Friday, August 27, 2004
Went to the Red Sox/Tigers game tonight with my Dad. The Red Sox won, which made me happy, but then again the Tigers lost, which made me sad. Still, the Tigers are just playing to finish up the season, and the Red Sox are still playing for a possible Wild Card spot, so I guess it all worked out as it should have.
We met a very friendly woman from Ohio who was rooting for the Tigers. She had on a Tigers tshirt and Tigers earrings, so she reacted happily to my Detroit Lions tshirt (let the record state that I was, however, wearing a Red Sox hat). Sadly, she was an Ohio State alum. And she called soda 'pop'. Those are two pretty grievous strikes against her, but she was awfully nice.
Dave was there with his brother, and it turns out that he was only sitting two sections away from me, so he came over before the game to say hi and chat a bit. I went over to his seats after the 7th inning ended to chat again, and to moan about the horrible game that Pudge Rodriguez was having. It's so nice to be able to trot around freely between sections *cough*as opposed to at Michigan games where you get attacked by security if you try to leave your section*cough*.
Egads. I just realized that Dave's birthday is soon (the day before mine, actually). But since he's a year and a day older than me, that means he's going to be 20. Holy frelling cats. My friends are starting to turn 20. That's... that's old. It doesn't even sound right. Aargh. Of course I have friends who are already in their 20s, but it's one thing when you meet them and they're that old. It's a horse of quite another color when the friends you grew up with start turning 20. Meep!
I just got my address for this coming year today, so if you'd like it, drop me a line. I'm not dumb enough to post it online or stick it in my AIM profile, and I'd suggest that those of you who have your addresses in your blogs or AIM profiles take 'em out. Come on people. Basic, basic security. Sigh.
Back to school shopping has begun, sadly... perhaps a bit late, as I drive up next Thursday (if September 2nd is next Thursday, anyways), but so it is. Since I had managed to completely mangle every pair of jeans I owned, I got a couple new pairs. This is a very good thing, as I've been living in sweatpants all summer. Well. Not that I don't do that at school, but now at least I have the option.
I also got four new CDs, since I don't listen to the radio in Ann Arbor and there simply aren't any stores there that compare in prices and selection to Newbury Comics (and of course you can't get local-- Boston -- bands out there). I picked up Red Bedroom by the Fever, Hot Fuss by the Killers, Goodbye to All That by Rubyhorse, and Put Out by Baby Strange. They're all quite enjoyable, I must say.
Naturally the Killers stuff is a little more mainstream (Somebody Told Me and Mr. Brightside), but it's pretty good for all that. Some of the songs on the Rubyhorse CD are a little sedate, but the more I listen to it the more I like it. I know they were part of a free concert at the Hatch this summer, but it was the same day as a Red Sox game that I went to with Jess, and we were both a little too tired after the game to drag ourselves into the middle of a concert (especially after the mess that was the Dispatch concert).
The Baby Strange CD is probably the one I like best right now, but that also means I'll probably get tired of it the quickest. Eh, whatever. Great stuff. So very local. Their sound is generally described as a combination of 1960s British arena-rock (whatever that is) and Motown... having listened to the CD quite a few times already, I can't really dispute that. Although that could have something to do with my not quite knowing what a combination of those two things is supposed to sound like. Ah well.
The Fever CD is also very good, with a very diverse sound, so you don't get annoyed that all the songs sound the same. I was looking for their website (which, by the by, is here) and happened upon some of the Amazon reviews for this CD. I don't quite know what to say, except that this band has some weird, weird fans. For lack of more coherent adjectives, I'll just resort to reproducing some segments here.
"It's like if you took Devo, locked them in a room with 15 hungry badgers, and said 'Write some songs for us.'" I'm actually not sure this is accurate. If you locked Devo in a room with 15 hungry badgers, I think you'd get a CD full of strangled screams and frantic scrabbling noises, which this definitely isn't. Badgers are nastier than most people give them credit for. Hmm. Secret evil overtones to Hufflepuff? God, that was pretty dorky.
"The album is sofa king amazing, I skeeted on the Kenwood and my pet bandicoot." I have no idea what this means. It might be some secret Amazon-album-commenting code that I'm not privvy to, but then again this person could just be insane. I get the 'sofa king' bit, but the rest of it is lost on me (bandicoot?).
"If Billy Idol and Nicky Sixx beat up the rest of the Beach Boys, kidnapped Brian Wilson and took him to every dirty bar in Mexico before locking him in a studio for three days with nothing but old porno mags, Red Bedroom is the album he'd make....If you've ever tried to wash a regrettable night out of your soul with a shower and some mouth wash, only to find yourself reveling about it a week later and returning to the scene of the crime, The Fever is your band and Red Bedroom is your soundtrack." This could be the greatest Amazon album review ever written. No further comment needed.
Possibly you should all run out and get this CD just so that you can count yourself a member of this elite little slice of humanity.
Also! Michael Phelps will be attending the University of Michigan starting this winter term! Not fall term, because I think he'll still be wrapped up in Olympic goings-on when it starts. He's going because his coach is going to be working there, and obviously he can't swim for Michigan since he's accepted endorsements and whatnot. But he'll be working with the prestigious Michigan club swimming team, Club Wolverine, of which Tom Malchow (another Olympic swimmer) is already a member. Cor. Apparently Michigan is good at swimming. Who knew?
US News ranks the country's colleges, and puts Michigan in at 22, tied with Carnegie Mellon and U VA. Not that I'm smug or anything. Heh. For those who are interested, here are the rankings of schools I know people at (unless I forgot someone):
1. Harvard (naturally)
5. MIT
11. Northwestern (above Michigan, and not an Ivy. Eh. Dave is allowed greater levels of smugness)
13. Brown (below Northwestern. Iiiiiinteresting)
22. University of Michigan-- Ann Arbor
25. Georgetown
28. Tufts
32. Brandeis and NYU (tie)
37. BC and Lehigh (tie)
52. Syracuse
56. BU
62. Ohio State (note how far it is below Michigan. Hee hee)
71. Michigan State (sorry Sara, but it's so)
74. Clark University
90. University of Vermont
98. University of Massachusetts-- Amherst and UNH (tie)
120. Northeastern
And there the listing ends. I do tend to think this list is a bit inaccurate, though. You probably ought to take it with a grain of salt. Much as I love Michigan, I have my doubts as to it's being a better school overall than Georgetown (and I don't just say that because the genius that is Leslie goes there). I'm also a little wary of Northwestern being above both Brown and Cornell, but who knows. I do sort of love the fact that Renssalaer Polytechnic (sort of like MIT) is tied at 46 with the Yeshiva University, though.
MassArt wasn't on there, but I don't think they rank art schools. Kate... erm. Well. I don't know what to say, I've no idea where Skidmore was. I'd imagine that it should be in there somewhere though, since it's clearly a better school that Northeastern or the Michigan Technological University (which are tied for 120). Possibly I didn't see it.
Interestingly, in the rankings of top public schools, Michigan is number two (!), tied with UVA and below UCal-- Berkeley. Nice.
OK, it's a stupid ranking thing and probably means very little in Real Life and no one should pay any attention to it in the least. but at 1:20 am it amuses me and I'll put it in the blog if I catdamned want to.
Starting to get belligerent in blog. Time for sleep.
1:22 AM
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