[ T - T R A i N ]

Bicoastal

I have never lived in the west coast of the United States. I have called New York, Washington, DC, and Boston (Cambridge) home in the last few years and the east coast lifestyle and sensibility, however one might choose to define them, seem to suit me very well. However, I find that songs about California seem to have found space in my list of favorite songs. Two of them are Joni Mitchell and Rufus Wainwright songs. Joni Mitchell's 'California'  is probably in my top five. A track from Mitchell's superb album Blue, she accompanies herself on an Appalachian dulcimer while plainly singing about wanting to go home to California, a haven from the life she has been living. I love the simplicity of it--the lyrics, the sparse arrangement, and the purity of Mitchell's voice.

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues 

Then there is Rufus Wainwright's more lively song about California. Most of the lyrics do not make sense to me, and the song seems to be more cynical, even sarcastic--"Life is the longest death in California"--rather than sentimental. I like the playfulness of it anyway. (Besides, how many songs mentions Bea Arthur by name?)

And if anyone's missing the now defunct series 'The O.C.,' we also have the Phantom Planet's song, which served as the show's theme. Very pop but still enjoyable.

But what really inspired this post was Jill Sobule's new song, 'San Francisco,' from her album California Years.

"I like to go to San Francisco
I like to go
Put flowers in my hair
I like to go to San Francisco
I like to meet
Some people there"

And in Golden Gate Park
She'll throw a Frisbee
She'll bring a dog
And she'll meet a boy
And they'll fall in love
And she'll feel so free.

Listening to all these songs, especially Sobule's, makes me wistful for a place I have never lived in...

When parents join Facebook...

The name of the blog says it al: Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook.

John Mayer, "Dreaming With a Broken Heart"

I remember first hearing 'No Such Thing' on WFUV, my radio station in New York. It was the first single out of Mayer's first CD Room for Squares. I was in grad school and WFUV was my arbiter of good music. Although the song came from the perspective of a high schooler, I was then approaching my own threshold and, in some ways, felt that I needed to prove something--if not to the world, then to myself, at least. I guess I was going through my quarter-life crisis. (That was also around the same time that Jonathan Safran Foer came out with his debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, and I wanted to hate him for being so young and talented, but he he turned out to be a real mensch when I actually got to meet him at a signing. Here's a short story by Foer that others might find gimmicky but, personally, I found it delightful and heart wrenching at the same time.)

I got to see John Mayer one summer after having received from WFUV a free ticket for an afternoon concert at Central Park. I took my eternally snarky friend LT, who's also a big music snob, with me and he complained about the bubblegum-ness of the songs. It did not help that there were way too many teen-aged (or at least, teen-age looking) girls in the audience. And it was raining just before the concert started. I enjoyed it, though. That was just right before John Mayer broke through as an artist.

Mayer has mad skills as a guitar player, and he can do pop, rock, jazz, or blues. And not only does he know how to write good melody, his lyrics resonate with me. Must be an age thing.

Oh, Johnny Boy... You might have questionable taste in women--Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston, and God knows who else--but I still think you are a great musician and a thoughtful songwriter.

Dreaming With A Broken Heart

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part
You roll outta bed and down on your knees
And for a moment you can hardly breathe
Wondering was she really here?
Is she standing in my room?
No she's not, 'cause she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone....

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The giving up is the hardest part
She takes you in with her crying eyes
Then all at once you have to say goodbye
Wondering could you stay my love?
Will you wake up by my side?
No she can't, 'cause she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone....

Now do i have to fall asleep with roses in my hands
Do i have to fall asleep with roses in my hands?
Do i have to fall asleep with roses in my hands?
Do i have to fall asleep with roses in my , roses in my hands?

Would you get them if i did?
No you won't, 'cause you're gone, gone, gone, gone, gone....

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part

Annie Lennox, "Shining Light"

Annie Lennox has a new single out, a cover of Ash's "Shining Light." I like both versions. Annie put her own stamp on the song. I've listened to it only a couple of times and it's already stuck in my head.

Annie's video cannot be embedded but here is a link. (Ash's video is at the end of the post.)

