back to bollocks

the first crack back at it was notably less than inspiring. i really did try to have the best attitude i could about things, i swear, but i guess it just wasn't enough. kicked things off with evidence, which might not have been the right foot, but then i didn't get to write the schedule. it has like a hundred people in it and an awful lot of them want to be trial lawyers. this fails to thrill me. however, today i got into the homework (i didn't have books before that first class) and that went alright. very concrete, and i appreciate that. part of my beef with the first year curriculum is that it is supposed to be the portal into the central focus of the school, which is training people to be lawyers. the problem is that the material, while relevant to people becoming lawyers, and in fact foundational to that endeavor, is hurried and unfocused. it is taught by people who have a vast grasp of the material and understand how much of a gloss they are giving it, and yet no one wants to blow the whistle and say wait, we aren't really teaching in a comprehensible manner. in a rush to be comprehensive, the true goal is sacrificed. all that is left is a bizarre and arcane competition to fulfill lofty expectations that have no actual bearing on an individual's competence. the idea is not to identify critical thinkers or those who grasp the material on a deep level, rather, the goal is to discover who among the masses is willing to waste the most time on such an ultimately immaterial exercise. sorry about that. my point is that the purported goal of teaching people practical skills and knowledge is not the foundation of the introductory curriculum, and that it should be if that is how they are going to talk about it.
anyway, the material for evidence is all produced by the national institute for trial advocacy, which is more or less run by my school, and it serves its purpose remarkably more deftly than anything i have previously encountered. unfortunately, the course is taught through the lens of the courtroom, and that does not thrill me. i guess i was hoping, ironically, for something a little more broad-based. i want to know what is and is not admissible evidence, not how to object about it later. in the end, though, i will concede it is fair for them to do it the way they do. just doesn't get me fired up is all.
after that it was on to globalization (marked. huh.) and the constitution. this is one of the ones i expected to be a little more my speed. good theoretical underpinning, maybe fewer people. no. it is another huge class full of braying jackasses who string together buzzwords and jargon in an inane attempt to impress others rather than make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. this is the kind of course that i would probably have loved if it were taught as an undergrad poli sci class. but no. it is going to be a crock of bullshit where i listen to people i think very little of express opinions i care even less about. the only good news is that it doesn't have a book.
no book is great news because even though only three of my five courses have books, i have already dropped ab out $450 on books. and i am still missing the hardcover for one class, which should tag on i think about another $120. faaaack. the real kicker is that previous experience has demonstrated how pitifully little i shall even make use of some of these texts. my only hope is to recoup some money later on and blow it senselessly, ideally on high-quality beer.
this year i have my first evening class, and it holds much more promise than the rest of the schedule for a few reasons. first of all, it is the first reasonably sized class i have had here. that right there is enough to make me relatively thrilled about the prospects. secondly, it is the only class in the area of law i am hoping at this point to pursue, namely intellectual property. this class focuses on unfair competition and trademarks. this class is also the first i have had that is taught by an adjunct. normally this sort of thing would set me off, but this guy seems promising. spends most of his time practicing, has a nice long personal story of how he wound up where he is, and it is pleasingly organic compared to much of my tenured faculty. real job, real dissatisfaction, real solutions. none of this ducks-in-a-row clerked for supreme court bullshit. hopefully my optimism is rewarded.
today brought the first installment of international law, my initial fancy and contributing factor to the specifics of my current situation. i am reserving judgment on it thus far. it is, however, chock-full of all my least favorite people from last year. the prof i think is newer at my school, i think she taught somewhere else before. she called someone out on normative language though, and that is kind of cool. the text holds early promise, but i said the same thing about my torts book last year, and that turned out to be the biggest disaster i have ever encountered in professional printing. i could have shit out something better knowing nothing about the material. there is not a doubt in my mind about this. this was the class where they gave us a free updated edition (unheard of) and i turned it down. i didn't want to be personally responsible for book burning.
