Category: Uncategorized

in concert

Originally written 25.02.2002.

This past weekend was full of good music. I could give you a thousand reasons why I love music and going to shows. However, I’ll just give you a hundred reasons, or actually the band Hundred Reasons who Iain and I went to see at the Liquid Room Sunday night. The show was opened by some British punk mainstays, Douglas and Capdown, as well as some other ska-punk meets youth crew band whose name I don’t remember. The first band was a bit typical, but they were having fun, as was the rest of the crowd, so I was down. The Gorilla Biscuits cover was good at least. Douglas played second, and I was really impressed. Basic slowed down, punkish rock music, but really good. The only low point was when the singer climbed on the balcony and dove into the crowd, landing on some kid and seriously injuring him. Not cool. The lead singer was really sorry, at least, and urged the rest of the kids to not attempt any further stage diving. It was at this point that I realized how nice of a guy Iain really is because he was really bothered by the irresponsibility of the lead singer at a point where even I found myself being a bit of a show antic apologist. Despite the injuries, they still played a good set. Capdown was next, and they were pretty good. Pilfers-esque ska mixed with some speedy hardcore punk. Not really my thing anymore, but they were good and energetic. Rob’s friend, who accompanied us to the show but didn’t really say much, thought they were better than Hundred Reasons. She was so wrong. Hundred Reasons played last. Iain said it was one of the best shows that he had ever seen. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was the best show I’d seen in a while. No frills, just great intensity. The band were clearly a bunch of old pros at playing shows, because the pacing of the show was spot on. They seamlessly transitioned from some of their more metally songs into the slower, more melodic numbers and back again. I thought we were camping because they were in-tents.

After the show, we stayed up late to watch the rock hour on Viva Plus, the German music TV station. Before the show came on, we got a chance to experience Marco’s drunken antics. Iain grabbed his camcorder and got some prime footage. Marco managed to get partially naked, whip it out, make a man-gina, and then shake his butt, all in front of the camera. He then started brandishing a chair as Iain retreated to protect his rare footage of the king monkey in his natural habitat. I would like to secretly send the video in to the auditions for the reality TV show Big Brother. It would be pure carnage.

By the time the Rock Hour came on, it was pretty late, but I still watched most of it before they started showing lame Marilyn Manson videos. The early part of the show featured live footage, videos, and interviews from Andrew W.K., an American artist who I had never heard before, but is probably huge. They play this cheesy Ramones-meets-hair-metal sort of music, and it’s pretty bad, but strangely fun. His interviews are interesting, but the weirdest thing is that one can’t quite tell if he’s serious about the whole thing or not. Anyway, it’s a good antidote for jokers like Fred Durst who take themselves far too seriously and really shouldn’t.

Saturday didn’t have any shows, but I did buy a ticket to see the consummate Scottish indie rock band, Belle & Sebastian. That’s right. I get to see Belle & Sebastian on the only Scottish date of their spring tour and you don’t. Suckers. I was afraid that I wouldn’t get a floor ticket, but the guys at Ripping Records were nice enough to go through the trouble of giving me the ticket in the front of the store window. Wow! Yeah, so I’m really excited. Seeing Belle & Sebastian was secretly one of my goals in coming to Scotland, and I’m glad that I’m going to make my dreams a reality.

Friday, I went to see the Scottish Symphony Orchestra play a program of contemporary Scottish (I think) composers (Alasdair Nicolson, Karen Francis, Nigel Osborne, Selena Kay, and Malcolm Hayes) in some cool old church. I went with Pete who was cool enough to hook me up with a free ticket. He has been introducing me to a great deal of music outside of my traditional staples and has also been kind enough to answer my questions about music theory and has done his best to explain, despite my utter stupidity when it comes to music theory. I think the concert was being broadcast on one of the BBC radio stations, so that was pretty ace. The concert was pretty good. It didn’t blow me away, but it was nice. I couldn’t help but think that Pete, despite the fact that he was pretty stoned, could get so much more out of the music than I, given his musical background and uncanny intuition into all things musical.

