My 2016 Favorites

Okay, so I'm aware that this is super anachronistic, but please just learn to deal with it, OK? OK.

October 2016

1) My Choker Necklace

In accordance with choker craze of 2016, I shelled out $25 for this piece of string with a stone attached to it. Was it objectively worth the price? Not sure. Was it subjectively worth the price? You bet it was. I just love this thing. It's pretty subtle so it works with a lot of outfits and with the two other necklaces that I wear 24/7, but since it's handmade, it's not like the other gazillion chokers out there in the world right now. I'm not big on falling for current trends, but if I do succumb to one, rest assured that I will find a way to put my own spin on it.



2) Theme Park by Scott A. Lukas

So this is actually a textbook for my icons class, but I just couldn't put it down, it's so interesting. It narrates the history of the theme park in general, talks about the beginnings of famous theme parks and contrasts them with amusement parks, and also analyzes the architecture and world-building of theme parks, among other things. Definitely worth reading.


3) Green Tea Lemonade

Part of my compensation as an RA is $500 dining dollars. Now, as I'm writing this, it's the 11th week of school, and I've managed to reduce that number to $39. I wonder if my obsession with green tea lemonade has anything to do with it. Like, before I came to USC, I didn't know that combining tea and lemonade was even a thing. And here I am now, getting three of these a day on occasion. Yeah, not sure how to feel about that.

4) The Darjeeling Limited (dir. Wes Anderson)

You know that I love Wes Anderson. You know I do, but usually, I prefer his style over the actual content of his films. The Darjeeling Limited, however, is not like the rest. It's funny and the soundtrack is spot on and I actually care about the characters. I'm telling you, it's one of his most underrated films.


5) Spirits by The Strumbrellas

Okay so I'm cheating a little bit here, because this song was more of an August favorite, but whatever. I still like it. It's special to me as this was the song I listened to on move-in day (aka one of the best days of my life, minus the part I spent crying behind a dumpster, but that's a different story).

6) CTCS 464, aka my Film/TV Genres: Shot on Location class.

This class is amazing. We had to analyze a Coldplay music video for our midterm. We are currently analyzing a The Sopranos episode for our group project. I'm going to be analyzing one of my all-time favorite films, Holy Motors, for my final paper. And on top of that, I'm learning so much about the use of space and locations, and watching amazing films, such as Rome, Open City, Double Indemnity, Safe, The Fall, District 9, She's Gotta Have It, and the aforementioned The Darjeeling Limited. We'll also be watching Avatar, which I'm less than thrilled about, since I took great pride in not having seen it, but I had predicted that this day would come eventually, so I've accepted it with quiet resignation. And, to be honest, my excuse for not having seen it had always been "they'll make me watch it in film school anyway" so there's that.

November 2016

1) Peppermint Mocha

At the risk of sounding basic, this thing is, like, totally amazing. It tastes like mint chocolate and, unlike most sweet Starbucks coffees, actually feels refreshing. And as an extra bonus, it reminds the people of Southern California that it's supposed to be winter right now.



2) X Ambassadors

So I shamelessly admit that I found a good portion of my favorite bands through auto-generated YouTube playlists, and X Ambassadors was no different. However, I fell absolutely in love with them over the past couple of months, and the next thing I knew was that I was performing with lead singer Sam Harris and drummer Adam Levin during our homecoming halftime show. And to prove that it happened, here's a video of it:

3) Thanksgiving Dinner

I hate this picture, but there's Alexis and me with President Nikias. LOL.

So, for some obscure reason, I was selected to sit with USC President Nikias during his annual Thanksgiving dinner, was chosen to be the subject of an article for USC News about said dinner, and was also asked to give an interview to KTLA about it. I'm not sure how all of this came about, but it resulted in a pretty eventful night during which a moderately creepy photographer followed me around and I got a true taste of what it's like to be a celebrity -- something that was definitely aided by the fancy name tag and the red carpet everywhere.
Also, if you're looking for the article, I wasn't too happy with it for a variety of reasons (names were misspelled and assumptions were made based on a clear racial bias), so I'm not going to link it here. If you're really interested, however, a quick Google search will do the job for you.



4) CORE 101, aka my Icons class

I didn't realize how much I actually learned from this class until it was over and I actually had the opportunity to apply all that we talked about. But that's more of a December things, so we're getting ahead of ourselves here. In November, however, I got to write a paper on why V-J Day in Times Square is an iconic photograph (one of my favorite assignments ever) while also learning about a variety of other things, such as how Helvetica was originally an anti-authoritarian font, and how Hello Kitty is actually not a cat, but a British schoolgirl. We also learned about Andy Warhol, which was so useful as I'd always had a love-hate relationship with Pop Art, mostly because I was desperate to love it, but at the same time failed to actually understand it. This class clarified so much and I really appreciated everything I had learned when I was on my trip to New York.

