This Interview at You Ain't No Picasso basically explains why Doveman are such an excellent band. Contra dance and gamelan and setting Wallace Stevens poems to music. Excellence.

Today I went to the Lake District with my class. It rained. I stared out the bus window, mouth agape, in shock at how wildly beautiful it was. If you ever need to understand the picturesque and the sublime, the Lake District is the place - obviously, that's where a lot of the writers on the picturesque and the sublime got their inspiration.
We went to the most beautiful house, too - an Arts and Crafts masterpiece. Also jaw-droppingly nice. It was all carved wood panelling (done largely in rowan leaf and berry motifs - which made it even better, considering my personal attachment to that plant), simple stained glass, and window seats and Inglenook fireplaces, which I am wildly in love with. Always have been. If I could make my own house, it would be small and furnished almost exclusively with built-in furniture - window seats and Inglenooks, dining table with a banquette, beds set into walls, and book shelves book shelves bookshelves.
Also today, the only church designed by one of the great Arts and Crafts architects, full to the brim with Morris & Co. stained glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones. Impressive, to say the least. And so gorgeous. I love Burne-Jones with a wildly colourful, flowery, mannerist passion. Oh, and one of the angels in the main east window looked quite a lot like Evan Simko-Bednarski (Wes people, you'll know of whom I speck). Which was strange. I took a picture, I'll get it uploaded and share it around, see if other people see the resemblance...
The day ended with us all stood on the edge of Lake Windermere, being dripped on by trees and stared at by swans, drinking wine from plastic cups. It was a nice way to end the class, and it was our last real meeting. Which is too bad in some ways, but good in others. I was getting really, really tired of Gothic revival churches (which was a great thing about today - only one Gothic Revival thing, the rest was Arts and Crafts!), and spending so many hours in the bus with a small group of people was really starting to grate on my nerves.
Oh, and I went to Carlisle today, in passing, which was exciting only because it made me think of Bryan Dick. (yay!)

It was a 7am departure again this morning. I'm tired, but not sleepy - maybe because I just had a huge cup of tea. I've been watching Michael Palin tour about Eastern Europe, and a book quiz which made me feel both intellectual and not well-read.

I did well on my exam last term, I've found out - so that's nice! Hopefully I can get down to work on my paper for this term and do well again.

Hm. Time to turn on something instrumental and get under the covers with my book on William Morris and garden design. It all sounds rather pleasant, which is good, because it's work for my paper.

My thesis topic got approved! That's a huge weight off my shoulders.
My Simon Bookish CD I bought on eBay arrived today! It's AWESOME.
I have hay fever for the first time in ages! It's not very bad, but it bothers my nose...
I know there was some other stuff, but I've forgotten what! Um...

Oh, oh, last weekend I discovered the pure joy / cheesy awfulness that is Eurovision! It was very exciting. I feel heavily indoctrinated in the ways of Europe now.
My favourite was Bosnia & Herzegovina. Then France, then Spain.
The ONLY good thing about Russia was that I got to see Evgeny Plushenko.

I've just been looking at Imelda App's website. She's Patrick Wolf's mom, and I never realized it was her who did the paintings of him in uniforms. I really like her stuff... especially the stuff linked from the top of the page, of her latest show. It's like a strange and beautiful narrative... a strange narrative featuring Patrick and his huge white cat.

Oooooh something else. In other art news, Ryan McGinley has reappeared in my life yet again. My pseudo-step-brother posted a link to Sigur Ros's new video a few days ago, which I went and looked at... and who should it be "inspired by and in collaboration with" than Mr. McGinley himself? And who should have taken the photograph used on their new album cover, but... yes, him, again. I was thrilled! I love him so much, and I like Sigur Ros, and I'm not terribly surprised that they've collaborated, and... it's just so nice! You can see the video Here, but be warned - there's plenty of nudity, though all very nice and, very McGinley. Nothing like some naked people in the woods! Yay!


It's not hot here, per se, but it's sticky. Very humid. It's been raining. The warmth is nice, but the stickiness is kind of ugh.

