cutting great neck

manhattan on saturday february 28



sometimes i feel like life is... is like a long, roatating journey packed with ennui and fatigue, at times spotted with good points that sooner or later become strenuous bores, unneeded chores--a life filled with things from a life that has been lived before, a life... i don't know.



manhattan on saturday,
manhattan on sunday,
manhattan on saturday,
great neck the rest of the week,
cold air,
same people, same activities.

sometimes i feel like there's only history to look forward to; the past, the intriguing, beautiful past, jam-packed with death, violence, peace, love, hope, fury.



we went with the shapiras to south side seaport, that tourist hole near wall street, and then we went up towards chinatown but never made it, so then we just returned and dined at the same turkish place we ate at in june.

hmm.

we have guests now and i want to tell ya'll how nice life is and how normal and how ordinary and how strange my life is still and how dark night is outside, how dangerous, how enchanting like a movie.

ohh and yes, i did see two grand movies this weekend: "all about eve" (such a screenplay, such actors) and "la strada" (a bizarre connection to the glorious "nights of cabiria.")



i want to live in europe when i grow older; not new york, not san diego, not san francisco, not israel. europe: france, england, ireland, spain, greece, italy, germany romania russia. i want to live in a place where not everything revolves around you, when society has a social aspect and does not only consist of statistics.




i've been listening to a bunch of israeli songs lately

and i want to be in israel again

just to be there, alone, independent, in a small mediterranean apartment

with some girl, just locked up

and go to clubs, and listen to music and eat watermelons in the summer:

is it all that bad?

there is something like you
in me; something capricious
and sickly, a long shadow
inside my eye that expands
and contracts with the wind,
black and vile. i see you, the
vicarious creature, the untenable
wolf; vexing and peeling away
scars that have dried long ago,
drawing blood that has poured
long ago. you extend a drooling
arm, like a curtain, waving in
the wind and rain. the and needs
to be smaller, because we all
know that wind and rain
always go together, don’t we?
like harold and maude? and
porgy and bess? and sometimes,
i think, you and me—but not in
the small and sort of way, more like
in two voices that fall into place,
red and rose, chanting hymns together
like twirling snakes. sometimes,
i think, you and me need
smaller ands, like wind & rain,
wood & fire, dark & light.
you & the and is as little as
the light at the end of the tunnel.

<3 KIF KEF

<3 MEKUPELET


ANI CHOZER LETEL AVIV

I'M RETURNING TO TEL AVIV!!!

label me: boredom, europe, food, future, history, israel, life, manhattan, miss, movie, music, night, philosophy, poem

...and yes, it was sunny in philadelphia (not san diego sunny)... if you can call immitating the dying screeches of roadkill in order to survive blustering, jagged winds the ideal counterreaction of sunny.

because that's how sunny it was in philadelphia.

sometimes i could not feel my hands, my nose, my face, my feet.

but more details coming.



so we stopped at this beautiful little town called princeton, new jersey.



yes--the home of princeton university--which was SO FUCKING amazing! princeton is so beautiful, more reminiscent of a quaint brownstone town on the hills of cornwall or a french nobleman's estate. it's enormous, and it's beautiful and the atmosphere is so small-townish but it's still buzzing with energy and you see all these students walking around and eating and wow. it's just astounding, princeton life.



9% acceptance rate.



oh shit!

on the drive there we plugged in a george brassens CD and i nearly spasmed. george brassens... is amazing. here's a video of la mauvaise reputacion .

driving up to philly and the sun comes out. it's beautiful, looks like the skycrapers are climbing up and trying to kiss the sky.



walked over to independence hall, about ten blocks over from our hotel. it was chilly but not too cold and the sun was out and all the people were out on the streets walking, lunching, working, looking about.



we went inside, to the place where our forefathers wrote and signed our constitution... and i can't even tell you how beautiful the feeling is, to know that the most important moment in the history of the world happened at the same place where you are standing, where the most ingenious of people gathered hundreds of years ago to bring about a set of principles and beliefs that would change your, everybody's life, and push human advancement and liberalization further than even before. the hall where they signed the actual thing is huge, the walls high and blue, the soft pale light pooling in from the windows across thirteen wooden tables. mmm.







walking through the liberty bell exhibition was also touching. the bell embodies the american standards and continuous struggle for freedom, for equality. just knowing that the exhibit and the independence hall (plus a guided tour) are free to the public was so enlightening, knowing that history is open and that even the poorest of the poor are allowed to learn--that america's utmost treasures, its princples and its lifelines, are transparent to the world.



we went to the constitution center, which was amazing, and then we cross over the independence mall to the old city. which was sorta empty but kind of lovely, too.








and then we had some chinese red bean cake.

and then we walked up and down philadelphia in search of dinner. we saw indian buffet(no, diarrhea), pizza (pizza in quaker-land? ha!), seafood (schmaltzy), french (expensive and as dull as duck), wandered through some gritty parts of town... until we settled on the first place we saw. yes, well, apparently dinner for us was the usual--middle eastern deliciousness: the place called "sahara". couscous, shwarma, shish kebabs.

sweet, sweet baklawa.



and then, with our stomachs as jam-packed as 5th avenue during a pride parade, we toured down across the street towards the naked chocolate cafe adjacent to our hotel.

aztec... hot... chocolate... cinnammon goodness...