December 2016

1) California Adventure

Another reason that I loved my Icons class is that we took a field trip to Disneyland & California Adventure. Now, I'd been to Disneyland before and although I still enjoy it, I do believe that it gets less exciting with each visit (mostly because they focus on theming and narrative, not on thrill rides -- the things you learn!). California Adventure, on the other hand, was phenomenal. It was my first time there but it definitely won't be the last, because I only got to do four rides, and there are many many more out there. Also, World of Color is the best.



2) Love Don't Go by The Family Crest
(runner-up: People Say by Portugal.The Man)

This song is on the soundtrack of Sugar Mountain, a recently released independent film about two brothers who fake a disappearance on an Alaskan mountain. The film itself is, not gonna lie, pretty meh and structured weirdly, and the only reason I watched it was that the one and only Shane was one of the leads, but this song plays during the opening scene, and it's phenomenal. Portugal.The Man also features on the soundtrack a lot, and you can't really go wrong with that, can you? (Yeah, soundtrack and score are a solid 10/10, the rest...I guess it's worth a watch?)

3) New York City

I mean, do I really need to explain? If you haven't read my blog posts on it yet, you can do so here. I'm so in love with that city that I'm already planning my next visit and haven't stopped wearing my NYU sweater since (which is gross, I know, and I promise you I'm about to change).

4) My Astrobiology Professor

If you ever get the chance to take a class with dr. Ken Nealson, please do it. He is the best. He is one of the best people out there in his field, and he is so funny and engaging and excited about everything. Also, he wrote us a song. He wrote a song about the class and brought his banjo and sang it for us, and even got us donuts and everything. So yeah, if you want to hear the Lowdown and Irritating Melancholy Aggravating Life in the Universe Blues, sign up for CORE 103.

5) Adult Coloring Books

This is an odd one, because I've always hated coloring and I find it really pointless, as Chris from Skins perfectly sums up. However, my friend/fellow RA Trinity held a finals de-stress program with coloring books, and since it seemed like a perfect way to procrastinate, I decided to go for it. Now, it didn't exactly go as planned and it was counterproductive in the sense that I just kept coloring and coloring and I couldn't see the finish line, leaving me even more stressed out. However, if you're coloring just to procrastinate and have 24 hours to write a 20-page take home final, maybe you really should be freaking out. Anyway, I've found that just coloring for a few minutes every day really helps you clear your thoughts and just relax for a little bit.

6) Vlogmas

Not gonna lie, YouTube is my guilty pleasure and I absolutely love watching vlogs and Vlogmas videos. I watch mainly British YouTubers and I feel like I'm living vicariously through them during the month of December, especially since they remind me of the happy times when I lived in England.

New York City: Day 5

This was it. Our last day in New York City. And once again, we wasted half of it sleeping. There was change in the air though, and by this I mean literally in the air, as it turned out to be a lot warmer than it had been the previous days. It was almost bearable. And contrary to the rumors, it wasn’t even raining, so it was the perfect time to visit Washington Square Park and spend money at the NYU Bookstore on NYU merch that I would never even be able to wear at USC. Oh well. It’s no secret that I want to go to NYU for grad school, though, so you know what, I feel like I can get away with it. After months weeks hours just one hour of deliberation, I picked out a sweater and a magnet, both of which were surprisingly cheap, and we continued our journey to MoMA. Also, let me say, USC SCA is so much prettier and more collegiate looking than NYU Tisch. Now I get what people mean when they say NYU doesn’t have a campus.

Washington Square Park

When you're waiting for Selena Gomez on Waverly Pl, but she lets you down.

I'm a traitor.

On our way to MoMA, we happened to encounter one of the famous LOVE sculptures, and so naturally I had to stand in line to take a picture of it. Also, seriously, there was an actual line of people waiting to take selfies 🙄🙄. We also got lost once again, but this shouldn't be news to anyone.

But then, once at MoMA, something crazy happened. As I was waiting to check my coat, I heard a familiar voice. It couldn’t be, but it was. As a person who’s literally known for her anecdotes of her misfortunes, who’s famous for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I couldn’t possibly – for once – be at the right place AND at the right time. But alas, it was true. After checking my coat, right in front of me, it was her. In front of me was standing the one and only Patti Smith*. Reading a poem casually for a crowd that had assembled around her and with a guitar placed next to her, she was holding what later turned out to be a surprise performance. I mean, it couldn't have been that much of a surprise, since The New York Times was covering it. But there were all these people, gathered around her and listening attentively, silently absorbing her words. And me? Nah, I was high-key fangirling. I was crying. I’d seen Patti before, last January at a concert at The Wiltern. She was far away and the ticket was expensive and it was a weird day anyway, but I though it would be my only chance to see her. But now, here she was, right in front of me, just like that.

