Is It Any Wonder?

Sometimes it's hard to know where I stand
It's hard to know where I am
Well maybe it's a puzzle I don't understand
Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm
Stranded in the wrong time
Where love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme, a soundbite

Is it any wonder I'm tired?
Is it any wonder that I feel uptight?
Is it any wonder I don't know what's right?
- Is It Any Wonder? from Under the Iron Sea (2006) by Keane

If you haven't noticed already, each post begins with lyrics from a song that...
A. I've recently listened to
B. pertain to the post
C. all of the above

Just finished watching the LOST season premiere. There were more questions asked, and not a lot answered, which drove me up the wall even more. But it didn't annoy me. The writers on that show are good at their jobs, let's hope they still have one when this whole strike deal is over.
This whole dorm is one gigantic maze. One day it literally took me ten minutes to navigate my way to a friend's room. To quote my friend Lindsey from Davis, CA, "Ka-ray-zee." She's funny. So, I've decided to keep a running log of hilarious things Professor Leon says. On Wednesday I asked Professor Leon a question about class.

Me: Excuse me, Professor Leon? What did President Bush talk about in his State of the Union address? I wanted to watch it, but I had other work to do.
Professor Leon: Well, to quote the great American philosopher, James Brown, he was talkin' loud, and saying nothing.

Ha. Ha.

This weekend I will make another journey to B&N (Barnes & Noble) hopefully the Georgetown one. Uloma flipped when she heard I had found a location, and that someone loved B&N as much as she does, so we're planning on going. Hurrah.

Optimistic

You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
If you try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
- Optimistic from Kid A (2000) by Radiohead

I am in the the Undergraduate Library, or UGL, or Club UGL as they call it. Apparently it's not a place to study but a place to meet people and be seen. But I'm getting work done so far so it must be all relative. Lee called me not too long ago. That brightened up my day. I went to Barnes and Noble again. The atmosphere is so warm and inviting. And an extra added bonus was In Rainbows playing in the store. Very very nice.
Mari ( her name is short for Mariama) told me about her experience as an extra for the movie Tears of the Sun. Mari lived on a military base in Honolulu, HI. One day while she was out on the base a casting director came up to her and her friends and told them that they'd be perfect as extras in a movie they were shooting on the island. Mari said she was paid $800 to sit around set for a week. the set was the Dole plantation. I asked her if she met any of the stars of the movie. I first asked about Bruce Willis, and Mari said that he was a, "straight up asshole." Tee hee hee. She said Monica Bellucci was really nice and she sat down and talked to them a little, but her accent was heavy. Apparently it was one of her first American roles. I think being an extra in a film is one of my Things to do Before I Die.

Oh My God

It don't matter to me
Cause all I wanted to be
Is a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Oh my god, I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my god, I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home...
Oh My God from Employment (2004) by Kaiser Chiefs

Right before Professor Leon finished class on Friday, he gave us details of our class on February 6th, which is a Wednesday. He said that we were going to meet in a room in the Rayburn Building. So I started to think it was on campus, right. Wrong, oh so very wrong. He finished by saying, we were going to meet in the Rayburn Building in the U.S. House of Representatives. I did a double take and looked around. For real? So I will have a class in the House of Representatives. That just sounds cool.
I managed to find a Barnes and Noble today. Very nice. I've always loved B&N. I wanted to find a newsstand to read a Rolling Stone cover article on Radiohead. It wasn't anything spectacular. But I did find a copy of No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet... the GRAPHIC NOVEL! How kick ass is that? A graphic novel of Hamlet. *Note to self: Methinks this would make a great Sin City/300
type movie, gotta hang on to that idea. There were numerous security guards on every floor, the looked like the ones you would find in a bank. Gotta protect that knowledge. Walking back to the metro I encountered a truck, with a somewhat whimsical quote on it. Long story short, I did my research and figured out that the quote was said by a DC-based children's book illustrator named Itzah C. Kret. Mr. Kret is an ambassador for a national grass roots holiday called, International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Apparently this takes place every first Saturday in February. I might make an effort to partake in this.
Now, back to Thom, Colin, Jonny, Ed, and Phil. I'm listening to Hail to the Thief (2003), and this deserves my full, undivided attention. G'nite.

