Your Favorite Book Sucks
Today's New York Times offers a vapid, pretentious fluff piece called "It's Not You, It's Your Books" by Rachel Donadio. It's all about how people judge potential partners based on their reading tastes. The bulk of the essay is filled with the opinions of arrogant, shallow people who take others' literary predilections far too seriously. Here's an example from a writer named James Collins:
I know there were occasions when I just wrote people off completely because of what they were reading long before it ever got near the point of falling in or out of love: Baudrillard (way too pretentious), John Irving (way too middlebrow), Virginia Woolf (way too Virginia Woolf).
He actually has the nerve to call someone else pretentious when he's looking down on people for enjoying John Irving? He dares to judge others as pretentious after making that oh-so-clever Virginia Woolf comment? What a pompous ass. Rather than point out the irony, the author seems to agree with him. She writes:
Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low[brow], and you risk looking dumb. Go too high[brow], and you risk looking like a bore — or a phony.
You risk looking like a phony? Yeah, looking like a phony is definitely a risk when you are one. And if you're choosing your “favorite†book based on how others will judge you, you're most definitely a phony.
The author's assumption that "brainy" women tend to judge potential partners by their reading tastes is also revealing. She judges people based on what they read, and she believes that she's smart, therefore it must be a fact that smart women in general judge people based on their reading habits. If it feeds your ego, and keeps you from feeling like an asshole, it must be true.
Donadio ends the essay with a “love conquers literary taste†sentiment, but it feels kinda hollow and tacked on given how petty the rest of the piece is. It's like, “Don't get me wrong, love conquers literary taste and everything, but his favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut. I mean, how cliché!â€
2008-03-30 14:34:30 UTC
Weird Bar in Otavalo
One of our favorite bars in Otavalo was this place called Blanco y Negra. It was the perfect place to begin a night of drinking and dancing with some tasty Cuba Libres. The staff was nice and the place was always very chill. There never seemed to be many people there, though I recall one night when there were several young Ecuadorian men clustered around the television set intently watching a DVD of a Marc Anthony concert. They were all passionately singing along. They knew every word to every song. It was really weird.
Another strange thing about the Black and White was their interior design. They had decorated the whole place in black and white and the overall theme was chess. They had also taped to the walls black and white pictures of different world leaders from history and then drew frames around them in Sharpie. Most of them were of Latin American heroes, but there were a few exceptions. Here's Noah with Gandhi:
Noah posa con Gandhi en el Blanco y Negra en Otavalo. Noah cree que se parece a Gandhi.
Here's Noah with another exception:
Hitler siempre vigila a los clientes en el Blanco y Negra. Parece que su mirada fija y frÃa te sigue dondequiera te vas. Es un poco inquietante.
Hitler always watches over the patrons of the Black and White. His cold stare seems to follow you wherever you go. It's slightly disturbing. It's like, "Hey Hitler, I'm trying to drink here. Could you maybe focus your hard, judging eyes somewhere else?" It's as if his eyes can find the Jew in anyone and then burn it out of you.
Hitler dispara rayos láser de sus ojos. Es mejor evitar contacto visual.
Despite the presence of Hitler and the occasional Marc Anthony karaoke, the Black and White is a great place to go.
2008-03-29 11:11:37 UTC
Missing Quito
I've been going through the Ecuador pictures and found some that I never posted. Here's one of Noah losing his shit at Cafe Mosaico:
Noah disfrutó la vista desde Cafe Mosaico en Quito. La disfrutó hasta que enloquecÃo.
The amazing view from this place more than made up for the inflated prices of the drinks. Plus, it was only three blocks or so from our favorite hostel, Chicago Hostal. Unfortunately, those were vertical blocks.
¿Puedes ver la Virgen de Quito? Es muy chiquita y está en la parte superior a la esquina izquierda.
Christ, I wanna go back there. Albuquerque feels like a ghost town compared to even the smaller cities of Ecuador. It's eerie. The downtown area, which is where we live, has a cool retro neon charm but it's completely devoid of people. Where is everyone?
2008-03-27 19:24:12 UTC
Meaty Dreamscapes
This is the world I want to live in:
Es como el artista mirara en el interior de mi cabeza y leyera mis sueños.
It's from a series called Meatscapes by an artist named Nicolas Lampert, a Wisconsinite. I'm pretty sure he intends for his audience to be provoked into thinking about land use issues and consumerism. But it's like he peered into my brain and read my dreams.
Con estas obras, la artista quiere que la audencia piense en consumismo y el ambiente.
These are the kinds of pictures that I'd like to frame and hang in my kitchen. They're surreal and funny and clever. They seem to celebrate carnivorousness and critique it at the same time, which perfectly captures American society's current ambivalence towards meat consumption.
2008-03-25 20:39:54 UTC
Happy Easter from Jesus and Alf
Over the last few weeks, swarms of children have had their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny at malls all across America. Shouldn't the little heathens be getting their pictures taken with Jesus? While Jesus doesn't generally appear in malls or allow himself to be photographed, all is not lost. The good folks over at Heavenly Images specialize in miracles and they can hook you up. They claim that it's possible for you and/or your loved ones to appear in photos with your favorite lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
"Mándenos sus fotos favoritos y déjanos juntarlas con Jesus para Ud." ¿En serio?! No lo creo!
Could it be true? I was skeptical until I saw the proof:
¡Es un milagro! ¿Cómo es posible? ¡Parece que los niños están con Jesus!
Wow. It looks so real. How is it possible? It makes me wonder...
Me pregunto...
¡Feliz Pascua!
It's a miracle! Happy Easter everyone!
2008-03-23 17:28:45 UTC