You Decide....

So, I went grocery shopping at this place that's supposed to have the best prices. I had to pay a $.25 deposit in order to use a shopping cart. Just as I entered the store, nature called and vehemently demanded my immediate attention. I did not want to run the risk of losing my cart and thus, losing my $.25(yes, I'm that poor and stingy) so I resumed shopping. At a certain point, I couldn't take it anymore so I just grabbed some random stuff, threw it in my cart, and ran to the bathroom. Thankfully, my cart was still there when I got back. So,

A. I probably looked like a Certifiable Damn Fool.
B. I am extremely resourceful and deserve to be showered with praise, especially by big-breasted women.
C. That's karma for my stinginess.
D. I should be more vigilant about taking Lactaid.
E. I should leave my readers alone and continue writing about the stupid shit I have been writing about.

So I am working as a stage manager for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as my assistantship. I got to meet Emmylou Harris and be her security guard. It's well worth it for the free tuition. On Sunday, I worked the Dan Zanes event. Dan Zanes is the bluegrass equivalent to Raffi but with Andy Warhol hair. It was basically little kids and their parents dancing around like mad. We were all hoping for a is year old to stage dive and/or start a mosh pit to no avail. He likes to have guest artists perform with them. The highlight of the concert was when Papa Goose did some hip-hop/reggae versions of children's songs. Think, "Come on, mon. Put your hands in the air fo ole' MacDonald.....Raise the roof fo Humpty Dumpty!"

I noticed another trait among Midwesterners. Having spent most of my life in Boston, you tend to keep communication with strangers to the point as possible, nothing more. In Baltimore, when people you hardly know ask you how you're doing, you feel obliged to answer them. Back home, it was at most times, a longer but more polite way of saying hi with little or no expectation of an answer. In Baltimore, just a hi back would get dirty looks. Here in Urbana, they create an environment where it feels effortless to answer back or to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger with no other reason than to pass time. Asking for directions or purchasing groceries could flow easily into banter. I've been handling this change much better than I thought I would.

Last night I did something I've never done before. It's surprising considering how unremarkable of a first it is for me and only worth noting because it took so long. I finally got paid in my new setting and with my first day of conducting coming up, I felt like celebrating. I had a strong desire to have Korean food - a rare occurrence when I'm not back home - so I ended up going to an overpriced restaurant two blocks away from me. The meal served its purpose, it filled me up. And it wasn't bad - just not exactly a $20 meal. I had Jjam Pong - a spicy chicken and vegetable stew with noodles. It wasn't quite like how mom makes it. It should be much hotter, the first bite should make you feel like you've just been kicked in the nuts. Plus, the broth wasn't as complex in flavor. One saw past the spice quite easily. This is the farthest I've lived away from home and not coincidently, the Korean in me has been wanting to assert itself more than it ever has felt comfortable in doing so. Shit, I might even teach myself how to cook Korean food.

Bells

So here's next most annoying thing about my school other than the fucking Dewey Decimal system. They use bells to mark the end and the beginning of each period, just like middle and high school. I thought that the fact that we are now going to a fine institute of higher learning means that we have risen above mediocrity that is pervasive in American public schools and we don't have to put up with that shit anymore. I certainly got that sense in college where from the get-go, they made me feel empowered intellectually and that inspired me greatly. Now Illinois is no MIT,but it is one of the better schools in the country. These students shouldn't be herded around like cattle at the sound of loud and annoying bells. It feels like I'm in some post-apocalyptic regime straight out of the movie, Metropolis. They also have terrible associations for people like me who hated high school. So we have bells on the 1/2 hour. Classes end 10 minutes before the hour or the half hour. I have an hour and a half class and I have to suffer through six fucking bells throughout the course of the class!

Melville Dewey can Suck My Balls!

The Universityof Illinois has one of the largest collection of books in the world - 10 million or so. So why the fuck do these idiots use the fucking Dewey Decimal System? Dewey was created as much simpler catalog system to the Library of Congress for smaller collections such as community and public school libraries. I personally think that the types of people using such libraries also had something to do with appeal of such a system.

For a college, and especially a grad student, the Library of Congress is great because after a while you know exactly where to browse. For the past 10 years, if I wanted an opera score, I head directly to M1500 without having to go to a catalog. If I want the piano vocal score of the same opera, I go to M1520. I don't want to comb through an entire floor of 780 as I would under Dewey. Where's the fucking logic in that?

Library of Congress is perfect for large specialized collection that we have here. In a music library, every fucking book is going to be in the mid 700's. I just don't get it! Is this a territorial thing? Is this just another element of the Midwest giving the finger to the elitist East Coast? Are these people that insecure? It just doesn't make sense and it's going to drive me nuts for the next two years.