assembletheways’s blog

Oh, who doesn't love free things?  Free movies, free shows, free food, free free free.  Cheap things are always grand too.  As a kid in college with no income, these are the only two words in my vocabulary.  If it's cheap, it's mine. If it's free, I'm there. 

Two nights ago I attended a special showing that was put on by my college's Film and Art clubs.  When I saw the posters for Wristcutters: A Love Story, I honestly thought "okay, this is probably going to be some shitty pretentious indie film, but I'll go see it anyways, because I like the posters and it's free."  We got there, and there turned out to be some pretty great semi-famous actors in it (Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, and Tom Waits).  It also turned out to be a dark comedy, which means it made my night, my week, and possibly my month.

I honestly don't know how our University landed it.  Mainly because while we were waiting for the film to start, there was a blonde middle-aged woman in a business suit (and quite possibly a name tag) running around frantically in the audience with a manilla evelope full of tickets for what is being treated as the big event of the year for Edinboro University.  A man named Ryan Star is coming to campus to perform.  Apparently, Star was on one of those get-a-recording-contract-and-become-psuedo-famous-but-not-because-of-your-talent-but-because-you-were-on-this show contest show. 

I don't know what show he was on, nor do I know who the man is. I don't give a shit. I don't have to know these things to know that he sucks.

I personally know for a fact that there are more talented and interesting bands and artists that come to "The Boro" every week.  I've seen them in houses, in lecture halls, and even at the local "venue."  You have to watch for the  independent student/artist-made posters (which are often sold for gas money or stolen from the walls after the shows because they're usually really nice works).  The amount of these posters contrasts greatly with the Photoshop-manufactured posters I've been seeing plastered in every hallway and floor of every building.  All I want to do to them when I see them is desicrate Star's dumb-looking face.

Who is he kidding with that last name, anyways? It's an obvious psuedonym. And it sucks. Dude, just use your real last name. And if Star really is your last name, come up with a psuedonym. Haven't you ever heard of John Cougar? He became John Cougar Mellancamp because his psuedonym (Cougar) sucked. But, you know, no one ever learns from history like they should..

I would say that I hope no one actually goes to that show, but I know that there are some suckers (education majors) out there who already bought tickets. I watched them buy tickets, and while part of me just wanted to jump up and run over to them and tell them how idiodic they were to feed the stupidity and then spit in the blonde name-tagged woman's face and rip up her precious manilla envelope.. I didn't. Because I saw that the people buying the tickets were just the type of suckers you would expect to watch one of those shows and to actually follow the artist that the show claimed to make "famous." The show didn't make anyone famous, honey. The show just duped you into believing that they would make someone famous, and when they made that outlandish claim, you said, "oh, I want to watch this to see how they make him famous." And the next thing you know, you're talking about how Star bickered with one of the judges and don't you think that the judge is like, soooo rude???

I do hope that a bomb drops on them though. It's one less set of douchebags that I have to deal with.

What's the best way to spend a rainy day?
Submitted by Vee.

Sick, curled up on the couch with tea, books, and your favorite television series on dvd.

Today, in the cafeteria..

I sat down with people from band and nodded to the few people I have met throughout the week who live on my floor or say things that I laugh at in class. And a few minutes later, right before I finished the pizza that made my stomach hurt, I saw her.

There is this girl, well, there are many girls, that my love interest/best friend knows or talks to through his Myspace. I've basically stalked her, read everything I can that he has said to her (as I do with all the other girls that leave him comments), and have been jealous/pissed off once.

She was sitting with the girls that live two doors down from me, the ones with the Minus the Bear/mewithoutyou/Russian Circles poster. In the corner, with an ice cream cone. And I could not take my eyes off of her.

It is so strange seeing someone in person that you have not only seen pictures of, but have learned their interests, their favorites, who their friends are.. It's like seeing your favorite artist in person. You have no idea what to say, they have no idea who you are, but you know everything about them, down to their favorite color.

You just sit there and stare and hope to God that they don't notice.

Edit: There is a possibility that this girl lives in my dorm, on the other wing of my floor.

What song or lyrics are stuck in your head at the moment?  What album is it from?
Submitted by Lox Ly. 

Rainer Maria's "Planetary"

"I want to go to far away places.."

I get more and more weirded out by technology as the days go on.

Someone tried to add me through MySpace today who went to my high school and was a few years older than me. I remember the boy's name and face, in the way that everyone in our town knows everyone else. I remember never talking to him, never having anything to do with him, other than the seeing him in the hallways at school and watching him with his friends and knowing his name and who he was (but also knowing that he didn't have a clue who I was, because I was young and hadn't made a name for myself yet).

So I see this friend request and laugh and say "denied" because what would possibly be the purpose? It just makes no sense to add someone just because you live where they grew up or maybe even recognize their name or their face but have never talked to them in your life.

