As much as we hate to, some of us at seventonine mail it in on some days. Today, was one of those days.
The good thing is that this doesn’t happen all that often. The better thing is that there will be more opportunities where we will actually put a lot more effort into making the things that we’re leading better for everyone.
Seventonine is just really, really tired of having to watch the same two people make out and fondle each other in the student center every MWF on our way to the office from class. We’re looking forward to a different schedule which, hopefully, will not include these two hobbits who should be reading or studying or in their dormrooms or something, anything, besides fornicating on the student center couches. At first it was cute. That was 3 months ago.
From the Telegraph comes 50 things about Obama you might not know. Here are the two most pertinent:
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
OMFG. Seriously. Has there ever been a President as cool as this? Take a second to let that list of artists soak in. Miles Davis. Bob Dylan. Bach. [Freakin' Bach!]. The Fugees. Now that’s street cred. I predict that this list of bands will do more to raise our international image than any other single thing he does over the next couple of months.
In related news, the White House service staff are already reporting that it will be a nice change from the endless loops of Veggie Tales songs and Dennis the Menace cartoons.
Seventonine has been determined to be gender neutral. That is, according to an expert computer analysis (remember when those words used to mean something), the gender of the authors at seventonine cannot be determined conclusively. However, there appears to be a slight preference for male. Whatever that means.
No, not what you think. [though that was nice, too]
Taking a cue from the (late?) VC blog, seventonine will, from time to time, be publishing words-lyrics, poems, etc.-that are meaningful or pretty or something. Occasionally, we will offer drink recommendations to help you truly grasp the beauty or meaning of a particular text.
It’s the last half of this poem that is particularly good-moving so gently from the simple and specific to the grand, philosophical and more general. This is, of course, Mr. Collins particular strength, and it is on full display here.
Poem: Pavilion
Author: Billy Collins
Drink Recommendation: The GlenlivetI sit in the study,
simple walls, complicated design of carpet.
I read a book with a bright red cover.
I write something down.I look up a face in an encyclopedia
and copy it onto a card,
the lamp burning,
a painting leaning against a chair.I find a word in a dictionary
and copy it onto the back of an envelope,
the piano heavy in the corner,
the fan turning slowly overhead.Such is life in this pavilion
of paper and ink
where a cup of tea is cooling,
where the windows darken then fill with light.But I have had enough of it–
the slope of paper on the desk,
books on the floor like water lilies,
the jasmine drying out in its pot.In fact, I am ready to die,
ready to return as something else,
like a brown-and-white dog
with his head always out the car windowThen maybe, if you were still around,
walking along a street in linen clothes,
a portfolio under your arm,
you would see me go by,my eyes closed,
we nose twitching,
my ears blown back,
a kind of smile on my long dark lips.
What We’re Doing