fell asleep at around 9 p.m. or so?
[wow]

the next morning, we turned around the corner and came to city hall. an ornate white "monstrosity" that, in my opinion, was quite fabulous-looking. like a wedding cake. marble and beautiful and subtle, flowing, lush. i liked it.





we climbed up groggily (elevator-rode) to the top of city hall and took some pictures.




and then...
began...
our journey.

an approximately mile-long track from city hall towards the philadelphia museum of art: yes, THE philadelphia museum of art, a severe walk that was routinely punctured with dying animal noises (as mentioned in the beginning of this post) and sickly, pneumoniac chuckles. we were giddy as hell, fighting against the wind, along the way humming the Rocky hymn--GOTTA FLY NOW! oh please, we almost soaredd from the fucking blazing wind--both my palms were clenched into blood-red fists that burned like ice and my face felt like someone fucking slapped it and i was about to die, DIE HEAR ME DIE!

but we made it... in the end.

oh, and also, there was this huge police funeral nearby. immense. the whole philadelphia police force probably showed up.






and no thanks to any well-toned oscar-winning fatso who actually made it to the top of the stairs of the art museum.




[FLYING HIGH NOW]

oh, and yes. we made it too.



and... enter pictures.






a few hours later...

took a bus to reading market terminal.



from there on, the pictures explain it all.



food. food. food.

we've been waiting for this one ever since we arrived on the shores of pennsylvania: the philly cheesteak.




mmmmmhmmm.

pastrami sandwich and a picke.

mmmmhmmm.



returned home via car straight afterward.

and that's where i am at the moment. it's 11:18 p.m. and i'm about to collapse. had a good week, wanted to watch film tonight though... eyes gruesomely pink now, however, so sleep it is.




i'm sorry if some of the photos got jumbled up. they were probly were. jesus, i'm tired. and thirsty. and kind of hungry after writing about all this food.

shout-outs to aleksandra and obama. you're on my thoughts tonight.

label me: america, college, food, happiness, movie, music, night, obama, philadelphia, travel, video

so, this past half-week has been AMAZING.

amazing in small, peculiar ways, and i can't really pinpoint the one aspect of my happiness but i can pick out several recent happenings which have made me feel...elated.

for one, the play. i love rehearsals. they’re so incredibly pleasurable and i get to relax and meet and frolic with all these remarkable human beings/actors, and i don’t really know why it had helped me so much; i guess it’s just the idea that i’m a large character in the play and that i have some comical lines and that aleksandra is rheba and i am donald and i’m black, too, so that’s so much fun and i love drama and ... yeah. plus, it’s this additional extracurricular (which is so comforting—any additional extras assuage my college fears) and i would like to become a thespian next year, or the year after that ... so that’s electrifying.



guide post was enjoyable, considering the token amount of time i got to design the pages. i would really like to write and report too, but if i want to advance myself then i ought to concentrate more on the designing aspect for now, and then if i receive an editorship next year, or the year after that, which i hope and somewhat anticipate, i will ensure that we all could be able to write more than we do at the moment.

also there’s no more snow, and the air is fresh, and i’m not as cold anymore and we’re free to be outside for once and see the grass and... i’m starting to get sick of snow, really.



sunday we went to manhattan, to greenwich village.

it was a MAJOR food day.



no more words needed.

i saw more zagat-rated restaurants or food stores in that one day on that one street than at any other time or place or day in my entire life. i noticed at least three 28-rated zagat restaurants, which is extraordinary.



i ate a rice ball filled with cheese, or a cheese ball filled with rice, or something like that in this 28 restaurant. mmm.

and then we went to this astounding italian fusion restaurant, simply breathtaking masterpieces foods, probably the most extravagantly cooked and delicious food i’ve ever eaten in my life.



i ate these three ping-pong sized appetizers—roasted red pepper filled with goat cheese, little vegetable-filled dough fritter, and a deviled egg. the dough one made me nostalgic for a memory which i don’t really have.



and then, hamburger—or more like a big, brown, sizzling patty, condensed and incredibly well-done, but i still tasted the meat with every bite, so homey and lovely. there’s no words to describe it. served next to a plate of chips and a pickle... the hamburger was so good that i think they put salad dressing on the lettuce.

and an apple pie...

in five words, describing the food:

it will make you cry.

today was good, too. i have one dilemma, however.

with this person.

this person... is unique, for a number of ways.

well, we were friends. but they have grown so mean-spirited and disenchanted with me, and i feel as if i disappointed them and they completely ignore me one second and then the next second they, well, welcome me into their arms.

well, not really. grudgingly, i believe.



i feel like they have taken advantage of me, like they consider me as a disposable, unnecessary individual, and even though i am crazy that does not mean that i am a disposable, unnecessary individual who can be virtually disregarded. and i like being the center of attention, so maybe this person doesn’t like me being a center of attention around them, but i used to respect this person so much, and now this respect i had for them evaporated.

is this a symptom of fakeness?

---

i'm eating cheetos and my fingers are all greasy and disgusting and it's midnight.



oh shit.

i watched the best film of 2008 on saturday. (and the second best film of 2008 a day before that.)



the best one--waltz with bashir. oh, my eyes swelled and i felt such nostalgia and emotions and sympathy, a plethora of indescribable, sacrosanct emotions that twisted me and confused me so.

on friday i watched vicky cristina barcelona. obviously, woody allen is king--but the performances, oh!, the setting, the music... all superb.

the end. good night.

label me: drama, food, friends, greenwich village, guide post, happiness, manhattan, movie, play, snow