Excitement

Why? Several reasons:

• Going for Korean food tonight - bibimbop is my all time favourite-named food
  
• Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for child rape - yes, it's a bloody awful thing, but death penalty ≠ solution (and, after a bad period, I feel the Court has made a couple of decent decisions this term - nothing as bad as Ledbetter, for example, including the case that I went to see on the Age Discrimination Act).
  
• Also, see this article about the increasing number of rebukes to the Bush Administration this term - very interesting
  
• Yesterday, dropped off the application for a visa to Mozambique - we're really going! Ulp! Yay! And if you're wondering why I'm so excited, click here. And here. And here.
• NB: less exciting: tetanus jab. Actually had to take painkillers to stop the aching in my arm yesterday. Grim.
• But more exciting - after Friday, pick up the passport and just need Kenya & Tanzania - yayayayayayayay!
• Just when I order a magic bullet, we find out that blended drinks are back - yeah baby!

UPDATE: Now I am VERY excited about two more things: Professor Schechter's scheduled return to tell us about domestic issues for the Bar - having a professor who is genuinely funny is a rare change and has been a delight this week - even if it does make the classes an hour longer than they need to be.

But secondly - DGC has introduced me to the onion video - I've known it was there for a while, but I'd never watched it before today - and, aptly, the one I watched was about the Supreme Court and the Death Penalty - enjoy!


Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is 'Totally Badass'

'Til Death

I listened to a really interesting podcast from PBS this morning - a special, online edition of the newshour about gay marriage from the perspective of two constitutional law scholars.

What really got to me this morning was the blithe assumption that marriage has always been this wonderful institution that benefited all concerned. What really interests me is that every proponent of marriage - for gay or for only heterosexual only - I've heard thus far has been a man. Every time there's a discussion, there's been no concept of a feminist input - that marriage hasn't always been that great for women, that they only belonged to husbands or fathers, that it was a method of transportation of property and titles between men. Not that it is that now predominantly like that in the US or Britain, but it intrigues me given this is the ground we're debating, with gay marriage opponents citing its history and traditional place in society ("that's how it always has been") as the reason why it cannot be expanded to gay couples. Why, therefore, do we never hear a feminist riposte regarding its often oppressive effects on women throughout history?

Anyhoo, my favourite moment in the podcast is when Professor Cruz slaps down Eastman for making the assumption that bisexuals would have to marry one of each sex. I love the "slippery slope" argument that Scalia has made - that somehow bestiality, incest and paedophilia are the same thing as homosexuality. Brilliant. Arseholes.

Random Generator: The Serious Procrastination Edition

1. Otha Fish - The Pharcyde. It's odd how the general west/east coast divide splits me evenly, really, between the two. For I do love the Wu Tang, and some Jay-Z. And I couldn't give a monkey's for mucho of the West Coast gangsta/heavy nonsense. But I love me some laidback, more lyrically interesting stuff like the Pharcyde or Jurassic 5. I particularly like the Pharcyde because when they talk about sex, it's comical, and they talk about love, break ups, like in this, without expressing the need to humiliate / beat / generally do violence upon women in general. Plus, who couldn't love a song with the line "A manwich is a meal"?
   
2. Fuck Knows Blud - Jehst. Jehst produced one unbelievable tune that I absolutely bloody love, called Under The Weather, which is on one of DJ risco's fab mixes that he did us. I haven't listened to this, and while the rapping does have that slightly weird accent that many British rappers adopt, it's distinctive and pretty sweet.
   
3. Waters of Nazareth - Justice. One of my favourite albums of last year, this hasn't been one of my favourite tunes thus far, but listening to it now it's got a lot of the stuff I quite like about earlier Daft Punk (such as Rollin' & Scratchin') - harsher sounding, rougher, but with a good disco sensibility underneath. Love it.
4. Save a Prayer - Duran Duran. Oh, how I love Duran Duran. Awesome pop, ridiculous videos, stupidly self-important, but Simon Le Bon's voice really is a thing of rare beauty, in my opinion. Only highlighted by some horrendous eurodance version a couple of years ago. PLUS Arctic Monkeys reference it in Teddy Picker - what more do you need?
5. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy. Is Chuck D guilty of that horror teenage girls are accused of - having a less "talented" friend (Flava Flav) around to show how wonderful he is? Just a question. This song is possibly one of my favourites by Public Enemy, only enhanced by the bizarro Tricky cover version. I also love the fact that the production is so sparse - yes, it was of the time, but it allows him to speak and be heard - it never overshadows him. I fear that these days, it'd be all about samples that tried to compete with him. Which would not be good.*
6. Summertime - Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. This remains my favourite explicitly-summer-based (i.e. in the title) song of all time, despite strong competition from the Isley Brothers. Love love love it. Even if he is now bff with Tom Cruise.
   
