i am shenface i am weak

china's rare earths

2010-10-28T13:57:00.004-04:00

china's cutting back on exports for rare earths. http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/10/28/chinese-rare-earths-less-muscle-more-growth/

the western response has been that china is playing with them politically, to exert dominance. but maybe china wants the rare earths for themselves too! haha. so if the west perceives that it's good to export to them, then consumerism in the west is acceptable but not consumerism in china? also, a lot of the old mines for rare earths in the west closed when the prices dropped, so that was really short sighted for the long term because now china exports 97% of the rare earths. this has huge impacts because we are increasingly becoming dependent on electronics.

i say recycle and reuse old electronics more, instead of re-opening and starting new mines. and start designing electronics to last longer, that you get the bang for your buck, and break the culture of having to buy the newest gadget, or even the newest version of the gadget. what do people do with their iphones when the next version is released? a piechart of the breakdown would be interesting.

inane things

2010-08-08T22:31:00.002-04:00

i am living the life in my life. i am enjoying myself quite a bit, even though i am being inane.

la copa mundial

2010-06-13T13:21:00.009-04:00

no soy deportista o fan de partidos, pero recientemente he visto partidos de basquetbol y futbol. fui a un bar en brighton una noche porque tenia hambre y alla hay muchas teles que emitian los partidos americanos, especialmente porque boston tiene equipos famosos: red sox para el beisbol, celtics para el basquetbol, y bruins para el hockey. tambien este mes es el NBA finals entre los celtics de boston y los lakers de los angeles. no soy muy competitiva, pero ver los partidos es divertido a veces. me dan risa las reacciones de las otras personas, como gritando y gemiendo y llorando. me gustan el volibol, el pingpong, el futbol y el basquetbol porque hay trabajo de equipo y tambien los partidos no duran bastante como el futbol americano o el beisbol. si no, que aburrido jeje.

este ahno la copa mundial esta en sudafrica, el primer pais en africa que es la seda de "la ciudad de futbol." la mundial no es muy popular en los estados unidos, pero me gusta porque hay tantos equipos internacionales y los cuerpos de los deportistas son naturales, a veces chaparritos, pero siempre muy fuertes (en las piernas especialmente) y agiles. no me gustan los deportes en que hay presion para tomar drogas para construir un cuerpo muy muscular. el futbol es igualitario porque los pobres y ricos pueden jugar sin articulos deportivos muy caros--pueden usar una bolita de plastico o ropa para la pelota--y tambien las reglas son basicas. vi los partidos sudafrica vs mexico (1-1), francia vs uruguay (0-0), y inglaterra vs eeuu (1-1).

oil spill photos

2010-06-10T23:46:00.003-04:00

i kind of want to collect photos of the oil spill in the gulf of the mexico. scientists, engineers, environmentalists, activists, politicians will need to assemble lots of stuff to help us move away from our dependency on oil (oil is sooo useful, not just in terms of burning it for energy usage but also synthesis of so many different materials). photos are a really powerful and moving medium.

pictures of wildlife being coated with crude oil:http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html

if the oil spill was in my backyard visualization: http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

i think i read in the NYT today that maybe if the US government really wanted to make a statement in the power struggle between corporations (especially BP in this case) and itself, it should yank out the contracts for oil that fuel military operations. which kind of leads to all sorts of interesting questions of what areas make the biggest impact in terms of reducing oil consumption.

transportation is a big one. on a personal level for instance, i regularly take the mbta buses from my house to travel around the boston area and as i was waiting, i noticed that the majority of cars driven on the road are only occupied by 1 person, even when the capacity is like 4. we should drive less by using public transportation, walking, biking more often if possible for running errands or going to appointments, rent cars when we need them instead of buying if that's appropriate for our lifestyle as students or people who live near their jobs, or if we need to commute, buy smaller cars like smart cars.

being healthy

2010-06-10T23:18:00.003-04:00

lisa and i are slowly but surely training for the amzn race (maybe it'll be the azn race because lisa eats what la westie and i feed her hehe).

-i have developed a nutrition plan based off mypyramid.gov info. highly recommended site. the new pyramid is in vertical slices, instead of horizontal slices these days. you can input your weight and height to customize the daily recommended food intake. the major food groups are grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and meats and beans. good to know what a balanced diet is.

