Hey Irony I Wanna Be Friends: May 2009

Today is Saturday, the final (weekend) night of my first year at Bard College.

You said it, Quinn.

I feel like since nobody reads this, I might as well just keep for my own records some of the bigger memories of this year. This is going to be a long post, if there's something I feel proper posting at the end, musical or otherwise, I will.

FIRST SEMESTER: Moved into Tewksbury. Chris came along. I had super long hair and hadn't shaved for months, and had just come from a Radiohead concert. I had an affinity for tightish pants, but apart from that I wasn't all that different from the way I am now. Chris and I did a lot the first two or three months I was here. We went to the Mills Mansion and it started raining, and we saw An Albatross three times. We also saw Sonic Youth at the final McCarren Park Pool show. That ruled. Then we didn't talk quite as much, and I started chilling with Daniel, with whom I bonded because we were both into City of Caterpillar. We started two bands: first, the screamo band Piskaryov with our friend Alex. We had four or five songs with no vocals. We recorded a really rough one-microphone demo in Daniel's basement which we both still listen to periodically, and do not find it painful at all. If he comes back and we still feel like it, we might try resurrecting and maybe reworking a few of those. I still like them. Then we formed the pop-punk band No Parents with Alex and his friend Ben, who also proved to be a cool guy. We played a show with Off With Their Heads that went well. Then Daniel's basement flooded with all our equipment in it, so we went to the city. Some bad shit happened, so Daniel left in the middle of finals.

WINTER BREAK: Spent some time being bored in Kinderhook, then went to the city for about two weeks, then was bored in Kinderhook for a few more days, then went to DC with some friends from Bard to see Obama become President. Then school resumed.

SPRING SEMESTER:
I did not have as much money in my bank account, so I did not make as many trips to the city. My crew basically became Ben and Quinn, who I started playing music with. He is a very good guitarist. We went to the city once to see Black Dice with my friend Jarred, Daniel's former housemate and an all-around cool guy. We started a band with this dude Eli which sort of fell apart before spring break because of me. Over Spring Break we saw Fall of Efrafa on their only US tour (which Quinn hated), then we saw They Might Be Giants. He loved that shit. After Eli, we started a band called Summerhome who have a lot of songs in various stages of completion and one song recorded. It's a pretty good recording and I am excited to give it the full-band treatment. Anyway, there was a lot less spontaneity, so even though the classes were better, the semester was less enjoyable overall. I'd give it a 6.

FUTURE:
Living in a house next year. Taking 20 credits in the fall. Lots of hard work will probably lead to a drinking problem, depression, and me quitting everything. Taking a lot of music classes soon. Cool.

RANDOM NOTES:
Tewksbury is a rotten shithole. My neighbors on both sides and the dude who lives above me are way too fucking loud. The place also attracts the biggest pieces of shit in my class. One of them tore down the picture of Ian MacKaye on my wall today. I am a much better guitarist than I was three months ago, and feel like I know how to get even better. I accumulated a lot of shit in my room that I need to figure out how to take care of before I leave in less than 48 hours. Everything here is gross and I pity my roommate for having to deal with this eyesore for six months.

Max tells me this is good.