btw

i have so many words

Red Stick, USA

So my preemptive impressions of Louisiana (the ones I made before arriving here) were pretty much consistent with how I feel a week in. Though not as swampy as I predicted, I'm none too impressed with the landscape, locals, or general southern style.

As you may or may not know, my post-Bowdoin plan is to take a few courses I need (organic chem-II, biochem, and physics-II) then an MCAT prep course, and then apply to and be rejected from as many medical schools as possible. Today my parents and I went over to LSU to check things out and I was thoroughly disappointed in how elitist and skepitical Bowdoin has made me.

I've made really comfortable homes for myself in Houston, Maine, and Copenhagen, but stepping onto that thoroughly purple and golden-clad campus, I'm daunted by the semesters to come. LSU seems a place where both conformity and anonymity are inescapable. Although I don't claim to be an outstanding individualist in any right, I find it hard to believe that I can be happy in a place full of Nike running shorts/Sperry-wearing conservative future ex-wives. I also found that they don't really offer everything I need. WHAT am I going to do? Houston isn't really an option, as I don't have the money to pay for classes and housing. I'm terrified...

Anyway, I guess I should try and just enjoy the time I have left and focus on finding SOMETHING to do. Deadlines are fast approaching.

How was your spring break?? What did you do?

Tell me everything. Should I order you an official Ivies pinney?

Artisans of the Week

This week's artists of the week were discovered as I began my search for the perfect smoking pipe. I stumbled upon some Danish pipe makers. Ungeneric in every way, below are the stories of the artists and their pieces.



Peter Heding
Peter Heding was so taken with pipes that he began carving them on his kitchen table with a knife. When he could not proceed any further, he came to Tom Eltang's workshop in Denmark to learn how to make stems. After being coached by Tom for two years, he has now quit is job as a physician and diabetes researcher in order to make pipes full time.





Erik Nørding
Originally educated in engineering. Pipe carving began as a hobby, but as time went by, he became more interested in pipe making as a profession. The only thing I would say is that his signature resembles Ed Hardy a bit too much.


Moral of the story, pick up an awesome hobby and you too may end up on our artist of the week series.

Alternative Spring Break

So thus far, we've played with cards with brown children and homeless people. Our group has bonded (somewhat) and I've gotten sunburnt (predictable).

Today one of the "teens" we were "working with" taught us a new song:

(Sung to the tune of the Oscar Meyer Weiner Song)

"My hobby has a first name,
It's W-E-E-D.
My hobby has a second name,
It's J-O-I-N-T.
I like to smoke it every day
And if you ask me why I'll sayyyyy:
That marijuana has a way
of fucking up the USA."


Oh, the youth of today...

Artist of the Week

Something tells me it's been more than a week since our last artist of the week, but whatever. Better Than Straight Dope's Artist of the Week this week is the one and only, Marina Abramović! A New York-based performance artist that you may or may not have seen portrayed in an episode of Sex and the City (she lives on display for 12 days and her only way down is via ladders with upturned knives for rungs), there is really only one way to describe Marina: bat-shit crazy, but also awesome. She did a performance titled Seven Easy Pieces at the Guggenheim in 2005 and the program notes from the sixth night read like a recipe for a dish that would have pleased de Sade himself:

"I slowly eat 1 kilo of honey with a silver spoon.

I slowly drink 1 liter of wine out of a crystal glass.

I break the glass with my right hand.

I cut a five-pointed star on my stomach with a razor blade.

I violently whip myself until I no longer feel any pain.

I lay down on a cross made of ice blocks.

The heat of a suspended heater pointed at my stomach causes the cut star to bleed.

The rest of my body begins to freeze.

I remain on the ice cross for 30 minutes until the public interrupts the piece by removing the ice blocks from underneath me."

The Seven Easy Pieces performance lasted 7 nights. Here's a good run-down (though she has done a lot of other crazy shit, too):

http://spikyart.org/seveneasypiecese.html

Anyway, this bitch crazy and I think I'm a little obsessed with her right now. Just for now though. Why bring up this artist of the week, you ask? WELL, it just so happens that she is giving a performance at the MoMA starting in March and continuing on through May 31st! Is this possible? LET'S SEE HER! Let's also start talking about Ivies. We are ordering pinneys. Big things are happening. PASSION PIT.

As for the other things I've been up to, I'll update you on those later. For now, please read up on BroPoints and other things Bro-related here:

http://www.broslikethissite.com/

I think you'll find it disturbingly accurate...

Moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVPalNZD_I&feature=player_embedded

Answers to some of our favorite questions:
http://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab