I’m posting a bunch of weird and random stuff today, but I don’t think it’ll be as long as most of my blogs have been recently.

 

Maybe I Was a Little Too Harsh on the Republicans’ Indecisiveness

 

I’m referring to my rant about how the Republican group on campus seems to have 3 different names. I’ve since discovered that the reason may be, in part, due to the DCGA, which is now suddenly referring to the Denison Democrats as College Democrats, and Fencing Club has become Club Fencing. As for my predicted social issue, it kind of fell flat. Apparently, the Norma McCorvey speech was less than thrilling. The pro-life group was dismayed, disappointed, and a little pissed off (partly because of what happened to some of the pro-choice people and partly because they kept trying to get her to give some non-religious reasons for being pro-life, and she kept dodging the question). The pro-choice people were slightly pissed off because she had some of them (who had either made pro-choice statements or applauded someone who made a pro-choice statement) escorted out by security (even the pro-life people thought this was somewhat extreme and inappropriate behavior on her part). The person covering the event for the Denisonian was also escorted out by security. However, nobody was pissed off enough to make a huge deal of it (a few Bullsheet letters, but that’s it), and that is because something else came up that sparked far more controversy, the impact of which may be felt for decades…

 

The DCGA Budget Allocations (Dun-Dun-DUNNNN)

 

Yes, the DCGA released its list of how much money each organization got, and it has sparked a barrage of arguing, griping, and Bullsheet letters. The Republicans are pissed at the Democrats because we got more money than they did (this is probably because our budget was more detailed and we were more involved on campus this semester than they were, as Adam tried to explain to them). It’s weird because we’re currently co-sponsoring a voter registration drive with them. Anyways, one guy in the Bullsheet was mad because Outlook (the gay rights group on campus) got more money than the Inter-Fraternity Council. I’m not even sure what those two groups have to do with each other. The Bandersnatch somehow ended up getting more money than they asked for. Fencing Club didn’t fare too badly. We got about $500, which is what we wanted (so of course we employed a bit of learned strategy and asked for $1000).

 

Numerous Technical Difficulties, But I Got a T-Shirt

 

Last night at the Denison Democrats meeting they showed a DVD called “Bush in 30 Seconds.” We ended up having to move to a different room because the sound wasn’t working right, and security was dealing with “an emergency” so they couldn’t come unlock the sound room for us. The DVD consisted of several respondees to the “Bush in 30 Seconds” ad contest sponsored by MoveOn.org. Most of the commercials we saw were really good, and some were freakin’ hilarious. My favorite was one called “Bush Sucks” (I’ll just say it involves a vacuum cleaner, but you can watch it yourself here, as well as several other ads), but I also liked another one that featured a bunch of old ladies singing (unfortunately, that one is not available on the website).

 

Last Politically-Oriented Topic For Today, I Promise

 

Actually, it isn’t all that political, but it does spur a weird Xanga coincidence with one of my subscribers (and if she gets freaked out by me commenting on this I will remove it). Obviously YoImErin and I have the same name, but we seem to be on opposite ends of the political spectrum (It’s okay, though, because we are both Styx fans, and that’s more important ). The weird coincidence is that the head of her College Republicans and the head of my Denison Democrats are both guys named Adam. Okay, maybe it’s not quite that weird, but I thought it was kind of funny.

 

The Great Denison Blackout

 

Wednesday there was a power outage on the west and north quads that lasted at least six hours. I don’t know why it happened (although I got an email from Computing Services yesterday that was trying to insinuate that it was a computer virus), but my dorm happens to be on the North Quad, so I had no power. Liz and I were both feeling pretty useless, so we went to Brew’s, and then I had to go to the Student Composers Concert. Afterwards, Susanna and I went over to Olin, which was affected by the power outage and only the lights in the hallway were on (they were hooked up to emergency generators). We noticed that the elevator door was halfway open and the actual elevator car was slightly misaligned with the opening. We think someone was stuck in there when the power went out. Boy, that would suck. Anyways, they got the power back shortly before 11:00.

