School school school, lots of school. Today I went with one of my classes to an Art & Design Center for flex-y friday-y. They had us draw blind contour line self portraits with pastels and then color them in. Mine turned out devilish and scribbly but I ended up liking it, which is why I want to share it with you.
currently on sale for 44 billion dollars.
On Thursday my parents came to observe my class for.. observation day. Every 7th and 8th grader’s parents come sometime during the year to watch classes and have a meeting with their teacher, which usually means they sit in the back of the room and either take notes or just make you feel uncomfortable. Luckily I think my parents are pretty cool so the latter (nor the first) wasn’t a problem. The meeting usually goes well, the only negative part being something about clicking pens or drumming on tables, or discriminating against other students who like Justin Bieber (that’s what they tell me – the last one is half a semi-educated guess, though). We also got back our picture day pictures, which were hardly awkward at all. HURRAY NOT LOOKING CONSTIPATED!
(just discovered side a to this album. music post later?)
First order of business! A reader emailed me a while ago about setting up a shop for charity (on the internets, of course. PSSH SCREW REALITY [jkjk]). I think it’s a really good idea. Play our part in the context of the whole, right? Right? Back me up Kimya? The only problem is a. I have no idea what to sell, and obviously I’m not creative enough to make anything, b. where and by what means should I sell it! And c. where should the money go.
“B” I can totally figure out but A and C are things I’d really like to hear about. You can email or formspring. Write a letter, send an owl. Pigeons work, too. I don’t discriminate.
Today I went to Chinatown with my class for flex friday. It was my first time eva being there and I have to say, it seems like China as far as Chicago goes. Some friends and I got lost trying to figure out what’s “in the boundaries” and just ate at some Great Wall of China place, which had raw shanks and chicken legs in the window. Water and pop were $1.00 each.
I also went to a store that sold Pocky, and seahorses, and dried fish in a brightly colored bag. I asked the woman behind the counter if seahorses were for eating (or “humans”) and she looked at me like WHAT YOU DON’T EAT SEAHORSE? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WHAT? The answer was no, so I don’t really know what they’re for. Hopefully it’s legal.
It was definitely a learning experience though. I took the Red line for the first time and watched four very awesome subway singers perform soul songs (like Thursday’s 30 Rock!!!1!!1!). They were more talented than a lot of indie kids OH BURRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN HALLOWEENIES! (I typed happy birthday at first. Uh yeah lot of candy.)
When Hayden wore this mask he got recognized as ZZ Top and Edgar Winter even though he talked like Karl from Slingblade.
Hey halloween was yesterday. I went trick-or-treating a little bit with my old block and saw probably the best costume (actually not the best but the CUTEST).
(ignore unintentional lewd gestures)
We turned Henry’s yard into a spooky spookhouse with paper maché heads and cornstalks. We also rigged a skeleton on a tree by the sidewalk to fall next to people when we let go of a string. It scared the bejewsus out of some people, other obnoxious kids were like “I KNOW HOW U DO THAT. THIS IS SO DUMB.” Eventually it broke but handydandy twine fixed it, until every bone but the head fell off and it was just a floating skull.
Hiiiiiiiii. Basically I tucked my shirt in and put on some plaid, got a sword and a hat and called it a day.
Now.. last friday I saw Bob Dylan. I don’t know any other way to put it. I experienced señor Bob. His band was not in my taste the best, but cheezy; Dylan was a croaky old man but that’s to be expected. Actually he was a lot less fragile and.. old than I imagined. I think I just over-braced myself so if he was just a Bob-specter in some Bob-wheelchair I wouldn’t be disappointed. But it was so awesome. Bobby D, guys, never fails to be mysterious. That’s the only box you can surefire put him in (if you, y’know, had to put him in a box).
Friday was also flex friday. My class was supposed to go to the Daley plaza FRANKEN-PLAZA, but it was raining like a drunk monkey again so all the tents were closed. We did meet these two actor/mime/acrobat people, though. They were just standing there being.. actor mine acrobats with vampire makeup on. We talked to them for a while, found out they were actually a couple, and then left to run around in Marshal Fields (or Macy’s but ew). At one of the counters I saw a lotion called Opium. I asked the lady behind the counter if Opium contained opium, and she said “I don’t work here.”
Toooday my class went to Millennium Park for Flex Friday. I got soaked at the Crown Fountain thing and acted all tourist-y at the Bean, and beatbox-busked (aka scared strangers – we made no money).
I think you can see me in the corner
Oh em gee it’s so weird looking at it from under! We were the only ones on our backs (that’s my friend Amir, by the way) and when the actual tourists saw us they were like “hey look at those kids that’s pretty smart aaha” and then I called myself a trendsetter and took picshuhs.
Speaking of being tourist-y, when I met the German guys yesterday they had been to all the cool downtown things and I realized, I’ve lived in Chicago my whole life and have never even been in the Sears (er, Willis – ew) Tower! It makes me think we should do a stay-cation next summer or something. [p.s., when I said we talked about "the Cathedral" yesterday I meant the Cologne Cathedral.]
Today I had to move my drum set up to my room. They couldn’t be in the basement anymore because we might be renovating soon. I really like having my drums in my room. Now, I can play them without having to go down in the basement. Also, I made a small recording setup so I can listen to what I’m playing/share it with people.
Speaking of recording, I am now studying “the art of studio recording” for Independent Study (IS) at school. I chose this topic because A. You can’t use sailboats (one of my other choices) until late Spring-ish, B. I am lucky to have access to more than one studio in Chicago, and C. It’s really fun. And cool. I didn’t actually plan on making my own mini home studio, but it works out perfectly.
My class went on our weekly Flex Friday today. We went to the Harold Washington Library, one of Chicago’s best public libraries. It has eight floors and more than it’s share of aimlessly wandering.. (let’s be nice) people. We went there on a search for information about our IS topics. I couldn’t find the book I was looking for (Studio Recording For Musicians or something), but I did find two other interesting ones. The first one is Rock On: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock N’ Roll. The other one was 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I thought, just for fun, I’d see if there were any Wilco albums in there. It was so cool when I found one, I was kind of freaking out. Then, I kept on looking at the index, and I found two more! It was pretty awesome.
