will get into it (I've already accepted that) but what about hungry students?? They break into anything for a snack.

Then I go to Creative Writing Club! Well, not right after EcoSense, but the next day. Friday. I'm running for president of the club. It's pretty sweet. We sit in a circle and write poems. And we go on field trips! We get to go to the Naval Observatory and look at stars and write about them. From what I hear, there's a library to rival Beauty and the Beast in there. Elections are this Friday, so I will let you know if I win. I am pretty sure I am running unopposed. Will this be my opportunity to turn writing club into a dictatorship? Maybe! (I don't think I'm actually allowed to do that because we're monitored by Student Government).

AND THEN I have American Literary. This is the school's literary magazine! We publish poems that may or may not have gotten written in creative writing club. It is a good lookin' piece of published stuff, too. I don't do much in this club but review submissions. And submit things. That, too.

Now for curriculars. My classes are awesome. Right now I'm only taking four because I made a huge mistake in selecting a marketing course, but we won't talk about that right now. I am a sociology major, so I am taking some sociology courses! I've got Contemporary Issues in Social Theory (economic meltdown, ahoy!) and The Sociology of Birth and Death. Right now we're on the Death part of the course. It's INCREDIBLE. We laugh, we cry, we tell sad stories, we tell gross stories. We went on a field trip to a funeral home. You will look at me like I am crazy but I will say it anyway: it was great. Don't worry, we didn't go into the morgue. I probably would have totally lost it.

On a lighter note, I am also taking Intro to Spanish Translation. There is not much to say, except that we speak Spanish.

And I have a literature course. Funny thing: we're reading Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (it is a "graphic novel") and a large portion of the book takes place in a funeral home! I got it all confused up with my death class! Quite the kerfuffle, I'd say.

At any rate, enough about me. Tell me about YOU.

Aaaaand Back Again

2009-02-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

So I'm back in DC.

I feel like a slingshot. I'm tired of traveling. Time to settle into some good ol schoolwork.

Why, Hello There!

2009-02-13T18:31:00.000-05:00

Did you know I am back in Allentown for the weekend? I hardly knew, either! It is pretty dark out right now. And cold. I suppose we ARE north-er than D.C.

This weekend I plan to do some class projects that could only be done at home (interviews and the like) and maybe seeing some friends? I do not know. What I do know is that there are some chocolates on the counter that will meet their demise very soon.

Why are Hallmark holidays so delicious?

EDIT: Thought the Chen Arts group would find this article interesting: Arts Ban in Stimulus Bill Is Stupid Economics.

National Climate Change Teach-in Day! OR Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of ... Profit Margins?

2009-02-08T22:21:00.001-05:00

The kids were great, some were quite punk-y, but they all had a great time! For the composting section we gave them food to eat and I don't know if you've ever seen a 6th grader eat, but they eat FAST.

Sixty-five middle schoolers and climate change makes for a pretty decent Thursday, I will say. I am on what can be best described as the Eco-Garden Planning Committee for my school's environmental club, EcoSense. One reason it is great is that I get a lot of great t-shirts, another is that I get to put theory into practice and see where improvements need to be made.

Other than planning the full-day event and training the other student-teachers, I got to teach the students about the importance of eating locally grown foods and organic foods. Despite getting briefed on the cultural differences between AU's students and the DC public school sixth- and seventh graders and despite my cross-cultural communications study background, I faltered time and again when group after group of kids had never heard the word "organic" and, most of all, had rarely shopped at a grocery store. The green movement is largely white upper middle class and for good reason - it's expensive to get organic food. Most of these kids come from neighborhoods where there are few, if any, grocery stores. These places they come from, where quality or healthy food isn't the easiest to access and money is tight, are called Food Deserts. Residents are now considered "food insecure" (which is really a politically correct and polished replacement for the word "hunger") and it's a pretty significant barrier to personal success.

That a physiological need like food is subject to the pursuit of profit margins is appalling to me.

Does it make sense that the people who can afford it best - those who live in the suburbs - have access to the least expensive food while those who need it most - inner city residents who may or may not even have access to a car or reliable substitute (I have no clue how reliable LANTA is) - have their food outlets few and far between? Of course, it makes sense if you simply look at the laws of supply and demand. It makes sense that a grocery chain is likely to situate itself in an area where most of the residents are not on food stamps and tend to do things like bring snacks in to their child's 3rd grade classroom and host dinner parties, but I mean from a social perspective. From an economic development perspective, would anyone really be interested in moving into an area where there's not a place to get food?

This phenomenon isn't limited to D.C. - Allentown and the Lehigh Valley has plenty of evidence to attest to this. In my experience, I can say that there are a heck of a lot more grocery stores with a much wider and more affordable selection in the suburbs than in the city, just drive from one end of Tilghman street to the other.

Food Security - no, let's just call it what it is, hunger- Hunger is one of the directions my studies are taking me. Hopefully, I'll learn some practical ways to combat this through my EcoSense-sponsored forays into teaching gardening and cooking to these middle schoolers (we've got an ongoing partnership with Brightwood school) and the Rooting D.C. community garden conference on the 21st.

Hopefully.

Gay Clubs and Regret

2009-02-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

To all the straight guys who go to gay clubs to hit on unsuspecting girls who just wanna dance:

Y'all are creeping creepers and you creep me out. STOP IT.

Sincerely,
Me (who is taking a break from all the clubbing this week)

He Calls Himself 'Niggy Tardust'

2009-02-03T00:53:00.000-05:00

Saul Williams calls himself 'Niggy Tardust' for reasons I do not have enough space to explain. You should check his website or myspace.

We have six more weeks of winter! Hooray? Also, it is February! And February means black history month! Apparently, we do not have to acknowledge black history during the other 11 months, because we have February for that. A brilliant solution, government! I understand the original intent, though. Like, how else are we going to talk about black history in schools, if it is not brought to the forefront in a dedicated month? We would have to talk about it into regular history classes on a regular schedule! TRAGEDY.

I am going to give you a song. This is called 1987 and it is by Saul Williams. It is either new school poetry, or alternative conscious hip hop. I love hip hop, I will not go so far as to call myself a hip hop head, but I really like it. It's the most relevant and popular form of poetry we've got, so we better listen to what it's saying.

Saul Williams - 1987 (link: http://www.mediafire.com/?1d2ohetwnvg)

Click the link, hit "download" (it is all good!), listen to it in your media player, and look up the lyrics (here is a link). Follow along like it's a church hymnal. Understand that the song jumps between the past and present without wont. If you are iffy about downloading things, youtube it! Here is a youtube link.

Additional link: Saul Williams' Black Stacey. This is actually an interesting sociological concept that is credited to W.E.B. DuBois, the idea of the cultural veil, that members outside the culture cannot identify with it because the mainstream culture pretends like they don't exist. So, an example, my sister's mother in-law (who is Indian), complaining about Sarah Palin, saying "She can identify with any mother, so long as her children play hockey."

This "veil" is what things like Black History Month try to overcome. Whether it works, because it brings to light the fact that there is a whole lot of really, really, really important history that we're missing or whether it doesn't work, because it lets us, in good conscience, ignore the history for 11 months out of the year is up to debate.

So I am not sure if I can say "Happy Black History Month" because, like most oppressed peoples, it is not the most happy of histories. So instead I will say this: Barack is president!

Super What? ...Oh.

2009-02-02T00:58:00.001-05:00

Superbowl? Did that happen? I miss a lot of things now that I am out of the house. Especially sports-related things. Oh, the joys of attending a school that has no sports teams! Actually, I think we do have some sports. Like soccer. And rowing. And field hockey. Oh! Basketball! We have basketball! I remember that now. Oh, man, I definitely lived right next to the sports fields for a year. Oh, well, that is what I get for going to a school that has zero school spirit.*

And here I thought that it was just Chinese New Year. I spent the day in Chinatown and the American History Museum (it just reopened). The museum was a little disappointing. But that is just probably me.

*I love that my school has no school spirit. It makes me think that kids are concentrating on studying or something like that.

Glam Rock Rabbit Hole

2009-01-28T00:26:00.002-05:00

Kevin Barnes: I am prepared to marry you at your convenience.

I have fallen into a glam-rock rabbit hole and I can't get out. It is just too, too ... too beautiful! What is it about effeminate lead singers who wear very few (but very tight) clothes? And makeup? And have proclaimed heterosexual preferences? LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.

I have watched this video probably three times each day. Brandon Flowers, how'd you get so great? Answer me THAT. I am also thinking: maybe he is trying to be the new Bowie? I'd say that Kevin Barnes, of Of Montreal, is shooting for Bowie (he's got a stage persona, Georgie Fruit, a 40 year old black man who has had multiple sex change operations), but I think that Barnes works better as a new Queen. Maybe. Maybe not if Mika has already taken that role. He is actually a one man Queen. He can hit ALL the notes. ALL OF THEM.

Webcomics Day

2009-01-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

click to enlarge, titled: tell me, where is evil bred, in the heart or in the head?

We haven't had one of these in quite a long time, have we? Don't worry, I have not been deaf to your weeping. Here is: A Softer World!

A Softer World is a project between emily horne and joey comeau. Emily does pictures and Joey does words. The words are what get you, too. The dude has something so beautifully wrong with him -- A Softer World is just a little glimpse into his head and, frankly, it is quite enough. It's not always funny. Actually, it's not all that often that it shoots for mainstream humor. If you've got any sort of dark, twisted, don't-go-to-cocktail-parties-because-you-know-you'll-say-something-you'll-regret sense of humor, then it is funny pretty often!

However, if you are the least bit uptight, it is probably horribly offensive so I can only recommend that you go through the archives, read each one, and tally all your rage and renumerate it in a long letter to Joey. You might not be able to reach him, though, because the dude takes off on adventures each time he gets a little bit of money. That is just his way.

Inauguration, wow.

2009-01-20T23:05:00.000-05:00

This is what all the metro fare cards look like, I don't know how long they'll be like this, or if they'll ever go back to being the zoo pandas.

That was an incredible inaugural address. Congratulations, Obama, and good luck. All eyes are on you.

@#%&!! Inauguration.

2009-01-20T04:19:00.001-05:00

It's four. Why am I awake? And what are the chances that I am going to get all my reading for sociology done today? Are they better than my chances of getting pick pocketed? I do not know.

AUGH. WANT. SLEEP.

EDIT: it is now seven. I am back at the computer, which means that I am back at the dorm. Yeah, I couldn't take the cold. Wanna make something of it, punk? Listen, I teach skiing. I've worked at horse stables in the winter. I KNOW my limits for cold and I know how to layer and it's too cold out there to justify waiting around for six hours to be in the vicinity of Obama turning from president-elect into president. I say "be in the vicinity" because I know that where I'd have seated myself, I wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Sure, the JumboTron would have projected it, but you know what? I can see that from home. And I know that the experience of being around all those people is what separates, say, going to a baseball game rather than watching it on TV. But, hey, victory is sweet even from the cheap seats, and what seat is cheaper than my dorm? More specifically, my BED?

Yes, I will be watching the inauguration proceedings the same way most of the world will. But some of my crazy, crazy friends are there and I'm counting on them to give me a full report.

Oh, Yeah, Inauguration.

2009-01-18T14:59:00.000-05:00

Hmm...I am in D.C. I heard there's something big happening on Tuesday. Like, something HUGE. Like, I can't use metro because 10 million visitors and tourists are gonna use it.

Inauguration. I plan to go and watch that dude get all inaugurated and stuff. The plan is moronic and the plan is this: I wake up at four. I wake my roommate up. I wake my friends up. We gather ourselves together. We walk 6 miles to the capitol. We stake out a seat by the reflecting pool. We sneer at our friends who got tickets to be in the fenced-off area. We camp out for 8 (ish) hours. I read and sew and eat a bagel and dried fruit (like the oregon trail!). Dude gets inaugurated. We walk back, hoping like the Obama kids we are that we don't have frostbite.

See? We're college kids! That means our plans are SMART plans!

Truthfully, and Blogosphere, I am only telling YOU, if that thermometer reads 32 or below, I ain't sticking with the game plan. I'm going down, taking a few pictures, and leaving to watch the rest on TV while I do something productive and WARM.

Also! It is noon and I JUST WOKE UP. My life is awesome. You're jealous. I can tell.

Allentown, Lift Your Weary Head! Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!

2009-01-15T22:25:00.001-05:00

The title of the post comes from a Sufjan Stevens song which, once I find a satisfactory media player, I will play for you. The picture comes from somewhere on the internet. It is not mine.

Pancho got my mind reeling with a question: what does Allentown need? It's a broad question and there are so many, many answers, but I thought that the Lehigh Valley blog network would be good to ask. Who has opinions if not bloggers?

I feel that the most important thing that would help center-city is to attract more jobs to the downtown. Getting more Lehigh Valley companies to move their headquarters, attract new businesses that would usually prefer a new business park. I think once the new jobs are created, things can slowly domino in the positive direction. More jobs > more tax dollars > more police/less crime, >more support & service industries etc. (or however you want to imagine it) I just wish we could do it all overnight, so everyone would feel comfortable.

-PANCHO

So, what do you think are the top three things that need to get done in order for downtown Allentown to be an attractive downtown? If you think more police would make it better, post it; if you think a permanent giant parade float installation would make it better, post that too. Allentown's urban development is something I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about, and I really need some new things to consider.

My initial thoughts involve a long laundry list and exclamation points: Keystone Opportunity Zone reformation! Improvement of Public Transportation! Public education programs! Wider sidewalks! More trees! More street lamps! The Americus! Urban gardens! Neighborhood- and city-scale marketing! Zoning law reformation! Waterfront - do something with it! Preservation! Sustainable development! Train access! The list goes on and I want YOU to add to it.

Allentown? The Lehigh Valley?

2009-01-13T19:20:00.001-05:00

Jane Jacobs, I am half in love with you.

I'm back at school and reading another Jane Jacobs book, "Cities and the Wealth of Nations." Most of it is a little too involved for my level of understanding (my history of economics needs to get brushed off ... or established in general), but this quote struck me:

When a city at the nucleus of a city region stagnates and declines, it does so because it no longer experiences from time to time significant episodes of import-replacing. Gradually the stagnated city's economy becomes both thinner and out-of-date. It fails to compensate, with new and different export work, for losses of its older exports, and so grows poorer as a market for its own region, for other cities, and for regions lacking cities as well. Its practical problems and those of its region pile up unsolved. Idleness grows. The region of an economically declining city does not revert to its former, largely rural condition. For a long time it retains its characteristic of being a mixd and intricate economy, but the region's economic life slowly grows thinner and backward, too. The regional fabric develops holes and tatters as it were. Young people who leave settlements within the region for city jobs tend to bypass the region's own city or cities and go, instead, to distant cities if work there is open to them. For a long time, transplants of city work continue to leak out into the region, but that is no longer because they are being crowded out of the city by younger enterprisers. Rather, they flee unsolved city problems, leaving emptiness behind. Eventually the transplants cease flowing, their source having dried up.

