The Can Consortium had its first gig of the year at Denison University, which is about two hours away in the direction of Columbus. It was quite successful. Some songs reached their maturity during the gig and blew our minds. They just “happened”, and the audience really worked with us.
I'm almost positive this shot was really late at night when Hiromi came down for a visit after the Denison gig. I was doing laundry. She ate a squash.
The big news is that the Can Consortium has been invited to play at a competition style event at Lincoln Center! The last time we played there, I was thinking, “Remember to look out at the audience because this’ll never happen again”. I was also a novice back then, very bright-eyed and green. The gig is on Sunday Dec. 1st and we already have a gig scheduled for the night before. That means we’ll play a gig, load up, get last minute shit together and drive all night! I’m excited. I hope it happens.
Christine, Jean, Sylvia, and I were having fun with Sylvia’s psychic ability. Cards. She’s really good, there’s something about Sylvia, like she’s a locus for that kind of energy. What she gets out of the cards are shockingly congruent with peoples’ perceptions and claims. A lot of people say she’s almost always right.
So I chose four people, Amina, Diem, Neelam, and Lisa, and if I were to marry one of these people, it would be Lisa. So I chose the four people and could ask questions about them. Amina would be the first to be published. Diem would be the first to die. Neelam would live the longest and make the most money. No wonder. The cards gave “none or all” answers to both who would be the happiest with her life and whose dreams will come true. The same answer was given for which was the romantic. I thought if the cards were accurate, they would surely sniff out Amina as the romantic. But either all of them are or none.
In a relationship, Amina would get the most happiness out of me and there would be the most romance, average fights, and bad or less than average sex. Lisa collected a lot of the “sex” cards, which was a hoot and a holler to us, since none of us present thought of Lisa as being particularly sexual or sexually inclined.
What was funny was that I declared that if Lisa got married, wherever I was, I would go to her wedding. For no one else would I do that, not even my brothers, but if Lisa got married, I’m there. So at the end, when Sylvia turned over the card I had pulled out of the deck at the beginning, which represented who out of the four I would marry, and it was Lisa . . . a hoot and a holler. All very amusing. We were all very amused.
Tomorrow is Lisa’s birthday and we’re thinking of getting her a puppy. Christine is looking into it.
I’ve become busy and three of my twelve credits haven’t even been implemented. Too much socializing, just the right amount of steel drumming, not enough physical activity. I ran a lot this summer and my muscles got accustomed to that. My classes contain a much needed overdose of religion. I wish I had been a religion major, I get such a charge from those classes, even though the people in some of them really annoy me. Sometimes it’s the professor.
I’m taking my first class in a “Western” religion. The Western orientation of the class is unfamiliar which makes it a trifle hostile, but I appreciate the challenge. And it’s quite strange how I got the class. Apparently it’s a really hard class to get into, especially for seniors since it’s a seminar intended for first years and sophomores who are considering being religion majors. And I hadn’t signed up for it. I had signed up for a class called “Life and Teachings of Jesus”, but when I got my registration card over the summer, it instead had “Self/Comm West Trad”, which I couldn’t even figure out what it was.
I looked it up in the course catalog and it turned out to be “Self and Community in Western Traditions”, and I read the description and was dubious. I was doubtful. But when it came time to fill out my schedule, no other class looked inviting and since it was already on my card, I figured I’d check it out.
It might do. My main reservation is that everyone else in the class seems somewhat familiar with the subject material, whereas my background is Buddhist. Well, I’m not sure I feel comfortable calling myself “Buddhist”, but it definitely speaks a language I have thus far understood and related to.
The summer was uneventful and numb, but it was swift. I’m OK now. I think something’s been wrong, but I can’t tell. It feels like a rug has been pulled from under me and I didn’t notice. I’m back at Oberlin and I kind of hate the place. I feel old and everyone else seems so young. Four years is a good length for college life and I’m stretching it to five. Five years and my life isn’t pulling together at all. I still feel dysfunctional, directionless, useless, and without potential.
On the other hand, returning to Third World House has the advantages of familiarity and company. I feel like I fit in and belong here, so that’s comfortable. I’ve been unusually social. I miss Amina, she’s added so much to my life, even in her absence. It’s like nothing can go wrong with her in my life, even if we’re slated to just be friends. Someone I noticed last semester has moved into Third World House. Her name is Hiromi and I’d like to find a way to engineer meeting her. Maybe Japanese lessons.
Shiho and I got through my doubts this summer and there isn’t any bad blood between us. I don’t think she would hold things against me. She has a good heart and there’s so much I love and admire about her. If I got mad at her, she’d be very straight forward and tell me her side of the story and I’d be disarmed at her honesty. But I can’t say that I know her, so I don’t know. It’s been such a long time. We are going to have to see each other, meet up and find out what we’ve missed. Probably too much.
