finally happy and not distracted

I finally found a place that I like being at in Cleveland. I am at Common Grounds in Farview Park. In highschool, my friends and I used to come here because it was a chill place to smoke cigarettes. Last time I was here some guy (nerd) tried to get fresh with me by talking to me about Murakami. Then he started talking to me about Japanese (language). He obviously didn't know what he was talking about, but he continued to try to make an opinion up for himself. I found that to be one of the worst traits of a Literary Studies Major while I was at Beloit College. In fact, the interior of this place has changed suits many times. Holey and scrapped walls worse than a dorm room, then non - ghetto graffitti, and now...black walls, a door full of photographs at the bar, a few video-game like paintings, paintings of orbs, a head on some examination table, and of course the jukebox. The best part. If you don't pay to play, someone else will, and usually good music is played. 1/2 classic songs: Kurt Cobain, The Doors, No Doubt and half new songs; songs I haven't heard of before. There is a quote on the wall that says, "the radio plays my favorite song, but the feelings are all wrong." This quote comes from someone named Bill. It is Bill's poem, which is painted upon a board, that also has a tatoo like scull face. Oh hell, I am going to go ahead and record the poem here. it goes:

GONE SO LONG FEELS SO WRONG
Driving down
go
leaving a rusty
city behind me
the orange
Glow the skylines
on my eyes
And i'm Dreaming
of the Day we get
away
you Don't foget My name.
and the feelings are the
same
faces of my friends passing by
faDed like the colors of the sky
when it came down to
do or die
you left me high and dry
Street lights are now turning on
reminds me of just how far
that I've gone
The radio plays my favorite song
But the feelings are all wrong.

My first inclination is to say, shitty rhyme scheme...and so on, but I really like the way this guy just threw his poem up on the wall for all to see. And that last couplet: is awesome, I think.

Here comes a guy through here with army pants-he ain't no Chris-my CutiePIE

the libation ceremony-

when I attended the Soul Food dinner- there was listed on
the program "libation ceremony."

I had only heard this word used in one other context, and
that was in an inviation to get drinks at the bar.

A ways into the evening, the libation ceremony began.
Phylis began by saying that the ceremony had African roots and was in remembrance of the past. During the ceremony, we were to recall the

Need to confirm MCC and Gallery abba. Tomorrow I will begin to film my short video loop using the books and interviews I have learned from about skin color.

today i visited the theater arts dept and discovered that Mallats Pharmacy in Madison carries skin altering makeup- mehron and Ben Nye.

I will search for closer places- but these were reccommended to me.

I still haven't heard back form Jacki Ludlowese about booking the Halles Gallery for my project. As an alternative, I am looking at the Java joint or parts of the library as other possible locations. Perhaps the write but.... no one really goes over there.

I heard that Bills class had the halles during graduation- I am a littlwe bunbed- bu that just goes to show you that the early bird gets the worm.


Also ventured down to united first methodist church (VOTING site) to find out where they get their booths from. Apparently city hall drops them off to the voting station. Tomorrow I will call to inquire about the voting booths. I would like to use them fir the music part of my project.They were closed by the time I got to calling today.



I also need to look at buying the 2 Live crew album. I think that I will put out a campus email- maybe bill will send it out for me so I can locate these cds and not have to buy it- becauise I don not like the music anyway.

Thinking madonna for the comparison, but still keeping my options open-trying to explore more popular 90s music. also thinking Nirvan's "rape me" as a possible contender, but I know that that song received some criticsm and limited airplay.

got several supplies today
three sizes of very thin sheet glass
paint
glue

MIA

sorry:(
I promise to keep in touch. Sometimes I forget to do that.

Rachel

"nigger" by randal kennedy

"Nigger"
along with
"why do black people use the n-word"
along with a few other "referencial" materials will be assembled between two wire book ends to create the effect of a library bookshelf. I want the piece to feel bookish.


Somethin I find interesting is when a black student told me that they didn;t like answering questions about being black.
I think that this phenomenon attests to two things-a lot of white people at Beloit didn;t go to school around black people, and people don;t like speaking as a race, so they wil refer to books instead. I was told that I should read more books - after asking questions rather frequently.

This interested me because i do not think that books are as authentic as people's read world experiences. With "Black Like Me" I felt that the book seemed too fictional to me, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a documentary. it seemed to dryly written to make the character's , scene's tensions, and life become vivid, and too personal to be a documentary. So I guess that that is the true fashion of a documentary. People believe they are true based on the style and not so much on the content. there is blair witch, and that other really bazar documentar, oh yeah, louis bunel.

It seems so strange to me to ask someone for their personal experience and then be refered to books. Maybe they do not understand that I want to educate myself by talking to others.

Some black students will say that books have failed then-because they are not represented in the Euro-centric literature. do they think that they are always represented how they would want to be in literature.

I think that I will ask to host a discussion at BSU about black people represented in Literature.
I will bring in my little borrowed library to show them.