glossary:

• Hundred Reasons

  Hundred Reasons is probably the best UK band that you’ve never heard. Surely they’ll soon release a big album in the states and be adored by the newly post-hardcore loving mainstream rock media (much to Iain’s chagrin). These guys have a very straight forward post-hardcore type sound. It’s nothing new, but they do it so well. In my opinion their best asset is the three way screamed/melodic vocals. It is vaguely reminiscent of Hot Water Music and Recover, and, as is the case with those bands, adds a wonderful richness to the music. They recently released a split with Boston new-emo rockers, Garrison.

• The Liquid Room

  The Liquid Room is a medium sized venue (Columbus kids think slightly smaller than the Newport, Mid-Atlantic kids think the 9:30 club) in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. It tends to cater to a punk, indie, post-hardcore, etc. crowd with shows from fairly well known bands in the aforementioned genres. It is also the home to Evol, the weekly Friday indie club night.

  9c Victoria Street

  Edinburgh, UK

  225 2564

• Ripping Records

  Suck-ass in terms of record selection, but absolutely the place to buy tickets and check out show listings in Edinburgh. The older guy who runs the place was even nice enough to give me the last Belle & Sebastian ticket from the store window so the shop is ace in my book.

  South Bridge

  Edinburgh, UK

changing rooms

Originally written 25.02.2002.

I was watching “Changing Rooms” tonight, which is the BBC show that TLC translated into “Trading Spaces”. My flatmates made fun of me, but I love d.i.y (the British term for home improvement) shows. Also, it totally reminded me of hanging out at Erin’s and lounging on the couch to watch TLC. Sigh. Also, on the show tonight some designer dork totally ripped off the military surplus jungle theme idea that Josh and I had (but never actually executed) a few years ago.

you learn something new every day

I just got done with my Human Communications tutorial, which is, hands down, my favorite class. I don’t find it super challenging, as I have a knowledge of some of the elements of the course (grammars, turing machines, basic linguistics, etc.) from other courses I’ve taken that the other students lack, but I do find it incredibly interesting, and a good synthesis for some of those aforementioned elements of study.

I was reading through the course notes and found a really interesting mention of how arbitrary rules of “proper” grammar really are. For instance, take the rule about not ending sentances with a preposition. The historic basis for this? Some people wanted to model English after Latin, which does not allow trailing prepositions. Completely arbitary. Similarly, the perception of double negatives as being “improper” in English. Well, it seems that other languages, such as French, allow forms both using and excluding double negatives. However, in French, it is the use of double negatives that is considered more formal. Again, a display regarding how arbitrary grammar rules really are. More precisely, it exhibits how detached society’s perception of language is from it’s actual function.

It’s interesting to approach natural language from the perspective of a computer programmer. A programmer will often have to frequently switch programming languages due to the particular strengths and weaknesses of a given language. The syntax for programming languages may differ, but after programming for a while, this almost becomes invisible and one is only aware of the utility of the language. I’m not sure if one could learn to use natural language in such a way, since the languages are much more complex, and it doesn’t seem like one natural language offers any more utility than another, but I wonder how the ability to abstract away syntactic differences in natural language indicates an individual’s ability to perform other tasks. Furthermore, I’m interested to learn how grammar is taught in inner-city and rural schools. I’m guessing that much time is spent trying to break students from their “bad” grammatical habits, rather than exposing students to more language features and making people more litterate.

mp3mv

Last night, when I should have been doing schoolwork,
I wrote a little perl program to rename and retag multiple
MP3 files based on information about a music album from
an ASCII representation of a MARC record. MARC is a
data format developed by the Library of Congress to
store bibliographic data, and one can download MARC records
for various albums from allmusic.com
by clicking on the “Click here to see this album in MARC format”
link on a album’s page.

This program would be good if, for instance, an album’s worth
of MP3 files that you ripped from your CD got their filenames
or ID3 tags corrupted and you wanted to fix them fairly quickly.