This post is dedicated to... Well, you know who you are. (Yes, you.) :-P

Shining Light

Roman candles that burn in the night
Yeah, you are a shining light
You lit a torch in the infinite
Yeah, you are a shining light
Yeah, you light up my life

You've always been a thorn in their side
But to me you're a shining light
You arrive and the night is alive
Yeah, you are a shining light
Yeah, you light up my life

We made our connection
A full on chemical reaction
Brought by dark divine intervention
Yeah, you are a shining light
A constellation once seen
Over Royal David's city
An epiphany you burn so pretty
Yeah, you are a shining light

You are a force, you are a constant source
Yeah, you are a shining light
Incandescent in the darkest night
Yeah you are shining light
My mortal blood I would sacrifice
For you are a shining light
Sovereign bride of the infinite
Yeah, you are a shining light
Yeah, you light up my life

We made our connection
A full on chemical reaction
Brought by dark divine intervention
Yeah, you are a shining light
A constellation once seen
Over Royal David's city
An epiphany you burn so pretty
Yeah, you are a shining light

And these are days you often say
There's nothing that we can't do
Beneath a canopy of stars
I'd shed blood for you
The north star in the firmament
You shine the most bright
I've seen you draped in an electric veil
Shrouded in celestial light

We made our connection
A full on chemical reaction
Brought by dark divine intervention
Yeah, you are a shining light
A constellation once seen
Over Royal David's city
An epiphany you burn so pretty
Yeah, you are a shining light
Yeah, you light up my life
Yeah, you are a shining light
Yeah, you light up my life

Matt Alber, "End of the World"

Gorgeous song and nice voice. Reminds me a bit of Rufus. Beautiful video too. The title of the song is just asking for a short story. (I think I'm already writing it.) Must get CD.

Hard Sell II

What? You still have not ordered a copy of the Harvard Kennedy School Review? Well, what are you waiting for? Click here.

By the way, I saw the proofs of the KSR the other day and it's amazing! It looked so good I wanted to lick it! But anyway, it's worth more than 10 bucks. It's a 140-plus pages of glossy goodness. Take my word for it. (And it's not just because I had a hand in creating it.) We'll start shipping them out beginning of next week. Oh, the anticipation!

Oh, and do pass the word around! Thanks!

Not a Scam

Just got this in my mailbox. Below is an email from Molly, an MPA/ID student here at HKS. You might know someone who's eligible or might be interested. Open only to American citizens, though. Sound like fun.

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Subject: $5,000 (from my sister) to choose your own adventure

No joke. $5,000 to go on an amazing adventure, and all you need to do is ask. ..

Hey there HKS classmates,

A few years ago my beloved sister, Colleen Kinder, published a book called "Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething's Guide to Seeking Adventure." The book counters the conventional wisdom of office work, and instead encourages its readers to scout out adventurous experiences (that pay the bills). Like, say, guiding snorkeling groups in Australia. Or working on a cruise ship. Or building homes in Namibian villages.

To put her money where her mouth is -- or, more accurately, her publishing company's money -- Colleen launched a $5,000 "Delay the Real World" fellowship competition to finance one very lucky twentysomething to pursue the adventure of his/her dreams. (**Note: unfortunately only American citizens can apply). Previous winners supported fair trade artisans in Ecuador; brought health and environment education to Cambodia (by bike!); and biked around the world for two years.

Colleen is now looking for a new fellowship winner for 2008.  Perhaps it is you. So if you'd rather be traveling by yak through Mongolia than pushing papers in a cubicle in a few months, apply now. THE DEADLINE TO APPLY IS NEXT WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23rd. I strongly encourage you to apply: I was on the selection committee for several years, and I can attest that your chances are surprisingly high of winning if you pitch a creative and catchy idea...

I promise you won't regret it.  And please spread the word!

Hard Sell

Buy! Buy! Buy!