the one class i haven't had yet is jurisprudence. it is another one i feel could go either way at this juncture. the reading was fine by me, so we'll see how the class goes. the text was made up of selections from socrates, aristotle, and aquainas. nothing i hadn't seen, and kind of tough to approach without thinking about way too many things i had considered about these folks over the years. that is all fine and good, but we all had those couple of people in our first college philosophy class that just couldn't just the fuck and said nothing anyone else wanted to hear. i'm not worried about that happening, really. i made it through that before. no, my real concern is that as far as i can tell, a frightening percentage of "those people" decided to go to law school. this does not really seem implausible to me even abstractly. and in my experience, well... i've met plenty around here. we'll see what happens. i'm hoping for the best since the class is like two hours long.
so that takes care of school. let's have some good news. i was cleaning the other day and found these khakis, the only ones i moved out here with me. they were the only ones i had ever felt even somewhat comfortable in, probably mostly due to the cargo pockets. anyway, i hadn't worn them in a long time. i immediately recalled that this was due to their having an enormous hole in the crotch. but i still moved them here for some reason. anyway, it was the kind of tear that only rips when repaired, and so i was gonna pitch them. searched the pockets though, and found some scores. two dollars, first and foremost. all crumpled up with some other shit. other shit included an absurd amount of camel cash, a mulligan's receipt, and a gruv unit set list (from teazers!?). i was happy to find all of it, but it proved that i had not worn these pants in like just about three and a half years. and yet i moved them out here with me.
brief story about the hole in those pants: i was trying to catch one of the cats one time when he was out around auburn. i believe i went over a fence.
in more good news, i had the extremely good fortune to be the recipient of a couple old school camel wides filters the other night. i cant believe how much better they are than the new ones. they hit the spot so unbelievably well. i tried to write a complaint letter to those fuckers but i wouldn't cough up enough information, so they claimed they couldn't verify my identity. i don't want your fucking coupons, i shouldn't have to prove i'm eighteen to say you fucked up your product. just fix it already. i'm pretty resigned to the fact that such a thing is not likely to occur.
my current recourse to old school is lilly, rosemary, and the jack of hearts.
i haven't made it to any shows since dr. dog, but a few good ones are coming up and i hope to have money to see at least one and hopefully two and ideally all three, but it would be a stretch. philly slick is playing at world cafe on sunday, old crow medicine show is coming to town at a lousy venue, and the avett brothers are playing with drive-by truckers in baltimore, both sometime in later september. wish me luck.
one good thing about being back at school is hitting up a couple old lunch favorites. definitely got a cheesesteak one day and the notorious chicken b.l.t. the other. just what i was looking for. the food is alright, but sometimes just getting what one wants is as good as something high quality that just isn't fitting the mood. nice to have something work out at school, sitting around and talking shit, watching first years not believe their ears. whatever, the most important lesson for law school and many other things is to be able to have some real good laughs at it.

epic sandwich

oh man. it was so good. hell, it is still good. i live quite near to a well-regarded deli. they have won some awards and stuff which is meaningful in a place this big with so many delis. but this is the real deal. i had never been, mostly due to my aversion to paying ten dollars for a sandwich. forget that, i decided. today will be the day i taste and judge for myself. as it turns out, the quality of the ingredients alone pretty much justifies the price. however, if that wasn't enough, the sandwiches they make are roughly the size of a more or less average human head. and dear god, are they ever delicious.
i had the restaurant school special, which is a double-decker sandwich on rye featuring corned beef, smoked honey turkey breast, brisket of beef, cole slaw, and russian dressing. i don't think much of cole slaw, really, in it's usual habitat of a small plastic cup. never really bother to eat it. it was damn good on this though, even though it was a primary contributor to the hellacious mess eating something along these lines makes. i even ate the pickle spear, and i never eat pickles. for some reason i thought it was tasty. i just think i was so happy about the sandwich that everything started to become delectable by association. even the ginger ale seemed better than normal. all this, and i only ate half of the thing, and i am the perfect full. not overly stuffed or uncomfortable. just in the sweet spot. it is going to be tough not to take a nap.
my main regret is that it took me so long to check the place out. i mean, it is really close. and i knew it would be a cool place, check out some pics here. it was, like i said, the cost barrier. but it was all illusory. i would not think much about paying six to seven dollars for something i thought would be a decent sandwich at say, jimmy john's. but i would more than likely eat all of it at once. and it wouldn't be half as good and i wouldn't have much to say about it. but this sandwich is not a basic PFU (personal food unit for those not in the know); it is easily two meals. in any event, this place has been there forever so i'm glad everyone wasn't as slow as me on the uptake that at ten dollar a sandwich, this is actually quite a good deal.
