Not Quite Missed Connection

So I'm sitting on the subway, minding my own business, heading toward work when a girl gets on the train wearing the exact same Beck shirt that I got when I saw him live last year, except in green. In case you don't remember my post-show post, the shirts were do-it-yourself; you bought a blank shirt and a bunch of iron-ons and designed your own shirt right there. Most people went the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink route, but I chose a more minimalist approach: A psychedelic raindrop encapsulating Beck's name and a cityscape.

Sitting on that train, seeing that girl with the same shirt, I realize that she must be my One True Love. Only right when I'm almost done gathering the courage to talk to her, she sits down with her back to me, revealing a (crooked!) picture of Beck on the back of her shirt.

I got off the train at the next stop without saying a word.

Whoa (OR The Hermeneutics of Harry Potter)

Dumbledore's gay?

My thoughts, in no particular order:

-Given that Dumbledore bears a striking resemblance to a certain Gandalf the Grey, was Rowling inspired by Ian McKellen?

-Why now?

-The Harry Potter books are bringing an interesting hermeneutical question to light. There's a longstanding debate on how best to read texts: do you read them as entirely independent entities, drawing your own conclusions, or do you try to read them the way the author intended? Usually, it's not particularly easy to figure out what the author intended. You can't go ask Dante how we're supposed to react to his finding all his role models in hell. But here we have J.K. Rowling traveling around the world telling children facts about the characters, their pasts, and their futures that do not appear anywhere in the book, and often aren't even really hinted at. The Dumbledore thing I'll buy, but Hermione becoming a wizard lawyer after the only mention of her thinking about law is her saying that she'd hate to be a lawyer? I guess it works, but I'd be hesitant to claim it's in the text.

A further example of what I'm talking about: In telling the world that Dumbledore was gay, Rowling also described the Harry Potter story as "a plea for an end to hatred, to bigotry." While I think there is definitely bigotry in the book, and it is uniformly frowned up, my take is that the bigotry is more a function of people being good and people being bad. Yes, Voldemort wants to create a master race of pureblood wizards, but that's secondary to his general malevolence and his status as a dark wizard. Now, I'm not saying my reading is right, and according to Rowling, it's wrong, but the question I'm really trying to raise for your consideration is ultimately one about the final arbiter. Is it Rowling or the book? Who's righter?

Coming full circle in my post, it sorta reminds me of Tolkien's adamant claims that The Lord of the Rings is not about World War II. Whether he meant to or not, the WWII stuff is there. I think the key difference between Harry Potter and other cases like Tolkien, is that Rowling is not merely offering her own interpretation of the material but relating facts that are not mentioned in the book. I don't really know how I feel about it yet, but I do think it's interesting to consider.

People who know me know that I'm big fan of driving. Sure it's a great form of transportation, but mostly I just like the act of driving and everything it entails: going fast, windows down, good music vaguely audible in the background. My friends used to get mad at me back when I first started driving and didn't really know where I was going. We'd get lost a lot and it never bothered me; getting lost in a car was an adventure!

So it's with that in mind that I link you to this awesome WIRED article about the guy who broke the Cannonball Run record. The way he did it, tricked out with GPS systems and spreadsheets, may not be the most romantic method, but it's still a really cool article.

Also, because I love you, here's a BONUS LINK:
Happy 10th birthday, Zaireeka!
(Zaireeka is a 4-disc Flaming Lips album. Each disc has two of the audio tracks from each of the album's eight songs. You play them (and LOUD!) on four different CD players (or more, if you burn copies or use computers). The result is one of the most enthralling music-listening experiences ever. Columbia people, stay tuned for info on a Zaireeka party. I'm dead serious.)

SAM WILL STOMP YOU!

USING HIS GIANT FOOT! (or a drawing of his actual-size foot that makes it appear to be giant!)

Galactus!

One of the really cool/uncool things about working at Marvel over the summer was that I was privy to a lot of information that I was not allowed to share with the public. For example, I had to make sure people knew Phil Jimenez was working for Marvel before I wrote that post about him. If it hadn't been public knowledge someone might have noticed and drawn conclusions, which would have been bad news for me.

Another example was one of the funniest things I witnessed during the summer, which was my editor Tom Brevoort dressed up as Galactus for an extra on the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer DVD. I desperately wanted to post a picture but decided it was not a good idea. Anyway, Tom has now posted about it over on his blog, which means I can write about it. Of course, that mostly just entails me telling you to follow that link because the pictures are priceless and his summary of his time as one of the most powerful entities in the universe is equally hilarious.

Yeah, I'm done.

Adventures in typography!

Somewhat inspired by this awesome blog about superhero comic logos, a lot of my doodles of late have been less in the figure drawing vein and more in the typography vein, even the ones that aren't the titles for my weekly Heidegger class. Among other things, I've been trying to hand-draw something resembling a serif font, with decent results. I don't really like how the "Day 6" turned out, but I put it up because it fit the theme. On the other hand, I think the "Day 5" title is really cool. I am also really amused by the fact that my Plato's Republic banner ended up look suspiciously (and utterly coincidentally) like the Banana Republic logo.

Two in one day?

Yes, two posts in one day... shocking, isn't it? Must be one of three things: either I'm avoiding doing homework, Ahmadinejad's come back, or I finished a new song. At least two answers are acceptable; I'll let you guess which ones.

Anyway, here's my newest song Young and In Love.

It's about, well, young love, but also robots and dancing. Enjoy.

The Evolution of a Self-Portrait

Had to do a self-portrait for class, scanned a few versions of it in between corrections and stuff, thought it might be interesting to someone (mostly my mom). Lemme know what y'all think. Does it get better? Worse? The same?
(click any picture for a bigger version)




EDIT: Here's the photo I was working from, if you're curious:

Talk about Fellini, over fettucini

No dice with the Varsity show, so I think I'll post my second audition piece. It's a slow jam about a Columbia Date called "Do It Right". Here are the rules I had to follow/things I had to include:
-a rhyme involving a species of dinosaur and another involving a type of pasta
-a joke aimed at a member of the creative team
-an instrumental, different dance section
-a final chorus with four part harmony.

At first I was pretty bummed I didn't get the job, but now I'm feeling pretty good. I mean, I used to be scared of writing vocal harmonies into my songs, but this one has a five-part final chorus! So that's pretty cool. Anyway, I apologize it's slightly rough, I only had a few days to write and record it, plus I did all the backup vocals (besides the female ones done by the inimitable Caroline Sherman) myself. And it's hard to be your own a cappella group. Seriously.

Okay, without further ado... HERE it is. Enjoy!

Back in the Saddle (That's a country music pun)

It's funny how I'll be so good about posting all the time and then TOTALLY lose it and not post for a week. But this time I have a really good excuse, I swear! I mean, I haven't even seen the latest episode of Californication yet!

The reason, you ask? Well, in addition to applying to my first job (McKinsey!), I also have been auditioning for the Varsity Show composer/lyricist. For you non-Columbia people, the Varsity Show is a huge musical put on every spring. It's totally student-done and one of Columbia's oldest traditions. I mean, Rodgers and Hammerstein got their start writing music for the Varsity Show. Anyway, I applied and got a callback and just had my second audition tonight so I'm kind of freaking out, fretting (pardon the guitar pun) about whether I got the job.

Okay, that was all just a long-winded way of explaining the song I'm putting up. It is by no means an official definitive recording of the song, but it is A recording of my first audition piece. The prompt was a song about going out at/around Columbia. So here's my song, entitled "Choosy Guy". Enjoy.