...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.
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
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.
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.
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.
