Happy Easter!

First things first-- I will take my foot out of my mouth. I got a voicemail last night informing me that Ms. Cascino did, in fact, JUMP OUT OF A PLANE! Way to go Cary. I'm glad you and Matt are both still alive.

Second, there's this cool thing here that I think some of you (Tara? Matt?) may find interesting. It's a digital book log. I just found it this morning and put in some of the books I have on hand in my apt. I think you only get 200 for free, and I haven't checked on prices yet, but I'd love to digitally catalogue all my books (including the 8 boxes in my parents basement)... I'm thinking it'd be better to just do it in Excel for personal use, but this does make it easy and shareable. You just type in the title or part of, and it pops up possibilites and you click the right one. Easy to get all the info on the book w/o having to type it. Plus, you can share your list, making for easy book swapping and the like. Here's my list.

I haven't written in forever, so I hardly know where to start. Luckily, my life is pretty boring, so I don't think this will take long. Dan and I went to the circus, and with some others I saw a taping of the Colbert Report. (Quality. That show has gotten really good.) I'm working on a story for a class on NY Comedians, so I've seen more Stand-Up in the last few weeks than I could possibly care for.

Two weeks left of school, and I have NO IDEA what I'm doing this summer. I don't know if there's an internship in my future, or even if I'm sticking with my same job. So no news there, I guess.

Mikey, Dan & I will be in DC on May 13 for CUA gradumation (Dan's sister Amy and Chris Dinolfo). I hear they've got Wolf Blitzer this year. Who's pissed/jealous? I mean, I came to Catholic so that I could stalk Wolf on the White House lawn, and he promptly left as CNN's WH correspondant and got his own stupid Sunday show. Then Geoff had to listen to ASHCROFT and the rest of us had to sit in the rain and listen to that 98 year old nun talk about god-knows what.
Oh well.

So that's about it. Hope you're all having a lovely holiday. (And aren't stuck inside doing homework like me...) Eat some ham, dye some eggs, and overload on sugar. Martha says it's a good thing.

xoxo, E

Happy Spring, y'all!

Thinking of times we spend together...

I'm so excited

How many of us are going to buy this t-shirt?

Grups-'R-Us

LOVE the article. You know, I see so many "grups" walking down 14th Street: those folks that make sure their clothing never really fits properly or that their hair never really looks clean. They would NEVER go to STARBUCKS because it's just TOO commercial, so they walk around instead with a half-caf, soy, no foam, sugar-free vanilla latte and a vegan pie from Sparky's. Even if we are not yet grups, we all strive to look cool and tortured and INTENSE and not care what other people think (because, honestly, fuck 'em), while we secretly hope that we're listening to the right music and reading the right book (myself included). Frankly, it's exhausting to try to fit-in-without-looking-like-I'm-trying-to-fit-in-and-secretly-wishing-I-still-smoked-because-smokers-look-like-hip-artists-and-counting-the-days-until-my-ipod-comes-in-the-mail-so-that-I-can-have-the-coolest-play-lists-EVER. And by the way, my favorite bit of the article:

"'I even remember meeting this guy who was around my age, who was wearing an expensive blazer, and on the lapel was a London Calling button. Who the fuck wears that? That’s what I wore when I was 18 in art school! And you’re the same age as me? And you’re wearing it again?' He pauses, then adds, 'And you know what? Giving your kid a mohawk is fucked up, too.'"

Fucking brilliant.

P.S. The spell-check does not like the words grup, Starbucks, or fuck. What does that say, I wonder? Ahh, back to the not-so-gruppily-subtle superficiality of America's Next Top Model.

What's between us and Gen-X?

Grups, apparently. I really liked this article, actually-- you should all check it out. We're about 10 years removed from the generation that refuses to grow up, and I'm not sure any of us are any different.

I think Adam Sternbergh hit the nail right on the head though. Everyone's terrified of not being "passionate--" much more than the fear of not being cool. Plus, who wants to wear a suit anyway?
(Well-- except Matt)

Read it, yo. Tell me what you think.

