New Beginning
And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate.

So here I am, in the middle way, having had
twenty years -
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of
l'entre deux guerres -
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind
of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better
of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or
the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so
each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what
there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already
been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom
one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover
what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now,
under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither
gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not
our business.

--T. S. Eliot
East Coker
Four Quartets

who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?

Vampire Weekend is the soundtrack for life right now. Campus and One ( Blake's New Face) are definitely worth putting on repeat. or actually just go ahead and put the whole album on repeat ( IT IS THAT GOOD)...hmmm other stuff we are listening to right now: The National, New Young Pony Club, The Black Lips, The Kooks, Bright Eyes, Silver Jews, and all our old favorites. Back to our band ambitions: Pet Rejects, Elizabeth and the Baby...hmmm. We want to play instrumentsor maybe we could learn to sing...anyone want to give us lessons? we can pay you in kisses and candy canes.



Other points of interest: mamas and papas in town. and then out...leaving us in the kolej. Discovery of the most amazing thrift store in the universe, or at least in all of the eastern bloc. Located in the antiquated praha train station, this place is small slice of heaven. Rooms and rooms of pure gold. 2 hours later and bundles of baubles later, we emerged 800 koruna poorer, but with enough sun dresses, suspenders and slinky scarves to last us at least until july. amazing jazz band in the basement of a nameless, but reputable establishment located somewhere in Praha 2 ( I think... the end of the night was a bit a bit blurry, as they tend to be in Prague ) ended up at chateau, making friends of course. dj is our hero. our main man sends his love, along with other glorious goodies, straight from the sunny coast of cali. our weeks were brightened to say the least:)

If you haven't already

See this movie,

yellow little spider

I could listen to devendra banhart all day

the rest of amsterdam

It is the first place that I think I could like more than Prague. To it's benefit, we had the nicest weather they have seen in 6 weeks. Everyone is SO friendly, it's heart warming. Especially compared to Prague. I've never realized how closed off the people are here, until I went to Amsterdam. People are so willing to help you, give you directions, strike up a conversation etc. We walked straight into the Redlight district our first night. Boobs everywhere. Plus we came with two of our closest guy friends who felt compelled to look at every single naked chick behind glass. Which is a billion. It was nutty, crazy but very cool. We stayed in a horrible hotel there, bad decision. But it was late, rainy, and we weren't properly clothed. To Prague's advantage, everything closed there early too, and beer wasn't flooding in every direction like in Prague.
The next day, we woke up and ate at Latei, a vintage inspired breakfast spot. It was great, and then Elizabeth and I had to run to go meet the guy we were going to Couchsurf with. I'll have to explain this later. I HAVE TO GO. I'll finish this later.

In Summary; The random mess of events leading up until today

Pictures will have to come later, because we are lacking one computer. They are many of them, they are good, they will come, just not now.

So since the last entry, we've started minimal schooling. Not much to say here for several reasons, 1. Classes are experimental, interesting, and yet not very pressing
It's great.
We went to Vienna, which unexpectedly was very clean and posh. It looks like someone goes around and whitens the buildings when no one is looking. A lot of palaces and nice dressers. The coffee shops are great, and we rented bikes for one euro, went to the best open air market, and ate sacher tort, and went to the bermuda triangle of nightlife which was crowded and loud but offered nothing different.
Then our beloved friend DJ came to visit, which consisted of 3 nights of zero sleep than a spontaneous decision to jump on a train to Berlin and stay in a presidental suite to see Paul Van Dyk. Berlin blew our minds. It is single handedly one of the most progressive cities I've visited. Artistically, Musically, and in Fashion. This is where we really need to show you pictures. We went to a very radical artist space, in an run down building 5 stories high completely covered in wall art, stickers, and graffiti. There are no signs, there is just an abandoned interest for all that are curious to venture up if they choose. We did of course.
The first floor was a bar, the next was a cinema room, then the rest were all artist space, reconstructed clothes and wild urban art. The coolest part was the park hangout made out of trash and recycled material behind the building. They are trying to shut it down, but I doubt that will happen and I hope they don't because it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.
The rest of Berlin was hookah smoking, boat parties that continue until 10 am and then some, and an incredible Paul Van Dyk show that was even more incredible because our baller friend Dujin flew on a something-teen hour flight from Chicago just to come party like rockstars at Paul Van Dyk, one of his favorite Djs. Us four and Emmie our badass roommate who came along went all out. It was so perfect.
Got back from Berlin and our friend John came in. So needless to say there were no breaks, sleeping, or free time involved. Ran around Petrin Tower, and the parks, drank homemade beer from the Monks at the Monastery, went to Cesky Krumlov (Painter Egon Schiele's birthplace), ventured in some little bookstore and bought some original prints for friends, took train back, did the Prague nightlife. Then left for Amsterdam on Wednesday the 12th.
Amsterdam is an entirely different story. We'll finish this later.