in other news, there is a new wilco album coming out in the spring. i look forward to that, although probably no one else cares anymore. i had noticed one or two new songs popping up in set lists and got interested. although now that i think about it, they will be more or less due to put out a new one by the time spring rolls around. time flies whether you are having fun or not, you know. also, they are playing here, but as an opening act. on the one hand this is surprising but on the other hand it is mostly just cool because they are opening for neil fucking young. i will probably not be able to afford that ticket or find anyone else who wants to afford a ticket and go along. it is in early or mid december anyway, and that will probably be exam time anyway. on the other hand, tea leaf green the night before an exam went alright last time. oh well. if anyone cares, that bill will also appear in chicago and detroit. jeff has an upcoming solo run in spain. what a dick.
i have gotten a little ways into riddley walker. this is not a book that can be read at a fast pace. this is of course due to the fascinating things hoban does with language. it is strange to read a novel at the same pace as semi-brutal non-fiction (i.e. husserl, any law commentator, etc.) but, i feel, even more rewarding. it allows for the interpretive creative space of well-contextualized artistic vision while demanding a careful and close reading. additionally, my current take on the book is that it constitutes a strenuous examination of transcendence as a natural historical human phenomenon. this gets me all kinds of excited. i might even break out the heidegger, but more likely that i will just think about it. i'll think about it when i take a break from thinking about how i clearly fucked up by going to law school and not doing something i enjoy instead. oh well, at least that sandwich was pretty good.

week? weak

until recently, i was blissfully unaware of the noose draped around my neck. i turned a blind eye to all the indications in the neighborhood: piles of ikea packaging on curbs, longer lines at the cvs, lots of people walking around with name tags. hell, i was considering metaphorically getting out of dodge entirely, to some other metaphorical place that had no metaphorical extradition treaty with the proverbial dodge. but then i decided i would do what i had to do, pay the price, and accept my sentence. no sooner did that happen then i discovered the noose was not only around my neck, but tightening. quickly.
classes begin in a week. i just found out what mine are today. but i can't do anything about them until wednesday. i am not sure if i am going to do anything or what it will be. i'm still kind of adjusting to the fact that i have accepted returning to something i have so much distaste for. it was a narrow thing, i could just as easily have said screw it i guess. i just have a tough time saying that for certain things. like this. things where everyone i know is going to have to know about it. and i didn't really know what else to do i guess. that was probably a contributing factor. i wish i could joke about not wanting to work. honestly, though, i would rather just have a somewhat decent job. even a lousy one doesn't sound that bad. go, do your thing, make a little money, go home, forget about it. plenty of people lead fine existences without graduate degrees, or degrees of any kind really. but for some reason i decided i needed another one, and even though i'm not so sure about that now, i already started, and to me that means i should probably finish. and like i said, i wasn't really sure what else to do. would have been awkward for a while.
so it will be back at it before i know it. i haven't really done much this summer, it seems. then again, it never seems to me that i do all that much in any context. oh well. it has gotten me this far. i did a few things i guess, i could always go back and check old posts. that would probably simply reveal that the things i feel are of note appear to be so only to me. tough to do the truly notable on a thin budget. sometimes that doesn't matter though, like the free show in town the other night. went to go see dr. dog. those guys are great, check 'em out, they have some stuff on archive. psychedelic indie pop type stuff. think tripping daisy/polyphonic spree (lead vocals sound like tim, and the second half of the show featured string and horn sections), flaming lips, my morning jacket circa a few years ago. a fun show, even solo, and a pleasant walk home from rittenhouse.
i actually found out about the show from this neighborhood quasi-bum type guy named omar. i see him pretty frequently and he is unfailingly enthusiastic about almost everything and he usually wants a cigarette, except when he has some he insists i take one. as the band took the stage, i saw this very same dude run up and introduce the band from the central mic. i saw him after the show and thanked him for telling me about it. he looked shocked (and drunk) and exclaimed "it's over!?". this was a couple blocks west of where they even played.
all that aside, after he introduced the band, one of them commented that those were wise words from a wise man. partly tongue in cheek, but partly factual. omar does say the damndest things. pretty observant guy, or at least more so than one would expect. under unfortunate circumstances, i feel like i could be that guy, which is part of the reason i elected to continue in a debt-accruing hell hole. he is completely off-base at all times, but never fails to say something that could be classified as thoughtful, along with a generous helping of absolute bullshit. he has a stopwatch now that he wears about his neck. he says it is to time people on their bullshit, because he can only spend so much time listening to peoples' bullshit, you know? the irony is not lost upon anyone.
in better news, i have enjoyed a nice new beer or two recently. if you get lagunitas, make sure to watch out for sirius, a supposed "hi-gravity" cream ale. very unique character in the beer; familiar flavors delivered in an unconventional manner. medium-bodied, highly viscous, sweet almost but not quite cloying, not entirely unlike common cream soda in fact. but then boom, a fairly legitimate hop kicker comes in and clears out everything else. overall a thoroughly worthwhile beverage experience, try not to miss out as it is a supposed special release.
also had the good fortune to come across rogue's double ipa on tap. wow. maybe there just isn't a hop shortage in oregon. a very very rich iteration of the style, very gratifying. my sister says it smells like armpit. i beg to disagree. find out for yourself and report back.
i have had some pretty good luck these last couple days. or at least what counts as good for me. this included my biggest score ever from a free book pile. typically when i look at a pile of free books, i think hmm, that might be interesting. worth having around. and then i rarely if ever read them. at least no one is throwing them away. there is a whole bookshelf full of my stuff back home, and a lot of it is just books that school wouldn't buy back or books i acquired from free book piles. suffice to say that i have not found anything life-changing in free book piles just yet. yesterday, i found a book i had actually looked for in stores before. like one i was totally willing to buy. one i would certainly read. russel hoban's riddley walker. i have only just started it, but i am probably going to read a lot more later today. if you're not familiar with the book, it is a post-apocalyptic novel written entirely in a posited pidgin form of english, lots of phonetic spelling and such. i may have some questions about spelling conventions in old and middle english.
the other score just happened. i'm at the coffee shop. before i went in i was finishing a smoke and a dozen of the multitude of new penn students around went in before me. i was kind of worried. for some reason, they all left without ordering. this was good enough for me. but then i tried to buy a soda. dude behind the counter, though, is like IRON MAIDEN! YEAH! (i have my maiden shirt on) and he doesn't let me pay for it. it's like a secret club, he says. i guess i can support that. i left the money for the soda in the tip jar, so everyone wins. everyone who is physically present anyway. i'm sure whoever owns the place is doing just fine and is probably not going to miss a single soda. plus not enough people tip at this place in my experience. barista wages are not known for being exorbitant, either.
the internet of course also continues to yield some treasures. those with a taste for some seriously dark humor would be well advised to check out a softer world. kind of a cool concept too; the visual aspect of the comic is one or more photos split up into panels with superimposed text. one person takes the pics, the other writes the words. it appears to work pretty well. the humor reminds me of some dinosaur comics strip, which is not too surprising as the guy who writes the text is friends with the dinosaur comics guy.
given my background being brought up in what i would consider more or less a fairly conservative christian setting, i am surprised i have never heard of jack chick, or his tracts. but now i know. thanks achewood. if you already know of them, well, then you know that they are ridiculous. absolutely ludicrous, really. an embarrassment to respectable christianity in my humble opinion. if you like to laugh your ass off while shaking your head, i would recommend angels?, dark dungeons, and bad bob! for starters. from then on check out stuff on muslims and catholics, and anything "adapted for [insert demographic]". this guy really really doesn't like catholics. i am glad i was not raised to believe that catholics aren't christians. i didn't actually hear anyone make that claim until quite late in life, and it rather shocked me. apparently it is more widespread than i thought. although i guess there is a lot of history of protestants having some pretty not-nice things to say regarding catholics. at any rate, these tracts are completely outrageous. if you were familiar before now, let me know how you were and why i wasn't.

