Midnight Organ Concert

On October 31st at 11:59PM, the University was sponsoring a midnight organ concert. I think they put on three midnight concerts every year - once the day before class starts, once on Halloween, and once on Day on College Hill when all the prospective freshmen come to look at the campus. I went to the one the day before classes started, and last night I went to the one on Halloween.

The name of the first piece was "The World Awaiting a Savior," by some French composer with a name close to Durcel. I read it in the program long before the organ started playing, and I was really excited for it - what could this song sound like? Imagine how intense and powerful it must be to be worthy of fame with a title like The World Awaiting a Savior...! I expected it to be one of those pieces that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck and made you shiver a little bit and then wonder if anyone else saw you shaking or could possibly feel the same way listening to it as you do.

Sadly, I was very disappointed by the piece. I remember thinking through it that it sounded like something written by a five-year-old. I mean, of course it was written by a famous composer in his adulthood, but it sounded really disorganized and unstructured... and not even that the disorganization and lack of structure were for effect, it just sounded like the composer was too lazy to make anything better so he just threw some notes on a paper and hoped someone would be able to play it.

So I didn't concentrate on the piee. Instead I looked around at everyone else in Sayles Hall watching. Most people were laying down. Max was right near me with his friend, Sunshine, who said that he had no first name. At one point Max laid his head down on the crossed legs of the girl behind him and tried to move his arms to make himself comfortable, and ended up laying his elbow across Sunshine's neck. He just turned his head smiled at Max, and eventually Max moved his elbow. He also ended up putting his foot on a crinkled piece of paper in an attempt to make himself comfortable. I saw that he was upset that he was making noise, so I said to him, "Lift up your foot" (I forget if it was left or right), then held up the paper, said "Put your foot down," and then let the paper drop on top of his shoes instead (the paper was underneath someone else, so I couldn't just move the paper).

I liked looking out in the audience... like I said, most people were laying down, but a select few were sitting against the wall or sitting cross-legged among the rest. There was one kid who particularly caught my attention. He was sitting about twenty feet from me, in the center of the width of the room but only about a quarter of the way back. He was staring very intently upward, but I didn't know why - the organ is up a floor, and there was no was he could possibly see the organ, so I don't really know what he was looking at. In either case, he didn't look down through the entire piece. He had both of his feet on the ground, but still sitting, with his arms around his knees, and he was holding the program in his right hand. He had glasses on, and a buzz cut, and I couldn't tell what ethnicity he was, probably Middle Eastern. I don't know why I was so struck by him - I guess it was because I couldn't believe how into the music he seemed to be.

The first piece ended on a major chord, which I didn't expect. Everyone was clapping, and Nathan said to me, "I love how you can feel the low notes!" And then I realized that I spent so much time looking at the crowd that I missed my favorite part of the organ itself.

Peace out!

Waffle Troubles

One of my favorite parts of Food@Brown is the Carbon waffle irons at the VDub. Generally, a Belgian Waffle with some syrup is my special 'dessert' breakfast for the week every Friday - since the VDub is closed on Saturday and Sunday. For the first month of school, it all went well as far as the waffles were concerned.

However, recently, it's taken a turn for the worst.

I can't remember when, but at one point last week, I was trying to make a Belgian waffle - maybe it was one for dinner since I stupidly went to the VDub even though they never have anything I like for dinner. In either case, when I lifted up the top half of the waffle machine, half of the waffle went with it. It took me so long to pry that waffle out of there. I'm not sure if I tried for another one after that or not.

I remember this Friday - my big day, going home! - I was so excited for my Belgian waffle. What a great way to start such a great weekend, right? So I put on the Pam and the batter, waiting 2m15s, and came back for my waffle. Once again, ripped right in half. Had to spend like five minutes tearing it out, then had to try again. I'm pretty sure that one was ripped in half, too. I remember that it looked inedible, but I'll be damned if I didn't have a Belgian waffle for breakfast on my big day, so I ate it anyway. [I was so excited I didn't really care, honestly!]

So Monday - "today" - I decided I wanted to try again to make up for lost waffles last week. When I showed up, BOTH irons had torn-in-half waffles in them, left by some very-entitled-feeling jerkbags who thought it wasn't their responsibility to clean up after stupid things they did. Myself and one other guy spent 5-10 minutes scraping out their mistake. He beat me to the punch, and put his waffle batter in. I then cleaned mine off and - damnit! - THERE WAS NO BATTER LEFT! But, again, I'll be damned if I didn't have a waffle to make up for the one on my big day. So I took what little batter there was left and put it in the iron, waited 2m15s, and opened it up. It wasn't quite done, and it certainly wasn't as big as a real waffle should be, but it was edible, so I ate it.

Today - Tuesday - I am on a mission. For a perfect Belgian waffle. It will not be ripped in half or half the size of what a Belgian waffle should be. I will not stop until I have acheived my goal. Wish me luck.

