Doctor Comic - Pas Deux

Source: Buttersafe

This is the second comic that puts doctor, patient, and butt together, just like the one I posted in this entry a while ago. I am being the dullest person on the face of the Earth, doing nothing but pretending to study for the MCAT, which is coming on the second of September. Whenever I think about it, I feel as if I just carelessly step on a baby's face while calling the mom fat or something equally devastating.

Apparently, I don't know how to read actively and critically enough. I guess I daydream too much. For example, below is a sample of how my brain processes a passage as I am reading it with the italic representing my thoughts.

Philosophers Immanuel Kant and David Hume both spent their professional careers searching for a universal principle of morality... ugh, what the fuck, not philosophy again... Considering that they began their searches with seemingly irreconcilable...damned hate big words...ideas of where to look...blah blah...the similarity in the moral systems they constructed is surprising...yeah...yeah my ass is surprising...

And then a brain transplant?

So that's how I fail the so called verbal reasoning on the MCAT, beside my inability to comprehend, I often bear this intense animosity toward the passages themselves. There should be no reason to have such sentiments toward those passages, they are only designed to wear my brain down, lower my overall scores and ultimately prevent me from going to medical schools altogether. As a result, I'd be so green with envy and turn into a giant cucumber when all of my friends touch their first cadavers and contemplate the meaning of life and death. To prevent this from happening, I have come up with several ways to learn how to love those passages:

Coloratura

It's Coloratura

Coloratura: A soprano or tenor voice of great range, agility and delicacy. Famous coloratura roles include The Magic Flute's Queen of the Night, many bel canto heroes and heroines and various opera lyrique female role (notably by Gounod and Thomas.) This is verbatim from the fourth edition of Rough Guide to Opera. One of my classes at Goucher required the book, which is currently listed at Amazon.com up to nearly a thousand bucks!

I don't include the notoriously difficult Queen's aria though, yet I throw in Figaro  from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Sivigliato, just because it's awesome!

Orgasmic Pintxos

It's Pintxo Heaven.

Around this time last year I was strutting my stuffs on the Basque streets like a typical clueless tourist/student. The reason why I decided to go to San Sebastian was because of the food! And boy was I so grateful I made such a decision, it changed my life and touched my soul dramatically one dish at a time. The whole time I stayed there was just surreal. I remembered checking the clock all the time till I could run out of my class to go on my gourmet adventure. I even dated a waiter, that tells you how often I went to the pintxo bars.

The Basques love to eat, and good food and wine are their ways of life. The cuisine is emphasized on the quality of the ingredients; the harmony of taste, smell, and visual presentation; and above all, the passion and talent of the chefs. I often shiver with an almost orgasmic delight when a little bits of good food land on my lucky tongue, which happened almost all of the time when I was in Donostia. My Spanish was rusty no more when I came into a pintxo bar or restaurant to order what I want. They are pretty generous with wine, so I was always slightly intoxicated getting back to my rented apartment. Sometimes I stopped by the supermarket to stock up on the regional ham, cheese and black beer for a small snack before heading out to eat again.

Foie with Apple Sauce and Crushed Nuts

I ate a lot of foie gras, almost daily. I didn't turn into a fat cow, thanks mostly to the undying love of the kitchen lord. Even though Donostia has an efficient public transport system, I often walked my legs off since the city is very walkable. I remember resting on a bench at the Miramar Palace on the way back to Gros from my school near the Igara Tennis Club when I met my first Spanish lover of the summer.

But anyway, let's stick to foie gras, which I got the first bite when I was 16 during my first birthday celebration in the States, it got me hooked ever since. For about €3.00 to €5.00 a pintxo, or more for a racion, I got myself a good deal to nibble on daily. If you ask, I recommend you go to Iraeta's in Gros and ask for their Foie Gras in Caramelized Vodka, it's their signature dish. It was a fine balance of sweet and savory, and the moment the foie landed on my tongue, I swear to you, I almost creamed my pants. The foie with the pistachios you have seen above was taken from another bar somewhere in Parte Vieja that I couldn't remember the name though. 

