Chloe: Critic Girl/Renaissance Woman

di*aph*a*nous:
1. Of such fine texture as to be transparent or translucent: diaphanous tulle.
2. Characterized by delicacy of form. See Synonyms at airy.
3. Vague or insubstantial: diaphanous dreams of glory.

adj : so thin as to transmit light; “a hat with a diaphanous veil”; “filmy wings of a moth”; “gauzy clouds of dandelion down”; “gossamer cobwebs”; “sheer silk stockings”; “transparent chiffon”; “vaporous silks”

With images of Martha Graham and her company opening through my head, I walked through the rain. The rain, today, is like gossamer or silk. It is certainly vague and insubstantial, swirling around on the breeze - defying any attempt at protection. There is a quietness with a chiffon rain, a certain solitude that is accepted and celebrated and not a word need be spoken. It is Billie Holiday and new age crooning and the silence of owls. Yes, today, the rain is indeed diaphanous.

tags: rain, words

In conjunction with my endeavours into French, I tried searching today for podcasts in french to work on my listening comprehension. While I do use movies for this as well, I have just about memorized Amelie and I don’t think that counts as “understanding.”

I only found one site with French podcasts and they were all out of date. I suppose I shouldn’t beg and then choose, but a girl can try. I’m relatively new to the podcasting world and so am only beginning to learn the ways to locate interesting ones - I’ve found some great law resources, as well as news and politics. But, my friends, I’m looking for French culture, history, news, politics, anything.

Additionally, I’m amassing whatever French music I can find for the same purposes. I’m virtually addicted to Carla Bruni - she is amazing. I also know that some blog I read had a whole post full of links to French music and I must hunt this down again….perhaps one of the librarians?

Update: I found the post - “French Chanson Linkfest” by Depraved Librarian. Since Finals Period is on strong, I’m going to stick to french music and will get back to films and the next of Leonardo’s Seven Senses: Dimostracione in two weeks.

tags: podcasting, french, music

Polyglot
1. A person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages.
2. A book, especially a Bible, containing several versions of the same text in different languages.
3. A mixture or confusion of languages.

Despite my genuine interest in learning Spanish, I’ve decided to put that off for a while and to listen to my instincts. I am much more advanced in my French abilities and often seek out French websites, radio stations, etc. I also found an NYU Continuing and Professional Studies Certificate Program for translation of legal documents from French to English. Of course, there is also a course for Spanish to English, and that will be useful for another day.

And so, to prevent the risk of dilletantism taking over my pursuits of genius, I am going to take some French conversation and/or general French classes this summer at the Alliance Francaise here in NYC. Hopefully, after a summer brush-up, I will be able to get into the Translation certificate program.

Once I’ve mastered one language, then I will return to my lingual dilletantism and work on my Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and German. Not necessarily in that order

This is the first movie in a long time (since Swimming Pool, actually) that I couldn’t have a reaction to immediately. Instead, I wanted to do research and read more about the film and actually engage in some discussions with others. As it turns out, I don’t have a usual place to go for such things and so I went straight to IMDB - the usual go to place for all things questionable in film. In all of the threads there, I only found one remotely interesting discussion and everyone else was just concerned with the nudity and sex scenes. There is so much more to this movie.

I don’t know that much about the turmoil in France in 1968, or anything about the cinema of the day, but that is the back drop for this movie. Based on the novel, The Holy Innocents, it’s not as much about the actual politics of that time, but the raw emotion that everyone was experiencing. And the politics do serve as the framework for conflict and discourse amongst the students.

There are so many things that I would like to talk about with regards to this movie - Bertolucci presents a number of diametrically opposed elements that are still so tightly entwined with each other…it is nearly impossible to sort through. Overwhelmingly, innocence and love are the strongest themes, juxtaposed against a darker deeper sense of knowledge and selfishness.

…

It’s now been quite some time since I saw this film, and I haven’t come to any more conclusions. I am going to have to watch this again and process, and potentially try to read the book. I think, though, the visual adventure is what has haunted me and so I’m looking forward to further clarifications through viewings. I am sure that this will not be my last post and I certainly haven’t stopped looking for good conversation about The Dreamers.