Peace out!

P.S. Happy birthday to Gina!!! If you're reading this you should tell her happy birthday. If you're a Brown person and don't know how to contact her, just ask me =)

A Letter to Mrs. Rock, Omitting 1.75 Paragraphs, Personal Info, and a Post Script

Dear Mrs. Rock, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/29/07

I meant to write you this letter during the first month of school, but it somehow slipped my schedule so I'm writing it now - during class. Heh.

The first thing I wnated to tell you is just something fun I thought you could do: I'm going out with Gina Mattei, and if you said something about that in class, she'd probably melt, so you should! She tells me about your AP Gov class all the time - she thinks it's a ton of fun and that you're hilarious, like when you tried to get Dave Seiler in ^extra trouble for his counterfeit ID! And something about writing crazy things on the board when you were on the phone, but I forget exactly all the details of that story...

The QuizBowl team here is C R A Z Y. It's SO hard. I don't know how these kids know these things. I didn't really like the whole deal, though, so I decided not to do it. I really miss GV Hi-Q. I'm glad I devoted myself to it as much as I did now. Last year was really special, I thought - 3 freshman on-stage, we pretty much had 3 advisors (w/ Mrs. Law's help), and everyone was really close and we were always so excited to be there or at QuizBowl or bake cookies for a reception or anything...! I suppose that could still happen this/future years at GV, but it doesn't seem possible here. QuizBowl here is too huge & bulky & loose. So I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks for making last year happen. I really appreciated it.

Also, I don't know how to say/explain this without being awkward, but thanks for being such a good teacher. I liked you when I had you, but now that I can put you up against college professors... there is no comparison. They don't care as much as you did. They don't run class as well. They don't learn names or passions or interests. They don't have Gwen Stefani ringtones or stories about beach houses or speeches about annexing Mexico or candy bowls or college magnets. You did. You also taught - I find myself teaching myself out of books here a lot. It's just... there's no comparison between my classes here & my classes with you. Yours were superior in every way and I miss them very much.

I think Julie is applying to college this year, right? I hope that's going well. I'm sure she'll get in pretty much anywhere she wants to go. [Other omitted paragraph]

As for classes, I'm taking four different calculus classes right now. None of them are too hard, but the lectures are 50% useless and I use textbooks to learn a lot. Only have 3 tests per year really sucks. I'm doing fine, though, but some wiggle room would be a comfort right now. I'm in my education seminar right now - we talk about issues like standardizes testing, black-white gaps, teacher pay, NCLB Act...

Speaking of which, I'm becoming increasingly interesting in being a teacher. If that becomes the case, I'd be forced to leave Brown - they have no Math teacher training program. Plus no one would pay for me to go to Brown to be a teacher...

I'm trying to take a "City Politics" course next semester with this professor named Morone. Apparently his lectures are usually ended by a standing ovations, and he sometimes makes audience members cry with his passion. I'm pretty excited.

You should write me back/tell me how it's going! I'll probably see you on Thanksgiving weekend Wednesday, but that's still 3 weeks away and you should talk to me before then! How's Hi-Q looking this year? How are your AP US classes? How's your Cadillac convertible and beach house and everything else?

Email: Jeff_C@brown.edu
. . . . . mailto:.mCJE@gmail.com
Address: Jeff C
. . . . . . . . Brown University
. . . . . . . . 75 Waterman St., Box #5226
. . . . . . . . Providence, RI, 02912

Hope to see you soon!

Jeff

P.S. Say something to Gina for me!! =)

Plane ride

I've been using planes a lot more frequently than in the past. Each one is kind of like an emotional rollercoaster, but, there are some interesting things about plane rides. On the way back home the first time, when I was talking to Gina about it, I remember saying that I had done my math homework on the way back and I felt like I had missed out on something, and I wouldn't do that again. So now I make a point of looking out the window as much as possible on flights.

First off, when you just take off - maybe two minutes after - have you ever looked outside and just noticed huuuge, huge tracts of land that looks like farmland? Especially for those of us reading this that have taken off from Philadelphia. And have you wondered where the hell those huge tracts of land came from? When's the last time you were driving around and you just saw enormous tracts of unmolested land surrounding Philadelphia? I don't know what's going on with those... I'd like to get in the air, plot on out, and then see what was inside it.

A little bit later on in the flight, I saw one of the most ridiculous and incredible and beautiful things I'd ever seen. I think by far the coolest thing I've ever seen on any flight. I think it was a couple cumulous clouds, though I can't say that for sure, that weren't too big... they were more like drops of clouds than anything else, but still substantial enough to cast huge shadows on the tracts of land below. Anyway, I was looking at one, and suddenly I noticed that it was rainbow colored. Throughout its entire body. I didn't figure out exactly what the pattern was - a stripe of rainbow, or a circle? - because I was too busy just admiring it and being in awe of it. I saw a few more after the first one, and tried to take a picture of it. I don't think rainbow clouds come out very well in my camera. In either case... I guess the best way to describe it is that it looks like something out of a children's show or video game, but it was very real.

