Monday Shmunday

It is officially 2nd semester senior year. My time is beginning to free itself.

What shall I do?

I am going to watch old movies until I am no longer a functioning human being.

The Residents

I am in love. I have been listening to this band on and off for a few years now and only yesterday decided to check them out on Youtube. Wow, what an idiot I was for not having done so before. To whomever is reading this: do yourself a favor and do the same.

I really, really feel like an idiot for thinking of that so late. They fit perfectly my grandiose sense of the absurd and ironic (and many know how grandiose it can be). They make no sense and they are just plainly strange (my Friday-flight-group would say that we were meant to be -and I hope that's true). I would marry the idea of them if it were possible (maybe after gay marriage?).

I have watched some of their videos over and over again and have felt a resurgence of inspiration! Release the floodgates! I feel an artistic connection - which everyone knows is more important than a romantic connection.

Watch this and this and this. You will not be sorry.

Another appealing thing about them is their mysterious personas. No one really knows who "The Residents" are. They hide behind their giant eyeball masks never revealing themselves. Some silly humans seem to think its actually The Beatles. The Beatles really aren't that cool, trust me.

Some Wikipedia tidbits:

-"Whilst attempting to make a living, they began to experiment with tape machines, photography, and anything remotely to do with "art" that they could get their hands on."

-"Much of the speculation about the members' true identities swirls around their management team, known as "The Cryptic Corporation."

-"The group purchased crude recording equipment and instruments and began to make tapes, refusing to let an almost complete lack of musical proficiency stand in the way."

-"In 1971 the group sent a reel-to-reel tape to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Brothers, since he had worked with Captain Beefheart (one of the group's musical heroes). Halverstadt was not overly impressed with "The Warner Bros. Album" (he describes it as "okay at best" in "Uncle Willie's Cryptic Guide to the Residents"), but awarded the tape an "A for Ariginality". Because the band had not included any name in the return address, the rejection slip was simply addressed to "The Residents". The members of the group then decided that this would be the name they would use (first becoming Residents Unincorporated, then shortening it to the current name)."

D.C. Excursion

I went down to D.C. this weekend to visit my sister. The whole family was there, The Parents, The Sister, The Brother-in-Law, The Dog-Nephew.

I love my family, BUT it feels that when we're together people are always unintentionally taking sides/ feeling attacked. For instance, if my sister and I disagree with The Mom, she feels as though we are ganging up on her. And often I feel attacked because I am the youngest, and people always seem to have it in their head (despite how old the young one is) that they are naïve, and slightly daft. They don't want to acknowledge whatever intelligence I have. Even when I kill them in Scrabble.

My sister usually forgets she's supposed to be on my side. So, when I'm relaying some grievance I may have with the 'rents she argues for them, and then remembers that siblings are supposed to be in on it together and quickly changes her tune.

She's also getting into family planning mode. Scary stuff.

All family stuff aside, D.C. is a really cool city. My sister lives in Capitol Hill and its really beautiful. Though, there are a lot of ritzy shops and Yuppies around the Eastern Market area. I did, however, stumble upon this crazy used book store on a side street a block past the market. It was 3 floors of floor to ceiling shelves of bookcases that were packed together so tightly it was hard to move. It was a little pricey for used bookstores, but I was in heaven. I'm at a point where I no longer find main-stream first run book stores enjoyable. I really enjoy the hunt for treasures hiding in stacks and behind other books. I found this big-ass book of Icelandic Sagas, way cool. In the front they had all these books on display and they had a copy of Mein Kampf and they had a little tag that said: "Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. Not signed."

I so want to work in a used bookstore. Maybe when I move to Boston after graduation. We shall see.

Schiller

1 - Das Philosophische Gespräch

Einer, das höret man wohl, spricht nach dem andern,

doch keiner

Mit dem andern; wer nennt zwei Monologen Gespräch?

Philosphical Conversation

After each other they speak, but neither speaks with the

other

Monologues we hear two, dialogue none at all.

2 - Aufgabe

Keiner sei gleich dem andern, doch gleich sei jeder dem

Höchsten!

Wie das zu machen? Es sei jefer vollendet in sich.

Task

None should equal the other, but each should equal the

highest!

How is this to be done? Each should perfect himself.

3 - Mein Glaube

Welche Religion ich bekenn? Keine von allen,

Die du mir nennst! - Und warum keine? - Aus Religion.

My Faith

Which Religion do I profess? Not one of the many

that you enumerate. Why? Simply out of religion.

Quote of the day

This one comes from Ruth:

"Before you criticize anyone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have thier shoes." -Frieda Norris

It so fits Ruth's humor (who is far away in her homeland of Germany).

Pedagogy

Now that school has recommenced after a week-long hiatus, I can feel it sucking all good out of me.

On my own, I am artistically productive. I also go forth with self-prompted research in subjects that capture my attention. Recently it has been insane monarchs, and I have found some interesting stuff.

This school business is successful at keeping me uncreative* and unlearnèd in areas I find most interesting. Instead I must while away the hours doing calculus formulas, reworking french sentences, studying for uninteresting tests, and answering stupid questions about good books.

*Though, I am in a very good creative writing class where I am being pushed harder than ever before.

School is silly:

I was actually yelled at the other day in my art portfolio class for drawing when I should have been watching the poorly put together slide show.

My History teacher does not appreciate questions or comments that originated from but are not pertaining directly to the course material (ie-no discussion).

We are not allowed to sit quietly in the hallway when we don't have a class, instead we must try to get work done in the very noisy cafeteria or library.

Sometimes they randomly close the library and we all have to squeeze into the cafeteria.

Some teachers hate being there more than we do and make sure we know it.

Frohes Neues Jahr!

So, my new year started off pretty damn good (quite Maude-like, if I might add). I went to the Dresden Dolls new years masquerade music and merriment extravaganza!

This band has helped me get through high school. I have played their CDs more times than any in my entire collection. I connect to what they have to say. They're also the only other band (I know of) that makes references to WW2 and German: something I appreciate wholeheartedly. I remember discovering them and being like: "wow, how is it possible they fit me so perfectly?" They have an amazing ability to blend the sinister, the glamorous, the intelligent, the ironic, the whatever. Everything I love they are. It is fabulous.

It was also just amazing to know that they are in the EXACT same place that I was. Amanda came out in the audience and was next to me, actually fucking beside me. I love this woman, she is one of the most inspiring women that I know (something to do with the fact that her music is the soundtrack to my life, and that being famous hasn't gone to her head) and I was she was like right there. I guess its a similar experience to when catholics visit the pope (or something).

Anyway, they put on an amazing concert. I like how it wasn't like a sit down watch us do a set wham bam thank you ma'am kind of event. The other acts weren't like warm-up bands but separate entities all to themselves (hence musical extravaganza). And they had a circus performer, how cool is that?

They also appear as real people. They screw up, they drink beer, they talk to us. They're not just cold musicians up there giving off the impression that they have somewhere better to be.

I took friends who weren't really fans (not b/c they don't like them, just b/c they really don't listen) and it was really quite awesome introducing this amazing fucking band to them in that way. I can't think of a better introduction. And for me, it was great to actually be squished up against a shit load of people who also knew the words and worshipped them as much as I did. I felt like I was a part of something greater, as opposed to my previous solitary relationship with them.

Long live the Punk Cabaret, I guess.