 

Catching Up On Old News

 

Last week, I went with the East Asian Club to Sapporo Wind, a Japanese restaurant, for our end-of-the-year dinner. It was really neat. We ate in a special room designed in traditional Japanese style (tatami mats, screens, low table, cushions, although the room was elevated with a pit under the table so you could sit normal style if you wanted to; we even had to take our shoes off when we entered the room). I had the chicken teriyaki, which was pretty good (and I think I’ve finally remastered the use of chopsticks, because I had no problem with them this time around). I think I was one of about three people who didn’t get sushi (I hate fish, raw or cooked). Cherie strategically ordered the dish that would get her as much sushi as possible (yuck). She also fell in love with the room we were in.

 

Well, that’s all for now. See you later.

WARNING: Yet another long post…

 

Busy, Busy Schedule

 

Just so you know in advance, these next few weeks are going to be hell, so I’m not sure how often I’ll post (I will try as hard as I can). Take this week for example: Tonight, I have fencing. Tomorrow, I have to go to the first Student Composers Concert. Thursday I have a Denison Democrats meeting (our T-shirts are in).I don’t have anything planned for Friday, but that will probably change, and Saturday I’m going to see “Starlight Express” in Columbus, so you can see why I decided not to go on the Kings Island Trip this year.

 

Would They Please Pick a Name?!

 

Denison Democrats have only one name, and that is Denison Democrats. The Republican group on campus seems to have at least 3 different names: College Republicans, Young America’s Foundation, and Young Republicans (I could go into some sort of political analysis of the fact that they can’t seem to decide on a name, but I won’t). I might as well add the Denison Lecture Series to the list because that organization (which is responsible for bringing in most of the “big name” speakers that we have, and which is supposed to be politically neutral) has been stacked by the Republicans and it is extremely difficult for any non-conservatives to get in (only freshmen and sophomores are allowed to apply, and they extended their application date this year, supposedly because they didn’t have that many applicants, but we did find it interesting to note that all of the applicants were either Democrats or liberal independents). This year, the number of conservative speakers outnumbered the liberal speakers 2 to 1 (and this is on a college campus that is about 90% liberal). They’ve also pissed off the DCGA about bringing in the Warrior (who is a retired pro wrestler who is so ultraconservative that many moderate Republicans don’t like him). The DCGA (which gets the final say on budgets and what speakers the DLS sponsors or co-sponsors) said no, because the DLS already had a high-profile conservative speaker that semester (Ben Stein). The DLS went ahead and booked him anyways, then revealed there was a pretty hefty cancellation fee, leaving the DCGA no choice but to let them have their way. This was all before the Denison Democrats started up (we’re new this semester), so it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out next year (we’re trying to get Howard Dean, but we still don’t trust the DLS).

 

This Might Get Things Back to Normal

 

The affirmative action debate still (quietly) goes on. It’s weird because that never used to be a touchy subject at Denison. Our big debate subject always seemed to be abortion. They would argue the subject for weeks on end in the Bullsheet. I mostly learned to ignore it because abortion’s not one of my big “issues” (I’m pro-choice, but I’m not about to make a big deal of it unless someone tries to shove their opinion down my throat). Then this affirmative action debate started and the abortion thing seemed forgotten. Now the pro-life group on campus (Which also seems to have trouble picking a name; I’ve seen Students for Life and Denison Students for the Unborn), in co-sponsorship with the Denison Lecture Series (not surprised there) is bringing Norma McCorvey to campus. She’s the “Jane Roe” in Roe vs. Wade and helped legalize abortion, but about 10 years ago she did a complete 180 and became pro-life (not sure why). This almost guarantees the return of the abortion debate, and probably more savage than ever. All I know is that Norma McCorvey looks creepy, like she would beat you up if she wanted to (creepy in the same way as Ms. Hackathorn or the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the fifth Harry Potter book) and if she were your teacher/professor, she would fail you just for her own pleasure (hey, it’s nearly happened to me before). At any rate, I’m not going, first because I don’t have enough interest, and second because I have to go to the Student Composers Concert anyways.

