In lieu of the now official Holiday Season, I present my list of things that I am thankful for… (v. 2008)!
I am thankful for:
- Baking
- Thesis going well/enthusiasm
- Friends who are nice
- Family who is atleast sorta there when I need them to be
- Cheap beer
- Well paying jobs even though I really have no marketable skillz.
- Tobey the Topaz (always and 4eva!)
- technology–for making it super easy to stay in touch with everyone
- the cutest holiday pie ever! (i.e. my Christmas tree pumpkin pie!)
- Maybe my sister getting it together? Atleast I hope so.
- days when I feel like I can conquer the world.
- CHEAP GAS! (again, but probz the last time ever).
Finally, I am NOT grateful for:
- uncertainty re: the future
- my beezy adviser
- the economy being real bad
- feeling down (still)
Sooo… today at about 7:15am, I finished the first chapter of my thesis for the Reed College Spanish Department.
Covering Alejandra Pizarnik’s life, bibliographic development, cultural and historical place, in addition to an analysis of some common themes throughout her work, my thesis chapter is done. DONE DONE DONE. After many many many hours, I have laid it to rest (or given birth to it?). Now it sits amongst the other completed first chapters of Reed’s Division of Literature and Languages.
It is 9,631 words long. 29 pages double-spaced, lowered to 1.5 for not looking so verboses’s sake. I’m proud of it. Now, I present it, my completed first chapter to you, my loyal audience.
Here it is: DOWNLOAD ME!!
Filed under: School
Expect a Thanksgiving “What I’m Thankful for” post soon. The sooner it appears, the more severe my writer’s block is… I assume it will increase as the hour of my chapter deadline (i.e. 12noon Pacific Time) grows increasingly nearer.
Best concert. Ever. Highlights include:
- “Where the Devil Don’t Stay”
- the entire encore
- DBT’s cutie new keyboardist
- “Let There Be Rock”
- “Constructive Summer”
etc. DBT and the Hold Steady tore apart “Killer Parties” in the encore. It was great. I wish DBT had been the closer, and I wish they had played a longer set (with “The Living Bubba”), but all in all, I left satisfied.
I’d forgotten how happy Craig Finn and Patterson Hood (and all of DBT and the Hold Steady) make me. They truly love doing what they’re doing and that joy just spreads throughout the audience (which was sold out–I think, but definitely the biggest crowd I’ve seen at the Crystal Ballroom before).
Good night. (Massive night?)
… in 4 hours. Yay! I wish DBT were the closers, but I still love the Hold Steady (just a little less though) and I’m worried that DBT won’t play for 3 hours like the last time I saw them.
That said, I’m still way excited.
In her diary, Alejandra Pizarnik wrote that her epitath should be:
“Hame acontecido lo que más temía. “
Or “What I most fear has come.”
This is Jon 3:25.
From Reina Valera (the first all-Spanish Bible), the full quote is: “Porque el temor que me espantaba me ha venido, Y hame acontecido lo que temía.”
Which for all you King James folks is essentially: “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”
I took the liberty of tweaking it just a little to fit with the schematics of my argument.
This quote can be read in either a negative or positive light. I’d like to think Pizarnik meant it to be a sort of “well, the worst is over” scenario, but I’m pretty sure (sadly) that she meant to say she saw the inevitable low point and was paralyzed by helplessness. Her life story makes me sad. While rereading her journal entries for 1971 today, I almost cried. It hurts to think she was so sad; it hurts even more to realize that I understand where she was coming from.
My thesis, it should be said, is going well. With a little over 48 hours to go, I stand at a solid 24 pages, with no editing left; however, I do need to add details, poetic analysis and “theory” so my first chapter doesn’t read quite so bibliographic. Which is a good point, I guess, but I hate lit theory. And surrealism, but that isn’t stopping me from writing about it….
I’ll post my chapter Monday. Read it with caution. As it is long, prone to hyperbole, and scattered with “liberties” (not really, though).
Filed under: Música, School | Tags: Fear and Loathing in Hunts Vegas, Jhi-Ali, Paper Route Records, Pizarnik, thesis
A year+ after I first got wind of the boys over at Paper Route Records, they finally dropped their mixtape: Fear and Loathing in Hunts Vegas. I’m glad I stuck it out. Download (and pay what you want for) it at maddecent.
Peep my favorite song off the deal, here:
Jhi-Ali – Alabama (feat. Cooley da Dude & Big P.O.P.E.)
What can I say this song is about as good as rap seems to get anymore. You got the oldies soul sample (Sam Cooke “Long Time Coming”), dirty pride, hard knock story. However, this song is over a sick beat with some great rappers. I especially was impressed with Big P.O.P.E.’s stanza.
((Also, I’m sorta all about B.o.B right now and I don’t really know why just yet…))
Thesis is going. Slowly, but going. First draft due on Monday. Mad editting to find time to do in between now and then. (minus the now since I’m writing two other papers now, but whatever. It will get done.)
Finally, I got a Reed grant to spend my winter break in Princeton studying Pizarnik’s diaries and other collected papers in the Rare Manuscripts and Books Collection. I’m super psyched. Never been to Jersey, gonna go to NY for the first time! Hopefully, I’ll spend more time in the library than traveling/wandering.
5,000 words!
I am soo close.
This is good.
As such, I present my thesis writing music:
“S.O.S.” – The Jonas Brothers
And I’m NOT ashamed.
3,362 words of unedited bliss. Nearing in on 7 pages single-spaced. 10 is what I need. 6 is what I got.
I CAN DO THIS!
It feels really good getting near the finish line (and near the deadline) when other people I know haven’t even begun yet. Word. First time ever, I’m the ready one!
I have words — to my thesis! Real words! Real pages! Even real thoughts!!
Ooh, at this moment I like being an academic.
Now as long as I can keep this attitude going, the next, uh, 60 hours or so, and across the next, uh, 4,000 words or so, I’ll have a rough draft of my first chapter!!