Yet we only had a limited time at MoMA, so even though it broke my heart into ten million pieces, I couldn’t stay for the entire performance. After all, I had an entire museum to see, and I didn’t want to skip any of it, because let me tell you, MoMA is AMAZING. It’s probably my favorite museum ever. Especially the 3^rd and 4^th floors. They have the soup cans. They have the gold Marilyn Monroe print. They have Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Their 60s section is the best exhibit you’ll ever see. It’s perfect. And if you’re one of those people who’s into them consumer goods, their gift shop will have you shell out some serious money. Not that I spent like over $40 on a single print or anything… But seriously, museum gift shops have the most adorable but useless shit. Like the New York skyline as page markers. Or a magnetic wishbone. Who even needs any of these things?

Fun fact: In her memoir Just Kids, Patti said that she didn't like Andy Warhol, because she "preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

Patti "hated the soup and felt little for the can." Yet here she was, two floors below Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup Cans. However, the very fact that Warhol's subject was something of his own time made it transformative. He took the world as it was and transfigured it into art that represented the world as it was, something nobody had done before. In this sense, therefore, he did mirror his own time, but he transformed it as well. Can you tell I just wrote a final on Andy Warhol?

A reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night. "The camera, by making the work of art transmittable, has multiplied its possible meanings and destroyed its unique original meaning. [...] The uniqueness of the original now lies in it being the original of the reproduction." ~John Berger, Ways of Seeing

*Side note: I feel a little weird taking photos at museums. I can't explain it that well (if you follow the link above, you might get it a little better), but essentially, you go to museums for a reason. To see original works of art. By taking photos, I'm sort of defeating the purpose of going to a museum by showing you what's there. Photos, however, are only reproductions that can never do the originals justice, and are only destroying the uniqueness of these works. So yeah, go to museums, side note over.*

I would have loved to stay at MoMA for the rest of the day, but we had tickets to the Natural History Museum, and we weren’t going to let those go to waste. Also, Holden loved that museum, and after all, he said that his favorite thing about the museum was that nothing changed there and based on that, the museum I was going to see would be the exact same museum that he saw in the 1940s. (I mean I know he didn’t really see it, because he doesn’t exist and all, but you know what I mean. “I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.” (page 110))

At the Natural History Museum, we were greeted by two bushes shaped like dinosaurs holding wreaths (I bet those weren’t around in the 40s. Holden would have thought they’re phony) and a long af line that we spent over half an hour in. By the time we got inside and made an unsuccessful attempt to check in our coats, it was time for our dark universe planetarium show, which was amazing, except once again, I fell asleep. It was a 25-minute show, and I fell asleep. I think I have a problem. The rest of the night was a frantic attempt to get through the planetary science section and then try to see everything else that Holden talked about, because, y’know, a 65-year-old book about a teenager who thinks everything is phony should be your ultimate museum guide. Needless to say, this attempt quickly failed, so somehow I once again ended up being a victim of consumer culture and browsing the Christmas tree decorations in the museum shop. Also, I’m so glad that I don’t have a Christmas tree (the tiny one from Target that looks like a copper toilet brush does not count), because the amount of adorable Christmas tree ornaments I saw during these five days is insane. There was a jellyfish ornament that I almost couldn’t resist, though (along with that mini-Guggenheim one I saw the previous day).

Phony dinosaurs.

"The best thing, though, at that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. [...] Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you." ~Holden Caulfield, obviously

After the museum closed, we went back to Times Square to do some last-minute souvenir shopping (hint: Hershey’s chocolate was purchased. And a Hershey’s Christmas tree ornament was also purchased, although by Joanna. Also, I may or may not have already have eaten all that chocolate). Then, once we were out of money and had realized it had gotten cold again, we I decided to ignore both of these facts and head over to the Flatiron Building. While this might not have been an objectively smart idea, it was worth it, because you have to see that building up close. Just trust me. The last thing we did in New York was get dinner at Joe’s Pizza, recommended by my co-RA Maddie, which – again – did not disappoint. It turned out to be a pretty famous place, so I’m upset I’d never heard of it before, and it was also right next to NYU dorms, which made NYU even more appealing to me. Now I’m even more serious about going there for grad school.

More Hershey's lol. I don't even like Hershey's tbh.

Sadly, however, Joe’s Pizza marked the end of these beautiful five (4 ½) days we got to spend in New York City. It was a melancholy subway ride back to Carroll Gardens, where we packed our stuff, took a quick nap, took one last glimpse at the New York City skyline, and called an Uber to the airport, once again, at 3 am. As you can assume, we were done with shuttles for good.