 

Sustenance and Illegal Items

 

My mom visited last week, Easter basket in tow. As I predicted, she got me The Matrix Revolutions on DVD (Yay!), as well as more candy than I could possibly eat (and for some reason she always insists on giving me jelly beans every single year, even though she knows I hate jelly beans save for a few Jelly Belly flavors). She also brought a microwave, even though we’re not supposed to have microwaves in our rooms, since Physical Plant took so long in getting us a new microwave. She saw Liz’s art project in the gallery and loved it.

 

Stupid Editors

 

I wrote a Denisonian article last week (about the dedication of the new Biology building, Samson Talbot Hall), and the editors have taken what I said and made it the complete opposite, and now it looks stupid. In regards to the offending paragraph, here is what I said:

 

Knobel went on to explain that Talbot began a new funding program and oversaw the addition of natural and biological sciences to the Denison curriculum (which, up to that point, only offered “classical” studies), as well as a style of learning by observation and experimentation, rather than straight memorization out of a textbook.

 

This is what the editors published:

 

Knobel continued to explain that Talbot began a new funding program. He also oversaw the addition of natural and biological sciences to the Denison curriculum. This had previously offered only “classical” studies, as well as a style of learning by observation and experimentation, rather than straight memorization out of a textbook.

 

Like I said, that is the complete opposite of what I had, and now the article looks stupid.

 

No More Bad Songs, Please

 

I’ve got a really stupid song stuck in my head. I watched Monster House last night. It’s an awesome show, but it has one bad point: its music. They tend to have a new song (partially played at some point during the episode and fully during the credits) for every episode in relation to the theme the house is being built in. As a result, these songs are always extremely cheesy. Last night’s theme was Mad Scientist House. The house was cool, but the song sunk to new lows. I don’t know the entire song because most of it was obscured by the voice-over person announcing what was next, but the song began, “It’s” <long pause> “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD genius” (It could have been “science” instead of “genius” but that’s what it sounded like to me), and this line is repeated constantly. The annoying/creepy part of it was the fact that whenever the singer got to the “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAD” part, he always sounded like Peewee Herman. The song has been stuck in my head all day, and I would rather it not be.

 

Are Network Executives Really That Stupid?

 

Back in March, I started watching a new show on CBS called Century City, and I found it to be very well-researched, imaginative, and thought-provoking. It was basically a courtroom drama set about thirty years in the future, and all of the issues dealt with were ones that could very realistically pop up in the near future. Unfortunately, it was cancelled after only 4 episodes. Granted, it was edgy and non-mainstream, and a lot of those types of shows don’t last, but for some dumb reason CBS decided to air it on Tuesdays at 9 pm. In other words, they were putting up against American Idol. Hello?! What did they THINK was going to happen??? I don’t watch American Idol, but apparently everybody else does, something that CBS should have realized.

 

Luckily, the Remaining Two Shows I Watch Are Still Going Strong

 

New episodes of Inuyasha start this Saturday (Finally!).

 

This Never Happened To Me Before

 

It turns out that my copy of the fourth Harry Potter book is an increasingly rare First American Edition copy with an infamous mistake that was corrected in later versions. Cherie first told me about the mistake, so I had my mom bring my copy down with her, and sure enough, mine has the mistake (and a perusal of a newer copy at Walmart proved that this mistake has since been corrected). This is cool because it might be worth something someday, or at the very least it makes for an interesting conversation piece. To check and see if you have the mistake too, look on page 667 (of the hardcover version, and I’ll try to be as cryptic as I can in case there’s someone who hasn’t read it). If the father comes before the mother, congratulations, your book contains the mistake. If the mother comes before the father, then you have a later edition, but don’t be sad because you have a more correct version.

 

That’s all for now. See you later.

 

Happy Easter everyone!

 

Well, I got a few more updates, but this post will probably not be as long as the last one. I like the way I organized the last one, so I’m going to do it that way again.