Each bar has its own system of pricing. One of my favorite bars in Gros called Bar Bergara only charges €1.00 for any food item yet a lot more for a glass of wine. As seen below, the partially shown glass of white wine I got actually went very well with the crispy soft shelled crab and the croqueta de txipirones - fried squids on the bread. There was an either drunk or overtly excited old man to keep me company too. I learned Spanish through the people on the street even more so than that in class!

Crispy Soft-Shelled Crab and Fried Squids with Onions - Damn it I love Squids.

Baroque Arias Mix

Oh so Somber

I made this mix ages ago. I enjoy the very well-structured measure of Baroque music, yet sometimes I dread the numerous recitative in the company of the oh so somber basso continuo characteristic of operas at the time. Personally, I prefer listening to some Bach or Vivaldi when I study as I focus more, and my emotions don't stray too far from the desk as in the case of music in the Romantic period.

In this mix, you will get to hear two of my favorite artists - Cecilia Bartoli and Phillipe Jaroussky. I've heard people criticize the former for not having a strong voice and the latter for being too commercial. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a dime.

You can also check out my other jams here at 8track. 

18 Rules of The Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

I was by myself at the local Barnes & Nobel when I decided to make the Dalai Lama my date. He said inspirational things to me, lifted my spirit up during a very dramatically turbulent time of my life. I dated a jerk and got dumped, my mom turned psychotic, and my grades took a turn to the dumpster. These events affected my snobbery negatively. With much gratitude to my crazy friend Cora, the relatively cultured things I got to do were seeing a highlighted performance of Die Zauberflöte and dining out fancily at my favorite restaurant Demi. Anyway, I was still so distraught over the whole thing that I didn't really enjoy the experience. To be more accurate, my mind wasn't there, it was imprisoned somewhere in this dingy cell of melancholy. The Dalai's words put me in a meditative mood and brought me peace.

There are people who have real reasons to suffer, who are really ill, for example, on the breadline, disaster victims, or abused. And yet, here again, they often have the power to remedy this. Practically speaking, they can and should take care of themselves, speak out against their abusers and take them to court demanding damages or again they can work extremely hard if they do not have enough food or clothes. And mentally, they can adopt a positive attitude."

Acording to Buddhism, reflecting on the reality of suffering never induces either pessimism or despair. It leads to the discovery of the root causes of our plight: desire, hatred, and ignorance, and to a way of freeing ourselves from them. By ignorance, we mean not understand the true nature of people and things. It gives rise to the other two poisons. When ignorance dissolves, desire and hatred have no foundation and the source of our suffering has dried up. As a result, we experience a happiness that is spontaneously altruistic and that is no longer at the mercy of negative emotions."

So yeah, while Bill Gates in this post proposes rules that bring awareness to a person's reality, the Dalai Lama's rules reach spiritually inward to the core of our beings and simultaneously connect us to others. I also find the concept of mindfulness much advocated by Thich Nhat Hand shares the same principles with what the Dalai Lama has to say.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
• Respect for self
• Respect for others
• Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

So, light up a candle, close your eyes, take a deep breath, be aware of the surrounding and contemplate the words. I did, felt much better, and get my feet back on the track.

Verdi's Chorus

La Traviata

Well, growing up in Vietnam means that I got to listen to Red Propaganda music all the time. When I was in elementary school, my first operatic experience came from a remix of The Flowers Duet randomly played in the background of a radio ads. I remember thinking that it was the most heavenly sound any human could make. When I moved here, I didn't care much for opera until this one fateful night during my Sophomore year at Goucher. I was miserable writing this lab report on fruit flies while I clicked on an internet radio that happened to play opera. I found myself dropping everything to listen to the first two acts of Verdi's Il Trovatore. On that night, I found myself a life long companion.

I often find the opera plot confusing, and it was quite hard for me at first to see why someone has the strength to sing on for another twenty minutes before dying of consumption. A possible argument is that the chronological perception of everyday life shouldn't be clumsily applied to operas. The never ending arias that seem to delay actions are actually elaboration of several highly dramatic moments that generate the whole plot. Moreover, I know someone dies right away without uttering a note when death comes for her, ask Carmen for more information.

