persis brooks

my new favorite set of lyrics...ever.

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:06:40 -0400

“See I decieve you with my intergalactic ether

I sing just like Aretha, so respect me like I’m Caesar

I kick it like Adidas, flowin’ sticky like adhesive

Be cautious, ‘cause what I be on’ll leave you with amnesia.”

-B.O.B., Magic

I enjoy a rapper who can include lines like “intergalactic ether” and “sticky like adhesive.”

akjshfkjashjskdarg.

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:44:14 -0400

the fact that i got only 3 hours of sleep last night is catching up with me.

i’m trying to pack everything i’ll need for 2 weeks and clean up the apartment. i’m losing steam.

good things: i’ve packed most of the clothes i’m taking, the fridge has been emptied and cleaned, the floors have been vacuumed, roach traps have been set up (icky icky icky) and i’ve taken out 3 bags of trash so far.

bad things: i have 2 bags packed - bolt bus says only one. i have clothes strewn across the couch, pretty much anything that isn’t clothing isn’t packed and i’m hungry and sleepy.

bad planning. oh, well. that’s what the bus is for: sleeping.

Video

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:09:34 -0400

the oregon trail: the movie trailer

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:35:20 -0400

the oregon trail: the movie trailer

casting the song of the lioness quartet

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:10:10 -0400

i loved these books when i was younger. hell, i still love these books. and this is great casting.

crackly:

Read More

this disturbed me… and yet, i couldn’t look away.

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:03:02 -0400

this disturbed me… and yet, i couldn’t look away.

awesomeness.

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:59:22 -0400

who has a ton of british chocolate, a newly tailored dress, and a sonic screwdriver toy? oh, that’d be me. booyah. (thank you parents.)

also an apartment to myself. which is slightly less awesome in a way, because it’s lonely and quiet. so visit me, people! i’ve got 2 empty bedrooms and a couch. (though i’ve really only got permission to use one bedroom and the couch, but still.)

life lessons: the dell'arte opera ensemble edition

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:30:38 -0400

- what a largo is. (sort of… i’m still unclear on that, actually.)

- the history of “le nozze di figaro”.

- opera can definitely get stuck in your head, but it’s never the part that you like.

- newspaper cleans mirror without streaking. (good to know.)

- regardless of medium (dance, musicals, plays, opera), performers have trouble with reading signs.

- i am intensely out of shape. again. (something i always forget until it’s time to heft a light one handed up a ladder…)

- i really like lists. (and people like that i make lists, even if they don’t care about the list itself.)

- directors really like it when you show up early and start cleaning things. (whether or not it’s really necessary.)

- bargaining is not as scary as i once thought. (i bought a ring for the opera for $10. the original price the guy gave me was $30. booyah.)

- bruises are confusing. (if i bruised both of my legs at the exact same time, then why is the right leg bruise a different color from the left?)

- people always leave the strangest things in dressing rooms. and they stay there for months between productions. (things we found today: a calligraphy kit, a note to “queen gertrude”, a script labeled “DO NOT MOVE”, an almond, a blackberry battery, and 2 spoons.)

- i could have a future as a maid. or focusing projectors. one of the two.

camp is following me (and other stuff, too)

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:40:34 -0400

the other night, i was coming back from rehearsal. as i’m walking down my block, i hear my name. and all of a sudden, there’s mike stanton.

today i got an hilarious voicemail from chelsea and margo.

and then i hung lights all morning with a guy who knows someone who works with jeff at queens college.

….i’m very tired. and dusty, and sweaty, and a little bit scratched and bruised. gotta love theater.

things i've been up to lately (in no particular order)

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:00:34 -0400

- went to long beach with livia

- unclogged the shower drain (now the shower doesn’t start flooding whenever you turn it on!)

