I’ve been slacking on my Spanish for a week or so since I’ve been overloaded with school and lately I’ve been feeling like the language is slipping away from me. But then yesterday I had two separate events that made me perk up. One was overhearing a group of Hispanics in a store talking and I would say I understood about 60% only half paying attention. The second was listening to some Spanish woven into Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian on audio, and I understood all of it, 100%, without even really trying.

(sigh) I’ll take six weeks in Guatemala, please.

I mentioned earlier that my independent study has changed quite a bit, transforming from a hodge-podge of sci-fi books loosely grouped into issues of fictional communities, the human and non-human, and American dystopia to a far more focused study centralized around a single issue: California as utopia and dystopia, and the migration of utopian dreaming northward to the Pacific Northwest.

I scored huge today, picking up a ton of used books (mostly) relating to this project. They included Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, Philip K Dick’s Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and A Scanner Darkly, and Jack London’s The Iron Heel. (I also bought Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon, which has no relation to the others whatsoever.) None of them have any marks, notes, or underlining in them, which is a real score.

Unfortunately, I also checked out twelve books of essays on Joyce’s Dubliners at the library. I look at writing this paper as I do taking off a band-aid: do it as quickly as possible and maybe it won’t sting as much. On the bright side, I think I have a pretty sound thesis which makes things better from the beginning.

I come to music late. I started listening to the Clash in 1995, about a decade after they broke up. I tuned in to Bob Dylan in 1998, after he’d released his 30th studio album. Just this year I was pointed to Elliott Smith, who has been dead for four years.

So I guess it’s only fitting that I’m really starting to dig Oasis, about ten years after their hey-day. The big songs actually stand the test of time rather well, but it’s discovering gems like “Fade Away” that have really gotten my attention. That may be the best song ever. Full stop. Want the lyrics? Here you go:

When I was young
I thought I had my own key
I knew exactly what I wanted to be
Now I’m sure
You’ve boarded up every door

While we’re living
The dreams we have as children
Fade away
(repeat)

Current Mood: Happy About My Good Day |