This quote stunned me; made me halt my elliptical routine (most of my reading gets done in the gym, these days). I had to ask, What does Allentown do for itself? Is there anything that is produced and consumed here, exclusively? I couldn't think of anything, but I am no expert. Businesses and people leave left and right, without getting replaced by new businesses and people. My friend yelled at me, somewhat drunk, "No! You're not allowed to go to Philadelphia! Everyone goes to Philly! And they never come back! Stay here with me." And it's true, at least among my friends.

So, suburbanites, how long will it take for Allentown's decay to spread to the rest of the region? You've ignored it 'till now. How much will have to happen before you start to pay attention?

I haven't yet finished the book, so I will let you know if she tells me how to fix it.

Test Test, Check Two, Test Test

2009-01-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

I am testing out free media hosting sites. I have a bunch of mp3s from local bands and bands that sing about local stuff. And I want you to listen to them. Right now, here is a sample:

Mouth's Cradle - "Everybody Laughs More When I'm Not There"

I will write a more detailed review later, but you should know that if you've ever gone to Wegman's you have probably seen the guy who is the brains (and voice, and instrumentalist) behind the operation. His name is Kevin and he wears an awesome Mister Rogers sweater over his company polo. Say hi to him. He is nice, I promise.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T13:28:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I had a good new year's eve. I hope you did, too. I even got home alive! I am happy about that. My parents are pretty stoked about it, too! Hooray! Alive is a good way to start a new year, right?

I drove home around 2 am this morning (last night?) and I know that 2 am is probably the worst time to go out driving on new year's day because of all the drunk people leaving their bars/parties/grandmother's house. So I was all white-knuckles and muttering to myself all five miles home. "Get through this intersection! Quickly! See any headlights? No, good, ok, DRIVE! Not too fast! Oh good god not so fast! Oh man, so many people are probably drunk. MAYBE THE DEER ARE DRUNK."

I get kind of crazy when I stay up late and drink a lot of caffeine. I do not handle caffeine so well. I mean, it is sometimes awesome to be all hopped up on caffeine. Like, I can see everything, even when I'm not wearing my contacts. I have no idea what crazy body science is behind that. It is pretty cool.

I am going to go enjoy my new years day. I also want to apologize for not having any pictures in the last posts! I like to limit the pictures I post to be the ones I take myself, and I've left my card reader at school! TRAGEDY. Your loss? I think so.

Welcome, Bryan!

2008-12-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

I should let you all know that my site, "LV Voice" is not really affiliated with A Voice in the Valley, though a friend of mine (Bryan) maintains it. He's got a nice and dry sense of humor with a bend toward the sinister, thusly indicated by the red-on-black color scheme. Do not get me wrong. He is a nice guy. I think. I am not sure. I am going to stop talking now.

But, anyway, check him out. He's got a pretty good summary and introduction in the first post: "I have heard my friends and acquaintances constantly complain and berate the Valley for being stagnate and boring. I am hoping to create this blog for those in the Valley who want to discover what lies underneath its surface. This blog will be dedicated to what is going on in our area of the world."

He's taken a big bite of the blogging, saying he'll do restaurant reviews, local politics, and things to do around town. This isn't the first time he's been involved in the Valley internet scene, though. It may seem like he's new to this, but he's not: he maintained the Facebook group "Stop Wal-Mart In North Whitehall Township" and another group dedicated to local lore.

Happy reading, blogosphere!

Vacation is as Vacation Does

2008-12-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

I realize I have been a bit stingy on the posting recently. I have just been running around with my hair on fire recently and I've been doing a lot of non-blog related writing. I am actually working on a poetry chapbook right now, and have been for quite some time, but I lost a lot of my finished work when my computer crashed. I am waiting for technology to fulfill its promise of making my life easier and more convenient. My holiday panic was not at all helped by my brother's warped concept of time. Apparently, the kid doesn't believe in observing daylight savings, so he's kept the clock in the car turned an hour ahead. I went crazy thinking I was late for EVERYTHING. Thanks, Odge. Now I don't feel so guilty about the time I picked all the marshmallows out of the box of Lucky Charms.

I have also been up to other things. I'm working with Project R.E.A.L. and Lifestyles of the G.S.S. and I really like it! I've been spending some time on Hamilton street because of it - more time than I've ever spent before. I think the last time I spent time on Hamilton was a school field trip to the art museum and my teacher said, "Ok. You all have an hour for lunch. Try to stay within a mile of the museum. Try." We ate at Happy Garden. It was pretty great.

I am amazed at the pedestrian scale of downtown Hamilton street. It's too bad that wide sidewalks, human-scale architecture, and well-treed lanes are limited to that small area. What's the New Urbanist saying? "If you build it for people, you get people; if you build it for cars, you get cars." Let's re-zone for people, not automotive convenience.

UGH. SHOPPING.

2008-12-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

I still can't believe I thought it was a good idea to go to the mall two days before Christmas.

It was somehow impossible to find a decent men's scarf for under thirty dollars. Also, Nestor's: Please, please, please stop trying to sell knit hats for forty five dollars. I mean, for serious, REALLY? They ARE remarkably soft and pretty, but STILL, a girl's got other places to spend her cash!

Like the music store! I don't usually purchase CDs* , but I sprang for the Sufjan Stevens Christmas EP collection. It is great! I plan to post some mp3s on this blog (eventually), but right now all I can do is direct you to YouTube to search "Sufjan Stevens Christmas" and listen. Like I said, it is great! Banjos AND Christmas? Count me in.

*there are too many really great music blog aggregators that let you search for specific mp3s. It is totally legal, too! ... I think ...

I always underestimate how much money presents cost. I usually trick myself into thinking it costs less to make the presents, but that is a different post!

I Is Sowy

2008-12-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

Chensters: I didn't make it to MOMENTUM. The holidays have me running around with my hair on fire.

I am sorry!!

I DID drive by it every day and peek in though the windows. It looked FANTASTIC! Keep it up, and I PROMISE, I will make it to the next show!!

SNOW

2008-12-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

SNOW! THERE IS SNOW OUTSIDE. DID YOU SEE THE SNOW? THERE IS SNOW. THERE IS A LOT OF SNOW.

OMG OMG, SNOW!

I love snow. I've skied since I was three, and I've been getting into nasty snowball brawls since I was five, and I've been hatching nefarious snowfort plans since I was seven. There are only two artists that have properly encapsulated my winters: Andrew Wyeth and Bill Watterson. Watterson wrote/drew Calvin and Hobbes and their winter adventures were something I always aspired to, yet fell short of (no kidding, I wasn't an animated tiger...).

I love winter, I actually get outside more in the wintertime than in the summertime because I am a ski instructor! I teach kids ages 3-10. Lessons range from "how to properly fall" to "let's make our skis into french fries! OH NO DON'T GO DOWN THE BIG SLOPE OH GOD OH GOD MAKE YOUR SKIS INTO A PIZZA! NOW!!!" But I am actually a pretty good instructor, especially if the kids have half a good attitude. Aaaand if they speak english or spanish. I had to teach korean and russian kids before. That was very difficult.

I'm off to play in the snow!

EDIT: Eeeew, this is melty snow...

Home for the Holidays!

2008-12-13T18:49:00.000-05:00

I am home! As in the Lehigh Valley! As in HOME COOKING and NOT STUDYING, which are two really great things.

My To-Do List:

-eat home cooked meals
-see friends
-MOMENTUM show
-read read read
-OH NO NOT THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ok I guess I will go Christmas shopping...
-write that paper!!

I have worked to keep it a short to-do list. A girl's gotta prioritize, and eating and relaxing just happen to be priorities. Although, apparently the Christmas shopping and paper-writing are going to counterbalance all those relaxing hours.

Why did I decide to write a paper over my winter break, again? OH, YEAH, I AM CRAZY.

Crazy for urban studies. I am writing a paper for a conference called "Urban Transformations." I can only hope it is half as epic as it sounds. I am excited. As much as I am dragging my heels about all this, I am really jacked about all of it and can't wait to start research. Hooray!

I've Got A New Broken Computer

2008-12-08T21:21:00.000-05:00

The good folks at Mac decided to return my computer to me, juuuuust in time for finals (but not in time for writing final papers).

However, this new computer has new problems, one is that my internet is very cantankerous. Conversations with my computer go like this:

"Will you work this time, computer? Oh. That's ok, computer. You go ahead and do what you want. Oh, you'll upload my facebook page, but not my email? That's cool, thanks. Oh! You're uploading email! ...but not blogger. Computer, I don't understand you! OH GOOD GOD NO DON'T CRASH I DIDN'T MEAN WHAT I SAID. Oh you went and crashed. Well, let's restart this (pushes button). Hello, Computer! Oh. You're not sensing internet at all? Damnit! I hate you, Computer."

These conversations are a little one-sided, I'll admit. I sound a little crazy (you know, talking to inanimate objects and all), but it IS finals time and I AM going crazy because of it. Also, my roommate's mom is staying in the room for a couple days. I am cool with that and all but we are fitting THREE people in this room. We've each got this precious little 8'x8' section of dorm room. I can't imagine living in a triple. I also can't imagine my mom staying on my floor. "Hey, Mom, these are my friends. They are good people, except it is Tuesday at eight pm and they are drunk. Disregard that. They are good, smart people. Remember, we are the future."

AUGH, finals.

ps. I'm writing this from a different computer. Lappy McLaptop and me are NOT getting along.

Teh Intarweb iz a series of Toobz

2008-12-03T14:21:00.000-05:00

"You see, Katie, WHARRGARBLE dog is experiencing an absolute overwhelming of stimuli. It is something that, without your information portal, you are not. This metaphor does not work."

That was a floormate. Jake. He is right. I am not WHARRGARBLE dog. I am just a member of the "digital generation"* without her "digital."

*they are also calling me a member of GenO. As in "generation that elected Obama." I do not know who "they" are or exactly when "my generation" has been referred to as this, it was just something someone told me. Aaaaand I think it's ridiculous.

WHO AM I? What am I without my computer? This has turned out to be less a pragmatic crisis and more of an existential one. I need to realign my life and make sure that I am someone who is tolerable. I am gonna go work on this. And I am somehow gonna do this without a computer. I mean, I am sort of doing it right now but it is WITH A COMPUTER.

ZOMG don't know how 2 deal. Need 2 get pickd up by the roflcopter right now or sumthing.** Shud I just be all "ur problemz r my problemz?" or wut?

**for definition of roflcopter, see this urbandictionary.com post and refer to definition number 2. To further have your mind blown by ridiculous "digital generation" speak, see any and all entries from hipsterrunoff.com, but you must remember that hipsters and the digital generation are not the same thing, although there are lots of crossover hits.

The Compy is Kaput

2008-12-01T16:40:00.000-05:00

My computer decided that it didn't like its hard drive and thought it a good idea to fry it. I'm writing this in the computer lab. I have no computer for at least a week.

As a member of the "digital generation," I'm feeling like I've had an arm cut off. Maybe not that drastic. Think of your own metaphor. I need to figure out how to function without all my tabs. And without all my music. And without all my pictures. And without all my documents.

Note to self: BACK YOUR SHIT UP.

Christmas list: external hard drive. books.

I feel like WHARRBGARBLE dog. Maybe that's an appropriate metaphor. Oh, internet! Why have you forsaken me?

Turkey Time!

2008-11-25T14:55:00.000-05:00

Image source: tomelko.com

It is Thanksgiving! Almost! That means that I get to categorize some time under "NOT studying." Hooray for breaks!

I will, however, spend at least some of my time writing a monster of a paper on the internationalization of food sources and its domestic impact. In addition to the mountain of academic essays I'm reading on this topic, I picked up Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemna." The chapters on factory farming (animals included) were enlightening. He didn't get to go into the meat-packing plants, but that doesn't stop an Upton Sinclair-like revelation from taking hold in the reader's mind. Now I think of what's in every bite I eat. I don't eat meat, anyway, but it makes me a little worried about what's going to be in my family's Thanksgiving turkey.

I've eaten turkey on Thanksgiving in the past, and I suppose I'm going to do it again this year. But now I've got a whole lot of good reasons NOT to eat it (as well as more than a few good reason TO eat it).

The sake of tradition is one reason TO eat it. I'm not going to call it a good one because, well, traditions aren't always good! There's probably a reason we DON'T sacrifice a goat on special occasions anymore, sacrificing a turkey to symbolize whatever great Columbian Exchange happened when cultures collided way back when doesn't make much sense to me. Is Tofurkey really such sacrilege? What about chinese food? What about ice pops? Which matters more for this holiday: a specific food or family? I suppose that depends on who you ask.

Another reason TO eat it: everyone else will be eating it. Whether I partake at the table or not, that turkey's gonna get roasted and served. Our dog, Baxter, even succeeded in partaking last year (by way of snatching a significant portion of the turkey that remained on the kitchen counter after it had been carved). Should I just eat it to avoid any uncomfortable discussions about global warming/carbon emissions that result from the meat industry and/or animal rights? How far can I go in practicing my beliefs that I am not a hypocrite AND will I be seen as a "not hypocrite" or will I be seen as a "CRAZY GODLESS LIBERAL OH MY GOD WHY WON'T SHE JUST EAT SOME MEAT?" Families are weird like that, dude. They can know you for a long time and then all of a sudden think "WHO is this and HOW THE HELL are we related??"

But what about that factory farming? Can I reconcile the intimate knowledge I have of Jaindl turkey farms with eating a turkey? I drove past the turkey sheds EVERY DAY on my way to and from school. If I know the smell of their slaughter, can I sincerely divorce that from what sits on the Thanksgiving table? I honestly don't know. It's easy enough not to think "cow!" when one eats a burger, so would this be any harder?

And those carbon emissions!! Is it more damaging to let food go to waste (i.e. uneaten) on account of my belief or should I do my part to decrease landfill input and just eat me a hunk of tasty animal flesh? It IS tasty, I will admit. But so is bacon. And you're not going to catch me reconciling eating something that processed with my vegetarianism/environmentalism.

So maybe what I am trying to say is that I am probably going to wing it and see if there's going to be a ton of turkey left over (we'll see if Baxter gets any this year) before I dig my fork in past the potatoes/cranberry sauce/green beans/bread. If there is, I'ma do my environmental part and dig in. If not, the vegetarian wins and gets to say, "I abstain, dudes, hear that? ABSTAIN."

