Swoon; ed westwick.

The very fashionable Ed Westwick also known as Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl! Currently one of my show obsessions.
xoxo

I felt you in my life before I ever thought to...

So I have noted that besides the several days of being absent from the blogging world, I have not really been keeping you guys updated on what is going on in my life! So here I go. I will make a list of important things and events in the life of Juan-Carlos ortega:

1.- The past weeks have been flying past me faster than the blink of an eye and I am yet to know in which direction I am headed towards, in perspective to my future! But when has that ever been news to anybody.

2.- I may perhaps lose the respect of some readers but I recently got into the television series "Gossip Girl". And frankly I think It's quite fabulous. I have only seen the first 12 episodes and I am already falling in love with Dan Humphrey and Blair Waldorf. And as if the characters weren't pleasing to watch enough as it is, the show also has lovely designers and decorators to help make every scene such eye candy! The clothes and the music are both fabulous as well.

3.- I not too recently got my ears pierced and I am thinking of getting them gaged(whoever you spell that).

4.- I got a job! I was hired at authentic naples pizza restaurant. washing dishes and cleaning tables to pay my way through college. :)

5.- I turned 19!!!

6.- I finished reading Catcher in the Rye, The curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Perks of being a wallflower, The Bell Jar, and several poems as well as short stories by Sylvia Plath (I recommend all listed, let me know if you have any questions about the authors or comments towards the novels)


As of now these are all major things going on in my life, not to mention High School graduation! Oh the happy day that will be for me. But for Ciao for now and feel free to share the details of your life!

xx

Sylvia Plath; Daddy.

My friend Evan shared this poem by Sylvia Plath with me a couple of days ago. I very recently finished reading "The Bell Jar" by her and have been unable to move on to anything else (meaning anything else by other authors, since I have been on a reading spree). However disturbing it may be, I find myself very fascinated with her poems and short stories. Here I share one of her most well known and controversial pieces. Feel free to discuss and share your opinions about her or the poem itself, as well as any other stuff by her as I am very new to her work.

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

Love, Life, Cigarettes & Starbucks; A satire by James Mollenhauer

It was one of the last Saturday nights in senior year, yet the group found itself assembled around the wrought iron table in back of the café as usual.
"So did you ever decide which college you are going to, Chloé? Is it the one where they offer majors in Veganism or the one that does 'Experimental Film' where they slaughter cattle on camera?" Graham asked, sipping at his sugarless, milk-free latte.
"Oh God," said Aldo, "please say you are going to the vegan school. So many animals die each year of cruelty and even art isn't a just cause!" He ran his fingers over his new Italian leather bag thoughtfully.
Chloé exhaled from her long Gauloise (imported from France) and fluttered her lashes twice (she was wearing the same brand of mascara as Chantal Goya in Masculin Féminin) before responding.
"Neither. I'm not going to school: I am going to move to Paris and share an apartment in the Marais with a French poet named Ludovic. He's très gay; you would love him, Graham. I showed him your Facebook."
"Um, did you mention to Ludo-whatever that Graham has a boyfriend? Like, ME?" ejected Aldo exasperatedly. In honesty, he didn't really like Graham or find him that much attractive, but having a boyfriend was such a brave sociopolitical statement.
"Ludovic," corrected Chloé. Her name was actually Karen by birth, and she knew no French beyond basic words and n'est-ce pas, but nobody needed to know this. She had become un peu obsessed with sixties France after watching a few vintage films and strived after the painful yet simple glamour exuded by vedettes such as Françoise Hardy.
"Don't worry," said Rebecca as she came up for air after trying to remove her boyfriend's face with her lips, "true love will conquer all, Aldo." She would know, of course. She and Dan had been going out for almost a week this coming Monday and she had never known the rapidity with which love progressed. She was so very in love with Daniel Edmund Bishop. Daniel Edward Bishop. Yes, that was right. Wait...
"I don't know where I am going to school" Graham mused. He wanted to major in Fashion Design, of course. Unfortunately, he did not know how to sew. But he was young; these setbacks would be easily resolved.
"Stay and go to Grossmont with me" smiled Aldo, interlacing his fingers with Graham's. Oh God, thought Graham. He would dump Aldo if they weren't so photogenic together.
"Don't go to college." Chloé breathed smoke into their faces. "It only teaches us to conform to the empty paradigms of our parents." Her opinion of disdain for higher education had been solidified when she had received only rejection letters.
"But Ms Collins says I need to go to college to make money or have any possibility of a valuable or pleasant life experience." He had done the math himself; no degree led to a mediocre job, or worse, unemployment, which did not equal Paul Smith (not even Paul Smith Jeans!).
"What do you think, Dan?" asked Aldo. Dan didn't respond. His mouth was occupied, so Aldo just sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"Another night at the café. What are we going to do once we all part ways?" he said nostalgically.
"I don't know. But the connections we have made with each other are far more important than our SAT scores or GPA's." Graham had correctly quoted the PowerPoint from the beginning-of-the-year assembly. He thought about it for a moment, and realized it was true.
For a minute, the group stopped talking, smoking, and kissing, and just sat in silence. Then they remembered the outfit Samantha had worn to school on Friday, and had to discuss what a 'trashy ho' she was. Well, come on; she so totally was.

Satire written By James Mollenhauer

Before the Sunrise.

Before the Sunrise is easily one of my favorite movies. Before Sunrise is a romance between a young American (Jesse) and a French student (Celine). A chance encounter on the train incites intrigue, and Jesse provocatively suggests that Celine postpones her return to France and embarks instead on a spontaneous expedition to Vienna. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds

Gaspar Claus et Pedro Soler.

Musicians Gaspar Claus et Pedro Soler playing for La Blogotheque . This performance has remained one of my favorites for a couple of years now. Gaspar and Pedro are amazing together, they give me goosebumps every time I see this. Makes me wish I was there enjoying the performance with a glass of wine. I can't think of anything more enjoyable at this time...mmm well actually having my boyfriend Marc with me there. Enjoy the amazing video.

Trying to feed our empty hearts.

Une femme est une fleur.

The beautiful Anna Karina in Une femme est une femme a film by legendary french director Jean-Luc Godard.