l'arboro di natale

last night, kristin, gabriele and i decorated the christmas tree. it made me want to go home. this is ironic only if you are my parents reading this, and know that our family at home hasn't even bought trees in the past two or three years. you see? don't even remember the last year we did, though that could be due to my awful memory instead.

today is a holiday in italy, the feast of the immaculate conception. it was a long weekend, so of course a lot of people left for one last trip. i didn't, but i did finally go to the bargello, which is the national sculpture gallery, where donatello's bronze david is kept. it was actually kind of fortuitous that i procrastinated for so long, because it was under restoration until about a week ago, and when i saw it, it was bright and shiny new.

also, since this is the last week of classes, i obviously did what i always do when finals are upon me: not work. instead, i watched in the valley of elah with katie w. and her friend ashley. at least they had to watch it for film class. i had no such excuse. but it was quite good. i recommend it highly. it's dreary, but not too preachy, and that's all we can really ask for in these iraq war films. though i will say that it does not nearly have the same amount of bright, young, good-looking things as stop-loss. because i am a shallow and irreverent human being.

i'm coming home in ten days. i can't really fathom that. or how i'm going to fit everything in. i've bought eight (count them, eight) new books since i've come here. and i still haven't started infinite jest.

summer in brooklyn, living with my mom

Starting last summer, back in Ann Arbor, my mom and I starting going on 'mom dates'; generally outings to see movies or to go shopping. My dearest friend Rory Pavach takes sole credit for the 'mom date' lexicography. It all started when the movie Once was released - a classic mother-and-daughter sort of event. My mother and I went to go see it, so did Rory and her mom. My friend E.B. (of e.b. in p.b., to your right) went to see it with her mother. This summer's quintessential mom date movie is of course, Mamma Mia! (refer to A.O. Scott and Anthony Lane on why the exclamation point is an absolutely necessary inclusion) which my mother and I saw last week at the local Park Slope cinema. Time for full disclosure: I was raised on this stuff. Like, I knew the lyrics to Abba Gold by the age of ten. In all honesty, it's still one of my favorite albums. Probably in my top fifteen, if not my top ten. My family made the pilgrimage to Toronto to see the show within a year of its opening. I've seen nearly every film that prominently featured the Swedish visionaries. Which is to say I've seen and loved both and Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. My heart is filled with a deep and steadfast love for Abba that rivals any drag queen worth her salt. And I loved the movie, in all its gloriously awful grandeur. Even Pierce Brosnan's singing. Even the cannonball. So do yourself a favor this summer. Grab your mom and watch this movie in all its frothy, saccharine splendor. I dare you not to sing along (quietly, of course).

Yet another reason to love Tracyanne Campbell and Camera Obscura, the twee-est: their cover of Abba's "Super Trouper," the b-side off 2007's Tears for Affairs single. Also, excellent album art: