it's that time of the semester....

compliments of the Class of 1999: 

The Drinking Song

Tired of books and boring classes,
drop your books, pick up your glasses
toast - to those who boast -
of mixing Greek and Latin with a cool Manhattan
Smith, may have their iced tea hours
We prefer our whiskey sours
Drink and never think
about tomorrow tonight
And over there they have their Heidelbergs
And then there's Morey's down at Yale...
But when those Harvard boys
Drink to college joys
It's dull, you must agree
Squeezing lemon in your tea....
The face upon the bar room floor
I'd rather be than dull once more
We're HERE, Bring on the BEER,
Who cares tonight, we'll be sober tomorrow
Here's a toast to Old MHC!

Head Check

An email went out to the Junior class, asking to vote on a speaker for commencement.  Even though I'm a first semester senior, and will be done with my A.B. (B.A. for those of you who don't get diplomas written in Latin) in December, the college tosses me in with the Junior class, based on when I will attend commencement.

All but 145 of the 2200 students enrolled at Mt Holyoke College are between the ages of 18 and 23. As such, I find myself culturally out of the mainstream when it comes to who would be a suitable speaker at our graduation in may, 2012.  I nearly choked when I saw the list of potential candidates:  Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneris, John Stewart, Hillary Clinton...in that order. Poor students; I had such high hopes for them. I am stunned, but not surprised at the "raised by TV" generation.  I don't even want to know the results of the poll, lest I toss my love of academia into the trash and go work for a cat shelter.

The poll has only strengthened my resolve to get Gogol Bordello to play at the Perkins Scholar Annual Grill and Chill.  What's the link there? They have a song called "Start Wearing Purple" and the Perkins Scholars' colors are purple: 

woooo!

Women Poets in Harlem

Whether writing in the thick of the Harlem Renaissance or, writing after it, these women give voice to a unique, hopeful time. The reality of the Harlem Renaissance - at least as well I I can tell from my reading  - is that the artists could never really be artists due the constraints and expectations of so-called "race leaders" (Lock, Johnson, DuBoise) and could never really free themselves of the frenzied life in the crucible of the Renaissance.

While it is sad that the Renaissance was shortened by the faddists and the Depression (though really - could Harlem sustain its frenetic pace of life?), it provided some of the most delicious poets and authors that America could claim as its own, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, to name a few...and even some who migrated her, like Countee Cullen. 

These women poets give expression to the the precariousness of the performative act of black life in the Harlem of the "New Negro" and write from a vantage that was frequently minimized and exalted by critics (I blame the "male gaze"). Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Mike

Happy Birthday, Mike.  

You are missed and loved. 

Left to Right: Ray, Me, and Mike

Happy Birthday, Secretary Perkins

Click here for a brief bio of Ms Perkins

Orwell...so prophetic

yes, the author of the prophetic Animal Farm hits the nail square and deeply.  After reading the following quote from him, I realized that I really do have to break it off with the OED and just remain friends:



"A man may take to drink because he feels himself a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of the language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts"

We are living in a fallen world...

Always

I've been listening to some old school.  The Smith's "Headmaster Ritual" This song is a strange tension between Johnny Marr's excellent chord structure and Morrissey's tortured lyrics ("belligerent ghouls / run Manchester schools") and the excellent bass work.   Don't listen to this on a crappy stereo. Do get up and dance - because I always do. 

Wow...music these days sucks.