Famed poet/performer/rapper/writer Saul Williams has got a really good MySpace post on this subject. I highly encourage you to READ IT.

Actually, no. What I am trying to say is HAPPY THANKSGIVING and try to eat responsibly, y'all.

Friday At Last - Hooray?

2008-11-21T15:50:00.000-05:00

DUUUUDE this place looks suspiciously familiar! Credit: JoshPM (Click to enlarge image)

Oh man, I pretty much slept through this week. I got SO VERY VERY SICK. Something I'd categorize under NOT FUN. But all is well now (or almost) so I'm going to make this one upbeat! So it will be a webcomic post! Hooray?

JoshPM is evidently a Muhlenberg student. Which is funny because I found his site through a webcomic site operated out of Canada. I maintain that the internet is a coincidental place. Anyway, he does not update consistently and sometimes the comics are just drawings and not comics and sometimes they are inside jokes that I only sometimes get BUT this particular one was just so good that it deserves a mention. His webcomic style is more web-diary and that is ok because daily life is full of The Funny.

He went to the Don Hertzfeldt showcase at the 19th Street Theater and was moved enough to make this actually really beautiful comic about it. I wonder if he went to Hava Java afterward and I wonder if he sat at the table I always sit at. This is a strange thing to ponder but sometimes I wonder about all the people who have sat in the same seat on the metro as me or how many other people have touched the quarter that I found on the ground. I usually wash my hands furiously after thinking these thoughts. I really should carry hand sanitizer.

At any rate, here is his livejournal link. He is pretty dialed-in to the webcomic-o-sphere and thusly posts good links (when he posts them). Also many of the comments are funny, though I am not sure if I can rightly credit him with their content. I guess I can. Yes, he is the bearer of funny comments on his site.

That is all!

Bill Ayers at Busboys and Poets II

2008-11-19T11:50:00.001-05:00

Bill Ayers. Source: Bill Ayers' Facebook.com Page

Bill Ayers is surprisingly soft spoken. He may as well be whispering into the mic, but if the desired effect is to have all the people in that crowded Unitarian church leaning forward in their seats to get every word, then I guess it worked out ok.

It's no secret that he's kinda sorta really liberal. He's a teacher, he's an activist, he's a professor, he was a Weatherman. Most people only know that last little part about him but that is the way election media rolls: they don't tell you the whole story. And how can they if there's so much information that even they can't filter through it all?

"I was an unwitting and unwilling participant in this election news cycle," he told us. "I can't do celebrity. Read my books, that is what I do. I've not been silent for a minute in these last months - but I haven't wanted to give out a soundbite, so they think I'm silent." He just couldn't se any way to interrupt the hatred in the media to get anyone to actually give him an honest listen. I wouldn't have been able to, either. I often watch the Daily Show and Bill O'Reilly and his little No Spin Zone and I have to say that those are two shows I never want to have to deal with in any way other than as a viewer. I mean, they're funny and all, but I can't say that actually seeing Bill O'Reilly in person would make me a better or stronger person. I can't actually say that seeing him on the TV has made me better or stronger. Or smarter. But I digress.

What Bill Ayers does is education. We were all in that Unitarian church under the guise of talking about his latest book "City Kids, City Schools," but the fact that the crowd was so huge that the event had to be moved from the little café to a church just goes to show you that people in D.C. really care about their election celebrities. Nevertheless it was a good opportunity to speak to a mass of people about the plight of city kids and city schools. There's always a silver lining, even if you're in a situation where you have reporters stalk you every day.

I went to the event with Nick. Nick and I have lived on the same floor in these high-rise dormitories for what's going on two years and he has had to listen to me ramble on about a lot of things that I am pretty sure most people don't think are interesting, but I've rambled about them often enough that he knew to give me a "Hey, he's talking about gentrification!" when Bill Ayers was, indeed, talking about gentrification. And urban gardening. And white flight. And any inherently urban issue.

But of course the focus was on schooling. I thought of our own Mrs. Dottie a lot. His major schtick was how a democracy demands a well-educated nation, but that we were failing our kids.

"We can't say that every kid has a fair shake in this rich country ... Is the important thing in education to get the cream of the crop to rise to the top or is it to work toward multiple successes for multiple people? The kids who need it the most should get it the most. Every student deserves a well-educated, thoughtful, and well-rested teacher in the classroom." Good teachers and a good education for all are not partisan issues. All students deserve, as Ayers repeated throughout the evening, "the right to think for yourself and the circumstances you're in and how it could have been different."

And he doesn't like the way our school system assumes that the teacher knows and the student does not. "Education at its best is always an enterprise based on enlightenment," he said.

"That schools should be decent is a pie in the sky and that teaching can seem a fool's errand is a tragedy."

He didn't address ways to solve the problem, other than relocating exorbitant war, surveillance and incarceration spending to education, health care and elder care. Anyway, I think that his point was to point out that there were huge inequalities in the system and that we fail our democratic ideal when we fail to truly educate our kids.

As a student, I agree. I still drop the ball on tests in college because the only kind of test I actually learned how to take was a Scantron fill-in-the bubble exam. I have weaned myself off the No.2 pencils, but even so, I'm enormously successful in my education and I still feel a little cheated. The system would be a success if everyone only felt a little cheated out.

No Evo Morales Tonight...

2008-11-18T18:26:00.000-05:00

It turns out that I am not going to go see the President of Bolivia. I'm a bit sad.

Evo Morales On Campus Tonight!

2008-11-18T17:12:00.001-05:00

Oh, goodness. So many events and so much homework and so much life planning! I will probably never get it all done.

But I am DEFINITELY going to see the president of Bolivia tonight, even if it means I skip half my Spanish class. My professor is Bolivian, so I am pretty sure that she'd approve, if she's not already attending.

I guess I'll do a write up on this, too. I'll have the first part of the Ayers review up tomorrow sometime.

Busy, busy, busy!!

Bill Ayers at Busboys and Poets

2008-11-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

Tonight I am going to go see Bill Ayers speak at a DC coffeeshop and performance place called Busboys and Poets.

City kids and City Schools is the title, but the real question is ... can I still run for president after attending this?

"This Is An Open Call" (OR "Radical Social Work")

2008-11-16T15:44:00.000-05:00

It would seem that I haven't been on the internet in quite a while! Indeed, this is true. It is actually probably a good thing and means that I have been spending more time in the real world doing real things - like hanging out with people! Alas, this is not true. Unless by "real world" I meant "the library" and by "real people" I meant "textbooks" and by "doing real things" i meant "studying until my brain leaks out my ears."

Well, studying and figuring out "life." Life! Like, what does it all mean? And, what am I going to do with it? According to actuarial tables and a palm reader, I have a lot of life left. So I decided to do what all doubting college students do in a time of crisis: I went to the student career center* and talked with my parents and talked with my professors and talked with my undergraduate course advisor! I got quite a range of suggestions. I have a request for all y'all, and it is at the bottom of the post if you can't make it through the whole post.

*Dudes, I am not THAT kind of college student. I am legit. I am the real deal. I am studying a lot. Ok, I am sort of lying. I am not studying ALL THE TIME (a girl has got to eat). But but I am still studying A LOT.

First, I went to the career center. "My future sociology degree - what do I do with it?" I asked. "More importantly, how can I use it to get at least two meals a day after this whole "college" deal is over?" and "Even more importantly, can you get me a part time job for next semester? Because I need to reel in some cash-money right now."

And so she looked at my resume and gave me a lot of websites and told me how to write a cover letter and told me to talk to the sociology department about the whole "career" thing. And to make another appointment, because we REALLY REALLY need to work on my resume.

So, Sociology Department, ahoy!! I have yet to talk to the head of sociology and go all, "Dude, you said you were offering the "Sociology of the City" course this semester and now you're not, what gives?" but I did indeed get a chance to talk to one of my sociology professors. We'll call her prof. B. She is an A++ in my book because she knows everything about everything and has a good sense of humor about it, but I digress.

I explained to her, "I really see myself going back to my hometown and doing things there. Like ... " I took a deeeeep breath in and explained my ideas. A lot of them. Not all of them. All of them would take too much time. I ended it with "Like, I just, like, really want to help." Which I consider was an excellent flourish. It truly exemplified my academic achievement over the past decade and a half of schooling. I am being a little sarcastic.

Anyway, she gave me two suggestions: quit school now and do it OR get a PhD. (The PhD would lend legitimacy to my program and aid in getting funding and achieving legitimacy for my observations.)

So I can get a PhD. I can quit school now. I can get a bachelors and angle all my studying toward cities, gardens and the like. I can get city-focused internships. I can read and read and read and read.

SOMETHING is telling me that my parents MIGHT NOT BE COOL with me dropping out of college. So I figure that I'm going to go ahead and stay in school. I am probably not going to get a PhD because, let's be real, those things cost CASHMONEY and I am currently lacking in CASHMONEY. So I think I am going to go scrounge around for internships and part time jobs and read and read and read and read about everything and anything related to cities and gardening.

So, given what I have written, I am totally open to reading suggestions from you internet people. You Internet People. Like, what has dramatically shaped your views on cities or society that you think would help my own understanding of it?

Newfound Website.

2008-11-10T11:38:00.001-05:00

I have found a new web site. Planetizen.com. My grades have suffered because of this because I CANNOT STOP READING IT.

Essentially it is an urban design website that links to articles about the plight or success of cities and what is being done about them. Every article I've read contains gems of knowledge. Like these...

"What Makes The Perfect City?":

"It's not difficult to pick out the features of a city in trouble. Multiple deprivation for its poor, high rates of infant mortality, rampant knife crime, multinational companies shedding jobs as they head for the exit, broken-down public transport.

Defining strategies that failing cities can adopt is harder. Not least because most of us have a stubborn preference for messy vitality over organised uniformity. Tokyo is huge, overcrowded and overwhelmingly ugly. But it is also exhilaratingly full of life. Brasilia is safer, healthier and less run-down than Rio. But, given the choice between them, nobody would seriously opt for Brasilia. The perfect city simply doesn't exist: it would have an underground railway as organised as Tokyo's, with a bus service as inspiring as the vaporetti of Venice. It would have a setting as beautiful as Stockholm's. It would have New York's museums and its 24-hour culture, with Berlin's cheap, high-ceilinged apartments, and Hong Kong's energy. It would have London's tolerance of utterly different ways of life, coexisting side by side. It would have the street life of Naples, and the street cleaning of Zurich.

Yet the search for a local-government version of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People has defined urban politics for the past two decades."

Or this one, "Crisis Won't Bring About Urban Renaissance":

"Yet in one of those ironies that markets play on hypesters, the mortgage crisis is now puncturing the urbanists' bubble...In reality, what we have is a market that is stuck in almost all geographies. Rather than shift people into the urban cores, or vice-versa, the mortgage crisis is simply stopping everyone in their tracks. Even if people wanted to move into the core cities, they could not sell their suburban houses to make the down payments.

For a decade or more, city leaders have kept thinking that something from outside – demographic changes, high fuel prices or changing consumer tastes – would create a revival for them. This allowed them to avoid doing hard, nasty things like cutting often-outrageous public employee pensions, streamlining regulations, cutting taxes levied on businesses or improving often-dismal schools and basic infrastructure.

Cities should start realizing that their biggest problem is not a shortage of cultural venues and performance artists but a chronic lack of decent, middle class jobs."

Like I said, I CANNOT STOP READING IT. Oh man, I have so many other things I need to read, oh man, oh, just one more article, just one more, just one more...

Webcomics Day! XKCD!

2008-11-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

Click the image to enlarge it...dudez.

If you are wondering when "Webcomics Day!" is so that you can better observe the grandeur of the holiday it is, it is thus: whenever I feel like it. I hope that helps.

www.xkcd.com

XKCD is one that I have been witholding, for no apparent reason. A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language, as the site says. The characters are always simply drawn, but always distinguishable from each other. The main character is a stick figure, the sinister one has a hat, and there is one with long hair who is the interchangeable female presence in whatever situation. The sinister one scares me. Don't tell him I told you that. He probably already knows where I live. And what name my dog answers to.*

The creator, Randall Munroe, must have a heck of a brain - the topic of a single comic can come from anywhere: classical Italian literature, advanced Physics law, mainstream rap music, other webcomics, or the internet at large, it's pretty surprising and always funny. When you read from the site, make sure to hover the mouse over the image to get the alternative text. Those are funny.**

I thought that the content of this one was particularly appropriate to our insular little patch of blogosphere. I hope that this doesn't mean I'm throwing my hat into the blog-war ring, but sheesh, dudes, this is all getting a bit out of hand. I'd call out the philosophy of Jane Addams but I think that this would be feeding the trolls even more than I already have.

*this is a trick! my dog doesn't actually answer to a name unless that "name" is the sound of the box of dog treats being shaked and someone singing "wanna cookie? WANNA COOKIE!?"
**I think I am using the word "funny" too much to describe these comics. Maybe I will not do a funny comic next time. Yes, I will make sure that I get one of those deep, dark, depressing ones turn up.

Election Night

2008-11-05T00:56:00.001-05:00

DC in 1968, DC in 2000. Source: Google/?

Forty years ago DC was burned. The murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy brought to light what Harriet Martineau called the anomaly between the morals and manners of a society. That the Declaration of Independence embodied the morals of American society and said "all men are created equal" yet such men as RFK, MLK, Malcom X, and JFK, those who were chosen by the people, were not deemed equal enough and eliminated showed the stark difference between what people felt was true and what they acted out. The riots that brought DC, among other cities, to its knees exemplified the massive unhappiness in America.

That was forty years ago.

Tonight I was on U Street. U street was torn apart brick by brick in 1968 but tonight it celebrated. Cheers and honking horns sang out in the night and it was the most beautiful thing I have witnessed in my life. I was at a concert, Blue Scholars, we had our fists in the air and shouted "I got your back even if you don't got mine" as the news updates projected on the stage announced Barack Obama's presidency.

"This means I might be able to stay in school now," my friend told me.

Such a long way - we've come such a long way since 1968. That McCain/Palin supporters were still chanting "Barack HUSSEIN" at McCain's speech tonight lets us know that we still have a ways to go, but a new era has opened up.

Let's hope that he delivers.

Stressed Out!

2008-10-30T15:32:00.000-04:00

Right now school and all the stuff going on in my life outside of it is doing a number on my system. I have 45678965432 kajillion billion things to do before I get on that plane tomorrow and exactly none of them can be completed in the time allowed if I am going to get passing grades and enough sleep NOT to be a Worst Wedding Guest EVER this weekend. I like to try to put things in perspective for myself and say things like, "In ten years, what's gonna matter more? Family or Spanish/History/Sociology homework?" but now it is that those things matter equally. Unless I want to destroy everything I've been working for these past 14 years.

