obama, alcohol, and being a dumbass

in frankfurt STILL in fucking transit because i am a dumbass, i didn't know how long each of my flights were/are. i just got off an 11 hour flight from SFO and leave for a 7hr 45min flight for Accra in 4 hours.

on the bright side, my obama tee is scoring me many smiles and a few preemptive celebratory shouts from otherwise stoic germans/europeans.

sat next to a pretty cool german student and now have a place to stay in frankfurt whenevs...

the silver lining to the smog of airplane travel is that i am currently legally drunk. i also found out that ghana doesn't have a drinking age (this may be bad) and that the drinking age in tanzinia is 5... wtf? i am now legal everywhere in the world besides: oman, parts of canada, japan, pakistan, south korea, united arab emirates, and fiji. oh yeah, and the u.s. of a.

"i wanted to paint nothing"

"if you want more meaningful art, build a more meaningful world"
- Sarah Nardi



sometimes i feel like i live in a cultural void. apathetic hipsterdom reigns in the west for a generation that has had everything they couldn't afford handed to them on a plate. it's the me generation on steroids. freedom from want has translated to freedom from meaning.

i'm in transit to accra, ghana. i packed my bags yesterday afternoon, jamming 5 shirts, 3 skirts, and 2 shorts into luggage full of mac nuts and hawaii tees destined for my homestay family. I haven't really prepared for africa beyond buying a travel book this past tuesday and getting my required immunizations. i don't really want a plan beyond working at Sankofa.

We live in a meaningless world that chooses to glorify the self as a means of cartesian entertainment. the thing i want from africa, the only thing i want from africa, is to find a place where people still strive for something as a society: an ideal, survival, peace, war, anything.

i want more meaningful art, so i am going to find a more meaningful world.

p.s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDw4gk5pYl8

old people

I've come to the conclusion that being old is just like being drunk all the time.

Point 1) When I'm drunk I can never find my wallet. I once hysterically tore past an angry japanese-speaking bouncer in a tokyo club to search frantically for my wallet in the bathrooms for a good half an hour before realizing that it was in my pocket. My grandma goes byzerk at least once a day convinced that she has lost her wallet/passport/jewelry bag until she realizes that it's in her purse.

Point 2) When you're drunk, you just say what's on your mind. You ask really obnoxious and blunt questions like, "Why are you so fucking passive aggressive?" and can just say "Sorry, I was soooo blackout that night. I didn't mean it." Same with old people, like when my 70 something year old Italian voice teacher told me that my butt looks bigger. Except that she has the implied excuse of being old. Well that, and she's probably not sorry becuase she ment it (but I guess you did too, really).

Point 3) When you are drunk, you usually fit into three catagories: introspective, angry/grumpy, or really really happy. When you are abot to die, it's normal to think about life and shit. This either makes you really really grumpy like my Papa who watches the history channel and complains all day until he gets mad at you for trying to get him out of his chair, or you don't give a shit about anything and get happy happy happy because you realize that being ridiculously jovial is all you have left in your short, short life.

I am on a boat headed for Nova Scotia with 1999 old people on it. I will test my theories and get back to you. Or maybe I won't.

boire a quebec

so ive been in quebec for a good 5 hours. the night time social scene is the complete opposite of hawaiis "lets get shitfaced on the beach or in the car before the show or game" culture. ive been drinking legally all night at cigar societies, bars, and clubs and i think its safe to say that only americans were getting blackout. all the 18 and 19 year old quebecois were sipping on coniac (sp) or beer and talking in french to rapid for me to understand. the point im trying to make is that only the people who grew up with drinking being a taboo thing were over indulging (myself included if you cant already tell).

what im trying to say is that since everyone here grows up drinking, they dont want to get blackout and it seems the status quo to have a designated driver for the night. THIS MAKES SENSE. fucking america doesnt get it. i want to move somewhere where i dont have to drink warm karkov before going to a concert. is that too much to ask

quebec, east coast, ghana

i'll be heading to ghana on october 29th to work at the sankofa center until christmas.

http://www.thesankofacenter.org/

basically i'll be going to schools to sing and dance about AIDS. sounds right up my alley, no?

but before that, i'm off to lanai this weekend with mams and pops. plan on hiking, atving and horseback riding by those awesome cliffs that i got to see on the boat trip. stoked.

then on the 10th i go to quebec with my nana. i'll be meeting up with the jeff dymond experience and am tingly with the anticipation of his rainbow disco aura. leave on the 14th on princess cruises' "sea princess" to begin a two week long leaf-peeping extravaganza with nana. will update regularly when my life is more interesting...