27.1.09

Because the rest of the world doesn't seem to exist.

American Exceptionalism, writ into the urban fabric.

The City, as of the last twenty years or so, is now again seeping into cultural relevance once again. In The City with cultural institutions and pop-culture references on every block, it is interesting to think that only a generation or two ago, the sitcoms, characters and plots that America paid attention to were out in the suburbs. We never really knew where the Brady Bunch lived, other than some newly minted ranch-style house in suburban California somewhere. A generation or two before that, American storytelling used The Great West as a setting, with cowboys and indians and all sorts of other cultural constructions to sell cigarettes and live in the appropriate setting for wherever the American Dream was taking place. Now, with Seinfeld, Sex in the City, Friends, and now Gossip Girl, and the Disneyification of Times Square and TRL and Dave Letterman and Jon Stewart and Real World Brooklyn and even popular blogs all using Manhattan as an address, one can't help but wonder if the American Story has moved back into a small condo on the Island. Other cities too have seen this rebirth of cultural significance through television and pop culture references: Seattle now sells coffee and Grey's Anatomy, Chicago is cool again, and every once in a while some deadbeat character from some show is from Portland. I'm writing this kind of quickly, without tons of research on the matter, but as I pass Tom's Restaurant on the Upper West Side every day, I can't help but wonder if it represents a larger cultural appreciation of the relevance and "cutting edge" of cities.

I leave Thursday for the Pinheiros neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. I should probably start to learn some Portuguese.

26.1.09

Winter and the City.


, originally uploaded by Aaron Michael Brown.

It's difficult for me to really talk about New York. I've spent my life in a leafy suburb of a leafy city, and the Twin Cities also largely seem to lack the gritty, industrial, asphalt might that New York shoves in your face the minute the clouds break and the five boroughs come in to view during a LaGuardia descent. To catapult yourself into New York City is to truly grasp at the notion of what Anne Spirn called "The Granite Garden;" a meticulously controlled, intensely contested, bluntly grim lattice of concrete and steel boxes where the bitter cold wind only intensifies the trademark New York cold shoulder. And yet, despite this island's fierce landscape and unwelcoming appearance, humanity seems to thrive here. Sometimes it feels as though every block of every borough is a significant cultural institution, a tribute to American ingenuity and labor that such a dense, dirty old city of steel can thrive with such flair and personality. I've almost started to pick up the arrogant world view espoused by East Coasters that the country ends on the Hudson; after a week on these islands carefully divided into cartesian grids and blocks, Oregon and Minnesota just seem so far away, like such abstractions, and without much internet access I feel like the tribulations of Portland's mayor or the midwest's harsh wind chill could be a world away. As I sit in the International House, a giant dormish building for international students at NYC schools, I keep placing myself on this mental map in the Upper West Side, surrounded by neighborhoods of varying ethnic background and socioeconomic status, thinking about the tales of power struggle and the astonishing ability of New Yorkers to challenge the outside forces that attempt to break their neighborhoods, be it gentrification, terrorism, environmental racism, pollution, segregation, or any of the other urban ills that have threatened the livelihoods of citizens of these islands. The other night, we went to an improv comedy club on the lower east side. While I enjoyed their dorky jokes about video games and pop culture references to musicians, I was most struck by the way the crowd and the comedians appropriated the latest story in the city. Somehow, the comedians ended up on a plane, and the skit involved a plane crash with that pilot that miraculously guided the plane into the river and avoided death and destruction. While the story has a happy ending and a hero was made, I would have assumed that jokes about plane crashes we're still a bit of an uneasy topic here. And yet, after a quiet beat shared by the audience and the comedians, they took it and ran with it, joking about how awesome the pilot was and how he could land a plane no matter how shitty the situation. The last week has given me rose-tinted happy glasses to wear when thinking about the American Dream, and the co-opting of fear and uncertainty into the austere bravado of a city of dreamers, thinkers and idealists seems like an appropriate example of something this country does right.

I am amused by the fact that you can't spell either audacity or authenticity without the word "city."

I am here until Thursday, at which point I depart for Pinheiros, a wealthy neighborhood in Sao Paulo. For some reason, they decided that I should be the guy who gets slated to lead the 35 of us through John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport. We're screwed.