GOOD GOD I'VE BEEN IN THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR FOURTEEN YEARS WHAT IS IT DOING TO ME MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT ALL GO AWAY PLEASE.

I'm stressed. Don't expect any substantial posting this week. Or next week. Maybe not even the week after that.

Life! What did I ever do to you?!?

Homesick

2008-10-24T03:03:00.000-04:00

Sometimes pictures don't really capture your friends or your moments together and sometimes they do. Perfectly.

I am officially homesick. It’s struck me a year late and all the harder for it. As a sophomore, I’m no longer preoccupied with navigating the most efficient path between classes or discovering this new, bright city or figuring out how one exactly studies – I never really did it in high school and am now sort of paranoid about my study habits – and now I’m stuck with a lot of space to think. And my thoughts always turn to home.

“Home” as in the community of friends that has been flung around the country, which, for the most part, will never be completely reconstituted. It’s a gut wrenching to think that our time together was squandered as it was so I try to absorb myself in music, reading, studying and (as of late) sewing. I am going to be honest and say that I have Google image searched “Allentown” and tried to show my friends “Look!” but the conversation quickly turns into the daily debate of Chinese vs. pizza vs. dining hall.

I read The Geography of Nowhere this summer and it made me burn with the need to take save the future of the community that saved my life. There are days where I think I’m wasting time in college, idling hours and dollars that could be put forth to action. It so happens that every time I have one of these days, I get an invaluable gem of information in my classes the next day and I think that I have to keep learning and only when I hit maximum capacity can I go out and start That Big Thing. But I digress.

To give my ears something to listen to while I keep my hands/mind distracted by my recent sewing kick, I listen to music and podcasts. Tonight’s content of sounds was just tugging at the homesick parts of my brain so sharply that I’ve just gotta share.

James Howard Kunstler and Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom dragged me into this trench of homesickness. The episode “On Hope And Despair” by Kunstler combined with “Blue Ridge Mountains” and "Sprout and the Bean" just DID IT to me and now I’m Google image searching “Allentown” again and re-falling in love with the place.

I really encourage you to listen to these people. Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom and Jim Kunstler, I mean. They serve up a pretty potent mix of nostalgia and activism. I am not so sure that I am going to get to sleep tonight.

I will be back in the Valley tomorrow and I have a long list of things I intend to do to get the most out of the cold days of autumn glory there. Pick pumpkins? Cold weather picnic? Country drive? Bake Oven Knob?

…Suggestions?

Because College is Where We Discover The Limits of Our Bodies

2008-10-14T23:56:00.000-04:00

They are thinking of their regrets.

Below is a list of what we learned in college that didn't come from a book. I guarantee that there will be more to come in the future.
EDIT: I've reduced the names to their first letters to, erm, uh, protect identities? yeah. And I've added one. To include another friend.

1. In the first week of classes the entire floor discovered that an all-you-can-eat dining hall is a blessing and a curse.

2. K downed a shot of soy sauce. Later he said it was like a shot to the heart.

3. B found out how often he could have sex before his grades dropped significantly.

4. B and M discovered the evils of grain alcohol. “They should call it ‘Neverclear,’” M said.

5. R found that she could force two inches of the corner of her laptop in her mouth.

6. K stayed awake for 60 hours straight during midterms.

7. N had a bout with booze that ended up with a mess.

8. I sustained an all-nighter by drinking three pots of tea throughout the night. My sleep patterns didn’t resume a normal schedule until the next week.

9. My legs screamed at me when I finally figured out the difference between “working out” and “WORKING OUT.”

10. K ran on the treadmill until his heart rate reached 201. The rest of his day was awful.

11. J, A and I walked four and a half miles across the city at four in the morning to get back to campus.

12. K walked a mile in high heels.

13. J discovered within the first five days of turning 21 just how long he could be drunk before not wanting to be drunk ever again.

14. L listened to the furniture talk while taking salvia.

15. J started smoking, quit smoking, and started smoking again.

16. R’s and my bodies punished us after our attempts to do a split.

17. T fit his 6'6'' body into the cardboard box that R's desk chair came in.

18. K went vegan for a week and regretted it.

19. J and I realized just how awful it is to bike half a mile uphill with backpacks full of canned goods.

20. J, G, N, A and I went trick-or-treating at the embassies and discovered how disgustingly hot a D.C. october can be inside polyester costumes.

21. A added 4 piercings to her body. She is looking for more spaces to pierce.

The Walls Should Talk

2008-10-13T19:34:00.000-04:00

A reblog from Warren Ellis' blog, about making a building blog - as in, put its own story into the internet:

"It once occurred to me that buildings could cast a digital shadow. Imagine an old building still in use, or an old shop location recently renovated or reactivated. Imagine walking past this place, and, say, the place finds a bluetooth connection on your phone and pings you a message inviting you to activate a proffered weblink. Which leads to, for example, a history of the building you’re just passing, structured in blog format. Or maybe it’s a residential building, or a building being used as offices for several start-ups, and they all contribute to a groupblog for the building."

From: www.warrenellis.com

Can you imagine? The city would be your history book. Better yet if the site were web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 these days?) and you could contribute your experiences in the place to the blogsite. I've heard about a real world google map (I can't recall from where, though) where people tag a location with a particular story about it or even some small quip like "the bagels here RULE" and when you pass that point in real life, your bluetooth device would blip and lets you know there's a story to that street corner, café or concert venue. Of course, I anticipate that the sinister side of the internet will surge up with the creation of such a program and you'd learn A LOT more about people's sexual activity in public places that you'd like, but it's an interesting concept to consider. The city as your history book: Marxian historical materialism at work? Possibly.

Just got back from Gettysburg's apple harvest festival. DEE-LISH! Pictures in the next post.

Webcomics Day! Married to the Sea!

2008-10-08T14:19:00.000-04:00

via www.marriedtothesea.com

I present to you: Married to the Sea!

I never took an art history course, so when I go through museums I end up making up commentary for all the people in the scene* and it is totally entertaining and I love art museums for this. I mean- I love art museums because they allow the public to experience art! Really!

*a little difficult for the majority of Andrew and N.C. Wyeth's landscapes, also the Hudson River School. Did you know that the dudes that painted in the Hudson River School were totally upset that they had no great ruins to paint? Man, if they were up there today they'd totally be painting the crap outta all those rust belt factories. Totally.

Anyway, what this has to do with Married To The Sea is that Married To The Sea is like doing that. Only it's with victorian era prints and 80s-style clip art. The commentary is political and cultural and a lot of funny. I guess I would say that the political commentary looks toward the left but usually it'll take a stab at whatever's stab-able. Like the Daily Show! Oh, man, the daily show has been STUPENDOUS recently, are you watching it? Because it is stupendous.

My personal favorites are these three: I Hate Voting, Oops, That's Not Funny, and Old Phone. The sarcasm is great. I just LOVE sarcasm, no, REALLY.

The people that run this webcomic, Natalie Dee and Drew (They're, totally, like, MARRIED!), run three other webcomics! Drew has got Superpoop,* which is like Married To The Sea but with photographs, and Toothpaste For Dinner, which is the BEST title EVER for ANYTHING. Natalie Dee is not exactly "hip" but she is pretty close. And she runs the NatalieDee comic which is just silly drawings with funny captions. All of them (with the exception of Superpoop) update every single day! I look at them every day and sometimes they are not as funny as I am hoping, but sometimes they are so much funnier than I expect! It is like a secret prize. Or a B.F. Skinner rat food reward experiment deal. I don't feel like explaining that last one because this is a blog post and I tend to make the posts too long, anyway. So, yeah. Give it up for Natalie and Drew.

*Superpoop is a much better name than what it used to be named. It used to be called "Where are the dogs humping?" and that is ok but that is a little crude for my tastes so, thank you, Drew, it is easier to get my friends to go to a site named Superpoop than WhereAreTheDogsHumping.

UPDATE: did you see the johnmccainisyourjalopy website? it is like the barack obama one, but funnier. My favorite: "John McCain is worried that the neighborhood has gotten 'worse.'"

Europe Photos! Finally!

2008-10-07T06:49:00.000-04:00

Remember how I went to Europe? Remember how I kept telling you guys that I would have pictures for you? Remember how I kept wimping out on posting them? Remember how disappointed you were in me? Well, forget that! The pictures are edited,* up, organized, tagged and explained on my flickr profile! Hooray! (link)

*I obsess over editing my photos. OBSESS. Ever since I learned how to properly adjust the levels and lighting, I go all crazy with that stuff. Honestly, it's one of the few things I retained from my photoshop course.

It makes the most sense if you go and click the set titled "Traveling" because then you get to see the pictures in frontwards order instead of via my photostream.

Also, note that I am missing significant portions of our trip in my photo logs. Barcelona is not there! My camera died and I didn't want to use the little battery left. This is why it's important to make sure you brought the correct adapters and NOT just the cheapest one in Best Buy. Trust me.

Amtrak II

2008-10-06T02:15:00.000-04:00

Image source: www.capemay.com/

People complain about Amtrak. The two biggest complaints I hear are that, one, the trains are often extremely late, and, two, it costs a lot.

Maybe it's because it wasn't so long ago that I was sitting the back seat of a car, but I say it's a lot nicer to sit in the back seat and look out the window than worry about directions, gas stops, bathroom breaks, traffic, and all the other things that can possibly go wrong when you're behind the wheel (a LOT).

So a train ride with music in my ears and a book in my lap (or laptop or newspaper or magazine or homework) with all the greenery passing by is preferable to sitting shotgun for four hours.* So let's see what people do wrong when they use Amtrak...

*sitting shotgun after spending months as a pedestrian is a MOST HARROWING EXPERIENCE. My rule while walking around the city is stay far, far away from those crazy cars, so being in a car is nerve-wracking at best.

1. The trains are late, late, late and more late.

I have been there, sitting in Union Station or 30th Street Station for three hours, watching all the little numbers flicker to reveal that my train is ... another half hour late, at least. Amtrak is different from a plane in that it's a much more integrated system than a plane jumping off the ground in one place and landing on it the next, trains work more like traffic: if there's a jam ten miles down the road, you're going to feel it right where you are.*

So what can you do? Call ahead. It seems like a "Well, DUH." move but it's the best way to save you 30 minutes to 5 hours. The Amtrak machine lady's name is Julie and she's super nice and ... easy? Can I say that about a robot woman? It's all voice command so you don't have to punch numbers in, which is great in case you're driving to the station in I-78 style traffic. The attendants are also nice and super-efficient. And, to be fair, it's only a couple times I've been sitting in a train station for more than 15 minutes more than I expected. But, ya know, it's those few times that really, REALLY get you.

*Hello, I-78, how are you? OH, backed up. Well that's good. I guess. I mean, I didn't REALLY want to do anything with my afternoon, anyway.

2. Expensive!

Of course, if you're considering taking the train instead of driving a deciding factor is going to be gas prices. So the price of a ticket is really relative to how big your gas tank is, how many cylinders you've got going on, your tire pressure, your oil levels, and your MPG. So it's probably going to be better if you've got one of those Lincoln Navigators. Then again, if you have a Lincoln Navigator, you probably don't care about gas prices ...

But! If a ticket is going to cost you 90 dollars just to get to DC and you have to drive to the station, anyway,* why bother?

But I can get a one way ticket from DC to Philly for 30 bucks. Like planes and whatnot, prices are significantly cheaper if you buy ahead and ridiculously expensive if you buy then-and-there. Plus they offer lots of different kinds of discounts. Student Advantage and AAA are ten percent discount if you've got them, there's NARP, ISIC, military and veterans advantage, too.

It's worth a try, at least once. Don't you want to go someplace and not worry about parking the car? Looking at the scenery for once instead of an ocean of license plates sounds nice, doesn't it? I think it does.

*or take the Beiber bus. But their to and from Philly schedule SUCKS, to be frank.

EDIT: Hooray! Amtrak MIGHT get new funding to start fixing these problems! (link to treehugger.com)

Scourge

2008-10-04T03:05:00.001-04:00

I have heard you. I have seen you drive though campus with your windows down and music blaring. I have seen you high and I have seen you drunk. I have been to your parties. I have experienced your quick look-down look up glance at my cleavage and it made me feel good for one second and it made me hate you the next. And I have said "Hey, stranger" and you did say "Hey, baby" and I controlled you and I want you to know that I want nothing, nothing to do with you. The feeling follows me around like a hungry dog.

Even now your music rings in my ears. In the morning, I will regret my words. I will try to say them back into my mouth, my head, but right now I can't stand the thought of you.

And I thought I'd like you to know. All of you. Goddamn college kids.

Some days I just need to get out of this city.

Later I am going to do a post about webcomics and then after that I am going to tell you* about how public transportation IS and how it SHOULD BE and I am also going to tell you how Amtrak wants to get used, and what you're doing wrong that messes you up all the time.

*not the same "you" as in the first part of the post. this time i mean all y'all readers out there! i was pretty angry up there, wasn't i?

Debate Games

2008-10-02T22:22:00.000-04:00

Debate drinking games are overrated. Enter: PALIN/BIDEN BINGO!

Mark off each talking point and buzzword. It may make the process less painful. There is no guarantee that you will survive the debate with your brains intact, though. Already mine are scattered throughout the room.

I am astounded that people can actually SAY these things. Biden is a lot less impressive than my Hope/Change/InsertAbstractNounHere-blinded optimistic self was led to believe and Palin just makes my women's rights head hurt when she opens her mouth. Honestly, Palin, stop getting all middle-school on Biden. Stop, STOP.

Biden: Please, please, learn English. Your comparative statements' syntax contributed to my brain-blowout.

Isn't it great that we practice diplomacy by NOT talking to other countries? I think that's great.

Armageddon outta here

2008-09-29T19:19:00.000-04:00

"Kaite, Barack Obama isn't going to be the president anymore. Not because he's not going to win the vote, but because there's going to be no country left to govern."

Nick, after getting a text message at 1 pm that the stock market had dropped 748 points.

Debate Debacle

2008-09-27T18:16:00.000-04:00

Most AU frats don't hold parties on primary or debate nights because they know that no one will show up. Everyone was all a'flutter over who was going to say what and how they were going to play the drinking games. Apparently one girl decided that she would drink at the word "fundamental" and had to stop within a half hour of the debate. Good God.

