Change of Location!!

CULTURE BLOG IS MOVING!

THE OCTOBER CULTURE BLOG IS UP!

culturalweekness.tumblr.com

real life: culture.week.IX

Once upon a time, a young, naive college sophomore was preparing to move into a real house and become a big-girl with big-girl responsibilities. Her best friend (pictured above) didn't particularly care. And that was okay.


rosie, best friend of emily, has also yet to see oklahoma but is also playing real life in nac. we're awesome adults. anna says sarah and i are apparently soulmates and i can't wait for rosie and she to come visit oklahoma!

so we have a theme in our house. i bet you can't guess what it is!

This is my mother: stained-glass artist, electrician, social worker, and now ventilation critic and coordinator. The All-American Mom, everybody.
you don't want to see the picture of what the vent looked like it before all-american mom took hold of the reins, believe me.

regardless of the vents, however, we now have our beautiful three bedroom, one bath, full kitchen, washer and dryer, front porch and back yard house! it's home.

We even have a breakfast nook! Where we drink lots of coffee, eat raisin bran, and listen to NPR every morning!

And this is my father: he courageously ventured into our basement, which is possibly the creepiest place in Norman. There may or may not be a dead body in the abandoned cooler.

our fridge smelled terrible so i covered it in baking soda and anna washed it out. but the remains of the cleaning were all over the place. this sweeping looks similar to what sweeping at camp looked like.

We have only been here 2 weeks and already I feel like I am always cleaning up after her...

our third roommate? he's good for swatting flies!
Explanation: we have no third roommate. This is just Chris. He quasi-lives here, but honestly, who's surprised?

Daddy J., Little J., and Littler J. (as anna so lovingly called us) our living room is the perfect family setting.

Mama J. was wandering around somewhere at this point. Note: she says "fabulous" even more than Emily does. If you can believe it!

we make really good legitimate dinners in our house. this was the first dinner: lemon pepper chicken, with peas, and salad. (disclaimer: splotches on salmon colored jeans is an attempt to remove olive oil before it sets in)
See that face? this is what domestication does to women. Tragique.

Love from Norman!

camp is still the ultimate culture: culture.week.VIII

For session break, Anna, Emily, Lennon, Steven "Best Friend" Menendez, Brian Bush, Will Andrews, Mike "Delicious" DeNoia, Rachel Trammell, and Chelsea Dougherty traversed the North Carolina mountains to Brevard to visit the Fearheiley house.

This picture is just awesome. That bench was sketchy business.

ok. we are so hardcore (especially mike d.) and we love the outdoors so much that we went hiking on our time off. we hiked around empty lakes and through private property. we also went canoeing and i felt nervous that we were going to tip over but it was really fabulous.

This is when Emily and I went to downtown Brevard on our day off...Brevard is the only place in America where white squirrels can be found! Plus, it has an old-fashioned soda fountain, which is the subject of the above photo.

My beautiful cabin, Rainbow, went camping at the Shelter! These are two of my hardcore co-counselors, Lennon and Elisabeth. Just look at them rock those backpacks.

Camp Christmas is the best Christmas.

rachel quinby and i went on an adventure tubing in a national forest. and we passed ghost town. it's an amusement park on top of a mountain. woah. and you take a cable car to the top of the mountain. double woah.
I'll let Emily explain this.
dizzy sticks. look at the top of the stick you are holding over your head while you spin around fifteen times then throw the stick and jump over. proceed to fall over because you are so dizzy and laughing so hard.

We will be playing this at our house parties, so Norman: be ready! Love from North Carolina!

culture.week VII: camp is the ultimate culture

so north carolina is pretty much the prettiest place ever. during backpacking staff training we camped overnight a couple of nights, once by this beautiful, but loud, waterfall! i still am shocked when i look down the road and see mountains and i've been here for four weeks!
This is a fantastically cultured restaurant in Asheville called Mayfel's, which is decorated eccentrically and features New Orleans cuisine.
we got up close and personal with the asheville hippies our first friday night off. this is the drum circle and people come to drum and to dance until the popo shut them down at ten. it was so much fun!

