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Friday, July 30, 2010

READ THIS: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

image owned by Random House


I read this book a few months back and it was organic!  It may be a year old now but it’s still worth reading, it even won the National Book Award in 2009.

The book is set in New York City durring the 1970’s. The story is centered around August, 7th 1974, the day Philippe Petit walked a tightrope across the World Trade Center (this actually happened). Petit is not a main character  but his walk glues a lot of the story together. The book follows various characters who live in New York City; they all come from different walks of life and have very different personalities. Each character narrates the story at some point in the novel and all their stories intersect. The story is about how coincidence connects people and how small things that strangers do can have large impacts on our lives. McCann is a great story teller and he really brings each character to life. There is the Irish “urban monk”, who has a strange lifestyle (to say the least) and he remains conflicted between religion and love. There is the Woman who lives in a Park Avenue penthouse, spending her days in mourning. There are the drug addict artists. The most colorful character of all is the Prostitute from the Bronx, who has one of the most tragic storylines, and some of the funniest quotes in the entire book! With each character narrating at different points of the novel, It’s almost like reading 10 different books in one. This book has a few dry parts, but pull through; it turns into a real page-turner!

Click Here to buy it from Amazon here: Let the Great World Spin: A Novel

-HG

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Apologies to Mr. Varvatos

         "Apologies to Mr. Varvatos"    7/27/2010    photograph

This is the first photograph I’ve taken with art in mind.

There’s a story behind this photo.

I bought these shoes a few years back. They are a pair of Converse shoes designed by John Varvatos. They came with a dustbag, because apparently they are meant to be handled with a great deal of care, unfortunately things didn’t work out that way. These were my favorite shoes for a long time. They were my go-to pair for both everyday use and getting dressed up. But, I abused them! Now they are all torn up and stained. The navy color faded to a dirty blue and the soles are falling off! I only wear them to the gym these days. It's a shame considering how great they looked when they first came in the mail.  So now I'm feeling a bit guilty, and I would just like to apologize to Mr. Varvatos for ruining his shoes.

-HG
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A little bit about me...

I am just a guy who woke up one day and decided to start his own blog. I am a premed majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior (NPB) at UC Davis; and I decided to start this blog as a hobby. It's my way to organize my thoughts. I write about life, style, books, movies, and whatever comes to mind. I also plan on taking up photography (currently saving up for a good camera) and painting. So I'll use this blog to show my work whenever I get around to it.