Take Me to the Riot

The library I work in here on campus just purchased new green and red metal bookends. Normally, the color of a bookend doesn't even catch my attention, but picture this with me if you will. We are assigned the job of walking up and down all the rows of books on the third floor, the one floor of the library that is literally 80% bookshelves, in order to be sure that all of the books are in a somewhat tidy fashion. Imagine now the various colors we are absorbing, mainly antiqued and faded shades of reds, oranges, and blues. Now insert these bright red or green shiny bookends capping off every single row. Feel the harshness of contrast burning into your eyes. This is the task I just completed.

The open forum show that I host once a month, what we call Blindspot, had it's final show of 2007 last night. Over ten percent of campus showed up to rock out with us. I've had countable, but still impressive, numbers of people coming up to me since then saying that it was the best Blindspot they'd seen since they've been here. Some of my personal favorites included a skit about a murder playing charades, shaving someone's head while they told a story of getting punched while walking to Wendy's, tons of poetry (something that has resurged this year at Blindspot, much to my love), and sing-a-longs to "Here Comes the Sun," "Leaving On a Jet Plane," and Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," which no one other than Charlie, Will, and I sang along to. It was dubbed, by myself, as the Dedication Blindspot, and I accepted dedications throughout the duration of the show. I dedicated it to Shout Stain Wipes, for they allowed me to look less ketchupy on stage. Some other included Fabreeze, the "booze crew," and my five o'clock shadow, which is now a neatly trimmed attempt at a beard. It's winter, and my face is cold.

Charlie told me that I need to start listening to Stars. Brian had given me there stuff last year, and someone else got me there new one, but I hadn't gotten to it yet. I'm playing it through my earphones as I work in the library right now, and I must say, it's great stuff. I can't really say more than that, seeing as this is just my first real listen through, but it's really groovy stuff, not hippie style groovy, more like subtle body shaking style groovy. I dig the duel voices.

I'll be home in six days.