The Eiffel To

I've seen these pictures before, usually in some dorm room poster format, but I ran across them a few days ago and it got me thinking about how iconic the Eiffel Tower has become, and thus how strange it looks unfinished. It's also funny it is that the Eiffel Tower is never challenged these days. There aren't many people walking around say, "Gah, that Eiffel Tower really gets me down."

In fact, it's become a strange symbol for girlishness and romance, usually set against a pale pink background (at least in the states). It's a common Prom theme. This is strange.

Eiffel, an engineer, saw the work as an exercise in a new material--iron--and an example of well-executed craftsmanship.

Roland Barthes, a philosopher and all around badass, mocked the tower as a failure in his "The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies." He comments,

"Eiffel saw his Tower in the form of a serious object, rational, useful; men return it to him in the form of a great baroque dream which quite naturally touches on the borders of the irrational ... architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience.”

Construction photos by Théophile Féau from 1887-1889

 Ah, Barthes. Eiffel made a building without walls. It can't count as architecture--it certainly wouldn't pass a building code. And yet, it became the tallest building in the world. It can't be sculpture--too huge, too different from the marble sculpture that still dominated the sculptural scene. It's not a monument, like the Statue of Liberty created a few years earlier--what does it symbolize? What is it then? It's useless.

That's one definition of art: useless.

It seems that this rational engineer who set out to build the world's tallest structure, made of new and completely exposed metals, gave Parisians, instead, a new orientation. The tower could be seen from all over Paris, and standing atop the tower allowed for a new view of their city--a sweeping, all encompassing, and universalizing view. I say universalizing, since when people are reduced to specks on the streets they are reduced to their essence, their simple humanity. Now that is why the Eiffel Tower is romantic.
 

 

Some Parisians hated it, Guy de Maupassant, an author, used to eat at the restaurant every day, because he claimed it was the only place in the city where you couldn't see the tower. Seems like Barthes was right, though; instead of acting as a exercise in rationality for the 1889 World's Fair that would be dismantled at it's close, it gave the 19th Century Parisians a new way of seeing their city and each other. I guess that's an ok Prom theme. It just needs a subtitle. "Paris: Seeing Your Classmates in a New Way, like Nineteenth Century Parisians did During the 1889 World's Fair."

When I visited Paris a few years (that long!) ago, I was blown away by the tower. See? I'm literally falling over. That jacket is still in France...somewhere.

I left visiting it until my last day in the city, since I thought something that had become such a strange symbol had to be a cheesy tourist fest. And it was. Then the tower started sparkling, and I shut up. Good mistake, Eiffel.  Here's my video from that day:

Downsides and Upsides

First downsides:

About a half an hour after class today, I went to the bathroom.

Good story, eh?

Anyway, there was somebody crying in one of the stalls. Crying a lot. This had never happened to me before, although I know that girls are supposed to do this all the time especially if they were killed by Voldemort.

I've encountered crying in practice rooms (music majors, you know?), lots of dorm room crying, booth for two crying (I once waited on a couple that were breaking up at Marie Callendars, they were both crying into their chicken pot pies...), but that's about it. I thought there might be something really wrong, so I asked if I could help or if I could get anyone and a little voice just said, "It's nothing; got a bad grade on the midterm and now I failed a quiz."

And then I quickly ran out of the bathroom before she could open the door and see me, the one with the red pen.

So that's the downside of teaching. Also, the Jazz keep hurting my feelings.

Upsides:

Since I've always been a glass-with-an-average-quantity-of-water person, I thought I would balance this post out by declaring that I made rosemary, ricotta gnocchi, and thus am the best.

Check it out, this blog rocks. I even froze some, although I probably could have eaten it all. I added rosemary, because I'm totally hardcore. Also I wore my apron that my mom made me, so I'm the coolest. Here's a picture of said apron from a few years ago, when I had very long hair and...a stiff neck (?).

DOMESTIC GODDESS -->

Pandas vs. Girl Scouts

My super cool boyfriend sent me some chocolate today. It's not just any chocolate, it's has more stamps on it than a VW van--fair trade, wrapper made from recycled paper, cruelty free, and--get this--ten percent of the sales go toward helping endangered species. Link here. There was a little slip in the box that says "look for our sales representatives at local grocery stores in the month of February."

Now, Girls Scout also stake out local grocery stores in the month of February. I should know, because I haven't been able to find any of them. Why are the Girl Scouts hiding from me? I want some Thin Mints. If I could just get a little one on her own, far from the pack...

Anyway the combination of thinking about girl scout cookies and endangered species chocolate led to an incredible image, which ended up being my favorite part of the present. I've recreated it below.

PS- check out this old commercial from the girl scout's website.

Chocolate Covered Bananagrams

It's Valentines Day in Spokane. Well, it is for us.Yesterday we went on a foggy, snowy hike and watched Moose race around. Moose tracks--everywhere. We got slightly lost, but while lost we saw a white-tailed deer which was very exotic for me. We also met two parties of hikers who were pretty cool. We couldn't believe there were only a few people on the hike (which is only five minutes from Spokane) on a Saturday...too busy doing meth I guess. Sometimes I feel bad about my life, and then I remember that I'm not addicted to meth.

Wow. That took a turn. Let's move on, shall we?

I forgot my camera, so I've documented our dinner instead of the pretty hike.

Note: I won Bananagrams.

Now we're watching Sleepless in Seattle or what Michael calls "my childhood." It's true, his mom really does look like Meg Ryan and this movie was a staple."Hoarses, hoarses, hoarses..."

Gah, we're so romantic.

Skirting Responsibilities

I maybe should be doing art history or pushups or something like that, but I'm taking a break from my day to brag about my skirt.

Check it:

There are two things I've learned from this exercise: I really have to work on my posing; I should start an early morning fashion blog.

Oh, did I mention that my mom made this skirt? With. Yarn.

Yeah, I don't blame you for being jealous.

Having a Bad Day?

I have no right to be laughing so much, while hanging out by myself grading papers, but seriously Bollywood gets me every time. My Uncle Dean, who's been to India a few times himself, sent me a whole case of Bollywood movies when I was in college and I made my roommates watch them all (Bollywood=extreme bonding).
I have this incredible fondness for them, mixed with thinking they're the most over-the-top things I've ever seen. I think it boils down to this: these movies are ridiculous...and I really want to be in one. They should have live productions of this stuff.

This clip doesn't have subtitles, but it's pretty much "Someday my Prince Will Come." There are so many things to look out for--astro turf, gokarts, precocious couch-jumping. My favorite moment comes at 2:32. I'm going to go watch it again.

You're welcome.