Animal Planet

So I saw on animal planet that an ultrasound of a pregnant tiger shark will reveal that a mother can carry as many as twenty baby sharks at once, yet at the time of birth, a litter of only a few (sometimes even one!) emerges. It is survival of the fittest at its best, ladies and gentlemen, for the remaining sharks actually EAT their brothers and sisters. It reminds me of that Office episode where Dwight talks about reabsorbing his twin while in the womb. While Dwight has the strength of a "grown man and a little baby," the sole surviving sharks are born with the strength and might of 19 other baby tiger sharks and the "guilty conscience"(not!) of familial cannibalism. It's Charles Darwin meets the Donner party. What I want to know is how animal experts get close enough to the second largest predatory shark to get an ultrasound in the first place.
It's a shark-eat-shark world out there,
R-

A Caffeinated Collection of Thoughts

So...the novelty of blog writing has died off a bit, but I've been keeping a mental list of things worth noting over the last few weeks and am finally sitting back to tie the loose ends that are clattering around in my head. First of all, my cousin returned from studying abroad in the Netherlands. Having grown up together (we're two weeks apart), the adjustment to separation with college and then a whole quarter in another country was pretty hard. I'm not good, nor do I enjoy phone communication AT ALL, so the need to catch up was pretty great by the time she rolled back into town. We met at the Global Bean Coffee Shop, which is a new joint in the 'dale. I have to say, my time in the emerald city has redefined my definition of good coffee but this Global Bean place did it right. It has that slightly pretentious vibe that invites Heidegger into the conversation over a nonfat sugarfree vanilla latte; however, the brooding intellectual expectation is watered down with its bright decor and obvious appreciation of community art and talent. Not to say that the two don't go together, but the pretentiousness is definitely curbed by the bright orange walls. It successfully bridges the city coffee world with a small town jive. I'll definitely be back.

One Nonfat Sugar-free Vanilla Latte later,
R-

For a Smile:

This is worth four minutes and twenty nine seconds of your time.

Dancing along,
R-

Heavy Boots

"Did you know that in the last 3500 years there have been only 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world?"

Even if it means two posts in one day (sigh, this is addicting, isn't it?) I need to throw down some thoughts about the book I just finished, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It is one of the first fiction novels written in response to 9/11 and is just brilliant! It follows a young boy's (Oskar) stream of consciousness as he tries to track down clues left behind by his father who died in the terrorist attacks. Though at first a little confusing, I eventually fell into the odd rhythm of the writing which doesn't decipher the important from the unimportant; namely, written in first person, Oskar tells everything he sees, smells, hears, tastes, touches, so it is up to the reader to determine what is essential to the plot. The author used photographs, blank pages, and other illustrations to add to the text, which was a really artistic way of incorporating the reader's imagination into the pages of the novel. One of my favorite passages is in a letter from his grandfather describing his wife's desire to learn English idioms from magazines, books, brochures, etc. Day after day of bringing things home for her, "my shoulders burned with English, she wanted more English so I brought a suitcase, I filled it until I could barely zip the zipper, the suitcase sagged with English, my arms burned with English, my hands did, my knuckles, people must have thought I was actually going somewhere, the next morning my back ached with English." I love that passage. I imagine this young man stumbling home, ready to unleash the weight of sentences, phrases, words. I see words and letters tumbling out of the suitcase, free of context and eager to be consumed. That's how this entire novel is: structure-free but eager for individual interpretation and universal understanding. Oskar is a character to learn from. Especially in the last few pages where he takes images of a man falling from a building and reverses them so that the man appears to be "floating," reading this book inspired me to channel curiosity and optimism in the worst of situations. It was a beautiful read.

Watching the world as if it were a TV,
R-

A Story of Stories

I am sitting back in complete awe, wondering how I can possibly put into words the beauty of Tarsem's latest masterpiece The Fall. It meant trekking over to the U district, but it was totally worth devoting my entire day to the excursion. It was a small journey compared to the one Tarsem had to undertake to create this film. Shot in 18 locations around the world and financed out of his own pocket, The Fall is a product of love and care of every detail. My initial excitement to see the movie was ignited by a friend at work who told me about it. Once I saw the preview, I was hooked, watching it a few times a day in anticipation of finding time to actually go and see it. The movie was not what I expected at all, but it still blew the highest of expectations out of the water. It was beautiful, both visually and otherwise. The costumes and colors were mesmerizing and the movie was so sensual that it didn't seem enough to just watch it. I wanted to smell the desert, taste the ice, feel the costumes. I felt that it was work to be in the audience and try to consume every ounce of art that was this film. It's paradoxical how candid the acting was compared to the intricacy of the cinematography. The acting was honest and innocent and I was invested in each of the characters, falling under the same spell that Alexandria did when Roy was weaving his story. Also, it was a lot lighter than what I was expecting from the preview. From the haunting music courtesy of Sr. Beethoven to the gorgeous palate of colors and incredible cast of storyweavers, The Fall is something magical to be experienced.

I am as strong as my teeth,
R-

Two Dollar Tidbits

Snapple Fact #94: Lizards communicate by doing push-ups.
Had I been born a lizard, I would be a failure to the lizard species.

Sure glad I'm not a lizard,
R-

Tabula Rasa

It’s high time I graduated from the angst-filled pages of my livejournal and entered a blogging world that stretches beyond the scope of my teenage self absorption. I’ve always been jealous of those blogs that have a point, whether it is to showcase art, review music or movies, or even share recipes (which I just recently came across and think is a brilliant idea). I guess in a way, every blog, despite its content, is paradigm of self absorption, since we’re imposing what we think is worth saying on the vast world that is the internet. I’ve been pretty critical of blogging as a means of communication, primarily because I hate the internet persona that accompanies any type of networking or communication website, but despite my hypocritical aversion to enjoying blogging (since, dear god, I’ve been on livejournal since junior year of high school) I’ve decided to just accept it and love the 21^st century for what it is.

Succumbing to my generation--
Rachel