What a Philosophy Graduate with a steady job does on his days off from work
I know that many of you are wondering why I haven’t updated recently. I could give you a lot of reasons why this has been the case, and a good 60% of them might actually be good justifications. The real reason, however, is that I am lazy. Nothing really exciting has happened recently at work, and school has been just as uninteresting. Not that this is surprising, since nothing exciting usually happens at either my place of employment or my place of self-betterment through knowledge. I also have not been Karaoke-ing in a long time, so it would seem that the title of this blog serves no purpose other than to be a failed attempt at a good blog title. I do not apologize for it, so you’re going to have to just learn to deal with the disappointment you must be feeling.
But I do hope to fill that void in your soul with what I have done with my time these last few days that I have had no school, nor work. I had a great time, and I hope that that feeling of greatness on my end easily translates to that feeling of not-being-bored-out-of-your-mind-while-reading-this on yours. Basically, I spent a good most of my time traveling around the Southeast, going to concerts. Clearly, this is the sign of an adult – getting days off from work to drive to neighboring states to see bands one likes for a few fleeting hours, all while drinking close, but not quite, to excess. If that’s not a sure sign of the shaking free of those irresponsible tendencies of my youth, then I don’t know what is.
The first leg of my trip was to scenic Athens, GA. The main objective of this trip was to see The Hold Steady in concert, as well as Art Brut, who were co-headlining with them. Most of the time, I have someone to go with me to these kind of things, but sadly most of the people I know also have jobs where they can’t simply get 5 day weekends with a month’s notice, therefore this leg of the trip was done solo. This isn’t a problem for me, since I don’t mind driving long distances, and since I got to stay with my good friend Erin in Columbia whom I joined along with her boyfriend, Devin (sp?) , for dinner at the Flying Saucer, where delicious beer was served…and subsequently drunk. Erin was kind enough to let me crash on her couch-bed (It’s a bed serving the purpose of a couch…and most effectively, I might add).
After catching up with other friends of mine, I hit up several Columbia thrift stores to find some appropriate apparel as would befit Professor Plum (no I won’t tell you why…ok it was for Halloween. I’m such a softy) as well as anything else that might be interesting. My total take from said thrift store raids cost me six American dollars. Here is what I got:
-one purple (actually more of a plum color) sport coat, which fit.
-one purple flannel shirt, which also fit.
-one kickass old leather briefcase that had clearly seen better days
-one book entitled “Outlines of Great Books.” It was published in the 30s and is pretty much cliff notes for all the classics.
-”Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen, on Vinyl.
As I’m sure you are apt to notice, I got six things for six dollars. This averages out to one dollar per item, which would be a safe bet, since it would be silly to assume that I would spend five dollars on a flannel shirt, with everything else costing me only 20 cents each. But I digress…
After making all these purchases, I set out for the mythic land of Athens, GA. I made great time getting there…so great in fact, that I got there at about 5:30, only to learn that the doors for the show didn’t open until 9:00. Normally, this isn’t a problem, since I’d be there with someone else, and we would hang out around town killing time before the show, but if memory serves you correctly, I was all alone, in a scary college town…with nowhere to hide – buahahaha…er..ahem. Well it wasn’t actually scary, and Athens is a really cool place, so I walked around, went to a Brewery for dinner, and then walked around some more. Then, just when you thought it couldn’t get more interesting, I decide to stop at a tobacco shop, and buy a pack of cigarettes, and later a corn cob pipe. If you don’t know this about me, I have a weakness for tobacco shops, especially ones in other towns that I am visiting. Savannah’s got some good ones. Anyways, I get a pack of fancy french cigarettes, which, and I don’t smoke regularly, are delicious, and sit down next to a girl seated at a hookah table. I ask her if she doesn’t mind my sitting next to her to smoke. She doesn’t. We proceed to talk and then her boss (she worked at the shop, but it was her night off, and she didn’t learn this helpful fact until she got to work, at which time she decided to just chill out and smoke a bit) offered us some free hookah tobacco. We then went on to share a hookah until it was time for me to go to the concert. I must say, I don’t know that I’ve enjoyed conversation with a stranger more than with this one girl. I leave to go to the show, and find out that the Hold Steady doesn’t actually go on till 11:45, and Art Brut is scheduled to go on at 10:30. I head back to the shop, and ask her if she would like to go to the show. She and her friend, who had just walked into the shop, end up coming to the concert, and we all had a fantastic time. Between smoking, conversation with a charming stranger, and a rocking good concert, it was all a win.
I then left Athens the following morning, to drive back to Charleston, only to leave that day for the mountains, with my sister and my friend Katie. Katie’s family has a cabin up in Tryon, where we stayed so that we could easily go see the New Pornographers in Asheville. Now, this post is getting rather lengthy, and I suspect very few of you have made it even this far, so I’m going to keep the rest of this as short and succinct as possible, by using the shortest, most succinctest sentences possible…starting…now. Drive was long. Mountains were beautiful. Drank lots of beer. We played Celebrity Guess Who. Smoked some more. Drove to Asheville. Saw the show. It rocked…hard. Neko Case was there. She was awesome. Drove back. Left monday morning.
I ended up skipping my monday class, since I just didn’t feel like going at all.
All in all, I had a fantastic 5 days off, and then last night, on Halloween, I got to see They Might Be Giants at the newly renovated Music Farm. I’ve seen them twice already, and each time was awesome, as was this show. It is impossible for me to describe how awesome it is without coming off as a complete and total nerd, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
I was going to have more to add to this post in a week and half, since Katie, Doug, and I were going up to D.C. to see the Decemberists for two shows. Sadly, I received an email today, from the band, that the rest of their tour has been canceled since one of them is really really sick. Obviously I don’t want them to play if one of them is too sick to do so, but this really really sucks, espcecially for Katie, who hasn’t seen them at all. (I’ve seen the D’s twice as well) . I guess I can’t really complain, since I’ll be getting 80 bucks back, or so, for the tickets. That’s 80 bucks I already foolishly spent, and budgeted away. This means that it’ll be like getting free money, or at least, that’s how I choose to look at it.
I hope that answers the title fairly well. I do want to emphasize one little note from my post here, and that is that I do not smoke nor do I drink a lot. I do drink, but only on days here and there, and even then, very very rarely to excess. I do smoke as well, but only on special occasions. Concerts and trips to the mountains comprise 98% of those situations, with the other 2% being the writing of philosophy papers that are due the following day. I suppose that last fact can just be excluded altogether, since I no longer have to write philosophy papers that are due ever. That is, until John and I successfully start our philosophical consulting firm. But ah, that will have to be a post for another day…a day when I have nothing else to say.
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