Run, don't walk, to your nearest computer! Wait, you're already in front of a computer... Well, since you very conveniently have a computer in front of you, why don't you click on this link so that I can share with you a very exciting offer:

Harvard Kennedy School Review

Yes, it's the Harvard Kennedy School Review, the Kennedy School's public policy journal! Yours truly worked as this year's co-senior editor of features and commentaries and we're just coming out with our issue for the year. The KSR staff has come up a product that we are all proud of. All the pieces were written and produced by Kennedy School students (and a couple of alumni) and we crafted them so that they would be appealing and accessible even to people outside of our own little school. (Although we would like to think of ourselves as the New Yorker-slash-Foreign Affairs of student journals. Yes, we're a very ambitious bunch of people. We aim high!) We're a public policy journal but we also peppered this volume with some humor and off the wall pieces.

Have you ever thought about where the cut flowers you buy at the supermarket come from? ("Is the Bloom Off the Rose?" by Nora Ferm)

Are you interested to know where the love-hate relationship between the US and Russia is headed? ("The New Russia: Friend or Foe?" by Katya Gratcheva)

Do you want to know how religious rhetoric is being used in the 2008 presidential campaign? ("Duck Hunting in Heaven" by Emily Cadik)

How about honor killings in Germany? Hungarian presence in Afghanistan? How personal stories can facilitate immigration reform?

Have you heard of Michelle Rhee, Yon Goicoechea, Soraya Salti, Van Jones or Eboo Patel? Well, you will know a whole lot more about them after you read our Rising Stars of Public Policy profiles. We also have interviews with Donna Brazile, Chap Petersen, and Luis Soares.

Do you want to know how actual toddlers--well, with the help of their HKS dads--reviewed Bill O'Reilly's new children's book? About the economics of parking tickets?

The KSR staff also looked at the idiosyncrasies of public transport systems all over the world, came up with some new political terms to emerge from Campaign '08 (if '04 brought us 'swiftboated,' for '08 we predict it's going to be 'caucus-blocked'), and made predictions for up to the year 3000.

(Not only did I oversee, together with my amazing co-editor, TC, the features and commentaries section and edited some articles, I also wrote a short piece on policy gadgets, contributed a couple of artwork, and worked on the layout. I also solicited--which later on turned into nagging--the introduction from CNN regular, Anderson Cooper 360 blogger, and White House veteran, David Gergen. My fingerprints are all over this journal, people! Don't worry, I washed my hands. And you can wipe them off later.)

You can purchase copies online by following this link. It's only $10--so cheap! And that includes postage! And it doesn't matter if it's a non-US address, you pay the same price! So go buy a copy (or two) for you and your friends! Donate one to your local library! If anything, it will make for a great bathroom reading.

Go read! Read! Read!

Facts of T

Fact: I haven't posted an entry in a while. Since August 13, to be exact.

Fact: August 13 was the day (or night) I arrived in LA.

Fact: I am not in LA anymore. Or Washington, DC. I am in Cambridge.

Fact: Classes has formally started this week.

Fact: I'm already exhausted.

I'm at the KSG Forum, this open area in the main structure of the Kennedy school, at one of the soft seating areas, as I type this entry. I've finally made my decision on what courses to take for my first fall semester. I had to make a decision because the deadline for class enrollment was yesterday at noon. It was a bit comforting to know that I was not the only one who felt more than bit overwhelmed with the course selection, with the 'shopping days' and bidding process, and with the power to create our own curriculum. Almost everyone in my program had some kind of information overload beginning with the week-long orientation that we had last week, and the last couple of days where we had the chance to sit in and have informal classes with teachers, which is otherwise known as shopping days. Yesterday was officially our first day. I will be taking four courses this semester, which is just about right.

So, since I arrived state-side on August 13, that means I have been here for a month now. It feels like six months. I had a very busy four-and-a-half weeks. I got to spend a couple of weeks with JC in our house in Cheverly, unpacked my stuff, went through some of my old stuff, redecorated the house a bit, went on an overnight trip to NY to watch Avenue Q, had a weekend bbq, hosted PP for her 24-hour visit, did tons of shopping (the Leesburg outlets were just great), and got caught up with my Top Chef season 3 watching. I also got spend time with old friends, some of the Pinoy posse, and had an excellent time swapping stories while we ate at a seafood place in Old Town Alexandria. Soon enough I was packing my stuff again to take with me to Cambridge. T-Train could never be still.