some things don't change

i couldn't get any internet happening at home, which is somewhat disturbing, but not quite the end of the world. i went to the coffee shop i go to when i need internet, and that is still where i am. and i still hate coffee shops. this one has its own individual issues, mostly acquired from location. some things are just how coffee shops are, like seven dollar sandwiches that aren't even made here. and also terribly stupid, loud, and annoying people. i am very sad that my headphones are broken. the music is godawful. this ridiculous chick next to me alternates between chatting on her cell and getting seriously down with her jams. apparently she is the person this coffee shop is meant for, she is certainly a penn poster child. the other people next to me are the most halfass grad students i've ever overheard at a coffee shop. they do not seem to actually know what the fuck they are doing or supposed to be doing. instead they have shifted to a lengthy conversation about somebody's boyfriend. repeating the mantra that relationships are about compromise, the girl detailed several things that this guy had better fucking do or else. it did not sound like a whole lot of negotiation was going to happen. oh man, now one of my prize-winning co-habitants just tried to get the barista to make a sandwich while she (the prize-winner) was standing next to a cooler display full of sandwiches.
also i began reading the hitchhiker's guide books again. they are still extremely entertaining, hilarious, and difficult to put down. the plot has not changed either, which is unfortunate from a predictability standpoint, but there was no need to mess with success.
this is my update: i still don't like coffee shops because i have never liked them, and the hitchhiker's guide series has not degraded in quality in any way, being a static work of fiction. also, there are several people in the world that i do not like, many for entirely superficial reasons. you are now up to speed.

it was totally people

if you missed the opening ceremonies last night, you might consider using your internet powers to find a video of it somewhere. it was actually something worthwhile on television, in strange ways. literally thousands of people involved as performers, and they pulled off some strange and entertaining stuff. a lot of planning clearly went into the whole thing. the commentary was a total highlight; the people they had announcing were pretty ridiculous. bob fucking costas. during most of the artistic portion (like two hours, it is pretty extreme and kind of intimidating), they were clearly reading off of teleprompters and saying some pretty things unnatural for them. but the parade of nations came along and those dudes said some outrageous shit.
but seriously, the performance piece was amazing. ludicrously epic. we decided that like twenty years down the road dvds of this performance will enjoy great popularity among certain segments of the college population. "what are you doin' tonight man?" "dude, i know someone who has a copy of beijing '08, we're totally watchin that shit!"
after all, it featured thousands of people in jumpsuits that had a bunch of lights on them. the whole thing was pretty entertaining though. i had no idea i was about to be into the olympics. i'm not like planning on blocking out time to catch as much i can, but everything has the potential to be alright. caught the women's beach volleyball at eulogy earlier, usa v. the netherlands. the dutch were bottom ranked in the group, americans top, usa wins 2-0. they made it close though, and got a point in the group for some reason. maybe because the second set had to go extra match points.
also had an excellent pint at eulogy, great divide hercules ipa off the tap. wholly satisfactory double ipa, but nothing to set it apart other than being a perfect typical example. i am only hard on the style because i love it so much. so many good ones out there.
i happened into eulogy on my way back from some sort of practice protest i watched. i had seen these people before in the dead of winter, so this was much better. however, the destination was not anywhere as close to an el stop. i decided to walk because i hadn't seen a lot of queen village. worth walking through, very nice neighborhood, pretty, lots of residential but not overly dominant. seems to be kind of yuppie, has a lot of townhomes with garages on the bottom floor, everything looks pretty new for how old the area is, lots of construction going on, lots of babies and dogs. telltale signs of yuppitude. lots of nice-but-not-too-nice (aka moderately affordable) restaurants, probably a great place to live. inordinate amount of dead stickers in the windows of houses and on vehicles. strange.
the event itself was pretty low key, but it was also well staked out by city people whose job it is to manage these things. good folks, by and large. lots of picture taking by all sorts of people. so many people have cameras now, and that has good and bad sides, but it is certainly a big deal these days. one guy had some sort of apparatus akin to something used for rock climbing and used it to hang off of a tall poll next to shorter ones he could stand on. pretty tenacious. especially compared with the other sort-of media types present: two of them without real clear credentials chose to interview a notably attractive young lady from the group rather than one of the two leaders. just found that kind of funny. you know how those documentary-types are, right john edwards?
not a whole lot happened, and it was hot out, so it was fortunate that eulogy was on the way back to the el. it was also fortunate that i didn't stay there long and made it back in time for the flea market. had to make some tough decisions as usual, but i'm also pleased with what i chose. reasonable prices on things that are great to have on vinyl. all in pretty good shape, and all around five bucks each. some girls, after the gold rush, a night at the opera, band of gypsies, and highway 61 revisited. the idea was to buy things that i will listen to often. it was nice to have a couple bucks after getting paid. reminds me of why a job is better than law school. i don't even want to think about that garbage.

