Next quarter's looking nice. Got my syllabus today. Books on it include White Noise, Catch-22, Nickel And Dimed, (interesting subject matter but apparently it sucks and is really condescending, but I don't mind having to read it) and a Studs Terkel book about race. Really looking forward to White Noise. I remarked that I really liked Catch-22, but think it's a bit tricky to read in a week, and someone attacked me. No, I liked the book a lot, and I'm not illiterate, but it's LONG.

I will probably not re-read it, so not much of an issue for me. I also have a copy already paid for, so that'll save me some money. A lot more novels next quarter, and a lot less books in general.

And that guy who attacked me, who also got pissed when I said I hated Huckleberry Finn and wasn't a fan of Twain in general? Not going to be in my seminar, it looks like. I'm also transferring back to a seminar with a better leader.

People who go to real colleges don't know what I mean when I say "seminar."

Downloaded the upcoming Mirah record, C'mon Miracle, off the internet. I don't think it's Phil Elvrum produced, and on the whole not as sonically interesting except for a few songs. Kind of a return to the more singer-songwriter stuff of You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This. Which I actually liked more than Advisory Committee, but that was mainly due to the songs being better. This new record only has 11 songs, and it seems maybe slightly more slickly produced, although that could just be these mp3s having a higher bitrate than the others. The songs on this one are okay. "Jerusalem" annoyed me... it was political. "Look Up!" is fairly noisy and probably my favorite on the record in terms of production. I'll listen to it more. My stance right now is that it's good but not great, and I think that Mirah could probably make a great record. I like her more than Phil Elvrum, as the songs are better. Not really a groundbreaking opinion there. I guess my groundbreaking opinion is that I don't think Cold Cold Water is the best shit she's ever done, I probably prefer the stuff from the first record... Cold Cold Water maybe too showy in the production, I like songs. The songs that are really good and tight but have the good noises at the periphery, as opposed to being the focus, are probably my favorite. This record does have a couple of those, (like The Light) but generally, most of the songs go the acoustic guitar/string instruments arrangement route. I also would've really liked it if this record had the diversity of the pop of songs like Don't from the Ragazza Bop comp and Oh! September off of the songs from the black mountain project. Just one to spice it up or lead the record off or something. Oh, and there's also the large possibility that I'm full of shit because I haven't listened to it enough. It turns out Jerusalem does have some cool sounds on it.

I really want that 3-disc Ennio Morricone box set.