My brother is visiting me this weekend. I've made a little cave out of the under-the-bed space* and he is sleeping there. He is VERY conservative and I suppose that I am VERY liberal** and it was interesting to throw him into a room with people wearing Barack Obama t-shirts to watch a debate.

*I really didn't bring anything other than what I needed to school this year. It makes things interesting.
**We once had a HUGE argument over using terms like "fag" and "gay" and it got nasty. And then he told me to be more accepting and lower my standards and I was all, "wait, WHAT?" and he was all, "it's, like, totally gay." and then I felt like crying.

This conversation ensued:
My brother: Dudes, what did I miss in the debate?
Ken: Oh just the first five minutes, nothing, really.
Jay: Oh, no, no, no you totally missed Obama punching McCain in the face. With words!
Ken: Oh, yeah! And McCain totally cried.
My brother: Oh? OH? Is that because he couldn't lift his arms up to fight back because HE'S A WAR HERO AND WAS TORTURED FOR AMERICA?

I think it was a really good comeback line.

At any rate, nearly all of College Republicans Club lives on my floor. It provides interesting discourse and lots and lots of jokes. We've also got a republican from the Netherlands and we had to all explain to him that, although he thinks he is conservative in Europe, he is liberal here. He didn't understand that, in America, social and financial policies are synonymous! He didn't totally grasp it until he went to a College Republicans meeting and was very, very frightened by the presence of AU Students for Life. He came back and wanted to join the Women's Initiative so he could be in a pro-choice group. It must be very confusing for him!

Today was also the National Book Festival. I missed seeing Laura Bush speak! I am a little upset at it.

My Blogger Tuesday Feature, Good?

2008-09-23T18:56:00.000-04:00

Goodness, gracious! I never expected to be featured for The Morning Call's Blogger Tuesday. Like any victim of robbery or winner of the lottery, I always considered this to be something that "happened to other people." Thusly, I never paused to consider how I felt about The Morning Call's notoriously racist "discussion" forums or the imperialistic reign of The Morning Call's new owner, Sam Zell. I still haven't fully ruminated the topic and therefore have no conclusion, but perhaps you can tell where I'm leaning from the vocabulary I've used?

What I'm getting at is that I've read the comments on my feature and I think they're great ("great" as in the thrill of actually getting an opinion, despite its lack of constructive criticism, and "great" as in entirely sarcastic). I have been in a bad mood lately, due to the ulcer-inducing* stress of reading 200 pages a night and being forced to withdraw from a course that is necessary for my business minor and a frustrating job search, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. A bitter, bitter grain of salt.

*it is an urban legend that stress is a direct cause of ulcers. I am using this as an expression.

(For your clicking convenience, I will simply copy and paste the comments here. They are nothing enormously inflamatory but I've decided to take umbrage, anyway, because, as I've said, I'm in a bad mood.)

The comments left are as follows:

"Rob - Please tell me this is a joke - if this is how a college student writes, America is doomed.
Bea_Arthur-sweet jesus.'katie bee''s parents should really halt payment on their college tuition checks, especially if she's an english major. this reads a lot like the 'room of jean's own' op-eds at the onion
Triple_K-(in response to Rob) This is a great story if you are a 5th grader"

Now, now, there are several things I find HILARIOUS about these posters' assumptions.

First, that it is assumed that write all my college papers, professional emails, personal correspondence, diary entries and short stories as if I were composing a blog post for a blog that I maintain purely for my own entertainment.

Secondly, that I have two parents and they pay my college tuition.

Thirdly, that I ever intended this to be a great story.

In conjunction with the these is my astonishment with the absolute lack of critical thinking skills employed by the readership of The Morning Call (or, more accurately these three posters who, for the sake of my bitter, bitter rage will represent all MCall commentators). How do they think that The Morning Call selects the posts to feature? Do they think that bloggers get any type of warning that what they've just posted for their small, intimate audience will be republished to an incredibly wide readership? Do they think that bloggers have their own office in The Morning Call's building? Perhaps I am asking a lot out of someone who is just passively absorbing the news of the day, but I think I'm beyond reason right now.

Perhaps I am blinded by rage. Perhaps I have been analyzing too many news sources for too many classes for too long to ever believe anything I read ever again. Perhaps I've just forgotten all the words in the script of politeness.

Three cheers for flying off the handle.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Colleen "Bee"

P.S. - Good ol Katie Bee will be back soon. That's a promise.

P.P.S. - This sounds like a blog war, doesn't it? Man, I thought I was over getting angry at people via the internet when I was 14. Maybe I will tell you all about that, someday. Ah, my days as a teenage internet troll. How moronic.

Amtrak, Amtrak, I Am Doing All The Work In This Relationship!

2008-09-21T21:38:00.000-04:00

This is what the lounge car looks like! It is totally sweet. Photo source: http://www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/zaiken96/album-amtrak-eng.html

I love trains. They are good for getting to places and getting to places comfortably. I can read things and not end up sitting in the lap of my neighbor while trying to get some of the reading light like I would on a bus. Also, did you hear the story of the kid who was decapitated on a bus while listening to his ipod? Not like that COULDN'T happen on a train, but, seriously! Scary! The snacks are totally better on a train, too, and so is the view. I got to go see Harper's Ferry! The lounge car is the BEST.

So, I like Amtrak. I like trains. BUT I don't like the fact that the passenger trains have to step aside and let all the freight trains pass.

GRRR, freight trains! You made me five hours late! I was supposed to ride the train all the way to Pittsburgh from Washington, which is a long enough ride already, but then I had to sit in that little one room, Harrison Ford channel-locked, vending machine palooza excuse for a train station for FIVE HOURS at FOUR THIRTY IN THE MORNING.

But I guess it was worth it.

I mean, those Pitt kids know how to party.

I mean! STUDY, those Pitt kids know how to STUDY.

Posts Temporarily Suspended. Sort of. Kinda. Maybe Not?

2008-09-13T13:30:00.001-04:00

I will probably not be updating much at all over the next few weeks. Just to let you know. I have a stack of books and papers the height of a reasonably tall eight year old and, dangnabbit, them books got to get read.

I am sorry that the titles are all a'backwards. I used ye olde webcam to take the photo and discovered that my photo editing program doesn't have a "flip the picture around" option. It's got a rotate option. That is ok, I guess. Rest assured that it is a LOT of sociology and some business and some spanish and some history. I like them all a lot, but I am not sure how much I like them all together. In the same week. Giving me carpal tunnel from the hi-lighting. Giving me headaches from the staying-up-lateness.

Bah, I am just a complainer.

P.S.- If all goes at least half as planned, I will be the president of the creative writing club. Take THAT, Sarah Palin.

The First Cabinet

2008-09-09T01:53:00.000-04:00

"The first cabinet had Washington for a president, Adams for a VP, Jefferson for the Secretary of State, Hamilton for the treasury and Knox for the Secretary of War. It should make you weep - WEEP that a cabinet could look like this."

-Professor Kane

I love this history class so much I wish that I could be a history major. But I realize that I only like it because of the way he's teaching.

You know those classes that kids hate because the professor is so demanding and assigns tons of readings and randomly calls on you in class and knows you can't cheat at all because the prof knows everything through and through? Yeah. I LOVE those classes.* I am the asshole who can think on her feet when the professor settles his eyes on hers. It is incredible.

Of course, I hate hate HATE the courses that are taught through "self teaching" and "discovery." That kind of stuff is all well and good if it is elementary school and the school has "montessori" in the title somewhere, but I can't stand them in college. I am the asshole sitting in the back with a sour look on her face just wishing the professor would JUST TELL US THE ANSWER because she knows the prof knows it and is having a lot of fun watching us squirm.

Of course, I have three classes of the latter variety this semester.

*"Oh, Katie, you wouldn't fit in at Hampshire. Not at all." Says my friend Jake. Hampshire college is like a running joke for our circle because we each know someone there and we hear these ridiculously incriminating stories that make us just go WOW that is not even possible in the DC area. Of course, there are a lot of things that are possible when your school is in its own bubble. Haha, Hampshire. Oh, Hampshire, we do it because we love you. You keep on doing your thing, dude. It's ok with us.

This Makes Me So Happy Why Does This Make Me So Happy Oh Man I Am Happy

2008-09-08T01:00:00.000-04:00

there are times when we go out on the town at two in the morning and then there are TONS of people there and then we go to a hookah bar and then we have so much fun! the secret to having eyes on the street is to have fun streets THAT IS THE SECRET it is also the secret to having drunk pedestrians on the street. that part isn't so much fun.

Today was good and today was bad and today was going to end not-so-well but then-THEN I remembered this website!! And it made me Happy! And now it's a good day. Here is the site! www.barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com Just keep clicking because it is glorious.*

I AM back in DC, aren't I? Tonight I went to a party and there was a drunk fight over POLITICS and I honestly heard the word "maverick" 12 times. Oh Em Effing Gee people at least take it inside there are neighbors**, you know.

*Sarah Palin is NOT your new bicycle.
**but a stipulation to living in DC is that you hear arguments happening next door and you realize it is people yelling about politics and you are all, "Oh wait darling we live in DC, let's not intervene and listen instead, maybe they have a good point?"

You Know You're From The Lehigh Valley When...

2008-09-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

This is from the "Yes, I'm From the Lehigh Valley" group on Facebook. There's a similar group on Myspace, maybe I will share that one sometime? It's all very entertaining.

Here you go...

"-You thought everyone in the world had 2 or 3 different choices for ABC NBC CBS and FOX (this reception is getting fuzzy, there must be a storm in Philly, I'll just switch to the New York Channel).
-You think Industrial Parks are better uses of the land than Farms.
-You have a relation to the land for residential, commercial, or industrial reasons.
-You actually can show people the dairy where your milk comes from.
-If it takes less than ten minutes to get to a mall but more than 10 minutes to park and get inside.
-If you can go to a church bazaar every night all summer and not go to the same one twice (and not win at bingo either).
-If you lived somewhere between Mario Andretti's place and Larry Holmes' place and yet never watched a Race or a Prize Fight.
-If you have rooted for either side in a Lehigh - Lafayette game.
-If you prefer Yocco's over Pott's or vice versa.
-If you think Quakertown is far away (25 minutes by car) but you think nothing of driving 15 minutes one way to pick up a friend and then backtrack another 25 to get your girlfriend and then another 10 to get your friend's girlfriend and then another 20 to go to the movies on a Friday night.
-If you've ever been to a 'platz.
-If you've ever said to yourself "Damn, I need two more tickets" while attending a platz.
-If you or any of your relatives have ever "worked the beer tent."
-When you and your co-workers discuss the "game last weekend" on Monday morning, you're referring to high school football.
-You think the PPL Building and Martin's Tower are skyscrapers.
-You can get pierogies in every restaurant.
-You think the Morning Call has a great sports section.
-You've been stuck in traffic on Rt 22.
-You know that 7th Street, MacArthur Road and Rt 145 are the same stretch of road.

...below are all added from what you say, i don't change them, so there you go...
-You know what a tasty cake is, and when you go out of town you take boxes and boxes with you.
-You've been to Dorney Park millions of times and can recite, "thank you and enjoy your stay here at dorney park...and wild water kingdom." in the same voice as the woman who says it.
-A-Treat Soda, nuff said.
-If you know at least 10 or more people that have attendend or are attending a community college (LCCC, NACC).
-You call it a hoagie, not a sub, and deffinitly not a hero.
-You know what quoits are, and play it at just about every picnic, party, and place you go.
-You call it soda, not pop.
-You know what Turkey Hill Tea is, and drink it regularly.
-You think Martin Towers IS the Empire State building! (aparently some people do?)
-It is illegal for a man to have an erection in public (Allentown). haha
-You know what a porkroll is, and actually like them.
-You hate anything and everything about Parkland High School, except maybe a couple of people, unless of course you went there.
-Someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there.
-"Vacation" means going anywhere south of Philadelphia for the weekend.
-You measure distance in hours.
-You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
-You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.
-You know that Billy Joel's song is about Bethlehem and not Allentown.
-You tell people The Rock graduated from your high school (Freedom) and no one believes you.
-All the kids you know from New York and Jersey think you're amish.
-You can buy Yuengling from the plant it's brewed at.
-You or someone you know have gotten a citation for goin' to the quarry.
-You have at least 10 friends with the last names Cruz, Sanchez, Rivera, or Rodriguez.
-You spell/say it Bethlum not Bethlehem.
-You remember when Beca was still a good football team.
-You know the words to the Service Electric Song.
-You know that South Whitehall Township and Allentown are different, even though mail is sent to Allentown (and probably the same with other townships).
-You know that there are covered bridges all over the place, and contemplated following those random little covered bridge tour signs.
-you know what the 'coop-d' is and you're sad that it isn't 24 hours a day anymore.
-you know where linkies is and remeber free pretzel stix from your childhood.
-you know the Qmart shuffle, and why the shuffle is necessary.
-you know where the best cheesesteaks in the lehigh valley are... CROSSROADS.
-you know how to drive 309 North as to not screw up the suspension on your car.
-you know the multiple ways to get to and from the lehigh valley mall.
-you know what bootgirl is, and what tatoo place it's located above.
-You knew what the "smile" spas were long before they were ever busted.;)
-Wing Night at your local pub was the highlight of your week.
-You have "Trick or Treated" at the house of the family that makes Mike 'n Ike's and marshmellow Peeps...
-You can pronounce 'Hokendauqua' or 'Catasauqua' without consulting the dictionary but still insist on calling it 'Hoky' and "Catty'.
-You have eaten the Grand Champion Jaindl Turkey that the President of the United States has ate every year straight since 1966.
-You are sad that Ken Matthews no longer hosts the Morning Show on B104.
-you ever tried to throw a penny on the back of the JC Penney eagle to make a wish.
-you remember seeing the old Bethlehem Steel buildings growing up and are sad to see them go.
-you remember when their was no fast food place in bethlehem.
-you remember lehigh pizza was in an old metal diner in the parking lot to where wendys is.
-You know that "indian statue" on 378 thats looking over bethlehem."

Additional note: I had a conversation with a girl on my floor today.
me: oh man, the college near me has some fireplaces in there buildings
girl: what school?
me: lehigh
girl: WAIT, where are you from?
me: allentown
girl: me too!
me: oh man! where in allentown?
girl: i live, like, near parkland high school
me: ME TOO oh man where near parkland?
girl: along orefield road
me: OH MY GOD WE ARE NEIGHBORS
girl: this is crazy

yes, yes it is.

