New Beginning
And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate.

So here I am, in the middle way, having had
twenty years -
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of
l'entre deux guerres -
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind
of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better
of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or
the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so
each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what
there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already
been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom
one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover
what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now,
under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither
gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not
our business.

--T. S. Eliot
East Coker
Four Quartets

who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?

Vampire Weekend is the soundtrack for life right now. Campus and One ( Blake's New Face) are definitely worth putting on repeat. or actually just go ahead and put the whole album on repeat ( IT IS THAT GOOD)...hmmm other stuff we are listening to right now: The National, New Young Pony Club, The Black Lips, The Kooks, Bright Eyes, Silver Jews, and all our old favorites. Back to our band ambitions: Pet Rejects, Elizabeth and the Baby...hmmm. We want to play instrumentsor maybe we could learn to sing...anyone want to give us lessons? we can pay you in kisses and candy canes.



Other points of interest: mamas and papas in town. and then out...leaving us in the kolej. Discovery of the most amazing thrift store in the universe, or at least in all of the eastern bloc. Located in the antiquated praha train station, this place is small slice of heaven. Rooms and rooms of pure gold. 2 hours later and bundles of baubles later, we emerged 800 koruna poorer, but with enough sun dresses, suspenders and slinky scarves to last us at least until july. amazing jazz band in the basement of a nameless, but reputable establishment located somewhere in Praha 2 ( I think... the end of the night was a bit a bit blurry, as they tend to be in Prague ) ended up at chateau, making friends of course. dj is our hero. our main man sends his love, along with other glorious goodies, straight from the sunny coast of cali. our weeks were brightened to say the least:)

If you haven't already

See this movie,

yellow little spider

I could listen to devendra banhart all day

the rest of amsterdam

It is the first place that I think I could like more than Prague. To it's benefit, we had the nicest weather they have seen in 6 weeks. Everyone is SO friendly, it's heart warming. Especially compared to Prague. I've never realized how closed off the people are here, until I went to Amsterdam. People are so willing to help you, give you directions, strike up a conversation etc. We walked straight into the Redlight district our first night. Boobs everywhere. Plus we came with two of our closest guy friends who felt compelled to look at every single naked chick behind glass. Which is a billion. It was nutty, crazy but very cool. We stayed in a horrible hotel there, bad decision. But it was late, rainy, and we weren't properly clothed. To Prague's advantage, everything closed there early too, and beer wasn't flooding in every direction like in Prague.
The next day, we woke up and ate at Latei, a vintage inspired breakfast spot. It was great, and then Elizabeth and I had to run to go meet the guy we were going to Couchsurf with. I'll have to explain this later. I HAVE TO GO. I'll finish this later.

In Summary; The random mess of events leading up until today

Pictures will have to come later, because we are lacking one computer. They are many of them, they are good, they will come, just not now.

So since the last entry, we've started minimal schooling. Not much to say here for several reasons, 1. Classes are experimental, interesting, and yet not very pressing
It's great.
We went to Vienna, which unexpectedly was very clean and posh. It looks like someone goes around and whitens the buildings when no one is looking. A lot of palaces and nice dressers. The coffee shops are great, and we rented bikes for one euro, went to the best open air market, and ate sacher tort, and went to the bermuda triangle of nightlife which was crowded and loud but offered nothing different.
Then our beloved friend DJ came to visit, which consisted of 3 nights of zero sleep than a spontaneous decision to jump on a train to Berlin and stay in a presidental suite to see Paul Van Dyk. Berlin blew our minds. It is single handedly one of the most progressive cities I've visited. Artistically, Musically, and in Fashion. This is where we really need to show you pictures. We went to a very radical artist space, in an run down building 5 stories high completely covered in wall art, stickers, and graffiti. There are no signs, there is just an abandoned interest for all that are curious to venture up if they choose. We did of course.
The first floor was a bar, the next was a cinema room, then the rest were all artist space, reconstructed clothes and wild urban art. The coolest part was the park hangout made out of trash and recycled material behind the building. They are trying to shut it down, but I doubt that will happen and I hope they don't because it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.
The rest of Berlin was hookah smoking, boat parties that continue until 10 am and then some, and an incredible Paul Van Dyk show that was even more incredible because our baller friend Dujin flew on a something-teen hour flight from Chicago just to come party like rockstars at Paul Van Dyk, one of his favorite Djs. Us four and Emmie our badass roommate who came along went all out. It was so perfect.
Got back from Berlin and our friend John came in. So needless to say there were no breaks, sleeping, or free time involved. Ran around Petrin Tower, and the parks, drank homemade beer from the Monks at the Monastery, went to Cesky Krumlov (Painter Egon Schiele's birthplace), ventured in some little bookstore and bought some original prints for friends, took train back, did the Prague nightlife. Then left for Amsterdam on Wednesday the 12th.
Amsterdam is an entirely different story. We'll finish this later.

