Friday a couple friends and I checked out the new Rolling Stones documentary dircected by Martin Scorsese. Awsome flick. It's showing on IMAX in Easton. The movie is an entire Stones concert in New York last year, and each song is punctuated by old interviews with the band. In one from the early '60s Mick Jagger is asked how much longer the band will be making music together, to which he responds: "I'd say at least one more year."
They play a great live show, especially considering their age (early-60s), and the IMAX screen is amazing. If someone were to ask me if I've ever seen the Rolling Stones live I might slip up and say yes then have to correct myself. My favorite song was probably this old Southern blues one they did with Buddy Guy, who came on stage, played guitar and contributed some pretty powerful vocals. So yeah, check it out.
On tap this weekend is school work, however. Even though finals week is offically next week, I'll be taking alomst all of mine in the next few days. Today (Mon.) I have a final essay for my 1st political science class. Tommorrow I have an essay due and an in class presentation on poet Charles Bukowski. Wedn. I get a quick breather. Thurs. is the final essay for my 2nd political science class. Friday is my Eng. Lit. final. Come to think of it, the only final I have during finals week is my poetry one.
Well, time to gather up my Stones albums and hit the books.
Cya next week (for my last blog)!
Pretty good time this past weekend. Friday I stayed in and wrote a paper, so I wouldn't have to worry about it the rest of the weekend. My cousin Tim came in from Akron on Saturday and we met up at my sister's in Pataskala. First we played a little Guitar Hero with my brother in law, which I had never played before. It was more fun than I'd thought it'd be. After you start to memorize the buttons and get used to the controls it does kind of feel like you're playing the song. That night Tim and I headed down to OSU campus, met up with a couple friends and walked to the Gateway. Really fun time. We unexpectedly ran into some old high school friends at McFadden's, stayed until closing time, then grabbed a little late night pizza. The next day we drove back to my sister's, who was cooking out, and hung out with Tim's parents. Overall, a nice, stress-free weekend.
However, I do have a little job dilemma going on. Last week I told you that I'd gotten a job at 84 Lumber. Well, now Timet (the titanium plant I worked for last summer) is hiring again. Here's the catch-22: I would live at home and make considerably more money at Timet, BUT I would have to drive to ODU every Saturday from June through July with gas probably hovering around the 3.50--3.75 a gallon mark. Oh, the tangled webs we weave! Ok, that might be a little too dramatic lol. I'll be sure to let you know which one I choose before school ends.
Also, I can see many papers and tests and powerpoint presentations on the finals' horizon. But I'll update you on those next week.
Until then, Cya!
Good news, I found a summer job last week. I'll be working for 84 Lumber in Pataskla making roof trusses (triangular pieces that make up the roof of a house or barn). It's full time hours, which is tough to find for a summer job. No one wants to hire full time worker who'll just go back to school in a couple months. And on top of all that, I'll only being working about 3 miles away from my sister's house, so gas money won't be a problem. The only time I'll really have to drive is to ODU every Saturday for the summer science class I'm taking. I'd say I got pretty lucky.
Because of my new found employment, I had to make a trip home to pick up some old work clothes--jeans, steel-toed boots, a few old t-shirts. I had a good time, though. Pretty relaxing, plenty of time to do homework. Plus it was my aunt's birthday, so we all went down to my grandmother's for cake and ice cream. I shot up to Pittsburgh to buy her a birthday gift--a John Irving novel. We both like to read, and I usually take advantage of any opportunity to get into a bookstore.
Now it's back to the salt mines this week (i.e. school work). I'm pretty busy, let's see: Eng. 222 poetry homework, finish reading a novel by Wednesday, write another precis for political science class (which are really time consuming) then my final Eng. Lit. paper is due next Monday. And somewhere in between that I have to take a drug test for 84 Lumber.
I should be able to fit it all in, though.
Cya!
So last Thursday I went to see WWII Holocaust survivor Alfred Tibor speak here on campus. It was unbelievably good. You always read about the WWII and the brutality, but you're still removed--the experience is only page deep. To a certian extent, the Holocaust for our generation is just another terrible "historical" event, not too much different than the brutality of the French Revolution, or Napoleon's war campaigns.
But seeing Mr. Tibor speak gives you an entirely different perspective. His experience was so astoundingly personal--34 of his immediate family members died. Think about that. Look: IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIII
That's 34 slash marks. Imagine each one being your mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, etc etc. That's pure insanity! Which really gets you thinking about all the other Holocaust victims. There are probably a lot of stories like this. We just don't frame it in this way. We see the number 6,000,000 plopped down on the page (the estimated number of Holocaust victims), but never the individual back stories.
To top it off, Mr. Tibor has zero hatred. That was actually the point of the speech--to stop what he called the vicious "circle of hatred" in everyday life. He is also a sculptor. He has pieces throughout Ohio ( I know he said there's one in Bexley). I'd like to check them out if I get the chance. Carved into the base of the one sculpture is: "For the 11 million who perished." 6 million jews died in the Holocaust. The other 5 million, he said, is for the German guards--kind of like a Jesus' "forgive-them-they-know-not-what-they-do" kind of thing. How powerful is that? Try representing that with slash marks.