Common People

"I want to live like common peopleI want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you."
well what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do."
- Common People from Different Class (1995) by Pulp

I'm beginning to see how many different people come together in the capital city. It's crazy. I almost forgot that DC is a major tourist attraction. I went to the National Museum of Natural History. One of the last exhibits I went to was the Hope Diamond. It was pretty disappointing in real life. Tonight while I was studying in the lounge, a girl turned off her iPod, and started to speak to me. She asked me to sign a petition for someone running for a officer position at Howard. I can't remember her name, but she said she was Jamaican. Our exchange after I signed the petition was pretty funny:

Her: So, where are you from?
Me: Oh, well... Have you heard of a state called Kansas?
Her: Yeah, actually. Dorothy, ruby-red slippers...
Me: Haha... yeah, exactly.
Normally I would have been annoyed, but I wasn't. I thought it was funny. Oh, the people you will meet. Oh, the people I have met.

The Wind

I listen to my words but they fall far below
I let my music take me where my heart wants to go
I swam upon the devil's lake but never, never never never
I'll never make the same mistake no, never, never, never
-The Wind from Teaser and the Firecat (1971) by Cat Stevens

The past two days have been colder. It wouldn't be so bad, but the wind makes it exceptionally worse. The cold is face freezing. The kind where your cheeks harden to the point where talking is impossible and you start to drool because your mouth has been reduced to a gaping mess. My navy peacoat is apparently no match for the weather.
I'm sitting in the lounge under a set of bright fluorescent lights with nothing but the season 2 DVD of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and a bowl of Easy Mac to comfort me. The vending machines make a dull purring sound as I delve into one of my favorite childhood memories. It's four o'clock in the morning. I was on the verge of sleep when I woke up to the sound of one of my roomates on the phone with someone from home. My roommates are always on the phone. Sometimes, they don't have the decency to leave the room when they are on the phone. This particular conversation had something to do with a boy, sheets, and how, "...he probably didn't wash those sheets from whatever he did with his girlfriend before he got with you."
I grimaced into my pillowcase.
My roommate stayed on the phone for another fifteen minutes before she decided to end the conversation, and quickly fell into what I'm assuming to be a deep sleep. Too bad I did not follow suit. After minutes of tossing and turning I climbed down from my bed, grabbed my iBook, my DVDs, a bowl of Easy Mac, a spoon, and headed to the lounge. On my way there I heard another girl, presumably drunk, talking on the phone. And from the number of expletives she used, I'm guessing it was a heated conversation.
My Easy Mac is gone. Time to turn in. G'nite, or I guess I should say good morning.

Politik

Give me one cause one is best in confusion confidence
Give me peace of mind and trust don't forget the rest of us
Give me strength, reserve control
Give me heart and give me soul
Wounds that heal and cracks that fix, tell me your own politik
-Politik, from A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) by Coldplay

Just got back form yet another exciting government lecture from Professor Leon. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I've started to look forward to his class. Last class when we were talking about immigration in the United States, he managed to squeeze a laugh in:

"Maybe we should look at how U.S. foreign policy is affecting countries like Mexico and countries in Central America. Maybe that's why everyone is trying to get into America. You don't hear about how NAFTA has raised the price of corn to the point where you can't find a tortilla in Mexico. Who would have ever thought there were cities in Mexico you could go to and not find tortillas. That's like going to some black folks house and not being able to find... chicken!"

Made me laugh. A lot.

In today's lecture about learned politics he talked about the incident at the 1968 Olympic Games where athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith displayed the black power salute during the award ceremony for the 200 meter race. Professor Leon told us a story of a boy in the fifth grade who went to school two days later, and when the Star-Spangled banner was played before school he raised his fist and bowed his head.
That boy was kicked out of school later that day.
That boy was Professor Leon.
Professor Leon said that he was the only black kid in school and that his classmates went home and were afraid that there was a radical in their class. Professor Leon eventually returned to the school. He also mentioned that the school was Catholic, but that's neither here nor there. Can't wait until next class period.

Driftwood

You're driftwood floating underwater, breaking into pieces, piece, pieces
just driftwood hollow and of no use, waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you.
-Driftwood from The Man Who (1999), by Travis

This song was playing right before my iPod decided to shut down. It was okay though, Sociology class was about to start. There's a bell on campus that rings every hour and every half and hour. I know a lot of campuses have one (KU does), but it's so close to the dorm. It makes it kind of difficult to catch some Z's in the afternoon, you know? Anyways, it starts ringing at seven in the morning. Making it impossible to sleep in. And just when I thought I could try and catch a nap in between Sociology and Calc, someone starts playing the piano outside. My floor has half of the rooms because across the hall there is a huge lounge which has a baby grand piano. I think the girl is trying to figure out how to play Rihanna's 'Unfaithful'. Bleck, I hate that song.
Even though I attend an HBCU, I did not realize that the classes would be so concentrated in how the subject affects Blacks. Black literature in English class. In government we talk about how politics affects Blacks. In political science we talked about the Hip-Hop Nation culture. I'm not complaining, it's just so different.