1.) This song “A Real Hero” by College (feat. Electric Youth) is from the movie Drive. I could not stop playing this song every day, ten times a day, for a week straight. Especially after experiencing the movie. Go ahead, see the movie and see if you do not play this song obsessively. And if you go, which I strongly recommend, know this: it has some serious violence. I felt a bit traumatized when the movie ended. But also, I felt like I had just watched something amazing. One of my favorite movies of the year. Anyone else feel the same?

Click here to view the embedded video.

2.) Berlin. While visiting that city a couple weeks ago we were struck by a few things. First, it’s a really really fun place to visit right now (ok, for a few years now, but we’re late to the party). It’s cheap. It’s energized. There is a DIY artistic entrepreneurial-ness everywhere. Except for the food–which is terrible (Such a weird defect in a world-class city. But, communism, I imagine, was not a nurturing patron of inventive cuisines. Also, as a guide book pointed out, Germany’s short-lived stint as a World Empire meant that its colonies never got a gastro-foot-hold in Berlin, unlike say, Britain’s Indian cuisine, France’s Moroccan, Dutch’ Indonesian, etc.) Another thing, a lot of people walk their dogs off-leash. And people don’t seem to care. And people walk their dogs right onto the subway. It’s a very permissive city. You can buy beer, wine, liquor at just about any corner store. And throughout the night. And you can carry it on the street. Or onto the subway. Berlin’s treatment of alcohol is fascinating. I’ve never seen people on a subway car at 10:30 in the morning enjoying a large green bottle of beer. People who look like they’re on their way to work. Perhaps other countries in the world are just as permissive, I’ve just never seen it displayed like this before. The other thing about Berlin is how it makes you confront some heavy heavy shit. You don’t get that gut-kick visiting Barcelona or Beijing. The War, the holocaust, the Wall. There are some really moving memorials and museums completed in the last few years, in particular, the holocaust memorial and the Jewish History Museum (by Daniel Libeskind). I won’t describe them here, but by themselves they would make the trip to Berlin worth the trouble.

3.) Amsterdam. Has anyone else been there recently? Is it just me, or is it just a little bit boring? For all the ground-breaking permissiveness of this city (red-lights, coffee houses, legalized outdoor sex in their public park, etc.), it felt really sleepy. Central Amsterdam–outside of the red-light district–is a gorgeous and dreamy world of canals, bridges, and 17th Century houses and is clearly inhabited by very wealthy people. It’s like visiting those tiny brownstone streets in the West Village, except with much greater acreage and more beauty, and everyone rides bikes instead of cabs, but it still feels unwelcoming, like you don’t belong there. And for a city known for its nightlife, it closes down really early. We had a hard time finding a place for dinner after ten. And it was hard to get find a decent place to have a drink after eleven. It felt at times like a movie-set that gets abandoned by night–except for that occasional bike whisking by. Maybe Summer is a lot different than October. And with a pack of friends in the know, it’s probably a lot more fun. Did we miss something? Is there a good reason to visit again soon?

4.) Occupy Wall Street. A couple days ago I came across this link to Adbusters that proposed OWS finally take up a unifying cause: The Robin Hood Tax. Why hadn’t I heard of this until now? The Robin Hood Tax video (feat. Bill Nighy) below is from February. Of 2010. I should really check my facebook more often. Regardless, the video’s pretty clever. Could this idea really work? Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have signed on. And a lot of smart economists too. Could this be the unifying rallying cry that OWS could finally manifest? Maybe. Is this the time? Adbusters proposes October 29th. The Robin Hood Global March. Torches and pitchforks. And our TGW masks. If this is for real, my fellow travelers, let’s make ourselves heard! Anyone in?

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I need to wind down after a long day of writing (highly un-arty) lit crit or teaching, I sure do waste time. At my best, I cook something really difficult and new, and that seems like a good outlet for my creative needs. But if there is one thing I miss about being a little kid (and seriously, there’s exactly one thing), it’s that I was surrounded at all times with materials for creative endeavors. I could always draw, paint, play piano, record something, write, program computer games, sew, or just sit and imagine things for a while. The time and materials to create things were once so fundamental to my experience of the world that I still think of them as practically basic human rights.