 

The Bake Sale War Continues…

 

…only now they’ve moved from bake sales to posters. Apparently the Objectivists struck a sensitive chord somewhere because now there are pro-affirmative action posters all over Slayter (historically the issue that caused the biggest uproar and debate on campus was abortion, but this might change that). Some of the posters are like mini-essays in that they explain that affirmative action is not exactly reverse racism because those who benefit from affirmative action traditionally come from substandard schools and are not given as many opportunities as their rich white male counterparts. Other posters are mini-comics about a boy on the east side of Detroit and all the problems he has to face and when he tries to get into college there is a cartoon of a woman complaining that he gets all the breaks. In the meantime, the Objectivists had posters up that said “History shows…socialism fails,” accompanied by pictures of flags of Communist Russia, Nazi Germany, and Communist China (where technically it hasn’t failed yet, although they’re getting more lenient). I noticed on Friday that someone had scratched out the word “socialism” and replaced it with “totalitarianism/fascism,” which is probably more accurate, but I’d just as soon avoid entering the debate altogether.

 

The Mandy Thing

 

Sorry, but that’s the name of her radio show. I wasn’t on it this week, but I was last week. We got tons of calls (the last time I was there we didn’t get any). At first it was the same guy who kept calling. He wanted to hear a specific Rush song. Since the Doobie only had one Rush CD and that song wasn’t on it, Mandy ended up going down to archives to find a bunch of LPs (one of which had the song). This afforded me my first opportunity going solo at the controls (which I really didn’t do a whole lot with besides change songs). After the Rush song we started playing “Eye of the Tiger,” but stopped after the first two seconds because Mandy needed to do a PSA (there are set times that DJs have to talk on the air, make a vocal ID, or play a PSA). I ended up doing it (an announcement about the Senior Art Gallery opening, which I’ll get to later), but then the Rush guy called again, insisting (in a nice way; he wasn’t being rude or anything) that we continue “Eye of the Tiger” because “four guys just jumped up when that song started playing.” Near the end of the show, Susanna and her friend Samir showed up. Mandy was going to give them picks for the last songs, but right then she was hit with a flurry of calls (all of which she put on the air). There must’ve been six or seven calls within the span of five minutes (including a wrong number and two different guys that wanted to hear Tom Jones of all people; oddly enough, the Doobie has a Tom Jones CD). After playing Tom Jones, Susanna and Samir started raiding the Doobie’s CD collection and we ended up making fun of the odd names of some of the bands (Samir’s favorite was Butt Trumpet; Susanna liked Action Slacks, which to me sounds like a really bad 70s superhero cartoon; other odd names included Gay Dad, Geezer Lake, and Lustful Penguins). All in all, we ended up staying an hour past the time Mandy’s show was supposed to end.

 

The Art Gallery, Which I Forgot to Mention Last Time

 

The Senior Art Gallery opening was last week. I finally got to see Liz’s finished project (previously I had only seen bits and pieces of it). Her project was primarily a book of monotype and linoleum prints of a Japanese legend called “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” (it’s too long to explain here, but it’s pretty well-known in Japan, so you should be able to find a version on the Internet somewhere). She had also made a table and tokonoma (sp?) with her dad’s help, and she had put prints of cranes on four large cushions (these were the prints that she injured herself on). I could be biased, but I think her project was the talk of the gallery. Everyone kept complimenting her on it and asking her to tell them the story. Also of note was Liz’s friend Rebecca, who did an 18-second animation of a story she wrote. The animation itself was entirely hand drawn (which must have taken forever) and then colored using some sort of animation software. I finally met Liz’s oldest sister (her other sister was sick and couldn’t come) and her oldest nephew, as well as meeting her brother for the second time (he had gone to the Sci-Fi marathon last year). Carol showed up near the end with her new boyfriend in tow. My mom wants to see Liz’s project when she comes to visit next week.

 

WANTED: Denison Friend With Car

 

This year’s Sci-Fi marathon is May 1^st, but Liz is not sure if she’s gonna go or not, and if she doesn’t, I don’t have a ride. Mandy’s interested, but Mandy doesn’t have a car either, unless she can get Susanna to go.

