Columbia is finally cooling down, welcome to September. My semester has been crazy so far, but crazy with a lot of empty time. Finally things are settling down into class routines and readings, assistantships are making apparent what they will entail, articles are getting read for thesis proposals, ideas are working there way out of my brain like little worms out of the core of an apple (vivid, disgusting similes, experimental fiction writers would love me and take me out for cups of thick black coffee in damp, underground coffee shops), okay, maybe more like lost miners, hacking their way out of the side of a mountain with blunt pickaxes and finally being reduced to their bloody fingertips--it's a difficult process, you get the idea . . . . Our linguistics program is getting the year off to a good start, with a pub trip last Friday and a colloquium this Friday. I'm excited about all the new students. (I'm also excited that I'm not a new student.) I'm so glad the linguistics people are so close, it feels homey.
The independent movie scene in Columbia has also been beautiful the past couple of weeks. Our Nickelodeon Theatre is really amazing, any movie that I've heard about and wanted to see has gotten here eventually, even that crazy little one about the font Helvetica, only sadly I was gone when that was here in July. We've had Paprika (the same director as Millenium Actress, for Cricket and William who've seen that) about people getting into each other's dreams and singing frogs and dancing kitchen appliances, then we had Interview which was intense and Who's-Afraid-of-Virginia-Woolf-esque (with Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller, oh my!), and most recently Once. It didn't quite live up to the hype, and I have the hardest time with the Southern Irish accent, but it was pretty. We're getting La Vie en Rose this weekend, I'm just going to move to the theater (thankfully it's cheaper than a normal theater and even cheaper if you're a member!).
Alright, I should stop taking a break and carry on with the readings I want to get done tonight. Lately my reading time has slowed to a standstill, I spend so much time just distractedly staring out of the window. This is not how we win linguistics! I must be processing ideas, that's what I tell myself, they're all going to pop out one of these days, fully formed. Like Athena.
Posted by linnea at September 12, 2007 10:02 PMHey! Nice to hear what you're doing. Glad Cola. is cooler. The autumn is nice there. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: sperlonga at September 13, 2007 10:22 AM