The program is here, and you’ll need Perl and the MP3::Tag
Perl module to run it.

these are a few of my favorite things

This was originally written 16.02.2002

• Turing Machine

  So if you’re going to start a math rock band, what would you call it? Well, I can’t think of any better name than Turing Machine. Too bad these guys beat you to it. Well, it’s as math rocking as the name would suggest and they released their debut on Jade Tree, the best darn record company in the world.

• Creation is Cruxifiction

  Definitely nerdcore. Some of the band went to CMU, and in their spare time they lecture and publish about technology, activism, and culture as the Carbon Defense League, not to mention reverse engineer the Nintendo Game Boy. To top it off, they even have a song titled, Von Neumann’s Dead (for those of you unfamiliar with computer architecture, Von Neumann was the computer scientist who developed the machine organization that is still used in computers to this day).. Oh yeah, their grind flavored hardcore is a delight as well. I also found some cool electro-acoustic-ish tracks on their website that are pretty neat as well.

  http://www.hactivist.org

• Further Seems Forever

  
  So what if this band is getting big and so what if their original vocalist, Chris Carraba has left to go solo with Dashboard Confessional. When I saw them in late 2001, sans-Carraba, they still sounded great, and I’ve been listening to one of their older releases, The Moon is Down, and realizing that it’s good stuff. For me, the real standout is a track titled Snowbirds and Townies, which is about seasonal love affairs between resort town boys and vacationing girls. Another post-emo band singing about girls, one might groan, but the difference with this Further album (and also, I would argue, with Dashboard) is that these love songs use love as a background, a timeline, for other aspects of life. In this case it’s being young and isolated in a small Florida town. The song really paints a vivid picture of that situation with an honesty and sincerity that is truly refreshing. If only Fred Durst could write about his Florida youth this eloquently.

• Backweb

  Homegrown wireless (and wired?) metropolitan area network for Edinburgh, UK.

  http://www.backweb.org.uk

• UK politics

  
  So I don’t really know that much about the British political system, but from what I’ve seen on TV, I think these are my kind of people. First, I was watching this comedy show called Brimner, Bird, and Fortune, and it’s a million times smarter than anything I’ve seen stateside. Ragging on Tony Blair for touring Africa and neglecting domestic concerns and addressing the inherent problems of privitization of public services was never executed so well. I was watching another show which was this town-meeting, ask the politicians type show, and I was really impressed with the fact that so many of the guests were really critical of NYC-style zero-tolerance policing and even went as far as to question the accolades that Gulliani received for his post-9/11 leadership.

iain and the angry (half) inch

This was originally written 16.02.2002

When I got back from the movie, Iain’s mate Chris was down from the ‘Deen and they were both pretty pissed and listening to metal in Iain’s room. Though they were both drunk, I hung out with both of them for a while, and it was totally cool. Iain when drunk is totally different than most kids I know. He’s super laid back and funny, and at worst just talks some extra shit. This is a far cry from Marco’s drunken antics earlier in the week which, I’m told, resulted in Marco throwing himself on the hood of an oncoming car and Rob throwing a chair at Marco, missing, and leaving a hole in the kitchen wall. I’m so glad I just stayed in my room that night. I like Marco, but he was being a bit of a jerk that night.

But as I was saying, Iain and his friend were both totally cool and fun. The best moment of the evening, however, was when Iain’s friend related an anecdote from Iain’s primary school days. Now I’ll offer this disclaimer, Iain’s friend was pretty drunk, so this story might all be total crap, but allegedly, and 11-year-old Iain whipped out his half inch penis back when he was in primary school. So, of course, the joke became that Iain still possessed a diminutive phallus and hilarity ensued. Well, you heard it here first kids. Iain has a half inch penis.

monsters, inc.

