i was just out in the world on break

[fflo]

the town is crawlin' mit Studentinnen

(mit dem Studentinnen?)  [<--- that says "dem", not "dern" ---looked like the latter in my font. and with my attitude, as you'll see... --ed.]

you can tell it's early in the new year, cuz they're travelling in packs

that's long over by october, i used to observe in chas village (with the Hopkinsers)

maybe it's partly that their return involves these small masses overflowing sidewalks as they scurry about, like a sign of major bug infestation (vs. just a bug here and there); maybe it's partly that the return to hoopla surrounding athletic events reminds a body of their gang mentality. whatever it is, there's a vaguely creepy feeling about it.

i guess if you're teaching you're all "up" for their return, and into your own getting into the semester. been there; dug that. you know, in my own modest way.

pretty soon there'll be beer parties on front lawns with the Michigan Dining Table: a piece of plywood between two sawhorses with dozens of one-colored Solo cups of beer poised & ready for draining and chucking to the ground

i guess i'll just be glad when they split up into pairs & singles, and the occasional triplet, and then start staying indoors for the winter

oh! curmudgeonry! and i'm not quite an old old lady

Comments

same here

[hoppock.livejournal.com]

the same things has happened here. i'm at school in lawrence. it's very much a different place. however, i live in a small kansas city suburb and nothing seems at all different. i kind of prefer the rushing throngs of people to the mindless, directionless anonymity of suburban living. hi lisa

Re: same here

[fflo.livejournal.com]

matt matt matt!!! matthewwwwwww.... (they're not saying "boo"; they're saying "mattheewwwwwwwwwwwww....."!)

yeah, i guess i'd take university town over weird, soulless little-boxitude. i almost threw in a disclaimer about why i do like u-town living. but i reckon i need more purely curmudgeonly moments.

anyway, glad to see you here, and hear from ya again! (are you ever gonna post yer own self??)

here's to a fine semester for you. oh, look -- mp3 links for Manipulator Alligator --- cool! checking them out now... (did i ever tell you the "band" i was "in" as a "youth" was called the truncated octopus? the octopus might get along with the alligator rather well, methinks.) (and yeah, i know that seemed to call for a lot of scare quotes, but if the shoe fits...)

Re: same here

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

Way to plug the octopus! Rock on!

Sorry about the students. I know that's a pain--must be especially bad on football game days. Ick--scary frat boys.

Re: same here

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Remember how a certain someone thought our first record should be called "Greatest Hits"? You gotta admit, the guy could be fun(ny).

Re: same here

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he could be (funny and fun). I use the past tense because even though he still has some of that guy in him, I don't think "that guy" is allowed out much. Oh well, he totally sold his soul to be around people who don't apprecaiate the best parts of him. Sad, in a way.

Re: same here

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Sad in more ways than one, if you ask me. (But, of course, he wouldn't ask me--- or if he would, cuz I guess in some ways he has, now and then, I don't think I could come up with a way to say it that he could hear, so it doesn't much matter anyway, alas and g-d it.)

Re: same here

[fflo.livejournal.com]

dude... love the sounds.

love this, too:
"Sounds Like --- clouds and button down shirts and hope and remorse and junk that doesn't fit anywhere else." (from Manip Allig on myspace) (ya'll musicians and ya'll's myspaces! wonder which e-mail address i set up myspace with, whenever it was i did that...)

i find i want these tracks to go on longer than they do

i like how you rhyme "day" and "arra-ngement". i like how the electro-blip drum/rhythm track in "i will lie down" works with the lovely prettiness of the simple vocals/harmony. and, hell, i just like listening to these cuts, and feeling your sensibility, and remembering you strumming away in brunswick, ga before and after the automotive tragedy that stranded you, to our benefit, for a few bonus days. (i'd say i'd wish you had ended up in ypsi after all, but then your little girl wouldn't exist, i guess, would she.)

you have such a way with the momentum in the way your fine lyrical meanderings move along with just-right, dead-on pacing... man, i'm gonna have to get me some of this music.

Re: same here

[hoppock.livejournal.com]

lisa,
i'm glad that you listened to that stuff. i will totally send you a package of things. there is a cd and a tape that i'll send you...and there's this new 8" vinyl record that is going to come out in a month or two.

i sometimes wish i had landed in ypsi as well, but none of my present life-affirming orientations could have occurred had that been the case. for maybe the first time in a long time, though, i'm happy where i am. i hope that you are doing well. i think of you often and, as you can tell, I read your blog.
love,
matthew

Re: same here

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i'd love to get whatever ya got... and can shoot ya something via paypal maybe next month, i reckon. very exciting, vinyl! you old-fashioned guy, you.

mostly i'm doing well indeed, master h. so glad you're in a good space. perhaps i'll even lay eyes on you again some day before i die.

in the meantime, it's great to be in touch here & there. did i tell you that that curiously timeless-looking shot of you with mom & baby comes up on my screensaver at work now and then? i do love that picture.

and love back at you, too, m.

-- L