Dave Matthews Band - Cortez The Killer

Dave Matthews Band cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer” with Warren Haynes.  Performed at The Central Park Concert.

I’m Feeling Preachy

Today, I was trying in vain to start a paper for my writing class.  The paper has to be between 6 and 8 pages.  As I sat at my desk, trying to BS a thesis statement, I realized that throughout my academic career, I don’t think I’ve ever written a paper that was any longer than the minimum length (usually less).  As in, for a 6 to 8 page paper, my paper would be exactly 6 pages in length, not a sentence longer.  This troubled me.

I don’t think I’m alone in this.  I could ask any of my friends or fellow students and they would share similar feelings.  Students could show you 5 ways to find the Cliff Notes for the book they are supposed to be reading, or 10 friends they know who already did the math homework and can give them the answers.  Rather than becoming experts in Mathematics, kids are becoming experts in the ways of cheating and BSing their way through school.

What does this mean?  Our schools and entire educational system have taught us not to think creatively and form our own ideas, but rather to do just enough to get by.  High school and college are supposed to be about learning real world skills and ideas.  For the most part, all I have learned is how to get a good score on a test!  When I see and hear dozens of students cramming an hour before the test, regurgitating the information back while taking the test, and then forgetting everything they just “learned”, I have to stop and think; if college is really for learning, why don’t I remember most of the things that were on tests I took last semester?  Don’t get me wrong, I am just as guilty as the next guy when it comes to this idea of regurgitation, but it is a very troubling idea.

Shouldn’t we be taught the lessons and ideas, rather than how to make those ideas into an ‘A’ paper, or how to turn those ideas into getting an ‘A’ on a test, or my personal favorite, how to know JUST enough to get that 89.6 percent?  There really is no simple solution, and there probably never will be.  In fact, I bet my generation is worse than the last when it comes to this, as the next generation will be even worse than mine.  I don’t really know why this bothers me so much, but I feel that I havn’t had very many teachers and professors who have inspired me to go out and want to learn things.  Quite frankly, a lot of the learning I have done has come from outside of the classroom, from my own pursuings of subjects.  That’s great for me, but what about most kids, who don’t have many real world interests outside of school? I hate to break it to you, but Myspace and The Hills aren’t going to make careers for any of us.  Someone/something needs to change.  All I’m asking for is some INSPIRATION!

Wow that was long.  I feel better now.  Excuse me while I continue to NOT write my paper.

Gentleman, Mount Your Schwinn Bicycles!

The Masters

X Gon’ Give It To Ya

Tonight, some of my friends and I decided to go to a DMX concert.  We figured, “it’s Little 500, we might as well, right?  It’s only $25, that’s not too bad.”  So we went.  It was held on the front lawn of a fraternity, which meant it wasn’t too hot.  Being my first rap concert, it was actually a pretty cool atmosphere.

The opening acts went by the names of “G. B. The Fly BOI”, Shawn Perignon, BFA, and my personal favorite, TRINIDE.  As anyone can probably guess by their names, they were all bad, very bad.  We didn’t mind.  We came for DMX.

We waited, and waited, and waited.  DMX finally arrived at 9:45, an hour late. He started with “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” and “Ruff Ryders Anthem”, both great songs.  As he started the next song, a police officer walks up to the side of the stage, looking very, very mad.  Uh oh.  This was not going to end well.

Here’s where things get interesting.  The police cut off DMX’s microphone!  He gets mad.  Apparently the noise permit for the concert ran out at 10 pm.  (It was 9:59 at the time)  DMX tries to start up again, but they cut his mic out right away.  Realizing he can’t win, he decides to pass the huge bottle of Hennessey he was holding into the crowd, along with his microphone, and walk off stage.  The police didn’t like that very much.  Angry cop storms up to the front of the stage, demanding the crowd give the bottle back.  Realizing the concert is done, the crowd in the back starts throwing things on stage.  So the cop decides to start spraying pepper spray at the people in the front, including a handiccapped man in a wheelchair!  BAD IDEA!  COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!  Being about 5 yards away from this, my friends and I were quick to cover our faces with our shirts and back up.  Needless to say, the mace cleared the crowd pretty quickly.  Effective? Yes.  Justified? NO!

We eventually left the riotous crowd, dissapointed.  Interesting night.