Thursday, July 31, 2008

Bonnaroo 2008




BONNAROO 2008 was amazing, it was more than I could have expected. Its truely the last time I was really at peace for so many consecutive days this whole summer... It reminded me of the vibes and spirit of Praha, I felt centered and inspired. Im still wearing the bracelet to remember the great energy on those days in humid Manchester, TN. The drum circle was great, I really got into the beat, delved into the cadences and really felt it, not since that day in November in prag when i went with Allison ansd Chip to Matrix in Zizkov have I been inside like that... expansive. I was on beat and I have been tone deaf since birth. Holla-hooping in the laser lights was also pretty sick... both at night and in the day.

Allison Krauss and Robert Plant on the last day was great/ Gogol Bordello had a the most energetic concert and crowd the fans moshed on like it wasnt 100 outside...

Mama J & I at the fountain





Fountain in Centeroo


The Drumcircle in the Art shack


Our tent area !



Eugene! one of the favorite performances at the Festival


The Battle of Evermore- Robert Plant & Allison Kraus





Gogol Bordello- Alcohol




Monday, July 21, 2008

I am here, this is now

Ive had my heart broken, the first time it was a man, a mere mortal. This time I feel like I was dumped by an entire continent. My heart was broken by a myriad of faces/places/feelings... IM still in limbo getting over this tremendous break up.
Ive felt empty since I arrived, I know its time to snap out of it. The present and future only count, not the past. This convo with my friend really opened my eyes. She is right...

Genie814XX (1:24:46 AM): i only met the sweetest awesomest people in europe

itchygrasshopper (1:25:02 AM): i met plenty of douchy ppl everywhere

Genie814XX (1:25:12 AM): they actually valued me and abve all were INTERESTING and creative.

Genie814XX (1:25:27 AM): here im just a joke to people it seems

itchygrasshopper (1:26:05 AM): all ur friends yesetersday made comments on how wonderful and creative u are

itchygrasshopper (1:42:40 AM): i dnno gina mayeb u met a good bunch of pll but "ppl in EUrope" are just as ignorant and douchy as anywhere else

itchygrasshopper (1:42:56 AM): trust me, i met a bunch

Genie814XX (1:50:05 AM): i know im just generaling but still

itchygrasshopper (1:50:34 AM): u had a good experience it passed and now ur whole life revolves aroudn it

Genie814XX (1:54:02 AM): maybe you're right

Genie814XX (1:54:11 AM): but maybe its trivializing it too

Genie814XX (1:54:13 AM): i dont know

itchygrasshopper (1:54:22 AM): move on

itchygrasshopper (1:54:32 AM): ur still living in prague
itchygrasshopper (1:54:36 AM): even tho ur here


IM still living in Prag, even tho im here...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

fitter happier citizen

job searchHHHH< frenzy everyday, i feel soo anxious, and depressed, useless and bemused...I cant seem to break out of the wake up at 2pm Cycle. Last night my dreams involved fleeing from corrupt political officials... I think George Bush Sr. was in my dreams, we hid out in a hotel, and glanced past the Venetian Blinds to see when they would come. I forgot what the circumstances were.

Last night I had to leave the house. What the fuck is a target job title on Monster.com?? I never thought I would endlessly spend time on career building websites... I cleaned my room, firmly, washed the wooden floors, they will never shine the apartment is far to old for that. No a/c I sweat my balls of. I sat on the beach and watched the moon, nice breeze, midnight swimmers and kids on the lifeguard chairs. The water only existed beneath the moon, where it shown tinted white and rippling. I brought my Illuminated Ginsberg, I had originally purchased it as a gift but decided to keep it for myself. I read " An Eastern Ballad"
I dream of love that comes to mind, the moon is faithful although blind, she moves in thought, she cannot speak perfect care has made her bleak.I never dreamed the sea so deep, the earth so dark, so long my sleep. I have become another child, I wake to see the world go wild."

