spoken word.

My school's Art and Social Justice club has been hosting poetry slams at a local coffee shop, and everytime I attend I feel inspired. I want to listen more, write more, do more. Evertything I hear has rhythm and soul. It's an amazing art form and I wanted to share one of my new favorite artists, Dante Basco.



I also suggest looking up Def Jam Poetry on Youtube. It will turn up lots of goodies.

music AND art.

December playlist

Funk You Up (Love of My Life remix) - Erykah Badu
I'm Good, I'm Gone - Lykke Li
Drain the Blood - The Distillers
Through & Through & Through - Joel Plaskett
Every Morning - Sugar Ray
Me or the Papes - Jeru the Damaja
Crystalised - The XX
Over and Over - Hot Chip
Down Down Down - The Expendables
Big Jumps - Emiliana Torrini
Us Placers - Child Rebel Soldiers (Lupe, Kanye, Pharrell)
In One Ear - Cage the Elephant

ready, set, listen.

paradox.

When did we decide that we could fulfill our daily dose of culture simply by browsing the internet? When did our computer screen become our window to the world? We are an entire generation living vicariously through others' blog space.



However, just for funsies, I will continue to update this site.

ryan.

and to follow up...

enjoy. :)

work, kindling, recess.

It's been much to long since I last posted, but my life got a bit hectic there for a while. Now that I find myself with all this free time on my hands, it's back to the blog I suppose.

My latest art discovery I can credit to my good pal, Arjun. Here's a sampling of some work by James Jean.

jamesjean.com

camellias on the moss.

Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date, I'm a little horrible at this. I also figured no one was reading this blog anyway, but it turns out I have FOUR followers!! So I must be true to the fans and continue putting down my thoughts.

SO the latest in my life would be a book I just finished titled The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which was originally written in French by Muriel Barbery and translated into English by Alison Anderson. The story intertwines two points of view; that of Renee, a Parisian concierge who nurtures a fervent love of art, philosophy, music and Japanese culture, and Paloma, an extremely intelligent twelve-year-old who lives on the fifth floor and plans to end her life on her next birthday. Both hide their true natures from the rest of the world, instead preferring to keep to themselves and scorning society and its idiosyncracies. However, when a new tenant moves in, Kakuro Ozu, everything begins to change.

I found the book to be humorous, intelligent, sentimental, and a wonderful read. Although sentences such as "The enigma is constantly renewed: great works are the visual forms which attain in us the certainty of timeless consonance" would sometimes discourage me, I pushed through and found it entirely worth it. The story is filled with philisophical observations, which I greatly appreciated, but if you are not a fan of intellectual commentary, I would not recommend this book.

My tastes in literature are extremely varied, however, and I've just begun Chuck Palahniuk's (author of Fight Club and Choke) newest novel, Pygmy. More on that to come. And finally, just for fun, I thought I would throw in a video that my friend showed to me. It's really fascinating, if a little long. Hope you enjoy!