Old 97's - "Champaign, Illinois"

I mean, what did you expect from a band who had written a song called "Bloomington"? Apparently (according to the guy who ran the record store in downtown Champaign) their record label used to be based in the area and the used to Champaign concerts all the time. You know, before I went to college there and they stopped doing that.

This song is a sped up, rewritten version of Bob Dylan's song, "Desolation Row". Not so desolate. There's gotta be a place between heaven and hell for the people who really weren't bad, but weren't all that great either. I've gotta say the best line is, "There is an argument that there must be some heaven meant for hearts that are half true."

As a person who spent a time in this lesser heaven (purgatory without release to heaven?), Champaign, IL, I'm not sure its all that bad.

Below are lyrics:

The bottom line's been snorted
the bottom card's been dealt
No one knows like you know right now
How truly bad it felt

All your life you wasted, oh
Dreamin' about the day
When worker bees kill off their queen
and carry all her eggs away

Oh, and if you die fearin' God
And painfully employed
No, you will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

Up north is Chicago
Where booze makes no one blush
Memory comes back to you
In a double bourbon rush

The memories aren't all bad
and neither, my friend, are you
There is an argument that there must be some heaven meant
For hearts that are half true

And if you spend your whole life
rollin' horses into Troy
You will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois
No, you will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

Roll on blacktop highway
Circles toward the sun
Springfield's in the distance
And that's the last big one

After that comes judgement
And judgement will be swift
You will be eliminated
But here's a parting gift

If you die fearing God
And painfully employed
You will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois
No, you will not go to heaven,
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

[Video note: while the video above is the most clear, there's another one that features Rhett Miller shaking his hips around like Elvis. As a person who's been five feature from Rhett Miller doing that in person, I totally recommend it. He really gets into it around the 1:50 mark. Or this one starting at the 0:42 mark. Really, all the videos on Youtube of this video are awesome. They sound great live.]

Fall Limited Addition Woodchuck -- You Are Delicious

I love cider to begin with, but this stuff is just delicious. Like regular Woodchuck, but cinnamon-y. Every time I've drank one (we're on our second six pack), I am both happy because it is so delicious but sad, because it is merely seasonal.

That's right, after this month it will go away for the next 11 months. Is there a way to make this a year round thing? What would I have to do to have this all the time?  Do I have to buy another pack of it? Do I have to tell more people about it? Tweet about it? Write letters about it? As it is, the Giant down the street hasn't been regularly carrying it...and it hasn't been available at the Costco.

Seriously. Having this available year round would be awesome. Someone make that happen.

Men. On Couches.

I picked up The Lonely Polygamist from the library a week ago, and when I pulled it out of my bag, something about the cover seemed eerily familiar:

Don't see it? Don't get a flash of recognition?


What about now?

Still don't have it?

Its okay, I had to look at it for a while to figure out what I found familiar about it.

Of course, the obvious connection that anyone will make with Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist is Big Love, but the cover is strongly reminiscent of Don Draper.

After reading the book, I google image searched The Lonely Polygamist and found this cover:

To me, this is so much more about the book. While the couch (and dog!) are mentioned in the book, this above cover references just how much is going on, how crowded this person's life is. That's what a polygamist's life is like: constantly surrounded by people, constantly one of the crowd, and never an individual...unless you're the head of the family...who is the only person recognizable in the cover, in the doorway. 

Book Snobs and Your Commute to Work

You Are What You Read only has part of the story. Natalie Southwick writes:

Clearly, other commuters indulge in this vaguely intellectual form of people-watching, or at least feel the need to employ appropriate defensive measures. I’m always conscious that other passengers may be judging my taste in books as much as I’m judging theirs, so I try my best to cultivate an ideal (although perhaps not entirely accurate) impression. That’s why Haruki Murakami accompanies me to work, while Malcolm Gladwell stays home.

I vaguely am aware that other people might be judging what I'm reading (and I've read Haruki Murakami and Malcolm Gladwell on my way to and from work) but it never really stops me. I read all the Twilight books on the metro, but would be a little pissed if someone wanted to engage me in a Team Edward vs Team Jacob debate. After all, I'm in the middle of reading. The purpose of the book is so that no one talks to me. And even when I engage other people reading, I wait until they've stopped reading to strike up conversation.

Do I judge other people on their selections? Maybe a little, but I almost never say anything, whether the selection is good or bad. And I certainly don't choose my own books on how I think it will look to other people. I choose them because I want to read them.

I've updated my New Years Resolution to not only keep track of all the books that I read for the year, but to read at least 100 books by December 31st. Part of this is possible because I'm reading books I really want to read, so it goes pretty quickly. The last few weeks look like this:

Should I be embarrassed that I'm reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels? Or that I didn't realize that Terry Goodkind was an objectivist piece of shit until I read Faith of the Fallen (well, read it in between throwing it across the room)? Or should I be feel all hoity toity because I read a collection of essays about fat prejudice? And Dave Eggers' nonfiction book about Hurricane Katrina?

Mostly I just don't care. After all, I'm busy reading. 

[Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]

Front Row Seats to the Latest Hostage Situation

Needless to say, its a stressful and a little surreal to watch police surround a building while wearing bullet proof vests.

Only I Can Talk About Media Studies That Way!

       He was glad, he supposed, that she had earned a degree. Yet he wondered whether the abundance of the information provided by a $200K Dartmouth BA in "media studies" might have been available through a free trial subscription to The Atlantic Monthly and a basic cable package including Turner Classics for fifty dollars a month. His daughter's dubious degree had alone decimated the savings he'd accrued previous to the sale of Knack.

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver, Page 117 of the Hardcover First Edition

 

You know how its okay if you make fun of your family, but when you hear other people do it, you feel completely and totally incensed? Actually, there are a lot of things like that. And its totally okay. And generally, people accept that as the way life is, unless of course your name is Dr. Laura. Its only okay when I make fun of my major (and the other people in it).

And I also know that the opinions of the characters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author, but does media studies need to go into quotation marks? Seriously? This is generally why when people ask what my degree is in, I just say "I got a degree in Communications," and leave it at that...at least I didn't go to Dartmouth to get the degree.

[Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]

Frak it Friday: Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You"

 

So this is less explicit that that "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" but no less awesome.