Ode to My Nana
Oh Nana,
How do I love thee?
Oh thee who makes me delicious biscotti?
Biscotti - for to have with my coffee,
when late at night I study.
And St Lucy's Day pudding,
Did I mention that?
Early, she made me my very own batch.
What a wonderful Nana truly she is!
I wish I was home, to give her a kiss!
Surely her biscotti are not to be missed!
Oh Nana,
How do I love thee?
A LOT.
- posted by Nicole @ 9:22 PM

 
Quote of the Day
"I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises."
-Neil Armstrong
- posted by Nicole @ 6:57 PM

 
Thanksgiving Break Film Review
Break was just splendid. It was lovely to be home. I spent the whole time sleeping and watching movies (and a bit of English Premier League Soccer in my spare time). I also put up the Christmas tree. And now it's all over, and I return to my slave labors. The next three weeks are gonna be hell...

So, movies: first on my agenda was the 4th Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good. Not quite as good as the 3rd I think, but definitly worth the viewing. It starts off really strong - a really captivating couple of opening scenes (I particularly liked the Quidditch World Cup, and wish they spent a little more time on that). And even though it's a long movie, it really holds your interest the whole way through, even if it lacked the subtleties of the third. PS: Cedric Diggory is the hottest thing I've ever seen.

Then my dad and I went to go see Good Night, And Good Luck. It's about this CBS news broadcaster Ed Murrow who kind of stood up to McCArthy during the whole Communist witch hunt back in the 50s. It also issues a bit of commentary on television from the years that witnessed a critical turning point in its evolution: tool for education or passification of the masses? I think it's pretty obvious how that eventually turned out (Fox "News", anyone?)...It's a pretty good movie. Shot in black and white, actually; directed by George Clooney. The guy who plays Ed Murrow is spectacular. He has a really commanding presence. The scenes without him are pretty useless, and all the other actors are a real waste-of-space. And he's the only one that looks right in the film, I don't know why - whether they did something different with his hair/makeup/costumes. I don't know, but everyone else looks like they don't belong in the film. They all look very unnatural in black and white except for him. I just can't decide whether I want him to win the Oscar for best actor, or if I want Ralph Fiennes in Constant Gardener to get it....

Then came Pride and Prejudice. Total chick-flick. And I loved every sappy minute of it. It was very well executed, and I loved Keira Kightley in the part of Elizabeth Bennet. It came complete with a fabulous supporting cast (including a heart-warming performance by Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet), and a very stoic, realistic Darcy. Well cast, all around. The technique was a bit melodramatic at points and often waxed a little too poetic, but I forgave it, because the overall effort was most sincere.
- posted by Nicole @ 12:11 AM

 
Movies I want to see
In no particular order...
1. Layer Cake - a British film by the same people who did Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

2. Goodnight, and Good Luck - it's about the McCarthy era; Daddy and I have a date to see this one while I'm home over break.

3. Pride and Prejudice - I have a small I-want-to-be-Keira-Knightley problem...

4. Munich - about the terrorist group (Black September) that killed the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics; looks very interesting, good cast too.

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - just because John Williams didn't do the score is no reason not to go see it.

6. The Chronicles of Narnia - trailer looks REAL promising; another fantasy epic sprung from the legacy of HP and LOTR.

7. Syriana - who doesn't like a good political thriller?

8. Aeon Flux - I also have a small I-want-to-be-Charlize-Theron problem; sci-fi.

9. La Haine - it's been on my list for a while, it's a French film from about 10 years ago, but phenomenally relevant today, as it deals with the subject of immigrant comminities in the French banlieues

10. Kingdom of Heaven - despite the abject failure of similar epics (such as Troy and Alexander), I still have hope for this one.

11. Batman Begins - I'm kind of a little ashamed about this one...

So, as you can see, I've got my work cut out for me over Thanksgiving and Winter Break...If any of these interest you, let me know and I'll include you in my screening schedule. However be warned: There is absolutely NO TALKING permitted during the films. MOM.
- posted by Nicole @ 9:52 PM

 
Princeton Prank
For Glee Club, we do this cute little thing where when our football team plays Harvard or Princeton, we do a joint concert with the ememy's Glee Club. Which means that I got to spend all of Friday at Princeton. Sure, we do the whole singing thing, but really the important part of the evening is the Prank. Yes, the Prank. And yours truly was assigned to the pretigious post of Princeton Prank Chair. What ingenious ideas did I (with the help of some of my devious cohorts) come up with? Why, I'm glad you asked...

For the first part of our prank - the skit - we did a Steve-Irwin-Crocodile-Hunter thing (you know, to tie in that whole "haha, we went to Australia and the
Princeton Glee Club didn't" thing). We have this REALLY goofy kid named Edward (he's rally difficult to describe, but basically we were like "Edward, you're Steve Irwin. Go.") So, Steve Irwin went on an expedition into the wilderness of American academia, where he encountered the various Ivy League Mascots, eg: the Harvardus Cantanbus, a creature known for its extreme arrogance and lack of social skills; the Orsus Brownus, which tries to distract its prey by spewing forth a long meaningless stream of multisyllabic words; and finally, the Tigris Princetonius, which migrates each year from Mount J. Crew. It comes to the water hole NOT to drink like other animals, but instead to gaze at its reflection for hours on end, which is odd because it is surely the ugliest creature in the animal kingdom. (etc, etc)

Then, during their football medley, we threw paper airplanes at them made from
the pages of J. Crew catalogues. (Heehehehe, so I had to go steal a bunch of J.
Crew catalogues - I covertly grabbed a whole bunch one day, but then the next
day when I went back for more, my efforts were thwarted, as they had posted a
guard by the catalogues....no, seriously....)

