Guess who's studying in Florence over the summer?

Your favorite blogger (ME), that's who. For four weeks. FUNDED (I hope). In MAY AND JUNE. Oh yeah.

The last time I was in Florence I was whizzing around on the back of a scooter driven by a soccer-mad Italian man named Domenico.

Check. It. Out.:

READING FLORENCE AND TUSCAN ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM: AN INTRODUCTION
May 18-June 13, 2009
As an introduction to the buildings and public spaces of medieval and early Renaissance Florence, the brilliant architectural culture that between the 1290s and c. 1470 led all Europe. This course is conducted entirely on site in the buildings, streets, and squares of the city. Beyond fostering factual knowledge, we develop skills in archaeological, formal, iconographic, contextual, and site analysis. These skills potentially address not only Florentine studies, but the history of architecture in general. Emphasis is placed on the way buildings are situated, initiated, grow and change through time; the evolution of the classical tradition in Florence; the role of individual architects vs. collaborations; the materials and detailing of buildings, all media included; the form and function of public space, including perspectivism as well as religious, political, and economic use; the expansion and development of the city. Sites include the Baptistery, S. Miniato al Monte, S. Maria Novella, S. Croce, the Cathedral and Campanile, Orsanmichele, the Palazzo Vecchio, S. Lorenzo, the Pazzi Chapel, the Ospedale degli Innocenti, S. Spirito, the Palazzo Medici, and other aspects of the city, among them the walls and key vernacular works, in every case, studied in the context of their spatial environment. Access to parts of major buildings not normally open to the public is gained whenever possible. In addition, several field trips take the class outside Florence, for example to Siena, Pienza, and Montepulciano.

Words can not express how thrilled I am.

business of ferrets

For those of us nerdbombs out there that actually enjoy this sort of stuff--Blythe, I'm talking to you--here are two fabulous things, both related to my favorite dictionary website, AskOxford.com (what, you don't have a favorite dictionary website?):

1. Their FAQ is the awesomest thing I've come across in at least a week and a half (slow week). Sample question and answer:

Is there a term for the 'study of love'?

There is a word 'erotology' which is defined as "the 'science' of love". This is a rarely used word, except in anthropology, where it is found slightly more often. This term really relates to the study of sexual activity and techniques rather than to the study of love itself.* The only word this editor can think of for that is 'marriage'!**

2. They have also posted a fairly comprehensive list of terms of venery*... by which, of course, I mean collective terms for animals. Some of my favorites include:
cats: clowder
owls: parliament
rattlesnakes: rhumba
ferrets: business ...and this one wins for just sheer, wonderful absurdity:

Illustration--and interesting etymological background--may be found at Le Pen Quotidien.

Oh, also, Oxford University Press is having a sale through March 3.



* Not, say, life as a singleton in NYC?
** Madame Editor, your answer scares and depresses me.

where were you?

I was in MarieBelle chocolate shop, preparing to purchase a delicious gourmet hot chocolate to assuage my sad conviction that I had missed the speech whilst hair modeling, when I heard Obama's tinny voice echoing from somewhere in the depths of the store. I watched the inaugural speech streaming live on one of the dishwashers' computers in the back of the store, promptly started crying, and then got an "inaugural" hot chocolate compliments of the house.

A good day.

Also, I'm going blond: Exciting times, people.

blood of the bourgeoisie

Lindeman's Framboise: the blood of foppish Belgian dandies who dined only on raspberries and champagne.

emo lumberjack is not my favorite music genre (thoughts on Fleet Foxes on SNL, or: my dad may be a closet emo hippie)

Emo lumberjacks?
Isn't three guitars kind of overkill?
Long-haired, flannel-wearing falsettos?
Whiny Nirvana?
Seriously, is there like some beard requirement?
I sort of like the song "White Winter Hymnal" [video above] because it reminds me of Joan Baez or Peter, Paul, and Mary songs my Dad used to sing me as lullabies that were really just sad and/or scared the crap out of me (cf. "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "Blowing in the Wind," "What Do Ye Do With a Drunken Sailor?", all of which make me want to start crying for some odd reason [well, except for maybe the last]). ...Actually, if it reminds me of all those other minor-keyed songs, maybe I don't like it that much after all.


I confess myself confused. Though perhaps that's my dad's fault.



*Also, the guy on Burn Notice seems like a poor man's Guy Pearce. Thoughts?