This reminds me of another "run-in" (if you could call the above a run-in) with another person who was above me in high school. He was a football player, on the golf team, and if I remember correctly, also in the chorus. He was probably more of a dork than I remember, really tall, clumsy and awkward, messed up a couple of times, but in my Jr High head, he was cute. Not worth obsessing over, but still cute.

I was at Eat n' Park with one of my friends (who is two years older than me) who apparently was on the golf team with this boy and he came over and talked to my friend and I just sat there embarassed that a drunken boy who I used to think was cute when I was in jr high was standing right next to me, talking to one of my best friends. And he must have caught me smiling to myself, thinking, "I can't believe this, this is ridiculous" because he kept looking at me for the rest of the time that we were in the restaurant together from across the room. Probably trying to figure out where he had seen me before (or how he could possibly get into my pants)..

What is your favorite cover song?
Question submitted by Ray.

Sonic Youth's version of the Carpenter's "Superstar."

It is undoubtedly the most warped cover version of a song that I have ever heard, and was also my introduction to Sonic Youth.

Runners-up:
- Cat Power's version of "Sea of Love" (I don't know who the original artist was).
- The Slit's version of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."
- Dinosaur Jr's version of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven."
- Cap'n Jazz's version of A-Ha's "Take On Me."
- Avail's version of John Mellancamp's "Little Pink Houses."

I could possibly go on further..

Conor Oberst is not the Bob Dylan of my generation.

If he is to be compared to anyone but himself, Conor Oberst is more of a Kurt Cobain of my generation.

But really, I think that Conor Oberst is uncomparable to anyone but himself.

Notice I said "my generation."  That is an important thing to notice, because most of the people who write articles about the boy are older, at least being in the area of 30 or so.

Why is he not the Bob Dylan of my generation?  Well, let's see.. Dylan had an impact on the world. Oberst is still having an impact on a generation. He is a brilliant lyricist, yes. He sings protest songs. Dylan did not sing protest songs. He sang covers of Woody Guthrie songs, sure. He had an obsession with Woody Guthrie. Dylan did not see his "protest songs" as protest songs. He saw them as songs. I think that Oberst views his protest songs as protest songs.

Why does Oberst draw a better comparisson with me to Kurt Cobain? Because he is affecting a generation of people. Not because of drug use. Not because issues with possible fame. Not because there is a speculated possibility that he might end up our martyr. But because there is a generation of kids that are growing up with his work and all know his music and many are inspired or at the least just plain comforted by his work. His music is bringing groups of disaffected kids together in coffeeshops and garages and attics, forcing them into finding themselves and each other.

The fourteen year old girls that were fawning over him three or four years ago are now 18 and moving on to college. I was one of those fourteen year old girls, but I was not in love with him because he's such a cutie. I was one of the ones attracted to him because of his music. It was unlike anything else I was hearing at that time (I was listening to Avril Lavigne, the Beatles and Jethro Tull).

At the time that I was 14, at the time I was 15, at the time I was 16, I was the only person in my school who knew who Bright Eyes was. Lifted (or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground) had even been released and people still had no idea what the hell I was listening to. I wore that shirt with the girl under the tree with the autoharp that my sister had bought me for my birthday as a badge of honor. I was listening to everything that Saddle Creek Records was putting out: The Faint, Cursive, Rilo Kiley, The Good Life, Azure Ray, Mayday...

My then boyfriend hated him because I was so obsessed and actually even teased me for liking his music so much (another reason to be glad that I got rid of that one). My sister was just in love with him as I was, if not more, because she knew what she was talking about.

The show at the now defunct Club Laga with Jim James and M. Ward was another birthday present (and a very very important and beautiful moment in my life).

Then all hell broke loose when I became a Junior and the double album drop happened and Conor's face was in Time magazine and all over the ever-so-accessible internet, and the girls in the lower grades were 14 and "in love" with Bright Eyes and bands that I had acquired a vehement dislike for, like Good Charlotte.  They bought their shirts at Hot Topic and their cds at FYE and I was still going through (I still go through) the record label. I put my Bright Eyes shirt back in the drawer and have only worn it maybe once or twice since.

But yet, I still listen to Bright Eyes. I still sing along when my friends play covers of his songs in coffee shops (they're mostly the rare songs). When making new friends, I still begin the list of my musical tastes with Bright Eyes to test the water.  And I'll still continue to talk highly of him,  I'll still pump his jams, and I'll still cut his pictures out of the magazines that I read (I still have that photo of the Saddle Creek "family" hanging on my wall from Spin Magazine in 2001. I remember making a special trip to the store just to buy the magazine..). I will continue to be a fan.

I think that Mr. Oberst has had an effect on every single one of us who choose to create. Either we hate him or we love him (most love him but hate the majority of the population who likes him, namely, the 14 year old groupies). But we all know of him and his work and could all sing the words to that horrible song "Lover I Don't Have to Love" (although, who would want to?) or look up and begin muttering something to ourselves when we are in the middle of the mall and we hear "Lua" being played on the radio overhead. The influence is there, good or bad.

Conor Oberst is the Conor Oberst of my generation. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.