Bob Dylan

in a Bob Dylan mood. Thank you, History of Rock class...

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.



I've never realized how small Western Massachusetts could be. Certain things are coming back to haunt me, and I just want them to go away.

un goût amer

« soirée des amoureux »

not a rendez-vous, not a fling, just a sloppy effort
at romance that left us both awkward and cold
now i wear that bittersweet smile
play the woman scorned
victim of a prince charmant
reveling in their secret pity
knowing inside the blurred truth
that does not cut but rather erodes

who do we blame?
i took the risk
wanted too much
you spoke of love
forgot who you were
who do we blame?
two weeks of winter that melted and froze again
all i have is sadness, inadequacy,
overwhelming shame

Blink-182

In my History of Rock class today, we discussed Phil Spector and the Girl Group Era of the 60s. I learned that as the producer of many of these groups, Spector owned the rights to their names, meaning that he could (and would) often record performers on albums without giving them due credit as themselves.

For instance, there was a group called The Crystals, which had five original members. One time, while they were on tour abroad, he brought a different group, The Blossoms, into the recording studio to make an album. He then proceeded to pass this off as The Crystals' album. This was legal.

And is legal. Our professor mentioned that Guns n' Roses' only original member today is Axl Rose. And yet he still tours (and released an album... ick) under the group name. Why? Because he owns the rights to it.

My question was: What about Blink-182? When they went on "hiatus," Mark and Travis formed +44, while Tom formed Angels and Airwaves. Why didn't either of them tour as Blink? Was it because none owned the rights to the name, or rather was the decision sort of a mutual thing, because they knew that they would and could never really replicate the same mentality of the three of them together?

I didn't actually ask this question in class because... I don't know. Self-consciousness, I guess. I get nervous in classes like these, and my previous two questions were poorly worded, so the class probably thinks I'm annoying anyways.

BUT it's a moot point now, because Blink is back together!! Despite my enjoyment of poppy girl and boy bands in the 90s (which, by the way, I have no qualms admitting), I actually liked Blink a lot. Especially "The Rock Show." And now that I'm older I can appreciate some of their songs better, ironic (or not) that may be. I'm going to Warped -- hope they'll be there!!

This needs to stop, internet ad people.

Everywhere I go on the internet, I am hounded by flat stomach ads that go something like this:

1 SIMPLE RULE: OBEY AND YOU WILL HAVE A FLAT STOMACH IN 2 WEEKS LIKE ME.

I would click on one, but I don't want to give the ad any more hits than it deserves, which is none. It may very well be that many Americans are overweight, but promoting stupid and potentially unhealthy ads is not the solution. Obviously you can't get a perfectly flat stomach in two weeks if you're, say, 50 pounds overweight. "Celebrity" juice diets and unsupervised fasting are sketchy claims at best, starting routes to anorexia and other eating disorders at worst.

(Plus the pictures really gross me out and do nothing for my own body image)

2 common examples, because I can't stand it anymore --

And no, my search for "estomac" was not unintentional, though you'll find that no matter what word you search for, more than 5 minutes on wordreference.com yields this ad. Ironic, isn't it, that the Domino's Pizza is directly above it? And a bit inconsistent, n'est-ce pas, that the ad's title is "2 Rules to a Flat Stomach," while the description below the pictures reads "I cut out 2 lbs of stomach fat per week by obeying 1 Golden Rule." Yeah... if somebody who's trying to sell you something can't tell the difference between 1 and 2, I'd say you're better off declining the offer.




Oh, this is classic. An article about the deaths of anorexic Brazilian models framed by a banner ad about a get skinny quick "trick" called the "Golden Rule." And what would that be, "don't eat"?

iPod

I almost lost my i-pod today. My Zara boots are completely useless for traction, and I slipped while walking down my front steps (while the guy behind me laughed.. seriously, wtf). My ipod fell from my bag, but I didn't notice for a few minutes.

