Web Wall Journal #7

Song of the Month: "When I Fall" by Barenaked Ladies
Song of the Day: "Miss Murder" by AFI

It was a few years ago now, on a Lake Michigan beach, when I first witnessed this art form. The sun cast soft pink upon the sand as it dipped behind clouds and toward the water to the west. Dad, Nathan, Demetra, Aint Kathy, James, and myself heard the sounds of a drum ensemble from farther inland. Still dripping, we meandered across the cooling sand until we found the assembly of congas, bongos, and djembes. The rhythms were enticing, subtle for the conclusion of the day, with the potential energy latent for the time being, and I was content for the while simply to watch them. Then two young men stepped forward and crouched. With the rhythm behind them, they wove back and forth, then began to spar—but not the way I had seen one spar before. Their movements were coordinated and deliberate, each offense and evasion perfectly timed to follow the beat set by the drum ensemble in the background. The scene was enrapturing and I could not take my eyes off of this foreign spectacle of dance and martial art.

Why do I tell you this story? It was that night that I first witnessed the Afro-Brazilian martial art known as capoeira, and afterward, I never saw anything like it ever again. Now, three or four years later, I am learning how to do it.

Sarah discovered the class last week and went to check it out. When she mentioned it, I immediately remembered that night on the beach and decided, yes, despite my limited athletic ability and lack of background in martial arts at all, I was going to take the class. So, on Wednesday, I went to my first capoeira class. Though my legs were sore for two days afterward, (yet another testament to all the sports I never played) I am absolutely going again this week. Though salsa makes me just as tired on Mondays, I can feel capoeira wanting to alter my body. The two combined are definitely going to keep me more physically in shape than I've probably been since junior year, when I was obsessed with the weight room.

To celebrate my rediscovery, my latest mixed CD is called Capoeira. It's not a CD that will go out to everyone, not like Blasphemy, because it is a specifically tailored mix. Some of you are aware that Nathan presented me with a challenge over the summer, to make him a mixed CD of songs he didn't know that I knew he would like. Well, with Nathan, music is either pass or fail, so it was a bit of a project, but I know him well enough that I only had one "bad" song on there. (My brother will never like Pearl Jam, so I have come to accept that fact.) Capoeira came about in a similar fashion. Last Saturday after watching Stalingrad, Michael mentioned that he was actually a bit picky about music, and didn't necessarily like it when people made him mixed CD's, because it was always the music the CD maker liked. How could I resist that challenge? So, I took a little bit from basically every mix I've made in the past year and decided to see if I can pull it off.

On the topic of music, I seriously recommend some lyrics checks for song of the month. "When I Fall" takes this perspective of a seemingly prosaic character and intertwines him with these incredible emotions and thoughts. The song itself is beautiful, but the lyrics are just poetry. As for the song of the day, it may end up being the same group for a while. AFI has now grown to be a compulsion and I cannot get enough of it. I haven't reacted so obsessively toward a music group since HIM my freshman year of high school. For some reason, the group just really works for me right now, though I am limited thus far to one concert CD. (This will be changing ASAP if my life depends on it.)

Also, as far as weekly perks that go along with this, I acknowledge that last week I failed to attach any writing to the email. That was because I forgot, but even if I had thought about it, I don't think I would have attached the story that was on my mind all week: "Intimate Friendships" is a story I wrote for a very small group of people, and it would have felt wrong sending it out to almost 30 people. So, we'll just say no story last week was appropriate. This week, I'm attaching a story I wrote my sophomore year of highschool, a mile-marker in my developing perception of the world and people called "Condemned Beauty." Next week, I should be sending my latest (now finally finished work) "Blind to Its Own Beauty." Yes, the modern day Christ-story is now finished. I just need to type it, which is a task in itself that may prove slightly beastly. We'll see.

I don't know how everyone else has had it, but we have had both the most beautiful days and the most bitter days here in Bloomington this week. Personally, I like it that way. On Monday, the weather was so beautiful, and I was pleased to receive a text from Mark asking if I wanted to take a walk with him and enjoy the glorious weather. Naturally, I did, and we agreed to meet outside of Buck Memorial Library after I was done with my German tutor. I was sitting on the steps to Buck and I get a text that reads something like, "I'm in a tree on the quad in view of Buck. Come find me." So, like an idiot tourist in Chicago, I start wandering aimlessly around the quad, staring up in the trees hoping to find Mark. He gave me a hint at one point, telling me to go down the sidewalk to the right of Buck, but not the one farther back. There are three different sidewalks leaving that direction from Buck, and I took the second one. After a few steps I get another text saying, "wrong one." Eventually I did find him, though his green sweatshirt made him especially difficult to find. He enjoyed watching my helpless self searching the leaves for the enjoyment of any other students out and about that day, but we took a lovely walk and I discovered where the dollar store is. Quite useful.

That same night after salsa, I went with some of the girls from my floor out onto the quad to watch them try to fly kites. The other Sarah on our floor (who actually reads this blog, I found out) and I talked while the girls failed to get the winged plastic into the air. What Nathan, Demetra, Dad, and I have with the Beatles, she and her family have with Alice Cooper. I only have two albums, (Killer and School's Out) but she still found me worthy of her concert stories. She's also made me best-of CD's. More music for Janna!