-www.caloriecount.com is a pretty useful site that has a database of nutrition info for you. i have started to log my daily food intake there. there is also a physical activity log aspect that i will explore later. good to know your overall calorie intake and overall healthiness of food.

-our exercise plans consist of 100 push ups and 200 situps, cardio, and later weight lifting and zombiefit. lisa is in charge of this great motivation/tracking scheme of angry frowny faces and silver and gold stars.

GO TEAM "Meat is Murder, but Murder is also Murder"!

we have not yet overcome

2010-06-10T20:07:00.002-04:00

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/06/how_would_i_feel_if.html

roger ebert on white racism now and then. read itttt!!

tape for art

2010-06-09T19:00:00.002-04:00

http://www.fastcompany.com/1656197/designers-create-spiderman-worthy-cave-from-packing-tape?partner=rss

spiderwebs made from packing tape. pretty cool. i wonder how they dissemble it, as the article says that it goes on tours.

baozi & jiaozi

2010-05-29T23:32:00.002-04:00

from la westie's mom:

I) Baozi recipe:
a) dough - add ingredients in the bread maker in this order:
1) 1.5 cups of water
2) 4 cups of all purpose flour (be accurate, otherwise you may
end up too wet or too dry)
3) 2 Tbsp sugur
4) 1 tsp salt
5) 2 tsp yeast (active dry yeast or break machine yeast)
Set the bread machine to "dough" and start

b) the meat ingredient - 1 lb ground pork, 1 egg, 1Tbsp cooking wine, 1 tbsp
soysauce, chopped scallion, grated ginger root, salt and sugar
(by taste), mix these ingredient in a bowl.

c) making the baozi - knead the dough for 1 - 2 minutes; cut
into 32 pieces; roll it flat; add about 1 Tbsp meat ingredients
in the middle and then pull the side together until you seal the
meat ingredient
d) steam - put baozi in a steam pan and add water in the pot.
cover and heat until the water boil. then boil the water for 20
minutes. make sure you add enough water in the pot at the
begining, so you won't burn the pot to dry.

II) Jiaozi recipe:
a) dough - add 1 cup of water and 3 cups of flour in the bread
machine and set at "dough" and start
b) meat ingredients - same as the Baozi
c) making jiaozi - knead the dough until it fells smooth; cut
half anf roll half into about 1" diameter string and cut into 1"
long; roll into circle and wrap small portion of meat ingredient
into the wrap.
d) boil the Jiaozi - add water into a cooking pot (half full)
and heat until boil; add Jiaozi; stir and continue boil for
about 5 - 6 minutes until the Jaizi looks puff up.

summery drink party

2010-05-29T23:14:00.002-04:00

aguas frescas (including horchata y jamaica)
banana smoothie with honey
green tea matcha smoothie
mango lassi
thai iced tea

horchata

2010-05-29T23:09:00.003-04:00

horchata : http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lolas-Horchata/Detail.aspx

with modifications: add the cinnamon when blending the rice and water. i recommend grinding up the rice later with mortar and pestle afterwards to make it really fine. then we used evaporated milk and sweet condensed milk to make it a little more creamy. definitely let it soak overnight. super goooood!

crepes

2010-05-29T23:03:00.003-04:00

from allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crepes-2/Detail.aspx

add cinnamon and little bit of sugar to the batter. maybe add powdered sugar for topping?

i have tried these fillings: banana, strawberry, nutella. next time i will use other fruits and even make savory ones. mushroom and spinach and egg are always a nice combination.

mango sweet coconut rice

2010-05-29T22:56:00.003-04:00

here is the basic outline for mango sticky rice.

-glutinous thai rice
-coconut milk
-sugar
-water
-mangos

pour half the can of coconut milk (should be really saturated) and mix with water and sugar. then cook the rice with it. make sure the liquid level is above rice slightly. after rice is done and just before serving, add the rest of the coconut milk as topping.

No end in sight

2010-05-29T22:12:00.005-04:00

I just watched the documentary No End in Sight about the US invasion and post reconstruction attempts of Iraq. It was made in 2007 and now I get to see this movie 3 years later and have to say it lives up to it's name. The Senate just approved $60 billion for continued funding of Iraq and more deployment troops to Afghanistan, as well as rejected a measure to create a time table for Afghanistan.