I love hippies.
We went to the fair outside the Asheville Mall! So excellent!
this is intense culture. i got initiated into a tribe the first week of camp. as you can see, i got covered in paint. and then i had to sleep like this. but i am a proud IROQUOIS!

Seminoles are better!
how much is that doggy in the window? he was just sitting, watching all the world of asheville go by.
Gross. But the Diet Coke was good. As are the T-Pain glasses.
christmas socks!
love from camp!

More from camp in July!!

woah: culture.week. VI

i love caf nights! they just make everyone so happy. it's culture, you know, getting together with your friends and laughing and catching up and taking a break from the super busy week.

...Especially because all of these OLD people were here! The top picture contains those lovely beauties Paige, Hannah.Rose.Broom, Emily, Kyle Curry, Nick Bartell, Isaiah, and Chris Hamburger. Sitting next to me in the bottom picture are Curry and Anne, and I must say, they were the best dinnermates I could have asked for.

never dyed hair before = culture. yes. it's red. woah.

Now THIS was some legitimate culture. Our dear friend Meghan is in the OU Civic Orchestra this semester, and their spring concert included the WORLD PREMIERE of a piece called "Concerto for Piano, Rock Band, and Orchestra." It was a phenomenal experience, and to top it off, they ended the concert with one of my favorite pieces: Shostakovich 5! (mvmt IV), Give Stalin a piece of your mind, Shosty.

BANQUET! we ate and danced and sang (some of us louder than others). and we heard the list of shows for next year season. get excited for all those women roles!

...this is what also takes place at banquet: a little crazy karaoke and a lot of crazy dancing actors.

who would really want to come across this real life creature in real life? i mean, really.

We paid a visit to the Natural History Museum (which by the way, is right on campus and free for students -- go there!). It was really fascinating. For example, did you know that hippos are thought to be the closest living relatives to present-day whales? 

Brandon was so thrilled about the museum. We all were, of course. But especially Brandon.
in all the cases there were various artifacts from various cultures. and my favorite were the asian masks. they were freaking fabulous. huge teeth and eyes. full of life and character.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real face of swine flu. Here we have a virus, in large-statue form.

this is from the singing for the stage recital. our very own kourtney k sang. she looked fierce sounded fierce basically breathed fierce. i really enjoyed hearing all these actors who sing. the song choices were lovely from well-known musical theatre songs, yes wicked made it's appearance, to not so well-known things, like is there really life after high school.

Here it is, my people...A Midsummer Night's Dream. So much culture in a two-hour span of time. You've got your Shakespeare culture, you've got your New York club culture...it was an evening of theatre to talk about, that's for sure. Here are come cast and crew folk backstage: me, Emily, Kelly, Madison, Kourtney Kae, Curry, and Brandon.

Next Culture...straight from North Carolina!

culture.week V: "oh"

if we could, we would major in CREATIVITY!

Inspired by our dear friend Sean Kelly's obsession with The Planet Earth, we decided to begin our fifth Culture Week with a free showing of The Planet Earth (along with the lovely Kourtney Kae!). We learned about the brilliant mating dances of tropical birds, the absurdity of female Himalayan donkeys, and the tense atmosphere of an African watering hole.


this is our easter picture! i was upset that we didn't get to take pictures in the bluebonnets but it worked out alright. anna and hannah.rose.broom and i went to church with the methodists! they had a beautiful brass quintet and we sang wonderful easter hymns and the hallelujah chorus. it was warm and bright in church even though outside was rainy...how does that always happen on easter?

Here we are at Victoria's Pasta Shop, the lovely little Italian restaurant on Campus Corner, where we feasted on all manner of pasta delights. (I'm not in the picture because I am the martyr who is taking it.) Trivial Pursuit and Oreo cheesecake completed our Mediterranean voyage.

it was irish-american food night at the caf! now THAT is culture. i had the boilie stuffed chicken with goat cheese...i tried it...and i had these irish nachos. i wondered how that could be irish but these were legit. corned beef and cabbage and bacon with cheese on top of potatoes. nothing is more irish than potatoes.

