let me explain

A few months ago, I made this post, begging France to take me back soon. At the time, I figured I wouldn't see that beautiful country for at the very least another year or two.

I thought I was kissing my "Carte 12-25"* goodbye, because it expires the 29th of June 2011. I tacked to my wall for purely sentimental reasons. Wrong! I plan to use that thing ASAP to visit my dearest Amandine in Auxerre.

I had tucked my Passe Navigo** away for safekeeping. But that thing will be back in business starting the 22 of January.

You may ask, my dear friends, why?

I've been hired to teach French 102 and 201 on study abroad this winter semester.

Interpretation: I go to France for free. Travel and housing paid for, plus my normal teaching salary.

DISCLAIMER: This is a blessing - not my own doing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Powers That Be.

*French rail pass for people under 25 travelling
** swipe card for the Paris Metro

i'm going back

so soon, so soon

on why edgar poe is great

I'm in the middle of writing a paper for my class on Edgar Allen Poe class, and found this in a Google search for "Masque of the Red Death." Do you ever find that the more you learn, the more your learning overlaps, and overlaps in the strangest ways imaginable? This article describes what for me is a crossover between a course I took in Cambridge on experimental/avant-garde literature/theatre/art and my current Poe class. In this production, the audience participates (avant-garde!) in the "bacchanal" described in "Red Death."

More entertaining, though, was the author's summaries of a couple different Poe stories:

"tales like “Ligeia” (ghost of gloomy guy’s first wife makes trouble for second), “The Cask of Amontillado” (gloomy guy immures frenemy in wine cellar) and “The Fall of the House of Usher” (super-gloomy guy’s sister is buried alive, and house undergoes extreme makeover)."

Hope I make it through the semester without becoming "gloomy guy" or his wife.

on how i am jean seberg

I apologize for the double post, but I cut my hair today.

Me:
And this is Jean Seberg circa 1960 in Jean-Luc Godard's À Bout de Souffle.
Whaddayathink?

on why grooveshark and npr are good.

I recently got into a conversation with a friend about the respective merits of Grooveshark and Pandora. After some pretty heated debate, we came to this compromise: that Pandora is good for discovering new music, while Grooveshark is good for building playlists of stuff you already like.

But then I realized that Grooveshark is actually great for discovering new music. Case in point, my new love for Ben Sollee. Here's one of my favorite songs, Copper and Malachite. Found on Grooveshark. Though Grooveshark won't spoonfeed you new music the way Pandora does, a bit of quick and painless searching can bring you lots of joy.

But back to Copper and Malachite. Speaks to my soul:

"And I want to show you
This loose board in the floor
This is where I keep my heart
Yes, this is where I keep my heart
Not on my sleeve"

Croon it to me, Ben.

As long as we're on music, let's have a moment for the new Sufjan Stevens album, Age of Adz, slated to come out Wednesday. But lucky us, NPR music did a First Listen special on the album, you can listen to the entire thing online. Isn't NPR hip? And isn't Sufi great?


LATER / UPDATE