Somewhere near the coastline on my flight, I started just looking at the shapes in the ground. Geography can actually be extremely beautiful and pleasing to look at. It made me want to consider taking a course in geology, but I doubt there's too much to be said or studied concerning the beauty of geology.

Around that coastline, when we went a little further out, I looked down at the water and I noticed a lot of points of white. I couldn't tell what the hell they were. They couldn't be whitecaps because they were too stable - I could see waves on the shore, but I could see them move and change. It could have been clouds, but they looked way too solid and too distant and too attached to the water. It might have been boats, but if that were the case, there must have been 50,000 boats in this part of the water. I guess that would be really cool, but sadly, I doubt that was the case.

Peace out.

Friends

As promised, before I left, I got a word-for-word copy of the friendship poem performed by Phil and Sarah kay at the Solemn and Sparrows Spoken Word Show. Here it is:

::

P [Phil Kaye]: Hey.

S [Sarah Kay]: Hey.

P: This is it.

S: I can't believe we're finally here.

P: It's taken lots of hours

S: Lot's of late nights.
But just so you know, When you're pulling an all nighter & studying at the Scili @ 2am, I'll make the Jo's run & bring you a spicy, with.

P: If you forget your card, you can always use one of my guest credits.

S: Even when you can't be there for super smash brothers, I promise I won't take Kirby.

P: I'll be the best man at your wedding.

S: I'll always save you a spot

P: I'll never break a promise

S: I'll never lie to you

P: I'll always tell you how you really look

S: I'll never rat you out

P: I'll never keep you waiting

S: Even when all you have is an egg-salad sandwich, I'll still let you trade me for one lunchables pizza.

P: Even if the cool kids ask me to sit with them, I'll only go if there's room for two.

S: I will be the spongebob to your patrick
P: harry to your ron
S: shaggy to your scooby
P: boo boo to your yogi
S: bert to your ernie
P: beavis to your butthead
S: wallace to your grommit
P: christopher robin to your winnie the pooh

S: When they make fun of your accent, I'll take you swimming, because we all sound the same under water.

P: When you're old and can no longer remember my name, I'll meet you again & again every day.

S: The night you come out to your parents, you can come sleep over at my house.

P: When everyone knows you as the kid who pissed his pants, I'll still play handball with you.

S: I'll come visit you every week of your sentence.

P: When your dreams get shattered, I'll stay up with you to find all the pieces and tape them back together.

S: I'll always see you for the alley-oop.

P: I'll let you be the Red Power Ranger.

S: I'll let you back-cut me in line.

P: When you audition for a hundred plays, and don't get called back to a single one, and say you're no good and should just give up... I’ll be there for audition one-hundred and one.

S: When you don't have a date to prom, I'll let you take my cousin.

P: When your harddrive crashes, I will lend you my porn.

S: lennon, I will be your mccartney
P: Archie your Jughead
S: watson your sherlock
P: rosencrantz your guildenstern
S: snoop your dre
P: snoopy your woodstock
S: ben affleck your matt damon
P: raphael your leonardo
S: and your donatello
P: and your michelangelo

S: when you forget the sequence of this poem, I will ad-lib until you remember what comes next.

P: When you have to be carried out of Sex power god wearing nothing but fishnets and a solo cup, I won't put that shit on facebook.

S: I will not make fun of you for liking grey's anatomy. Or the hills. Or wicked.

P: If you die a young, tragic death, I will get a tattoo of your name across my wrist.

S: I will remember every birthday.

P: I will save every letter.

S: I will keep every secret.

P: I will march with you from Selma to Montgomery and back again, however many times it takes.

S: And I will take the hoses and the dogs standing by your side.

P: When Ellis Island tries to erase your past, I'll still always call you by your real name.

S: When you lose everything in the fire, my home will be your home.

P: When your kids are little and think you're incredible, I'll be there to remind them how lame you are.
S: When your kids are teenagers and think you're lame, I'll be there to remind them how incredible you are.

(both): Because I have seen the best of you and the worst of you and I choose both.
P: I want to share every one of your sunshines and save some for later.
S: I will tuck them in my pocket so I can give them back to you when the rains fall hard.
(both): Friend,
P: I want to be the mirror that reminds you to love yourself.
S: I wand to be the air in your lungs that reminds you to breathe easy.
P: when the walls come down,
S: when the thunder rumbles,
P: when nobody else is home.

(both): Hold my hand
P: and I promise
S: I wont let go.

::

=)

Peace out!