...I thought you hate potatoes...
they were fried potatoes. that solves all problems.

And this, my friends, is authenic Irish cabbage. Who knew cabbage could be so cultured?
i did. because every st patrick's day rosie's dad makes corned beef and cabbage. because they like the irish. and culture. and rosie's dad just likes to cook.

From the left: Chris Fitzer, Emily, Reed (nice face), Lindsey Ruta, Hannah Barnes, Sean Kelly, Carolyn, Katie Lloyd, Kourtney Kae, Jenava, Isaiah, Brandon (Britney) Simmons, Anna (that's me), Kevy, and the birthday girl, Amy Oxley!
we had sushi! how cultured. we seem to consume a lot of food during culture week.

I love edamame almost as much as I love Amy Oxley, so I was a very happy camper.

this play changed my life. the dada play! all about the dada art movement and all its leaders. the new play was produced as a play within a play with a flashback. woah. i especially loved the random musical number in the first act. way to kickline doll faces.

The Dada Play was truly an inspiration! Dadaism is so anti-everything, and it fascinates the heck out of me! I walked home from the play in the beautiful, sunshiny weather and just felt so free and cultured. Success!

we were so inspired by the dada play to go out and create art that we started our own movement. "oh." say it any way you want and that is how it's supposed to be said.

Everyone congratulate Emily on this great facial expression. It's very "O".

This is my darling roommate, Meghan, reacting to the art movement. She was much more enthralled by American Idol at the time, I'm sure.

chris is deep in conversation about "oh." creating art is a very serious business.

Chris tried to define "O" and...it really just didn't make sense at all. At least he was serious about it.

Here I am "studying" for my "music test"...what that really translates to is "getting very distracted and creating "O" art instead." By the way, I got 100% on that music test. Ha!

in other, unpictured, culture news: i went to dallas for the weekend and saw the seniors last production of the year at arts magnet. ah! wilderness was wonderful and i was really so proud of my boys, just like mrs. albitz said i would be.

i also saw murder on the nile! a thrilling agatha christie murder mystery. i really apprieciated the multiple deaths and the increadibly loud gunshots. who knew blanks could be so loud?

after the show my parents and i went to eat at east wind, yes another asian dining experience. as we were eating i proclaimed something other about my old english teacher, ms. deore the crazy buddhist! just as our waiter was refilling my water glass. needless to say i got a look from him and from the rest of the patrons. my parents, however were falling out of their chairs with laughter. thanks guys.

yay culture!

In my other, much less Texan, much better-in-general-but-still-unpictured cultural news, Hannah.Rose.Broom and I were just wandering around Norman one evening and we heard this heavenly music wafting out of Cafe Plaid. We entered and were immediately greeted by a fantastic jazz trio/quartet! These guys had on incredible Italian shoes, and Hannah.Rose.Broom and I competed to see who could make the most eye contact with the guitarist (because we are girls, after all). But in the end, it was all about the music...

Up Next...the last Culture Week in Norman before we depart for a summer in North Carolina!

woah north carolina.

culture.week IV: a new york minute

the city never sleeps...and neither do we!

So, there comes a time when you can't stand flat ground and fields and classes anymore, and you have to leave Oklahoma for a while. For something bigger, better, and brighter. With the assistance of my roommate, Meghan, and her spaceship stick-shift, Emily and I began our journey to New York City...culture, here we come.
the fact that we decided to go to the big apple was really quite random. i mean, we couldn't go to london because that just wasn't practical. so we booked flights and proceeded to spend an exorbitant amount of money. culture is a beautiful thing.

to lessen our spending we decided to book a hostel. i know all of your jaws just dropped. but since i had such a successful experience with hostels in europe i thought, sure, why not try it in the good ole us of a. luckily our stay at the candy hostel...or the widget hostel...they were interconnected so i'm not sure which one we actually were in...was nice and...safe (note the three locks on our door)

It was also tiny. In our room, we had: bunk beds, a trash can, a television, a shelf, a mirror, a window, and one wall painted a fierce shade of orchid. And our bags barely fit. Score!

i love chocolate croissants! j'adore les croissants du chocolat! and this lovely snack came from our favorite late night eatery - the europan cafe! brilliant. we ate here every day. sometimes twice.
Best bagel of my life. Twice.

