i didn't order snake

I've got a weird mix of spring fever and senioritis. How will I disract myself? I want to be outsiiiiiidddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeee.

In the meantime, this gentleman on the online had no choice but to draw 200 bad comics. Here they are. A few of my favorites are below.

I am eating bunny marshmallows and commenting on Art

First of all, this movie looks fantastic:
"The Fall," directed by Spike Jonze. A bit like Pan's Labyrinth meets Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Second, I am calling shenanigans on the Jonathan Schorr Gallery. I went there for a birthday party with Erin (my de facto cooking teacher) and one of the installations, well, I was immediately struck by its similarity to the beautiful lithographs that adorn my edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. Upon closer inspection - that's exactly what they were: the "artist" had, as he stated in his description of the piece, cut the lithographs out of the book and pasted them together. That's it. How does that get you a spot in a gallery?

Maybe I'll stick some of these bunny marshmallows together and put them in a gallery.

Grupo Corpo is worth the trip, OR, Naomi and I try to hurry spring along

Selcen is a friend of mine from college who now lives in new york, and on the most recent of our rare, once-in-a-blue-moon get-togethers, we made the trip up to White Plains to catch one of the last North American performances by Grupo Corpo. The show from this Brazillian dance copmpany was really incredible, fun, and inspiring; a video preview of their show can be seen here. Enjoy!

The following day, Naomi Milstein came to brooklyn for the day - she had been nearby at a conference - and we went to the Brooklyn Botanical gardens. This choice of activity might rightly be construed as seasonal optimism - nothing is yet in bloom, and it was kind of a chilly day. But we tried, and that's what counts, right? Can it be spring now, please?

(Of course it was endlessly wonderful as always to spend time with Naomi, a dear friend for ten years this fall!)

This is Easterween, this is Easterween...

I am the bunny sleeping under your bed....

I don't know what's weirder about this picture:
a) the t-shirt was bought for me by one of the dearest people in my life, sarah, who told me she knew immediately it was for me (and she was right!)
b) this is the first time those bunny ears have been off the clock in the living room in recent memory
c) i wish this were my driver's license photo

Happy Easter, everybunny....

"Sho' yo' gonna be a doctor, baby!"

That's always been my favorite line from Raisin in the Sun. And today, it's more than funny. It's true.

Well, it's official. Today the emphasis is on the once and future dr. science. I have made my decision: I have accepted the invitation of the University of Michigan to attend in the fall for my doctorate in neuroscience.

Also: Happy Birthday, mom!

Patty Freakin' McGuire, that's who.

I suppose it's only fair. I've got to revise my previous stance on facebook (i.e. "Guns don't kill people, Facebook kills people"). After all, a "foolish consistency," says Emerson, "is the hobgoblin of a little mind."

You know when the last time was I used that quote? About the same time I last saw Patty McGuire - my junior year of high school. Through the creepy magic of facebook, we got back in contact, and when she happened to be coming to new york, we were able to arrange to have brunch in Brooklyn.

Patty's awesome. Always has been. Funny, smart, and super creative. It'd been what, 10 years? 11?

Nicely done, Facebook. You've won this round.

Ain't no party like a natural history museum planetarium dance party with music by DJ Jazzy Jeff because a natural history... (well you get the point)

A super-fun dance party last Friday with Kristin Baker (co-founder of the free-cookie acquisition squad known as The Confectioners) and a metric hojillion other people. And yes, it was that DJ Jazzy Jeff. Also, yes, this is picture of a meteorite from space in which someone has deposited their empty beer can. C'mon, people, it came from Space! Show some respect.

Anyways, fun times.

The District and I have a slumber party

It's no less true the more I say it: I have really amazing friends. And it's sad when the course and drift of our lives makes for diaspora more than continued life in the same circles, but, by that same token, it's really wonderful when we get to reunite.

I needed badly to get out of NYC for the weekend, and I'd been talking for a long time about heading south to visit Elizabeth McQueen in DC. Liz is a former U of M cheerleader who decided to do some theatre when we were in college together, and appeared in Information for Foreigners. She has since gone to grad school and now works redesigning airspace (no, I'm not kidding). She is ridiculously smart and curious and funny and I really miss spending time with her.

The train ride to DC is about 3.5 hours, which flew by (courtesy of my nintendo DS and Professor Layton and the Curious Village; I love that game so hard). Once I got to DC, Liz and I had dinner and went out dancing (followed by a dance party in the car on the way home, to such wonderfully bad dance songs as "Relax, Take it Easy" by Mika and "World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclair).

Saturday we spent lazing about at Liz's in Maclean, Virginia, (which I don't have a picture of but, is in the same city where the CIA is headquartered), and went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum so I could see some dinosaurs. Then we met up with her friend Sarah and Heather and saw "Be Kind, Rewind," which was gorgeous in a typical Gondry fashion but not so well acted. Then we headed into DC with Liz's friend Mike to meet with my friends Drew and Isabelle for salsa dancing at this tiny club. Liz and I stayed up until something like 6 (which was just like old times) talking about everything. Sunday was spent hanging out in Dupont Circle (pictured here). Voltaire's is gone - replaced by a new Thai place, sad as that is. We returned home and I jumped on the train and headed back.

