Nothing in Particular
Not much time to post lately. A couple friends of mine from home have been visiting, so naturally I've been spending time with them.Watching Snatch again at the moment. A great British movie with hilarious plot twists and even funnier accents. If you haven't seen this film yet, don't waste any more time.
Trivia!
For those of you who've been wondering( all 2 of you ). my website is named after a song by Matthew Good; "House of Smoke and Mirrors," which was on Avalanche ( 2002 ). Avalanche is one of the best albums of this decade and "House of Smoke and Mirrors" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. So is "Lullaby for a New World Order," but that's not as fitting for a website name.
The craziest thing to ever happen
Bright Eyes has beaten out Nelly, Usher, Eminem and other contrived pop icons for the #1 position on the Billboard singles chart. This is probably the craziest thing to ever happen in the history of the known universe. You can read more about it on Pitchfork!
I heard an album today
called Logic Will Break Your Heart by a band called The Stills, and it's pretty great. I'll get around to reviewing it sooner or later. Here's some scathing irony for you; I just plugged for Pitchfork, and the pompous music snob bastards go and give this album a 5.1 / 10. Well, what do they know? Check it out anyway.
You don't care!
I've been thinking alot lately about changing my major to political science, with a minor in journalism. The reason is that university english is a joke, and spends far too much time dwelling on the writings of dead people who are completely irrelevent now instead of teaching students how to master their craft so that they can produce their own memorable works. Sure, Shakespeare wrote some good plays, but that shit doesn't matter anymore. Nobody writes or talks like that now, and I don't care how much symbolism or irony or how many great literary themes they contain. You can find just as many in modern works.
So instead of filling my brain with useless knowledge about people who are long dead, I'd rather pursue something that matters, something that's at least relevant. I don't know how much you care about this, but there it is anyway. More on this later maybe.
It's Friday,
and that means it's time for the Friday night drinking crew to paint the town red once again. And by paint the town red, I mean get as drunk and stoned as possible with as little interaction with other human beings as possible. Fun times! We have this discrepancy in our group, where half of us want to go to the shitty dance bar and half of us ( actually it's usually just me ) want to go smoke one last joint and go home without ever laying eyes on hordes of whored-up girls and macho jock assholes who comprise the veritable ocean of superficiality that is downtown Halifax.
I can't think of any better way to say "hordes of whored," so it will remain a monument to grammatical atrocities forever on this webspace.
Cheap drinks and girls whose ridiculous outfits practically scream "STEREOTYPE ME!" abound may sound like a good time to every other red blooded male out there, but it isn't to me. I'm too socially inept and too poor at the moment to pretend I'm having fun in those places.
Nevertheless I await every Friday like a kid waits for Christmas, because the hours of casual drinking and smoking with good friends leading up to the inevitable parting of ways are some of the most enjoyable that life has to offer. Every now and then I actually win over some people with overly sarcastic pessimism, and hijack the whole procession. Those occasions are what seperate the good Fridays from the really good Fridays.
Have a good time tonight everybody.
Cheers.
-setsfire
posted by Sylpheed @ 4:31 PM
2Comments:
Ha! You think the English department is irrelevant, just wait until you major in Poly Sci! On a serious note, you wrote, "[n]obody writes or talks like [Shakespeare] now, and I don't care how much symbolism or irony or how many great literary themes they contain. You can find just as many in modern works." That is a grossly unfair portrayal of modern literature.
It is true that most people read crap, which means that a lot of things on the New York Times Best-seller list is crap. But I am assuming you are not interested in writing crap. I'm sure you're sick of hearing this, but the only two things that can improve one's writing are: 1) reading a lot of good writing and 2) writing and then writing some more.
I'm rambling a bit, my apologies. If you are at all interested in being a writer, stick with the english major. Maybe, I'm just saying this because I am half way through law school and am wishing I was in grad school studying English...
Hrrm. Interesting.
Perhaps I would have been better off saying that I'm a great deal more interested in political science than I am in English. The journalism program I am in is much more effective at teaching me to write than any English class I've taken so far.
Just because you'd rather be doing English doesn't mean I should be too. You seem a little jaded. I've been studying English for 2 years now and none of it is relevant to what I want to do or where I want to be.
Sure, a lot of modern literature is crap, but that's true for every era.
You don't need to study English to read good writing or practice writing. I spend enough time on both...my journalism program makes sure of that.
You also made the mistake of taking my choice of words far too seriously. Much of what I said is drenched in the same pessimistic sarcasm that I addressed in this post.
Regardless, it's my life and I'll do what I want with it.
Anyway, thanks for your comments, random forebodingly named law student.
Post a Comment
<< Home