ac unit

no, i still don't have one of those. no point, really. here, though, ac is shorthand not only for a system for cooling an area, but also a system for emptying wallets/bank accounts: atlantic city. this was my first time in jersey at all, and by extension atlantic city. the drive to ac was pretty picturesque, really; at least nicer than i had imagined. this part of jersey is not completely built up, well, not with buildings anyway. the drive to atlantic city kinda builds the place up. hell, the road is named the atlantic city expressway. this is a road dedicated to people going from philly to ac, and vice versa. and it has billboards the whole way. and most of them are from casinos. and most of those are for a casino that hasn't even been fucking built yet. some of those are pretty shameless. my favorite one was "you know what this town needs? another casino."
if i were asked to sum up atlantic city with one word, that word would unsurprisingly be "weird". when you're coming into town on the highway, the first thing you see is a giant, skinny, lengthy parking lot between directions of the highway. i guess people park there and shuttle into town? given traffic on the way out, that would make excellent sense. but back to getting in, not out. after literally like at least a half mile of parking, the highway kind of turns and becomes a somewhat main street of the city. it dumps you in right by one of the biggest casinos on one side, and then on the other side it is an oxymoronic mega-mini-mall of outlet shops. everything is tacky looking, but not in a classic campy kind of way. more like this shit was all built around ten years ago kind of tacky. one of my first questions was whether anyone lived in this place at all, since it was literally retail/entertainment as far as the eye could see, which wasn't all that far.
but i got my answer after several blocks of crawling traffic: everything drops off and suddenly everything looks older than fifty years without repair, save new neon lights in takeout place windows. that part of town reminded me of medium-shady areas in west and north philly. our directions put us on the road that separated the part of town that makes money from the part of town that has no money. we made a brief detour into no-money land to get gas. in jersey, you are not allowed to pump your own gas. this seems a little asinine to me, but apparently the result is that some otherwise perfectly competent people from jersey actually do not know how to pump gas. they assume it is tricky business. i guess if there was some service someone "professional" always did for me, i would probably just figure it was better off in their hands.
anyway, we got back to where we needed to be, and parked right next to the valet parking lot for like two-fifty in meter fare for a savings of like twelve bucks. we had a bit of a walk down what i believe was actually oriental avenue. got a look at most of the monopoly streets, and several of them are in a part of town that does not bear mention anywhere really, and probably not board games. but at the end of the street was THE boardwalk. i did not find park place. the boardwalk was also weird, lots of people but not a ton going on. lots of entrances for things that had other doors away from the shore. those buildings are massive. the boardwalk has lost a lot of its carnivalesque appeal, but there is still a small semi-permanent setup of amusement rides and food vendors, and that was kind of cool. no high-diving horses, though.
so the show was at the house of blues. franchised venues kind of turn me off in the first place, but this was one of the most ridiculous things i have ever encountered. so i knew that this was, full title, the house of blues atlantic city at showboat. showboat, i was aware, was a casino. it is a massive structure to behold. supposed to be a mardi-gras thing brought to you by harrah's, but it sure didn't look real festive, more like a hospital from the outside. but once you get in... well, getting in was tricky. i expected a little bit of shenanigans due to my previous house of blues experience in cleveland, where, despite abundant signage, i was assured that i had entered a restaurant, and not a venue. but there was only one entrance far as i could see, so that was the door it was going to have to be.
