2008 round-up

Top 10 Releases of 2008:
1. Saturdays = Youth, M83
2. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, Sigur Rós
3. Stay Cold, Trapped Under Ice
4. Fate, Dr. Dog
5. Civil War, Dillinger Four
6. Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket)
7. Bring Me Your Love, City And Colour
8. Lucky, Nada Surf
9. Split, Dirty Money/Trapped Under Ice
10. From The Bottom, Off With Their Heads

Top 6 Shows of 2008:
1. Celebrated Summer Second Anniversary Show, 09/27, Ten Car Pile-Up
2. Polar Bear Club, Fireworks, Brick, 12/10, CCAS
3. Dr. Dog, 12/03, 930 Club
4. Tegan & Sara, 10/02, Rams Head Live!
5. Nana Grizol, Witches, 05/27, Frisby House
6. The Chase, xBreatheInBreatheOutx, At Best, Timber, 12/20, Corpse Fortress

Top 6 Things I Did This Year:
1. Went On Tour
2. Published A Zine
3. Read 28 Books
4. Lived Independently In Baltimore
5. Spent A Month In California
6. Organized Goucher's Sexual Violence Education Initiative

Top 6 Spots In The Baltimore Area:
1. Pretty Boy Reservoir
2. The Avenue (The Golden West/Common Ground)
3. Charm City Art Space
4. Frisby Street
5. Celebrated Summer Records
6. Woodberry Kitchen (food rules, end of story.)

Top 6 States I Visited/Explored:
1. California
2. Texas
3. Wisconsin
4. Pennsylvania
5. Ohio
6. Every Other State I Visited

Reading List 2008:
1) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
2) Hot Water Music, Charles Bukowski
3) Barrel Fever, David Sedaris
4) The Stranger, Albert Camus
5) The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller
6) Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
7) The Book Of Imaginary Beings, Jorge Luis Borges
8) In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
9) Lord of the Flies, William Golding
10) Wicked, Gregory Maguire
11) A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
12) Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America, Barbara Ehrenreich
13) The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White
14) Tender Is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
15) A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
16) The Kite Runner, Khaled Housseini
17) The Heart That Bleeds: Latin America Now, Alma Guillermoprieto
18) The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
19) Fury, Salman Rushdie
20) Watchmen, Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
21) Double Duce, Aaron Cometbus
22) A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Housseini
23) The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri
24) Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
25) Lucky, Alice Sebold
26) The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
27) My Life In The Jugular Vein, Ben Snakepit
28) Snakepit 2007, Ben Snakepit

semester finale 12/15/2008

Sexual violence is never an easy situation to approach. It's still quite taboo in dialogue within our communities, and I wonder if this series of events had happened at any other time, would it be handled in the same manner, under the same circumstances, as it is handled now?

I refer to the recent string of sexual assaults that have occurred in the Goucher community, a small, tight-knit community, the Goucher bubble. Anyone who's spent any time with me over the past year knows full well how invested I am in issues involving sexual violence, and working on initiatives on campus for better response and education about sexual violence. We'd love to think no news is good news, but the silence on our campus from all time prior to now, that was not a good silence. The fact that members of the Goucher community have come forward, not just in these instances, but about others, and that our school takes these allegations seriously and has been open about these events and launching an investigation, it shows a great progress that I don't think most college administrations, let alone society as a whole, could acknowledge or take on as we have, and by some of the questions and statements that the reporter made last night, really hit that idea home for me. people are not prepared to believe that this can happen, that this is real, and want to validate a fault in the survivor, or in the situation, isolating it from their comfort zone, their environment, so it isn't possible it could happen to them, and are willing to disrupt a silent vigil to question validity of allegations, of insinuating victim-blaming. it's a heavy load and i know i am prepared to take it on this final push in education as much as possible.

i just hope the goucher administration and the baltimore county police are prepared to do the same with their investigation.

so this is how the semester ends. i had one exam yesterday, have two today, and one on thursday. pack up everything and move home to dc for a couple weeks. cut and dry.

so for the semester finale, kitchen sink radio had a two hour show. my friend james came up from dc to co-host with me, and we were joined by emily, amanda, herve, ari, joe, chris, and asa. there were quite a few gems in conversation and insult, and overall a good way to head out of the pearlstone studio, probably my last show in there ever, considering the athenaeum will be complete by the time i return from costa rica.

james also told me i write my playlists wrong. so. i'll do it the "proper" way today.