There is a definite chance this post will be deleted since finding this video anywhere else is virtually impossible. If you haven't seen this skit from the Paul Rudd-hosted SNL in November--with some very awkward background dancers in a Beyonce "Put a Ring on It" video--then you've missed out.
Beyonce and Justin Timberlake SNL Skit (11/15/08)

I will not be watching Valkyrie

I saw The Lives of Others last year and it's so incredibly great that I can't even begin to explain. It's a caper! And a spy movie! And the music is great! And the acting is phenomenal! And my German teacher knew the lead actor!*



If you haven't seen it, RENT IT--it's fabulous. Even the music gives me a frission. Don't ask me why Berlin holds such a fascination for me (well, the answer is pretty simply that I lived there for 3 months working as a walking tour guide), but I've read a pretty significant number of books on Berlin/German history (I consider myself somewhat better acquainted with Berlin & German history than the average person yet somewhat far from a scholar; the books I have listed at the end fo the post after the jump).

...So when I say that I already knew the plot for Valkyrie, that Stauffenberg (that's Lt. Col. Klaus Philip Schenk, Count von Stauffenberg to the history books) is somewhat of a national hero in modern Germany, and that the idea of Tom Cruise with his Chicket-gum teeth swanning about with his ridiculous American accent and Disneyfied script makes me want to VOMIT, then perhaps you can understand why.
Whenever Tom Cruise speaks I find myself torn between laughing and crying (the words in italics are to be read with a slit-eyed INTENSE WHISPER):
At 0:16: "By nightfall I want to know that Hitler's Germany has seen its last sunrise."
At 1:31: "Anything... is a very... dangerous word."
At 2:45: "Action... is inevitable... as are the consequences."
....................ARGGGH. Shoot me.


...I mean, given my Berlin obsession, I'm going to have to see it eventually, but URGH.

* You know, some of the other movies I feel as strongly about as The Lives of Others include Hot Fuzz, Ocean's Eleven, and Sneakers. Go figure.


Berlinobibliophilia after the jump--
I have read the following books on Berlin/Germany
Stasiland by Anna Funder









The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor**









Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor**









Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William L. Shirer** (P.S. Try wandering around Germany while reading this book. It's a little awkward.)








The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape by Brian Ladd








Architecture in Berlin: The 100 Most Important Buildings and Urban Settings by Arnt Cobbers







Speer: The Final Verdict by Joachim Fest, Ewald Osers, and Alexandra Dring








Berlin: A Novel by Pierre Frei and Anthea Bell** (this was not actually a very good book)

The point is: I'VE READ A LOT ABOUT BERLIN. TOM CRUISE AND BRYAN SINGER AND THEIR WEIRDO HOLLYWOOD AMERICAN CHEESEBURGERS CAN SUCK IT.

** These books were all vacation books. As in, I read them on the beach instead of novels. Possibly the best non-beach beach book -- The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley, which still counts among the most important books I think I've ever read -- I read while on the blissful sands of Zanzibar. There was nothing to put my days flopping around drinking beer and agonizing over a death-spiral relationship in perspective like recollections of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Rwanda in the 80s and 90s.

hypomania doesn't clean the apartment

It seems not taking prescription uppers for the past three days means that I have lost any filtering mechanisms and all my patience. It also means that I am constantly engaged in either:
a) falling asleep on things,
or
b) dancing around the apartment and leaping over chairs and cats at 100mph to this song:

So mainly I just skank around the apartment jumping around and scaring the cats and then I pass out on the bed. And then I wake up and do it again. This is pretty much all I've been doing all day long. I'm telling you, ADD is no joke, and when you have to clean the apartment, it does NOT help get the job done.

she's baaaaaaack

Yes indeed, here I am to delight your senses once more (all 5 or 3 of you who actually read the blog). I had about a perfect storm of crap that prevented me from both a) finishing a paper and b) posting on this here blog. Now that the perfect storm and said paper are over, I am sleeping about 12 hours a day and avoiding cleaning up my room. Not bad. This lack of motivation (aka, absence of ADD meds in the bloodstream) unfortunately also translates into me falling asleep on most horizontal surfaces. Like, for instance, the computer keyboard in the school's computer lab (yesterday), the changing room stool at Banana Republic, most chairs, or this table. zzzzz.

behind the times

Yes, I know this is mega-old, but what am I going to do? Post about how much time I spent downloading Vampire Weekend songs? No.It still makes me laugh every time I see it.

my face: it hurts me more than it's hurting you

I have returned safely from the wilds of South Cakalacky, where many notable presents were exchanged, my favorite being the massage I got from my sis-in-law. Finished the paper on masquerade topoi in romance novels (which I'll send to you if you ask really nicely), met the world's most wonderful dog, and

I am alone, in my apartment with two cats, Indian food, and a sinus infection, writing a paper that was supposed to be due on December 18th. Have a happy effing new year, people.*


*Not that this prevented me from going out to a wine bar last night with former gallery boss and allowing a food stylist to arrange confetti in my hair all night. I live a weird life.