Law and Order

I'm not entirely sure what this implies about my place of residence, but a week or so back there were signs up demanding no one park along the street where I live.  When I took a moment to finally read the scribbled writing explaining why no one would be allowed to park in a neighborhood where spaces are like blocks of gold, I realized that the length around my house needed to be completely cleared off so that they could use our peaceful street for the backdrop of Law and Order.

It's one thing to say that your apartment has been used for the set of Gossip Girl or Fraser.  After all, those are shows of class and status.  Touting your neighborhood as a scene for Law and Order though, is an entirely different matter.  I can just picture someone pacing down Monroe Street and flipping open their mobile to say, "Oh James, I found the perfect spot. It's safe enough for us to film but it looks like the perfect scene for a crime, just the type of slum looking scene we need."

The call to James was apparently made and now the rest is history.  My walk home from the subway was especially dramatic the night they filmed.  Spotlights were shining on the neighbors' building and my shadows were stretched long as bright white lights spanned the entire block.  

It was drizzling that night, and the photo I took (shown above) is the view from my house.  The softball field across the street was flooded with people in panchos, cameras, and lots of light.  The real drama wasn't the light though, it was in the blaring sirens.  Apparently that's not something they add later on in the editing process.  

And so it stands.  The filming was short but the span of my neighborhood that was filmed will remain in the archives of Law and Order forever.  Slap a few more articles down about how Chinatown and the Lower East Side are the "it" neighborhoods and maybe next year we'll get Beverly Hills 90210.

***

Many of you have probably already heard me rave about Rilo Kiley, but the band's front woman Jenny Lewis has collaborated (yet again) with the Watson Twins. They just released their new album "Acid Tongue" and it's well worth every measure.  Check out some of the videos below and follow the links to hear these soft, poignant harmonies.

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Acid Tongue"

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "You Are What You Love"

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Handle Me With Care" (cover)

Snippet of "Let My Love Open the Door," a cover that will show EXACTLY I wouldn't kick Jenny out of bed for eatin' crackers.

The Big Bang

During the past few weeks I have found myself utterly incapable of falling asleep unless I am absolutely exhausted. Most people say it's worry that keeps them up, but the nature of my insomnia is the direct opposite. It's as if suddenly I realized that the world is too full of beauty for me to close my eyes much longer than the duration of a blink, and I am left trying to take it all in. I want to find art in the city, learn everything about the economic situation, absorb every fact or deception in the current race to the presidency, and read as much wisdom as journalists and writers will impart on their audiences. Then I want to master pop culture and take time to slow down to notice the clouds or the architecture.

Periods of intense learning, for me, come in dramatic phases. I love being informed and you'll always find me glued to some sort of publication, but every now and then I get especially ambitious in my attempts. I am an eternal learner, but I call phases like what I am in now my learning resurgence. Only resurgence implies that something has come back again, and the degree at which I am attempting to take everything in is absolutely unprecedented. I've never seen anyone like this.

Even I know that my current sprint for knowledge and awareness is more than ridiculous. But what do you do besides keep pace with them as scholars and critics reference one another in trails of relevant information? Giroux leads to Poplin, leads to Stein, leads to Anderson, and the next thing I know I am face down on top of my sheets, the imprint of a book digging into my right cheek. I'll sleep in that deep immovable state for hours, but it's only because I've gone so long without a proper night's sleep that my body can't help but finally surrender to its biological imperatives.

And right now, at this very moment, nothing is more imperative than learning. Oh what I would do to be able to absorb it and truly understand with one big blast. They could call it The Big Bang, only this time no one would have to study it because they would know. But hey, maybe, just maybe, that's the point anyway. If we ever knew it all, from the future of marketing to the point of our existence, then existing at all wouldn't be so wonderful anyway.

I'll turn to ashes before I find the end of this trail, but until then I'll burn in my pursuit of knowledge, snapping and crackling with intellectual secrets of the world. With deep breaths that stick in my lungs and stay trapped in my being, I will learn as much as humanly possible. That is my learning resurgence. That is The Big Bang.

***

Random Note: For those of you curious about the picture, this is one of the service change signs posted at the subway station I frequent.  I thought it said a lot about where I live (and only strengthened my desire to learn Chinese for more than intellectual purposes), so I took a picture to share.

***

And even though I have a hankering desire to escape into the grasp of Bellah, Madsen, and Tipton, I'll share a recent music discovery that I think will remain a favorite for years to come.  Check out The Ballet.  Electro infused rock with a violin never felt so infectious and sparkling.  All Music Guide calls them "yearning, wistful, melancholy, literate, reflective, bittersweet, earnest, delicate, intimate, precious, and poignant.  I couldn't have said it better.  So even if you've ignored this section before, click here and enjoy.