The movie gives a good overview of what led to the invasion and what happened during occupation. The war was disasterous in many respects including: the top executives had no basis of realism and refused to acknowledge outside input or dissent, there was a few months of planning before the invasion, the people sent to Baghdad in ORHA got replaced quickly by CPA in three months, very few officials involved spoke Arabic or had any prior experience in the Middle East, government officials who dissented got fired or found it hard to speak up persistently, there were not enough troops sent, US officials in Iraq secluded themselves in the Green Zone, military contractors were very overpriced and took the roles of reconstruction when the Iraqis stakeholders should have.

According to the documentary, Head of CPA, L. Paul Bremer made three huge mistakes: 1) martial law was not enforced, so there was no security at all from anywhere because there was no police enforcement 2) deBa'athification -- anybody (including officials or schoolteachers who could have helped to tell US officials what they wanted for a new Iraq) affiliated with the Ba'ath party was rendered employed forever, 3) Iraqi military forces were disbanded and also made unemployed. Anarchy prevailed, and these unemployed people, estimates as high as half of the population, often in the goal of being able to support their families and wanting incompetent and destructive US forces in their country gone, became insurgent.

Newspapers don't report as much on the Iraqi war now. The country seems in complete shambles, with little to no infrastructure. The problem hasn't been resolved at all. The death toll and injury rate is too high for the outcome: destruction of a country. And this isn't just limited to Iraq either. Palestine , Pakistan, Afghanistan are just a few other examples.

donde hay guerra no hay paz ni seguridad ni vida sustainable. demasiada violencia y quimica. la gente esta sin las cosas mas basicas, como agua y comida y casa, y en muchos casos, sin sus amados porque se murieron. y si la guerra termina, la cualidad de vida esta tan peor, porque no hay recursos o tierra para construir y usar para vivir. para obtener la recuperacion de una sociedad es muy dificil cuando ya esta destruido el pais.

El derrame de petroleo de BP

2010-05-29T21:48:00.005-04:00

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html

It's been over a month since the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico...it happened actually pretty soon after Obama announced an expansion of offshore drilling. Looks like that is officially on the backburner, although the MMS still has been granting permits to go forward and drill in new places in light of this disaster. The oil spill has reached Louisiana and looks like it's headed for Florida now, because scientists have discovered another plume in the ocean.

BP is in charge of cleaning up the mess and stopping the oil from continuing to flow. The government hasn't been really active in this process, saying that BP has the technology and expertise. But really, after multiple failed attempts, like releasing bioaccumulative disperants that are banned in Europe and trying top kill (trying to stop the leakage with mud and concrete and pretty much garbage), not to mention the security failures in the first place, I don't think the corporation knows what's it doing either. BP has also been trying to cover up the extent of the damage like underreporting the average gallons spilt a day and how much shoreline of Louisiana has been damaged. It's really bad timing especially because of the whole marine breeding season. I won't be suprised if dead zones have already ended up forming.

This whole scenairo is just plain eerie as I read Jared Diamond's Collapse. It's an ecological nightmare, brought about human forces to extract resources. The government needs to step in and regulate and appoint a taskforce of the top scientists from universities to solve this problem and deploy the armed forces to clean up and build infrastructure. It's incredibly frustrating when the EPA cannot even regulate or stop BP's actions as these weeks go by. The government has the power to make the case for regulation and safety, but it is difficult to accomplish when this "cozy relationship" is just a very uneven balance of who has the power.

Democracy and violence

2010-05-29T21:35:00.005-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/opinion/30patterson.html?ref=opinion

NYT Op-ed on the relationship between violence and democracy, in light of the recent drug and political violence in Jamaica. Harvard Sociology Prof. Orlando Patterson gives three reasons why democratic societies tend to be more violent than authoritarian societies (which is personally interesting because I have heard that after Deng Xiaoping took power, crime in China got much worse than compared to the hardcore Communist years):

1. Electoral process
2. Exploitation of ethnic identity & organized crime
3. Transition period

In particular: old authoritarian norms and new incoming democratic ideas clash, and if there is no economic stability as nations progress to development, there is more violence over resource control.