I had forgotten how much I love DC. I'd happily move there (and maybe I will when it comes time to look for postdocs) and seeing Liz was really good for me. With so much instability and craziness in my life over the last year, it's great to spend time with people who are characterized by being consistently great, even as they grow and change.

I am indeed the future Dr. Science

I've held off talking about this online not only because I respect the jinx more than most, but also because I've heard horror stories about applicants' online words finding their way to interviewers' eyes - but at this point it's looking more and more like the matter is settled, so...let me start by saying: The application process for phds in neuroscience/genetics is really long and complicated. There are an awful lot of pieces that have to be compiled, you have to take the GRE, and then you have to battle the labyrinthine university bureaucracies who will try to tell you that what you've submitted never actually arrived/was in the wrong form. Several hundred dollars later, though, there's some fun to be had in the form of interview trips.

Of the schools to which I've applied, I was fortunate enough to get interviews at the top two. Which is a mystery in and of itself, I guess: Why would the top two programs in the country want me, but not the safety state schools to which I applied? Odd, that. Anyways, the program that's not in NYC, a neuroscience program, flew me out, put me up in a hotel, bought me every meal at fancy restaurants, and basically fawned all over me to get me to go there and it was AWESOME. Everyone should have that experience at least once in their life, that's for sure. The program in NYC, in genetics, was not so splendid, but still kind of cool with more subdued fawning.

That difference is really indicative of the contrast between the programs, though: the latter is unquestionably the most important school in the history of genetics, but seems to be resting on its reputation and laurels in the expectation that students will still want to attend. The former is making a real giant-size move for science, is already ranked #1 for behavioral neuroscience, and clearly wants to assemble the resources for a bright future. And their students get paid to fly all over the world for conferences and to give lectures; I met students who'd just returned from China and London. And they called me a day after the interview to tell me I was in (which both programs sort of unofficially told me on my interviews).

At this point I still have to hear from a few more schools, but these two were, at the outset, my top picks. I'm really surprised by the program in NYC's shabby present state, given its pedigree, but folks I talk to tell me that's not the first they've heard of it. I'm definitely leaning strongly toward the neuroscience program, but though the location is not ideal (exactly how much that should matter, I don't know).

I'll keep you posted on what I decide (which will have to happen soon, whether or not I hear from my remaining schools).

Blogging is not like this...

...so feel free to get excited for updates from grad school interviews, science, freemasonry, a birthday message for Alan Trammel, and notes from this weekend's super-awesome trip to DC. Coming very very soon!

Oh, internet. Don't ever change.

Man, I'd forgotten how amazing Engrish.com is. And speaking of wonderful ways to spend (cough waste cough) time when you're frustrated from work and preparing for your upcoming interviews, did I mention I met the guy who draws the Perry Bible Fellowship? Actually, I take that back. I'm pretty sure the guy who does the perry bible fellowship played a joke on the bookstore and sent some dude off the street (who may or may not have been stoned), because when people would say, "hey, we love your website!" he'd look really confused and respond, "Website? Oh...yeah. Lot of good stuff on that...website."

Also worth checking out if you've got "spare" time:
GORGEOUS TINY CHICKEN MACHINE SHOW with your host Kiko This is first on the list because if you haven't seen it then you are a bad person. Watch both episodes.

Got a big bag of crabs? Here's an idea for you.

I LOVE YOU EGGS "Eggs I really love you, like the skies above." Um...what? Oh, and carrots, too.

The Meth Minute 39 is a series of short, really odd and funny cartoons. "Watermelon Nights" is amazing, and "Mike Tyson's Brunch Out" is a classic.

30 Hornets annihilate 30,000 Bees Honestly the most insane thing I have seen to come out of nature in a long time. Who knew hornets were such killing machines?

Enjoy!

Ye Olde Holiday Newsletter, OR, Well here comes trouble

The holidays were lovely, even if also a little jagged. Christmas saw a brief trip to the motherland, with Hilary and I cooking up some food for the big day, as well as a rather dramatic Christmas eve mass in a church devoid of lights or heat. Oh, and while I never get to see everyone I want to when I go home, I did happen to finally cross paths with someone of particular importance...



That's right, the muse of the visual arts herself, Lindsey Sherline (complete with stylish fake hair). I hadn't seen her in something like 3 or 4 years, and we've both been through a lot of changes. But we had such a good time catching up, and it genuinely does me good to spend time with her.

New year's was the most fun I've had in a while. Cousin Heather came to town and we attended a dinner party at Rachel Razgunas's. Rachel recently moved here with her fiancee, and this was a sort of housewarming/welcome to new york/happy 2008 party. Then Heather and I went dancing at the Brooklyn Lyceum until we were both ready to collapse. Let me tell you - with 2007 having been such a complex and painful year, counting down to midnight while you dance your brains out is a pretty good remedy. Hello, 2008. Let's be friends, shall we?

p.s. I don't want to jinx anything, YOU KNOW I DON'T, but so far (and it's really early still) I've heard back from two of the ten grad schools to which I applied, and both have asked me to come and interview! So keep your collective fingers crossed, internet.

