Grad School and New Beginnings

As some may have heard, I was admitted to the graduate program at my University this past week. It was the culmination of weeks of agonizing work and waiting and anxiety, and certainly came as a relief. I was also selected to receive a teaching assistantship for next year, which means I'll be teaching English 101 to new Freshmen, I'll have my own office, and I don't have to pay for my MA degree (*cheers*). It's all a bit overwhelming at this point, and there's a ton of prep-work to do to get ready. I have a feeling that I'll be reading a lot of theory over the summer (in between French classes) to gear up and feel that "edge" again. Grad school is so very much about theory!

Most Beautiful Bookstore

Words fail me.

A Chairy Tale

I'm writing a term paper on Norman McLaren (due Monday, ugh), and thought I'd share a lovely short he made in 1957. His animation style seems standard now, but at the time was quite revolutionary. The music is by the amazingly famous and awesome Ravi Shankar, perhaps the most famous Indian musician ever--and definitely one of the greatest sitar players ever.

Here's the McLaren piece:





And "Within You Without You" a song by the Beatles with sitar music. This song was heavily inspired by Shankar's work, as George Harrison was a good friend and collaborator of Shankar's.

Another New York Moment

This one with a working video. A street performing band got a large majority of the Times Square subway station to sing the final chorus of "Hey Jude" together. Pretty wonderful and heart warming.

Hey Jude Times Square Subway Station from 39forks on Vimeo.

Ida Maria (Oh My God)

Seriously. I know some of you (Ana) may have heard of her before, but she's new to me. I'm completely smitten. I hope to find her on vinyl soon!

If you've never heard her, start with the first video. It was my introduction, and kept me watching her videos/listening to her music for an hour to find out more!

Oh My God:



Drive Away My Heart (Really Cute Video!):



Stella (very Lily Allen-y in this one):



Morning Light (Live):



Keep Me Warm (to show she can be slow and sweet too) (Live):

My Very Own QR Code

Ok, this may be kind of nerdy, but having my own QR code is really cool. If you have an android or iPhone, you should scan this and let me know if it works for you (for my Android phone I use an app called "Barcode Scanner", it works great.) The barcode should redirect you...here!





Make yours here!

Ice Diving

This looks kind of terrifying. Isn't this how Houdini died? (Ok no, he died from trying to "absorb" some punches to the stomach. That didn't work out so well). But anyway, losing hold of the safety line that leads you back to the hole in the ice...sounds like no fun. It is gorgeous though. These photographs come from an ice diving trip to a lake in Kazakhstan famous for it's "underwater forest."

Lovely Little

From Mark Mothersbaugh.