 

In Sports News…

 

I know, I usually don’t talk about sports all that much (but that will change come the Olympics this summer), but it looks as though my faithfulness to the Detroit Tigers may finally be rewarded this year (even though I heard somewhere that they lost their last game, but they won their first four or five). I’ve been a Detroit Tigers fan ever since middle school (most of you probably will not find that surprising), and I get a new Tigers T-shirt every year (usually because one of the old ones is too worn out to wear in public). As a result, there’s a good number of people on campus who think I’m from Detroit (in Toledo, you’re basically expected to casually like either the Tigers or the Indians, but your fervor is supposed to be first and foremost to the Mud Hens, Toledo’s minor league baseball team; I have one Mud Hens shirt, and that’s only because someone gave it to me; I really don’t care about the Mud Hens). I had a professor last year who saw my Tigers shirt and jokingly asked, “Aren’t you embarrassed to be wearing that shirt?” Yeah, I know they usually suck, but I still like them (and besides, my grandpa would be spinning in his grave if I followed any other team). Anyways, if this streak doesn’t last, I’ll be disappointed but not devastated because I’m used to that sort of thing.

 

I Have No Money

 

I found out that The Matrix Revolutions is out on DVD (actually yesterday the girl next to me was watching both sequels, which is what reminded me). I want to buy it because it’s awesome (my favorite of the three, no matter what anyone says), but right now I have zero dollars because I keep putting 99% of my paycheck into my savings for the Florida trip. Oh well, usually my parents get me a DVD for Easter (it seems to be a tradition, although it was a video until about two or three years ago), so maybe it’ll be this one.

 

Am I Sending Messages to Myself?

 

I got three Disney guidebooks out of the Granville library last week, all of them out of date (i.e. none of them include Mission: Space, which is the newest extremely popular attraction, so these books’ crowd control advice are probably inaccurate): the 2003 Frommer’s guide, the 2002 Fodor’s guide, and the 2002 Official guide. Last night, I was leafing through the official guide, and I discovered a post-it note inside, stuck to one of the pages. It had a bunch of dates and comments on breakfast/no breakfast written on it, but the weird part was that it was in my handwriting. Now I know I did not put that there, so what’s the deal?

 

That’s all for now (and I think that’s plenty). Bye.

WARNING: Long post…

 

Trust me, I keep meaning to post, but I’ve been tremendously busy. I will keep trying harder. Anyways, time for another long update. I’m going to try a new approach to this, so let me know what you think.

 

The Battle of the Bake Sales

 

At least, that’s what it seems like. Last week, Women’s Emphasis had an Equal Opportunity Bake Sale, wherein they charged guys 24 cents more for everything than girls (This was supposed to reflect the ratio of how much more money men make than women). I didn’t go (I’m rarely in Slayter when this sort of stuff is going on), but I hear they did pretty well. Today, the Denison Objectivist Club (which seems to have secretly allied itself with the College Republicans, since I keep seeing propaganda from them pushing Republican-type issues) had an Affirmative Action Bake Sale, in which everyone except white males were charged a dollar extra for everything. For some reason, they were holding this bake sale outside Slayter instead of inside (where most tables for various sales, sign-ups, petitions, etc are). The bake sale was supposed to be from 11 am to 3:30 pm. By 12:30, there was a huge group (mainly the Black Student Union and La Fuerza Latina, the Hispanic student group, but there were others not affiliated with a group), standing outside Slayter (blocking both the table where the bake sale was as well as the front entrance to Slayter), holding up signs and protesting the bake sale. They must have eventually scared the Objectivists off, because when I went back to Slayter around 2:00, both the protesters and the Objectivists were gone, and in place of the table was a woman giving out free samples of Axe deodorant spray. Oddly enough, today in my 20^th Century Music class (at 2:30), we discussed perceptions of race in classical music, and it also happens that I have the biggest spread of diversity with my professors on Mondays and Wednesdays: a white female (Physics), a white male (Computer Music), a black female (Economics), and an Asian male (20^th Century Music).

