31 May, 2007 | 3 Comments
A beautiful sunset tonight, viewed from The Serpentine in Hyde Park. I’m calling the first photo swanset.
Archive for May, 2007
31 May, 2007 | 2 Comments
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
31 May, 2007 | 7 Comments
My friend to me:
“Since you have to be out of where you are living by July 1st, does this mean you’ll start looking for a new place to live on June 30th?”
I think we all know the answer to that.
30 May, 2007 | 4 Comments
i got about two hours of sleep last night. but not really. the little sleep i got was punctuated by weird dreams that freaked me out. i was awakened by the russian lady who cleans my room once a week. she was like, “get up and get out.” but she communicated this via smiles because she is a nice russian lady who can’t speak english.
i don’t like the fact that a stranger can come into my room and wake me up.
so while she was cleaning up after me i walked around the neighborhood in the almost-rain looking for blushing apple snapple. i couldn’t find it anywhere and the more i looked the more i wanted it. i so want it. now i am home, snapple-less. if i just had blushing apple snapple, everything would be all right.
last night there was a spider in my shower. a big one. i haven’t seen a spider that big in years. i was washing my hair so i couldn’t escape. we had a stand-off and then it disappeared into the folds of my shower curtain. it was unsettling. but this morning i discovered that seeing a spider (except for a tarantula) is an omen of good luck. the bigger the spider the better. so now i don’t feel so bad about seeing the spider, except it’s still in this room. i’m sure of it. but i don’t know where it is.
29 May, 2007 | 6 Comments
My photo of the Anna Politkovskaya memorial on the cover of a Japanese magazine!
[There's nothing wrong with your vision -- I blurred identifying details on the cover. It's an English-language magazine.]
29 May, 2007 | 8 Comments
I’ve been back in London for more than six weeks and the bad news is that I fear many of my internal organs are shutting down. For the past couple weeks I’ve felt consistently unwell and I’ve been quite lethargic. I blame the food.
I feared something like this might happen. My body was used to French food. By French food I don’t mean steak and béarnaise sauce with a side order of cigarettes. I mean fresh whole foods and foods lacking chemicals and preservatives, which are commonplace in France. It’s possible to get food like this in the US and Britain, but it’ll cost you a lot of money. And I’m too poor to eat that way here. So illness it is!
I’m at a real disadvantage because I have a picky tummy. Very picky. And not having my own kitchen really sucks for someone like me. There is a fridge on each floor of the building and a microwave, but the last time I left food in the fridge (mango chunks) someone stole it. Lovely. So I don’t leave much in there and it’s not possible to really cook anyway without a stove, oven, pots, pans, utensils.
27 May, 2007 | 2 Comments
My friend to me:
“So you wanted deep meaningful conversations in a crowded pub with men you just met after a long day in a stressful situation? I’m losing hope!”
25 May, 2007 | 25 Comments
My previous post on Jerry Falwell (and the larger issue of religious extremism) continues to receive a lot of comments. The comments (which mostly focus on the threat of Islamic extremism to Britain) are much more interesting than my original post, so take a look if you are interested in this topic. And today, at least one commenter came to my defense! Finally!
The Vol Abroad has taken time out from baby watch (I hope Cletus arrives soon!) to link to my Falwell post and write more in-depth about why many in Britain are hesitant to condemn Islamic extremism in their own country. She knows a lot more about this issue than I do, so check it out. Also, this earlier post she did on the same subject is quite interesting too.
I know a few readers aren’t enjoying Anglofille’s current political bent. This makes me sad. See:
I go through political phases. Actually, my life is in a weird transition period right now. I’m getting ready to start school again. I need to find a new place to live. (I can only stay in my current residence until the beginning of July.) I need to find a job since this exchange rate is bankrupting me. Because my first month back in London was so focused on the CELTA course I was taking, only now am I experiencing the often unsettling feelings that come with a big move — not knowing a lot of people, feeling lonely sometimes, wondering whether I fit in, etc. So writing about politics has helped take my mind off things. And it’s invigorating. Still, I try to do a balance of posts: My inane life/Major world events/Insulting France/My inane life/Major world events…
24 May, 2007 | 5 Comments
But nothing will dampen the joy that Dick and Lynn Cheney feel as they hold their latest grandchild — produced “out of wedlock” by their lesbian daughter. See, God does have a sense of humor.
[Thanks to The Vol Abroad]
23 May, 2007 | Enter your password to view comments
Anglofille said @ 10:45 pm | paris life | Permalink | Enter your password to view comments
23 May, 2007 | 5 Comments
Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has written on his blog about his heartbreak and rage over the savage murder of Dua Khalil Aswad. This story has clearly shaken him and moved him to take action, just as it has done for me and many others. On his blog, he rails against the misogyny that exists everywhere in this world:
Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence — is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.
