arun in brooklyn

haha…no it doesn’t…you optimistic jackass…i’m just quoting from the theme song to the oft-forgotten but hilariously awkward show, perfect strangers…remember?…the slightly odd tales of local, caucasian, chicago native, larry and his undecipherable foreign friend, balki…where the hell was he from anyway…meepos or something?…anyways…i digress…

after a long break from my work here, i have much to share with you…first and foremost, this website is now being run by a master’s degree holding indian…you heard it here first ladies and gentlemen…as of this saturday (and my confirmation of works submitted today)…i officially hold two degrees…the difference is notable…not only is there a master’s level “bounce to my step” so to speak…after all, i’ve increased my degree holdings 100%…the largest my life shall ever see in such a short time span…

after short deliberation, i opted not to “walk” for this service and instead receive my diploma in the mail while i sit on my couch and watch old episodes of news radio…unquestionably the best way to receive a diploma…in the mean time, i have about a month and a half of teaching left to knock out before i begin what will no doubt be the “summer of the year”…a term i coined for the brilliant summer of 2006 and which i will happily apply to summer ‘07 as well…

i’m behind on covers, i know…but the next one is a doozy…promise…

peace etc.

ooxx aa

i never really got music reviews…live or otherwise…it always seemed to me that the immediacy in which albums and live shows are reviewed, analyzed, and judged was a little retroactive…i don’t think i’ve ever been able to truly understand any of my favorite albums without at least a few years of listening mileage for my brain to digest…hell, it took me six years to write my review of emergency and i…so i suppose it’s only fitting that i couldn’t quite formulate my thoughts on the dismemberment plan’s reunion show last saturday until this morning…

when chris e-mailed me inquiring about the show last sunday, i replied that it was exceptional…not their best performance…but for some reason probably my favorite…all things said and done, that pretty much sums it up…last weekend’s show put a lot of pieces together for me and ultimately provided a nice conclusion to my relationship with the dismemberment plan and their music…i mentioned in my review of emergency that their songs are just now starting to really make sense…and their live show (and in retrospect, all their live shows before) also made a lot more sense…the plan always excelled at writing beautifully vivid narratives about the most mundane, depressing realities of twenty-something life…and their live shows married their music so well in their ability to take these realities, light them on fire, and then incite everyone to dance away their worries for the rest of the evening…last saturday was no different…except this time i got it…all of it…and it felt…complete…

i’m not going to go into detail about what songs they played or about the music in general…in many ways that’s not really the point…they played well…really well…there were mistakes…but they were oddly comforting…my favorite part of the entire show?…when “ice of boston” completely fell apart because too many people were on stage and all the instruments got unplugged…leaving joe easley to drum out the rest of the song while travis spit out half of the lyrics in about 15 seconds…the amazing part was that i’m fairly certain that joe new exactly where he was despite all the chaos going on around him…

peace etc

ooxx aa