My Plans for This Semester

2008-09-04T00:41:00.000-04:00

My plans for this semester are thus:

-get meaningful internship
-get paying job
-study
-party
-party in residence hall elevators*
-party in the stairwell
-party in the clubs**
-party in that one diner down on Conn. Ave
-study in the library
-study in the trees***
-take a walking tour of Anacostia
-learn to realize when my roommate is talking to ME and not her bluetooth
-finally finish reading all the books i started over the summer

and finally...

-be sarah palin for halloween

*i waited an obnoxiously long time for the elevator today. when the doors opened, there was jake and nick and vitus and tim. and they were having fake conversations on their phones. and playing fake card games. on a stolen desk. sitting on stolen chairs. in the elevator.
**the gay clubs. the straight clubs scare me.
***we get wifi EVERYWHERE on campus. it is, like, totally insane.

there is a lot to get done! i will totally get good grades. cross my heart and hope to die.

P.S.- I will not be able to attend the CHARGE meeting on account of being at school and all, but I chose the webcomic up top in the spirit of ARRRRRT. The comic is Pictures For Sad Children by John Campbell. He says it is "pretty ok" and I agree. It is pretty funny, too! It is like, remember that time you ate ramen noodles three meals in a row? let's write a comic about it!

here is a link for your linking pleasure: Pictures for Sad Children

happy birthday to you

2008-09-03T03:01:00.000-04:00

me and willow

happy birthday willow

i miss you terribly.

we all do.

omg omg omg OMG

2008-08-31T02:37:00.001-04:00

Bansky via Wooster Collective

Bansky is in New Orleans and moving through the deep south (apparently). Maybe I can actually get a chance to see some of his stuff someday? His street art is fascinating. It is the only word for it.

This has little or nothing to do with Allentown. I just like street art. Maybe I will show all y'all some of the DC street art. It is A+ stuff.

Allentown Elsewhere II

2008-08-30T16:47:00.000-04:00

Full picture of the photo in the banner, 19th Street Theatre photo credit: me
Ginny: So I heard people talking about your town on the shuttle today.
Me: Allentown?
Ginny: They were saying that it was really cool and that everybody went there but not so much anymore. Does that sound like your town?
Me: That is pretty accurate.

Allentown, your reputation precedes you! That is ok. People will be slamming you for a while! Especially while you have all that crime stuff happening. Do not worry, it is like being a teenager and NOBODY UNDERSTANDS YOU but it happens to, like, every city and neighborhood. Well, not, like, EVERY every, but, like, a lot of them. Just talk to Anacostia. People were so scared of her! People still are! Look at her now, she is getting a new coat of paint left and right. They are saying that she will be the next hot place to live. You will get there, too. All this globalization stuff makes people homesick even when they are right at home and it makes them want their own little corner of the world that they can lift up and show the rest of the world, "HEY WE DO THINGS TOO, LOOK AT THIS." and you may be a show and tell object for a while, but do not worry! You will come into your own.

a quote from a friend: "I just watched an entire interview with Sarah Palin. I feel brainwashed into drilling in the homeland of the moose."

man, all anyone is talking about around here is sara palin.

College! High Five! Chug!

2008-08-27T20:50:00.000-04:00

Jake, Tim, Vitus and the DNC Riot Wall/Fort Awesome. Photo credit: Me

Dudes dudes dudes, I am sorry to refer to all y'all as dudes but I just gotta. Wanna know why? I'm in COLLEGE now, you see. And that requires me to think "a lot" during classes and studying and "not a lot" when not in classes or studying. Which is why my floor and I made a fort out of cardboard boxes last night.

We. Are. Awesome.

My "Dissident Media: Voices From the Underground" course* professor was all, "Did I know Tim Russert?" when the girl asked. "Did I KNOW Tim Russert? I lived next to him in high school. His sister babysat my daughter. We moved out of town the same week. Good journalist."

*this course is less about blogs and fanzines and more about Thomas Paine and other such pamphleteers ushering on the various uprisings that make America TOTALLY AWESOMEZ!!11!! That is ok! You have to start somewhere.

And my history professor was the most frightening man I have ever met and the class is going to be painfully awesome. We have 11 books. He is impeccably dressed. Every bit of him is poised to pounce. He was ready to kill the kids that came in at 12:46. We are going to learn.

Other professors are not exactly noteworthy.

Dear Girl In My Media Class:

You said you were from Allentown! And then I said I was from Allentown! There was a moment of eye contact, but you left soon after the class ended! WHY?

Sincerely,
Katie

As for this drinking in college nonsense that all y'all over 21s are worried about, you don't know a thang. Just saying that we want to talk about it doesn't mean we're irresponsible morons. College is the place for open discussion. I mean, shit*, the drinking age has been 21 for a while and the alcohol transports on my campus just keep going up and up. Sitting in the hospital for 9 hours on a friday night was awesome, let me tell you. Thinking my friend was gonna die just because it was her third night drinking EVER was awesome. Doing something like that without the benefit of being around elders to make you keep your shit** together is awesome.

I am just coming from a totally different perspective and this is all probably really inflamatory, but whatever. I can defend my opinion.

But, WAHOOO, COLLEGE!!

*superfluous cursing?! I must be back at school!
**OH NO THERE I GO AGAIN, such a loose woman, I tell ya.

I'm Gone

2008-08-20T09:30:00.001-04:00

I'll be in DC in a matter of hours. I'll be back on Saturday for a memorial, but after that it's just Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how I am going to do this blog thing while I'm away, maybe I will temporarily suspend it? Maybe I will just keep on doing it? Maybe I will make it just a college/personal blog? Maybe it just doesn't matter so I should quit thinking about it.

Bah. DC is going to be so awfully hot and gross.

my apology, my goodbye, my love

2008-08-17T23:53:00.001-04:00

allentown, allentown, you pretty girl, i'm sorry i called you a devil town, you were so beautiful today, you just melt my heart. the east side is so beautiful, the neuweiler factory is so beautiful, the sunlight just filtered through your leaves just so and it glanced just so and you're so gorgeous, so pretty girl c'mere and give us a kiss.

allentown, did you see the moon tonight? i know it's hard for you to see the stars, but the moon was so large and fiery and it reminded me of the apple harvest that is going to happen, you should smell the orchards sometime, darling, they smell like a sweet heavenly syrup in the day's heat and a sweet heavenly perfume under the evening's cooling clouds. you know i'm going to leave you soon, so how 'bout one for old time's sake, pretty girl, just one more night drive, just one more light afternoon. c'mon, it'll do some good.

i've been on the wrong side of paranoid this week and you just got to me, you know? you took me back down from crazy and you saved me and i like that about you. dc is a senator's wife whose skeletons just keep getting ripped out of her closet instead of her evening gowns, but you, you're real, girl.

allentown, i'm going to give you a couple poems on geese that i found hidden behind my armoire, they're just for you because i love you as much as i despise those filthy birds. and that's a fact, darling, that's a fact.

I THOUGHT I HATED GEESE
1.
The geese honk and sqwak
"speed up"
"slow down"
"wait for me"
they're practicing flight patterns
for the annual migration
falling into
their sky encompassing arrows
pointed to the south.

I wonder
if we fall into such patterns each year.
Summers of liberation
cut short with the turning leaves
and all of us
gathered together and funneled
into hallways and classrooms,
calling to each other,
"what lunch are you in?"
"where's your locker?"
"I haven't seen you in so long!"
We practice the motions and prepare
for an entire year of such movements.
Shuttled from one end of the building
to another,
waiting for the day
when we alight gracefully
on the calm creek of summer,
our honking and hollering
quieted by the heat.

2.
I nearly drove my car off the bridge again today
my eyes got caught on the geese and the dam.
the goose who stood atop
let the water swirl around his webbed feet
and black leather ankles,
cutting the smooth stream into two long ribbons
which fell over the moulded cement
into clamoring white.

As if to impress me again
the gander dipped his neck
and pressed his black beak tot he water,
cutting another white thread in the flow,
and drank.

Allentown Elsewhere

2008-08-16T00:23:00.000-04:00

Photo credit: Morning Call via Streetsblog

So I read several blogs. I'm not going to go and figure out the exact number because that's just going to depress me* but I will mention that one blog I read, Streetsblog, used a photo of Allentown in a post! I glanced though and was all "SAY, THAT LOOKS LIKE LANTA" and indeed it was! Read the post here. Streetsblog is a NYC blog focused on the livability of New York's streets for pedestrians and cyclists. With this seemingly sudden realization that Allentown is a closet suburb for Philly and New York** I thought it interesting that A-town would get a mention in an NYC blog.

*conversations with my dog AND more than 30 blogs? Is this where my life is going?
**did no one know this before? I thought it was a given. Like, when I tell people where I'm from, I am all, "Oh, we're, like, an hour from Philly and three hours from NYC. It's pretty sweet." Plus, there was this article from the Times.

So, speaking of LANTA, why is it that every time I see a LANTA bus, it is never stopped? It is always rolling on by. I am certain that it stops, because I see passengers, but maybe it just never stops at a place where I would use it. If I ever were to use Allentown as a location for a film, I would want to get a LANTA bus to go by in the background of every scene. It would be like a running joke between me and ... me...

Oh man, I go back to school soon, don't I? Well, I guess it had to happen sometime.

The Haphazard Garden III

2008-08-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Ohhh, hindsight is 20/20.

Me: So I think that for our next garden we really should listen to seed-spacing advice...
Kelly: Umm...maybe. Yeah.

The garden is producing! We get cucumbers and green beans every day and the tomatoes are HUGE. They look like they're all going to ripen at the same time. They fell down and I almost cried but then I found some stakes in the garage and saved them. Emotional attachment to plants? Oh, what has my summer become? Judging by the number of one-sided conversations I've had with my dog, Baxter, I think I have spent TOO MUCH TIME inside. Damn these suburbs and the isolation accompanying them.

Baxter and I had a little catastrophe yesterday. Now, I do not want to be the person on the internet who talks about her pets and how precious they are but I guess I am going to be that person for at least a paragraph. It is a short story, do not fear.

So I leave for the coffeeshop yesterday, ignoring Baxter's whines and pleas for me to play with him, saying "Later, buddy, we'll do it later" because I have this idea that maybe my dog has a concept of time. It is a bad side-effect of being stuck at home. Anyway, I come home from the coffeeshop and he doesn't rush to greet me at the door. It is cool, it is ok, he sometimes does this. He holds grudges, that dog. The belief that my dog can hold a grudge, do things out of spite, and generally hate is pretty legitimate, and I don't believe it is a side-effect of too much time spent alone. Anyway, I hang out and read the paper and then I get a little miffed. Like, where is that dog? Did I accidentally leave one of our 56734525 billion doors open in this house? Did he escape? Is he out playing with the neighbor's dog like he is prone to? A mystery! So I search the house. I search under all the beds (he is a small dog) and all the closets and bathrooms and call his name and I can't find him and I am getting legit freaked-out. I call the neighbors. I call my sister. I start to cry and invent dog-murderers and dog-nappers that would take advantage of the fact that I left the basement porch door unlocked accidentally.

Then I decide to check again. Mom's closet. I call "Baxter?" and I can see a tail wagging in the corner, from UNDER A PILE OF CLOTHES. That damn dog was hiding. HIDING. OUT OF SPITE. BECAUSE I WOULDN'T PLAY WITH HIM.

Ugh. BAXTER, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO AND DO ME LIKE THIS?

Man, I am sorry for being that internet pet person, but I done gone and did it. Srsly, sry, plz forgive.

P.S. I've fixed my labels as you can see in the side bar. I decided to really only label some things. Like stories and when I do the webcomics thing. And when I do the quotes thing, because you know what? Sometimes I get frustrated because I try to find that one quote I did that one time and I can't. So it helped me and maybe it helped you? Maybe? I hope.

Webcomics? Again? For reals?

2008-08-09T00:52:00.000-04:00

Nedroid Picture Diary. Click to enlarge and see the funny!

Ok, ok, ok. Ok. This comic is Nedroid Picture Diary. The artist calls hisself "Nedroid." I can only assume that this is his given name. So maybe this isn't exactly a comic strip, it is not too big on the continuous plot/theme stuff and it also has "diary" in the title, but it isn't exactly a comic-diary either! Confusion! It is like a hybrid! But only if the comic-diary part is coming from a potato-shaped bear guy named Beartato* and he sometimes gets distracted from his own life and makes comics about other things like how great it would be if "karate" were actually just some cook knife or laser vision. He also does question and answer stuff! It is good advice. I am promising you.

*GET IT? GET IT? BEAR. TATO. LIKE POTATO. I always knew you were smart.

Side note:* So I remembered about the first blog I ever had! I am connecting you to some posts from when I was 14. The early ones are mortifyingly angsty and melodramatic** and the newest ones are from, like, a year ago. So this is the happy medium, I think.

It is totally weird to read. I am all, "OH MAN I WAS SO FUNNY, WHAT HAPPENED?" but I am also all, "OH MAN I am glad to be out of high school. Let's never do that again" I am pretty sure that any sense of humor engendered within me during high school was developed specifically to deal with the fact that high school was an AWFUL daily mental, physical, and emotional meatgrinder. I go out of my way so that I do not have to drive past that place ever. Parkland High School I WANT MY SOUL BACK.***

*Sheesh, Katie, this is actually a post-script. Get it right.
**Hello, age 13!! How are you doing today? Oh, you are hoping the world just DIES. That is nice. I am going to go look for exits now. Please don't burn the place down.
***Hello, age 19!! How are you doing today? Oh, you are being angsty and melodramatic again. Again? Man, I thought you were over this, like, six years ago.

Europe Photos

2008-08-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

I've got some photos, I hope "yous guys" enjoy them.

This first picture is a sangria cave! All over the wall are quotes from literature. I hope you are all having a nice summer. As for me, I'm at the beach for some good clean family fun. Is it 18 when you're allowed to gamble? Or 21? I am just checking. Like I said, good. clean. family. fun.

Other Uses for The Morning Call

2008-08-02T11:03:00.000-04:00

Photo credit: Me Art/Stensil credit: Me

Since the rest of the LVBlogosphere decided that the Morning Call was no longer a relevant news source* I have been exploring new ways to use the heaps of paper that get piled in that little green box out front. So I bought some spray paint the other day and I cut out some stensils and I have this love/hate relationship with pop art but right now I am loving it. I am not screenprinting, so why do I feel like Andy Warhol?**

*really? Honestly? I mean, I guess it's no longer relevant for Allentown, but the whole Lehigh Valley? Well, even my mom can't stand it anymore, so I guess that is saying something. Didja see how they revamped the police blotter? It is like, oh man how can I tell if there's any crime in Allentown anymore? I guess I actually have to start actually paying attention to TheAllentownCommentator as much as I hate everything that gets posted.