I’m glad that someone in Hollywood is aware of these issues, since Hollywood plays such a key role in women’s worldwide exploitation and dehumanization. (Wheedon’s comparison of the Dua videos to a current Hollywood movie trailer is a must-read.) It’s important that someone like Whedon is writing about this because he has a much louder voice than the rest of us. And I think it’s important he is urging people to do something about this, not just rant and rave.
22 May, 2007 | 7 Comments
Thanks to Joanne for alerting me that there’s now a letter writing campaign on Dua’s behalf organized by Amnesty International. If you care about this story, please take a moment to send a letter. Though Dua’s killers have apparently been arrested, the Iraqi penal code offers reduced sentences to men who kill women for reasons of “honor.” These murderers could serve as little as six months in jail. We can only hope that by launching this campaign, the Iraqi officials will take this case and other cases more seriously if they know the international community is watching.
If you click “more” below, you will see the text of the letter that Amnesty suggests sending to the Prime Minister of Iraq. It is in the white box and you can simply copy and paste it into a Word doc, print it out, sign it and mail it. While Amnesty’s letter is addressed to the Prime Minister in Iraq, I really can’t imagine it ever being delivered to the correct government office. Even though the letter is addressed to the Prime Minister, I think it makes more sense to send these letters to the Iraqi Embassies in the US and the UK, where they are more likely to fall into the correct hands and will be read by people who can speak English. I have included the embassy addresses as well. I think a physical letter is preferred, but I also included the e-mail addresses. This campaign will only work if they receive lots of letters. Please spread the word!!! If you have a blog, please post about this. There are thousands of people doing web searches about Dua right now.
21 May, 2007 | 16 Comments
Across the pond, tonight is the season finale of 24, the Kiefer Sutherland “I like killing terrorists” pro-US propaganda tool broadcast by Fox (surprise, surprise). I have never watched this show, but my family loves it (surprise, surprise).
Anyway, the reason I know about the season finale tonight is that William, one of my dearest friends, just forwarded me part of an e-mail his partner had sent him from work earlier today. William’s partner alerted him that tonight is the season finale of 24 and that while he is watching this 2-hour extravaganza of bloodshed, he does not want to be disturbed by relationship drama, family crises or “even worse,” a meltdown from yours truly. Me, little ol’ me! He also included another friend of ours in this libelous attack.
Pshaw! William is outraged over this and so am I. We are not needy drama queens, thank you very much. We are writerly types in possession of very sensitive dispositions who need constant care and attention. But that’s all part of our charm. And for the record, I have not had a meltdown since leaving Paris. I am now a well-behaved gloomy Londoner who is too weakened by lack of sunshine to summon the fiery passion necessary for a meltdown. So there.
20 May, 2007 | 5 Comments
I took a break from working late this afternoon to go see Zodiac. This is the first time I’ve seen a film since returning to London and I was dismayed to discover that Odeon now charges people extra to sit in the back rows of the theater. You’d think that for £8.80 (!!!) you could sit wherever the hell you want.
I wasn’t even aware of this film’s existence until Friday when the reviews came out. [Hey, I've been living in Paris and cut off from the world.] I went to see it because David Fincher directed it and I’m a fan of his. And Mark Ruffalo is in it and really, that’s reason enough to see it. The rest of the cast is also good, with Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal and many recognizable character actors. Nearly all the actors in the film are men, save for the wretched Chloe Sevigny, who thankfully has a small part.
This movie held my interest for nearly 3 hours — I didn’t even take a loo break. The movie is violent, but nowhere near as violent and twisted as Fincher’s brilliant Se7en. Thankfully he doesn’t overdo the 1970s vibe in this film with lots of intrusive music and pop culture references. But the details of the era are quietly perfect. I enjoyed watching the police and journalists work without computers and e-mail and mobile phones. It didn’t seem like the Stone Age. It seemed blessedly less complicated than our current lifestyles.
19 May, 2007 | Comments
My plans for the night were scuppered by a big pile of work with my name on it. I haven’t been a happy girl tonight. I was even sulking earlier. But then while I was working, I looked up from my computer screen and saw this outside my window:
During the winter in Paris, I used to go outside on rainy days at sunset in the hopes of seeing rose-colored clouds like this. Nearly everyday in January and February, I’d go outside around five in the evening to look at the sky. Paris has spectacular, psychedelic clouds. I developed an obsession with sunsets and clouds and it helped me get through that difficult time. I never watched TV in Paris — I watched the sky.
Tonight is the first time I’ve seen anything similar in London. The high I got from seeing these clouds will last for the rest of the night.
