medellia of the gray skies

What are some things that are worth (and not worth) spending money on? 
Submitted by pinejar.

At this point, it's really difficult for me not to curl up into the "I'm just a poor American living in Europe and trying not to get shafted by my country's political failings i.e. the moves that culminated in the ever so rapidly sinking dollar" ball. I have to make myself spend money, because otherwise I will miss out on opportunities. I keep telling myself that I may never again have the freedom that I do right now, the freedom to travel, the freedom of a lack of real responsibilities. It is still so difficult to convince myself to spend money. Most of my purchases have been day-to-day food-type (read: alcohol) expenditures. I haven't spent that much in the way of clothing; 75€ for a pair of heels, two shirts, three dresses, four scarves, a skirt, and a thick winter coat (which alone was 35€) - I think I'm doing very well.

As such, I am spending - or perhaps forcing myself to spend - money on travel. Train tickets aren't actually expensive. For instance, my last exciting day trip was to Ravenna. I spent 10€ round trip on transportation and about 10€ on museums and the like. It doesn't sound bad until I remember that I spent about 20€ total for 4+ days with my cousins in Tuscany which included a trip to Cinque Terre that I curl back up into my cheap ball.

The good news is that I'm working and, as such, earning money in euros and not dollars. I just have to keep forcing myself to put things in perspective, but it's so hard when I have to look at my bank statement at the end of the day. That 70€ trip to IKEA? (Necessary evil, but I hated spending the money. Sheets, towels, ironing board, pillows, comforter - essentials, yes, but still terrible.) Definitely about $100. Aren't I just a jaded, cheap little American? For heaven's sake, I'm living in Europe and my rent (even with the € shaftage) is less than it was in the U.S. What's my problem?

Thanks, American foreign policy.

It seems weird that Vox is already asking Halloween questions. Maybe it's just me, but I've never started prepping for the holiday more than a week ahead of time, as far as I can remember. The great thing about Halloween is rushing around after school trying to pull together a costume.

I'm told that Halloween is beginning to be celebrated over here. As much as I'd like to stick around and see what the bars pull out for the holiday (Transilvania, anyone?), but the game plan right now is to wake up in Nice on the 31st. It's funny to be in Italy and realize that you are in fact having an on-going love affair with France.

On the travel front, I haven't been out of the country since I arrived, but I have managed to visit Liguria and Toscana, not to mention some minor exploration in Emilia-Romagna. Train travel is so much simpler than... well, California travel i.e. driving everywhere. I would really like to go back to Paris at some point, but I think that would involve getting more work first!

http://flickr.com/photos/underthewaves/

Read all about it! I'm in the process of getting some photos together, so I'll update when they're up.

So, some realizations over the past few weeks:

• Even if I regard this Pumpkins reunion nonsense to be illegitimate and Billy Corgan to be even more of an asshole than I previously thought because he thinks he qualifies as Zeitgeist, I can't stop myself from liking "Tarantula."
• I don't know where "Carry That Weight" ends and "The End" begins.
• I will never finish cleaning up my music, but that I've finished The Doors, The Beatles, Iron Maiden, and the entire Led Zeppelin corpus is an accomplishment. Radiohead's next, I fear.
• I have a real problem with the Giants using "Bulls on Parade" and "Calm Like a Bomb" for lets-get-fans-pumped music. It's just wrong.
• The real reason that I like baseball more than football is that baseball is the most superstitious sport on the planet... but Lucky Lou-ciano is 5-1 this season, a statistic rendered incredible by this: 34-45.
• I like "Black Mountain Side" better without "White Summer"
• "Who Do You Love?" was originally a Bo Diddley song. I've gained a new appreciation for George Thorogood's version, thought Quicksilver's is my favorite. Or rather, Quicksilver's Happy Trails is my favorite.
• My taste in music is steadily improving. I've been listening to gobs of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. With  a little Iron Butterfly thrown in for good measure.
• If time travel were possible, I would go to Monterey Pop. And for sure over Woodstock.
• Despite my best efforts, Janis Joplin (with or without Big Brother) and Bob Dylan will most likely never be listed among my favorite musicians. I can't get past the voices. And yet I love listening to Bruce Dickinson...
• I am the only person who still supports Barry Bonds whole-heartedly in my section.
• Though I love being right when everyone else is wrong, this Giambi thing doesn't sit well with me.
• Gustavo Santaolalla makes cool music and has a cool name. It's a good life.
• I didn't know that Noel Redding died in 2003 until Wikipedia told me so this morning. I have no idea why I overlooked it.
• Lewis Hamilton is my hero. It's such sweet vindication for McLaren to finally be winning for the first time since 1998. In other words, for the first time since Mika. Traitorous Ferrari racers don't really do much to boost a team...
  
