Dynomite

Kristen and I decided to make dinner together and it was such a good idea. We made superbly mouthwatering quesadillas and, as you can see, they went quickly.

I will post about my trip to France later. As well as a few important details about my life that happened before my vacation.

Over and Over

We get along really well.

Andmoreagain

It's snowing in London! And when I woke up, I couldn't breathe out of my nose! I'm sick again!

I think I'm sick because I went from moderate weather in London to decently warm weather in Nice to freezing "I can see my breath"-weather in Paris to the same freezing weather in London. It's cold! I don't think my body can keep up with my traveling.

Today, I'm just going to sleep and try to get better. If I have to step out in the cold, it will be because I have to go grocery shopping. Hooray for no school!

Modern Kicks

I'm b-b-back in London! It's good to be back.

I believe.

I'm in Paris now! The flight this morning was no problem. I got a window seat when I checked in with Air France. I later found out that I had the entire row to myself. I slept the entire way, except for a few minutes during which I devoured a croissant. Getting from the airport into the center of Paris is expensive, by the way!

My friend Alex (also an NYU student) brought me to his apartment, which is AMAZING. His living room is more than twice the size of my room in London, and he has this entire apartment to himself. He has a balcony that has a view of the Eiffel Tower! This morning when I got here, he bought me a sandwich, brought me to his place, poured me a glass of wine and took me to see his view. There I sat, enjoying the then shitty, now nice Paris weather while having a meal on a 5th story (6th floor in the American sense) balcony, staring at a world famous symbol. I'm going to have a good time in Paris, I think.

On a note completely unrelated to Paris: I feel so lucky.

California Love

Before I came to Nice, Vincent told me that, in his opinion, it must be like the "California of France." I can see it.

Today, I spent two hours at the beach listening to music and reading and dozing off. Then I walked to the Matisse Museum, which was further than I had anticipated -- and the walk there was mostly uphill. The museum was in a lovely park and, since I had walked so far uphill, the view was breathtaking. Old French men played their retirement lawn games and shouted compliments to me (or at me, I'm still not entirely sure). "Vous êtes très belle!" they said between puffs of their cigarettes, which they held between wrinkly and oranged fingers. It was funny.

What I wrote in the museum:
"These brights and brilliants scream Henri, as does my mind. This is the work of no dog, but of a man, a Matisse. To know that Vincent's grandfather was Matisse's hair dresser brings life to these colorful cut-outs and portraits. The photos I see are speaking so romantically to me. I can see Henri dip his straw hat to me as he walks by, no doubt thinking in blue but speaking in yellow. It's a maze of Matisse! This building winds in and out, singing, eating, breathing, bleeding Matisse! Living Matisse.

Bonjour Monsieur Matisse! Bonjour."

Saturday, Vincent and I went to Monaco, which was pretty and extravagant. We walked to the Monte Carlo Casino and two nice American boys gave us their tickets. Apparently, there's a ten euro charge to get in, and they just gave us their tickets so we didn't have to pay. According to my ticket, my name was Christopher Pangburn.

The casino itself was was so baller! Gaudiness to the extreme. The color scheme revolved around gold (duh), teal and mahogany. Everything was adorned, from the carpets to the "Toilettes Dames" sign. And since Monaco is a principality, there is no law against smoking inside so all of the gamblers had cigars and cigarettes, which left an odor of tobacco in the air.

This is what I wrote in the casino:
"Vincent and I sit as high rollers with wrinkled scowls bet their minimum of five euro (but probably more) and goofy tourists with tennis shoes and wide eyes wander the floors trying to look the part. What am I saying? I am one of those tourists here. I'm just sitting on the couch so as to not appear as in awe as I actually am. Smoke billows out of the mouths of men who show no concern for passers. Their eyes are glued to the chips that make that romantic clicking noise. The murmur of the room never rises above the clack-clack of those plastic (or maybe not) chips that are probably worth more than I have in my wallet. WTF MONTE CARLO CASINO!"

My face is hot so I think I might have gotten a little sunburnt today, even though I put sunscreen on so I wouldn't get burnt. Oh well. Dinner time.

Who Loves The Sun

I'm in Nice! The weather is lovely and this keyboard is weird. I guess this isn't exactly warm weather for the locals because they're walking around wearing sweaters and scarves. I'm in shorts and a tank top. It's not raining!

I'm visiting my friend Vincent, whom I met in Finland almost two years ago. He works during the days, so I have a lot of alone time. It's so refreshing. Today, I got up and went to read Virginia Woolf on the rocky, pebbled beach. Then I went for a long walk along the coast line. With the Promenade des Anglais to my left, the crystally teal Mediterranean to my right, and my favorite French musicians singing to me in my ears, I felt superbly happy. I bought myself lunch, walked around the old town and bought some postcards.

I would write more but this is taking way too much concentration to write simple things.

In conclusion, ùùùàààçççéééèè裣£¤¤¤µµµ!!!