Two things

1. This is the coolest thing ever ever ever.

2. it is sooo passe to carry your dog around in your purse. carry your dog as your purse! (just shove your wallet in its mouth)

your modern face scans the surprise ending

buongiorno!
i'm here at home on a saturday night recuperating from a solo voyage to turin and cinque terre. whilst in turin i stumbled upon one of my most favorite things that is oh-so-common on this (current) continent of mine: outdoor public art like this ->
but my most prized discovery was the work of a certain jenny holzer that was projected, LED-style, on an old italian castle...expressions such as "it is fun to walk carelessly in a death zone" and "bodies lie in the bright grass some are murdered some are picnicking" caught me by surprise. i was left stunned by holzer's clever semantics and the city's willingness to display such disturbing+shocking statements on such a central, historic spot. holzer uses "language and the mechanics of late 20th-century communications as an assault on established notions of where art should be shown, with what intention and for whom" (artnet.com). i think you might enjoy her work as much as i did, although the pix don't really capture the moment:

Listen to this...

I made an "Opal Radio" station!


Listen to Opal Radio



It's free to listen!! If you want to make your own radio station, it's free to sign up.

I made "Opal Radio" by saying that I liked the artists Fleetwood Mac and Badly Drawn Boy and now I'm listening to fantastic music that shares the same "musical qualities" but by artists I've never heard of before... It rocks.

Check it out, yo!

love,
-Geoff

Reality Bites

My new favorite show is 8th & Ocean. Don't judge me.

Viva Italia!

Dudes, I just got into a month-long summer program in ITALY. For the month of June, I will be living in Urbania, a rural village in the Marche region (kind of near Tuscany), taking Italian, and singing in concerts around the area. This place is also near the coast of the Adriatic Sea, so there will be beach days.
BEACH DAYS. IN ITALY. I am so jazzed.

Cheap booze is museum party's undoing

Dear Opal

Geoffrey (gscott1380@gmail.com) spotted this on the IOL website and thought you'd find it interesting.

Geoffrey says: Opal loves to party...especially if it's near art: Kathleen Christians, 39, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "It was crazy. People were shoving people over. People were getting sick, screaming, shouting, messing with the artwork."

Cheap booze is museum party's undoing

The organisers of an event held at a American museum have been left ruing their plans after the party descended into drunken chaos.

(Click here for the full story )

Visit http://www.iol.co.za for the hottest online news, sport, jobs, property, motoring, classifieds and shopping in South Africa.

Hermione... NO!

Looking for "hands on" experience?

Sorry, couldn't help it. Our man Will is looking for interns...

pretty paris

(après avoir cliqué sur l'image ci-dessous)
Cliquez sur la flèche en bas à droite pour faire défiler Paris sous vos yeux...

(after clicking on the image below)
Click on the "right arrow" in the scroll bar along the bottom of your browser and watch Paris unravel before your eyes...

killing smokes

i always preferred that expression more than "smoking kills'. i don't think i've ever been more of a smoker in my life. parisian life does not include not smoking.

so for awhile i've been crushing on jens lekman, a singer from sweden with a delicious voice. last night i went to his show at the mains d'oeuvres in paris. he played an excellent set, but because he is so damn irresistable he decided to quit the stage and sing for private requests in the cafe...but the managers would have none of that. so meg&i invited him to play a set at her new empty loft in montmartre. there is no electricity just yet, but jens & i agreed that a few spirits would warm us up. he said that he had to pass by his hotel first, and convince his driver to drop him off. i gave him my number and then to meet up with damien at a bar...an underground loud place with no cell service. jens called. i got his message two hours later. essentially, i stood him up. ha ha ha. it would have been too good to be true anyways. but you do have to admit that he is one pretty boy:



thus is the latest news from gay paree.

i miss you's.

you're invited...

to a barbeque in my backyard...






...in the spring, of course.

Go fug yourself.

This site is fuggin' awesome. There is nothing like a witty, celebrity-fashion-bashing blog to cap off your Valentine's Day. Happy VD, opals!

e-opal has gone non-smoking

kudos to cary

luck to mikey

and damnit, erica, isn't this your 47th try? (ok, so i have to quit though, 'cause it's been over a decade since i started smoking. ewww)

Do your part for animal rights.

yeah, who has the energy to be clever...

yay tara! i would like to see you perform this semester, if we can make it happen...

i missed american idol, but that doesn't mean i don't love it. did you see the one with the little brokeback boy from wyoming? who had, like, never had a real conversation with anyone outside his family? awsome.

i'm working on a bunch of stories right now:

• one on this preservation librarian
• a profile on a city council member from queens
• an archeological dig born out of a new subway stop down in battery park
• nyc helicopter pilots
• this fun event
• interviewing an investigative journalist to see their story process (well that's less of a story than an assignment)
• and a court/lawsuit story that i-- ooops-- haven't gotten around to starting yet.

ok i've got to get back to work!

pum choo opals.