This sculpture reminds me of something my mother would want to put in our house. Anyone who knows my mother or has been to my house will probably agree.

ahhhh matisse. his are the only still life paintings i like. they just brighten my day.
Matisse was a little bit of a lunatic. He painted in practically every genre ever. But he and I are old chums, so regardless of what he paints, I still think it's marvelous.

ugolino. he's trying not to eat his children who are offering themselves up as sustenance. IT'S MARBLE. that's all.
Eating one's children is not at all cool.

And here we are in the Temple of Dendur, which was transported all the way from Egypt to be featured in your friendly neighborhood Metropolitan Museum of Art.
i like egyptians.

after our run through the theatre district searching for a box office that would sell us student rush tickets and being utterly unsuccessful, we managed to purchase tkts tickets to august: osage county (a pretty penny, it was) but it was worth it. i mean, there is a freaking three story house onstage. and then there's the acting!

I mean, it was mediocre...(that's me lying.) It was...yeah...that's me speechless. Brandon was NOT lying!

This is the fantastic folksy-South-American-jazz ensemble we saw in Times Square.

after august, i only had one request. that we see hair. of course it's sold out. of course tkts tickets are like a bazillion dollars. of course they're holding a raffle for cheap tickets. of course emily never wins raffles.

but guess what!

I WON! woooo!

hair completes my life.
I got made fun of and petted and sung to by these people! They just ran by me, dishing out flowers and whatnot like we were all back in the 70s being flower children together! Plus, Gavin Creel grabbed our hands...and now THAT was excellent as well. Basically, my mother would have been proud.

and the sun shines way in!

we touched gavin creel!!!

And Patrick the cool kid from Boston was having the time of his life as well. Cheers, Patrick! So good to meet you slash hang out with you in New York slash try in vain to find jazz in Harlem with you!

there is art all over the city. this giant chess board towers over benches and tables welcoming community games in the financial district. anna and i had to take a sit and regroup after our window shopping stroll down fifth avenue.
And do our New York Times crossword.

After a confusing Subway ride, a DISASTROUS Chinatown bathroom, and talking ourselves out of some fantastic sunglasses, we arrived in Little Italy. Sadly, the whole district is being slowly overrun by Chinatown, but this little restaurant is still alive and well. I had Penne Arrabiato, which means "angry pasta," and boy...it was pissed.
and when anna says disastrous she means awful! i mean, of course we should have known what we were walking into - a public restroom in the burger king in chinatown. besides the fact that we had to pay (this is not europe, folks) and besides the fact that it was a public toilet (already a bad sign) the ceilings were five feet high. i mean, i'm five feet!
It really sucks to be a five foot nine person trying to use a five foot bathroom covered in Chinatown slop. Never again.

the schubert theater is the new home to noel coward's blithe spirit. a delightfully charming british comedy starring angela lansbury! even at eighty-something she still plays a fabulous crazy psychic!

we were there on opening night!
The set fell apart at the end...on purpose. As in...fell. apart. completely. Brilliant. And we couldn't get a picture with Brandon in it (he couldn't handle the paparazzi), but he was totally there with us!

And thus, we left New York City on a mild Monday. It was a pretty crazy 2 and a half days, but there was so much culture to be had!
talk about a whirlwind vacation! it was utterly exhausting and utterly fabulous!

on one other note...culture week started in norman and consisted of the incredible thirty second plays. pretty sure i haven't laughed that hard in my whole life. thank you for the bubbles!

Until April....stay cultured!