Catchphrase

The White Stripes- Cold Cold Night
Elvis Presley- Suspicious Minds
Hot Chip- Number One guy
Mine My- Hypnotic Tango
Velvet Underground- After Hours

Random Noshings;
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
life as circles
Love nests + communal living
Jim Morrison
Across the Universe
everything about Amsterdam
djs as minigods
tea
studying chaos
dutch designers
veysi and couchsurfing.com
all signs point to san fransisco
dream, nightmare consumation
middle parts and lipstick
musical exploration, stagnation and backtracking
the year of festivals
youtube
fanatics
baby cactus
wall clippings
reading
globe happy hour
mistakes
missing our moms
shameless fashion

oh yes, song of the moment

Cat Power- sea of love

Imagine this

So since the last time I blogged, I've completely fallen in love with prague, to the point where I could see myself living here. Easily. Almost too easily that it is scary because I feel that I might not leave. It's such a hard place to describe when I sit down at my computer, but when I'm out in the city, I can verbalize it so well in my head. It's the strangest, most satisfactory mixture of slow days, or better phrased "days filled with an enormous feeling of ease", and action-packed nights. The people are mysterious, subtly nice, direct, heavily aware, and key on eye contact. There are so many little secrets I feel as if I've learned, these czech tricks of the trade. There is this liquor here called Bekerovka here which I am completely in awe of, which is essentially made of healing water, ginger and cinnamon that every czech soley believes in. Every single night here has been an complete EXPERIENCE in every sense of the word. I have this body buzz of joy and accomplishment that comes over me when I stop for a second and soak up what's around me. We're leaving for Moravia in the South Bohemia today at five and I'm a little buzzed from class. We started drinking at 9 am and then pub crawled with our Czech teacher and his guitar. It was great. More later. Much more. So happy here. (Paige)

"Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St John’s wood, parties in flats and studios and houses and ships and hotels and night clubs, in windmills and swimming-baths, tea parties at school where one ate muffins and meringues and tinned crab, parties at Oxford where one drank brown sherry and smoked Turkish cigarettes, dull dances in London and comic dances in Scotland and disgusting dances in Paris – all that succession and repetition of massed humanity … Those vile bodies.."
-excerpt from the book I just finished, Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh.


I also just read Alabama Wildman by Thurston Moore which was unlike anything I'd ever read before. Its the poetic journal of Moore's life leading up to his success as a guitarist and singer for the group, Sonic Youth. Moore's poetry and journal entries tell the story of a nineteen year old kid, new to the East Village punk rock scene, trying to be a rockstar and eventually succeeding. Moore's description of playing CBGB's circa 1978 and his poignant, intimate vignette on the death of Sid Vicious are reason alone to read this cult classic.

meccamix

paparazzi paige was at it again. good thing she had 1000 disco balls, neon flashing lights and a whole lot of glittery debauchery to work with last night at mecca, the dance club about 25 minutes away from kolej komenskeho. House music has never been so fun and we were definitley some of the first to leave at around 3:30 in the morning. too bad good fun always comes at a price. sleeping through our morning czech class =bad news bears.


musical trifecta for the evening:
nantaz-Beiruit
fancy claps-wolfparade
boy from school-hot chip ( for old times sake)

Soundtrack for London

What Katie Did Next- Babyshambles

Disorder- Joy Division

Celebration Guns, The Night Starts Here- Stars

The View, Dramamine- Modest Mouse

23- Blonde Redhead

No One's Gonna Love You, Our Swords- Band of Horses

Life to Date

anxiety
ache
astrology
cab rides
exchange rates
life suitcased
life mapped
Ian curtis
sketching
co-existence
coincidence
beer
books and the stores they are in
language barriers
buddha bellies > rabbits foot
planet earth and preceding smoking sessions
brunch
being punctual
losing things/losing time
postcards from prague
cultural enrichment
reading revisited
fog & greyness
life on our own
wonderment
reflection
landscape
casualty
water
personal care
pick me ups
coffee, caution & czech

I never felt so much a' like

Today was a big one. Got phones, internet, a little more touch with the world and a little less overwhelmed. London was a complete blur of 3 days into one big adventure. We went to the Tate Modern, the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert, wandered over the Tower bridge, saw Buckingham Palace (which only reinforced my destiny of love with Prince Harry), went to St. Pauls, and the resting place of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Grabbed drinks with everyone in the AIFS program and met this girl from New York, Sophia, who later took us to meet her friend who get us in to this club where there was a good band playing and a couple of djs, then mixed and mingled the ngiht away with London's strung out rock scene. Went to an authentic London pub withour friend Chris who's from Miami, roamed the streets and stores of Knightsbridge, Piccadilly and Pall Mall, making eye contact with all the beautiful brits. Pictures are best. Because the words aren't fresh on my mind.

bouncing around rivington street,sleeping through Munich and other great adventures

London was curiously entertaining. the sighseeing was awesome.the prices were not. good thing we can be super thrifty. stealing cookies? no problem. skipping the line into Cargo? of course. all part of the grand plan...tate modern, national gallery, victoria and albert museum, london tower, buckingham palace ( changing of the guard was about as exciting as a rerun of the Wheel of Fortune. SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. Paige went m.i.a. for a day in Munich. While Paige was catching up on about 40 hours of lost sleep, I went to a beergarden...and basically never came back. At least I had company while I wandered around, cursing myself for not being able to speak German, unable to remember the name of the hostel. Oh jeez. ON TO PLSDEN. Good beer, not so good lunch. "I'll have the number 3, please. #3- Sauerkraut, Bavarian dumplings and pork." yum. sleeping on the bus...get to Prague...get lost on the tram... end up at a shell station.... attempt to speak czech. failed.