I was never going to be a professional artist of any kind, but fuck the capitalist imperative anyway. Maybe we’ll just make some sounds and shapes and words today, and maybe no one will ever see them. I don’t need to express myself to anyone to have the right to do it. But I stopped writing poetry and fiction in 2003, and haven’t painted anything in two (three?) years; my last band broke up in 2009. I get embarrassed of myself.

But now I’ve just turned in my thesis and I’m really anxious. I can’t fix anything anymore. I can’t go ahead and move to my new job. There’s only so much pointless wandering around that I can stand. I have nightmares that my roommate and Owen Wilson (dreams are weird) confront me about the fact that they are so sick of my shit. I might actually feel quite a bit better if I draw something every day. When I was a little girl and I got anxious, I’d sit for hours and draw and draw.

I’m still allowed to do that, right? Do you ever make creative crap just for yourself?

Best Advice, Fun Facts and Wisdom from Student Tour Guides:

“The swans living on this pond are the 13^th generation from the original swans brought here when the school was established!”

“If you go here you have to love Lady GaGa, I mean it is not a box you check on your application or anything.”

“We don’t really have school spirit. But people paint this cannon when they feel like it.”

“Our mascot is an elephant named Jumbo who died saving a smaller elephant from being hit by a train. But we stuffed him and had him on display until the building burned down. A math student saved his ashes. And I think we still have his tail. You can see it if you want.”

“Here is the silent library. I don’t study here though. In fact I had never been in here until I started giving tours.”

“Everyone gets along here. I am a nerd and my roommate is a basketball player!”

“Seriously, my advice is, don’t get a tattoo. Only I’m just kidding because tattoos are awesome.”

“My apartment is pretty close, it’s not like you have to take planes, trains or unicorns to get there.”

Best Advice, Fun Facts and Wisdom from Admissions Directors:

“Don’t write about sports events, your grandmother or Jesus.”

“Proofread. No one wants to read that you were a candy stripper all through high school.”

“Parents stop living through your children. Apply yourself or stay out of it.”

“Face it. You are probably not going to get into this school.”  

“When I used to think about people doing chemistry, I thought if I got too close I might become infertile or something.”  

 Best “please don’t make me choose from 30!” music mix: The Middle Finger

F**k You – Cee-Lo Green                                                                                                                                                                                                             Rebel, Rebel – David Bowie                                                                                                                                                                                                 Picture to Burn – Taylor Swift                                                                                                                                                                                                  One Thousand Sarahs – Eddie from Ohio                                                                                                                                                                                   I Hate Everyone – Get Set Go                                                                                                                                                                                                    The Chain – Fleetwood Mac                                                                                                                                                                                                         The Cave – Mumford and Sons                                                                                                                                                                                                 Smoke without Fire – Duffy                                                                                                                                                                                                          You’re so Vain – Carly Simon                                                                                                                                                                                                   Not Ready to Make Nice – Dixie Chicks                                                                                                                                                                                 Death on Two Legs – Queen                                                                                                                                                                                                        Take Me or Leave Me – Glee Cast                                                                                                                                                                                                F**k You – Lily Allen                                                                                                                                                                                                                       These Boots - Nancy Sinatra                                                                                                                                                                                                    Fighter - Christine Aguilera                                                                                                                                                                                                       You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette                                                                                                                                                                               Before He Cheats – Carrie Underwood                                                                                                                                                                                         King of Anything – Sara Bareilles                                                                                                                                                                                             Rolling in the Deep – Adele                                                                                                                                                                                                     Don’t Think Twice – Bob Dylan

Best “you can go home again after 9 years and 12 inches of height”: old house, Walden Pond, Armando’s Pizza, Newbury Comics and Border Café in Cambridge, MA.

“Everything is so much smaller.”

Best roads not taken and regretted:

Book of Mormon Musical

Dollywood Theme Park

Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Best roads unplanned but taken happily:

Tour of Human Rights Campaign Headquarters                                                                                                                                                         Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Worst movie to watch with son: Woody Allen’s Manhattan.