- painted my toenails

- baked banana bread

- baked a pie

- went to rehearsals for the dell’arte opera ensemble’s production of “the marriage of figaro”

today i went for a walk, and i saw the thompkins square park...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:15:03 -0400

today's adventure!

how i really feel about the adventure...

today i went for a walk, and i saw the thompkins square park greenmarket. i made some impulse buys. a pound of rhubarb, garlic scapes, and some yellow squash (the only really sensible thing on this list).

i guess i’m making pie? i’m really not sure what i’m doing with the garlic scapes, but i’ll figure it out. probably pesto?

numbers

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:22:13 -0400

normally, when i tell people about kenyon i mention the size of the town. or rather, the village. i say, “2,000 people, counting students.” i just checked. no, there’s actually less than 2,000 people. it’s closer to 1,870, 1,640 of whom are kenyon students. wow. it still sort of shocks me that i chose such completely different colleges and places. just to break it down:

pop. of gambier: ~1,870

pop. of mt. vernon, oh (the “city” down the hill and the county seat of knox county): 14,375

for comparison, pop. of lima, oh (the “city” that glee is set in, and county seat of allen county): 40,081

kenyon undergrads: 1,640

pop. baltimore city: 637,418

pop. baltimore metro area: ~2.7 million

students at bryn mawr (counting little school): 784

girls in my graduating class: 77 or so? 78?

girls in my kindergarten class: ~24, i think

total tri-school students: 2,471 (random fact: wikipedia classifies bryn mawr’s campus as urban, while rpcs and gilman are suburban. what?)

barnard undergrads: 2,356

cc/seas/gs undergrads: 6,618

so, “columbia university” undergrads: 8,974

pop. manhattan: ~1,634,795

pop. nyc: ~8.3 million +

yeah. i don’t get it. i guess the closest thing to it is…barnard is about the same size as the tri-school community? but that still doesn’t make sense, because no matter how much people argue about it, barnard doesn’t stand alone. so comparing barnard’s enrollment to anything is pretty irrelevant.

i’ve thought about it for a bit. i realized that as long as i’m happy, it doesn’t really matter how i chose to get here. the past and my experiences clearly matter, but i’m happy now, so….why should i be thinking about this? answer: clearly i shouldn’t.

rainbow bacon!

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:55:59 -0400

rainbow bacon!

yesterday...

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:34:52 -0400

i had an adventure.

i got lost. i went up to 181st for a meeting, and got super duper lost. i wandered around in circles. i wandered up and down hills so steep they belong in san francisco. i wandered into a rite aid and found prices cheaper than they are in baltimore on some items. and then i gave up on ever making it to my meeting and got back on the train.

while on the train, i decided, “to hell with it! i don’t want to just go back to the apartment. and the a/c on this train is nice. and you know what? the staten island ferry is free and runs 24 hours a day. i’m gonna do that!”

so i did. i was incredibly touristy, and it was grand.

then i went to the bathroom and missed the ferry back.

so i hung out on staten island for half an hour while i waited for the next one. got some soup from au bon pain. saw some fireworks. looked at the fish tanks. learned a little bit about staten island from the brochures. then i went back to manhattan.

as i was getting on the train, i saw a girl with a bag that said buck’s rock and subsequently met an entire family of buck’s rockers. mom, kids, uncle, everybody.

then i went home. the end.

ups and downs

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:33:27 -0400

frustrations:

- baltimore city. why is it so annoying to get out of jury duty? i don’t live there anymore, technically. sort of. but i’m not registered to vote in new york, i don’t receive utilities bills in new york, and i don’t have a new york driver’s license. (although i’m wondering what will happen when my license expires in november…) i do receive bank statements in new york, and i’m hoping that’s enough.

- roommates.

a) there are 5 of us living here now.

b) the dishwasher! it exists! why oh why do you pile dishes in the sink? they smell and attract bugs and it’s icky. the dishwasher is mere inches away. all you have to do is open it and drop your dirty dishes in! yes, it’s even dirty right now! because guess what? i emptied it! like i always do! i also cleaned the toilet, scrubbed the shower, bought paper towels, toilet paper, a daily shower cleaning spray, and ran the dishwasher. oh, and when dishes came out not quite clean? i hand washed those! and those dishes sitting in the sink? do you ever wonder how the sink is mysteriously empty when you come home? that’s me, putting your dishes in the dishwasher or maybe even hand washing them.

