deadwing12

As promised, I had a very busy Saturday. I took the metro into Newcastle, about a 25-minute ride, with my friends Aijai and Alena. Newcastle is great -- it almost reminds of New York City in an obtuse sort of way, at least in terms of breadth of culture (there were museums, independent stores, designers, art galleries, music venues, and more pubs than Southington has buildings). We traveled around the city on foot gaping at the odd juxtaposition of centuries-old architecture and modern culture. What made the whole trip worth it, besides the fantastic views of the sunset from the bridge, was the Baltic Contemporary Art Museum. Situated right along the Tyne River, the museum, housed in an old, five-story Flour Mill, showed several extremely modern art exhibits, though I would be at a loss to ... read more

Well it has been a while hasn't it, but I assure you that things have cooled down considerably since my last tirade/oratory/rant/entry. In fact I think I can finally say that I have settled in completely, especially considering that I've fallen into a semblance of a routine. Honestly, not a whole lot has happened this past week, or at least it doesn't feel like a whole lot when compared with the deluge of the first couple of weeks. Since my last blog post I have: - joined the Badminton Club, with hopes of making the team (I will know soon, hopefully) - seen two concerts: Maybeshewill at the Independent (the opening bands were better, and even for a seasoned veteran like myself, the PA was just too loud) and Maps & Atlases at the White Room ... read more

Friday night I went to the Campus Bar with some friends to catch some local rock bands. It turns out that the headliners, Hungover Stuntmen, are rather renown in this section of the UK, particularly because three of the four members are graduates from the university. All the bands were pretty great, especially the second act, Little Comets. They sounded a lot like a British version of Vampire Weekend, but more danceable and musically interesting. Saturday we took a trip to the historic city of York. There was some sort of food festival going on so of course we hit that up for all the free food. There was a German salami stand with dozens of kinds of salami, all of which were delicious, and the smoked salmon from the fish tent was some of the ... read more

Got back from a field trip to the Beamish Museum, an open-air recreation of an early 1900's settlement. Great fun! I've been experiencing some difficulty regarding uploading photographs I've taken, so bear with me while I try to fix it. The problem no doubt stems from the incredibly poor internet connection I've had to endure. Anything else... Irish pub with a killer local cover band last night (at one point I even thought, "the only thing that would make this better is if they played Radiohead. Sure enough, "Creep" was the next song). Tonight is a roller disco at the Campus Bar, should be a good time assuming i show up early enough to score a pair of skates.... read more