I Invented Pod Racing

There are two ways I could begin this story, both of which sound sarcastic enough to work.

1) Nostalgic version: In 1999, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (as it is fully known) was released in theaters, to the frenzied anticipation of me and my peers. When I first watched it in fifth grade, I thought it was the manifestation of the concept of "awesome" itself.* Now that I'm not stupid, I've come to realize that Episode I was much less than what I had thought. BUT, there was one element of Episode I that I actually appreciated: pod racing.

2) Actual version: Last night, a few of my friends and I, over more than a few beers, decided to watch Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Actually, we watched The Phantom Edit. Basically, for the next hour-and-a-half we discussed the movie's many (many) faults. There were only two things in the film that silenced our cynical rantings. They were (a) Darth Maul and (b) pod racing.

(The following will for sure be the rest of my story)

Maybe I liked it so much because I invented it.

I know, that sounds crazy. I understand why you might think something like, "Justin, you're crazy. How could you invent a plot device in a highly-anticipated, multi-million dollar blockbuster when you were only a ten or eleven years old?" My answer is simple: Lego.** Perhaps pictures can best explain the breakthough I made in 3rd grade, while playing with my Legos that fateful night, that was responsible for the wildly-popular pod racing.

Take THIS***

And instead of horses, take the rockets from THIS**** (click on it for a bigger image)


And you get THIS


And there you have it. A pod racer. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way I can prove to Lucas, or a court of law for that matter, that I invented pod racing. As with every other Lego I ever built, I promptly destroyed it in order to salvage it for parts.

* The notion eventually faded, as I gained more perspective (i.e. "taste") over the years. By eighth grade, I accepted unquestionably that Episode I was a bad movie. BUT, when Episode II came out, it was fantastic. Repeat for Episode III.
** The proper term is "Lego," with no "s." There are no such things as "Legos" because "Lego" is just the concept of building a structure with those recognizable, differently colored, stackable bricks. To refer to the toys themselves, you should use the term "Lego bricks." The more you know.
*** Model number 6044, the King's Carriage.
**** Model 6982, the Explorien Starship. This thing was the shit. No matter what outlandish spaceships and futuristic death-weapons we would build, it was always assumed between my brother and I that nothing in our imaginary stories, acted out in Lego, could stop this, my adored starship.

Sexy New Header

As you may have noticed, I have a new header.


Originally, the robot was going to be used for an album cover for Lupe Fiasco's Fahrenheit 1/15 Part II: Revenge of the Nerds mixtape. The "official" album cover is this monstrosity:


Needless to say, I could not let this aggression stand, man. Especially when I have to look at it in my iTunes cover flow every time I want to listen to an otherwise good album. Lupe Fiasco has three Fahrenheit 1/15 mixtapes: the first, Part II: Revenge of the Nerds, and Part III: A Rhyming Ape. The album covers are all pretty bad.

I thought it would be a fun project to assign myself over winter break to remake the artwork in Illustrator as part of a series. I hadn't really decided on what Part I would look like, but Revenge of the Nerds would feature a robot MC stomping around an illustrated city and A Rhyming Ape, which is simply Fiasco rhyming over beats taken from the Gorillaz' Demon Days album, would feature King Kong, with mic in hand, terrorizing the city from the side of the Sears tower.* The idea was nerdy, but that's alright, because that's clearly a theme with Fiasco. Alas, I never got around to it though. No need to let the robot go to waste though.

Below is my original sketch that I traced in Illustrator.


And here's the final product.


I took the photo from the top floor of the Amsterdam public library (A place I've mentioned numerous times before on my blog). I haven't had the need to use Photoshop in a while, so this was kind of a refresher.

* Yes, I know that King Kong originally climbed up the Empire State Building, not the Sears Tower. But since Fiasco hails from a city in the Midwest, the best city in the whole wide, wide world (Chicago), I thought it was appropriate.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Here are a few songs that I've regularly been jonesin' for during my stay here in Amsterdam.

"Black Mirror" by Arcade Fire – In the last two months, Arcade Fire has become one of my favorite bands. "Black Mirror" blew me away the first time I listened to Neon Bible, their most recent album (which itself is phenomenal).

"Mathematics" by Mos Def – This is one of those songs that you hear and love, only to realize you've had it in your collection (read: iTunes library) for years. Pandora actually reintroduced me to this song and I've been obsessed with it since. There's no official video, so this one will have to do. It's a quirky little montage clip.

"Lucky" by Radiohead – Another older one. I never really paid attention to this song, one of the last on OK Computer, before I heard it used in an episode of Six Feet Under. This video's kind of a downer (and Thom Yorke looks weirder than usual in it). So here's the clip from the show. Even though it's in Spanish, I'm sure you can figure it out.

I'm still wading through the giant selection of CDs that the Amsterdam public library has. I'm due for another trip soon. I'm thinking Clipse and maybe some Bob Dylan (after seeing Watchmen on opening night).

Catching Up

So, it's been a while. I guess you could say that I've had a serious case of writer's block. That, and my blog has been in blog-limbo for at least a month. I abandoned my old Wordpress blog (addictedtotheshindig.wordpress.com) and got a blogger account for a few reasons. I never really liked any of the Wordpress themes. Considering that I've never gotten around to learning enough html to do anything (that is, beyond making text bold or underlined), I decided to go with the host that makes it easier for me to have the appearance that I want (that is, a white background and a header). I'll be tinkering with it for a while, but for now my project is to create a big beautiful header up top.

