Thanksgiving

Thanks was gave and food was had -- an excellent time.

I went home on Wednesday, after having a lovely visit with Kris and Claire completing her GREs (she did quite well) and the next day we ate together with the Lyons' at their their house in Rochester Hills.

On Friday I journeyed southward to West Lafayette Indiana. The trip was especially notable since I won a game of Monopoly -- against Phil no less!

The trip back was pretty lousy. I hit foul weather around Ft. Wayne, and it just kept coming. The truck handled pretty well in the snow (and the rain, and sleet, and the freezing rain, and the hail(?)), to my surprise, and I made it back alright.

Winter has finally come to Ann Arbor. Today, I actually had to get out my big black coat and floppy-eared hat. Winter is a good season for me, despite the driving issues. Hopefully this last winter in Ann Arbor will be a nice end to my time here.

Another post after I finish this essay on the demonic in Paradise Lost and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus.

Ps.
Some of you may remember me talking about The Challenge. I ordered it at the Sunrise Cafe in West Lafayette, IN. It's basically a giant pile of eggs, biscuits, has browns, bacon, and possibly more meat, all covered in delicious sausage gravy. I ate the whole thing in one sitting.

Now, there is finally proof.





These surprisingly good pictures were taken on Phil's cell phone. I don't think they really do The Challenge justice -- this thing was massive. Sadly, there are no photos of me and Phil destroying Mank Rage's couches, which happened shortly after my finishing The Challenge.

Das Untersee Prius

Did you know that China is building super-quiet electric/diesel hybrid submarines?

I bet they get great highway mileage.

Oh, also: it seems that those billions we spend on defense isn't good enough because we can't tell where these things are and they can just pop up right next to the U.S.S. Kittyhawk.

It's probably not news to you, but I don't have a radio.

Concerts and Comics and Football

I've been going to a lot of "cultural events" recently. Partly, I think, because it's my last year at the University and I want to get my money's worth.

Two weeks ago, I attended my first football game. It was both disappointing and exciting -- I feel rather torn about it. I suppose my problem is that everyone I met had been building it up for me.

"Oh man, you never forget the first time you walk into The Big House," my co-worker had told me. He said that he felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and marveled at the feeling of being part of something so large.

I did feel something like that. I often complain that since moving out of the dorm I've felt separated from the University. Being at the game was the first time in a long time I have experienced the sensation of being part of a community, a group that shared emotions and experiences. I think we must be hard-wired to seek out these kind of feelings, which is probably why we value family and create our own groups of friends.

I did not have the awe-inspiring psuedo-religious experience that I was promised. I did, however, enjoy a very good game.

Last week, I saw the Russian Patriarchate Choir performing church music and a few folk songs. Less harmonic than a gregorian chant, the singing is as you would probably imagine. Soulful and heavy it filled the room with something like pious joviality.

It was interesting since generally I don't listen to music just for the music. Opera, for instance, is interesting to me not because of the amazing arias or the contra-tenor singing them. I enjoy the plots as much as (if not more so) than the pretty music.

However, the Russian choir was in a totally alien language. Also, I feel like most liturgical music isn't really saying anything all that original. It's generally a lot of praising, and what not. My experience of the music transcended lyrics, and content and was solely about melodies, harmonies, and voice. It was a truly excellent experience, even if I didn't get the jokes that everyone (or rather, every Russian speaker) was laughing at during the folk songs. I suspect some of the members of the audience to be Kossacks.

Tonight, I saw Madeline Peyroux. The concert went pretty much as I imagine. I tried to think of some clever similes to describe it.

"Like drinking the best coffee out of a mahoganey cup."

No? How about:

"Like drinking hot chocolate while sitting in your robe, watching the rain spray across flame-orange trees on a grey autumn day."

I guess it's easier to just say that it was the most mellow experience of my life. Peyroux, who sings like a Frenchier Billie Holiday, was backed by jazzy quartet consisting of a keyboard/pianst, electric guitar, electric/stand-up bass, and drums. The end result is that I felt warm and sleepy the entire time.

Lastly, I found the artist who did my favorite comic from the Flight collection I bought three years ago. It is completely fantastic, and you should all read it.

I haven't forgotten the promises I have made to this blog, but I keep getting distracted. Sometime, soon.

BIO PIC'D

The evidence clearly shows that Martin Scorsese will not stop until he has made a Bio Picmovie about every single artist that was in his record collection in 1974.

It does look kind of cool though.


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Edit: I didn't like my use of "Bio Pic." Really, only the Dylan movie was a Bio Pic. I suppose it's open for debate. The title is staying, though.

Things I've Said

I know, I am way off the schedule that I hinted in the last post.
But I have a really good excuse this time.

The whole alum thing last week dominated my time, but it was completely awesome. I love the alums - there will be more on this later, and I do promise that.
Anyway, the Alums were here and Kris was staying with me (RAD!) but that meant we got no work done on the issue that weekend. So we've been burning the midnight oil all week to layout the issue and also do fun things -- like carve pumpkins.

We just finished. The issue is entirely done. We're doing the copy-edit corrections Friday afternoon, and it will be sent to the printer's before end of business tomorrow.

I'm going to sleep so well.