Much like gender, I should be considered an elaborate performance. For most of my life I've been a student but right now I'm taking a much needed rest from the perils of academia to be an environmental activist and practice yoga. I don't care how sappy or new age that sounds because I am neither sappy nor new age. Christmas lights make me feel safe. My heart beats time out very slowly.
Royal Tennenbaums, Anniyan, Pakeezah, Half Nelson, Underground, Spring Summer Fall Winter... And Spring, random films playing at the Harris.
Arcade Fire, M.I.A., Wolf Parade, Mountain Goats, Will Oldham, Lucinda Williams, Broken Social Scene, Guided By Voices, Arabic pop music (while walking through Bloomfield), and classic Bollywood songs.
Gabrial Garcia Marquez, Orhan Pamuk, Milan Kundera, Jonathan Safran Foer, Barbara Kingsolver, Ramesh Menon (for his sparkling translations of sanskrit texts), Joseph S. Alter.