This was originally written on 16.02.2002

So I basically spent today pissing about. I turned in my computer architecture assignment (at last and I’m glad to be done with processor pipelines for a while) and spent the rest of the day screwing around, reading The Onion, and skating. I had finally settled down to read the paper that introduced BAN logic (a logic used to formalize the analysis of security protocols) and work on my BAN logic practical, when Agatha came down to see if anyone wanted to go see Monsters, Inc. I figured what the hell and went out with the girls to the Odeon to see the flick.

I really liked the movie. It’s probably my favorite Pixar movie, though I have enjoyed all of Pixar’s previous releases as well. Even though all manner of studios seem to have entered into the CG animation game, Pixar still, at least in my opinion, leads the pack, not only for the superior quality of their animation, but also for the attention to detail which adds a level of subtle humor and sophistication that is absent in so many animated films. So Monsters, Inc. had all of the Pixar magic one would expect: stunning animation, clever devices, an entertaining plot, and genuinely funny jokes.

I might be going out on a limb with this one, but for me, the thing I liked best is that the movie seemed, at times, to be a thinly veiled allegory for US energy policy. Hey, it’s not all that far fetched. Pixar is, after all, in the heart of energy crazed California, and I’m guessing those animation nerds are probably at least a little left of center. In the film, the monster city is undergoing an energy crisis. To get energy, the monsters have to scare human children and capture their screams. It seems, however, that this resource is no longer able to satisfy the monster’s energy needs. So, some of the monsters plot to use a horrifying device to torture innocent human kids in order to increase energy output. It is only through the power of love and the ingenuity of the monster protagonists that an alternative, child-friendly, source of energy is found. Ok, so lets get this story straight. There is an energy crisis. Big business plots to exploit an already depleted resource, completely ignoring any negative implications and remaining ignorant to the exploration of alternative energy sources. US petroleum dependence, people! The freaking movie is about US petroleum dependence. Well, maybe not, but it sure would be cool if the similarities to the real world were intentional. Political commentary or not, the film is still worth checking out.

party

This was originally written on 09.02.2002

Last night at the Garrison show, Marius handed me a little flyer he had made for a party he was having tonight. He told me that I should come. Well, as party time approached, I was, being my usual, non-gregarious self, a bit worried. As I walked the short distance to the Marchmont neighborhood, I even thought about turning around and just spend the rest of the evening struggling with computer architecture and reading Rushdie. I walked on though, and took a deep breath before heading up to the party. It was pretty small when I got there. Marius greeted me and showed me around the flat. The Pop Idols final was on the tele, and Marius said that he reckoned that was the reason not many people had shown up yet. Well, the kid with the stutter lost, and as if on cue, kids started showing up. I don’t go to parties, and usually don’t have fun when I do, but I found tonight that parties are definitely more fun when you go alone. Back in Columbus, at a party, you just see your friends and talk about the same sort of things that you would talk about any other time. If someone wants to bail, you feel obligated to go as well, and most people don’t seem like they’re having much fun anyway. When you go alone, it’s sink or swim and you have to just go out and try to meet new people. That’s definitely a good scenario for someone in a new place, because meeting people can be hard. Going abroad has been good for me for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that it’s forced me to be more outgoing and to meet people and go out with them rather than hole myself up in my room. At the party, I met an American who studies at Smith, and her Austrian friend. We talked about politics, and the Austrian political climate in general. The most interesting thing that I found, was that the Austrian said that the rightward shift in Austrian politics was portrayed somewhat unfairly by the media as similar movements were gaining ground in Spain and France as well. I always find it fascinating to get different perspectives on government and politics, though I guess I should feel a little guilty for talking about politics at a party. I later met another Austrian, and spoke with her about the normal student stuff: courses, traveling, music, etc. The most interesting part of the conversation was when we both realized that we knew Dana and had that odd small world realization feeling. At about 13:00, I was feeling pretty tired and decided to head back home. I said goodbye to Marius, thanked him for the invite, and told him I hoped to make it to the Piebald show during the upcoming week.

