M.I.A. no longer (I neither fly like paper nor get high like planes)

Argh. I apologize (mostly to myself) for not posting in such a long time. Stories/pictures from New Mexico are forthcoming, I promise - for now I'll summarize and say that it was a fantastic trip.

I'm back at school and, as always, shopping period is driving me into the cliffs of insanity. And we've only had a day of classes. Oy vey. And the inauguration! I haven't even talked about that. Maybe I'll come back to that and reflect a bit later. For now I'll leave you with Alex Ross's take on the music, with which I essentially agree.

Ross's final point: "I liked most of all the diverse picture of the classical world that the performers presented: an Israeli-born violinist, a Chinese-American cellist, a Venezuelan-born pianist, and an African-American clarinetist from the South Side of Chicago."

I mean, John Williams was kind of a lame choice - as some other critic said, they should have just played Copland - but it fit in well nonetheless. Other than that, I nearly cried several times, including during the swearing in when he said his full name. And also, you know, everything he said. I keep on pinching myself to find out if this really happened. Now, at some point in the months and years to come, people are going to inevitably be unhappy with him because there is no way he can live up to the expectations of every single person who has entrusted their hope and faith in his vision. But I'm an anthropologist, and I believe that symbolic events can carry a lot of weight. This one, I think, has the power to inspire the world. It's been fascinating to read the accounts of my friends who watched the inauguration from abroad.

I promise that I'll write at least the first installment of my New Mexico stories tomorrow. But now to bed, because I'm worn out already. Looking forward to this weekend, when I'll be seeing Kenny Garrett in Boston! He has such a gorgeous sound. Can't wait.

And now, your moment of Zen (courtesy of my brother):