Shoes Like Grass Clippings

Things go quicker on dress down days. They just do, and so I wish we had them weekly. But we don't because my school is a fascist police state (or quickly becoming one). Today wasn't dreadful, but that's the problem. I don't even have anything to be inflamed about. There was a pep rally after school. These always tend to be weak/weakening for different reasons, i.e. I get hassled by wrestling goons, it's animalistic and embarassing, Tom Vresics unwittingly fails in faculty sports events, the senior class lacks any kind of enthusiasm anymore (not even enough to give me a hard time)... Today, it was just boring. Almost sad. Actually, it was sad to see Mr. Fleetman pushed around in the flag football game, physically violated on the basketball court/flag football field instead of just verbally in front of the chalk board. He walked off the court, red in the face, and gave his spot to Mr. Lang. Mr. Fleetman, you probably know this, but let me reassert myself: I am always rooting for you and your supposedly near-impossible exams are deserved.

I don't care what you have to say about Jon Boyd if you go to my school... that kid is really cool and I often find myself wishing to be him with more advanced musical leanings. His hair is neat, he wears pretty nice clothes, he's friends with everyone that matters in the senior class, he can pull off anything... and also believes that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by the CIA. So, anyone that can juggle justifiable pinko conspiracy theories with healthy popularity and fashion sense is awesome in my book.

A pep rally is a good place to learn names/attach names to faces. For example, there's this kid I see around a lot. He looks incredibly young, but he hangs out with seniors (ones that I hate). I don't like the things that he does. Now I can talk about him because I know his name is Joe Bailey and he's a captain of the swim team.

The pep rally not only made it easier for me to rag on people that could kick my ass, it also told me this: metalcore is acceptable when no one is paying attention to it except one who put it on in the first place. Metalcore sucks and if you're playing it for more than say, six people, someone is going to be disgusted by it; whether it be the screaming, the bad/generic metal riffage or just the horrific idea of the fusion to begin with. But when you're playing it in a large, crowded gymnasium where sound just gets absorbed into conversation it can fly because, let's face it, metalcore isn't important enough or good enough to unite behind.

Of course there was work, which went by quickly.

Then there was TV Dinner's second ever show in our wonderful new incarnation. The whole Coffee House was great. A library is a great place to stage a show, Belle & Sebastian know very well. It's always awkward, though, when it's one kid with an acoustic guitar and there is so much unintentional noise around. Nonetheless, two females and two males actually blew my mind and plastered a smile on my face: Kathy Walsh sang like Sandy Denny and played acoustic guitar. I don't think she wanted to talk to me. Sarah Aument, old friend, sang beautifully like no one else and played guitar much, much better than me. Zack Reinhardt and Friend (Alex Claffy) felt like a hootenanny and they ripped on an awesome cover of "Kid A." Harmonica is cool. Liz Rand and I traded driver's licenses until her concern exceeded my indifference and we had to switch back. TV Dinner brought electricity and surprisingly, aside from a tuning glitch (my fault!), went off without a hitch. There was dancing and singing along, even to the originals (thanks Miles)... also, a large string of shout-outs. Sorry Kelly G! Thx Matt, Sam, Robert, Trey, Alex, Miles, Liz, Thrashlee, other people who read this that were there...

Sleepy,
Joe