so in the door we went. restaurant to the front of me, restaurant (same one?) to the right of me, and something billed as a nightclub to the left. the nightclub, or whatever it was, did not appear to be the venue at all. they had signs. some sort of male strippers or something. some real classy broads waiting to get in on that, as you might imagine, given all the variables. so up towards the restaurants is the box office, and we ask, and get directed to go upstairs. so we go up between the restaurant/s and boom, it is totally a casino. so i am trying to find a venue, and already i have been beset with restaurant/s, a gift shop, a "nightclub", and a casino, and now i have to go upstairs. we go upstairs. i know what clutch fans look like, and i wasn't seeing all that many. no, at the top of the stairs there is a much different restaurant type thing, meant to be all classy, with some fancy name. most of the people in and around this place are elderly and well-dressed. probably not the clutch show. so we keep going, walking past all sorts of people. i stop at the bathroom and some guy comes in along with me and starts spouting lebowski quotes. this man is drunk. he has a baseball hat and a beard. he is most certainly going to clutch. we haven't bollocksed it up entirely; we have to be there.
and there we were. after a brief line and some overly-aggressive security (i thought you waved the wand past me, not hit me with it), we were in. the so-called house of blues atlantic city looked remarkably like the cleveland one, no big surprise. but it was a lot bigger. one of the opening bands was already going. they were called lionize, and i quite enjoyed them. they were four dudes who clearly listen to shitloads of reggae, dub, and clutch. i loved their keyboards. it looked like the bass player was playing through a leslie, which would be strange. sounded great loud as hell. i was under the impression that there would be four bands, but there were only three, and these guys were probably like halfway finished when i got in. they made a plea to the crowd to buy merch so that they could buy pot. they were extremely explicit about this. unfortunately i did not have money for merch, or i probably would have bought an ep in any event. or maybe this badass clutch shirt made specially for this show, but i decided that even if i had the money, i probably don't need three black clutch shirts.
the next band was murphy's law, and they were kind of silly, but a lot of fun. i got the impression that they didn't really care what the crowd thought of them personally or as a band or musically. no, their priority was that those in attendance were having an absolute fucking blast. they were sort of a punk/speed metal outfit, somewhat simplistic fun stuff. their twist was that they had a money sax player who did some cool stuff. they were four predictable dudes for a band like that, and then the sax player was a black guy who was probably like 15 years older than anyone else in the band. it certainly worked. before they started, we noticed that there was a case of budweiser on the stage. we joked about it staying out there the whole time. it did. upon further inspection, there was also a fifth of jager next to said case. at first i thought these guys were going to be an instrumental band, they played a good tune, and then this big dude walked onstage with a mic and started hollering at the crowd. clearly the frontman. the band starts playing and the dude starts singing and almost immediately he leaves the stage. but not by the side, no, he goes off the front to the crowd level and takes the fifth of jager with him. he's pullin on it between lines, and starts passing it around the crowd. shameless way to endear yourself, but he really seemed to just want to be partying and have the crowd party with him, and there is something to be said for that. the set was high energy, and the dude stayed down by the crowd and they killed the shit out of that jager, and he started pounding and handing out bottles of bud. when the jager was running low he made a comment about how "this one is almost cowbelled". i thought that was a pretty cool turn of the phrase and made a note of it. however, later on, it proved to be no slang. during a drum break the lead singer walked over to the drummer and held it up and the dude just whaled on it as part of a solo. i couldn't believe the thing didn't break. it actually sounded really good. at any rate, this band had a good fuckin time, and that is just excellent if you ask me. they embraced their role as an opening band and referenced the upcoming clutch set more than a few times, culminating in a joke tune entitled "you are not ready to see the band clutch". there was actually another great humor song about happy the bouncer, sang to one of the front row bouncers. it pretty much went "happy... the bouncer!... dun dun dun... happy... the bouncer!" etc. good times.
clutch of course killed it. i hadn't seen them in a while, although this was probably time number fifteen or something. no surprises in the setlist, and they appear to no longer have the organ player, which makes me a sad metal in some ways, but the show was really well played and had some solid jams, including a legitimate (i.e. non-jager) cowbell jam. the guitar tech played with them on a couple tunes as usual, but after he was done he also proposed to his girl, who accepted. that was kind of cool; he's a good guy, been with 'em forever, has his own pretty decent band. it was also their manager's birthday, which got brought up several times by all the bands, kind of a running gag. all in all, it gave the whole evening a properly celebratory feel. too bad i can't afford to get hammered off eight dollar beers that take half an hour each in line to acquire. that place could probably have doubled their booze sales with a better setup, and tripled them if they dropped 1/4 of the price. their loss. oh well, i had a fuckin blast.
