Loren’s Year-End Review Of The Cool Shit She Did
My Dear Blog Reader!
I do hope you haven’t been too worried over my (lack of) timeliness concerning the matter of running-down all the cool shit I did in the Year of our Lord (Ryan Gosling, right ladies!) Two Thousand and Eleven. If you have worried over this matter, then you have my sincerest apologies - and this blog post (complete with my most British affectations) to quell the pain.
This, dear reader, is a small summation of some of the cool shit I did over the past year, and I do hope that you read it with a Brittish accent, as that is how I am thinking about it in my head. Cheers!
LOREN’S FAVORITE COOL SHIT FROM 2011:
Favorite Concert:
We’ll start with an easy one. I saw quite a few live shows over the past ranging from excellent to ephemeral to one containing an older gent who I got talking to, and who asked me when the last time I had had an orgasm was (not the favorite, sadly), and even one where I felt deathly ill. Obviously the big winner was the Final LCD Soundsystem concert at Madison Square Garden. What is there to say? Leading up to the final show on Saturday, I went to the Monday and Wednesday shows (got the hold grail of concert-going, a set list at the Monday show), secretly got a tattoo of the LCD disco ball on Thursday after work, and felt really, really excited and funny about the whole ordeal. The final show was the same set at the previous two, but fancier, longer, prettier, more put-together, dancier, and played with more emotion - something that one might think would be lacking from a dancey band, but which LCD has never failed to provide. I didn’t stop dancing the whole night (to be expected) and sobbed during the encore (less expected). I love (present tense! present tense!) this band, and it was so special to be able to be apart of their goodbye to live performing. Cool cool cool!
Favorite Musical Discovery:
This is also a really easy choice - and really the only thing that springs to mind, even. I got into the Beats In Space radio show because James Murphy was DJ’ing a set back in August, and LCD being over and all I was having withdrawls still and turned on my radio (something which rarely leaves NPR territory). And I fell in love. I heard someone say that we are all so programmed now to like certain types of music as young people, that we really can’t properly pin down what we actually like until our mid-twenties. This makes so much sense to me, since in my high school and college days I had been blindfolded, kidnapped and deafened by indie music… and it wasn’t until I went to a LCD concert in May 2010 that I realized that I had been missing an integral part of the musical experience - dancing along! Now, I won’t claim to “understand” or “get” dance music or anything, but I do listen to BIS most Tuesday nights from 10:30 to 1 (WNYU 89.1), and it’s basically the only thing that’s on my headphones these days. And more than just really great sets every week, BIS introduced me to DJs that I went to see in person - and really - the validity of the DJ as an artist. I saw DJs who’ve guested on the show, and discovered that the best night is the one that begins with dancing and ends with the sunset.
Favorite Meal:
Now, that I’m including this category at all is special, since as a veggie, I usually don’t get many special or memorable meals. Normally I love love love a veggie hot dog or veggie bbq, but when push comes to shove, those aren’t particularly memorable or inventive meals, as meals go. But, last July I went to dinner at La Carbonara with two good friends and had one of the best meals since refusing to eat meat (so, for the past 6 years). I had a dry red wine and the special of the day - pasta with truffles, truffle butter and mushrooms. It was rich, heavy, and still stands out in a sea of mediocre Italian food. Tre’ bien!
Favorite Graffatti:
(For obvious reasons. Taken in Prague, but more on that later!)
Favorite Impulse Buy:
I call her Red, but to you she’s just an old 10 speed road bike. It was fate that I would by her second-hand at an old bike shop in the Lower East Side, and nature that I wouldn’t really go on many rides (both my lazy nature, and the unfortunate amount of bridges that have to be crossed to get to work). But, I do have to say, that I loved all the rides I went on with Red, and how she got me to see the city in a new way. I particularly loved the ride we took home from Williamsburg in the dark (with no light!) after watching the free showing of Jurassic Park. Seeing the lights of Manhattan from the Pulaski Bridge was wonderful. And it was much quicker than the subway would have ever been!
Favorite Book:
This is actually a super tough choice, since I read so many damn good books this year. I read real page turners (The Hunger Games, Under The Dome), really beautiful novels (Any Human Heart), re-read old favorites (Love In The Time Of Cholera, Slaughterhouse Five), and read new favorites (Catch-22). I even read a bit of non-fiction (Keith Richards’ Life and Last Night A DJ Saved My Life). But, of all the super cool shit I read this year, I think my favorite was The Immense Journey, by my namesake Dr. Loren Eiseley. I read the first chapter of this book, which is mostly Dr. Eiseley’s reflections on life (not a good summarization - but I could never do justice to the beauty and truth Dr. Eiseley captured in his pages) and immediately felt an intense connection to Dr. Eiseley. I had tried, at the behest of my mom, to read Eiseley back in high school but didn’t get more than a few pages in, due mostly to Dr. Eiseley’s outrageously intelligent vocabulary. Even as an educated adult, I had to re-read every paragraph a few times before understanding whatever the hell he was talking about, but it was worth it. I told my mom that I was honored and surprised to find that she knew me so well as to name me so perfectly, and she cried on the phone. But it’s true! I am a happy agnostic who happily concedes to not knowing shit about shit, but turning the pages of this wonderful book two separate times this year opened my eyes to a lot of beautiful revelations - most of all the spectacular mystery of our human evolution, and my personal connection to the past, present and future.
Favorite Movie:
Z’omg, this one is so easy it’s not even funny. The Trip. I saw this one warm day after work at the IFC Center, and have sense seen it countless times on Netflix and illegal streaming. Literally, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to say that I’ve seem it 20 times. I watched it earlier today, in fact. It’s genius - from the subtle soundtrack to the not-so-subtle impression-offs that Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have while bickering their way through a foodie tour of north England. I will never get sick of this movie.
Big Favorite of All the Cool Shit from 2011:
No contest, not even close. My favorite thing from 2011 was by far the trip I took with one of my best friends to Eastern Europe. We went to Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg and Prague, and it was by far (oh, so far) the most fun I’ve had in my life - much less 2011. We stayed out late, made new friends, drank too much and walked around a whole bunch. It rained a lot and we were cold, but it was the best. I made myself more than at home in Budapest, stealing tram rides and only sleeping at the hostel during daylight. I explored Vienna and drank on the street constantly. In Prague I saw the sun rise from Charles Bridge with new friends, and wore sunglasses in a five-story club while “Empire State of Mind” played. I had fun, shit, I was fun, I am super happy to have shared it with my friend, and I am thrilled to have come back home a little different than before I left. We went in October, and I have literally thought about the trip every day since, and I won’t rest till I go somewhere new and have lots of new adventures. My favorite moment of all time (yes, that’s a real quantification and not some dumbass posturing) happened on the trip, although to share it with my blog would diminish it’s wonderful mystery and vagueness. Living in New York I have found that my favorite things to do are to walk around with no purpose other than to see something new, and that’s what Europe was in a nutshell, plus drinking and dancing. I am doing my best to stay on vacation, even though I’ve been back for a while.
So, there you have it, dear reader, just some of the cool shit that I did or liked this past year. I could add more, but I’m sure that it’s already long and flowery, and while I have more fabulous stories to tell, they are either too personal or illegal to share with the internet for my comfort. But, overall, I can say that I have spent more time over the past year living more fearlessly and feeling so overwhelmingly, euphorically happier than I ever have before.
In short it was a rather good year.
Chao,
Loren
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