I thought that I’d get to go straight to bed, with maybe a little late night reading. That was not to be. When I came in, Pete and Iain’s friend from A-deen were talking in the common room. When I had first met Iain’s friend Colin (or Cullen, I’m not sure) (actually, I now think it’s Collum)he seemed pretty quiet. Definitely not a walking liability like certain anectdotes seemed to indicate. Well, I can now see why the latter characterisation might be more accurate. This kid is madness. When pished, he is a character and a half, and a truly hilarious and engaging storyteller to boot. When I came in, he was telling Pete a story about how he almost went to bed with a friend’s forty-something mother. This led way to a re-telling of the infamous Volvo through a fence story, which led to a diatribe about his Super Bowl viewing experience. I was a bit unnerved when he started talking about how much he loved the confederacy and how he always supports a southern team over a northern one (for some reason he considered St. Louis part of the deep south). I could have tried to set him straight, but he could hardly remember my name, so I’m guessing he wouldn’t have walked away with much, even if I had tried to reason with him. He eventually departed, and I was left alone with Pete. This weekend, evidently had been a hard one for the kid, and he had some troubles with his girlfriend. I think that they broke up, or at least agreed to take the relationship down a notch. It seemed like Pete was fairly upset, and it reminded me of when I ran into him at Cavendish earlier that week and he told me that he felt like he was “pulling his own bird”. That idea struck me as really tragic and I hope I never have to feel like I’m trying to win my sigoth over after a long absence. So, we talked about that for awhile. It was an akward conversation, the sort where someone you don’t know really well tells you more about themselves than you expected. Furthermore, I’m never sure if I should just listen attentively, or try to offer some sort of advice.

garrison part1

This was originally written on 09.02.2002

Last night was great, and though I felt pretty awful when I woke up this morning, the music of the show still ringing in my ears, things were much better after I showered and scored some cereal.

Yesterday afternoon was a rainy mess and after fighting with awk and sed all afternoon, I almost couldn’t be asked to go all the way to Glasgow for the show. However, as Iain and Marco were going going home to the ‘Deen for the weekend, I definitely didn’t want to be alone in the flat. So, Rob gave me a lift to the bus stop on the way to taking Marco to the train station. I hopped the 6:30 bus for Glasgow after phoning Brooke to make arrangements to be met at the bus station.

The bus ride was uneventful if not a little boring. It was dark so I couldn’t really see the scenery and was feeling a little nauseas from all the stopping and starting of the bus, but I arrived unscathed. Brooke met me at the station, and we walked towards the club. If Edinburgh weather is bad, Glasgow weather, being on the west coast, is 10 times worse. We were more than a little wet by the time we made it to the 13th Note Club. So we sat around talking for a while. Her stories of drunken craziness weren’t quite as good the second time around, but the conversation wasn’t bad. She reminds me a whole lot of kids I grew up with, and sharing anecdotes from small town PA is like revisiting my adolescence albeit from the other side of things. I always like kids who have a wild nature to them, and at least she seems like someone who keeps things under control, despite a penchant for misadventure. The doors opened and we checked out the first band. They were pretty lame. Young kids playing mediocre rock music with all the influences of your run of the mill MTV stock. I wasn’t suspicious because the local opener of the Cave-In show was of an equally (if not worse) caliber. However, as I looked around, the other kids in the place were not exactly the scenesters one would expect at an emo show. Inquiring at the bar confirmed that the Garrison show was at the 13th Note’s other venue, the 13th Note Cafe. No problem they said, the show had probably only just started over at the cafe and, get this, they would refund my cover! I had heard that the 13th Note had just recently weathered some financial difficulties, and now I know why. They’re too damn nice! Definitely support these people if you’re ever in Glasgow. So, we walked the five minutes to the cafe hoping that we hadn’t missed too much of the show.

