Musings

--The other day while walking around the city searching for a book store I stumbled across the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I figured I should check it out seeing as how I had nothing else to do and because it could offer me some more perspective on the Holocaust.

I walked inside ready to learn and be moved by a museum, which has the slogan, "Hay un museo, nada de arte (It's a museum, with no art)." The man at the entrance told me it would cost 10 pesos (3 USD) to get in. I really didn't feel like spending that kind of money, so I came up with a quick lie and left the museum.

--In case you were curious, I ended up dropping my migrations class, mainly because it was boring as hell and because the teacher looked like Colonel Sanders, which for some reason didn't work for me.

I also switched Spanish classes because although the first teacher was very nice she was Acunto. Tiki Barber agreed with my decision.

--On the subject of school, I got back some homework and aside from the teacher tearing up my Spanish grammar, she wrote TP2 on the top of the page. I have no idea what this means, but I took it as her recommending I listen to R. Kelly's "TP2.com." I'm not quite sure how listening to "I wish," "I wish (Remix to the homies that we lost)" and "Feelin' on you booty" will help my Spanish, but I'll take any excuse to listen to Kellz. If you have the time all those videos are must-watch.

--Great news! Turns out the South Mountain Justice Court was wrong and they sent me the letter threatening an arrest warrent by mistake.

--I see movie posters for the "Tripulacoin Dave" (called "Meet Dave" in the U.S.) all around the city which disgusts me as I feel America should not be spreading terrible Eddie Murphy movies to the world. In my mind this is akin to when the government gave the Indians blankets with Small Pox, there is no reason to subject South America to a film in which Eddie Murphy plays an alien inside an Eddie Murphy-shaped spaceship that wonders throughout New York City.

--After walking through the protest last week I checked the local newspapers' websites to see what was going on. Neither of them had anything about the riot, but Clarin, whose masthead looks exactly like the allergy-medicine Clarinex, had an article about Britney doing something.


It appears that I can't run away from Britney Spears or Eddie Murphy.

--I learned from my house "father/landlord" that the protests happen quite often, but they usually aren't dangerous any more. He also told me that the protesters are often paid by whoever is leading the cause or by crooked government officials who feel the need to express their thoughts in protests.

So from my understanding the protests/manifestaciones are really nothing more than a really gully form of lobbying. Although I'm sure if I knew half the real story of U.S. government lobbying the angry mobs of protesters would pale in comparison.

--Also after doing a little reading I learned that the group of homeless looking people who convene and take over Plaza de Mayo every Thursday are sitting in with hopes of getting answers for The Dirty War, in which 30,000 Argentine citizens who protested the government disappeared.

I've learned more from walking through Plaza de Mayo and talking to Argentines than I have from three weeks of classes.

--On a lighter note, I watched "Happy Gilmore" in Spanish the other day, so I can now check "Watch a movie that has Carl Weathers voice dubbed over" off my bucket list.

--Tarny dropped this in the WPM comments a couple days ago, but this needs to on the blog itself, because it's pure genius.


--After the frustrating realization that he was no longer the lead Onion reader of my friends, Spencer redeemed himself and passed along this link.

--I'd like to thank my Spanish adviser from U of A. Thanks for not replying to any of my multiple e-mails from four weeks ago. Thanks for not doing anything after I left you a voice mail. Thanks for finally sending me an e-mail three weeks later, that didn't answer any of my questions, but did tell me that a student in the department was trying to sell her Portuguese textbook. I look forward to meeting you when I return to Tucson.

--The other day I found this neat little shop called "Objetos Encontrados" which sells art made from random little trinkets. I ended up hanging out with shop owner, Luis, and an artist, Gustavo, who had a shaved head except for a dreaded rat tail in the back, for 45 minutes as we drank green tea and talked about the Buenos Aires art scene.

Luis told me that often him and the artists will sit and the shop and play with toys. He pointed to one of Gustavo's "works" he had created in the shop. It was a Matchbox car with three bottle caps, a straw and a screw attached to it. For some reason the car "art" was selling for twice the price of Gustavo's photography, which was actually impressive.

--One of the pieces of art that I particularly enjoyed in the shop was a "bombilla" the straw used for mate, stuck in the bottom of a lightbulb. Luis explained that it was a play on words as it was a bombilla in a bombilla de luz (lightbulb). This was my first time seeing double entendre art, which I believe is Spicker's favorite type of art.

Un-Argentine related items:

Quick album reviews:

--Murs & 9th Wonder - Sweet Lord

I am counting this as a throw-away album that is basically a bunch of b-sides the two sold to Hurley, still a decent album and better than most shit out right now.

I say a lot of rapper are my favorite, but if I really sat down and thought about Murs is definitely my favorite rapper. Aside from the fact that he created "3:16 the 9th Edition," Murs gets major props for saying stuff like this from "It's for real" off his newest album.

"Every day should be a new start, every time the sun rises, it should erase all the b.s. you went through yesterday, ain't no point in trippin' about what you went through in the past, because you can't change it, so you mine as well love what you got and appreciate the moment that you're in, because you might not get another one."

Murs is also ill because he hasn't cussed on his last two albums. I could go for another 500 words why I love Murs, but this is the short album review section.

--Game - L.A.X.

Lame, after two listens the only songs that stand out are "Dope boys (feat. Travis Barker)" and "Cali Sunshine (feat. Bilal)." Everyone on the internet always complains that Game name-drops too much and it actually does bother me on this album. His style is so formulaic, its absurd.

I wish he listened to 50 and switched his style up.

The greatest part of the whole album is DMX's out of place prayers that introduce and close the album.

I still have no idea why he named the album after the airport.

--Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I probably should have put this way higher up in the post, but new Fast and Furious trailer. Only a few people know how huge this is to me.

--This is my favorite South American commercial if you were wondering.

--Craig Sager is the man.

--Another great YouTube made by someone who had way too much time on their hands.

--If we didn't already have "Off Constantly," I would name every one of my intramural teams the "Sean Bell All-Stars."