Glenn Beck is an Idiot

I should say that with the qualification that when I flipped his program on CNN Headline News on, I wasn't entirely sure if it was him or a guest talking (I came in RIGHT when the idiocy started), but he (or guest) finished a segment on Iran with the statement:

"I just want to say to you all that I believe that these mullahs are far worse than Hitler."

I don't think I need to comment on that.

The problem, here, and it's also what helped turn Nancy Grace into a GREAT prosecutor and advocate into a hyperbolic gunner, is that CNN Headline news is intended to be gripping, sensational, over-the-top, and, for all that, Fox News's direct competitor (here in OC they are actually on adjacent channels, with Nancy coming on at the same time as CNN-turned-Fox swan [aka: plastic surgery galore as part of network switch contract] Greta Van Sustren, for example) and that means reduced quality. I think that CNN (the prime station) is intended to compete with a station like BBC, but isn't editorialized/cult of the personality enough to compete with fox (it's not Jerry Springer enough to capture the attention of the ADD American audience), which is why CNN Headline News (even the name implies fast tidbits: the news distilled) is the real Fox News competitor.

Ok I have to stop watching this show. He just started talking about he's an alcoholic and the "insanity" in LA.

VC

PS: OH GOD! I should have switched it off when I said I would. He just rallied against Hep B vaccinations in LA schools because it vaccinates for a "sexually-transmitted disease." HELLO! It's not like saying to kids "ok, now it's safe to have sex." It's saying: "This is becoming a big problem in the world, and we didn't used to have a vaccine. Now we do. You might need this as an adult." THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STUPID PEOPLE ARE GIVEN MICROPHONES!

Celine Dramatics (but still touching)

So I thought I blogged about this back when it happened, but maybe not.

When Hurrican Katrina destroyed part of the Southern gulf coast, Larry King had an impromptu fundraiser. Well Celine Dion had already, of her own initiative, given $1 million, but she still appeared on his show.

Now, I was generally not impressed with the coverage of Katrina (even from Anderson Cooper) but I did find Celine to be really touching (and really, as always, over the top).

A few things I like about this:

1. Her emphasis that her $1 million isn't even what she wants to talk about
2. Her comments about the looting and how that's not what we should be focusing on
3. Her confusion over our capability to enter Iraq but not Louisiana
4. Her comments about mothers and children
5. Her determination that we need to just GO and get people out

What always cracks me up when I think about that interview (and now, months later, I've seen the clip again) is that she's crying and going on this diatribe against the relief effort and then Larry is literally like "so...um...can you sing something?" and Celine literally wipes her mascara from her eyes and is like "well...I guess I could..." sniffs, and does a GREAT job on "The Prayer" (the one she did with Andrea Bocelli).

Sort of cracks me up, the singing at the end, but the interview is really touching. It actually made me cry when I watched it when it was live on CNN, and even now a few times she gives me chills (I think she's WAY dramatic, but also so sincere that it's touching).

HERE IT IS

VC

Rufus Followup: Reviews

For those of you (basically, I guess, my mom) who also love Rufus, here are three reviews of his Judy Garland concert (the one at Carnegie). I have to give Wong credit that she alerted me to this concert a long time ago, but I was busy hating Cairo and didn't pay a lot of attention to is:

New York Times review

BBC Review

Harp Magazine Review (GREAT REVIEW)

VC

PS: Did you really think I'd blog about the war?

RUFUS @ CARNEGIE (and Love Gossip)

I cannot believe I missed this. Check out this hilarious website -- Timmy Ray's "Drunk and Wearing Flipflops on 5th Avennue" (actually a QUOTE from a Rufus song...this guy really is a fan) -- which you'll always have easy access to, now that I'm linking to it.

As you can see from his 15 June entry, Rufus performed at Carnegie Hall! He and I apparently cater to the same demographic. I was happy to see, in the after party photos, that he looked a really healthy weight, so let's hope that his battle with meth et al. is totally over.