When we got to the show, a more than decent Scottish melodic punk band was playing and Marius and Lauren greeted me at the door. A short digression is in order to explain the small, small, world relationship that hooked me up with these kids. Lauren went to high school with my former housemates Steven and Katelynn. In addition, she met my friend Dana while Dana was studying in Edinburgh during the fall. Marius is a friend of hers whose info I also got from Dana. A small, small world indeed. So in between sets I chatted with them a little about upcoming shows and asked Lauren for news about the Sweet Life. I felt kind of bad since Brooke didn’t know any of them, not that I really did either, but I’m really glad to have a loose network of aquaintences here. It makes living in a foreign city much easier.

The next band to play was an emo band from France. I don’t remember what they were called, but I liked them a lot. They played run of the mill new-emo, but did it really well. Strangely, their drummer was their lead vocalist, maybe because his command of English was the best. It was funny to see their caricature of American rock institutions with their guitar posing and devil horned drumstick grips. Awesome.

Garrison went on at about 20:30 and they were pretty rocking, although abit full of themselves. I think that I liked the French band a bit better, but Garrison played a good set. The space was crowded, and the kids were down, so it was all good. Garrison also plays a new-emo sort of music, though it has some interesting idiosyncrasies to it. They’ve released a split with UK post-hardcore favorites Hundred Reasons, and a new full length entitled “Be A Criminal” on Revelation Records. I snapped some photos of their show which I will get around to developing some day.

After the show, despite her objections, I walked Brooke part of the way home. I wasn’t trying to be chivalrous, but I wasn’t sure how well she new that part of town, and I’ve heard from some people that Glasgow can be a bit dodgy. On the bus ride home from the Cave-In show, Marius told me how he had a close encounter with a would-be mugger, and he’s a fairly big guy so I guess it pays to be careful. We walked back to the center city before I bid her adieu and headed for the bus station. I had missed the midnight bus so I waited around for the later one (damn I wish there were cheap inter-city busses in the states that ran late at night) and read my copy of Fracture that I had got at the show. Fracture is this free UK fanzine that, from my limited exposure, features some really great personal anecdotes, interviews, and record reviews. Standard, zine stuff, I guess, but I thought it was good. The most interesting thing was getting a UK punk perspective on America, and in particular the whole 9/11 disaster.

garrison part2

This was originally written on 09.02.2002

A big city bus station is a really interesting, and probably more than slightly dodgy place to be early in the morning. There were the expected drunks and random kids walking about the place, but it didn’t take long for me to have my own brush with bus station craziness. This older drunk guy walked into the terminal and made a beeline straight for me. He was old, drunk, and not too big, so I wasn’t too worried, but it was still awkward as hell. He asked me what I was reading, and I tried to explain, as best I could to someone who was probably totally unfamiliar with punk culture, the idea of a zine. He then asked me if I was American. “Oh no”, I thought, here it goes. I expected an anti-tirade like the one that Timothy had told me about where a drunk guy berated Timothy’s fellow Americans with lines like “you Americans and your big passports!” I replied, reluctantly, that I was American, and he asked me if I thought Scots were “thick”. No, I said, as diplomatically as I could, I didn’t, and in fact some of my flatmates held the stereotype that Americans were thick. He then proceeded to take my zine from my hands and prove to me that he could read. “See,” he said, “I’m a bricklayer and I can read”, as he showed me his weathered workman’s hands. All throughout this tense conversation, I was exchanging nervous glances with the rock musicians sitting across from me. It was actually pretty funny in retrospect. “I never doubted that, mate”, I replied. I asked him how he liked his work, and he replied, “it’s alright but sometimes it’s shite.” I asked him where he was headed tonight and he said that he didn’t know. I couldn’t make it out clearly from the accent and the drunkenness, but I got the impression that he had gotten kicked out of somewhere. Be it from the pub, his flat, or the arms of a jilted lover, I’ll never know. To my relief, the old fellow departed into the cold Glasgow drizzle as abruptly as he had arrived.