How lucky I am, I thought. that I can observe the moon and sea on one night. Czech Republic was landlocked, for infinite kilometers, some see the moon and not the sea. But seeing both is definitely a privilege that only certain inhabitants of the earth can attest to having. You can see the tidal connection, indirectly sense the relationship of the moon to the waves.
Everything was black, the sky, the sea. An aperture in the sky, was the round moon. And the aperture of white in the sea was the white foam from the crashed waves. 6 mississippi counts between the waves. Now I feel like the moon, im blind i cannot form comprehensive sentences, I cannot speak, I exist in my thoughtatataxia mindmedley. I was spoiled living in Europe, free thought, art ,movement, esthetic beauty in everyday places and emotions. Now im bleak, disillusioned, I never would have thought readjusting would be like this... A part of me has already readjusted but a part of me doesnt want to, for it would be regressing. I have to make NY work for me, where else do I have to go and with what funds? Exactly! Soo the job search continues, I need to enroll in a Masters prog. in the fall hopefully before Im completely detached from academia...
For now I feel like the Unknown Citizen, a squalid state, one from which we can all escape, better never to visit to begin with.



THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN
(To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

-- W. H. Auden

the "odd in" pun is a a self reference that Auden made to himself to mask and mock society's persecution his gay lifestyle.

-------------------------
FITTER HAPPIER

a few decades later no change :
Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries ,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at
(moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tires that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic
like a cat
tied to a stick,
that's driven into
frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Goodbye's too good a word

I knew that when I created the "Prag" blog there would come a time where it would no longer apply no would it be true, it would be a mere nostalgia. And that time has come, for I am no longer in Prag, no longer in Europe no longer so embedded in this specific lifestyle that was my world. No more Latin Cafe, Vlatva River picnics on the ostrov under the Narodni Divadlo bridge. 25 crown juicebox wine that we would drink through straws. No more Blind Eye, Domshke Djing and that expat crowd. No more walking on the railroads by Zizkov park with Jo, and discovering a giant trampoline, obviously there just for mine and Pierre's enjoyment. No more delicious beer that was so perfectly carbonated that the temperature gave you tongue the best zing, it would freshen your breath and compliment and meal or lack thereof. No more Pilsner Urquell(anywhere) Cerny Kozel/Krusovice in Cross Club, and Budvejser Budvar in Blind Eye. yes, we had haunts, our places that we could always rely on, and whenever visitors would come they could be sure experience the awesomeness of Cross Club. A 5th Element esque dystopia, filled with spinning car parts, green lights, a radical, living breathing art installation, providing to levels seating and a huge bar and dance floor. This was the place I snapped my first few pictures in praha, back in September 2007. It was Olivia, Virginia, Chad and Mikey, thats when we first tried the weed Crossclub had to offer. We rolled on the 2nd floor of the smaller room, in a tiny booth with only a metal railing guard, above us a spinning robot octupus , robooctupus ? below us a glass transparent bar with neatly stacked empty beer bottles, green with hints of yellow and orange reflecting off, and above...! Cerny Kozel , our beer of choice, any day!
This was where we first rolled and made friends with our group, and this was where we hung out during the year... up until April when our Slovenian couch surfing host came to visit Johanna and I in Prag. This was the night, I was unconscious, bc we drank his crazy whiskey that tasted more like an eau de parfum than a liquor. The night I lost my bag with my cellphone, Charles Univ. ID and 200 crowns inside. Then I weaned myself off of the phone dependency for 2 months of unplanning everyday and whimsical spontaneity. That was the night I came too at 4am and in a frenzy searched and harasses all the Czechs for my purse, after all my fruitless efforts I dunked my head into the fountain in the front courtyard. I could hear the pebbles on the unpaved ground and the water was freshing. Then I looked up at the clear Prag sky, so black and self- positing its nature , its function, its reason. Then my heart began to pound as I knew I was lost, like my bag I had no idea where i was and what my purpose was. I knew i was having the best time of my life, but a return was in the midst, and thats when the nausea began... the death sentence was coming.... but not until we had a few more memorable nights....

In the morning I went on the Tram