 

But I Don’t Want to Write About Him…

 

Speaking of 20^th Century Music, our final project is a paper and presentation on a composer of our choice. Our professor suggested that we choose a composer that relates to our majors (since most of us are not music majors). I went up to him after class on Monday and said that since I was a Media Technology and Arts major that I should probably write about film music, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I should go for someone with a little more “academic clout” than John Williams (even though he’s probably my favorite film composer, those damn cinema purists are influential enough that he’s not taken very seriously anymore, although most cinema purists will “tolerate” John Williams; it’s James Horner that they really hate; on the flipside, Danny Elfman is their hero. At any rate, I don’t think I could write eight to ten pages about John Williams anyways). My professor strongly recommended Toru Takemitsu, a Japanese film composer who did the music for over 60 Japanese movies (It’s likely that you’ve never heard of him, since he only did the music for one American movie, and that was Rising Sun, which partially takes place in Japan). I had never heard of him, but already an excuse to use Final Cut Pro (the love of my editing life) was forming in my head: a short filmography using clips from movies scored by whichever composer I choose, set in a montage using music from the respective movies. Monday night I mulled over Toru Takemitsu, but since I had never heard of him, I decided to think of some back-ups “just in case.” I came up with Ennio Morricone (He’s scored more American movies recently, but I figured he has some “academic clout” since he’s Italian and he’s not that well-known among the students) and Henry Mancini (who I figured had “academic clout” since he’s composed other pieces besides film scores and he’s considered to be one of the greatest movie composers of all time). However, when I mentioned these two names to my professor today, he didn’t seem all that impressed and kept insisting that I would like Takemitsu. The library had some CDs of his non-movie music, so I checked them out and I find two of them to be thoroughly boring. The third CD (which is actually a compilation and only has one piece of his) was mildly interesting, although I get the feeling that was because it was the only one done by an entire orchestra (the other two CDs were recorded by solo piano and a piano/violin/cello ensemble, respectively). I’m going to try to find some of his film scores (though I have no idea where to find them), but I get the feeling I still won’t like them all that much. My problem is: how do I tell my professor this?

 

Those Wacky Drunk People Are At It Again

 

Last night they were in a destructive mood. There were two guys who couldn’t even walk straight (usually the drunk people here can at least manage that much). One guy went up to a lamppost and started shaking it. He actually got it swaying pretty significantly. Finally the glass shade on the lamppost either came in contact with the light bulb or it simply flew off, because in the next instant, it was lying on the sidewalk in a million pieces (oddly enough, the light itself was still working just fine). Of course the guy then tried to do the same thing to the next lamppost down the sidewalk, but he was unsuccessful. The weird thing is that it took Denison a week and a half to get us a new microwave, but they had the lamppost repaired in less than 24 hours. At the present  moment, there are a group of drunk girls passing by singing songs from, of all things, The Little Mermaid, their voices proving that Disney and alcohol do not mix.

 

Cartoon Network Can’t Make Up Its Mind

 

Inuyasha has been moved AGAIN. The new episodes will start airing Saturday, April 24 at 11pm. It still only looks like one episode a week, though. At least the moderator who announced this was nicer than the last one…

 

My Classical Music Week

 

Last Tuesday I went to Columbus to see Lang Lang (a 21-year-old Chinese pianist) in concert.

 

 

It was pretty good. He is very talented, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if the three guys behind me had been a bit more mature (and one of them was Mike Berlin, who usually knows better). Afterwards, I was able to get Lang Lang’s autograph, so that was cool. One interesting thing to note is that, two and a half years after the fact, I finally got a taste of the so-called “post-9/11 world,” as I had to have my purse searched when we left the parking garage.

 

 

Last Wednesday was the Joshua Bell concert here at Denison.

 

 

I was lucky in that I got to meet him twice. The first was at the meet and greet, which my class ended up going to. He seems really easygoing and friendly. It was the first time I met someone famous whose CD (or whatever, depending on the person) I already owned (I have the Red Violin soundtrack as well as a CD by another artist whom he does a song with, and I bought his latest album, “Romance of the Violin,” at the meet and greet and had him autograph it). The concert was really beautiful. He is very talented (and apparently he owns his own Stradivarius violin, which are hundreds of years old and are considered to be some of the best violins ever made), and his music is gorgeous (and I know it’s cheesy to say that, but I can’t really describe it any other way). After the concert, I had my picture taken with him and the pianist, Simon Mulligan (I’ll post the picture once I get it developed).

 

Yet Another Exec Board Position

 

I’ve been elected Historian of East Asian Club…

 

 

I think that’s about it. Bye for now (keep your teeth clean-Monty Python joke).