One more night in the States, and then I'm off to Tanzania. Not that I have too many expectations, but I'm expecting the trip of a lifetime.
In all honesty, I am very excited, and very honored to be going. My aunt asked me at the end of last year, and I immediately said yes, but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'm the first non-student to go with this group, so it wasn't easy to get me a spot. And it wasn't cheap. I owe her a lot and I want to use this blog to thank her publicly:
THANKS AUNT JANE!
I look forward to every single thing about this trip, and I hope to share my journeys with you all. I have started a tumblr blog (because I don't have enough social media accounts) that I will use to post exclusively about my trip. Check it out; I hope to update it from Africa, but we will see what my internet access is like. http://geof-frica.tumblr.com/ (Geoff in Africa, get it?!? We call that English Major humor.)
I am going to volunteer at an orphanage and teach English to high school age students (and their teachers) but I expect to learn a lot more than I could ever hope to teach.
I already made up for 25 years of free room and board and a free college education by serving my mother brunch this morning, but I wanted to do something extra this year for Mother's Day, so I thought I'd put up my favorite songs about mothers on the ole blog. Your welcome, Mom!
At the risk of turning people away, I put Kanye West first because I really think this is a beautiful song. The guy's talented, and he clearly loved his mother. Her death was no excuse for him to lose his damn mind, but I can only imagine how devastating it must have been. As a (semi)fan, it was heartbreaking to hear about his mother's early death after listening to the passion and love he showed in this song. At least she got to hear it before she passed.
Pink Floyd - "Mother"
Don't try to draw any conclusions about my decision to include a song about a drug addict's relationship with his overprotective mother. It is in no way representative of me and my mother. I just like the song, all right??
Rolling Stones - "Mother's Little Helper"
I'm really not trying to imply anything with my selections. These are just songs I like, I swear.
The Dogs - "Your Mama's on Crack Rock"
Ok, this one is a call for help.
Ghostface Killah featuring Mary J. Blige - "All That I Got Is You"
Two artists at their peak; an instant classic that has aged beautifully. I also love the fact that a guy named "Killah" made one of the sweetest, most sincere rap songs ever.
Now would be a good time to let you know that there will be no Tupac on this list. I hate that damn song, and I hate how a convicted rapist gets all this credit for making an uplifting rap song about women when he spent much more time making songs like this that perpetuated negative stereotypes about young black males and rap music. At least that was a good song, though.
The Beatles - "Mother Nature's Son"
One for the Eternal Mother. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.
Norman Blake - "You Are My Sunshine" From The O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
One for my mother :-)
Goodie Mob - "Guess Who?"
There was a time when Cee-Lo was more than just the oval-shaped, small-handed cartoon character judging amateur singing talent shows next to a fat Christina Aguilera that he is now. He was once a part of the legendary southern rap group Goodie Mob, and this song is dedicated to their mothers (and/or the women who raised them). Now, these dudes are real southern and its their first album, so the accents and slang are a little difficult sometimes. I recommend looking at the lyrics; they show real, deep emotion towards women at a time when the most popular rap artists were not showing any love to these "hoes".
So that's about it. I hope you enjoyed the songs. To all the mothers, I hope you enjoyed your day. I just want you all to know that we love you and you are apprecia...damn you Tupac! Now that's stuck in my head.
I Love You All (Especially the Mothers...Especially My Mother)...Class Dismissed.
Spoven Weedle Presents... A name that symbolizes greatness achieved through peaceful chaos. Although the name and the movement itself is world renown, the origins of the phrase are known to only a select few. Here is the story of Spoven Weedle Presents...
SWP was born in the late 20th century. It all started when two freshmen crossed paths on a Friday night on the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut. They exchanged greetings and one asked where the other...ok wait. I was going for the third person omniscient, but these mysterious pronouns aren't working. It's me and Nick Jake. Our brothers had been roommates at UConn for two years before we got there. My brother graduated, his brother had one more year. Jakiel and I knew of each other, but we had only met once before, randomly, when we both played for a summer league all-star baseball team. Then, on the first weekend of college, we ran into each other, again randomly. I told him I was going to an ice cream social, he laughed at me a little, then told me to come hang out with his brother and friends at their dorm. I hesitated. Itwas free ice cream after all...
That night Jakiel and I split a bottle of Goldschlager and Blackberry brandy and we been chillin ever since.
Now let's fast forward a couple years before this turns into a bad best man speech. We were living in Apt. E9 in Barbara Manor (later Cedar Ridge) at UConn with two other roommates and many other unofficial roommates. One thing that has always connected me and the majority of my friends is movies; even when we disagree on quality, it's great to argue about movies with friends. During my time at E9 I probably watched more movies than any other time in my life. Certain movies entered the regular rotation, and we would watch these movies an inordinate amount of times.