Silence

I am off to France in a few hours!





















I have loads of news to share, but since it's 2:38 am and I need to get some sleep before hauling my ass to London Heathrow, I will embellish later.

Two Way Monologue

It's been a while since I wrote in here. A lot has happened in the past few weeks.

Some snippets about my academic life:
+ I got my first Contemporary Art in Britain essay back: B+
+ I had a presentation in my Writing London class about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" and my teacher seemed to like it.
+ My Reporting the Arts teacher had an ex-editor from Time Out London come talk to our class and, afterwards, I asked the guest about the possibility of working there. He gave me some contacts and told me that I can use his name to drop in my email. I don't think my teacher is too keen on helping me or my career, though. I emailed my teacher asking how to spell the speaker's name (since it's not an everyday name), and he never responded but waited until the next class to spell out the names. Not for me, mind you, but for the midterm "quiz" we're having next week.
+ I had a presentation on Marcus Harvey's art piece "Myra" (depicting rapist and murderer Myra Hindley) in my Contemporary Art in Britain class. Everyone liked it and told my group so.
+ I have a paper about Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde due tomorrow for my Writing London class. Normal school stuff.

Aside from that, life has been quite interesting. I have discovered that time spent away from this dreadful, dreadful "Nido" building is much more enjoyable. My friend Jaba lives in far east London (Essex, to be more specific), which is more suburban than the city. A lot of rich people and chavs (which, in Brit slang, essentially means white trash) live in Essex. It's a 45 minute tube ride there, but it's really nice to get away from everything for a bit. Not to mention, it's great to hang out with someone who has a TV and junk food for those lazy Sundays for which I sometimes long.

Also, one night when I was out at a party called Durrr, I brought my camera. I wanted to record my life, of course. And since my camera is so impressive and makes me look so professional, I was approached by a guy who said he works for London Kicks, an online fashion/art/music/nightlife magazine. He said their photographer wouldn't be able to make it and asked if I could photograph. I said yes, of course, since I was doing it anyway. This guy, my "boss", is named M+olaroid. (There is no + in his name, but I didn't want him to, say, google himself and find what I say about him.)

"M+olaroid? Like Polaroid with an M?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Is that your real name?"
"It is now."
"What was your name before?"
"I can't tell you; I hate to say it out loud."

He never told me. But what could be worse than M+olaroid?? Anyway, he's this eager, yet unprofessional youngin who is, I'm sure, milking the London nightlife to get his name out there. Regardless, he's helping me get my name out there, so it can't be all bad.

Here's a link to photos I took for the website:
http://www.londonkicks.com/display/pictures/?set=575BFB77-E0C4-ED84-0D949498E36946E4

There's actually a photo of me in there, but eh.

Another night, I went to a bar called Mahiki, which is this ridiculously expensive Hawaiian-themed yet ultra hip bar. Kristen and I went because MGMT, a Brooklyn band that we love, was supposedly having its after party there with a possible performance (which never happened). We made friends with a promoter-type person for it, so he told us about it. At the bar, we discovered that a pina colada was the cheapest thing on the menu (it was a special "Happy Hour" type deal), so we got one of those:




























After that, our friend told us about the "Smash and Grab Punch" which was only three quid. The drinks on the menu, however, ranged from nine quid to the thousands. It was quite a quirky bar. And Kelly Osbourne was there! Hip place, indeed.

Sunday night, I photographed something else for London Kicks, and the photos should go up today, so I can provide the link in my next post or you can peruse the site to find it on your own.

My Spring Break plans are once again become more concrete. As of now, I plan to go to Nice on the 13th of March (as in, a week and a half). I will stay there with a friend for about a week and then I will move on to Paris, where I have another friend with whom I will be staying. Since the cost of travel is now dramatically lower (since I don't have to pay for places to stay), I decided to opt for a plane trip instead of a grueling train or bus ride. My Mom hooked me up with a standby fare that will allow me the flexibility of flying that I'm used to, while making traveling more convenient. I hope.

Kristen and I have also planned a weekend trip to Barcelona the weekend after Spring Break. There are two DJs called Woolfy that we plan to see. That really inspired the whole weekend trip. The rest of the weekend, we plan to hit the museums, beach and nightlife. Sounds wonderful to me.

In other news: Morgan is coming to London this weekend!! I am so excited that I get to see her and I am going to show her everything I can in the short amount of time that she is here. Last Christmas, we decided not to get each other presents and, instead, save that money for a lovely dinner or a nice night out (or what have you) during our adventures in Europe.

And now for something completely different: Remember how I was so excited about photographing Nouvelle Vague? Here are the results. The band's manager even asked me to make a watermark for my photos in order to ensure that I am credited, no matter where the photos may appear.










































I hope that helps you catch up with my life recently. I'm sure I skipped a lot. I'm sure I skimmed over some details of the things I did mention.

In conclusion, this post is very scattered and random.