Saturday
"Mmmm, ninety-year-old men." -Laura, 01/17/2005
I've come to realise that I really don't want to be doing this Volunteer Coordinator gig. It's a headache and a half. I never should have agreed to do it. It's such a huge source of stress, and so on, and so on.
But I have to do it. I agreed to. So here I go, back to slaving over e-mail. Argh.
In good news, Zarya apparantly added me to her new MSN contact list. That actually made my night. Thanks, yo.
I just overheard someone say "Meat and oat meal, that's the only thing he eats.... that's why he's made entirely of protein."
Friday
"I know this one Irish guy named Dana. I know this other guy named Dana; he's not Irish!" -Dylan, 12/23/2005
Quote post!
I: "I'm an aesthete."
D: "What's that?"
I: "Someone who practices aesthetics."
D: "Isn't that knocking people out?"
Ian says something about how his spare pair of pants are not that comfortable.
Patrick: "Are they more comfortable with broken glass on them?"
Ian: "No."
Patrick: "Then you probably shouldn't encase them in glass."
Tuesday, Fourth Week
"You're running against the course of my.... blood!" -Danit, 01/17/2005
First, stuff that happened after that last post: I ran the polar bear run, but I forgot my jock strap, so I had to do without. But don't worry! I made a makeshift frontal loincloth out of a scarf, and things went on according to plan. Also, as I did sound for the SUP poetry slam that night, I absconded with two more armfuls of Cracker Jack. I now have to much to fit in the stache. Rah, Cracker Jack.
Weekend was of the snow. Went sledding in the suburbs with cousens. Picked up the final Christmas present, which was, in fact, a turntable. A rather nice one.
In other news, there is still good in the world.
In other other news, Dylan now apparantly has a website.
I'm sure there's lots of things I'm forgetting to write about, but oh, well.
Friday, Third Week
"Cut the crap, Hamlet! My biological clock is ticking and I want babies NOW!" -Knock 'Em Dead's production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged
Well, I got another Kangeiko T-shirt. And I've been gradually cleaning the room. I forgot, however, what I intended to post about.
While cleaning, I found my secret stache of Cracker Jack. It is deliccimus.
Later that night
"You just haven't found that special second someone yet, that's all." -Geoff, 10/27
Conversation tidbit from a while back:
Amanda: "My father is hot."
Brian: "My father is TOTALLY hott."
Also, I finally typed up my account of SauceStock. It's way back in the old posts, but it's there.
So I've got this quiz tomorrow, raight, over the geography of pre-modern Japan. The instructor (Shouldn't it be 'instructrix'? Or at least 'instructress'?) said that the study materials for it are on chalk. You know what's on chalk? OK, pretty standard, a list of places to identify. But what else? Oh, a blank map. No, wait make that two blank freaking maps. I mean, really. What is this. Come. On.
*grumble*
So, then, a quick summary of the break: Worked for a week (one of those hott Fryn' Pan waitresses from the summer works at Denny's now), hung out with friends and family for a week (my cousin wants to be a nuclear engineer), NatGat in Colorado for a week (warmer than Chicago or Sioux Falls). This, my friends is where stuff happened. But I didn't have my notebook. So I didn't take notes. So I've forgotten most of the specifics. A few I can recall: Rum-soaked miniature cigars = really good. I learned how to play 10,000. The hymn "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus" is even cooler at double speed. Who incorporates a praise & worship band into a sung high mass? Apparantly, no one else thinks sleeves are the hottest thing ever. Met some really cool people from Barbados, partied with Province Seven, belted out "Somewhere over the Rainbow" for karaoke night. "You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride": Don't go to the Bible for pick-up lines.
And, of course, there was all the fun stuff with the young Episcopal guys and the young Episcopal girls and the crushes and the notes and the disappearing together during the dance and whatnot. Wow. I'm glad I have a girlfriend; kept my head clear and out of the thick of that whole mess. Though I must admit, it could have been a very (even more) interesting week if I were single. In fact that was part of the whole mess; most of us young Episcopal guys already had girlfriends, but not everyone was as.... forthcoming about it, so to speak. And some, one could say, just downright changed their minds. At the beginning of the week, we were even making hook-up bets; my guess was totally off, so it's a good thing I never put any money on it. As for me, I just made a lot of new friendships, reinforced a lot of old ones, and had a lot of good times.