It was quite a feat--more like a miracle--that we were able to fit all my stuff onto the Jeep. I'm sure we broke a few laws, mainly by obstructing the driver's view of the rear window, but the drive was more or less uneventful. We did pass by New Jersey so that I could meet JC's family, and that little dinner went very well. (The food was excellent too.) After sleeping overnight at a hotel in West Haven, we continued our drive north to Cambridge.

My first three days in Cambridge got even busier. JC and I hied it off to the nearest Ikea almost as soon as we got to Cambridge since we didn't want to sleep on the floor of the studio apartment for even a night (which I did when I first moved into my DC apartment). After four hours in the store and fortified with yummy Swedish meatballs and mac and cheese, we had two cartfuls of Scandinavian goodies to furnish the aparment. Subsequent trips were made to Target; The Container Store; Bed, Bath and Beyond; Costco; Staples; Circuit City; Urban Outfitters; City Sports; Whole Foods; Trader Joe's; and other stores. My credit card almost melted but it survived the shopping spree. I just had to keep telling myself that all the things that I bought were essentials. (I have my supplies and the apartment is now looking lovely.)

Time here with JC was also punctuated with a few excellent meals. I never thought that Cambridge would be a good restaurant town but we were able to discover places that are worth going back to, even the humble Chinese restaurant where we had our first meal. If ever you're in Cambridge, you should try out Red House, Rendezvous, Z-Square, and Grafton Street Pub. Almost always we had a seafood entree and we were never disappointed (Cambridge being a New England city). Of course we also had our fair share of chain restaurants, and those were fairly good too.

I had a few days off and was able to settle in my new place. JC and I got to explore a bit of Cambridge and Boton. But soon enough I had my orientation week where I got to meet a lot of new people and participate in some fun and informative activities. The practically packed four-day orientation was merely a prelude to the kind of life we are going to have at the Kennedy School. The two days we had to shop for classes were very important because were given the privilege, as an MPA candidate, to create our own curriculum and in effect direct our own MPA experience. We have no core courses since we were all supposed to have had previous grad school experience and should therefore build upon the skills and knowledge we already have. It's difficult to plan out our next four semesters but we all did our best to come up with a coherent list of courses we want to take. KSG's peculiar enrollment process added to the stress but I supposed we're supposed to be smart enough to figure it all out. (Everybody was extra helpful, though, and people did their best to explain the systems and processes to us newcomers.)

Just finished my school week today with a class in Civil Society and Development. We don't have review sessions until next week, I think, so it'll be a three-day weekend. But it doesn't mean that no work will be done. There are readings to do and analyze, books to buy, dirty clothes to be washed, an apartment to clean, etc. I guess I am settling in.

A Fair Fare?

In the U.S., although I rely on public transportation all the time, I hardly ever take a cab unless it's very, very late and there's no other alternative. One of the reasons is that I was conditioned, for some reason, not to trust cab drivers so I always want to know, or at least have an idea of, the route before I step into a cab. Another reason is that I find riding cabs way more expensive than other modes of mass transportation and the final amount do tend to add up with the distance and the traffic. There's nothing more distressing (or embarrassing) than finding out that you don't have enough money to pay for your fare or that you only have enough for a one way trip. So I was delighted to find a website that addresses these two concerns of mine.

TaxiWiz.com is a very handy website that will provide you an estimate of cab rides in selected cities in North America, namely New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto. Just plug in your addresses (your start and end points) or click a couple point in the map, then the program will do the rest. I haven't tried it out myself but if you live in any of those cities, you can go experiment and check for the site's accuracy. (Of course you have to give allowance for some previously unidentified surcharges, waiting at stoplights, and, of course, the tip.) You can calculate the fare before you even step out the door and figure out if it's more practical to take the bus or the subway, or, if you're with friends, splitting a cab fare is the more economical and speedier option. It's something useful even if you've been living in the city for so many years or just visiting. Not only will it spare you some trouble, it might even make you feel like a local.

(via Bostonist)