Today I went to Fountains Abbey again today, with my class! Hooray for that! We visited two churches near there, and got our admission to the Abbey paid for so we could wander around and have our lunch on the grounds. I wandered off by myself, which was nice - it's so pretty there, and it was nice to just be out on my own. It was a fun trip, generally... mostly because we all got punchy by the end, and we were laughing pretty hard. Oh, exhaustion and too many Gothic-revival churches... I'm so tired now. I really like my seminar group, they're generally fun, friendly people.

That's a lot of update. I'm done now.

Oh! Oh! Also. Yesterday I bought a tea cosy (for my non-existent teapot, which I will own in the future) and a hot water bottle. The hot water bottle came with a sweater... hot water bottle cosy... that has a Union Jack on it. I am officially more English than the English.

I made a new layout for my journal... hooray! It makes me happy.

Earlier I found a missing thumbtack in a chocolate chip, in a chocolate chip cookie, in a package of cookie that had been sitting on my desk.
Interestingly, it was in the second cookie in the package, not the first one I pulled out.

London was really good. I officially like that city.
Recap.

The concert:
- We missed the first band.
- Does It Offend You, Yeah? were pretty good.
- Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong were really good.
- The Cribs were decent (that's how Tom described them, I think it fits).
- Johnny Marr of The Smiths played with The Cribs, and seeing him in real life was pretty freaking awesome.
- It was pretty sweet to be at an indie concert in London, just because I've always wanted to go to such gigs. Good stuff.

The rest of the time:
- Sir John Soane's Museum rocked my world.
- The activities organized by my study abroad program were pretty fun, and the food was good.
- The National Portrait Gallery was sweet.
- Hyde Park is nice.
- London is just pretty cool.
- I had retail adventures in a very crowded, very cheap store and bought: A really cheap, cute shirt and a really complicated necklace with lots and lots of stars on it.
- I also bought: A Leafcutter John album and Bishi's debut. The Leafcutter John is really good, I've not listened to the Bishi yet. A few postcards and a book at the Soane museum. A few postcards and a poster of the Kings and Queens of England (family tree and some portraits... exciting!) at the National Portrait Gallery.

Weather in England is FUCKED UP.

We're having some seriously apocalyptic weirdness today.

Serious, blow you over, "are there supposed to be white-caps on the lake?" wind, then sleet or maybe hail... then bright brilliant sun, then BIG GRAY CLOUDS then... ICE. Hail or sleet, LOTS of it, plummeting to the ground for ages.

It's beautiful to the point of being sublime, though, and I'm shut up in my room writing a paper (by which I mean... getting distracted by the weather) so I'm all right with it.

Oh, thing that makes haikus from my LJ, I love you.

trees and then there was
birthday cake and the buttons
on the ground outside

bursting from their buds
and the swedish birthday song
and and deep breath in

think it had turned
out even better than i
may have expected

headachey despite
the danger i can't keep
my ears ensconced

I like this one a lot:

a radiantly
excellent radio show
live for the first time


Hm. Yes. About that paper.

Visa applications are hell.

I think I talked to a famous actress from the 1980s on the phone today.

THE AIRPORT HAD MY READING PACKET! I got it back this morning. I was so excited.

I have been up since 7AM. Two flights... one drive... gah I'm tired.

I miss North Carolina.

I love my mom.

Both my papers due this week have been pushed back - one to Thursday, one to a week from Friday. This is good.

I got eyeshadow and new clothes this weekend. I'm wearing my new sweater right now. 'Tis cosy.

I'm off to make a passport-style photograph out of some pictures I took in my closet today (sounds weird, but it was the only plain wall I could find with decent lighting). Then it's shower. Then it's reading and bed.

My study abroad application got accepted!
Which means: University of York, here I come!
Which also means: I am clearing out of the US for six months as of the beginning of the year.

I am so excited.




Also, it is 1:30am, I have to be up at 7:15am, I feel sick and I am not sleepy at all.

But looking at Sebastian and Alyosius (*points at icon*) is making me feel a little sleepier.
Fact: Brideshead Revisited was filmed at Castle Howard which is located, yes, outside of York. (!!!)

P.S. Did you know that the name Alyosious is closely related to the names Louis and Luigi? (Which don't really have an English equivalent in the Jean-Giovanni-John kind of way) I had no idea.
You learn something new every day, especially when the internet is involved.
Also, St. Alyosius is the patron saint of youth and students.
I want to have a cat named Alyosius.
I need to go to bed.