On Monday my women’s studies class went to the Guildhall Library to do research for our big essays that are due next Monday. I’m writing about the famous lesbian novelist Radclyffe Hall, how her book The Well of Loneliness promulgated the mannish lesbian stereotype, and how her being able to cross-dress was a privilege of her class. I didn’t have this coherent of a thesis until today…but the research at a Real Library (ours at the BU headquarters is…modest, to put it gently) helped. Then on Monday night my friend Caroline and I went to the Notting Hill Arts Club because we had heard about a bar night that was only playing the music of Kanye West. Sounds really fun, right? They made it seem that way because the Facebook event said tickets were sold out. We got there and only about ten people arrived during our stay. HUGE disappointment. I guess it comes with the territory of trying to go out on a Monday night. I sent a lot of sad Snapchat videos.
I’ve had a good deal of trouble sleeping this week so in the wee hours I have taken up doing The New York Times crossword. I am getting pretty good at the Monday. There are only so many free puzzles I can play, and apparently being a subscriber does not grant me the privilege of access. It’s becoming a problem. Crosswords really push all my puzzle buttons.
On Tuesday my women’s studies class went bonkers over the 2007 version of Persuasion with Sally Hawkins…it is so STRESSFUL. So much tension! I was on the edge of my seat and let out a few audible yelps. I really like that class. There’s been an easy camaraderie and I’ll be sad when it’s over. I kind of wish I had a traditional semester length course with my professor, Dr. Atkinson. She is extremely knowledgeable and has a British wit and her speaking voice sometimes reminds me of Alice’s from The Vicar of Dibley even in character they are polar opposites.
I also really like both of my professors (they alternate) for my film and TV class — Dr. Fanthome and Ms. Domaille, if it wasn’t clear. I feel like I talk a lot in that class. The level of participation varies from other students. I’ve really been enjoying the readings and am eager to share my thoughts but am afraid the other students are starting to regard me as a “swot” (British for “tryhard.”)
On Wednesday my friend Jillian (from Fairfield, of all places) and I went to a poetry slam in Whitechapel, at this place called Genesis Cinema. I haven’t been to a slam since the Bowery Poetry Club in New York closed in 2012 and it was so much fun! There was one American guy competing and it was like seeing a familiar face in a crowd. “Slam voice” (you know what I’m talking about) is something I’ll never get over but there was a distinct lack of it there. There was a group of American students who got randomly picked to judge and I found them drawing this on their whiteboard:
Things I Read and Liked This Week
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Instapaper, the article aggregating site to which I have recently converted. I put everything in a folder for each week now and it may result in this section being a little longer…I read a lot of stuff.
The Hairpin’s “A Place Like Home: On Being Black and Punk” (which I read and LOVED — I’ve been following Pilot Viruet’s stuff on the Internet since I was but a Web-baby and this is really, really good.)
The New York Times’ Times Haiku (which I’ve read for a long time but is really a wonderful morsel of poetic coding)
The Washington Post’s “Haruki Murakami’s advice column is surrealist and sweet and so, well, Murakami”
The Guardian’s “How do you grieve when you lose an internet friend?”
The Hairpin’s “Limericks for Lost Online Dates”
Fusion’s “This journalist used CAPS LOCK for an entire week”
On the Media’s “Down the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole: The Game!” (if you know me at all, you know my passion for Wikipedia rabbit holes)
The New York Times’ “A University Recognizes a Third Gender: Neutral”
Buzzfeed’s “How to Start Actually Replying to Your Damn Emails” (this is very real for me. I either reply in 20 minutes or two weeks)
Autostraddle’s “The Best Break-Up Advice You’ll Ever Get” (which is old but I re-discovered it this week and it’s still great)
And that’s the week that was. Write back.
Emily
P.S. word of the week (which I missed last week, sorry!): frippery.