Before: “This was my favorite movie when I was your age!”

After: “Um, apparently I was a very dark teen.”

Best movie to watch with son: Exit through the Gift Shop.  

Most embarrassing mom moment – to cabinet maker in Colonial Williamsburg:

“What stylistic themes and techniques were brought over from Europe during this time period and when did America begin to establish a unique furniture identity in form, manufacturing and functionality and what historical or social events or material availability were driving this shift and what can you tell me about veneering?”

Worst fight: mom using restroom at the Hill Cumorah Vistior’s Center in Palmyra and then leaving without the listening to the spiel.

Son: “That was so disrespectful, it is like using the bathroom in a church.” 

Mom: “Trust me. It is more like a gift shop than a church.”

Best experience that does not translate in retellings: Circle G Farms Wild Animal Rides and Safari.

Hitchcock’s The Birds only with emu, llama, donkeys, zebras, assorted deer breeds with twisted horns, potbellied pigs and other 500 EXOTIC ANIMALS – all rushing at the car demanding feed that we did not buy. “Animals are really scary up close.”

Best experience that we cannot stop translating: Alexander McQueen at the Met.

No video, no magazine layout can prepare you for the fantastical detail, the mastery of craft and the psychological impact of this show. Watching my son “get it” – worth the entire trip.

So, yesterday was the first day of summer. How did you celebrate? I spent the morning working in the garden. In the afternoon I went for a haircut and ended up getting nearly twelve inches cut off, the most drastic change to my appearance since I was in college. It is exhilarating. I feel free.

Today’s soul food mix is about picnics, the quintessential simple pleasure of summer. Set aside the arguments about inevitable bug bites, sunburn, grit in your food: dining al fresco rocks.

What are your favorite picnic memories? What did you eat? With whom did you share the adventure? What made it special?

Two stand out for me. One is the requisite European baguette-and-bottle of wine story. My friend Ann came to visit me in Rome and we got hopelessly lost somewhere off the Appian Way with little more than some tangerines, a log of goat cheese, and a Swiss Army knife. We made little sandwiches and picked wild thyme to dress them. We drank too much and took a nap in an alfalfa field. One of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

The other: during the first summer courting my partner, I was determined to impress her with my mad food skills. Inspired by a recent issue of Saveur, I baked chocolate chip cookies, whipped up a raspberry sauce, and layered them into the most sublime ice cream cookie sandwiches in human history. I wrapped them in aluminum foil and froze them solid. The idea was to bring them out with a flourish at the end of our lakeside picnic lunch and blow her mind. “Oh, these? It was nothing.”

Unfortunately, we lost track of time, and by dessert the ice cream sandwiches had melted until they were very difficult to consume, cream and raspberries dripping everywhere. Fortunately, they were still delicious, and we were falling in love.

Download here.

1. Pass The Peas⎯The J.B.’s
2. Cherrystones⎯Eugene McDaniels
3. Memphis Soul Stew⎯King Curtis
4. Grazing In The Grass⎯Friends Of Distinction
5. Pig Knuckles⎯The Morrocco Muzik Makers
6. Cole Slaw⎯Frank “Floorshow” Culley
7. Beans And Cornbread⎯Louis Jordan
8. Hot Sauce⎯Sugarman Three
9. La Tortilla⎯Joe Cuba Sextet
10. Chitlin Con Carne⎯Junior Wells
11. Chicken Shack Boogie⎯Amos Milburn
12. Soul And Sunshine⎯Harvey & The Phenomenals
13. Daily Bread⎯Ike & Tina Turner
14. Let’s Go (It’s Summertime)⎯James Reese
15. Peel Me a Grape⎯Anita O’Day & Cal Tjader
16. Melting Pot⎯Underground Vegetables
17. Roast Duck⎯Lee Perry & The Dynamites
18. Summertime⎯Billy Stewart
19. Blue Skies⎯Jimmy Scott
20. Poison Ivy⎯The Coasters
21. Stoned Soul Picnic⎯The Fifth Dimension