Last night, Jeremiah, Claire, and I took a trip to Prospect Park to check out a free Yo La Tengo concert, part of the Celebrate Brooklyn program. The place was like Woodstock -- hordes of youth flocking to the outdoor rock concert. The weather was beautiful and the concert was pretty fun. Afterwards we met up with Jeremy, Jen and Bryan for coffee and dinner at Brooklyn's Daisy Diner. Bryan showed us a new recipe for french fry dressing: mayonnaise, mustard and pepper. Claire is visiting from Paris and typically eats french fries with mayonnaise -- we both found the recipe to be quite good and a nice change from common french fry condiments. French fry eaters of the world, unite!
As a child, Dirty Dancing was one of my favorite films -- I must have seen it fifty times between the years of 1987 and 1991. Patrick Swayze was one of my first celebrity crushes (in addition to Thomas Dolby and Simon Le Bon) -- I hung posters of him all over my room, sent him fan mail several times, and listened to both film soundtracks constantly. Having not seen the film in several years, I bought a copy of the DVD when I went home this weekend. Watching it today, I realized how much of the social commentary I missed watching it as a kid, such as the references to John F. Kennedy, abortion laws, the conflict in Southeast Asia and Ho Chi Minh. The film is interesting in that its 1980s production is glaringly evident, despite its setting in 1963, like the references to social class disparity, something that was obvious in the 1960s, but especially in the Reagan 80s when the film was made. Dirty Dancing remains one of my favorites, and it was cool to watch it now and pick up on a lot of the themes I failed to notice when I was younger.
And to those of who mock me - c'mon, you know you at least love the "I've Had the Time of My Life" dance finale!!!
Jeremiah and I just got back in from our trip to my parents' in Philly. We had a good time! Did some fun stuff like partaking in the 4th of July fireworks show at my old high school, taking a trip to the beach and amusement park in Ocean City, NJ, throwing Becca a surprise birthday party, catching a couple of movies, and driving around town and going to lots of greasy diners. As much as I love NYC, it was nice to get away for a few days. We took a couple of hundred photos, so there is no doubt I will post lots this week.
Classes are officially over for me - my remaining eight credits will be completed through two independent studies under the advisement of two of my favorite professors. Since I'll have a little more time now without classes, I'll be working on the site, posting lots of new content (read: long-delayed photo galleries), and, hopefully soon, buying a domain. Yeah boyeee!
Duran Duran, Pop Trash
Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle
Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual
Alphaville, Forever Young
The Vaselines, The Way of the Vaselines
Juliana Hatfield, Only Everything
P.J. Harvey, Is This Desire?
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
Frente, Marvin the Album
Destiny's Child, The Writing's on the Wall
The Cars, The Cars
The B-52s, Cosmic Thing
Duran Duran, Arena
The Doors, The Soft Parade Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
L7, Hungry for Stink
The Dandy Warhols, The Dandy Warhols
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
Ace of Base, The Sign
The Waitresses, The Best of the Waitresses
Belle & Sebastian, Lazy Line Painter Jane
The Fad, The Fad The New Wave: Pop Music of the Early '80s
Goodbye Girl Friday, Mr. & Mrs.
Naked Highway, Hyperbollocks
Duran Duran, Pop Trash Classic Alternatives: '80s 12" Extended Rare Mixes
Phil Collins, Hits
Genesis, Turn It On Again: The Hits
Ladytron, Light & Magic
Ladytron, 604
The Go-Betweens, Before Hollywood
Beck, Midnight Vultures
Duran Duran, Seven & the Ragged Tiger
Abba, Arrival
The Cardigans, Long Gone Before Daylight
The Psychedelic Furs, All of This & Nothing
Air, Moon Safari
The Knack, Round Trip
Blondie, Parallel Lines
The Psychedelic Furs, Forever Now
The Donnas, Spend the Night
Nancy Sinatra, California Girl
Tatu, 200 KMH in the Wrong Lane
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Organisation
John-Manuel Andriote, Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco
Bret Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
