Queequeg's New Writeups

Positively 4th street (thing)

2002-07-28T22:42:49Z

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina by David Hajdu. (2001).

I just finished this amazing biography of these complicated, four musicians.

I was introduced to this book by a friend of mine, who was getting into the whole 60's music thing and had read this book. Once she finished she gave it to me to read and I was immediately pulled into the story.

I was only familiar with Bob Dylan, not the Baez sisters or Richard Farina. I also had no sense of the history of the music behind that era.

David Hajdu does a wonderful job creating a portrait of these four lives, showing just how important each one was in affecting each other's music and lives.

Through friendship, sisterhood, relationships, betrayal, music, fame, drugs, and growing up together, the story of Dylan, Farina, and the Baez sisters is captivating and moving and incrediably important to the folk-m…

Navarre (place)

2002-07-07T19:28:22Z

Navarre is a province in northern Spain that borders France. Its capital, Pamplona, is fairly famous with it's infamous running of the bulls, where residents and tourists rush into the streets and try to avoid being gorged by huge bulls.

Navarre province forms the autonomous region of Navarra and has a population of around 530,000 (as of 1990). Produce includes mainly sugar beet, cereals, and vegetables is a main source of economy. Industrialization was introduced in the 1950s when hydroelectric power plus interest in the area increased.

Research done at http://www.infoplease.com

DestiNY USA (place)

2002-07-04T20:59:02Z

DestiNY USA.... Nothing Like it in the World

This is the main logo for DestiNY USA, the newest upcoming main attraction in the nation -- situated in Syracuse, NY, located in upstate New York. It is not quite a mall, though it is "a behemoth of a shoping, tourism and entertainment complex that will take up more square footage than two Empire State Buildings" (NY times article 6/24/02). It is promised to be bigger than Minnesota's Mall of America.

From the official site http://www.aboutdestiny.com:
"Opening in 2004, DestiNY USA will be the most exciting retail and travel destination in the United States. This one-of-a-kind resort destination will attract millions of people from all over the world."

"The Experience DestiNY Center will itself be a destination point - a must see attraction. This center will serve as the epicenter of tourism for the entire Upstate New York region linking people and tourism attractions together. It will be a place…

June 29, 2002 (idea)

2002-06-29T04:04:44Z

So... I haven't been on E2 for a while, kinda checking up on the site off and on, but no real noding.

Sitting here, in my small room, it's almost 1, and I'm dead tired. My friends are upstairs watching a video of a trip to Kenya, and I'm supposed to be doing physics problems. I'm not all that upset by that idea, but for some reason today was weird enough in its own way to leave me feeling different... not sad, happy, nostalgic? I'm not sure.

It's the feeling one gets (or at least I have had before) that I desperately want to shut my door to the world and say good night, but then still feel like finding a huge party and getting lost in the crowd, or maybe just taking a nice long walk by myself.

This summer isn't going as well as I had planned, mainly because I didn't think I would be doing so much physics. It's not all that hard, actually, I'm a biology major so I just have to take the introductory courses (101-102). It's not even calculus based, it's "…

A book of bees (idea)

2002-06-09T00:58:49Z

A Book of Bees, by Sue Hubbell, is an honest, informative account of beekeeping that I found to be an overall pleasant read.

This node is a slightly revised essay that I wrote for a seminar on beekeeping.

Published in 1998, in her book, Hubbell travels through each season of the year and explains the inner workings of the beekeeping business, going through such detail that the book also teaches the biological facts of bees and specific beekeeping problems and responsibilities. However, through the wonderful matrix of detail and facts, I found myself being repulsed and annoyed by Hubbell's writing. Through her descriptions of her work, Hubbell conveys a tone of superiority of her beekeeping life that I felt took away from the unusual life she wants to share with her readers.

A major point that stuck out to me was that throughout the book, Hubbell takes delight in knowing that what she does is unusual and surprising to most observers. While this is true, and…

May 2, 2002 (idea)

2002-05-02T19:36:11Z

Today is an interesting day. I had my last class ever at Cornell, as a freshman. Well, I do have to go to chemistry lab tomorrow morning (8 in the morning!) to check out, but that doesn't really count. So I went to my last chemistry lecture, which wasn't all that interesting, had lunch with a friend, came back to my room and took a shower, then went to pick up my last paper in my writing class. Luckily my TA really liked it so I don't have to do much revising. Then I got back to the dorm and received an email saying I could pick up my plant lab practical, which had been graded. I trudged all the way back to central campus (I live on north campus, here at Cornell) to pick it up. Unfortunately, I only got the mean grade (I know, I've disappointed E2...), but it could have been a lot worse.

I decided to waste time and write a silly little poem about slope day, which is tomorrow. It's an annual tradition on the last day of classes where all students come out on Libe Slope and get…