I haven't asked El Pook, yet, if he went to this performance, although I suspect he didn't, because he tends to go to Moscow whenever he has the chance to see someone interesting.

(It's 11:11, so I'm filled with double meaning)

OH! You'll also see on the website on the entry BELOW (earlier than) the Rufus concert entry that Marc Jacobs actually did a Rufus tribute at his store -- the very same store I linked-to on thie blog when Pookie still lived on Jane Street and there was a bag just FEET away that I was in love with (not quite feet away, and not quite love) -- AND, the amazing designer is SINGLE.

You have to see this link so see why it is I think I have a chance.

Ok, for those of you with limited time, I'll tell you: If you look at the site announcing Marc's breakup with his GORGEOUS 25yo boyfriend, you'll see two things. 1. That he likes younger guys (ok, his boyfriend is like 100 times cuter than I am, but it doesn't matter!...see point 2.). 2. He likes younger guys but NEEDS a guy who can be there for him when he needs him and who isn't into going clubbing every night -- he needs young but SERIOUS. That's SO ME!

If you check out the really funny (seriously, they're really funny) comments to the article on that site, you'll see the tragic news that, according to the little slut, he and Marc are back on, but I think nothing that volatile can really last. If Pookie hasn't made his move by the time I make Law Review, then I'm going after Marc (even if Pookie is way cuter and obviously has better taste in guys).

The comment that's still making me laugh is that Marc's boyfriend is "the gay hooker version of Kevin Federline" (that's Britney Spears's loser boyfriend for those of you with day jobs).

Really funny.

I know it's sad, but if you want to see the ex's friendster profile, then click here. I really hope it's a joke, because if it's not then that's just sad. As mature as I thought Marc's post-breakup comments were (about control and need and all that), I almost feel like if he's stupid enough to stick with that guy for 6 months then he might not be good enough for me!

XOXO

VC-Jacobs

VC's 1L Courses

Ok so if you ever are wondering what I'm studying in law school this coming year, here is where you should look (taken from the orientation website):

Students are required to register and pick up their course schedules in person on Monday, August 14, 2006, the first day of Orientation. Schedules also will be available in Lawnet by that date.

In the Spring term, you will be able to register for one of the first-year elective offerings.

First-Year Required Courses	First-Year Electives (Spring 2007 Term)
Fall Term Spring Term Legal Methods Legal Practice Workshop I Civil Procedure Contracts Torts Constitutional Law Criminal Law Property Legal PracticeWorkshop II Foundation Year Moot Court	(You will be able to register for one of these 6 courses) Law and Social Science Law, Culture, and Notions of Justice Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders Legislation Principles of Intellectual Property Regulation: Decentralization and Globalization

XOXO

VC

Completeness (1 of 3)

Well I've just seen another good (if not mindblowing) Oprah episode and I have to say that having seen Dr. Robin Smith on her show twice in the past week (talking first about debt and marriages and now about death and grieving) I think that Dr. Robin doesn't just blow Dr. Phil (who I don't like and won't link to on my blog) out of the water, but she actually says things that are really valuable. I believe I already quoted her on my blog, before, about what it means to be "private."

In her Lies at the Altar book she lays out the Top 10 Truths & Lies about marriage (and apparently at 2:45AM I'm prompted to adopt German capitalization rules?) and one of them is the following (not QUITE directly-quoted):

Lie: Getting married will make a person complete.
Truth: You cannot be partnered until you are whole.

I remember my first girlfriend at Columbia and how, during our first year together, the claustrophobia that threatened me by her even mentioning a relationship, let alone making me the target of romantic and sexual desire, made me realize a lot of valuable truths about myself (truths that it would take me another four years to actually cope with and help address).