After a brief hiatus, I have returned in full force. (Nothing like impending exams to make a girl get on her blog horse)

My project now is to work on building my own lexicon. I’ve done this in a number of different ways throughout my life: underlining every other word in Jane Eyre as a fourth grader in over my head, keeping a running list of words I come across in my notebook, etc.

I do love words and I love to use them in creative ways. There are so many great words out there that hardly ever get used (nefarious, exuberant, and so on) and so many words that just get used and used and never thought about (awesome, irrespective, etc.) - so here, I will keep a running list of words I come across and want to look up, or words I like the sound of or should be used more often.

Today’s word is watershed. I have the Indigo Girls to thank for my interest in this word and it seemed appropriate for the occasion. It’s been written in my little notebook for weeks and it is finally making its debut.

Watershed: …3) A critical point that marks a division of change of course; a turning point…

Up on the watershed, standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
’til your agony is your heaviest load.
You’ll never fly as high as the crow flies, get used to the country mile
When you’re learning to face the path at your pace,
Every choice is worth your while.

- Indigo Girls, “Watershed”

I immediately moved this movie up on my list based on a blog post that I read with news that Paris Hilton had been cast in the remake to play Miss Honeychurch. A wave of fear ran over me and I pushed this up to the top of my queue over on Netflix. I waited the two days or so it took until the movie came, and then about halfway through watching, I realized that said post was on April 1st. Yes, I had fallen so hard for this April Fool’s joke that I managed to see the movie before Paris could get her mitts on a classic movie of manners (ironic, I know).

And I go into any film with Helena Bonham Carter in it with a lot of mixed emotions. I’ve loved a lot of her work (notably Fight Club, but others as well), but I do bear a grudge from the whole Kenneth Branagh-Emma Thompson situation. So I had to get over that, as well.

I’m stalling on my reviews lately, humbled in the act of writing, if you will, and while I have notes that I actually took on this movie, I feel I can’t do it proper justice without being more familiar with the book.

And I don’t always like “manners” movies, either. But this was vaguely enjoyable; HBC’s hair was quizzical at best; and DD-L was eerily annoying.

Actually, it might be funny to see Paris Hilton play Miss Honeychurch. We’d have to do something with her hair.

Two steps gets combined today for my latest Curiosita endeavour. Mr. Gelb suggests a number of questions to find one’s ideal hobby. I actually have a number of undeveloped interests that I am working on and so insteaad of finding the most ideal of several, I’m just going to focus in one: learning a new language.

I’m taking the Spanish for Beginners course at Barnes & Noble University that started this week. It uses the Living Language CDs and workbook (note: the dictionary included is very shoddy, doesn’t even include gender of words) and helps pace you, also giving an opportunity to communicate in Spanish on a bulletin board.

One of the first assignments is to put post-it notes with the Spanish word on things in your home as a reinforcement of those words. I started with the bathroom, so now I have the words: ducha, lavabo, toalla, and espejo down pretty well. I want to add more notes around, but I just found out that my mate is actually moving in on Wednesday and so I will wait and let him relax a little bit before I force him to learn Spanish as well.

For the record, the others that I want to develop include more languages (getting back my French and Russian, and then trying Chinese), dance (jazz, modern, ballet), art (drawing and painting, mainly) and developing my culinary skills. For now, though, Spanish will have to be my main focus.

So, in browsing blogs I like, I discovered an interesting question that an interesting woman posed from an apparently interesting article:

American’s don’t know how to savor. They only know how to consume.

(this may have been a better stream of consciousness topic) I stand in a very uncomfortable position on this very issue. On the one hand, I wholeheartedly agree. On the other, I like to consume.

I’m constantly battling between wanting to go through the simple feng shui de-clutter everything and live very simply and then on the other hand, I want a Hogan bag and a Juicy smocked dress. And I’m not sure if I’m a sucker for the mass media and consumer society or if I really just like these nice things and also happen to really love reading about and experiencing the simple life.

I am very interested in the Slow Food Movement, for one. And I do my best to support the smaller gorgeous markets with gorgeous smaller market food items. I think that we should all be eating artisan breads and cheeses and local wine with local fruit and savor them in candlelight in stone cottages in big fields - you get the point.

And yet, I eat almost all of my meals (though they are home-cooked) sitting on the couch with a book open and something in the DVD player.