Last thought: Maybe it's harder to establish a democracy in a multicultural society because there are competing and conflicting needs and wants and values.

Reading Half the Sky

2009-10-05T21:11:00.002-04:00

Currently reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women by Nicholas Kristof and Sherry WuDunn. I'm actually liking the anecdotal journalist style, because it's really good for telling stories. Will write more, but so far, one of the most interesting premises is that if developed nations invest in aid, they should do it for women, building schools and giving microloans.

Para Mejorar El Espanol

2009-09-07T13:39:00.006-04:00

Quisiera andar en bicicleta para Latinoamerica en el futuro. Tengo que praticar cada dia (y tambien entrenar mis piernas ahaha).

UT Spanish Clips
Podcasts de Espanol Segunda Para Todos
Destinos Telenovela
Ejercicios
Spanish News Bites
IU Spanish courses

van jones resigns

2009-09-06T13:52:00.004-04:00

damn, van jones stepped down his position as the green jobs advisor to the white house, not because of incompetence but just politics. this whole bipartisanship just isn't working out ahaha. he has some really great ideas and i'm still reading his book, so hopefully i'll get the chance to write it about it some time.

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2227516/entry/1

Boston Greenfest

2009-08-23T02:00:00.003-04:00

I went to the Boston Green Fest at Government Center today with Yang and SheeShee. It was really cool, lots of booths from green companies showing off their products and technology from the NE area. I got some contact info, maybe I can intern there or something...

Check it out: http://www.bostongreenfest.org/about.html

(So cool, I can read more or less the four languages: ingles, espanol, frances, chino...creo que mejorar mis lenguajes.)

Amores Perros

2009-08-20T16:40:00.004-04:00

Esta pelicula es mas mejor que Rendition, aunque la tecnica de narracion es parecida, hay muchas historias que son conectadas. Hay muchos termas culturales y humanos: el machismo, la violencia, el amor pasionante y carinhoso en la sociedad, en la pobreza y tambien escalon rico. La pelicula se siente tan viva, es muy chida, con sangre y deseo y intrigas y tristezas. Los detallitos son bien, las tres historias son conectadas obviamente a causa del accidente trafico, pero tambien en las calles, donde estan la vida y mucha gente. Hay continuidad, pero tambien hay misterio en el fin de las historias...no sabemos que pasen con los personajes sin duda. Encontre a Susana otra vez Octavio (el conductor del coche) or vaya a la Cuidad Juarez y salga su antigua vida porque no tiene nada--su amigo se muere, su perro tomada por el Chivo, su amor solita pero todavia se enamora con su esposo muerto, el hermano de Octavio? Todavia estemos juntos la modelo y el editor de revista, despues de amputar la pierna? Donde vaya el Chivo y visitare su hija enajenada en el futuro? Tambien, me cae bien Emilio Echevarria, es super expresivo como el Chivo, un intelectual y zapatista y sonhadora y asesino y chistoso.

Esta pelicula...es "keeping it real." Oh mexicanos, tan incivilizados con pasiones fuertes y violencia y chistes y burlas, siempre. Me gusta mucho.

Solo con tu pareja

2009-08-19T21:36:00.005-04:00

La pelicula es sobre de un machista que se enamora con su vecina despues. A el le gusta mucho el sexo con muchas mujeres al mismo tiempo en cuartos diferentes, y no usa los condones. Es una comedia, claro, porque una ex-amante enojada es enfermera y escribe su parte medico...positivo por SIDA. La vecina es inocente y agradable, muy diferente que las golosas, y a el machista le gusta a ella mucho, pero el quiere morir y el es muy triste. el es dulce con ella, lleno de carinho, y no quiere dolerla. Despues la vecina prometida descrube que su novio es infiel, y ella tambien quiere morir, pues los dos juntos deciden saltar del edificio mas alto...pero primero, antes de morir, ellos tienen el sexo ahaha. Mientras tanto la enfermera y sus amigos (el medico es el amigo mejor del machista) piensan que el chiste es tan malo porque hay mensajes del machista, "voy a suicidarme." en fin, nadie muere y el machista y la vecina se ponen una pareja muy feliz.

