The Peanut Gazette

I know what emasculation smells like - a slice of sausage pizza from Noch's, which is what I had for lunch this afternoon. Actually I guess emasculation would smell like something bad, but I just wanted to brag.

Yesterday was Alex's birthday, and he is now 21 years old (gasp)! He celebrated personally by buying a Red Sox-themed lottery ticket, going to the RMV, and working out. His parents took the bunch of us family + significant others (Alex, Steph, Mickey, myself, and Steph's boyfriend) out to dinner at a ritzy Japanese place called Fugakyu ("how rude!"). We sat in a little private dining room with a sunken table and a sliding wood-and-paper door (we even had to take off our shoes to go inside). There were some Japanese prints on the walls of pudgy sumo wrestlers, which, as Alex's mom commented, didn't do much for the appetite. In spite of said wrestlers, the dinner was fabulous and good-natured.

For dessert, the 21-and-under crowd piled into Alex's car and headed over to the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a confection of Alex's choice, which turned out to be a frozen 7" Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. We ate the cake at Alex's house after singing Happy Birthday somewhat awkwardly, and actually the frozen-ness complemented the cake's texture (essentially pure chocolate) well. Alex opened his presents - from his dad, an invitation for himself and a guest (gee, wonder who that could be?) to have brunch at the Harvard Faculty Club, and even more excitingly, a PS2 game called Katamari from Steph and Mickey.

We spent the next 90 minutes or so playing Katamari. It is an amazing game. You are a teeny tiny little dude, the Prince of All Cosmos (the green guy, see below), who is charged with the task of creating stars to place back in the sky after your dad, the King of All Cosmos, went on a rampage of ecstacy and destroyed them all. The astrophysics engine in this game operates on the assumption that stars are just large lumps of matter - nuclear fusion does not enter into it. How do you create large lumps of matter? By rolling a large (it starts out about twice as tall as yourself), sticky ball called a katamari over increasingly large objects, animals, people, buildings, and I guess eventually entire landmasses, you create roughly spherical pincushions of ridiculous proportions that become stars. It's addictive and very Japanese, by which I mean both absurd (hopping wooden shoes?!) and extremely cute.


I believe the katamari is approaching a cup of tea there on the right.

In other news, I really miss you guys. Hanging out with people from high school has its moments, but sometimes there's just too many - how do I put this? - Y chromosomes. Haha! No, I actually miss things about you above and beyond your essential femininities (Carbs, get back in that cave). In homage of the wonderfulness of my raccoon sisters, I will describe here a song that captures (some of) what I miss about each of you. Although lyrics seem to have a lot to do with how I picked these songs, actually I specifically associate each of them with its corresponding raccoonette through some kind of memory or repeated experience, which I suppose is just as valid a criterion.

What order shall I go in? How about height!


Carbs - What About Everything (Carbon Leaf) - I don't know that much about Carbs' music preferences, but I do remember that she liked this song a lot when she heard it in my and Wad's common room. It's a tuneful song with an appealing directness of melody and lyric, which reminds me of Carbs' own straightforwardness and professionalism. This song also asks many questions - some sophisticated, some profound, some emotional, some selfish, some self-effacing. Carbs herself asks thoughtful academic, journalistic, and personal questions, but knows when to make fun of herself too (or throw tantrums). At the end of the song, although it is clear that many of these questions cannot be answered, it is also clear that the singer has gained some kind of inner peace just from the act of wondering aloud. It is this inquisitive energy, movement, and exploration that is a lot of what I miss about Carbs.


Wad - Nothing Better (The Postal Service) - There was like a 3-week period near the beginning of the year when Wad would play this on iTunes all the time. She also made me sing the melody while she sang the countermelody once while waiting outside Annenberg. Anyway, ok, this song is about a failed relationship, which is not the happiest of topics. Listening to the melody and accompaniment, though, this is not a dirge of any kind - it's a fun, clear, bubbly tune that transitions and effervesces elegantly and effortlessly, which is a lot like Wad. And while I do miss the way Wad holds us unruly oddballs together so well, I also appreciate the delicate balance she strikes between her emotional/intuitive side and her levelheaded need for resolution/order, not to mention her intellectual pursuits. "Nothing Better"'s two protagonists embody these traits pretty well - one pleads for an emotionally fulfilling, unabashedly sentimental solution while the other stands with her feet firmly on the ground, refusing to allow for self-pity. Wad navigates and harmonizes (teehee) these two extremes with admirable finesse.



You knew this was coming.
Nougat - Finding Out True Love is Blind (Louis XIV) - Nougat, Nougat, Nougat. Behind those soft brown eyes and that self-conscious frown is someone who can channel sadness into fierceness and jump around the room to this song by Louis XIV. Once again, these lyrics do not fit perfectly in the most specific sense, being as they are about unmitigated lust for all kinds of women as well as a little sadomasochism, but this song has a joy and an assertive, here-I-am!-ness that Nougat has in spades, even if it seems hidden sometimes. Like the singer of this song, Nougat has a sharp eye and a biting wit tempered by an unremitting tendency to adore people once she accepts them. The true love Nougat harbors for those she calls her friends (i.e. us) blinds her to their little faults in the best possible way. She's an old soul, smart and discriminating, but also open to the wonders and the variety of life. So is "finding out true love is blind" a good or bad thing, in the end? Sometimes it seems like one, sometimes the other, but I think finally the question is moot. Finally, it's a way of being for Nougat that invests her deeply in all the world has to offer, for better or for worse, but never with boring results.