**ANDY WARHOL I HATE YOU ok maybe I don't totally hate you but I do hate that you made all those girls wear those stupid banana bags and white plastic framed sunglasses and say things like, "Ohmigod, I, like, love art. Like Andy Warhol, right? I totally love Marilyn!" And I am pretty sure that my "I wanna punch you in the face so hard Andy Warhol and all your fans" feeling is the same thing that everyone else in the art world felt when Andy became famous for making copies of stuff. But then I feel like art is supposed to enrage you or make you feel something and then I also think that he is the reason half of anything can be considered art in the first place because he like, you know, liberated the scene and stuff. But I HATE THOSE SILVER CLOUDS. And I am pretty sure he did all of this on purpose and he loves my reaction as much as he loves the girls wearing those STUPID STUPID BAGS AND GLASSES AUGH WHY AM I SO ANGRY ALL OF A SUDDEN. So, to discuss later: "Andy Warhol: The Man?"

Speaking in half-reference of the old graffiti vs. street art argument, can Bansky come to Allentown and stick it to the man for us? I feel like he would do a really good job of it. I still haven't figured out wheatpasting.

P.S.- Doya like what I've done with the place? I figure it's time to start over, in light of recent events.

2008-07-29T11:24:00.000-04:00

Thank you all for your comments throughout my journey, I promise I will post the pictures, but right now there are some things I have to do. I don't know how life is going to return to normal.

Goddamn it, Willow, how am I going to live in a world without you? I just can't breathe anymore.

Awright, So I'm Back

2008-07-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

Every time I do something, I realize I'm not in Europe anymore. I look at signs and realize they're not in Italian, I pay for my lunch and it's not in Euros, I buy gelato and it ISN'T THE SAME DELICIOUS FROZEN ICE CREAM-LIKE TREAT THAT IT WAS IN EUROPE and also I drive a car.

It is refreshing to be back home! I was so exhausted from the traveling and dealing with the time difference (again) that I went to bed at 9 PM.* Of course, what I forgot is that when I go to sleep at 9 I wake up in time for school. High School. Six AM. I haven't woken up at 6 AM SINCE high school. I had NO IDEA what to do with myself so I did laundry. It was totally weird.

*Nine PM is a normal time, you say? What is this nonsense! I am a college student! It is, like, illegal to go to bed before midnight! THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO DO AND NIGHT TIME IS SO AWESOME, HOW CAN YOU SLEEP?!? Oh, you work ...

Good news! The sunflower field is all a'bloom! It is between Haasadahl road and Kernsville Road. So just go up 309 north until you past Orefield Middle School (Parkland) and make a left at the traffic light and look left once you pass Kernsville Elementary School and there it is! It is totally yellow.*

*SIGH, it reminds me of the acres and acres and acres of sunflower fields in Italy.

A friend painted my face last night with all these awesome swirls and such and the internet and my laptop are NOT GETTING ALONG right now so you have to wait for any kind of picture nonsense to happen. It is, like, the opposite of awesome.

OH! The CHARGE meeting tonight! I do not have directions! I don't even have a vague idea of where it is! I mean, I am figuring it is in Allentown, but really! I need them! I will dig some up.

The nice guys at the apple store are going to fix my computer tomorrow. You would think that I am a teenager and automatically know how to do these things but the truth is that I am total crap when it comes to technology. Well, I am better than my grandparents, but my brother is the one who seems to have all this technological know-how flowing through his veins. I am all, "let's read the directions!" and he is all, "yeah, but I already figured it out." and then I am all, "humph!" and fall into the slippery slope of teenage gloom.

Rome

2008-07-20T15:46:00.000-04:00

Italians dont* make lines. At traffic lights, at gelato counters, when walking on the street - they just dont. Its frustrating at first, but actually gratifying once I got used to it. Slithering my way to the front and ordering before other tourists even pull out their wallet to count their change? OH HECK YES.

*Forgive this little grammar hiccup: these keyboards dont have asterisk keys! Whatever shall I do? Should I avoid contractions? Can I really just leave that grammar out there like that? What about everything I ever learned in English class? Do I go back and fix this later? Will my English teachers ever find out? Will I be able to live with the shame? I DONT KNOW.

So I was walking through the old Roman forum and saw a fountain spouting water and thought of my empty water bottle and decided to do the math and fill it up.* There were a bunch of Americans in the line and I just went up to the spout and waited for the woman to finish filling up her bottles, lines may be the most fair way to get things done, but they can be inefficient-all the water that falls to the basin could be in a bottle! I thought it was a favor to the environment (also I was very thirsty). Now, I have not been talking to people much other than my sister. I dont speak Italian and dont understand it so I tend to keep my mouth shut. So I stood their, silent, waiting for her to finish and her husband is behind her and casually talking about how its pretty stupid that Italians cant form a gawd damned line and then he sees me and is all, "Oh, look! We got one right here!"

DUDE. DO I LOOK EVEN HALF ITALIAN? DO YOU REALIZE THAT MOST PEOPLE IN ROME UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? SERIOUSLY.

Of course, I did what I normally do when Im put in an embarassing and shamed position: stayed silent. It was probably for the best. Well. Probably saying "When in Rome, dude" would have packed a punch, but man! Why you gotta be all American about it?*

*I HAVE DETERMINED that the world does not hate Americans, but mostly New Yorkers. There were some New Yorkers on our trip and they insisted on yelling out wrong answers and shouting across the tour group to eachother and keeping their little fan/spritzers buzzing the whole time and just being LOUD and tipping the tour guide in front of everyone and frankly it made me embarassed. I am sorry, New York, I am sorry, America, but sometimes I think its a good idea to sew a Canadian flag to my backpack when Iàm traveling internationally.

Vatican tomorrow, then home. Its time for a good shower.

*Any water that comes from any spout in Rome is potable. Hooray, aqueducts!

Firenze

2008-07-17T09:29:00.001-04:00

PSST, ALLENTOWN! JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME, I THINK FLORENCE HAS A BETTER ART SCENE. This city makes me want to drop what I'm doing and check into art school.

I am in Florence/Firenze right now. I sort of don't understand why, from language to language, proper nouns change. I can see it for a language that uses a different alphabet, but not for the good ol' 26 letters! Roma? Rome? Italia? Italy? Psh!!

We marched/trudged through the town last night in search for gelato. Apparently they invented it in Florence! It is totally the best invention ever. Aside from sanitation, maybe.

Awright! Hostels! Totally a good idea. Last night we were up 'till one (or two? three?) with other English speakers at the hostel. I am totally feeling a kindred spirit with the Australians. The speaking English part helps, of course, but also because they are a young country, too! All these old buildings fascinate me and the Europeans I talk to can't seem to understand why. Maybe Europeans go to 'MERICA and tour "historic districts" and laugh a lot?* Anyway, the aussies are totally nice and armed with those ever-charming accents that seem to blind an American girl like me and turn me into a boy-chasing drone. It makes me a terrific conversationalist (not really) and I just end up agreeing with everything male-aussie says.

*"Oh, honey, look! 1856! This building is from 1856! They are calling it 'HISTORIC' Oh, darling, let's take a photo!! This is so quaint."

**Ossie? Ozzie? Or is that last one used exclusively for the philosopher Ozzie Osbourne?

Tomorrow more tourist things in Florence and then to Rome and then home! My back and feet need a break from all this Europe nonsense. These shoes need to get thrown out. My clothes need to be washed. Alas, no! Florence, ahoy!

Pee Ess- I have heard that The Shanty was bought by Technicolor Salon? Is this true? And also that Cannons doesn't count as Cannons anymore, but that Liberty Street Tavern has got the chef and a bartender from Cannons, so it is the new hot spot. Is this also true? I need your confirmation because I am a)far away from Allentown and b)not exactly legally allowed to frequent Cannons/LibertyStreetTavern.

Oh man, I am going to wash my feet. These streets are naaaaaaaastaaaaaay.

Italy

2008-07-14T16:29:00.000-04:00

"KATIE you have got to stop talking about drinking on your blog, you are making me sound like a bad sister!"

FIIIIIINE. Barcelona is the city of Gaudi and it is endlessly beautiful. My feet are just a throbbing mess of blisters and cuts from the city streets. A nice private tapas and wine tour from Marcos and then we left the city - at three in the morning. SURPRISINGLY it was busier at three AM than at 6 PM or really any other time for that matter. Truly Jane Jacobs idea of staggering business hours in order to keep people in an area in order to maximize safety, no? Also to make sure you hear different versions of "DONT YOU WANT ME BAY-BAY, DONT YOU WANT ME GIRRRRRRL" at all hours, at least.

So! Italy! Country of delicious-sounding nouns! Seriously! "Left baggage" in italian sounds like it would be the best main course EVER. And Milan! City of SmartCars! They are totally everywhere. Apparently the italians dont ever make a line or qeue or however its spelled. Also their keyboards dont have an apostrophe key. It is frustrating to the max. But I have all these fabulous pictures! ...and no usb outlet. Do not fear (becuase I know you care so so so much) you will see the pictures eventually.

I am in Vernazza right now. I didnt know they made water this blue. You cant have a car in this town because there is no place to put a car, you have to get there by foot. So we hiked to another town. Our feet need a vacation from this vacation, as my sister says.

My sister also says that it costs a ridiculous amount of money to be on the internet here. So I am totally out.

Barcelona

2008-07-11T18:14:00.000-04:00

My sister and I walk up and down Las Ramblas all day. It is the only street we take to get anywhere. It seems like it never ends, but it is really just under one kilometer. It changes character at every newsstand. Flower stands, living statues, artists, artisans, pet stands, musicians - they are all here. I wonder how they get permits, if there are even permits, what kinds of zoning laws Barcelona has. Is it weird that I am really into zoning law all of a sudden? I was explaining my interests to my cousin at our family reunion and I ended up talking about zoning laws and Allentown for a while. I´m sure it made no sense to her seeing as she is from Colorado, but at the end of it we both decided,"well, someone´s gotta like it."

At any rate, Barcelona has more to do than Madrid but, alas, it lacks a sangria cave! That is ok, because I think I like mojitos a lot more. Like, A LOT. The town smells because it is next to the sea and the humidity makes all the scents travel fast and far.

I don´t think I will ever understand the euro-mullet. Business in the front, rasta in the back? Seriously? Are those pants somehow cutting off circulation to your judgement-makin´parts? I am all for crazy hair, but sheesh. It is a little silly!

OH. Katie Bee made her first alcohol-induced bad decision today. A veritable bucket of sangria and a light meal got me in an AWESOME spanish-hablante mood and OH EM GEE there were some street musicians selling discs and I just HAD TO HAVE ONE. 10 Euros later I had one. Two hours later I was sober and wanted my 10 Euros back. I am assuming that this is a pretty decent drunk decision, but MAN. THAT WAS, LIKE, 20 BUCKS.

Tomorrow - wine tour! Then! Italy! Hooray!

One of these days I´ma hook up my camera and pour all my photos into Flickr and all y´all will be able to see my Euro drunk revelry.*

*Future employers, Hello!!

Food Fiasco

2008-07-08T15:42:00.000-04:00

My sister and I are sitting in a bar, eyeing our hamburgers. They are on toasted sandwich bread. Upon poking around, we discover that they are very close to completely raw. We decide that this is interesting and that we are also no longer hungry. We do not eat the burgers.

The best part is that we did not order burgers. I speak me some pretty good spanish. Halfway decent, at least. I got A´s in my spanish classes, I can understand Telemundo, I can watch movies without subtitles. No one here understands my accent. It is totally ok except I really wanted a bocadillo de pollo. My sister and I are pretty sure that he was all, "¿What is she saying? OH, she´s American. She must want a hamburger."

So he looked at us and was all, "hamburguesa?" and I was all, "Sweet! Hamburguesa must be, like, their word for ´meat-filled sandwich´, but our word for ´hamburger.´Excellent" NOT SO. Hamburguesa means hamburger. Oh well.

We are still pretty hungry, but there´s this place that´s like a cave and has pitchers of sangria (the world of alcohol is delicious). On the walls are quotes and sayings and they get easier and easier to translate as I get more and more drunk. Just like it is easier to speak spanish! Is it awesome? It is awesome.

Tomorrow! Barcelona! Train ride! I heart trains. I am all, "Well, I could sit in a plane for an hour and get all sick and dried out or I could sit in a train and read and have lots of cushion-y leg room!" and I usually choose train.

It is the time of sangria! And ice cream! And then tea! And then maybe wine! Or mojitos! Who knows what post-tea future holds!

So I´m in Europe

2008-07-07T05:05:00.000-04:00

Madrid! City of banks! I feel like every third storefront we pass is a bank. But it is not just about the banks, here. It is also a city of "That building is beautifu-OHMYGOD THAT building is beau-NO THAT ONE IS." Every building is beautiful. Maybe my standards have so been lowered by hideous strip malls and pre-fab homes* that any building that looks half-sensible and thoughtfully designed makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

*I am pretty sure this is the case.

My sister and I are staying in a Hostel. It is totally awesome! In my opinion, much better than a hotel. Except that we don´t have air conditioning. But that is ok! Sort of!

Madrid is also a town where I can get a drink! I woke up from my siesta* and thought "MOJITOMOJITOMOJITO" and later one appeared in my hand! For the price of 11 euro!** BUT IT WAS SO GOOD A++++ EXPERIENCE. WILL ORDER AGAIN.

*BEST. IDEA. EVER. Dear U.S. - adopt a siesta hour plz, makes day much longer. love, me.
**in all fairness, I DID purchase it from a street bar during a street festival and it was HUGE. Maybe not fully worth the 11€, but worth something.
Awright, so I´m in Europe. I´m seeing Bruce Springstein t-shirts, advertisments for High School Musical and Hannah Montana and lots of American Eagle gear. It is a little frustrating, but it is not totally overwhelming. It was like this when I was in Mexico. I would be all, "oh snap! this is amazing! i´m in mexico!" and then there´d be a gaggle of guys wearing girl pants and MCR shirts. I don´t think that we realize how much of our pop culture gets exported and I think that it´s funny that we´re all so hypersensitive about any Spanish-speaking culture´s presence in the U.S. yet we´re omnipresent in their cultures. But that is life? I guess?

Did I mention that the food is awesome? I mean, the food that we´re able to get. I am not so good at ordering stuff. My spanish IS a lot better than I thought it was, though.

Awright, Apple Bottom Jeans and Boots With Tha Fur just came on the radio, so that means I have to get out of this building ASAP. AMERICAN CULTURE STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND.

ps. this keyboard is totally cool. i´m not sure if it´s coming up on your screen, but i can totally make an upside down questionmark and exclamationpoint and other stuff! Sweet!

