Present Joys

• Registered for the fall 2013 semester monday morning at midnight. Wow.
• Had a pretty laid-back week. Killed more time in monday morning’s package design. Uneventful as always.
• Didn’t have any normal classes on tuesday or wednesday because of sophomore review, which, thankfully, I didn’t have anything to do with this year.
• Instead of going to class on tuesday, I worked a long day at OhioHealth and took wednesday off for homework.
• Had a very fun thursday. Split a cheese danish with Amanda that Jason bought us.
• Checked out some library books and was called “one of our best patrons” by the school librarian. Rock’n’roll.
• Spent lots of time talking to my bff Amanda on the phone.
• Got unnecessarily upset about a dumb flyer a fellow student had posted all over campus. But that’s ok, because if I didn’t get unnecessarily upset, I wouldn’t be myself!
• Visited my jewelry teacher thursday afternoon and had a very nice time catching up.
• Drove straight from school to Riverside Hospital, where I art-directed a photoshoot for a colorectal cancer awareness ad campaign I’m working on with my internship. What a weird week.

I had the chance to see They Might Be Giants play at the Newport Music Hall this past saturday (2 mar 2013)! I took my sister along with me. The opening band, Vandaveer, was a bad fit for the audience. The frontman for the band was annoying (he was “trying way too hard”, as my brother would say) and the music was really unappealing. On top of that, all the usual Newport unpleasantness abounded—lame acoustics, dirty, sticky surfaces, generally terrible logistics.

But TMBG was freaking wonderful! They played a lot of songs from their new album Nanobots (“You’re On Fire”, “Call You Mom”, “Circular Karate Chop”, “Insect Hospital”, and “Nanobots”) and they all sounded very tight! We did “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” and a new thing where the Johns would take turns shining a high-powered flashlight in the face of a random audience member and would then make up a nickname for him. And of course there were lots of great tunes. I particularly enjoyed hearing “Whistling in the Dark” with full band + accordion performed literally in the dark.

The band is so vibrant and technically proficient and imaginative and fun. It’s a really heart-warming, satisfying experience to see them perform. My only complaint is an enduring, long-term one: more accordion, please.