Our trip home was its own adventure, with us frantically running across the Chicago airport during our 40-minute layover and me leaving my phone in my check-in suitcase, but that is a story for another time.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our NYC adventures. Stay tuned for more posts.

*If you, at this point, don’t know how obsessed I am with Patti Smith, shame on you.

New York City: Day 3

Me, the night before: “Let’s wake up early tomorrow! We should be up by 8:30.”

Me at 8:30 am: “Lol jk.”

Me at 9:00 am: “F#%@ this, I’m getting up. Joanna?”

Joanna at 9:00 am: “Nah.”

Joanna at 9:40 am: “OK, I’m ready.”

Me at 9:40 am: “OK, let me finish my make-up so that I can look pretty on pictures.” (like that’s ever gonna happen)

Both of us at 12 pm, in the line for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty: “We should have left earlier.”

But yeah, apart from the fact that we wasted half of our day sleeping, we (I?) had a pretty good time! We started the day off at Shake Shack, which is just as amazing as people describe it to be, then headed straight to Battery Park to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I underestimated how long the line would be at this point, so we got there pretty late, but we still got to walk around the island, though Joanna was really cold, so we ended up spending an unnecessarily long time at the gift shop, in the company of a creepy audio-animatronic figure of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (OK, technically that term is only meant to be used for Disney figures, but whatever). Also, apparently they now sell Barbie dolls dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and I was low-key inclined to buy one for 9-year-old me. That, and the M&M’s dispenser that was essentially the Green M&M dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

A monument, a gateway, an icon, and a symbol of acceptance (as described by my professor). 🇺🇸 🗽 💕

Because you can't have enough skyline photos.

LOL

When consumer culture is taking it too far// I wish I was still 9.

Once we were done staring at the Statue of Liberty, we took the ferry back to Battery Park, got lost three times because I can’t read maps, and headed to the Skyscraper Museum, a tiny hole-in-the-wall museum nearby that I would 10/10 recommend. Admission is $2.50 if you’re a student and you can learn so much about the history of skyscrapers and the NYC skyline. But maybe it’s just me who gets enthusiastic about skyscrapers, idk. It was also in the restroom of this museum that I discovered that my money transfer had come through (I was at an all-time low of $25), though by the end of this trip, I had convinced myself that not having money was a blessing in disguise.

It’s a one floor museum, so we were done pretty quickly, and decided to take the subway to Central Park to look for the ducks, because The Catcher in the Rye, obviously. Except we weren’t exactly sure where we were going, and it’s not like we had the time and and willpower to walk around the entire park, so we somehow ended up at the reservoir. Now, there are two things you need to know about the reservoir: 1) it’s huuuuge 2) there are no f#@$!ing ducks there. It was at this point, therefore, that I had the marvelous idea of crossing the park to find the lake (“you know, the one with the little bridge”). So I got out Google Maps, and we embarked on our quest to locate this wonderful Lake™, completely ignoring the fact that it was already getting dark. Now, the one thing they tell you about Central Park it's that not safe to be there at night, but I figured that since we already live in South LA, we have what it takes to survive in the wilderness. Okay, those weren't my thoughts at all when crossing a totally empty park in the dark, but you get my point. The mission was a success in the sense that we found the lake, but it was empty with no sign of ducks. 

Was Holden right? Are the ducks gone over the winter? Of course not! It just turns out that I’m a failure of a person, and even though I’ve read that book at least six times, I failed to notice that he wasn’t talking about the lake, but about the lagoon at Central Park South, which does indeed have ducks, as well as a little bridge I was obsessing over. Sorry Holden. But he was at least right about one thing: the lake was indeed “partly frozen and partly not frozen,” which apparently represents the transition between childhood and adulthood in the book. The things ya learn from SparkNotes, people.

No ducks at the reservoir.

And no ducks on the lake.

But yeah, after this failed venture, we decided to cross Central Park once again and head to the Met. There, I got to see the modern art exhibit, the mummies, and the Costume Center, which is AMAZING. It’s hidden on the lower level, but seriously, if you’re ever there, make sure to check it out. There was also something else I liked a lot, but I can’t seem to remember it, so it couldn’t have been that great (lol).

After the Met, we went to Panera Bread, where I had their amazing tuna salad sandwich (10/10 would recommend).

This was also the day that Manisha disappeared from our apartment, taking the shower mat and our sense of safety with her, as we seriously began thinking that she had been evicted. Scary things, people. But the old man was gone as well, so at least we had the entire apartment to ourselves.

Click here for day four.