after a long hiatus ((emphasis on the long)), i find myself inevitably, invasively back to blogging, transcribing the earth-shattering thoughts, witticisms, and general useless and often disposable points of knowledge.
it's been a long couple of months.
since i now blog for a grade, it might be useful to recapitulate the actual purpose(s) of my blog. at the moment, i can think of three things that would be of the most use to the casual reader:
-travel. that thing which i love to do, dearly, more than anything else, though funding is sometimes an issue. scratch that. always an issue.
-writing. it was my major. i've held a pen since i was crawling around in nappy's, drooling my ABC's to sesame street. i've written since i've known how. so i will bore the general public with talk of craft, of narrative structure, and of character development until they can't tell post-laupsarian from pre-laupsarian. to make matters more interesting, i might just talk about the books i'm currently reading. as a hefty graduation present to myself, i purchased several books from barnes and noble - all of the ones that miami hasn't made me read that i felt like i should (i.e. jude the obscure, catcher in the rye, any book with a russian surname) and books that i have wanted to read but have simply lacked the time (ian mcewan's atonement, david sedaris, and - the ever endearing cormac mccarthy).
-film. it's my third passion. it's what i want to pursue in graduate school. that is, be a screenwriter. gee! handy how #2 and #3 tie in so neatly. i indulged in some oscar winners of 2007 - no country for old men, there will be blood, juno, atonement, once, enchanted. (hey, it was nominated for best original song. do not be so quick to judge.)
so, where to begin. well, i just returned from a hiatus to the ancient city of londinium - that is, the bastion of civilization, london towne, merrie olde england, if you will - for a choir tour. avid followers of this blog will note my seven week stay there last summer, and i will reinstate that london is by far the best place in the world. some people have their new york's, their chicago's and barcelona's and vienna and morocco, others have their oxford, ohio . . . but for me (and samuel johnson) there's no place like london.
"when a man is tired of london, he is tired of life; for there is in london all that life can afford."
though i can hardly recount every event on tour, there were definite highlights. last thursday at this time, i was singing in salisbury cathedral with sixty other peers. chords and notes danced off of the ceilings, flying through the cloisters and into the heavens. emotions swelled, ebbed, and spirits were raised. there was one song, in particular, that was written in the 20th century, a sort of post-modern remix to a medieval requiem mass, entitled, "in paradisum"
in paradisum deducant te angeli:
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam jerusalem.
chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum lazaro quondam
paupere aeternam habeas requiem.
translation: may angels lead you into paradise: may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of jerusalem. may a choir of angels receive you, and with lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest.
it was a surreal moment, to sing for travelers and the devout alike, this strange, alieotoric mass. okay. done now, i promise.
more stories of london, life, and literature to follow. but the woods are lovely, dark, and deep, and i have promises to keep, and miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep.
quote of the day: "america has a constitution, and i have a nine inch penis."
- a man at speaker's corner in hyde park, sunday morning.
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