Esa pelicula es idiota, no se porque es 87/100 de las peliculas mejores de mexico. hahhah. Pero me gustan los partes de la pelicula cuando los amigos se burlan del machista. hehehe ellos solo estan riendo y piensan que el es ridiculo.

Energy/Sustainable Development

2009-08-19T20:24:00.010-04:00

Just some brief thoughts on energy vs sustainable development--

Energy crisis is really a misnomer, it's more about resource depletion and the difficulty to harness new forms of resources. So it really should be power crisis, because we have the resources like renewables, but we are faced with questions of efficiency, feasibility, extraction, costs, and physical limitations.

There's the question of how to generate power...Thermodynamics is all about asking questions like how do you convert different forms of energy into useful work and heat (1st Law) and then how efficient or irreversible the system is (2nd Law). So nothing will ever be 100% efficient, because of things like heat losses from friction and just entropy generation. If something is 40% efficient, that's like really good, such as for combustion engines or turbines...So there is a tremendous amount of loss right there, and we play around with it, to drive the compression ratio up, to minimize friction or drag, add reheat, etc.

It's not just about getting power to drive our machines and gadgets and communication systems, but also maintaining a decent standard of living, a certain level of comfort, and how we consume it. (I need to read up on the most fundamental of resources, water). In particular, housing and buildings should have a certain comfort level (see ASHRAE comfort zone diagram) by maintaining a certain range of temperature and humidity, as well as indoor air quality. Otherwise, serious health issues can happen if the air is too dry or humid, leading to sick building syndrome and mold. In order to be in this range, cooling/heating load calculations have to be made...so heat transfer (especially conduction, solar radiation, infiltration) is really significant in architecture and contributes to the amount of power we are consuming.

But really, I think that the two main issues here in the energy field are generation and consumption. It's pretty straight forward, it's mostly a technological problem. Energy policy comes in how energy distributed, produced, and consumed for a nation...but really, engineers and scientists need to have incentive to work on this issue of generating power and funding definitely helps. Energy is just one big industry.

On the other hand, sustainable development is more of a way of thinking, strategy, approach, ideas. By its nature it's a little vague yet holistic, because it seeks to "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs": it's about input equals output, minimizing environmental impact. Like really, the policy should definitely play a much bigger role here than in energy, which is more about distribution and regulation. Also, "green building" is part of sustainable development...a building is encouraged to be energy efficient, but there are other requirements that go beyond that. Sustainable development is much more complex...Energy conferences can be more like trade shows, showing off your latest breakthrough idea or gadget, but Sustainbility conferences should be about strategies and marking your progress with certain standards.

I want countries to develop and grow and raise the standard of living...there will be no arguments from me about going back to nature or stopping progress, because it just isn' t practical. I want things to improve on the road to social equality, which often is influenced by a country's economic prosperity. However, I am more interested in learning more about developed countries' strategies for sustainability, because they have the capital there and usually tend to the be the biggest, most wasteful consumers. They also are often the model for developing countries, which is more about education and outreach, so it's important that things start happening in the richer countries, with their influence and political power and intellectual powerhouses.

WHOA

2009-08-19T19:52:00.003-04:00

My Reading List (in no particular order for now)

-Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken

-Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air by David MacKay (ONLINE)

-Break Through by Michael Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus

-Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto by Adam Werbach

-Hacia una gestion integral del agua en Mexico de Cecilia Tortajada

-Blowback Trilogy by Chalmers Johnson

-Brittle Power by Amory Lovins

-Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development by Herman Daly

--------

I'm getting back into the groove of reading...I think for now, to keep getting motivated to do reviews is to read more nonfiction books, instead of fiction. I enjoy reading fiction, don't get me wrong, but literary analysis is not really my thing because I feel ultimately that it's kind of a waste of time. What I usually get out of fiction is enjoying myself in a different place, immersing myself in the writer's style, picking up some expressive thoughts, and just getting a better understanding of the human experience. But I don't really want to pick apart how the book was put together, like character development and plot angles...I want to pick apart arguments and read thought-provoking stuff, as well as acquire more knowledge of my interests.

I finished...The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2009-04-20T18:01:00.006-04:00

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Diaz

2007

Fiction

"As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I have a fuku story too. I wish I could say it was the best of the lot--fuku number one--but I can't. Mine aint't the scariest, the clearest, the most painful, or the most beautiful.

