Disrupting your meal

Animals are known to kind of freak out if you mess with their meal time. Humans are basically no different, and thankfully I was not attacked. My method of disruption was to approach random tables, preferably with few people at them, along with people standing in line, and a few people eating alone. I would start asking semi personal questions like where you live on campus, where you're from, what's your birthday and so on. The large tables often shooed me away after one or two questions. The people standing in line tended to open up more than the others, but still to shy away leaving me with only one question answered because they had just gotten their food. The loners were the most surprising group the opened up and were willing to talk. In doing so, this group already breaking the norms by showing up alone continues to do so in orderly fashion. In general, I was there and gone, I limited myself to no more than seven questions, so that I wouldn’t be overly intrusive. I observed how people acted after I came up to them, and most seemed to have disapproval written all over their face. It just shows you how open college students really are.

The intracacies of the Dining Halls

I spent two separate hours observing this environment, and the people bustling to and fro around it. For good measure I spent one of the hours in Rams Head and another in Lenoir, coming away with a similar picture of both places. The people come and go frequently, usually in groups ranging from 2 to ten, and sometimes alone. Sometimes, on less crowded occasions, the people will go straight for the food, but the norm is for people to find a table first then to go get food. Getting food is an interesting process; it involves standing in lines, some of which can get very long and waiting for a person behind a counter to serve you food. After that, lively eating and discussion happens across hopefully decent food. It is abnormal for people to approach others and ask to sit with them; I observed one fellow who struck out when he asked to join a group.

What I was listening to last class

One of my favorite parts about going to class is listening to music on the way there. I do enjoy most of my classes, specifically the ones related to my Classical Archaeology major. I'm applied to go to a field school in an ancient city called Gabii, which was a neighbor of Rome while both were budding city-states. So, to get back on topic, I was listening to a mix of music made for me and by me. It opens with a Ziggy Marley song called "Into the Groove." As I'm sure you can tell by it's name, it is a great album starter for basically any album. Ziggy Marley is in fact the eldest son of Bob Marley, in case you few followers were wondering. At this particular time, I was very hooked on ska and reggae music. Also appearing on the mix are Bob himself, a ska band Reel Big Fish, and Sublime. Other bands includeThe Avett Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Daft Punk, and The Grateful Dead. I enjoy this mix, it reminds me of my senoir year in high school, when as bad as things were, things still kind of made sense. Above that, it has some very awesome songs on it. I am still a coneseur of the CD, so I have to be picky with my music (unless burning) and what I buy, CD's are more expensive.

Event, Jazz in the cabaret

Just this past Tuesday I attended an event in the area under the Student Union called the Cabaret. The band played jazz. Honestly I don't remember the name of the band, and the friend I went with won't pick up his phone right now. That aside, I promise the band exists, and that the event happened; I hope my word is good enough. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. All of the band members knew how to play their instruments well. One member I recall in particular was playing the uud. This is a Middle Eastern guitar like instrument with a half egg shaped body and a short neck.

There were no vocals, but the person who seemed to be the leader of the band was playing the flute. As a guitarist, I always enjoy seeing and hearing other people play the instrument. I could tell everyone on the stage was enjoying themselves. The pianist, who also played the accordion, added a great element to the sound coming from the stage. Seeing that kind of music being played makes me interested in picking up a new style of playing for myself. I've stopped practicing recently, and I can't wait to get back into the thick of the musical action.

Rasta Man Vibration, Yeahh

The first song on this particular album happens to be "Stir it Up." This song is one of my favorite Bob Marley songs, the bass guitarist absolutely shines, allowing the crowd to jam to the funky vibrations man. This particular style of music actually developed on the stage, not in the recording studio, like all great bands should. It became popular, and eventually it spread off of the island, and one of the most notable artists was Bob Marley and the Wailers, a group of talented Jamaican musicians who brought the soul, and rocked the house. The next song, "Get up, Stand up" is calling you to the spiritual battle field. I feel as if I talk a lot about dancing, or it has become a "motif," perhaps. You should know that I don't really spend my whole day dancing around with music on, but I really love to do it. Also on this album are "Trenchtown Rock" and the famous "No Woman No Cry"; which was not meant to mean if you don't have a woman you don't have troubles. Rather, he's telling a woman not to cry cuz "Everything is gonna be alright". The last song on this particular album is the eternal "Jamming," thus leaving the audience in a blissful state of being tired from dancing.

CCR, Great American Music

Today, I'm listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival; this band is one of the most bad-ass, freedom lovin' music you'll ever hear in your life. If you stop and listen, you'll hear it: Rock and Roll baby! And you realize suddenly that you want to dance, maybe you grab your friends and start jiggin' to the music. And then you have a hard time typing because "Proud Mary" just came on and you're "Rollin' rollin' rollin' on a river." Once you start dancing, you look up, and you see the "Bad Moon Risin," and you know "The end is comin' soon." To explain, what all this means is that I've been danceing in my chair now for a while, but I'm about to go change the song to "Down on the Corner," I was also thinkin' I'd turn the volume up. Lose yourself to the music, and it will take you all the places you've ever thought you'd want to be. Don't stop dancing, the guitar solo is coming. "You don't need a penny just to hang aroung, but if you've got a nickel won't you lay you're money down?" I love this music. Rock and Roll is lost: it's no longer the music of the youth, sissies! "It ain't me! It ain't me! I ain't no fortunate one!" It's never you. And you keep on dancing. Not to look cool, but because dancing to this badass music is fun as hell, and you shouldn't stop bobbing your head.

A space filler

Assignments are funny things. often times I find that they are things I really don't want to part take in. I feel as if they rule my life constricting my actions, putting me in a box, a wee small box, and the only way out is the light at the end of the tunnel which involves you doing the assignment to get there. I want to break the box! I want that to be my method of escape, because I know deep down that the light at the end of the assignment tunnel just leads to more assignments and another box with a dim light at the end of the tunnel. I know that part of wanting to go to college is wanting to do assignments, but screw that. I came here for understanding, and it is evident to me that I can't get anything I need, anything essential to life if I stay here. That said, college sure is a way to get a job. woo! then i get to be put in another box called being dependent on money and an unreliable economy. I joke about running, but if you find me to be missing one day, maybe... just maybe I'm gone.

Truly,
Yours