American in India

I have found the ultimate distraction to studying for the GRE:

a two week trip to Mumbai (Bombay), India.

to be in an aerobic dance instructional video.

for Masala Bhangra.

A few months ago Lauren, Jill, and I decided to take this class at Ailey Extension because it looked cool and we love anything Indian. A few weeks later we were on the Morning Show, a week later we were invited to India. Moral of the story: ONE DANCE CLASS CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

The visa process was painless, even though I was actually really worried about it. I had to make sure I was saying I was going to a friend's wedding and not filming on a set in BOLLYWOOD. With a real BOLLYWOOD director (that may be an oxymoron).

Things I am worried about:

1. I can't afford to get any shots. I can't afford malaria pills. Although we are having a personal cook, who will cook only with filtered water, I still have to be extra, extra careful. I though for a minute Bombay was urban enough not to have Malaria... then I checked this interactive Malaria Map. Guess which ENTIRE country is highlighted red?

2. I can't get sick the day of shooting the film, which is the first weekend we arrive thank god. Imagine, I am going to be nervous as it is, I don't need to keep stopping the set to run to the bathroom. And when I travel, my stomach usually hates me. I just can't say no to delicious, spicy, indigenous food. Cliff bars...it's all about the cliff bars then I can Samosa-it-up.

3. Fulfilling all my life dreams by the age of 25.

Review of Sons and Lovers

I internalize literature so strongly that it can be embarrassing (like when I start ordering my bagels in iambic pentameter) or dangerous (like when I read To The Lighthouse and went through a pensive depression.) Having DH Lawrence bouncing around my head the past few days has just been inspiring. A 1913 page-turner.

Sons and Lovers is Lawrence's autobiographical account of a poor mining family in 19th century industrial Nottingham. It is actually not a doleful read though. Despite the fact that the first half of the book, Mrs. Morel builds such a disdain for her brute-of-a-husband and in the second half, she destroys any chance her son, protagonist Paul Morel, has of love or leading a normal life. The book teases the reader with pages and pages of talking about flowers, and pontificating on religion and internal feelings before getting to the sex scenes. There are few feelings of sympathy and more of just irritation at the characters to take action, to be heroes and villains instead of just ordinary people. Kudos to Lawrence for drawing the reader close enough to exclude the "poor little miner child" crap. This was a factual world and I walked away kind of hating Paul Morel; weird, since it is an autobiographical novel.

There are arrant scenes of Paul's incestuous love for his mother throughout the book as an exploration of Lawrence's own relationship with his mother. I don't judge him for caring for her, or never marrying in order to be with her, or even kissing her, but the way he passionately confesses his love to her and hates his father is so unbelievably Freudian and Lawrence puts it right out there. Sexual smut...adultery...all over the place. I love it. I can only hope that future generations of students sit in seminars discussing an Anthology of Playboy Articles as high-brow fiction. I hold tightly to my beliefs against censorship.

Here is a clip from the movie version of Sons and Lovers which answered my question: "How could they transfer to screen a movie made genius by dialogue? Actually if you watch this clip (there is a weird boxing dialogue for a minute before hand) you don't have to read the book.



Great book.

Rich CEOs Really Don't Like Health Care

If you eat the poisoned apple, you live in the U.S. and you have no heath insurance, you will die. Sans prince, sans dwarves.


There are rare moments when cheerleading meets politics. It happens, occasionally. Here is a video of a group of protesters "cheering" against CEO of Whole Foods John Mackey who is directing his efforts AGAINST health care reform. Once again citing socialism as the evil to be squashed.

This is from an Oakland Whole Foods. No one was arrested. Good luck if you bring this to Union Square.

Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.

Farmer's market anyone?

My dress is better than your dress, Emily.

Emily's post on wedding dresses opened a discussion on this whole prodigal, yet kind-of-fun tradition. Which of course got me looking online at dresses. I was shocked at how beautifully expensive these things are. Emily's dress is gorgeous. Unbelievably gorgeous.

But I found something better...



Marked down from $6000 to $500, this dress is a dream. I challenge you to find something better.

I apologize to the poor woman in this picture I stole from the internet, more specifically a used dress website. I am guessing from the aesthetic quality of the dress her marriage ended horribly. She got everything though. The children are bitter about their situation but they don't mind getting a plethora of presents each Christmas to compensate for the past.