Small Fish, Big Pond

Listening to: Miike Snow, "Song for No One." Since we're watching one of their shows in London, I figure I better post about'em. Miike Snow are Swedish and one of their members used to be in a hip hop band that toured with The Fugees. And as for that name, it "is said to have come from one of their friends called Mike Snow with the spelling of Miike coming from the Japanese film director Takashi Miike." For the record, just reading about the plots and scenes from some of Miike's work makes me cringe. He's one film maker I probably won't be indulging in any time soon.


So, volcano ash willing, I'm off to Europe in a few. Technically it's a vacation although I'm not really sure what I'm vacationing from since my entire life is sort of like a vacation. Still, in solidarity with my travel companions, I'll call it a vacation -- or with a plummy British accent, "holiday."

We're headed to England, Amsterdam, and Barcelona for two weeks. In preparation I wanted to watch an important movie from each country, make a music playlist featuring national artists, and read some history and art books so I can spout half-true facts. That was the plan. Here's what I've really been doing this past week: worked on a revision for the Chloe sequel, left the house only for groceries and the occasional late night donut, watched a tremendous amount of basketball, spent last night blitzing through every episode of My Life as Liz, and generally not preparing for my trip at all. Ameer and I did spent last weekend having a Skins marathon, which is a BBC drama that is similar to Kids the movie. Armed with this important cultural knowledge, I'm excited to talk to random Brits about the show. It will be like someone coming over here and wanting to discuss Gossip Girl or Laguna Beach. I'm excited to reach out to the television watching demographic of London.

Of the three cities we're visiting, I've only never been to Amsterdam. That's quite alright though because Barcelona is a top three city I'd want to live in and London is always a good time because the language barrier is non-existent. Plus I used to live in England for a brief time years ago so this will be a nice return. After all, England is where I learned to drive stick, where I ate real fish and chips, and where I learned the fine art of repairing flutes. During my time there I also created a slang poem directly ripped from Big L titled, "Brit-onics." Don't judge me.

The big question is: What will happen in Amsterdam? Which vices will I be partaking in? What wild and crazy stories will I accrue? Well, seeing as I'm consistently labeled "No Fun Jon" (I know what people say behind my back), I'm going to guess maybe I'll indulge myself with artificial sugar and/or lots of MSG. My companions will fight to keep me from being extra lame but sometimes my inner lame-ity just wins out. You know how that can go.

Before I leave you, here's something fun everyone should do, take this "Name the countries of Europe" quiz from Sporcle. You'll either be impressed with yourself or really embarrassed. I was both; I think I got around 30ish. You have eight minutes. Go.