New Years' Lament
I purchased a Ukulele a few months back. I really love it, but its too damn small so I ended up buying a really nice tenor uke (but it hasn't actually arrived yet). It seems like a really interesting instrument to use out of context, ie: not singing poppy hawaian tunes. I have been playing Radiohead songs on it, those seem to work really well. I also just discovered how simple "Hallelujah" is, so I've been working on that as well. I think I'm going to try to turn it into a serious instrument. Haha. At least within the context of my playing.
Speaking of Hallelujah, here's a pretty interesting paper written about the song and its context within pop-culture:
clapclap.org
My favorite line has to do with bacon (but don't all favorite lines have something to do with bacon?):
"The use of "Hallelujah" here [on the OC] was like wrapping a strange new vegetable in bacon: you know this is good/true/right, so why not try what goes along with it?"
So anyway, I got two As again this semester. Though one was an A-, which annoys me, but I realize most people don't get all As so I should be happy. I do find it strange that both of my A-'s sofar have been in my high-level non-US history classes. Maybe I should stay away from those? Haha.
This semester I've got some really interesting classes for once: 60s lit (with Dr. Dave!), History of American Music, and a class about the Presidency taught by scholarly-guy & "Robinson Professor" Richard Norton Smith. The class looks pretty interesting, but one of the books is a survey of American History that people seem to think its blatantly biased in its post-1960s pages. Curiously, it costs $19.60 on amazon. Weirder than that is that I already own the book (I bought it from McKays a few years ago for $3. I won't judge a class by one book on the list though, I'm sure the class will be fun.
I'm still debating what I want to do when I'm done with school too. Part of me wants to join the Peace Corps, but part of me wants to wander aimlessly around europe and south asia for a couple of years. I may as well do it while I can, I suppose. I'm not yet married (with no real prospects) and the only debt/responsibility I have is the house. All I need is a good tennant (or some solid room mates) and I should be able to dissapear for a year or two. I have two good roomies now, but one is leaving sometime next year. The other will probly stay till one of us gets married and the wife says either "Ben, you have to get that guy out of your basement so we can have a family" or "Mark, you can't live in your friend's basement your whole life" though, I don't know how well either arguement would work. Again, we'll see.
Other, more immediate plans include: taking some music theory classes, writing more non-fiction and writing more songs, and maybe even to start recording again.
Speaking of Hallelujah, here's a pretty interesting paper written about the song and its context within pop-culture:
clapclap.org
My favorite line has to do with bacon (but don't all favorite lines have something to do with bacon?):
"The use of "Hallelujah" here [on the OC] was like wrapping a strange new vegetable in bacon: you know this is good/true/right, so why not try what goes along with it?"
So anyway, I got two As again this semester. Though one was an A-, which annoys me, but I realize most people don't get all As so I should be happy. I do find it strange that both of my A-'s sofar have been in my high-level non-US history classes. Maybe I should stay away from those? Haha.
This semester I've got some really interesting classes for once: 60s lit (with Dr. Dave!), History of American Music, and a class about the Presidency taught by scholarly-guy & "Robinson Professor" Richard Norton Smith. The class looks pretty interesting, but one of the books is a survey of American History that people seem to think its blatantly biased in its post-1960s pages. Curiously, it costs $19.60 on amazon. Weirder than that is that I already own the book (I bought it from McKays a few years ago for $3. I won't judge a class by one book on the list though, I'm sure the class will be fun.
I'm still debating what I want to do when I'm done with school too. Part of me wants to join the Peace Corps, but part of me wants to wander aimlessly around europe and south asia for a couple of years. I may as well do it while I can, I suppose. I'm not yet married (with no real prospects) and the only debt/responsibility I have is the house. All I need is a good tennant (or some solid room mates) and I should be able to dissapear for a year or two. I have two good roomies now, but one is leaving sometime next year. The other will probly stay till one of us gets married and the wife says either "Ben, you have to get that guy out of your basement so we can have a family" or "Mark, you can't live in your friend's basement your whole life" though, I don't know how well either arguement would work. Again, we'll see.
Other, more immediate plans include: taking some music theory classes, writing more non-fiction and writing more songs, and maybe even to start recording again.