I like all types of movies, but most of my favorites illustrate the complexities and absurdities of life; one movie from my college days does that better than any other movie I've seen. The movie was so powerful and enjoyable to me that I even bought the soundtrack, which features nothing but songs from a female folk singer, and Supertramp...and I love it. Magnolia uniquely showcases the inter-relatedness of all living beings: it reflects how all individual organisms are part of a greater whole; everything is connected, and oftentimes that connection is manifested in extremely bizarre ways.
I bought the VHS (that's right) simply off the strength of Tom Cruise's performance. Remember the time when people looked forward to seeing Tom Cruise in a movie? I also wanted to analyze the movie. It was very intriguing, but I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Then I watched it again with Nick Jake, and after the second time I knew: this movie would be with me for the rest of my life. Jakiel loved it as much as I did and it entered the movie rotation. One of my other, much Skinnier roommates refused to watch it out of pure spite; he didn't want to admit we had good taste in movies because he had such objectively horrible taste. When he finally did watch it, he couldn't deny its greatness. Call it irony, karma, full circle, or whatever, but after he had talked so much shit about the movie, the fact that he loved it (and actually admitted that to us) was something right out of the movie itself.
I came to see Magnolia as a representation, a meditation, on life and all its beauty. One scene, and one quote in particular, became a favorite of ours. Whiz Kid Donny (William H. Macy) is at a dive bar, sitting next to the old man from The Burbs. As Donny rambles on about his miserable existence, the sarcastic-but-wise old man states, "We're all just a spoven weedle." It is almost inaudible and Donny continues talking as if he doesn't hear. He finally stops rambling and asks, "What does that mean, a spoven weedle?" To which the man replies, "Things go round and round, don't they?"
When Nick and I first heard it, we couldn't make out what he was saying. After rewatching it several times, we both agreed that he was saying "spoven weedle." We didn't know if those were actual words, but we figured it was some obscure or foreign phrase. We knew the gist of it; the explanation was clear ("things go round and round," we had enough college philosophy and bad 80s music to understand that concept) so we just accepted the phrase and made it our own.
To us, Spoven Weedle represented synchronicity, the way events will sometimes align in meaningful yet unexplainable ways; it represented the way in which life progresses in a circular motion, so what happened in the past reverberates into the present and the future.
"And the book says, 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
To Jakiel and I, the entire meaning of the movie (and to an extent, life in general) was encapsulated in those two words: Spoven Weedle. It was a beautiful phrase that reflected the deep, complex philosophy behind the movie.
And it never even existed. The guy was saying "spoke in the wheel," not Spoven Weedle. It must have been the 36th viewing when we both realized that we had based an entire philosophy on a misheard quote.
Although we felt like idiots, it actually reaffirmed our stance that the quote encapsulated the movie's message, as well as our own view on life. Much like when our other roommate finally succumbed to watching the movie and ended up loving it, we felt like this was something that would only happen with this movie. The entire movie consists of "stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows?" It only made sense that watching the movie would cause some strange, ironic, coincidental occurrences in real life. It also made sense that I shared such an experience with this particular roommate, considering the intersections and strange things that led to us being roommates in the first place.
We continued to use the phrase to describe our outlook on life, constantly adapting and evolving our philosophy as we experienced more of what life had to offer. The actual phrase "spoke in the wheel", was incorporated into the definition as well: we are all individual spokes in the wheel of humanity, and although we all have our own hopes and aspirations, the inevitable and powerful force of change causes us to follow along with the rest of humanity, continuing the cycle of existence. That's basically what we meant by Spoven Weedle anyway, just a little bit more comprehensible.
The term itself continued to evolve into something bigger, yet the central tenets of "peace" and "chaos" always remained. When trying to come up with a name for our groundbreaking, game-changing, league-energizing beer pong team, we decided on Spoven Weedle Presents... (Shout out to Jeremy for the suggestion! Weedle is always a collaborative effort.) SWP became similar to a production company, with a new, unique team name every week of game play. So we had names like "Lunatic Stare Defense"or "The Electric Weedle Acid Test"on any given week, while maintaining the overall group entity of Spoven Weedle Presents...
Spoven Weedle Presents... Lunatic Stare Defense
Spoven Weedle Presents... The Electric Weedle Acid Test
Since Spoven Weedle essentially represents change, the revolving team names was the perfect meta-joke (in my humble weedle opinion). It also allowed us the opportunity to make our inside jokes public. We could take our views and philosophy to the next level; little by little, like a virus, we would spread our philosophy throughout society, slowly gaining momentum until it became a commonly accepted, mainstream point of view.
Soon, a loyal mascot/disciple/ambassador was born into the world, like a modern day Pinocchio (who never left Pleasure Island).
