OK, so, Hello, Dear Reader!
A ton has been going on and I'm not sure where to start.
Actually, I take that back, I know exactly where to start.
Peter Steele, Man and Legend, Frontman and Bassist of Type O Negative has died. The man responsible for saving modern metal from itself is gone. His tongue-in-cheek roast of musical subculture combined with his incredible musical talent was a huge influence on me in what I like to call my formative years. Type O imprinted upon me the idea that it was OK to not take yourself seriously, and that it is OK like whatever you want without pigeon-holing yourself into a subculture niche. Plus the music is fuck awesome. It is no surprise to me that after (half-Icelandic) Steele died air traffic from Europe to the States came to a halt via a few angry volcanoes. Peter Steele was an incredible talent, Rust In Pieces.
Then, in other, non-tragic, news I will be returning to the states soon. Well, I guess that is sort of tragic. And its only going to happen if I can find someone to take my lease. (As an aside, my apartment is on the expensive side, but its awesome, fully furnished and incredibly located. In this, one of the most cutthroat housing locations in the world I am having trouble getting someone to take my lease. What the fuck.) I will be making my way back to Albany, New York start my Masters of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the end of May. This is a bittersweet return for me. It will be nice to be near my family with all the shit that's going on (don't ask, too emo for blog), and, as much as I hate to admit it, Albany has grown on me more in my abscence that it ever did when I was living there. On the Other hand, there is definitely a reason that when I applied for university the first time around not one of the schools I applied to was in New York State.
One of the downsides to the post-collegiate jet-setting (haha) lifestyle that I have been living is the divergence and scattering of the group of people I used to call my friends and confidants. This brings me to one of the upsides to returning beyond those obvious in my return to academia. Assuming I return in short order, (Pray for me, Dear Reader), I will be road tripping from Albany, New York, to Los Angeles, California and back. Over the course of three weeks or a month I will be visiting more cities than I feel comfortable listing here and 8,901 miles in my Honda CRV. The greatest windfall of eminent financial destitution (in the form of loans) and the exorbitant deposit I payed on this place in Tel Aviv is the influx of cash from the return of said deposit having absolutely zero baring on my future ability to pay for shit. So I can even afford the trip!
There is more, but it is pushing 2000 and I have a BBQ to get to, so, Dear Reader, I will leave you with some of my favorite -- Politics. And, because I have the last post in the fifteen most recent threads in the Pro-Israel Group and I'm sick of talking to people who agree with me, I will even give you my favorite favorite -- Israel.
To begin, here is a link to an article which does a really good job of elaborating on many of the differences I perceive between the American perspective on Israeli/Palestinian issues and Israeli perspective on Israeli/Palestinian Issues. The basic idea to walk away from this article with is the Obama Administrations naivet and mishandling of Israel and Bibi (Netanyahu). America desires piece. Israel desires peace. Nothing is gained by the destruction of the bonds tying Israel to America. This is encapsulated in one of the comments. Someone talks about the "Patron/Client Relationship" between American and Israel, and further goes to state that if Israel wants America to continue protecting it from the rest of the world Israel had better shape up. Now, without going into the validity of Americas protection of Israel, Israel is not and cannot be in a Patron / Client relationship with America or anybody else and the Obama Administrations actions during Bibi's recent trip to Washington seem to hint that Patron / Client is exactly how Obama views that relationship. This will end in disaster, for all involved.
To close this political bit, I would like to paraphrase Halevi from the above article and say this: Three times in the last decade Israeli has offered the Palestinian government (equivalent) 100% of its current territories with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian leadership has turned it down each time, for the same reason. The Palestinian pre-condition for an Israeli withdrawal is that Israel commit suicide."
I love you all, Dear Reader, regardless of ethnicity of political beliefs, and I hope everybody in SG Land is well.
-Hisa
A ton has been going on and I'm not sure where to start.
Actually, I take that back, I know exactly where to start.
Peter Steele, Man and Legend, Frontman and Bassist of Type O Negative has died. The man responsible for saving modern metal from itself is gone. His tongue-in-cheek roast of musical subculture combined with his incredible musical talent was a huge influence on me in what I like to call my formative years. Type O imprinted upon me the idea that it was OK to not take yourself seriously, and that it is OK like whatever you want without pigeon-holing yourself into a subculture niche. Plus the music is fuck awesome. It is no surprise to me that after (half-Icelandic) Steele died air traffic from Europe to the States came to a halt via a few angry volcanoes. Peter Steele was an incredible talent, Rust In Pieces.
Then, in other, non-tragic, news I will be returning to the states soon. Well, I guess that is sort of tragic. And its only going to happen if I can find someone to take my lease. (As an aside, my apartment is on the expensive side, but its awesome, fully furnished and incredibly located. In this, one of the most cutthroat housing locations in the world I am having trouble getting someone to take my lease. What the fuck.) I will be making my way back to Albany, New York start my Masters of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the end of May. This is a bittersweet return for me. It will be nice to be near my family with all the shit that's going on (don't ask, too emo for blog), and, as much as I hate to admit it, Albany has grown on me more in my abscence that it ever did when I was living there. On the Other hand, there is definitely a reason that when I applied for university the first time around not one of the schools I applied to was in New York State.
One of the downsides to the post-collegiate jet-setting (haha) lifestyle that I have been living is the divergence and scattering of the group of people I used to call my friends and confidants. This brings me to one of the upsides to returning beyond those obvious in my return to academia. Assuming I return in short order, (Pray for me, Dear Reader), I will be road tripping from Albany, New York, to Los Angeles, California and back. Over the course of three weeks or a month I will be visiting more cities than I feel comfortable listing here and 8,901 miles in my Honda CRV. The greatest windfall of eminent financial destitution (in the form of loans) and the exorbitant deposit I payed on this place in Tel Aviv is the influx of cash from the return of said deposit having absolutely zero baring on my future ability to pay for shit. So I can even afford the trip!
There is more, but it is pushing 2000 and I have a BBQ to get to, so, Dear Reader, I will leave you with some of my favorite -- Politics. And, because I have the last post in the fifteen most recent threads in the Pro-Israel Group and I'm sick of talking to people who agree with me, I will even give you my favorite favorite -- Israel.
To begin, here is a link to an article which does a really good job of elaborating on many of the differences I perceive between the American perspective on Israeli/Palestinian issues and Israeli perspective on Israeli/Palestinian Issues. The basic idea to walk away from this article with is the Obama Administrations naivet and mishandling of Israel and Bibi (Netanyahu). America desires piece. Israel desires peace. Nothing is gained by the destruction of the bonds tying Israel to America. This is encapsulated in one of the comments. Someone talks about the "Patron/Client Relationship" between American and Israel, and further goes to state that if Israel wants America to continue protecting it from the rest of the world Israel had better shape up. Now, without going into the validity of Americas protection of Israel, Israel is not and cannot be in a Patron / Client relationship with America or anybody else and the Obama Administrations actions during Bibi's recent trip to Washington seem to hint that Patron / Client is exactly how Obama views that relationship. This will end in disaster, for all involved.
To close this political bit, I would like to paraphrase Halevi from the above article and say this: Three times in the last decade Israeli has offered the Palestinian government (equivalent) 100% of its current territories with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian leadership has turned it down each time, for the same reason. The Palestinian pre-condition for an Israeli withdrawal is that Israel commit suicide."
I love you all, Dear Reader, regardless of ethnicity of political beliefs, and I hope everybody in SG Land is well.
-Hisa
- The Reader
p.s. sucks the big one about Peter Steele