Tests and B&S

I don't have much to write about but I'll find any excuse I can not to study. 'Study?' you might ask. Yes, study. Unfortunately, even though I'm not taking any summer classes, I have signed up to take the Engineer-in-Training exam this October. It's a state licensure test that's the second step after college on the road to becoming a professional engineer. I've bought a review book and so far, from what I've seen, I've forgotten so much even though I'm still in school. I can't remember any formal, straight-ahead math; my choice to cram for differential equations to pull a C up to an A and afterwards forget it all is beginning to haunt me. Ditto for thermodynamics, materials science, and dynamics. The other stuff I was comfortable with at the time, so hopefully once I start reviewing it'll all come back to me. I've never studied for any test more than a few days ahead. This one is over three months away yet already I am freaking out.

It's a two-part test, and I am hoping that the state of Maryland will let me take the general test for both parts, because despite my being infinitely more comfortable with civil engineering-specific things right now, I don't want to have to study for the two tests. Taking a general test for both parts will allow me to study for both in one go.

Now that that shit is off my chest for the time being, I suppose some interesting things happened to me in the last week or so. Last weekend, my sister and I saw Belle and Sebastian supported by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Broken Social Scene. I must say I'd only heard of the support acts but never listened to their music. I didn't particularly like either of them. Ted Leo's songs all sounded the same to me, as did of Broken Social Scene's. Ted Leo derivative punk, BSS, derivative drone rock, reminiscent of the bullshit jams we used to do at a friend's attic in high school.

B&S were different, although I am very biased. They're great showpeople; they can really get the crowd going. None of their music is anywhere as aggressive as the openers (especially Leo's), but their songs have more variety: some are danceable, some, not. Some minor key, some major. To my ears, it's a lot more interesting and varied (I hate to say eclectic) than I can possibly describe it. If you like B&S, you'll know what I mean.

I've begun to reassess Belle and Sebastian. While I've liked them for quite a while now, I've always quickly dismissed them as a bunch of arty kids similar to the kind their singer Stuart sings about, kids who were outcasts in school who sometimes were beaten up for being 'different.' But after seeing them in a lineup of acts, especially after seeing Broken Social Scene, I realized that they are not arty or pretentious at all. They're plain old popsters who write standard 3-minute songs that are as catchy as hell. Their music is a no-brainer; I'm surprised they don't rule the pop charts. It's kind of like how I used to watch Wes Anderson movies and think, geez, this stuff looks pretty deep, when, now that I think about it, they're just funny movies. A friend once told me that Catcher in the Rye was rife with symbolism; me, I just think it's a good read.

Anyone who knows me well knows I don't like a lot of people. This is because this lot of people and I aren't like-minded in any number of ways. In the days leading up to the concert, I would occasionally think to myself that for a few hours, I would be surrounded by what I thought of as 'my people,' like the bee girl in the Blind Melon video eventually was. Boy, was I wrong. As the girl seated behind me put it, there were 'so many hipsters around. I'm not sure I'm cool enough to be here.' Damn, I hate hipsters. I was also particularly annoyed by the high school girls in front of us who were dancing all the time thereby blocking our view of the stage. I had to watch the concert through giant TV's overhead most of the time. I'm glad those girls don't listen to typical high school girl fare, but Jeezus, dance somewhere else, why dontcha?

Speaking of the big TV's, a cameraman took a shot of Richard the drummer and he does indeed look constipated when he drums (he's known for this). When Richard's face was on the TV at the beginning of the set, I thought I heard a laugh come over the audience, and I can recall the camera being pointed at Richard only once after that, during the last song.

Stevie, the guitarist, looked cool with his circa-66 Dylan suit on, but I had to ask myself how hot he felt wearing all that.

All in all it was a great show. I've seen a number of my favorites now: Dylan, Lou Reed, the Magnetic Fields, and B&S. It's too bad I'll never get to see the Go-Betweens. Hopefully Robert will one day get the urge to tour the World. Come to D.C., Rob!