And the world was never the same...
T-shirts, hats, stickers, blogs, facebook profiles, origin stories...Stoned Willy Poonhound and Spoven Weedle Presents... were everywhere.
Spoven Weedle evolved from a misheard quote into a philosophy, and ultimately, a way of life.
An entire universe was created, consisting of real heroes, cartoon icons, mythological beings, and various other characters. This parallel universe exists to reflect the beautiful chaos of our own universe, acting as a mirror to inspire positive change.
SWP represents a movement for positive change; our mission is to exert positive energy, activating constant elevation while acknowledging and increasing the chaotic tendencies of the natural world. Spoven Weedle represents all that is, was, and ever will be, encompassing the eternal essence of existence, transgressing all ideologies.
Spoven Weedle Presents... Get with the movement.
"And we generally say, 'Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it.' Someone's so-and-so met someone else's so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes."
"Paul Revere" My personal favorite Beastie Boys' song.
On Friday, the music world, and the world in general, lost one of the greats. Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was only 47, and although he was way too young to be taken, he left an indelible mark on the world in his short time. You will never hear a bad word spoken about him or the Beastie Boys (except maybe from the Chinese government). There were innumerable tweets, facebook statuses, and other homages to the artist (even the NY Mets honored him, which may have finally gotten me back in their good graces). I didn't really feel the impact of his loss until I read post after post from my favorite artists, talking about how influential MCA and the Beasties were on their lives and careers. I can't count how many amazing artists and musicians said that the Beasties changed their lives, and in an era where people claim that every new song and video is "life changing", when it came to MCA and the Beastie Boys, the claims were not exaggerations.
The Beastie Boys were never my favorite group (I couldn't get into the punk rock aspect too much) but I always enjoyed their music and respected them as icons. Here were these crazy ass white boys playing alongside the likes of Run DMC, Public Enemy, and LL Cool J, and absolutely holding their own. The greatest thing about them, and the thing that all other hip hop artists respected more than anything, was how they stayed true to themselves and true to the music. They didn't get caught up in fads, they started fads.
They went from a straight punk band to a hip hop group, but always stayed true to their punk roots. Even when they got older and started spending more time hanging out with Tibetan monks than guzzling 40s, they kept the punk rock attitude in their music. The song, and the video, "Fight for Your Right (To Party)" is one of the most memorable songs and videos from my childhood. Even though they were mocking other rock anthems of the time, you couldn't help but admire the antics and attitude they portrayed in the video. Most people didn't even get the parody because the Beasties were having so much fun that people wanted to be just like them; not to mention the song was simply catchy and energetic as hell. It didn't matter if they were being honest or ironic in their antics, it was the interaction between the three members of the group that was so mesmerizing. Even if you never saw their interviews, in which their love and camaradery is readily apparent, you can tell these guys were best friends just by listening to their songs and watching them perform. They were never the best lyricists, but their back and forth style, and the way they all complimented each other, is unparalleled. They were never individuals, they were the sum of their parts, which makes MCA's passing that much sadder; the group can no longer exist. Remove one component, and the whole thing falls apart. My heart goes out to Ad-Rock and Mike D. They lost a brother and a large part of themselves.
And the music world lost a legend. My favorite album, and the one that really cemented their legacy as true artists, was Paul's Boutique. Teaming up with the Dust Brothers, the Beasties took their sound to a whole new level and proved they could do more than make ironic party anthems.
They went on to make one of the best videos in history for Sabotage, and even though I didn't like the song that much, I always watched the video when it came on. Losing the MTV video award in five different categories (to Aerosmith and REM, nonetheless) only added to their cult status and led to one of MCA's finest moments ever, pulling a Kanye before Kanye; as Michael Stipe was accepting the award for Best Directing, MCA, disguised as his character from the "Sabotage" video, bumrushed the stage and protested the Beastie's loss in all five categories.
Punk rocker for life.
Their growth as musicians was remarkable, but it was their growth as human beings that was truly incredible. Although it was largely AD-Rock who was considered the best rapper/leader of the group, it was really MCA who led the personal growth of the group. He founded the Milarepa Fund to give royalties to the Tibetan monks who the Beasties sampled on an album, and eventually that led to the Tibetan Freedom Concert series. The concerts, held over a span of 5 years, raised almost a million dollars for the cause of Tibetan independence, a cause that could still use your help.
So instead of simply enjoying his fame and money, Adam Yauch decided to dedicate much of his life to people halfway across the world. And he was still able to put out some quality music while he was at it.
The world is a better place because of his existence, and it's a sadder place because of his early death.
RIP MCA.
I Love You All (And You Will Be Missed, Mr. Yauch)...Class Dismissed.