Oh, yeah, and I bought a nine-foot bullwhip. The store where I bought it had so many cool things, like metal playing cards with sharpened edges so you could use them as thrown weapons. And blow darts! So. Cool.
And as a pleasant surprise, Leah's hair is now a brownish-reddish-purple. It's so hott.
"I heard about you, I got your PGP key, I write you letters every day."
Epiphany
"What are you, a functional programmer?" -CS Andrew, 11/22
After repeatedly falling asleep while trying to read about the rise of hegemonies in ancient Japan, I noticed, as I exited the library, a flyer for the upcoming Hive show in Ida. They're billing it as a showcase of Hyde Park hip-hop. This got me thinking about the Scene. You know, the Scene. I mean, here's this group, it's just three guys, has been the same three guys since we were all first years. They may not put on shows often, but they're always free and they've got a good rep. But the fact is, they're a fringe group.
As I walked home, I was struck by the fact that most of the HP scene has been consolidated under the banner of Mr. Hyde Records into a scene hegemony, headed by Loren Jan Wilson, who effectively plays the part of a musical Ancestor-God-King. Over the past few years, most of the various groups have been absorbed into his sphere of influence. I never saw it before, I told myself, because I was a part of it from early on. We even, it seemed to me, had the typical hegemonic attitude of making order out of chaos; we subjegated the outlying barbarians, saved them from themselves. This is, of course, a bit overdramatic, but still, to me at least, quite striking.
On some level, I think I already knew this, at least to the degree that I knew there were factions, I was part of one, I wanted ours to win, and furthermore I wanted to be prominant within the heirarchy of that faction. The grim question is "What have we done?" I cannot bring myself to believe that we have done something inherently wrong, and yet.... By gathering the sources of creativity and individuality into one place, are we in fact stifling their capacity for individuality? And what of succession? Will this, like so many other hegemonies, be divided by civil war with the passage of its ruler? A scene divided against itself, to paraphrase, cannot stand. And what of the mandates of that ruler? Before these thoughts occurred to me on my walk home, I had seen a flyer asking for basses to join Rhythm & Jews: my first thought was that I didn't have enough time; my second, that Loren despises a cappela. Now, I trust Loren to be fair and practical towards all genres, but what of his heir (assuming that he ever leaves, and that the Mr. Hyde hegemony survives that departure)?
Granted, I was supposed to be the one to succeed him as head of the label, but there is more to this than the label itself. Look at the way every major band is within his influence. Shorelandband has been within the Mr. Hyde domain for a year now, even more so now that I, a loyal Mr. Hyde trooper, started as unofficial Chair. Look at the way that the musicians and HPmusic listhosts, even the music groups on the Facebook, are pale mirrors of the Mr. Hyde Records message boards. Things seemingly independant, like the Hive or, say, a non-Mr. Hyde comp, use those message boards to promote themselves. The exceptions? WHPK is the only one that comes to mind. I cannot think, any longer, that my antipathy towards WHPK is solely rooted in their formatting style (which I still maintain as reason enough to dislike them).
I have chosen a side.
Hegemonies have always relied on the fact that their footsoldiers believe, or at least can convince themselves, that they are doing what is right and good. The question is, what keeps an empire from becoming The Empire? Not the mall. You know what I mean. Final Fantasy VI. Star Wars. Where does support for those within the group turn into suppression of those outside it?
I don't think I'll attend a concert here in quite the same way ever again.
Wednesday, First Week, Winter Quarter
"You've taking one of those Core classes over there that I know nothing about, and of course those books are not on your bookshelf." -Anne Rogers, 11/05/2004
This is a link post. Did you know that Britney Spears was an expert on semiconductor physics? Unfortunately, the punctuation on the page is atrocious, but this, too, is meaningless.
So my dad bought me a leather jacket for Christmas, and now I avoid eye contact with vegans.