Yes, it's the Anvil Chorus of Il Trovatore! They are obviously drunk and boasting about their bosomy women. I like this clip since it also includes the haunting Azucena's Burn Baby Burn aria. The old gypsy in her mad rage threw in the fire her own child instead of her enemy's. This is supposed to be a secret, but being old and bitter, she bursts it out anyway. Of course, her "son" is there listening to the whole thing. As he confronts her about this, she goes "Nothing, child" on him while probably thinking "Crap!" inside.



This clip below comes from Verdi's Nabucco. The Jews are lamenting their exile from Babylon. I have a feeling that personal tragedy is a powerful source of inspiration. Verdi lost his whole family around the time he composed the opera. When Verdi died of a stroke in his late 80s, thousands of people mourned him with this famous chorus. As you can see, it receives such popularity that there is an encore!



I think that the Sassy Gay Friend will have a day trip talking to the title character of Verdi's Aida. The slave princess hides in the tomb in which her lover is to be buried alive, but I will save this talk for the future. For now, I'd like to present the glorious Triumphal March celebrating the Egyptian victory over the Ethiopian.



Do you know why I choose these to show you? I sang once. Consider that my singing voice sounds like a voodoo princess in heat, I faked my way to nearly the operatic top by singing once in the Naval Academy's chorus through the yearly collaboration of Goucher College. Or shall I say, pretending to sing and mostly fawning over guys with toned abs showing majestically through their impeccably white attires?

Pas de Deux

Giselle - Pas De Deux

Normally I wouldn't have time to watch TV because of the college workload or otherwise crying over failed romances. These days, I find myself watching the Food Network at 3AM in the morning, dreaming about being the next Food Network Star with my own gastronomic traveling show à la Anthony Bourdain. To switch the focus abruptly from food to arts, I also watch this obscure channel called the Classic Arts Showcase that is only broadcast after 10PM every night. They present various clips of classic movies, operas, ballets, dances, and other artsy stuffs. They are great for my late night mood, which is sadly incomplete without a glass of wine and someone equally pretentious to cuddle with and exchange comments.

Anyway, this channel seems to plant in my mind an ever-growing sapling of appreciation for dances. Yes, another not-so-available art form to my newly graduated, unemployed self. On the channel, I haven't actually seen the Legend of Love clip shown immediately below, yet it is irrefutable that the ballet clips I have seen there inspire me to look for similar ones online.



The channel also introduced me to the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer Alicia Alonso. Her passion and persistence are legendary, consider that she is partially blind. Her talent and beauty perpetuates over decades as seen through her remarkable performance of Giselle in her 60s. I intend to show her Black Swan Pas de Deux with Azari Plisetsky. Well, of course, the clip is not embeddable by request. So just follow this link, if not, you are missing out. These clips originate from the Vaimusic people and they are actually my favorites by the way. If you don't feel like leaving my page, then check out her Gisele below:



The upcoming clip possesses extraordinary beauty. I hold my breaths every time Ekateria Maksimova flies high up in the air, light as a feather. Another version performed on stage lacks the fleeting fragility that I find enchanting in the clip. Therefore, grasp the person closest to you like now, confess your love to each other then watch the clip together!



Magical, Isn't it? And yeah, it's hard to be a snob when you are poor. Did I tell you I was so cheap today, I didn't want to give my sister $4.00 for a pizza we ordered? I'm not entirely sure if I have seen better day, but I'm certain that better days are ahead. They are there for me to see. Or I'm just gonna put my scantily clad pic on Craigslist looking for a silver sugar-daddy. But then I'm gonna be a slutty boy-toy, not a snob wannabe anymore, so no. And who would want to be a snob anyway? So leave me and Britney alone, wait did I mention that Chris Crocker is dropping his panties to do porn? Ugh, I have no idea why I go from food to this. Anyway, forget about my digressive rant, focus on beauty. I'm so considerate, putting all this crap at the end. Remember, this is just another verbal dingbat, after all.