I’m working on the art of the single meal, eaten by candlelight (I do sometimes remember to light the triple wick as a mock fireplace) and savoring every bite and really focusing on eating what I’ve created with good quality ingredients and a fine glass of wine.

But then, the point of the getting the good ingredients is to “consume” from these smaller gourmet artisans and thereby support them. So the real question is, can I make the same argument for consuming haute couture?

So, I’m supposed to just write and not stop and write all the weird things that come to my head without stopping. And that’s sort of what I do anyway when I write, so I don’t know if it actually has the same effect as doing it in writing while sitting in a dirty subway or anything.

I’ve been sitting here all morning watching the second half of the fifth season of Sex and the City. It’s actually quite frustrating since the people who make the DVDs only put four episodes per DVD and so I don’t have any other episode to watch and I’ve now watched all of these twice. I should have been smarter and had more of them on hand. I think I’ll cry again when the season is over and I have no more Sex and the City to watch. I will start on a new show and I’m debating between Everwood (which I’ve seen a lot of) and The L Word (which I’ve seen one, but have rave reviews from lesbian and non-lesbian friends to back it up).

Yes, no cable. So I must watch old episodes and always be a bit behind. At least Sex and the City I’ve seen already and so I feel like I’m just revisiting an old friend. Although it’s just as frustrating, if not more, since I know how it all ends.

And now in my most recent bout with retail therapy, I am not sure whether or not I should take the plunge and buy a Juicy smock dress - in the cutest color called “Go” and a pair of 7 Jeans called “Dojo Rigid” which are very cute on the model on the Saks page. Of course, I live just a short train ride from the actual flagship Saks, and so it’s silly to pay 14 dollars in shipping to try on pants and send them back when I can just go to the store and save myself the 14 bucks. I’m just nervous that they won’t have the dress. But I guess there’s always the website.

And of course I want to go today, but I’m going to Barney’s with friends and while I could try on jeans with them, the glances when I go to spend three digits on denim on a student’s salary aren’t welcome. Even if they would do the same.

So, there, we go. Here is the most boring stream of consciousness I’ve ever written. I guess it’s different when I have something on my mind. And yes, I do count my shopping sagas to be something on my mind. I could go on and on about how nervous I am about finals, how frustrated I am with my boyfriend, or even more interestingly how the women on NPR (well Chicago Public Radio) were talking how the democratic system actutally has nothing to do with the advancement of women and may be detrimental in places like Afghanistan.

Actually, they made a very excellent point - the installation of democracy has to do with free market relations and a parliamentary election system (these are there words) and nothing to do with how a culture treats its women. And these women were the authors of two books which I am about to butcher - One was about Foucault and Islam and the other was about islamic identity and the feminist subject and I think they will make their way onto my reading list for the summer, although I do have a serious stack on my “To Read” table and some of them are quite hefty.

I’m actually getting a kick (can you say that about a book?) out of Hillary’s memoir because it brings up all of the things I want to do - travel around the world and work on women’s issues and advocate for children. Of course, my darling doesn’t have any interest in being the President of the United States, which is a shame and I may or may not be headed down that path myself (let’s be honest: there are no in front of the screen big stage politics in my future). So I have to find some way to work for Larry Lessig and forge new paths in the world of digital technology as well as advocate for women in Southeast Asia and South America.

And to get to South America, I’ve got to work on my Spanish, which I’ve been avoiding for no reason whatsoever.

And with that - ladies and gentlemen - I’m done. Not very creative. But a bit of my lame Saturday morning consciousness nonetheless….

1) When am I most naturally myself?
2) What is one thing I could stop doing, or start doing, or do differently, starting today that would most improve the quality of my life?
3) What is my greatest talent?
4) How can I get paid for doing what I love?
5) Who are my most inspiring role models?
6) How can I best be of service to others?
7) What is my heart’s deepest desire?
8) How am I perceived by those around me?
9) What are the blessings of my life?
10) What legacy would I like to leave?

These are questions provided by the author as some of the most common power questions. I think they do cut to the chase of the existential questions and to taking care of yourself and others. I would love to be able to just have the answers mailed neatly to me from some mystical source, although the process of attacking these questions is probably just as interesting and helpful as the actual answers themselves.

I think I will try to think about these questions and answer them at least in free flow in the next few weeks. At least as long as I can find them on my previous posts!