I remember it as if watching it on video (you'll see the irony in what I told her in a minute) climbing through the levels of the Butler Library stacks with her and telling her how much I disagreed with her attempt to use Plato's writings on love to justify why it is that, in that time that I was coming to realize my problems and incompleteness, it was the perfect moment for me to be with her. She tried to argue that two people help complete each other. I argued, and it's funny that the argument should return, now, through a doctor I have seen on Oprah, that I totally disagreed, and that you cannot have a healthy and mutually-supportive love in which people grow and flourish unless both people are sufficiently complete and whole BEFORE and APART from the relationship; I even said (and I'm not kidding) that as much as I liked Plato, we should think about it more like Oprah -- I didn't want to sabotage or self-destruct, and I didn't want to bring her down with me. I needed to work on myself before I could work for us.

What's my point? That six years later I was vindicated by a motivational speaker on Oprah? No. Well actually, yeah ;) But that's not my ONLY point. My other point is that I want to say something briefly about the journey towards completeness.

To further complicate my already winding thoughts, while introducing an even lower brand of daytime tv, I remember the now-sacked Star Jones from The View making the unusually insightful comment that, for all the time she was waiting for the right man to come around, she herself was not the right woman. She was educated, successful, great on paper (if a bit thick through the waist), and expected for herself a total catch who would appreciate and adore her. The problem, she realized, was that she was not, yet, herself in control of all the attributes that would make her merit a person like that. Was she kind? Understanding? Discussive? LOVING? No. She was demanding and unqualified for Mr. Right.

I think (since this is my blog and it should be about me ;p) that that's basically where I was at between 21 and 23 (in other words: after my first evil Russian boyfriend and up until this past year). I had a lot to offer, but I wasn't really putting it all together, and I'm not sure I was ready to. I was not ready to be totally self-empowering (even if I could talk the talk and help others to walk it) -- my jealousy being a huge manifestation of that -- and I don't think I was prepared to make the lifelong commitment to being an emotionally-healthy person. Like getting over an addiction and having to say goodbye to your favourite substance, I had reached a kind of development impasse where I could articulate my problems, but had somehow accepted them as "me" rather than as "the parts of me I need to work on and get past in order to really engage my life in a full and fruitful way."

It has been a gradual process (and like all processes such as this, it's a process of becoming that doesn't have a clear beginning or end) by which I've had to draw from both devastating experiences and joyful ones, but (dare I say it), I think that I've recently, in the past seven months or so, taken absolutely enormous strides towards completeness. Of course, I'm not Jesus on Prozac, and I still make mistakes and I give-in to personal darknesses, but I think that the ways in which I think about and respond to my family, my environment, myself, and my romantic partner manifest this emotional growth spurt (which I'm trying frightfully hard to articulate rather unsuccessfully, here).

I was aware enough, before, of the kind of love I wanted, but I was not aware of what I needed to do to prepare myself to manufacture and receive it.

Knowing healthy v. unhealthy is big. I had that. Knowing how to embrace healthy and cope with unhealthy (which will always exist in most aspects of our lives in one manifestation or another) was a step I did not take until, I'd say, this past summer.

I'm too tired to write the other things I'd planned (hence the 1 of 3 in the title of this blog entry), but here's the preview of the VC Completeness series, lol:

Part I: VC's unsubstantiated and meandering introduction to (his own) completeness
Part II: VC's declaration of appreciation of the completeness of others
Part III: VC' tests for the presence of completeness

Well I need to rest-up before a visit to my brother and niece (both of whom I have not seen since Christmas 2004), tomorrow. I had a great diner with my mother, sister, and other niece, and hope that tomorrow will be as enjoyable (I think it will be).

VC

Why?

After having poured over these two recordings of Kelly Clarkson covering Annie Lennox's "Why?" I just had to blog the lyrics. It's a GREAT song.

For me being obsessive about vocal technique, I'm also cutting and pasting for your pleasure an email I sent to a vocal coach friend of mine in Amsterdam (I think I blogged about him before as my partner in singing/tennis/figure skating crime). My original email, typos included (if there are any). This is with reference to the first of the two recordings I hyper-linked to, above (the YouTube site is AMAZING!), even though the second one is much higher quality (if a bit less exciting in the ending):

**********

KELLY CLARKSON COVER OF ANNIE LENOX

Talk about hard to pull off :)

The recording is awful, and I hate the echo, but you're right -- Christina doesn't really communicate the meaning of a song that well when you hear something like this...you hear this and you BELIEVE her.