the next night was sunday, and that means quizzo. we actually took second for the first time in a while to win twenty bucks to the bar; lost by one measly point. oh well. we played as "honey, i shrunk the manginas". i don't know if i've mentioned it, but we are usually "manginas in the mist". we switch it up now and then, but it is almost always some movie with a key word replaced by mangina. once, we were manginas II, secret of the ooze. that might be my favorite. it is a fun thing to do with movies, almost as good as this.
the next couple of days (and even today) saw me work on a special quick-turnaround project for my prof. i found it interesting and learned a lot. i worked pretty hard on it, too. unfortunately, i couldn't really answer what he wanted in the way he wanted it. the argument he wanted to make just didn't match the jurisprudence. i felt like a real jackass emailing him this morning and being like, yeah, i don't have what you need, but i tried hard. not a lot i could or can do about it i guess, but i don't imagine he is real thrilled with me, and that is kind of weak. it just sucks to try hard and more or less fail. we've all been there.
but for some good news... i hopefully get paid tomorrow. that is not the good news i wish to impart. the point of getting paid tomorrow is that i haven't had a whole lot of cash, what with the rent-paying and all that. i had been at school working on that thing, and checked my balance on the way home. $3.44. ouch. but i had a few bucks on me, and given that i had actually been working hard at something, i reckoned i could do with some beer. well, that and the day ended with a y. at any rate, i wanted some beer, for real. the deal with beer across the street is that pbr forties are three seventy-five each or two for five. i had like four forty. i checked all my pockets, in all pants. even pants i know i haven't worn since i've moved. nothing. nothing at all. i don't have a couch so i couldn't scope the cushions. i have one chair that can hide change, and yeah, it wasn't hiding any from me. but there was a dime on the floor next to the chair. step in the right direction. now all i needed was a clean-cut fitty cent.
people ask me for change all the time. sometimes i give it to them. i reckoned maybe it was time i asked some people for some change. went down in front of the beer store, smoking a hand roll as always. sat at one of the two tables. other table had a couple dudes drinking some forties. i knew they had my money. talked to them for a minute, suggested that i bum them a smoke. went in for the change spiel. i don't really have a ton of practice or anything. first dude, who seemed friendlier, was all, no i don't have any cash of any sort. other dude was all, no change. fortunately, though, he had a dollar. i traded him fifty cents for the bill, and was in business. went in, got my beer, went back out and drank most of one and shot the shit. the dudes were alright man.
i've actually been talking to strangers more than normal i guess. the night before that it was the dreaded mill creek special. they upped the damn price to twelve dollars. the bartender assured me, however, that it was going into their pockets. thus, i don't feel bad and will probably just deduct it from the tip. hey man, i am on a budget here. in any event, i met some old guy. richard? he was downing tonic waters. that was all. he brought candy of his own. a well-traveled old man with a money beard. nice guy to talk to and watch the baseball. and then there was this israeli guy, benny. he graduated from moody bible institute, which stunned and thrilled me in that state. he was an interesting person to talk to. we chilled for a while. it was a good, strange time.
today didn't involve so many strangers, well, at least none that i really wanted talk to. i lucked out and got a call from my buddy at school: extra ticket to the phillies game. i was pretty psyched. just had to find a way to get there and back (thanks ben). the park is beautiful, and the game was fun. not the most exciting game ever, but a decisive 5-0 victory. the only bummer was that the reason we had these tickets was that it was like a temple prof/research assistant night, so we were sitting with a lot of people i didn't like. the broad in front of me ate CARROT STICKS at a fucking baseball game. she was also waving around some hillary clinton book talking about how she would have been "the best president we ever had". i hate those people so much. i probably shouldn't, but man. fuck those people. i hate to have to say it over some minor differences in worldview and personal aesthetics, but i really just can't stand them and their ralph loren and gelled hair and khakis and agsadgsdgagdsag. hate them. but i had a good time. and it was free. those two go together well. i'm hoping for more of that in the upcoming days.