14 diciembre 2012

suspensión corporal

WARNING: possibly gross-ifying picture below

...and in an interesting turn of events, i noticed that on 7 october 2007,  during my first semester of grad school, i wrote this

while taking a break from reading today i notice True Life: I'm a Coney Island Side Show Performer was on. I didn't watch it, but it made me think those dudes that pick up heavy things with chain links pierced through their skin would be an interesting study. 

well what do you know? i'm now friends with some people that do that. i've been thinking the next project will be about street art or something, but maybe i should go back to that old idea.



el fin del año 2012

there are years that ask questions, and years that answer. 2012 was a mixed bag. there were good moments and bad moments—many bests and worsts. but just as last year, i learned from the bad and fully reveled in the good. here are those worth mentioning



Best Meal
the megacenter tour with jonathan: appetizers of burritos and nachos in La Cueva, the main course of Factory chicken wings, and we finished off with dessert in the Dubliner. i think i gained 10 pounds that night.

Worst Meal
la paz ceviche for breakfast with nico (note that pictures are of delicious ceviche for lunch with lorenzo in lima)





Best Completed Project
Will Roman mural



Worst Uncompleted Project
reading El Hobit


Best Party
afterprom




Worst Party
carnaval in oruro (being sick, sleeping on a wood floor, no windows, and no running water was not a good combination)

the worst of it

making the best of it


Best Success
finishing a draft of my dissertation before turning 30

i celebrated with these afterwards


Worst Failure
never quite getting the double tijeras llave


Best Student Experience
being greeted with "hey darlin" at aaa

Worst Student Experience
seemingly permanent back pain before my first lucha event


Holiday Celebration
halloween with mau, derren, rylan, kicho, & gus (2nd year running that halloween takes the honors)




Worst Holiday Celebration
st. patrick's day

at least the day started well with a strongbow and chapter 4 at 7am


Best "Illegal" Activity
the week clandestinely spent in the forbidden hostel room

Worst "Illegal" Activity
strapping $50,000 US to my belly and taking a 12 hour bus ride

and worse yet, at the end of the bus ride i was stuck in potosí for 36 hours


Best Birthday Gift(s)
its a tie
my tattoo and my lady blade portraits

writing 1, 2, & 3


Worst Birthday Gift
6 tequila shots in under an hour thanks to jaime and lucas


Best Acquisition


Worst Acquisition
several pairs of ill-fitting jeans


Best Encounter with an Animal
horse riding with el profe


Worst Encounter with an Animal
dog bite in obrajes



Best Fight
villa copacabana lady blade contra black spyder


Worst Fight
over hip hop music with jonathan and lorenzo


Best Death Defying Feat
urban rush, face forward



Worst Death Defying Feat
almost careening over a cliff during a car crash between puno, peru and the bolivian border



Best 24 Hours
el centro to la cumbre to mallasa and back





Worst 24 Hours
one of the many stomach dealies, throwing up every 2 hours and running out of potable water.


so there is my year, simplified to superlatives. the good were good and the bad were a learning experiences, thinking moments, or at least sighs of relief for not being as bad as they could have been. i'm lucky in so many ways. i met so many new wonderful people and grew to love so many old friends this year. my life will never be the same, and now i've got a tattoo to remind me of bolivia every day, now matter what hemisphere i'm in.

12 diciembre 2012

la lista de musica 2012


i wrote last year: people generally make top 10 lists this time of year to prove to the cosmos that they were paying attention and didn't let the year pass them by without notice. for the most part, they reflect on the past year and the new things that have brightened (or contentedly saddened) their days. and sure, there's a small part of the process that is aimed more at proving to the reader that the writer is cool enough to be on top of things and listen to the "right" stuff, and see the "hip" bands, and by paying attention to relevant music, is relevant themself.

this list lacks that second part completely.

i generally listen to pretty awful music. and its usually old (but not so old that its cool again). so i offer you this top ten tracks of 2012 list. but most were not released in 2012. instead this is my list of songs that will forever mentally transport me to afternoons spent in south american bars, late nights in makeshift paint studios, and sunrises seen from bedrooms in la paz. these are the songs that will likely stir strong emotion for decades to come. these are the songs that made 2012 what it was for me.


extra special mention



i am convinced i can start a cult following of Surfin’ Wagner, and i like them for reasons beyond the fact that they are mentioned in my dissertation. not only do they wear lucha masks and hawaiian shirts while playing surf-punk music, they’re nice guys with a sense of humor, and their website is just plain hilarious.



10. 


it was all the rage, but i resisted listening until it hit big in bolivia. a week later i appeared on the same television show with this particular video.



9.



practically perfect in every way. and even better in italian.



8. 


in a transient place, it describes so many relationships. sometimes comforting. sometimes heartbreaking.


7. 


sometimes you need to feel like a ninja. sometimes you need to feel like a primadonna.


6.


from beaches of the caribbean to andean mountaintops it followed me everywhere. by the end i grew to love it.


5.


good times. best friends. shitty tarija wine.


4.


the perfect soundtrack for construction, mural painting, and learning vocabulary like malirpa.


3.


when you leave and return as much as i do, feeling like you’re back in the groove is essential.


2.


i have a theory. after this song is played, nothing can go wrong. in fact, things usually get much better. especially if you play it 18 times.


1.


he called me and 5am and requested jim beam and this song. i didn’t know where to get booze at that hour, but he was content with the musical offering alone.