After my lesson Wednesday, I met up with Jocelyn and took a nice little aimless stroll with her around campus - she bought me chai at Kohlberg, which I stupidly burned my tongue on; we looked into Kirby to count the number of seats; we examined the twine-and-dowel compass that some alumnus had erected on Parrish beach; and ended up outside Willets, were I met a couple of Jocelyn's innumerable followers. She's the best person to gossip with, because she knows everybody and what's going on with them (Chris Ang has a girlfriend?), and especially all the freshmen (by virtue of her residence.) It's so easy to resume our perhaps superficial relationship right where we left off last time, though it feels like ages. But I like to delude myself that perhaps our relationship isn't as superficial as hers seem to be with most other people.

It was Charles Day in African, and I of course got to experience it from both sides of the drum. Unfortunately, he mostly just told stories (some terrific ones, particularly in II) and let students lead the movement - Lela in I; Morgan and Moriah in II. Some people might be annoyed about taking class without Kemal, but, as I was telling Nori, I like the liberation of feeling that you really are doing the movement entirely for yourself, and contradictorily I sometimes push myself further than when Kemal is around. It was fun though; lots of good lamba, with Ben and others stepping up to suggest additional steps. I finished the very readable Descartes (Discourse on Method parts one and two) quickly, even before class, but I stayed up way too late (well, like 2:00) talking with Rebecca about Cabaret, screw, and such things. She told me some of my rejected potential screw dates, which seemed promising.

I was five minutes late to class partly because of staying up so late, but Schuld didn't seem to mind that much, and he handed me a quiz anyway; a surprising number of people came in late through the rest of class, which did upset him, quite a lot. I got more and more restless through the next few classes, figeting with my legs on the chair. Um. Kari was wearing pink. Afternoon: I worked on some music stuff; Inflight rehearsed. We're playing Rose Tattoo next weekend, and hopefully I can write (finish) a song or two this weekend. I'm conflicted between composing on piano and guitar. I obviously have much more versatility on piano, but I always think stuff comes out sounding kind of cheesy. Since I am more limited with what I can do on guitar, I'll end up writing simpler things, which is probably better.

Sherman Alexie, when he finally took the stage after five nondescript songs from a nondescript Indian singer-songwriter with a vaguely Neil Young voice, was funny. He didn't give a lecture as I had expected, or even read from his work; he did standup comedy. And it was good. Even more impressive, it was about September 11th, and it was funny. He spent a while on what it's like to be a "brown person" in a post sept-eleventh world, and then broadened out into presidential politics, comparative religion, and suggesting that we all experiment with rejecting all of our assumptions. Dead-rock-star pre-flight tape, a gay dog, Cosmo November 1996, "gay, lesbian, gay, gay, Hemingway, gay…," "Let's get 'em, girls" and so on.

I skipped out before the Q&A session (unfortunately we couldn't have him over for coffee) to do the labo stuff. Of course, there were about five other étudiants there already, using all the tapes, and the sound files on the computer are screwed up, making it impossible to do about half of the exercises. So that's what I did. Oh well, Ed sympathized. I'm pass/fail and I love it. Radio was fun; I played a bunch of playlist stuff while Alyssa went back to talk with Sherman, some of it good, some not so much. I played most of the CDs that had arrived that day - reduced-cost press copies of Yuka Honda and Susie Ibarra, DJ Shadow and the Kinks from Half. Song list:

Welcome to Tokio…

Spinanes : Kid in Candy
John Vanderslice: You Were My Fiji (P)

Mirah : Cold Cold Water (P)
Jim Yoshii Pile-Up: Jetzt Mit Iodine (P)
Red Shirt Brigade : Thugs with Venom (P)
Charles Douglas : Prince (P)
Anywhere Right Now (P)

The Saturday People : Found Out (P)
Grandaddy : The Crystal Lake
Cibo Matto : Speechless

Yuka Honda : You Think You Are So Generous, But It’s The Most Conditional “Anything” I’ve Ever Heard--Jumping The Gap Between Me and Myself--
The Aluminum Group : Easy on Your Eyes
(The Real) Tuesday Weld : L’Amour et Le Morte

David Byrne : Burnt by the Sun
[flippin’ the tape over]
Scud Mountain Boys : Cigarette Sandwich
Belle and Sebastian : I’m Waking Up To Us
Elvis Costello : Human Hands

Susie Ibarra Trio : Azul
DJ Shadow : Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)
Kings of Convenience : Singing Softly to Me
The Flaming Lips : The Spiderbite Song

The Dandy Warhols : Horse Pills
[oops, terrorism!]
The Reindeer Section : Fire Bell
The Dandy Warhols : Get Off
Cornelius : Smoke
Dismemberment Plan : Ellen and Ben

Jim O’Rourke : Therefore I Am
Liz Phair : Soap Star Joe
John Vanderslice/Britt Daniel : Time Travel is Lonely (live) (P)

REM : Begin the Begin
George Harrison : Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)

…you know i love you more than slightly…