1) Fugazi- Shut the Door
2) Go It Alone- Nothing Gold
3) Flickerflame- This Is Urgent
4) Achilles- Let's Dance
5) Life At These Speeds- Submerge
6) Product of Waste- I'll Shut Up When I'm Dead
7) The Banned- Misadventure
8) Look Back & Laugh- Throne of Blood
9) The Agent- This Is Getting Old
10) Katie Dance- Hey Ambrose, Don't Show This To Anyone
11) Kid Kilowatt- Peeping Tomboy
12) Majority Rule- XOXO
13) Dear Tonight- You Have Too Much Faith In Us
14) Floorpunch- No Exceptions
15) Small Arms Dealer- Tonight...On A Very Special Episode
16) Screaming Females- Starve The Beat
17) Seaweed- Undeniable Hate
18) Q And Not U- Line In The Sand
19) Engine Down- Songbird
20) The Ataris- Not A Worry In The World
21) Shorebirds- Sleepin' In
22) Taking Back Sunday- There's No "I" In Team
23) Cursive- Ceiling Crack
24) Death Cab For Cutie- Your Bruise
25) Braid- Forever Got Shorter
26) The Get Up Kids- Ten Minutes
27) Jets To Brazil- Sweet Avenue
28) Small Brown Bike- Now and Never
29) The Starting Line- Leaving



http://callsfromcostarica.blogspot.com
http://callsfromcostarica.blogspot.com
http://callsfromcostarica.blogspot.com
http://callsfromcostarica.blogspot.com

that's the blog for my travels. it'll be updated much more often over the next five months than this one, and by more often i mean all the time.



<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 hillary.

everything moves.

It's a good day.

Yesterday my friends Fireworks came to town with Polar Bear Club and played Charm City Art Space with Brick. I love seeing 100+ kids packed in the basement stoked and screaming and sweating and smiling and surfing and it was quite possibly the best DIY show I've been to all year, competing only with the Celebrated Summer Two Year Anniversary at 10 Car.

Standing behind Polar Bear Club with Mitch and Rob and surveying the scene, I could do nothing but smile. I think all of us involved with the Art Space had swollen hearts. It was a night we really needed, in energy and community. Revival. Revitalization. Regain.

Baltimore, you're the best.

Seeing Kyle and Tymm and Chris and all those boys for the first time in almost two years also really made my night exceptional. A good deal of old friends, and new, attended, and it just felt good. It felt strong. I had an extraordinary amount of emotion(s) flowing through me last night and it was the right time and right place for them all.

Today I feel like I'm on my own solid ground and it's about time I felt that way again.


Last day of classes today.
I have this feeling of elation I have no interest in diluting.
Other than that, I give zero fucks.
















(...yessssssssss)

recap 12/08/2008

first and foremost, i now contribute to the icoulddietomorrow music blog. check it out!

the past week was the most turbulent of the semester. aside from my drawing critique tomorrow, the week is free. next week, four exams. then done.

last week i saw Dr. Dog in DC and it's in my top shows of 2008. I will have an exact list come the end of the month, but really, phenomenal.

Yesterday I completed my 26th recreational read of the year. I'm on a roll, this week and last week, and I don't really see it slowing down for the remainder of the year.

I've read a lot of contemporary non-fiction lately, many stories involving college-age girls, "good girls." I'm in college, but the idea I have of "college girls" is still very academic and very ivy, and it doesn't seem to match up with my environment. I want to fulfill that image I have, but I don't think that can happen here at Goucher; I think it's fundamentally impossible. So this idea of "good girl," a prep, a prude, where in my being does that want come from?