I think Kelly is amazing on this kind of thing, and I hate all the crap they're having her sing that has made her so popular these past two years. She has too much soul and talent to sing crap.

Pay attention to 1:45 (also my favourite part in the original...they lyrics are just great) because I think that any student who can't HEAR what it is to have a powerful diaphragm needs to only hear how much power she can get on quick notes on a single pitch like that (with nice fast vibrato, too) to know what proper power from the diaphragm sounds like. I also think that you can hear the perfect example of the "mixed voice" we're always talking about when she transitions up at 1:50. I also love (LOVE!) the TINY voice break at 3:29 at the end of "this is the fear." I've seen a bunch of recordings of this from different cities, and it's definitely on purpose (but you can only do it when you're properly relaxed, you know?).

UGH I WISH I COULD SING LIKE THAT! lol

XOXO

**********

Here are the lyrics:

How many times do I have to try to tell you
That I'm sorry for the things I've done
But when I start to try to tell you
That's when you have to tell me
"Hey... this kind of trouble's only just begun"
I tell myself too many times
"Why don't you ever learn to keep your big mouth shut?"
That's why it hurts so bad to hear the words
That keep on falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Tell me...
Why
Why

I may be mad
I may be blind
I may be viciously unkind
But I can still read what you're thinking
And I've heard it said too many times
That "you'd be better off..."
Besides...
Why can't you see this boat is sinking
(this boat is sinking this boat is sinking)
Let's go down to the water's edge
And we can cast away those doubts
Some things are better left unsaid
But they still turn me inside out
Turning inside out turning inside out
Tell me...
Why
Tell me...
Why

This is the book I never read
These are the words I never said
This is the path I'll never tread
These are the dreams I'll dream instead
This is the joy that's seldom spread
These are the tears...
The tears we shed
This is the fear
This is the dread
These are the contents of my head
And these are the years that we have spent
And this is what they represent
And this is how I feel
Do you know how I feel ?
'cause i don't think you know how I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
You don't know what I feel

Great song.

VC

Busiest TA Ever

I was NOT the busiest TA ever when I was at AUC, but take a look at this job announcement that I received, today, from CPIL (Columbia Law's Center for Public Interest Law):

Columbia University School of Social Work for Legal Foundations
New York, NY
*Teaching Assistant
Overview/Qualifications: Student will assist in teaching, reviewing and
grading assignments, preparing cases, meeting with students. Great
opportunity for students interested in social policy/public interest law
and teaching. Taught by professor with a J.D. and Ph.D. in social work.
3L students preferred.
Duties: Eighty hours per week, $20 per hour, two-semester commitment.
To Apply: Contact Professor Vicki Lens at vl2012@columbia.edu
Salary: Unspecified
Deadline: Unspecified

Did you see that!? 80 hours per week. As a third year law student. That's almost 12 hours per day, seven days a week (minus one hour for lunch four of the seven days) IN ADDITION TO being a 3L. That's crazy!

VC

Unending Chunkiness, Global Edition

Hey everyone, well let's review what's happened since the last time I've blogged:

