PAYDAY!!! (finally!)
Archive for September, 2005
One word sums up the significance of tomorrow:
Published by September 29th, 2005 in Pleasing. 1 Comment“Should I cross the room and say ‘hi’, or should I stay here and let you come by?”
Published by September 27th, 2005 in Entertainment. 7 CommentsTaryn is being nostalgic over on speakmemory, so I thought I’d do a little reminsicing of my own.
Over the past few days, I’ve been deriving a considerable amount of enjoyment from revisiting some of the music I loved when I was in college. Some of my current (past) favorites:
- Everything by Bobby Llama, but especially “I don’t know”.
- Everything by Chris & Johnny, but especially “Parallel Lives” and “If I could.” (And except for Jackrabbit, which I never really liked.)
- “Fee” and “Wasting Time” by Phish.
I can’t even say how happy these songs make me and how many memories are wrapped up in them.
Bobby Llama, for instance, was made up of a bunch of music majors a couple years ahead of me at Olaf. I saw them perform when I visited Olaf as a senior in high school, and then felt very cool and knowledgeable when they played on the steps outside of Boe Chapel during Week One of my freshman year. I knew who these guys were. I knew this song. For a moment I was cooler than everyone else. Okay, not really, but I felt sort of cool.
For all four years of college, we followed Bobby Llama nearly fanatically. We’d go to Carleton, to the Grand, to the Reub, up to bars in Minneapolis, even to some weird warehouse in Faribault (remember that?? remember when they told us we had to stop dancing because the support beams below the floor were cracking??) to hear them play.
Bobby Llama concerts happened to coincide with major (or so they seemed at the time) life events: Week One. Black Friday (aka Valentine’s Day of our freshman year, when terrifying war broke out on our floor over, not surprisingly, someone’s borrowing of someone else’s shirt). Halloween 1998 (aka the night I started dating Will. Note the prominence of “I don’t know” above).
And when there were no concerts, there was lots of rehearsing the CD. When boys were mean, when boys were nice, when exams were over (or not over), when we had managed to sneak some beer into the dorms, when Mellby flooded, when boys were mean (did I already mention that?), etc.
Man, Bobby Llama. What great times. I suppose it’s not a coincidence that this weekend is our 5 year college reunion. Will and I aren’t going, because we’ve been traveling too much and spending too much money, and because our other non-local friends aren’t going. But I don’t know. If Bobby Llama were still together and if they were playing, I just might have made the trip…
I like to call it “The Lake in Winter”
Published by September 15th, 2005 in Iowa and Pleasing. 2 Comments
Overheard while leaving church:
——
A thirty-something woman with four little kids in tow, to the kids: “I know. That’s why we haven’t done anything yet. We’re dealing with reasonableness issues.”
Her circa-six-year-old son: “But I want to go to the WATER PARK!!!”
——
Oh, how I wanted to follow, lurking a few feet behind, to hear more unreasonable requests and discussions of the problem of reasonableness…
So, one of the many bizarre things I learned today while tracking down meanings attributed to particular jewels in the fourteenth century was this, from the lapidary of Albertus Magnus:
CELIDONIUS:
Celidonius (swallowstone) has two varieties. One is black, the other reddish brown; but both are taken from the stomach of a swallow. The reddish one, if wrapped in a linen cloth of a calfskin and worn under the left armpit, is said to be good against insanity and chronic weakness and lunacy. And Constantinus says that it is good against epilepsy, if worn in the manner described above. Evax moreover reports that it makes one eloquent and pleasing and agreeable. But the black one, as Joseph says, is effective against harmful humors and fevers, and angry threats. If it is washed in water, it cures the eyes; and it brings to a conclusion any business that is undertaken. And if it is wrapped in the leaves of the celandine (swallow wort) it is said to dim the sight. These are very small stones. We have recently seen some extracted by members of our Order from the stomachs of swallows in the month of August; for those taken at that time are said to have more strength. And nearly always two are found together in one swallow.
Man, celidonies seem pretty awesome. I’ve got to get me some swallows. It seems as if once I find a couple of these little buggers, I’ll be sane, strong, eloquent and affable, not to mention the fact that I won’t need glasses anymore and I’ll quickly finish my dissertation. Excellent.
Here’s yet another example highlighting the ways that federal and local governments just can’t seem to work together in the Katrina aftermath:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — The mayor of New Orleans has ordered law enforcement agencies to remove from the city everyone who is not involved in cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, whether they want to go or not.
But U.S. active duty troops will not be involved, the general in charge of military relief efforts said on Wednesday.Lt. Gen. Russel Honore told CNN the task of removing people against their will was a law enforcement job and that the military would continue to deliver food and water to the survivors still in the city.
Who would you listen to if you were still in your flooded house? Policemen or soldiers? People with guns or people with food? How are these victims supposed to know what to do when the people who are supposedly there to take care of them are undermining each other’s efforts?