Also, this is a little blurb for Nathan, this morning I met someone at brunch named Butters. It's actually his last name, and it was his before South Park created the character, but I thought it was pretty amusing. What's even funnier is that he's nothing like Butters from the show, he's actually more like Nathan, especially with his humor.

So, aside from South Park and Alice Cooper, classes are alright. My schedule is officially full, and I have invented a new word for my state of being: "whelmed" is the state of stress that is not quite overwhelmed, but could be a precursor to the condition. I am not overwhelmed, simply whelmed. I might need to drop Intervarsity praise band, since the time consumption every other week is pretty intense. I'm going to try to keep with it, but I haven't been on top of my chem term paper research as I should be, and if something has to go, that's going to be it. We'll see how the management goes, but this week's Tuesday and Wednesday were so crazy, I don't remember much outside of the fact that I was exhausted after thirteen straight hours each day of insanity. Though I do distinctly recall making biodiesel fuel in chem lab on Tuesday. My lab partner and I were assigned Canola oil and got a 70% yield. I thought it was cool, but I can be kind of a geek at times.

Our philosophy essay tests were finally given back to us, and mine had a "good job! A" on top, with no writing anywhere else. Part of me was slightly disappointed that I had no comments or feedback, but then I started hearing a lot of people groaning and many variations of, "I know I deserved an A on this!" I suppose I shouldn't complain.
But feedback is important. In poetry, we did some peer editing for our latest essay, and my partner marked one thing on my paper and said she couldn't find anything else wrong with it. I was flattered, but at the same time, I knew that just because my peers couldn't find anything wrong with it, didn't mean that my professor would feel the same way. I met with Dr. O the next day to go through it and get her comments, which were all very helpful. She loved the paper, actually, and despite the few things we agreed needed tweaking, she said she could understand why my peers couldn't find much wrong with it. "You're such a good writer," she said, "They might be a little intimidated." I was so honored to hear that from a college English professor, knowing I'm only a freshman at a school where writing is very highly valued. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to hear any true praises on my writing until at least my junior year here. It was a nice addition to my week.

Otherwise, my week has been full of various unanticipated activities. I managed to lock myself out of my room, have been woken up in the middle of the night twice by the central heating system, (which sounds a lot like people in the pipes with crow bars trying to compose the most cacophonous, twisted symphony you can with crow bars and a massive pipe system) and discovered something extremely valuable in Bloomington that nobody told me was here. I have found a Jewel Osco. SQUEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Though, I have yet to go in and buy the precious rosemary and olive oil bread that fulfills my carbohydrate-influenced endorphins. Never fear, however, because next weekend I will be going to Indiana to visit Dad and see a play. He will feed my addiction.

On that topic, because I will be out of town for next weekend, the next update will either go out on Friday or on Monday. There is a small likelihood I could get it out on Sunday, but realistically, everything happens on Sunday nights with my crazy group. Last Sunday, I ended up not finishing my letters because I was invited to play a game of werewolf with them. It's a great strategy game that involves deception, teamwork, treachery, and theoretical executions. I can't wait to teach everyone over Thanksgiving and Christmas break.

Otherwise, I've been watching a lot of movies and shows this weekend, so I'm going to a moment of movie/TV show reviews. Friday night they were showing The Hangover at the student center. It was actually pretty hilarious, with some moments that just make you cringe, but the basic premise of the movie is that these three guys go to Vegas with their friend who's getting married in two days for his bachelor party. The next day, they wake up and can't remember what happened the night before. And the groom is missing. I enjoyed it.

The twins also own the Arrested Development DVD's, so I've now seen the first two episodes. I've heard only good things about the show, but never seen it until Friday. So far, it is quite funny. It has kind of a similar sense of humor as The Office, though not in the mockumentary form.

All of this was following the Justice League party that Young hosted before we went to see The Hangover. Basically, a bunch of us claimed various places to sit in his dorm where we could see the computer screen and watch episodes. I also finally saw Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog there. Aunt Lizzy recommended it to me, but I, unfortunately, knew everything that happened. Matthew had already told me all of what happens over a year ago. It was still very entertaining and bittersweet. Dr. Horrible is a guy trying to get into the league of evil, but he's actually a pretty decent guy and he keeps getting screwed over by the local hero, Captain Hammer, who is an absolute jerk. It's a very good 45 minutes of your time, but you have to give it a little bit to get started. It's worth a look-up on hulu.com.

Also, Fullmetal Alchemist fans, if you remember, though the TV show was inspired by the manga, they got ahead and had to keep making the show beyond the manga. Well, after the manga came out, they redid the series in Japan to resemble the manga more closely. It will be coming out in English eventually. I saw three episodes last night when I visited Mark during his work shift (because all he does is watch videos on hulu while working) and it's definitely different from the series we're used to. First, the animation is similar enough to get away with it, but not the same exactly. Lust looks a lot more anime sexy, for instance. I think the animators for the movie did this series. Otherwise, this series is much, much darker. I would like to see it once it comes out in English, but it's not anything I should be sharing with Demetra. And a lot of characters are much harder to love.

Also saw Hot Fuzz last night. It's by the same guys who made Shaun of the Dead, with the same British humor combined with gory action sequences. Very funny if you're in the mood for it, and if you like Shaun of the Dead, you'll like it.

Alright, now I'll shut up and let you be on with your respective days. Always looking forward to sharing more with y'all later.

Janna