7. This Is How It Feels - The Inspiral Carpets. For a brief period, I loved them - and this is one of my favourites, although personally, I think the duet with Mark E. Smith (I Want You) is the best thing they ever did.
8. A Little Deeper - Ms. Dynamite. Honestly, I listen to nothing on this album except for Dy-Na-Mit-Ee, which I think is genuinely genius, and occasionally It Takes More. She has such a great, smoky, slightly roughened voice, and I think it's really underused on this album. Given that this album was up against Original Pirate Material AND Run Come Save Me, it is really rather ridiculous it won, I think, given that the depth of those and the real lack of depth of this.
9. Tick - Yeah Yeah Yeahs. A good friend of mine loathes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which I did at first, but this album (Fever to Tell) was MY album in the first year I came to law school, and really reminds me of walking to lectures in the mornings, and just being overwhelmed with being in NYC. I think lots of people who move here have a "NYC" album (often Interpol's latest, apparently), and this is mine. Plus, I absolutely love the video for this.**
10. There She Goes - The La's. I've never been a big fan of the "Liverpool" sound - I like bits of the Coral, but didn't think the La's were all that. Having said that, this is so sweet and summery, I love it. And that Sixpence None The Richer cover was genuinely horrific, showed up the quality of his voice, and I really think a Christian rock band should probably not cover songs if they're about heroin addiction.
    

* He is going to be featured in a guardian special on the greatest lyricists of all time, soon, which I am looking forward to greatly. Must get the parentals to save me a copy.
** I looked for an online source, but couldn't find one anywhere. Dammit!

Ups & Downs

This week has been a somewhat exhausting one. First, we got jonned this week. TOH's junior sibling was in town as my liver, wallet and expanded paunch know all too well. Still, mucho fun had by all, and I'm slowly starting to catch up on sleep, water and vegetables.

Second, the grind of school got to me a little, it must be said, particularly when TOH, TOH junior and various other friends were off having a simply marvellous time without me. So, it was apt that, to go with my somewhat changeable moods, on Thursday I went to an NJ institution known as "The Great Adventure" - the Garden State's version of Six Flags.* At Six Flags we went on many, many exciting rides, most of which were exhilarating (on the Superman they literally strap you in so you're lying horizontally facing the ground - awesome!), none of which quaked my guts beforehand like the Kingda Ka. If you've never had the fortune to see it, it's the world's tallest and fastest rollercoaster - and it's ridiculous. It's the equivalent of a 45 stories high; it gets up to 128 mph in a mere 3.5 seconds. Holy moly. I was absolutely bricking it beforehand. TOH junior wasn't much comfort, it must be said. We also had to be unsecured and secured three times, because the poor gentleman who must have waited about 45 minutes to get to the front seat was too large to fit under the secure harness. But once it got going - absolutely bloody brilliant. Wundebar. As you can see from the video below (you need to wait to about 53 seconds to see the real action).

* Why is it called Six Flags? Not because it's "more fun," as the adverts claim, but because there are "Six flags over Texas." Or some other such nonsense. But that's what DGC told me, and everything he says is true. And righteous. And awesome.

Now, back down to earth, to practice essays, and being at school at 8.30, and all the stuff I don't like. Still, saving myself up for another visit - and definitely sitting in the front row this time...

Substitute

I am grumpy, stressed and miserable with Bar/Bri. Fortunately there is relief out there - someone documenting this experience, so I know I am not alone, and he does it in a far funnier and wittier way than I could possibly, ever. Hopefully this post will stop me moaning about it too much.