ANYWAYS (courtesy Chuck Klosterman) here's a truncated recount of what I've been up to for the last month or so. I have:

1. Been to Belgium. Brussels and Bruges, to be precise. Our bus left from the south of Amsterdam at around 8 on a Saturday morning and arrived in Brussels around noon. We then took a train to Bruges where we spent the rest of the day walking around, eating chocolate, buying waffels, and drinking Belgian beer. The weather was overcast, and there weren't that many people out. That night we tried to find a place to eat for under 15 Euro, and let me tell you, it's impossible. Unless, of course, you eat at Quick, the premiere French fast-food establish, like we did (Belgium, being between France and the Netherlands, is equally influenced by both). Overall, I wasn't too impressed by Bruges. Other than our hostel, the Bauhaus Inn, which had a lively bar as well as a DJ that played some much-needed American pop music, the city didn't have much going for it. I guess I'm supposed to see the movie In Bruges in order to get the full experience. It's still on my to-do list.* Brussels, on the other hand, was awesome. The weather was perfect, people were walking around the city, and the buildings were covered with enough graffiti to keep my camera working all afternoon. To top off the nearly-perfect day, we ate some pretty cheap Thai food. I missed my spicy chicken Pad Thai.
   Check out Sara and Alex's posts about Belgium as well.
   
2. Started a new blog. After seeing a Mercedes McLaren parked in front of a swanky hotel in Belgium, we lamented about how we wished there was a blog for automobile aesthetics, a Sartorialist for Cars, if you will. We call it The Cartorialist.
3. Written two-and-a-half papers, given three presentations, and taken two midterms.**
4. Been trying to figure out my life for the summer. The Affordable Housing Internship through UEP didn't work out, so now I'm scouring the web for a paying internship. Normally I wouldn't be picky, but with a) the economy and b) the way Amsterdam is pillaging my bank account Viking-style, I need some cash flow come summer-time. Some of the LACAC internships look interesting, especially the one with the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, in which I'd be helping to plan the Eagle Rock Music Festival.
5. Had my dad and my brother come visit me, seperately. It's surprisingly difficult to come up with stuff to do for a week at a time. With one or the other, I went to the Heineken Experience (I was brewed!), the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijkmuseum, a cool little comic book shop near the edge of the City Center, and the Red Light District (kind of a requirement for tourists). I know I'm forgetting a few places.
6. Saw Girl Talk. That was a wacky night.
7. Started reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I'm in to it.
8. Finished Six Feet Under.
9. Been the recipient of a citation by the Amsterdam Police. I was biking on a road between Keizergracht and Herengracht, where apparently, you're only allowed to travel by foot (unless you're a tram, then you can freely barrel through that section of street). Here's how the story goes: Alex, Sara, and I actually start out by walking down the block. After the tram passes by, Mr. Manthei decides to get on his bike, defiantly proclaim "Fuck walking," and proceeds to pedal down the street. Sara and I follow suit. A few seconds later, at the end of the block, I see Alex is pulled over by a cop, and a few feet behind him, so is Sara. Now, at this point, I think that the two cops have pulled them over for a routine identity inspection.*** As soon as I see this, I get off my bike, and walk it over to Sara, thinking that it's no big deal. The male cop walks away from Alex, towards Sara and I, and Alex walks off around a corner. Both cops, male and female, start talking to us about how they are going to give us tickets for 35 Euro each, for not walking. The male cop starts talking to me.
   Cop: Do you live here?
   Me: Yes? [sic] I'm a student and I'm staying here until June.
   Cop: Why are you riding your bike here?
   Me: I didn't see the sign.
   Now, in my defense, the sign technically said that the street was pedestrian-friendly, not that bikes were prohibited. There is definitely a sign for this, but it certainly wasn't posted. If I had been smart enough, I would have told him this.
   Cop: Do you have identification?
   I pull out my University of Amsterdam ID, which we have been told will work in situations like these.
   Cop: I'm sorry, but do you have your passport?
   Me: No.
   For obvious reasons, I don't carry my passport with me. If I was smart I would have told him this as well.
   Me: I have an American driver's license. Will that work?
   It does. I give it to him and he starts taking down my information. Here's where the culture gap starts to show.
   Cop: Your birthday is 11-05-1987?
   He, of course, means May 11th, 1987, because that's how the rest of the world writes dates. My birthday is, of course, November 5th, 1987, because that's how America rolls. I tell him this.
   Cop: Why is your birthday wrong on your identification?
   Me: We write it backwords in the U.S. We're weird.
   The cop and I chuckle about how weird the U.S. is.
   Cop: What's your address here?
   Me: Prins Hendrikkade A-12.
   I, of course, mean A-12 because that's how we pronounce the letter "A" in English. He, of course, thinks I said "E-12" because when he insists on speaking English (not my idea, to my credit), he doesn't think about how the Dutch pronounce the letter "E" as an "A" when they sing the alphabet. So, I'm pretty sure he wrote down my wrong information. Which means I may or may not be recieving a citation in the mail in six to eight weeks. After this whole ordeal, we meet up with Alex, who didn't get a ticket. How, you ask (like I did). "I just told him I was a tourist." If I had been smart enough, I would have told him this too.

The sun's starting to come out, and I'm ecstatic to say that I can bike around the city without four layers on.

* I don't have a to-do list.
** The papers were on "the role of the gaze in gendering public spaces in Cairo," the usefulness of the "modernizing paradigm" – the idea that the city is the site of the new and the rural is the site of tradition – in analyzing the urban experience, and some 500-word thing on some health program in Thailand. The first two are for my ballin' Urban Anthropology class. The last one is for my Health and Development class. I hate that class.
*** The Dutch don't like foreigners (read: ethnic immigrants), so cops are known to "randomly" check identification in the street. I've never actually seen this happen. I thought I did, though.