Europe? For reals? Oh Em Gee.

2008-07-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

So, blogosphere, I have been keeping a secret from you (I am sorry!). The secret is that I am going to be out of town/country for a while. You can make up lots of reasons about why I am in Spain and Italy, but it is probably nothing about hiding out and laying low and cool stuff. It is mostly (read: totally) about the vacationing! My big sister and I are going to do awesome things. Don't worry, we'll keep you in mind while we're there. We'll have fun so that you can devote all your time to working! We are doing this for your own good.

In other news! I am going to go ahead and blog all the stuff that I have been too lazy to blog about.

FINALLY there is some paintings in the Hava Java. Oh man, I have been told so many different dates about this stuff, it is ridiculous. Katie, you fail journalism 101: getting your facts right. Sheesh. I have photographic proof. It's just not on my computer yet. OH MAN I AM KIND OF BAD AT THIS. My camera cord is all packed.

Sunflower watch! The field across from Kernsville Elementary School is a sunflower field! They are not blooming yet, so wait a while. Maybe next week?

Oh man i am going to be late for my flight.

The Haphazard Garden II

2008-07-04T16:10:00.000-04:00

I don't know what's going on here, either. Is that parsley? Oh, carrots, you say? Peppers or tomatoes? Both? Zuchinni or cukes? Beans or what?

I really am not sure about what we've got growing in here. We forgot to label any rows and we forgot to make a map of what was going on. Those tomatoes need to be caged. I am super-jealous of Sarina's garden. But I guess that's what you get when you actually plan it out.

OH MAN next year I should probably listen to seed spacing advice. This garden is more like a jungle. A baby bunny jungle. I found a baby bunny in the driveway and rescued him/her (it was so soft!) and released him/her into our garden. I told him/her to stay away from lawn mowers. I hope he/she didn't figure out the garden was edible. Everything is still intact, so I'm pretty sure we're safe. Bad judgement on my part. Should have put the bunny in the neighbor's garden instead.

An Interesting Thought

2008-06-28T12:12:00.000-04:00

"Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading … Civic organizations in some suburbs have begun to mow the lawns around empty houses to keep up the appearance of stability. Police departments are mapping foreclosures in an effort to identify emerging criminal hot spots … For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay … As conventional suburban lifestyles fall out of fashion and walkable urban alternatives proliferate, what will happen to obsolete large-lot houses? One might imagine culs-de-sac being converted to faux Main Streets, or McMansion developments being bulldozed and reforested or turned into parks. But these sorts of transformations are likely to be rare. Suburbia’s many small parcels of land, held by different owners with different motivations, make the purchase of whole neighborhoods almost unheard-of. Condemnation of single-family housing for ‘higher and better use’ is politically difficult, and in most states it has become almost legally impossible in recent years. In any case, the infrastructure supporting large-lot suburban residential areas—roads, sewer and water lines—cannot support the dense development that urbanization would require, and is not easy to upgrade. Once large-lot, suburban residential landscapes are built, they are hard to unbuild…”

From spaceandculture.org

Jim Kunstler mentioned this in The Geography of Nowhere. I wonder...

Dinosaur Comics

2008-06-26T11:20:00.000-04:00

My guess is that clicking on the image is going to enlarge it. Sweet!

www.qwantz.com

Ok ok so the last webcomic I showed you was pretty weird and not such an easy sense of humor to "get." Now, I am not so sure that Dinosaur Comics is going to be any easier but it is totally hilarious! Like, seriously. But not serious because serious is the opposite of hilarious. I think. I am not exactly sure of that one. I will look it up later (note: I will probably not look it up later).

So! About Dinosaur Comics! It is the same exact format each and every comic! The funny is in the words, you see. You have to have it in your head that T-Rex is like a drunken frat athlete boy (I am relying on stereotypes here) who has been alone in a library and decided to READ EVERYTHING so he has a lot of questions and harebrained ideas about things. And it's hilarious! It updates very frequently, so you are never without something hilarious to read. The one at the top is probably my favorite one EVER.

Now, for fair warning, the way T-Rex thinks ("Feelings are boring! Kissing is awesome!") is sometimes how I think about things. And sometimes my friends are like Utahraptor and Dromiceiomious and shooting down my idea that suggests we do an EPIC painting of all our high school teachers eating lunch in the faculty room dressed in bear suits. Seriously, friends, that was the best idea ever and we should have done it.

Sometimes even I think I am weird.

Hint! Hover over the comic to see secret, hidden text! Sometimes it is even funnier than the comic!

Jordan Parkway

2008-06-24T23:58:00.000-04:00

(note: i've got a picture, but blogger is being all uppity about posting it, grrrrrr, blogger, why you gotta be like this? i thought we were friends)

Here is another story. My friend and I found ourselves in center city one time, when we were fifteen. We probably should have been terrified, but we were very focused on our goal, so we didn't have much periphery vision. I guess it worked out nicely. This isn't much beginning middle end but it is a nice little parcel of an event. Sorry that it doesn't really go anywhere, I guess. I'm still fiddling with the editing and am not completely happy with it, but it's in its best form yet! Now get in a circle on the carpet and sit cross-legged and still, I'm gonna read this one out loud and show you the pictures before I turn the page.

- - -

"Karly, I don't have a good feeling about this. I mean, no one can hear us in these stairs. It's dark."
"It's ok, KatieBee, I have my knife."

Somehow, the idea of a knife in Karly's hands comforted me.

- - -

Karly and I were in college algebra together in tenth grade. We would take turns sitting next to Brian because he was more beautiful than any person we could think of. We didn't get particularly good grades in that class.

We weren’t thinking of our grades at that moment, though. Right then, we were in the silent, wooden stairwell of some old factory-turned-apartment-building on Jordan Parkway. Someone painted the building’s window frames rainbow colors in attempt to get certain kinds of people to want to go to that part of town. Those kinds of people just started calling it the Gay Ghetto.

A pair of suburban sixteen-year old girls didn’t exactly belong in that section of town, but we were there anyway. I wore my favorite tee shirt and Karly brought her favorite knife. Karly at least had a little foresight about our endeavor. The goal of the evening was twofold: we wanted to dance and we wanted to see the concert. So far it didn’t seem like either was happening, we barely found the place. The police blocked off street after street with their flashing lights and yellow tape. We were moths maddened by the porch light as we tried to get to the right building, turning corner after corner in our cars and still running into those pulsing red and blue lights.

We had to walk under a bridge and through an alley and past a cove of homes built by people who didn’t have enough money to live surrounded by real walls. I couldn’t understand why people feared these places. Maybe the August air and grass growing up in the sidewalk cracks that did it, but the colors were clearer on that short walk in Allentown than they had ever been in my subdivision. Cement and brick and graffiti were more honest than the green lawns and the houses that sprang up almost overnight. In hindsight, I should have been terrified, but Karly had that knife and Karly could always make me feel comfortable.

- - -

I first saw Harry and the Potters when I visited my sister in Boston. The two guys in the band were, theoretically, Harry Potter from year 5 and Harry Potter from year 7. All their songs were silly and Harry Potter-themed and my sister and I danced and danced and shouted and took pictures while the Harry Potters on stage explained to us: "You know, sometimes you just get angry at the Man! And the Man, sometimes he's your parents, and sometimes he's the government and sometimes he's Lord Voldermort! We're going to sing a song about being angry at Lord Voldermort!"

They were scheduled to play a show in Allentown. Karly and I couldn’t believe our luck. It was the post-show game of capture the flag that enticed them. I didn’t know where Fireball Island was but I heard it was supposed to be the successor to the Pirate’s Cove – the center of the Lehigh Valley punk scene that got wiped away in the punkest way to go: The Man. Drive over the new 222 bypass. That’s where the Pirates Cove used to be.

I don’t remember what I said or did to convince my parents that it was safe for a fifteen year old to go to a place she’d never been before in a dangerous part of a city that she didn’t know, but two weeks later my dad dropped me off on Jordan Parkway, just before the Tilghman overpass.

- - -

Karly and I listened to the guitar sounds that leaked out the cracks of door 208, it was another world in there. The stark fluorescent lights and creaky wooden floor of the hall gave way to a warm throng of people all singing along to a song called “This Is Not My Town.”

The singer explained to us that “sometimes the towns we grow up in aren’t our towns, that sometimes we have to go out and find our towns. When I give the get-go, shout what towns aren’t going to be yours.”

Karly yelled SCHNECKSVILLE loud enough for the two of us.

Karly had a better view of what went on. Karly was taller than me. She looked like a supermodel and still does. She's beautiful and all the photography students always used her for their projects. Harry and the Potters took the floor and the little kids jumped and danced and swung their mohawks around. I didn’t dance. The lights were on and as much as I feared the dark, awkward adolescence made me uneasy in a well-lit room. I contented myself with answering text messages from my parents, who demanded I appear at the front of the building.

- - -

My family was late to get on the way to Andrew's Air Force Base. We sold military posters with my grandpa every year. Four dollars for a poster of an eagle in front of the flag with the statue of liberty in its eye and a logo, "THESE COLORS DON'T RUN." Ten bucks if you buy two others with it. All the planes looked the same to me except the blue angels. I was useless, but I went anyway.

Karly and a boy she met -- Karly was always meeting boys -- walked me under the overpass and up the street to my parent's SUV. I collapsed into the sickeningly new-smelling leather interior. My brother played his game boy. Police lights flashed just up the street. Sweat made me stick to the seat and exhaustion made my eyelids stick to each other. I slept in a cradle of music that hung in the air and in my head, I slept the whole way to D.C.

2008-06-23T12:56:00.000-04:00

Oh man, the last post is what happens when I forget to edit a post before it goes up. Ugh, oh well, it is up there and I guess it is staying that way! I am pleasantly surprised that gsbrace could decipher it enough to leave a comment. I was too excited for the beach to edit!

Ah, the beach. My fiery sunburn* confirms my belief that SPF50 is the ONLY way to go. Curse my Irish skin.

*ALL UP AND DOWN MY LEGS, MY ARMS, MY FACE, MY BACK, MY FEET. GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF OHMIGOD MAKE THE BURNING STOP.

Later tonight I will post another story like the one about my house doing that thing where it caught fire. It will be about my late night experience in center city Allentown when I was 15. It was pretty crazy.

Schnecksville! Fair!

2008-06-21T16:14:00.000-04:00

Photo credit: me

In high school, summer was sandwiched between the Schnecksville Fair and the Allentown Fair. So now it doesn't FEEL like summer unless I've had (in some form or another) a pig race, chainsaw bear contest or elephant ear. A couple of nights ago I went to the fair, the face painting was incredible! Everyone looked like a relative of mine or someone I went to elementary school with (mostly because I DID go to elementary school with them...). The most surreal part was the harlequin organ "symphony" conducted by a marionette Bach which played to an empty audience. It just gets weirder from there.

Remember when the Schnecksville Fair was in Time Magazine? The one kid in it (I'm having difficulty finding a link) totally went to my school. We went to the fair together that year. He had a super melodramatic caption on his photo. Something like "the years between childhood and adulthood are crowded with fear, anxiety, blah blah blah" and it was funny because he totally wasn't that kind of kid. He and I used to make hundreds of origami frogs, the kind that actually jump. We would have frog wars and make them fight each other every day, our backyards connected. Life was awesome!

Life is still pretty awesome, wanna know why? I AM GOING TO THE BEACH. Tonight! My friend called me and was all, "Hey, Katie, wanna go to the beach?" and I was all, "YES YES YES" so now I am going to the beach!! I must remember not to get my palm read this time, last time the lady was all, "I see you surrounded by sick children," and I was freaked out.

Cows in the Hava Java

2008-06-18T18:08:00.001-04:00

My apologies for saying that Greg Weaver's cows would be in Hava Java by last Thursday. Apparently they're going up tonight.

-

Today has been a day of missed connections. Too much phone tag for me, thankyouverymuch! There is one connection that I'm glad I missed, though. On my way home from work I saw a dog lying in the middle of the street. At least I thought it was a dog. It could have been someone's jacket. I slowed the car to an agonizing 25 mph and crept closer.

It was a fawn. As it rose and scrambled away, dragging its hind legs, I realized how absolutely horrified it must have been at my camry. I hope it found a soft place to die. I'd like to be able to trick myself into solace by saying, "oh, it's the cycle of life" but something that small isn't born to just die right away, it's got to go out and do stuff! What right do we have roaring our steel and plastic monsters through their paved-over thickets? I mean, I am glad that the road is there because it is the most efficient way to get to and fro, but it was a little baby deer!

I just have a difficult time justifying these tiny, long deaths. Before I was a teenager, the passing of every fish and guinea pig was a tragedy. We buried them down by the willow tree at the corner of the property. By the time we moved we had a graveyard. I gave away my last guinea pig. He was pretty old when I handed her off to that little girl. I hope she didn't have to bury him too soon after she brought him home. Small graves make me uneasy. The epitaphs that have the same day for the birth and death date send me reeling. Whose life also ended with these?

I've heard that the day before your child dies is the last day of your life, too. I can't imagine how it could happen any other way.

Man, I am sorry for bringing up stuff like this. That fawn really got me. Like, I am vilifying the van that I saw in the oncoming lane just before I saw it.

OH NO YOU DI'INT

2008-06-11T13:52:00.000-04:00

(and now, a completely senseless post. this is what happens when i have EIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP. thanks, black out!)

Last Night's Thunderstorm,

LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.

Last year you gutted the guest wing and this year you take the patio furniture?! Do you get some sort of sick satisfaction out of this? You even cut the power out at the creepiest part of Full Metal Jacket! Which I have yet to finish! I had to sit in the dark and wonder about what happened! And then I had to drive around all those toppled trees to get to the movie theater!

I am appalled at your actions and will no longer talk to you.

Sincerely,
Katie Bee

PS- But, T-Storm, Iron Man was totally awesome and you should totally see it. I think it was better than Transformers, but my brother doesn't think so. I think he is biased about the whole going-to-see-it-get-filmed-in-Bethlehem*

*I pronounce this word "bethlum" when I am talking about Allentown's neighbor, but "Bethlehem" when I am talking about Christmas. Does anyone else do this? Some of my friends do. Weird Lehigh Valley-isms.**

**I was reprimanded for using the famous Lehigh Valley term "Wanna come with?" My parents are from New Jersey. They do not understand it. I do not understand how I did that, either. Rules of grammar! I have not forsaken ye!*** I shall return!

***I have not forsaken thee? I hath not forsook ye? OLD/MIDDLE ENGLISH, YOU DO IT TO ME EVERY TIME.