• Maybe it's a good thing they're not racing Imola; it would be the 13th anniversary of Senna and that can't be a good thing.
  

Audio: Share a favorite song or album from your least favorite genre.
Submitted by emily sears.

Oh my goodness gracious, how me is this?

As badly as I want to say "Powerslave," Iron Maiden, we all know that to be false. I'm not sharing any audio because I am done with worrying about that all, but the first song that comes to mind is "Flood" by Jars of Clay. Maybe YouTube will be my friend..?

This summer is allegedly my chance to get my life cleaned up before I depart for the great unknown of Europe. (Which isn't really that unknown, but whatever. My mom is quite generally correct.) I've organized my desk, am in the process of re-organizing my closet, and generally doing well on the move back home. The one thing I can't get clean? My laptop.

Two summers ago, I bought my first computer... and by that, I mean that I paid for my own computer for the first time. 80 gigs of pure, empty goodness. Flash forward to three weeks ago when I hit capacity. To rectify the situation, I bought an external hard drive (again, so to speak. Being the cheap bastard I am, I bought an internal hard drive and an external case... and basically saved close to $90!). This baby is 160 gigs and is built to last. I love it.

One of the most pressing issues is my sprawling music collection, which is here, there, and everywhere. About 60% of it (30GB) was on my laptop and is now on the external drive. There are multiple copies, nasty versions which I ripped myself, and god-knows-what-else type of detritus (read: Quiet Riot and Britney Spears). It's going to be a long process, but I've been meaning to do a total clean-up of my music for about, oh, two years now; the thing is a long time comin'.

What I've learned thus far: "Misirlou" must be covered, "Hey Joe" really shouldn't be; iTunes minds the Bollocks, apparently; classical music is a bitch to organize when you've traditionally used composer names instead of performer names and haven't the faintest idea how to go back in the other direction; Missy Elliott is awesome to clean to, Madeleine Peyroux - not so much; Turkish pop is 100 times more amazing than I ever imagined it could be (Sarcastic or not? You make the call.); and, regretfully, that the Lord of the Rings soundtrack is so grave (in the Latin sense, not English) that it can cause display drivers to crap out.

Where do you go to get away from it all? 
Submitted by Hops.  

I honestly read that as "how do you get away with it all?" All what? The embezzlement? The two-timing? The shop-lifting of an occasional coconut here and there? Right off I think of the proper response: because I'm "dead sexy," in the words of Fat Bastard.

Because finals, thems fuck with your mind.

As y'all may have guessed, I tend to mark out my life by whatever music style or band has captured me at any given moment. I could do a timeline of my musical history, and it would most likely be vomit inducing. Some aspects are logical: I was the world's biggest future stoner in seventh grade; I listened to ska. Some are less: I liked history in fourth grade; I listened to West Coast gangsta rap.

I remarked to my high school history teacher that I had, of late, been reintroducing myself to metal and was perplexed by it. He goes, "well that's not weird. Oh wait. Dude. You're in college. Wait. That's weird. That's really weird. Something is not right with your college experience."

La Messe Noire

Well, I'm pleased to say that metal has met its superior (which makes my life even sader, I would say.) in one disgustingly morbid foray into classical pre-goth goth music. Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre" has been on repeat... along with my buddy Johann Sebastian's "Toccata und Fuge d-Moll" and Mussorgsky's "Иванова ночь на лысой горе." Because, logically, school is buckling down. The only place to go from metal is to things that actually evoke like skeletons and ghouls and shit. Riiight.

I must say, however, that I am rather pleased by my personal re-discovery of "Danse Macabre" because is a fantastically brilliant composition. The xylophone-bone thing was really right on target on so many levels, contemporaneous critics be damned.

Reasons to NOT update (yeah, I split that infinitive. I split that infinitive good.):

• your visa application needs to be in the mail in a few days
• you've just declared one major and are waiting to knock the other out
• your finals start within the week and you're not ready
  
• your LCD screen is in the process of crapping out
• you finally downloaded iTunes because you were given a gift certificate
• your bruises aren't healed and apparently your ankle is more injured than you thought
• you are lazy, uninspired, and dried up