22.1.09

I'm alive.


, originally uploaded by Aaron Michael Brown.

New York City is so gritty, so bustling. I've been waking up early every morning (seriously!) to walk down to the main street and buy some warm breakfast, and the city looks nice with a little extra snow. I watched the inauguration in Times Square, I've managed to hit three of the five boroughs (and really, who visits Staten Island?), it's the Chinese New Year this monday, I've got a big bike ride planned from here in the Upper West to the Brooklyn Bridge, and until now I've been blessed to hardly even think of Oregon or Minnesota. I'm optimistic about the rest of the kids in the program, and I'm looking forward to Sao Paulo. I also, at the moment, have absolutely nothing profound to say.

18.1.09

So long, Oregon.


So long, Oregon., originally uploaded by Aaron Michael Brown.

Portland, Orygun, Cascadia - Dec 15 to Jan 19
New York, New York, USA - Jan 19 to Jan 29
São Paulo and Curitibas, Brazil Jan 30 to Mar 4
Cape Town, South Africa Mar 5 to Apr 10
Hanoi, Vietnam Apr 11 to May 15th


...and so it begins! I revived this blog with the intention of writing a lot more than I currently have, and for that I apologize. I had a unique idea that I would either post one picture of a thousand words in every entry (since, you know, they are worth the same...) but i've been relying heavily on the photo option and keeping any thoughts I have about urbanism, geography, life in the suburbs, Paul Schaffer, bicycles, technology, relationships, and Real Human Moments (tm) to myself. Now that I'm about to skip about the world, maybe I'll have more thoughts and ideas that I feel compelled to share with the rest of the world. I am more than aware that starting a blog about studying abroad is just a starved excuse for attention and an attempt at pretending that my particular experiences HAVE NEVER BEEN EXPERIENCED BY ANYONE ELSE BEFORE EVER, but I'm hoping i find some gimmicky, interesting way to present my thoughts that you keep coming back for more. I know the internet doesn't need another skinny white guy writing about his left-leaning political ideology or his caffeinated experiences in a foreign country, but I won't let that stop me. I had a livejournal in high school that was clearly the shit, and just imagine what I could do to this blog with a little html, some life-changing experiences and non-qwerty keyboards.

Hello. My name is Aaron, and I'm about to travel 25000 miles across the globe to learn something about sustainability, urbanity, social justice, and pho noodles. Nice to meet you.

16.1.09

"It must be in the air here."

Washington Park, on a beautiful sunny wintery day in Portland Oregon.


Do you spend more time checking out how your facebook profile appears than you do checking out how you look in the mirror?

13.1.09

All the rage these days




And if all your love was wasted, then who the hell was I?

11.1.09

Lauren and Trimet


Lauren and Trimet, originally uploaded by Aaron Michael Brown.

Upon my arrival from my voyage down to Eugene, I have made a todo list to guide the next week of my life before I go on my study abroad program. As follows, with no particular order.


Luggage lock?
Pick up camera lens from shop
Lunch with a mister Nick Hagerty
Lunch with Grandma Brown
Mail that music package to the Berk
Is Lauren Middleton still in town? Is anyone still in town?
Summer Applications for jobs! Call Macalester about the Lilly Fellowship
IHP homework - write a paper on Oregon's Urban Growth Boundaries?
Blazers road trip! Four games this week to watch.
Blind Pilot concert this next Saturday night at the Aladdin
Figure out if I'm serious about that free tattoo that parlor is offering
Visit Sunset High School?
Compile extensive postcard list for study-abroad; if you would like a postcard please consider emailing me your address.
Talk my father into taking me up to the mountain and going snowboarding
What the fuck am I going to do for a cell phone for the next few months?
Bury everything distracting that I don't need.
Finish reading Everything is Illuminated and Running with Scissors and Hey Nostradamus!
Get some sleep

9.1.09


, originally uploaded by Aaron Michael Brown.

Leaves are turning brown
All over the ground
Leaves make like paper
Make like paper sounds

Way back, back then
I considered you my best friend
But the last time I saw you
I knew I'd never see you again

-Make Like Paper, Red House Painters.

6.1.09

The First Meal of 2009

2.1.09

ringing in the new year.