The bus finally arrived and I spent the next hour reading record reviews and thinking longingly of my bed. When I finally got back to my flat, Pete was digging through the trash (or rubbish as they say over here) can looking for his girlfriend’s gold earing. He said something about a fight and harsh words exchanged with his girlfriend and how she had left to spend the night with a friend. Whooboy. I wished him luck and scurried off to the warm safety of my bed.

glossary:

• Iain

  One of my flatmates in Edinburgh. Skater, snowboarder, self taught guitar rocker, and one of the most clever, nicest guys I know. He’s also introduced me to a load of music and keeps me from being too much a music snob. Has replaced Shad as the house shit-talker.

• Marco

  Another flatmate in Edinburgh. Lady killer, a legend in his own mind, and karaoke prince of Aberdeen. A passionate Glasgow Rangers supporter, I’ve spent a couple evens watching football matches on the tele with him. He can slam a bottle (or two) of Buckfast like none other.

• Brooke

  A girl I met at a weekend outing with the other Arcadia Univeristy study abroad kids. Philosophy/Art major and weekend Denny’s waitress. She’s from PA, and would be a definite contender in an Alicia look-alike contest. Like Iain, keeps me from being too much of a music snob. A great person with which to swap small-town PA anecdotes.

• Alicia

  High school pal and Fallout partner in crime who can play music so much better than I will ever be able to. Super-interesting artist and Italian speaker, scene kid living in Philadelphia. Vegan to the max. One of the few kids from high school with whom I still keep in touch.

• Rob

  Yet another flatmate. Ardent Manchester United supporter, rugby kid, and fun guy. The most entertaining of my flatmates when pissed, surprisingly coherent, though he can have a mouth that gets him into trouble. Drives like a maniac, but takes me to Sainsbury’s and sometimes school. An icon in his terrycloth bathrobe.

• 13th Note Club

  260 Clyde Street

  Glasgow, UK

  Rad indie club in Glasgow. Has a variety of punk, metal, indie, hardcore, etc. shows in a nicely sized (albeit noisy) space.

• 13th Note Cafe

  50-60 King Street

  Glasgow, UK

  553 1638

  The sister space of the 13th note club, this place has a more intimate setting and doubles as an excellent (and cheap) vegan restaurant. Check this place out for sure if ever in Glasgow.

• Dana

  I met Dana because she was part of the whole Beaver Creek, OH crew. Additionally, she was in my Freshmen Engineering Honors classes. She studies computer science and is easily one of the smartest people I know. One of the most idiosyncratic ones as well, I suspect (how many CS belly-dancers do you know). A really nice person, she has introduced me to so much good music as well as fun stuff to do in Columbus. Spends her summers breaking hearts and working for HP.

• Steven

  Ex-housemate at the Sweet Life and all around nice guy. I met him through Columbus United Students Against Sweatshops. Easily one of the nicest, most rational, laid back kids I’ve ever met, he’s also down for skating and show-going. Another Dayton kid.

• Katelynn

  Like Steven, she’s a Sweet Life/Dayton kid. Also a really nice person, with this fun, quirky nature to her. She reminds me of Alicia, both in nature and in stature. Wicked soccer player who’s currently studying agriculture. Also one hell of a cook.

• Sweet Life

  My home for the autumn of 2001. Could also be called the house that Will built. So far, despite occasional drama, it’s been the best place I’ve ever lived. Skateboarding, amazing eclectic music that is a testament to it’s amazing, eclectic, and intelligent inhabitants, and rocking vegan dumpster food. Not the best place to study, but in terms of having fun and feeling comfortable, it was great. It was sort of a real world, real world, with seven kids who only slightly knew each other, it was a pleasant adventure and evidence that last minute arrangements can sometimes work out for the best.

• Pete

  The last of my Edinburgh flatmates, and the one I feel that I know the least. He seems pretty intelligent (with statements like “Electro acoustic music is the response to hardcore” you have to be at least smarter than the average bear), and he studies music technology. He is a super-talented pianist and also a Jungle MC. He’s pretty nice, but for some reason, I always feel awkward talking to him.