A Transgene Special Report (sort of)

Of the myriad characters created to market products to children, perhaps none were so bizarre as those inhabiting McDonaldland, which opened its doors to the world in 1971. From the milkshake-obsessed, walking, talking tumor known as Grimace to the utterly baffling Mayor McCheese (were we supposed to want to eat his head?) the citizens of McDonaldland presented a puzzling, yet tantalizing, view of a world in which McDonald's food products were not only purchased by everyone, but actually became everything in the world itself.

That is, until recently. From Wikipedia,
Late 2007
As the ongoing obesity epidemic in western nations has been increasingly noted by the mainstream media, McDonald's and other fast food chains have been under increasing pressure to revamp their products and advertising with healthier alternatives. As part of this campaigns, McDonald's has agreed to discontinue marketing to children under the age of twelve and the McDonaldland characters will be completely eliminated;[citation needed] Ronald has been recast as a role model for healthier lifestyles.


This news item, while as yet unsubtantiated from other sources, raises an important question: what will become of those characters who filled the ranks of the McDonaldland Army? What's next for this cast of rogues?

To answer these questions, I sat down with perhaps the most beloved of these characters, the Hamburglar, in his hideout in McDonaldand.
TG: So, thanks for meeting.
HB: No problem, robble. Did you bring those hamburgers I asked for?
TG: (handing over a bag of mcdonald's hamburgers)
HB: (quickly eating the hamburgers)
TG: You're still eating McDonald's, even after the news? You aren't angry with the company?
HB: Hey, think about that for a minute, robble. This is the only food I've eaten for the past thirty-six years. Doesn't that seem strange to you? Like there wasn't any other food around? Why'd I keep trying to steal hamburgers? They made me an addict, robble. That's why. Got me hooked. I try to stop the stuff, I get the shakes. Bad.
And hell yes I'm mad at them. Robble. I'm a kleptomaniac who's got a criminal background and a speech impediment, robble robble, and no work experience in the past four decades. What can I possibly do? Ain't nobody going to hire me now. (the Hamburglar begins to sob uncontrollably)

Careful, he'll hypnotize you with treats, and that's when he sneaks in the Judaism

Oh look! Free pie! My favorite kind of thing to find in the kitchen!

And aww, it's from Andrew!



WAIT WAIT WAIT...what's this in small print at the bottom?


Well, I'm sorry Jesus, but that was some excellent pie. Perhaps you'd like to make a delicious counter-offer?

HALLO-WHOA this update is late

Yeah, so as I find myself listening to the Mountain Goats' song "This year" on a daily basis for its resounding chorus of "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me," it appears my blog updates have been absent for some time from my "Oh good lord get this done right now" list. But after a harrowing trip to New Jersey this evening (feel free to go ahead and die, New Jersey) I decided to do some end-of-the-year updating. So here are a whole bunch of pictures from halloween! Sorry they're not getting the treatment they deserve. Also, hooray for mermaid dog!

someone please buy me this right now

I'll have trip updates soon. in the meantime, somebody start bidding because christmas is coming soon!

UGH.

Why do all these people with chronic and persistent mental illness persist in having chronic mental illness? Seriously you guys, feel better soon. Even though you won't see this post.

Let me just say that working in theatre at Fountain House has really made me have to learn how to adapt techniques on the fly and how important it is to plan for people slipping off meds, ending up back in hospitals or homeless, etc. In other news, the recording of several new plays, monologues and songs from people I've been working with is almost done! I will be sending it everywhere and to everyone when it's finished.

No one wants to play Sega with Harrison Ford; Christopher Walken builds a Robot

"Bad Day on the High Sea" is the title of this piece by Brandon Bird, who paints some pretty great things. If you liked Perry Bible Fellowship and can identify Chuck Norris, you'll like these. So you should go here and see them!

(also, RC 40th update coming soon)

This is pretty crazy right here

This is pretty freaky. I see it going clockwise, but I can get it to reverse if I think about it. Bizarre!

Oh man, Teen Wolf!

I love movies. And the more movies I see, the more I appreciate those that really stand out - the ones you keep talking about weeks after you see them, or that you honestly get excited about when you see they're coming on TV.

Just this past week my friend Maria (just back from seeing her family in Italy) and I saw "Cranes are Flying," a remarkably shot film from 1957 which tells the story of a Russian family's involvement in WWII. The director does some pretty impressive things, and his later film, "I am Cuba," has been brought back for circulation by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorscese. I'll be seeing that this coming weekend.

I also saw the new edition of Blade Runner at the Zigfield Theatre at my brother-in-law's suggestion as part of my eldest sister's birthday celebration (what a convoluted sentence). The new version looks great - the flaws from the old version have been touched up along with the music, and the film's plot holds up surprisingly well.

And tonight, Teen Wolf is on AMC! Teen Wolf!