It just happens to be the one that's got its fingers around my throat." p6

"Before all hope died I used to have this stupid dream that shit could be saved, that we would be in bed together like the old times, with the fan on, the smoke from our weed drifting above us, and I'd finally try to say words that could have saved us.

---- ---- -----.

But before I can shape the vowels I wake up. My face is wet, and that's how you know it's never going to come true.

Never, ever." --Junior on his doomed relationship with Lola, the "ciguapa of [his] dreams" p. 327.

Eugene O'Neill

2009-04-07T23:57:00.008-04:00

I tried reading The Iceman Cometh right after reading A Moon for the Misbegotten and then quickly skimming through Long Day's Journey into Night to refresh my memory (it has been years since I've read it last), but it just didn't work out. And then I watched the PBS documentary about the playwright, so that made me even more reluctant to read The Iceman Cometh so quickly. Eugene O'Neill's life was no pancake; some popular and re-occuring themes in his work are hopelessness, escapism through alcoholism, and inability or refusal to confront reality--of which culminate in these three plays, which are considered his masterpieces and happen to be semi-autobiographical as well and resound even more strongly of tragedy.

Anyway, reading three in the row is a bit too much for me. It's on my to-read list though.

15 bookstores in the Boston area!

2009-04-01T19:44:00.011-04:00

In the vein of Keats: Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vex'd and tir'd, feast them upon the light o' literacy.

Thought I'd post a list of bookstores in the Boston area I've been blowing my money on or need to check out. Once home to those lovely people who believed themselves to be transparent eyeballs and probably the rest of the giants in 1800's American lit and Susan freaking Cooper and the like, Boston & Cambridge definitely has all sorts of charming bookstores for those needing a literary fix. Feed that wandering eye of yours.

All of these are easy to get to by the T Red line. I've organized the list by T stop in the inbound direction, from Alewife to Braintree. Asterisk means it carries used books.

1. Porter Square Books (Porter Square)--Convenient location, right in the middle of the Porter Square shopping center. Just the one floor of new books, but they have a great selection and it's a spacious space to read and relax. The staff are definitely the most interesting that I've met, always up for a chat about books. They are very helpful and will help order anything not in stock, to be picked up within days.

2. Harvard Book Store* (Harvard Square)--Not the Harvard Coop! First floor is your standard bookstore, with rich green and mahogany colored furnishings and nice window seat nooks. Downstairs in the more dingy basement are used books. Lots of author tours and events, nice to browse and pick up new readings.

3. Harvard Coop (Harvard Square)--Three floors of a huge Barnes and Noble with a gorgeous spiral staircase. Not the place for the best bargains, but it definitely takes the card for most breadth out of all the places in Boston I've been so far. Don't forget your coop #, if you're a Harvard or MIT student. Just a quick note: anything you've ever dreamed of or yearned for that is capable of having "Harvard" stamped on it is thankfully in a separate building but with the same COOP sign, so don't get lost!

4. Schoenhof's Foreign Books (Harvard Square)--Never been there, but apparently it has a great selection of foreign language books. Must go there to brush up and try to become the next Jacek Lerych (kidding!).

5. Raven Used Books* (Harvard Square)--Never been there, but it looks like the perfect stop for dwellers, visitors, and friends of the ivory tower.

6. The Globe Corner Bookstores (Harvard Square)--Never been there, but I'm already in love with it because it supplies travel literature and maps for the globetrotter and armchair traveler alike, in pursuit of adventure.

7. New England Comics (Harvard Square)--There are seven other stores dispersed through Massachusetts, so it seems to be a pretty big business. I don't really have much of a lasting impression of it because when I went there last year to pick up Watchmen, it wasn't in stock (what kind of comic book store are they?! and that was right before the full force of the Hollywood hype hit). I haven't been back since, but one of these days I'll go and explore more.

8. Rodney's Bookstore* (Central Square)--Two floors of used books. Eclectic but strong mix of classics, nonfiction, and recently published books. Everything's very...wooden, that is, in cute modular bookcases of different shapes and sizes. They have wooden chairs for you to sit down and enjoy a nice read and even wooden cubes for you to buy to stuff some books/miscellaneous in.