My maid and bowaab stole all my things, I missed my flight out of Egypt, shipped my worldly possessions to NYC, finally made it to Athens (only long enough to rush to the Acropolis and then back to the airport) with the help of some Cairene angels, spent my first night ever in Brooklyn and was reunited with two of my best friends (including one's much-anticipated girlfriend), came home to California, changed fuses on a car, was mistaken (with my mother) for Iranian, discovered that my weight gain since I was last in the States (18 months ago) is 23 bootyliscious pounds that my NYC friends politely tell me is flattering, flew BACK to NYC, moved into my new place (the bamboo garden isn't all that), got reunited with another best friend and her boyfriend (who I really like) as well as two exes (including one bushy-tailed pookie), had more nice meals than was necessary in a 72 hour period (one of them involving an embarrassing incident when one of my aforementioned best friends, working in counterterrorism, agreed with me that our hot waiter was Pakistani, except when I got her to ask if he was from Lahore he was confused, offended that she might be using dirty language with him, and finally clarified that he was Puerto Rican), saw a really cute Broadway play (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), furnished my entire new studio (proving that Lesbians and residents of Brooklyn can both still have really good taste) and flew BACK to CA. Oh yeah: I also got a New York mobile number again (YAY!), and had all my things released from customs (where they were under a mysterious but easily-solved "agricultural hold" -- like I'd EVER touch a piece of fruit or buy a plant, lol) and was mistaken for Punjabi (mistaken for Iranian and Punjabi in the same week -- how's THAT for a versatile look?). Oh yeah X 2: Even though I've been too tired/busy/lazy to email her, I did NOT forget to get a certain Pakistani-American someone the bronze jewelry she wanted!

I may have missed something. I'm a little tired that in the past two weeks I've flown from Cairo to Greece to New York to California to New York to California (not including the stopovers United kindly offered me), but I've gotten a ton of Arabic done on all these flights, and I suppose I'm reasonably happy.

A few lightening impressions with not much explaining, so pick what interests you and call or email if you really want to know what I'm talking about (no hard feelings if you don't, lol):

* Be kind to those around you, because you never know when you might need to stay the night with a crazy Japanese girl and cash-in on your good person points.

* Shipping cargo on Emirates is REALLY cheap, but costs a lot of time, so if you're NOT me and actually have a job, in which case the opportunity cost has a financial element, then just pay excess baggage and move on.

* Don't have ANY mail sent to your parents. Your mother might get a gold amex in your name while you're gone, and that's a very slippery slope.

* At least four people in Cairo really care about me and are there for me, which isn't bad for two years in a city I hated.

* Egypt has a culture of dishonesty that pervades every aspect of society (from business to family) that has nothing to do with poverty, no matter what anyone says...it might be about more abstract understandings of "ownership," though, as a much-valued Palestinian/Jordanian friend from Afghanistan has said.

* If you want a man, and you go after him, then you can usually get him (and I'm NOT talking about MY experience!! I'm talking about the experience of two girls mentioned in this blog entry!) [EDIT: I just realized that both these girls were after Palestinian guys, so maybe I should say: If you want a Palestinian man, and you go after him, then you can usually get him...even though I got absolutely zero action when I was in Palestine!]

* Orange County is more gorgeous than I realized, but just as dead as I always suspected. Not only is it the ultimate example of money doesn't equal class, but it is also bereft of any cultural outlet whatsoever minus the ubiquitous Blockbuster. I like it here so long as I don't go outside (which, since my mother did an amazing decorating job, is fine with me).

* People in NYC are absolutely as hot as I remembered. I shouldn't say "hot." I should say: "Put-together and in-shape." New York City is the only place in which even that dumpy guy who in another city would be president of his local anime club and 200 pounds overweight STILL manages to hit the gym four times a week (even if it does nothing for his social skills).

* People at Columbia Law living in Lenfest (SO FAR...hopefully I'll be wrong later) are fit but unfriendly. My last full day in New York (day before yesterday), I crossed paths with SIX people in my building, NONE of whom met my eye or responded to my smile and under my breath "hey," except one girl who HAD to say hi after I surprised her when the elevator doors opened and I almost walked into her -- she was just coming back from a run (as 4 of the 6 were coming or going for a run...high-strung over-functioning and high-rent-paying law students are apparently fond of running) and had her leg up and IN the frame of the elevator on the lobby to stretch, so it was sort of embarrassing for her when the doors opened faster than she was expecting and her thigh was in my face (that's very NYC, though, for someone to only say hello AFTER their thigh has been in your face, lol).