So itt was actually a lot of fun (the concerts with Princeton are a lot more fun than the concerts with the Harvard Glee Club...ssssssssss....) Well, at least it was fun until the F*@%&ING FRESHMEN decided to sing Disney songs for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT on the ride home. I almost committed homicide....
- posted by Nicole @ 3:32 PM

 
Starbucks
The Chai Eggnog Latte has changed my life in profound and meaningful ways. You should try one.
- posted by Nicole @ 7:00 PM

 
Harry Potter 4
I was thrilled to find that AOL Music had posted the full cd of the film score to the new Harry Potter movie (Goblet of Fire, to be released over Thanksgiving). I was less thrilled - ok, let's be honest: DEVASTATED - to learn that John Williams did NOT compose the score for this film, as he did for the first three. DEVASTATED. My life is over. HP4 is composed by this guy named Patrick Doyle; the only thing of relative significance that he's done is Gosford Park. I listened to the score, and while it's not awful, it lacks the subtleties of Williams' music. While it has moments of brilliance, it is quite often melodramatic and bombastic. Me = disappointed :(
- posted by Nicole @ 1:59 AM

 
Qu'est-ce qui se passe?

So, apparently France is burning. It has - also apparently - been burning for the better part of two weeks (though it's taken me this long to get my head out of the books and take a look at the world around me...). For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, France's immigrant population has been rioting, burning cars, and confronting police for the last two weeks for so. While what's going on is alarming, it's not necessarily surprising. France has a HUGE immigrant population (the majority, I'm pretty sure, coming from countries in North and West Africa, where France had a lot of imperial involvement), but isn't exactly pleasantly disposed toward these groups (nevermind the fact that between the effects of a rapidly aging population and low fertility rates it desperately NEEDS them, if it would like to continue to have an economy....). The "french" French people have a tendancy to be rather racist and xenophobic, and these immigrant communities face immense discrimination (economic and social), residential segregation (most of these groups live in the industrial suburbs outside the urban centers - they're NOTHING like our suburbs, think Soviet/communist concrete high-rises), and ridiculous naturalization/immigration laws. Unemployment (a huge problem in France in general) is very high in these groups, because of discrimination in the workplace and in education, particular in younger age groups. Hence the rioting teenagers. They're just really sick of the social and economic inequality and downright racism that they face every single day, and - since they have NO representation in government - this is how they are expressing political and economic grievances; there are no other channels available to them.

How the French government responds will be critical. While these riots have NOTHING to do with Islamic fundamentalism/Al Qaeda, it is exactly in these poor, repressed, discontented diasporic youth populations that terrorist groups often find support. Violence and repressive legislation will only make this worse. MUCH worse. France NEEDS to address these longstanding social and economic disparities, or we're gonna start to see bombs on the Parisien metro too.

What concerns me is also how the french people are going to interpret and respond to these events. France has a disturbingly successful far-right political party (Le Front National - actually the largest, most successful far-right party in Europe), known for its anti-immigrant/xenophobic mentality. I'm concerned that these riots will increase support for le Front National in the next election. Their whack-job leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is unfortunately planning to run in the 2007 presidential election.....
- posted by Nicole @ 5:32 PM

 
Fiction
I JUST WANT TO READ FICTION.
- posted by Nicole @ 4:38 PM

 
The Hampster
The wheel is spinning but the hampster refuses to run...

...The hampster also has the attention span of a FOUR-YEAR-OLD...
- posted by Nicole @ 11:34 PM

 
HOORAY!
YEA!!! I have a new cousin! Happy Birthday (literally!), Leah!
- posted by Nicole @ 11:33 PM

 
Halloween! (...was 5 days ago, yes I know...)

Halloween is by far the most important holiday at Yale. Seriously. It is
SUCH a big deal, you have no idea. The evening usually revolves around two main
events: the first the the Anti-Gravity Society's (ie: the juggling club...yes,
we have a juggling club....) Fire Show. It involves, as you may have guessed,
people wearing flame-retarded clothing juggling items that have been doused in
kerosine. It's pretty impressive, actually. My inner-pyromaniac thinks it's
really cool. They have some SERIOUS skills. The second (and main) event is the
Symphony's Halloween Show. This is really cool: the symphony makes a silent film
- usually a spoof of a big blockbuster, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or
Indiana Jones, etc, and then shows the film in our HUGE concert hall (to an
audience of 3000 screaming, drunken college students...) while
playing a live film score - usually exerpts from well-known classical works
(Beethoven 5, Also sprach zarathustra, etc). This year's film was a big spoof of Back to the Future, with some aspects of Terminator and James Band as well.

Each section dresses up according to some theme, so the woodwinds were
mafia (heheeh - true to my glorious Italian heritage...I)! Our grand entrance
was accompanied by the music from the Godfather and we carried a big sign that
said "Don't take sides against the family". It was pretty hilarious.

You know what's really funny? When you're a young kid, Halloween is all about
being a "scary" this or a "spooky" that. Then you get to college, and everyone
is a "slutty" this or "skanky" that....I'm sorry - it's just TOO COLD in New
Haven go gallavanting around dressed as a "slutty nurse" or Brittany
Spears....but maybe I'm just rational.....
- posted by Nicole @ 4:06 PM