Pocahotass

I saw The New World in Maumee tonight with Erick, Peter, and Emily. It was an experience that impressed me on a lot of levels. I highly recommend it.

Hey Pocahontas. What's Algonquin for "jumponit?"

Today Is "The Empire Strikes Back Quote Awareness Day!"

Leia Organa: "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee."
Han Solo: "I can arrange that. You could use a good kiss!"

Be sure to spread your favorite quotes around in celebration of this great holiday.

I saw Dancer In The Dark last night at the UFO screening. It was one of the most moving and emotional films I've seen in a long time. I highly recommend it to anybody who's in the mood for such a thing... I certainly got a lot out of it. I can't wait to see Lars von Trier's other films. Oh yeah, and Björk is hot.

Emily and I are going to see a Belle & Sebastian concert in Louisville, KY over spring break. If anybody else feels like coming, just let me know!

I skipped my Weather and Climate class today because the homework that was due made absolutely no sense to me. I hate missing out on points becuase the teacher doesn't know how to explain a concept effectively. Well, it's either that, or I was just too dumb to understand. I mean, Langen got it fine when he took the class...

I forgot to mention earlier that High School Musical was a pretty amazing DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie). People singing about how much singing sucks is pretty amazing to behold.

And now, since my refund check just came in today, I'm off to spend most of it on Madonna merchandise and needless visits to Qdoba.

Recommendations

Everyone should read Facing East From Indian Country by Daniel K. Richter. It gives a fascinating look into the Native American side of European conquest through the eighteenth century.

Also, everyone should listen to Belle & Sebastian. Dear Catastrophe Waitress is simply a great album, and I've been hooked on it since I first heard it a few days ago. Be sure to check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Emily Berens is the only person who regularly reads this. Which is pretty amazing.

The B.P.O.

All quiet on the home front. Classes continue, homework continues... It's the college way!

I recorded my own cover of Complicated by Avril Lavigne. It's really frightening. But really, would you expect anything less from The Brian Peppers Orchestra? Let me know if you want a copy or anything.

Today is devoted to reading the 200+ pages I have to peruse for my various classes. Hmm. That's about it.

iTunes Meme

My weekends have been consumed by the neverending story of homework that constitutes college life. In my spare time, I've been practicing ukulele and listening to a lot of new music from the Rodgers kids. God bless The Flaming Lips.

I thought this seemed amusing, so I viciously stole it from Emily's Xanga. Now you too can explore my taste in music through meaningless iTunes statistics. Enjoy.

Total Songs: 2340

Sorted By Song Title...
First Song: "En Gallop" by Joanna Newsom (The Milk-Eyed Mender)
Last Song: "Zen" by Attack Haus

Sorted By Time...
Shortest Song: "Exit Stage Right" by Badly Drawn Boy (About A Boy Original Soundtrack) - 0:21
Longest Song: "1/1" by Brian Eno (Ambient 1: Music For Airports) - 17:21

Sorted By Album...
First Song: "Have You Seen My Baby?" by Randy Newman (12 Songs)
Last Song: "Hang" by Matchbox Twenty (Yourself Or Someone Like You)

Top Five Most Played Songs...
1. "Mamma Mia" by ABBA (Gold) - 88 times
2. "Nothing Fails" by Madonna (American Life) - 50 times
3. "When You're Next To Me" by Mitch & Mickey (A Mighty Wind Original Soundtrack) - 48 times
4. "Here Come The Warm Jets" by Brian Eno (Here Come The Warm Jets) - 33 times
5. "I Am Richard Burton" by LAMPS - 24 times

First Song That Comes Up On Shuffle: "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf

How Many Songs Come Up When You Search For...
"sex?" - 2
"death?" - 5
"love?" - 86
"you?" - 220

Oh, Bowling Green.

I managed to find all of my classes today, despite our online scheduling system's big crash. I had to wing it off of what I remembered from registration. It was like Where's Waldo, only minus the fun. Not that Where's Waldo was ever really fun to begin with.

Tomorrow I will be putting my name in ink on an apartment lease with the one and only Erick Carlson. Our lives will never be the same.

And hopefully tomorrow, Peter and I will be making some recordings for my debut album on piano, including the hit song "Joyce, Joyce, Joyce, Joyce, Joyce (You Make Me Smile)" featuring Emily "E. Bizzle Stat!" Berens on ukulele. Peter is a genius at everything. Without him, there would be nothing in the world to entertain me. His lyrics, especially, are phenomenal, as you will all soon hear for yourselves.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Dustin to play me GONDOR THE CONDOR, but I don't think it's happening anytime soon. Which both makes my day and ruins it at the same time.

In conclusion, things are basically back to normal at BG. I leave you with this marvelous snapshot in time from winter break:

There's something really funny about pretending to be wasted.

To whom it may concern (this means you, Dustin):

As we all know, Green Day uses an annoying guitar pedal effect on their hit single "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams." Now, you may be inclined to think that Green Day is the inventor of such an off-putting effect. However, as I noticed last night, said effect can also be found in "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" by R.E.M., as well as Brian Eno's "Here Come The Warm Jets." Therefore, we are forced to recognize the annoying guitar pedal effect as a valid musical device. However, it's still okay to hate Green Day, if you are so inclined.

Love,
Matt

Back To School

Sitting around at home is fun and everything, but school makes me feel like I'm actually doing something with my life other than listening to Madonna all day long. So, I'm looking forward to going back in a few days.

Speaking of Madonna, I've managed to partially convert somebody to the glory. Now I'm not the only one I know who enjoys a track from American Life.

I've been in a movie-watching mood lately, so I'm going to be raiding everyone's DVD collections when we get back to BG. Consider yourself warned.

Chipotle tonight with Lauren. I'll miss it when I leave on Sunday...

And now, back to the tunes.

Dublin <--> Dayton

Today Emily and I toured the sites of Dublin and then came back to Dayton to eat at Nothin' But Noodles and hang out with her friend and her brother. There's nothing better than pretending to hit on 15-year-old girls in the Oakwood Starbucks. God, I'm creepy.

So I've been told I have to put six random/weird facts about myself on my Xanga. I don't usually engage in such behavior, but I guess I'm willing to make an exception just this once for you, Laura...

1. I live in a town that features such rare treats as a field of cement corn and an extremely, abnormally-large statue of three dancing bunnies.
2. I have an obsession with an insane, harp-playing elf.
3. I bring my Nintendo DS almost everywhere I go. Yeah, I'm lame.
4. I have plans of starting up a band of dueling ukeleles with Emily. Yes, for serious. We're going to write songs about all of the people we're obsessed with, like our dormitory's custodian, and Brian Peppers.
5. I enjoy watching Disney original movies, like Gotta Kick It Up! and Luck Of The Irish.
6. I'm hopelessly addicted to my computer. I can't go a day without checking my e-mail, catching up on AIM conversations, and reading people's Xangas. It's sad, really.

Sorry that list sucked so much, but it's 2:30 in the morning, so you can't expect the world out of me. Anyway, now I'm supposed to tag six more people to complete this survey, but I don't really know any people who haven't done this already at some point, so I'm going to end the chain now before things get too out of hand and Xanga explodes from the influx of random list posts.

Ciao.

Happy New Year's!

Yes, I realize I'm a day late.

My New Year's resolution is to work on becoming a better person. That's intentionally vague, so I don't have to taste the bitterness of disappointment as the year goes on.

If you made a New Year's resolution, post it here. If you didn't, make one up. Preferably something that involves treating your good friend Matt like the royalty he secretly is.