9. MIT Coop (Kendall Square)--Definitely a weaker shadow of its sister at Harvard. It combines the cheesy college memorabilia, grossly overpriced textbooks and office supplies, and smatterings of New York Times best sellers all in one. It's cool to hang out by the windows in the comfy 1700s-esque windsor chairs on a sunny day though.

10. MIT Press (Kendall Square)--Cozy little shop full of technical books, many of which are written by MIT professors. Thank god that it's still here, given that Quantum Books closed down last week for good; sometimes you just need to a place to feed the mind with science and engineering. The biannual loading dock sales are amazing because you can get books up to 90% off the original price.

11. Brattle Book Shop* (Park Street)--What happens when you make the outside of the bookstore look like the inside, but the inside look like the street? This bookstore definitely stands out a la Night at the Roxbury. Or it's just that the outside alley is full of cheap books, and the inside has even more books. Wheeeee.

12. Commonwealth Books* (Park Street)--Crammed with humanities books and art prints. The definite smell of old books is a dead give away that much is pre '70s.

13. Borders (Downtown Crossing)--There's at least three Borders in Boston and Cambridge, but this one is the biggest, located right in the middle of the shopping district. First floor is where most of the books are, second floor has the kids and help guides sections and audio/visual collection. Best national chain for sure, definitely sign up for their free Borders rewards membership to get steep in-store discounts (Barnes and Noble is kind of pretentious, and you have to pay for the 10% discount).

14. Barnes and Noble @ the Prudential Center (Green line, Boylston)--If you're ever stuck or bored in this high end mall chockfull of designer clothing boutiques, this Barnes and Noble is a nice place to browse and kill some time. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this bookstore as the first place to go to, unless you really must go to a B&N or already are on Boylston Street (you could always walk a couple of blocks down to get to the more impressive Boston Public Library, too).

15. Comicopia (Green line, Kenmore Square)--The best comic book store I've yet to encounter. It's tiny, but the shelves were groaning with the complete trades of everything I was looking for (come on, Mike Carey's Lucifer published by Vertigo is semi-obscure).

Just for the record, Newbury Comics (Greenline, Boylston) does not carry comic books, or anything resembling literature! They do have a fine selection of music, however, if that's what you're looking for.

However, nothing beats Powell's Books* in Portland, Oregon. That is the Mecca of used bookstores and so worth a pilgrimage out there to browse through the five or so floors of amazingness. They carry a lot of out-of-print stuff too. Their online website selection is really good too, comparable to, if not often better than, Amazon's.

On plays and voice acting

2009-03-29T19:28:00.151-04:00

Having just finished reading Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten got me thinking about plays in general. Off the top of my head, I can remember that I've read plays by Eugene O'Neill, Tennesse Williams, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekov, Shakespeare, Moliere, Sophocles, and Euripidies. Of these, I've only seen a handful live by Shakespeare (The Tempest, Merry Wives of Windsor, and A Midsummer's Night's Dream) and Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark from the local playhouse backhome, Peter Shaffer's Equus on Broadway, and then a few play movies. It's always really interesting to read the play beforehand and then watch it, to see how the actors interpret them. I have to say though, there is a world of difference between amateurs and professionals, but an even more marked difference between the mediocre and the "great." In my opinion, if you're going to act in a medium that relies so heavily on dialogue, you have to be a stunning voice actor and be able to deliver nuances. It can't be just anybody reading the lines. For instance, I saw this trailer of the Long Day's Journey Into Night production at the New Amerikan Theatre in Seattle, and it sounded plain wrong because it just seemed like people on the street talking. Ugh the times I've been to school productions and cringed, but I suppose that's just self pitying.

To clear away my disappointment from and distate for an age where any old joe can make it big from Hollywood blockbusters, here are sixteen of my favorites from the Old Vic, National Theatre, Hollywood Golden Age, Broadway, and the Indie Films: Clicky!

All these people have breathed life into all sorts of scripts for the stage and silver screen. From Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde to more modern plays to adaptations of classic novels, watching these people act is like having the very characters themselves step out of fiction and into real life. Many of them have created iconic performances--John Gielgud's expressively grief-stricken Hamlet; Parker Posey's deranged and unstable wanna-be Jackie O; Rupert Everett's irreverent Lord Goring constantly sprouting quips and annoying words of wisdom; Emma Thompson's flirty, sharp Beatrice. Often it's hard to imagine anyone else playing that certain role.

