wraaaaaaaa
Time for my monthly update!
First off, if you've been expecting to hear from me sometime over the past two weeks and didn't, well, tough shit! I was in NY for about a week and then just came back from Chapel Hill a few hours ago. I apparently neglected to mention these trips to several people and have been getting crap for it, so if you think I've just been ignoring you, well, you may be right... but then again, it could just be because I was out of town. Anyway, I haven't kept up with LJ at all lately so if you've had any major news, do let me know.
The trip to New York was fun. I went up with the family to see my grandfather (former police officer and all-around cranky bastard) as well as some aunts and uncles and cousins. Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid. Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, which of course kicks serious ass, and I *finally* got to go to a Yankees game. I realize my reputation has just dropped significantly to everyone reading this, but yes, I'm a longtime Yankees fan. I'd apologize, but I'm having too much win ruling over the BoSox and the rest of the AL East. Anyway, we spent way too much money on tickets but we had some damn good seats (by way of example, Kevin Costner was only ten rows in front of us, and you know he wasn't sitting in the bleachers), and the Yanks won 10-3 with 5 HRs, so it turned out to be a great day.
I also went up to Chapel Hill this weekend to break up with my girlfriend (2nd attempt, for those who are following). It went really well, surprisingly. We both have so much going on in the near future that it would be silly to make a big issue of a it, so we decided to remain friends, though I doubt we'll ever exchange more than the occasional phone call from now on. We had our ups and downs (mostly ups in the beginning and mostly downs toward the end - but isn't that always the way?), and my only complaint is that I didn't break it off sooner, but we had a good run. Anyway, if anyone is interested in more detail I'll be happy to indulge you, but otherwise, I'd say it's time for a new topic.
Alright, so originally I was going to make this post a list of modern trends I considered to be overrated, so here I present a couple of rants in MY FIRST EVER USE OF LJCUT RAAAAH YEAAAAAAAAAH!
Now, whenever I talk about this band I always feel the need to add the general disclaimer, "I'm not goth," because I'm not, but I do occasionally like listening to what I consider to be goth music, and from what I understand The Cure is the undisputed price leader when it comes to that genre. I picked up their Galore album (which has their 'hits' from '87 onward) and really couldn't figure out what the deal was. I mean, they have one amazing song ('Pictures of You'), two great songs ('Just Like Heaven' and 'Friday I'm In Love'), and after that a bunch of mediocre-to-OK songs that I wasn't impressed with. So what's the big deal with this band? They don't have the musical range or songwriting talent of Smashing Pumpkins, and they don't have the catchy melodies of Tears For Fears. I will say that the songs grew on me the more I listened to them, but that's true for pretty much any band, so no * kEwL sTaRz * shall be awarded on that account. Its one saving grace was that it's a great band to listen to in a post-breakup state due to all the relevant song material, as at least half the songs on this album can be construed as breakup songs. But I think I'll stick with my 80s power ballads. *puts in Cheap Trick CD*
I'm about 3/4 of the way through this, and though I'm enjoying reading it, I can't believe that this guy is passing himself off as a historian, even going so far as to provide a pledge of accuracy at the beginning of the book. I mean, there are so many things here factually wrong that Dan Brown must simultaneously hold the titles for #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and #1 World's Shittiest Historian. Five million women were burned as witches by the Inquisition? I'm not even sure there were that many females in Europe in the late Middle Ages, and regardless the accepted figure is closer to at most 200,000, with half of those coming in from Germany, who apparently have a penchant for burning minorities en masse. And the figure to the left of Jesus in "The Last Supper" is a female? Oh, because no men in Renaissance paintings have effeminate qualities, right? Whoops! In other news, 13 was considered an unlucky number LONG before the Templars were hunted down (re: Judas as the 13th guest at, of all things, the Last Supper... how did he miss that?!). I could go on, but the point is that, as a history major, pseudo-historians really bother me. I think Dan Brown is an excellent author, and I really like the topics he chooses, but instead of looking for the 'sacred feminine' in last week's episode of Cheers, maybe he should embrace the 'fiction' part of this whole historical fiction genre.
Okay, it's 4:30 AM and I need sleep. 'Night!