some birds are funny when they talk
corner



Fellows:

Aijung
Alyssa
Angela
Bobby
Carla
Dave
Ester
Jesse
Jonah
Josie
Kate
Lillie
Nori
Rabi
Rebecca

Mincetapes

e-mince

Photos!

Nice

Archives:

Stuck in my Head
"Kiss Me Harder" by Bertine Zetlitz
"Hot" by Avril
"Brain Problem Situation" by They Might Be Giants


Now Reading
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Recently Finished
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Mad Tony and Me by Carl Hoffman
Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guaralnick
This Must Be The Place: Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century by David Bowman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Movies Lately
Sicko
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
2 Days in Paris
United 93
The Savages
The Bourne Ultimatum
Sweeney Todd
The Departed
Juno
Enchanted
What Would Jesus Buy?
Ghost World
Superbad
I'm Not There
She's The Man
Superbad
Lars and the Real Girl
Romance and Cigarettes
No Country for Old Men
Into the Wild
Gattaca
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
Across the Universe

Shows Lately
Damo Suzuki/Stinking Lizaveta @ Mill Creek
Death and the Maiden @ Curio
Devon Sproule/Carsie Blanton/Devin Greenwood/John Francis @ Tin Angel
Assassins @ The Arden
Oakley Hall and the Teeth @ Johnny Brendas
Isabella and Flamingo/Winnebago and Map Me and Gatz and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Sonic Dances and Strawberry Farm and The Emperor Jones and No Dice and Hearts of Man and Principles of Uncertainty and Isabella and BATCH and Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's 20th Century and Car and Sports Trilogy and Explanatorium and Wandering Alice and Must Don't Whip Um and Festival of Lies and A Room of Ones Own and Recitatif @ the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe
Martha Graham Cracker and Eliot Levin and Kilo etc. @ the Fringe Cabaret
Lullatone and Teletextile @ Boulder Coffee [Rochester]
TV Sound @ the M Room
Aretha Franklin @ East Dell, Fairmount Pk.
Romeo + Juliet in Clark Park
Daft Punk @ Red Rocks
Spoon @ Rockefeller Park
Ponytail at Pony Pants' House
Mirah/Benjy Ferree @ the 1UC
Tortoise @ World Cafe Live
Hall & Oates...ish
"Nuclear Dreams" - Mascher Dance Group, x2
The Four of Us @ 1812
Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines by Rainpan whatever
Mascher Dance Group/Nathaniel Bartlett
Cornelius @ TLA
Sloan @ World Cafe
In Fluxxxx
Slavic Soul Party!/Red Heart the Ticker @ I-House
the Fantasticks @ Mum
Peter Bjork + Jorn/Fujiya + Miyagi @ fkaTLA
John Vanderslice @ Johnny Brendas
The Books & Todd Reynolds @ 1UC
Into the Woods @ LPAC
The Fishbowl @ the Frear
Caroline, or, Change @ the Arden
Low & Loney, Dear. @ 1UC




Tuesday, October 30

I've been thinking a lot about Alyssa and Liza and, actually, Meredith. Nothing special, just that they're all great. I want to write a long letter to Alyssa, but I don't know when I'll have the time. I also have to dub her tape (I want a copy for myself), and I have an elaborate concept of a newspaper-style liner note for it. Especially this weekend, I miss her.

I woke up easily at 8:30, time to do some French and get frustrated with travelocity trying to purchase plane tickets for Thanksgiving. I wonder about people changing clothes every day - what would it be like if those changes occured more gradually? I've been wearing my fuzzy red scarf and Ben's gray hoodie with the college seal, necessary in this cold. Today with muted college colors; pine cords, chestnut turtleneck, Barb's black cap, Brennan's red-brown Rockports. I talked a lot in syntax - that stuff is so friendlily systematic in conversation, even if its sometimes frighteningly exacting in writing. Kari has this uncanny, almost sexy way of letting her face widen out into a infectious, knowing grin as she finishes a sentence and turns to the class. The class was more sedate than usual, although there was a truck standoff out the picture window. The world out there doesn't exist.

I went to a percussion workshop with Kakraba Lobi, a Ghanian xylophone master who has achieved legendary status with Matt and myself, if nobody else. Kakraba was as badass as you would want, speaking only little in his fractured English, just casually demonstrating a pattern with a somewhat disdainful look on his face. The workshop was made less enjoyable by a handful of onlookers, the sort who are there "to lend a hand" but end up lending an air of condescension; a benevolent-faced girl in a gray sweater, various dance faculty by virtue of, and mostly an awful woman in a print tank who essentially wrested control of the workshop from Kakrabi for substantial portions of the time to painfully and unneccessarily break down a pattern into its components, isolating it from any musical or rhythmic continuity. Ben pointed out that I don't really know how the workshop was intended to proceed, but as I saw it she was somewhat rudely rejecting the approach of learning by observation, and cheapened the experience by infusing it with an incongruous western educational specificity. Not a huge deal, but I found it rather offensive.

Then to Sharples, the first time in weeks, for some Asian chicken salad LOs on the lawn with Ben and Ester as she complained about not having a major and not liking the school - this crisis spurred on by her new conviction that Bruce Dorsey hates her. It's hard to reason her out of being upset, because then she'll just accuse me of being argumentative. ("is it passive-aggressive to tell people things via the blog?" she asked this morning. i dunno, what's wrong with that?) Ester, you'll be okay. Let's see how much Pynchman I can get done in the next 16 hours. 150pp? Ready, set, go!

tout est bleu