i admit, i left a mess on the 4th of july. and i massively appreciate whoever cleaned it up. i really, really do. i also thank the roommate who took out the trash on her own the other morning, it’s not easy or fun. i know, i’ve done it. i also dealt with the recycling.

i know i must have habits that annoy you all, but i’m working on them. (i’m also trying to compensate, i suppose, by cleaning.)

i know i’m the only unemployed/unoccupied resident right now. but that won’t last! in fact, i have a babysitting job tonight and the first table read for an opera company tomorrow. right now, i can clean the apartment. i have the time. but what happens when i don’t? is this place going to turn into a total pig sty? because i can clean up after myself, but there is just no way i’m going to come home from a day of rehearsal and pick up after you. at least, not quietly.

- this heat. it is way too hot.

- people eating each other’s food without asking.

positive things:

- earlier this week i made a melon granita. it’s pretty great. i just took all the leftover melon balls from the 4th of july, put them in the blender with some simple syrup and lime juice, pureed the hell out of them, and froze the liquid. now we have awesome pink, melon-y, sweet ice sitting in the freezer, waiting to be scraped up by whoever wants to be cold.

- i have a babysitting job tonight with kids i adore.

- after the babysitting job, i’m going to go stare at the cake case at westside. and totally buy something.

- i start work with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble tomorrow. hurray! a) it’s theater, and i love theater, b) it gets me out of the house! (which is pretty great. i need a life outside this apartment and cleaning it, or i’m going to snap. seriously. i was considering passive agressive post it notes the other day.)

- it should be getting cooler soon. supposedly.

- the next time i see livia, i can get my shirt, flip flops and crossword puzzles back! (you have no idea how exciting this is!)

i should not be allowed near the internet...

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:10:37 -0400

because now i want to try to make cheese, soup, and fry things. i want to bake cakes, make caramels, and go to almost every restaurant in the city. i want to buy a hand mixer and a thermometer and a cuisinart

i could make soup. but it’s too hot out.

i’ll settle for a thermometer.

umm….yes. i don’t know why, but i feel the urge to...

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:28:40 -0400

umm….yes. i don’t know why, but i feel the urge to share this.

today...

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:38:17 -0400

- i cleaned the shower. it was disgusting - so much mildew and hair and ick. it’s cleaner now, but i’m not sure that shower will ever be 100% clean again. could my day get any more disgusting? (answer: yes.)

- a bird pooped on my foot. i was wearing sandals. ew, ew, ew, ew. (upside: i met ken, the nice guy behind the counter at pinisi bakery. he gave me towels to clean off my foot.)

- i had dinner with stephen at shake shack. it was the first time i’d ever been to shake shack, and it was pretty darn good.

- i called 911. (first time i’ve ever done that, and hopefully the last i’ll have to.) while crossing an intersection, i saw a bus that was flashing “emergency / call police” rather than its destination and line. i stood staring at it for a minute or so, wondering why nobody else was. i looked at other people. was i crazy? was it a joke? was i seeing things? i asked another woman why would the bus say that? she didn’t know, and walked away. the bus turned the corner and on the back it was flashing “call / cops / 911”, so i did. (calling 911 was a sort of surreal experience. i always imagined it being screaming and sirens and so on, but it was really just me nervously answering questions.)

my apartment is positively chilly

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:36:06 -0400

and by chilly, i mean somewhere in the mid 70s, versus the 90s. it’s amazing how seasons always warp my sense of temperature. i know it’s all relative, but it’s still pretty crazy. i mean, this morning i was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch because the breeze coming through the window was too cold for me. it was probably only 70 degrees. i remember during january or february at kenyon, we had record low temperatures. with windchill, they were even more intense. the low temp one day was -20 degrees. they told us not to go outside unless it was absolutely necessary (sadly, they considered class necessary). i remember being excited when the temperatures broke 30 degrees! 30!

i’m not sure what the point of this story was. i guess i just felt like reminiscing.

random

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:02:52 -0400

i love chopping celery. it’s just so crisp and choppable!