When I was home I looked through all the old mixtapes and mix cds I received in high school, listening to the few from people who probably-like myself with theirs- hadn't thought of my existence in years. It seemed more bare bones then, this dating thing.

I remember visiting Vassar College as a senior in high school. I stayed with a student in a really nice dorm, met a hallmate of hers. I think his name was Harris. I remember staying up in the common room with him all night. In the morning I had to go to an activity, but when I returned to the dorm he had brought breakfast for me, crêpes, and left them in the fridge.

In my head, I don't see that sort of thing ever happening to me again, the no-frills, no-alterior motivated efforts. So part of me really does want to go back to the way I was in high school, that academic, untouchable girl.

I was joined in the studio last night by Angie, Scott, Emily, Ari, and Joe. My friend Erik called in and it was quite a nice surprise to top off the evening.

1) Grey Wind- Envy
2) Tongue Like A Battering Ram- The Faction
3) Viejos Pateticos- Los Crudos
4) Razors Edge- BBQ Chickens
5) Malfunction- Cro-Mags
6) Stand Still- Gorilla Biscuits
7) Trying- Dag Nasty
8) Pinned Up- Avail
9) Jailbird- The Exploding Hearts
10) When I Give The Signal, Run!- The Falcon
11) Dance Of Days- Embrace
12) Don't Want It- Scrreching Weasel
13) Trust- 7 Seconds
14) Give Me A Fuckin' Break- Limp Wrist
15) Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely- Hüsker Dü
16) Other Way Around- Rites of Spring
17) Self-Destruct- Adolescents
18) Heartless vs. Hopeless- Van Damage
19) Under The Knife Scars Run Deep- Kaospilot

Next week will be THE LAST SHOW for a very long time. So tune in. And stay great.

turnstyles.

i came home for the quiet.

i woke up just before dawn. tangled in an avalanche of pillows and blankets, i cradled a sock monkey in my elbow. at some point prior my mom tucked the covers above my shoulders and closed the door to my bedroom.

outside there's a forest of trees, colored in cold hues of purple and blue like fingers in the cold. i spent the morning in silence, minus the low hum of the heater in the living room, wrapped in a kimono on the chez lounge, reading novels and dispelling the knot at the bottom of my esophagus.

a lonely rage. the hunger is the meanest cage.

on one hand, i have no idea how i got here, except that at i showed up at 1:30 in the morning with only my cell phone and wallet and without keys after declining a ride back to baltimore because i couldn't bring myself to go back, not last night.

on the other hand, i know exactly how i got here. i ran too far from home, too far out on the ledge of relying on other people for my well-being. what happened to my self-sufficiency, my autonomy? i pulled a trigger and my ears ring and i feel like there should be blood on my hands, maybe my own more than anyone else's. and everyone else will shout and scream at how wrong i am to come to these conclusions, because i usually am wrong, but i still feel responsible, too ready to take the blame once again.

i'd like to think that the telenovela is dead; that the demons are subdued, purged for this final month of two thousand and eight. i will sink back into bookshelves (i'm in my fourth novel of the week), but i have enough people pulling me out to keep me from disappearing completely.

good good friends and good good things.
maybe simplicity will come sooner than i thought.

rabbit recap 12/01/2008

never right write when you're vulnerable.

while i didn't write about it that much in my zine, 2008 was a really significant year for me and relationships with females. i bonded more so with women than with men, and this year more than ever before.

saaj dropped by the studio and ari co-hosted with me. i can't believe it's the end of the semester, let alone december...

1) Dag Nasty- Dag Nasty
2) Anthem, Pt. 2- Blink-182
3) Not Superstitious- Leatherface
4) Let Go- Midtown
5) Nervous Reaction- Digger
6) Last Time I Walked- De La Hoya
7) Institutionalized- Suicidal Tendencies
8) Close Knit- Death Is Not Glamourous
9) A Walk Through Hell- Say Anything
10) Comfortable Dumb- Pink Razors
11) New Day- The Bouncing Souls
12) Healing Factor- Yo Man, Go!
13) Viva La Vie- Yage
14) Keep Falling Down- Off With Their Heads