* With only a couple notable exceptions (and WOW were they exceptions) I choose friends really well. I have five really close friends in New York who I really know I can count on (there should be a sixth, but she is still lost in the chaos of her first year law summer), and in Cairo I have at least four...then there's Jordan, Kabul, Tel Aviv....My life is really full and rich from these people, and I have to remember that! I also might have a small family, but I have a good one, and it was so nice seeing (in addition to my mother, obviously) my really awesome sister...so excited that today I get to see one of my nieces, again, who has promised to kick my butt in bowling.

* People's moms love me and I love moms. (that's a simple one) SOME people's moms who love me also love cute clerks at Juicy Couture who in tern love the daughter of the mother who in tern loves me, which means I'm only two degrees of separation from being loved by one of the hot guys working at Juicy Couture (it's too bad they don't have the men's line, there, otherwise I would have had to try on a scandalously tight pair of jeans, right?).

* I really have grown up and become more secure (mostly just in the past few months, lol), and it's been tested. I accept and let go better than I used to, I'm more forgiving of people being human, and I'm less threatened and less prone to seek/need validation than before. (This one's in bold because it's the most important)

Two quotes of the past two weeks:

1. From Oprah's show on how debt tears apart marriages (with a really awesome therapist who shocked me with how much I liked her...Dr. Robin?). She was responding to a husband who explained that he's just a very private person, and that's why he doesn't like to talk about what's going on inside him, emotionally:

"You were not BORN private. You were born free and whole."

She went on to explain (as I was kind of learning from two different guys in Cairo, one of whom has appeared on this blog as Dubai guy) that you BECOME private when you are taught to fear expression, and when you are taught that you need to protect yourself by retreating, emotionally.

2. From today's nytimes.com front page:

"Interactive Feature: Unending fury in MidEast."

Well that's not a quote but a hyperlink. I have to say it rather poignantly conveys a situation that I find too sad and baffling to really talk about (two of my favourite countries I've ever visited at war). I like the quote because it implies a certain spectator agency in the process, and after all, aren't we all accountable, somehow, to what's happening, there, and it's unendingness?

VC

VC Moving Back to NYC

Ok so my travel plans were supposed to be as follows:

4 July fly Cairo - Athens (arrive 8AM), sprint to Parthenon, meet Glam (who is also in Athens, by coincidence), sleep

5 July take lunch and fly Athens - NYC; stay probably with Juicy (maybe some ice cream with my Brooklyn dwelling and future PhD friends?)

6 July fly NYC - OC

{Stay in Orange County with moo until 31 July}

31 July fly OC - NYC

BUT! This has all just changed.

I just got my housing assignment from Columbia and, despite listing it as my last (third) choice (I even said on the application that I think it's too expensive, especially on a high floor) I have been placed in the newest and most luxurious dorm in a private studio.

Check out the dorm website (yes, it has it's own website!) here, it's called Lenfest.

I shouldn't say my room number online, but let's just say that it's QUITE easy to remember, which reminds me of when I lived in Columbia's OTHER new dorm as an undergrad ("Broadway"), and my room number my last year was 1234 lol.

I have to say that the colour video intercom makes me feel VERY La Femme Nikita!...now if only I were to turn mine on one day and see Michael (Roy Dupuis) then the dorm would be worth the price!

The other news it that my move-in dates are 12-14 July, which obviously gives me a great chance to have a month in NYC already moved-in before classes start on 15 August, but also means that my mom and I will not get to cuddle barely at all, I won't get to see my nieces, raise a new cat... :( Maybe I will go to NYC, move-in, and then go back to NYC until the second week of August...

It's kind of funny that people in the online law school forums joke about Columbia Law School's ridiculous luxury dorm with a bamboo garden, and now I'm living there.

What can a chunk do to just live humbly!?

Here is the floorplan (EDIT: I can't figure out how to attach the photo-clipped image from the pdf)...yes it's a queensize bed. I'll have a microwave. I just...can't believe how much my standard of living will go up between Cairo and NYC (and for only one bigillion dollars extra per month!).

XO

VC