These actors bring charisma and entertainment to the table, but most importantly, they also have a certain X factor in common, shining out from a sea of mediocrity--it's their craft, technique, and delivery. Their command of speech is masterful: the way they inflect and intone always makes me pause in wonderment. For instance, Laurence Olivier just naturally oozed Shakespeare, Audrey Hepburn was always incredibly poised and enchanting and luminiscent in all of her roles, and Matthew Macfadyen reinterpreted Colin Firth's brusque Mr. Darcy as annoyingly sensitive and horribly shy (I'll give that much to Jane Austen). The list could go on and on. Maybe I'll do individual posts someday.

Here's an article about the secret of the perfect voice. I'm skeptical of this so called formula, but have to say that all these actors have elocution down pat.

ETA: I've noticed that most of these actors happen to be British. Haha I must be biased, but I stand by these favorites of mine. Comment and let me know what your favorites are--I want to find out new people, so I can try to justify the gross amount of TV I watch.

I finished...A Moon for the Misbegotten

2009-03-28T23:14:00.026-04:00

A Moon for the Misbegotten

Eugene O'Neill

1945

Drama

"HOGAN: What I want to know is, what the hell d'you mean by your contemptible trick of breaking down your fence to entice my poor pigs to take their death in your ice pond?

...HARDER is so flabbergasted by this mad accusation he cannot even sputter." (p. 54)

I've been trying to comb through the play to find more quotes, but I haven't been able to find any that can stand by itself alone. The one above is just for sheer comedic entertainment, when a swindler tries to cheat his way out of damaging a neighbor's property.

It's not to say that O'Neill has a terrible sense of style, quite the contrary. He writes it such that everything flows together seamlessly, it's hard to pick out one thing when everything is amazing. His dialogue (from this play and the prequel, Long Day's Journey Into Night) is straightforward without frilliness. However, it's not boring and so minimalistic like that of Hemingway's. It's explosive and colloquial, full of insults like "liar" and "souse," capturing the angry, argumentative Irish spirit his characters embody. He is a master of crystallizing the drunken stupor, the regret and bitterness.

His descriptions of the characters are always very precise--it's like looking at a photograph. For instance, Josie, the main female protagonist who's detailed as a very tall and black-haired farm girl, is furthered rounded out with these vivid qualities, "She is more powerful than any but an exceptionally strong man, able to do the manual labor of two ordinary men. But there is no mannish quality about her. She is all woman" (p. 5). I love the action descriptors, especially the adverbs! I've never seen a production of any of O'Neill's plays, but it would be really interesting to see how the productions interpret the tone of voice, which is usually indicated very specifically.

One last thing about the style--O'Neill always has really beautiful, poetic titles for his plays, always relevant, never prosaic. The words always some how manage to smoothly roll off the tongue and have a lasting ring: A Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Desire Under the Elms, The Iceman Cometh, etc.

In AMftM, there are a lot of direct references to the moon. TBC

Look at this tangle of thorns

2009-03-28T21:49:00.016-04:00

I've always thought it would be cool to write down the number of the books I've read, for as long as I can remember. But I guess it's also really useful to jot down my reactions to a book, because I know that I'll forget the details eventually after finishing it and then I'll walk away with a general sense of plot, blurry impression of the writing style, and vague memories of theme. This blog is going to be a haphazard collection of book reviews, notes, thoughts, lit crit, selected quotes of the books I've read, starting 2009. I don't have a specific system in mind, although I hope it will be a somewhat chronological snapshot of what literature du jour I'm straining my eyes over. (One thing I definitely know that I'm not going to do is write a recap--you can look up the plot anywhere on the web or even the back flap of the book.) I admit, I've always been prone to classics, but hopefully this record will also help me branch out from just keeping company with the stories written by dead white people. This journal is long over due.

I feel like I should christen this blog, but I can't smash a bottle of champagne against the screen without resulting in a very sticky laptop, so here's the opening from one of my favorite books of all time, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

Gorgeous sense of rhythm and style, self deprecating humor, parallel structure, not to mention the inclusion of allusions to Poe--this hits the spot.