Fortunately, someone found it. I actually feel self-conscious when people look through my playlists/albums (especially since my first album, alphabetically, is The Academy Is...). At the time, I was listening to a playlist entitled "totally emo stuff." Do they judge me based on my music? If this was your first impression of me, what does that say? Does it matter?

Rock & Roll and Amherst College, my *dream school*

From one of my readings for the course Roll Over Beethoven- The History of Rock:

"Art is art, and great rock & roll is great rock & roll no matter what kind of maniac is playing it"

I'm trying to take classes that fall outside my normal comfort zone, which gives me mixed feelings. The list so far:

- Rock & Roll (above): cool class. Makes me wish I could play the guitar.

- The Novel Now: English class for my minor. Just finished White Noise, which I didn't particularly like, but the rest of the readings look interesting - The Inheritance of Loss, Toni Morrison's A Mercy, Philip Roth...

In other words, contemporary fiction that I might read for myself anyways. This is good and bad. Good because the books will grasp my attention at once. Bad because I have to read them for a class. Much of the pleasure in pleasure reading for me comes from the very fact that I don't have to understand the deeper meaning behind every chapter if I don't want to. And, in particular, if I don't like the book, I can stop reading or just not pay attention. Not so here.

Plus class discussion in English courses has always been a problem for me.

- Business French: supposed to prepare me for the exam administered by the French Gov't that officially certifies you are at a certain competence level in terms of professional skills. So if I really want to live/work in Paris (yeah, I know... dream on, right), this is what I need.

So far, it's a lot of work that I'm not that motivated to do. I mean, I'm going to be working in NYC for the next 2-ish years, and I'll probably just forget all the stuff I learn anyways. So what's the point?

- Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness: not only is the subject a bit different from the run-of-the-mill Econ, it's taught at Amherst. Very mixed feelings about this one.

I must admit, I decided to take this class to "pursue my happiness," in fact, because I have never taken a class at another 5 College school. So a part of me just wanted to do that -- it's my last chance, after all. I just hope there's no *attitude*/stigma against 5-college ppl. Just because it was my *dream school* when I was 17 doesn't mean it is now. But I wonder if any animosity exists - i.e. do people there look down on non-Amherst ppl because they feel we're slipping in since we weren't "good enough" to get into Amherst "the real way."

I think I'm the only non-Amherst student in the class. It's so weird taking the bus to and from; it makes me feel like I'm in high school again, sitting by the window by myself and daydreaming. It's kind of nice.

Plus the coed factor.

Though I feel like every time I tell somebody I'm taking a class at Amherst, the automatic/obligatory response is "oooh guys *wink wink*." It's funny... the first time, but after that it just gets annoying. I would take this class if it were offered at Smith, too. Rarely does an Econ class go beyond the typical models/assumptions mix elements of Psychology and Philosophy. And the professor is hilarious.

I won't deny that I often wonder what it would have been like had I gone to a coed school; this is my first coed class since high school (not counting Paris, where there were too many other cultural differences that came into play for me to even consider this). It's certainly quite different; like I said, it's definintely outside my comfort zone, but I think that's necessary. For life, I mean. To be able to adapt to different environments. And yes, it's nice to have guys in the class for once...
But I hate how everybody here (even some Amherst people probably) assumes that I'm in the class because I'm soooo guy deprived. I'd be a pretty pathetic human being indeed if I were to willingly give up my Wednesday and Friday afternoons just to see some guys. Um, if I wanted to do that, I'd just hit up frat row at UMass. Or, you know, go into town. Just because you don't walk out of the Smith bubble doesn't mean I can't.

This has turned into too long a rant for me to continue. But it was nice getting it all this annoyance out... not aimed at anyone in particular, of course. Who knows, maybe I'll end up not taking the course; we'll see after my talk with the Prof.

For me, this last semester is all aobut moving away from my typical experiences at Smith. It's a transitional period in my life, so my courseload should and will reflect that as well.