I slept well last night, much better than the night before
...where I passed out at midnight before beginning my paper and after being on-and-off asleep, wrote it b/w 5 and 7:30 in the morning before starting my 9-17:30 school day (the military time's to make subtraction easier, how many hours is that? That's right, 8.5. Nothing several cappucinos and a Coke can't fix!)
As I said, much better than the night before. When I woke up, I was all like, hmm...that's a lot more sirens than I usually hear. Then I went back to sleep again.
Even though class was at 10:45, I found a way to be late. As I sped right in front of the Place de Clichy metro stop, I glanced at the line of white vans with the blue sirens blaring and making a fuss as they cut through the roundabout west to the boulevard des Batignolles.
"Damn, that's a lot of CRS vans..."
As everyone knows, the CRS are the most brutal of French riot police. Makes you wonder where they were headed, must be a pretty big deal if they have the sirens on...
Very pretty morning, all in all. Good times.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
There are so many things i've been out of the loop on this week...
But first: This band was on YouTube, like they all are, they're called Vegastar, they make me think like they're the French version of the All-American Rejects. Fun stuff, I totally dig the Tetris-y synths that come up every now and then, creating a calm before those snarly pop-punk choruses, don't you think? I miss rocking out to poppy music...but isn't that what I always do?
Apparently the strike was voted on by Paris I and Paris IV (the one I'm going to); unfortunately for me I had not read the news that day or listened to the radio. It seems about a 1000 or so students marched up from Bastille to the Latin Quarter protesting against the government reform of the day (there really is always something new when you go online) that would make the universities autonomous -- they seem to be against it because they believe it would invite corporations to take over the education system; on the other hand, there's other people who are arguing that the universities need more money and more restructuring to make graduates competitive with Grandes Ecoles graduates in the labour market. Hmm. Probably should have stuck around to listen to the protesters at Paris IV explain it. All I know is, I got home early yesterday, had an admittedly good nap.
Another thing:
The whole Stephen Colbert deal. Yes, I joined the Facebook group: nobody told me he was running for real! Or that Obama supporters put pressure on the South Carolina Democratic Party's Executive Council to prevent teh Colbertzorz from running on the Democratic ticket in the state just a few days ago, making him quit, to the detriment of the American people.
The Colbert candidacy, interestingly enough, has renewed my interest in this election, which thus far is still easy to ignore in France (it's not yet front-page fodder for the French papers, especially with President Sarkozy still running around at full speed to solve a new crisis each day). For starters, I think this is really the first time it dawns on me how distant the establishment is from us, the young people. I know Wikipedia isn't good at all for citing, but they put it so well:
Colbert's candidacy had met mixed reviews,[26] and the growing realization that Colbert may be serious about his candidacy has risen the ire of the American political and media establishment.I personally like John McCain's view the best:
When the Public Opinion Strategies poll put Colbert ahead of Bill Richardson, Richardson's spokesman responded: "This is a serious election with serious consequences and we are not going to comment on this ridiculous exercise".
Katon Dawson, South Carolina's Republican party chairman believed Colbert would be better off using the $35,000 entrance fee to "buy a sports car and get a girlfriend".[27]
The high polling gave way to what New York called a "Stephen Colbert Backlash", as bloggers criticized Colbert for verging into legitimate political territory, that he has "crossed the line from lampooning the process to actively messing it up."[28]
Several members of the committee expressed dismay over Colbert's apparent lack of serious intention, citing his failure to campaign nationally as a reason to doubt his viability; one member stated that Colbert would only get on the ballot "over my dead body."[17]
"He can make them livelier and he can reach a wider audience than that narrow little sliver that watches his show."
When one million people join a Facebook group supporting a presidential candidate, all within a few days, while the established candidates have not yet gone anywhere close to that -- well, I'm sure it's more than just a sliver, and perhaps, perhaps, they shouldn't be dismissed so quickly. And truly, what is a "serious election"? Is all the infighting, the nitpicking, the vapid media poll-following and the pronouncement of the same vague promises to the same choir, can that be considered any more serious? Most of this ridiculously long primary is purely rhetoric, whether on the blogs or on a thirty-second TV soundbite; if that's what is to be serious, then maybe irony is a valid position to take after all. Fuck them for telling us how we should do politics! Wow, look at that, after three years, I'm in shape again, and better than ever!
Why not? If we say we want change, then perhaps we should be thinking of how we can start making it not just superficially, but completely, altering the entire system from its roots. Hard, I know, but maybe if we really start thinking about it, we might get somewhere, yes?
More on this lovely little spectacle:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/clinton-says-yes-to-peru/
I love these things, cos you can tell most of the people debating on the comments have no idea what they're talking about and just assume knee-jerk stances based on whatever sound-bytes their favorite politicians feeds them. Somehow, you notice it more when you haven't tuned in for a while.
Remember kids,
Blogs Are Lame.
;)
Blogs Are Lame.
;)
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