The University of Blog

I actually have time to read now… for fun. This is crazy. I wanted to make a point to have time to read last semester but time fell away as things started to pile up. And they inevitably piled up and reading fell to the wayside. Now I am making a concentrated effort to read good books. So far my reading journey has taken me to read 1984 (I think that I was the only one who had not read this in high school). I read Ishmael which posed a lot of good questions. On my trip I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac– it gave me such wanderlust. Now I am  reading The Namesake which was recently made into a movie. I need book recommendations as well so if you have them, please post.

Today I made the trek to Rock Bridge State Park. We made the turn for a sweet trail that led into a creek and a swimming hole. I went with a friend from work who brought her dog Figo. The three of us were the only ones on the trail. After an initial slip in the mud on my part, we walked through the creek and arrived at a deep, cool place to swim complete with a rope swing. The water was high so the rope swing was ineffective, but it was a great reward to hike for about twenty minutes and jump into some refreshing water. The amazing thing was that it was just us- there was no one else around, and I felt such a part of nature. Just like Thoreau in Walden Pond. We brought some snacks and ate while playing fetch with Figo. Basically, it was a great day, and I can’t wait to go again.

This week I started to anchor at kbia– the radio NPR affiliate. I was a bit nervous to do it by myself, but I was able to do it and have some fun with it. Anchorining consists of compiling the newscasts from AP stories and student stories. There is so much responsibility in deciding what is relevant to the listening area, what stories fit the time allotted and editing them down. Then of course doing them live. I do four live broadcasts after the national news - one at 4, 4:30, 5 and 5:30. I did them all on Monday with the help of a grad student. Yesterday I only did the one at 4 p.m because I had to leave early.

What I’ve learned so far includes the importance of keeping news tight to the time allotted. For example I have either 1:30 or 1:45 minutes to do the newscast. This means choosing shorter stories that affect our listening area. Also, pronouncing words correctly is KEY. I really screwed up yesterday with the word “pseudoephedrine” and it was really embarrassing. But it’s live and the only thing to do is just continue. My coworkers at the restaurant were really nice and said how much they enjoyed listening to me on the radio. That made me feel good despite the mispronunciations.

You can listen to one of my podcasted broadcasts here

Stardeath and the White Dwarfs

Last weekend my roommates and I hit up the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. The campsite is only about ten minutes from my home, but we decided to camp this year. After driving three hours to get in Thursday afternoon, we arrived to warnings of the biggest storm since the mid-1970s (the year of seven tornadoes). Needless to say, we stopped in at the grounds and then headed back to my house to sleep. Back at the campgrounds, everyone was safe but may have had a flooded tent or have had to sleep in their cars. I felt a bit like a wimp for leaving, but I had no desire to sleep in a car.

Friday is when all the music that I was really excited to see went down. We saw Stardeath and the White Dwarfs (Wayne Coyne’s nephew’s band—they are in highschool, and are really good), Apollo Sunshine, Galactic, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill and Cake. Cake had a scheduling issue and ended up playing really late, but it was really cool to see them perform and play the songs that I listen to regularly. By far, the Flaming Lips put on the best show – Wayne Coyne certainly knows how to perform to a festival crowd. My roommate Kristin had seen them several times and was fairly unimpressed, but the combination of the songs, confetti and crazy dancing made it a great experience and not one that I will soon forget. When I hear “Do you Realize” I will now remember that moment dancing at Wakarusa to that song with my closest friends.

Flaming Lips

Saturday was a day full of mild exhaustion, dirt accumulated from camping and fun music. We headed to the music tents early to check out the bands — Ozomatli played last year, and are a mixture of Spanish, hip-hop, rap and salsa. The Old 97s played before Ben Folds and were a mixture of pop and rock-and-roll. I saw Ben Folds last year at Mizzou and it was fun in the festival crowd. It was too bad that he overlapped with STS9, that did amazing things with colored lights, smoke and 3D lasers. I lost the people that I came with to crazy crowd dancing. For me the night ended with Yard Dogs Road Show. It was a bit of vaudeville mixed with theatrics – there was even a knife eater (there is little that is more impressive in a performance than knife eating).

We packed up early Sunday, checked out Dr. Dog and the communal drum circle and headed out. For Wakarusa, I really enjoyed the bands that were not quite as “jam-bandy.” I like finality. I could dance forever to one song, but I like noticing the changes in songs. I also like lyrics. I think that Wakarusa did a good job this year of creating a mixture of jam-bands and more mainstream bands. I’m sad the weekend is over, but excited for the summer ahead.

Wakarusa last year with my friend Kristin
For the next four days, I will be at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kans. There are a lot of smaller bands and then the Flaming Lips, Cake, Ben Folds and the Old 97s. I went last year and it was a lot of fun, but I commuted from my house 15 minutes away. This year will be the first year that I am camping. I haven’t camped since a family trip more than three years ago. We used to take camping family vacations all the time. Needless to say, I miss it. The music will be really good this year. I’ll let you know how it goes.

When I returned from my wonderful vacation, I came home to an empty foyer – which meant that my bikes were gone. I had two bikes – one was a mountain bike and my road bike. The mountain bike was strewn in the middle of our lawn (which was only a cheap Target bike), but my road bike that I ride everywhere was missing. I asked my roommates when it happened and then filed a police report. Apparently, it happened three days before I returned. This was really awful. I don’t know if it would have made a difference if my roommates noticed earlier, but alas, it was a sad day of return for me.
So, the lesson that I learned is to ALWAYS lock up the bike, even if it is to itself. A thief that cannot immediately ride away on a bike will be deterred. This means even locking it up INSIDE the foyer of our apartment. I will apply this to my NEW bike that I got off of craigslist.com yesterday. Once I learned my bike was gone and sulked for a few hours, I got online to find something that would work. I paid $70 for a used road bike. It was more than the road bike that I got for $25 at a garage sale, but it just got new rims, tires and cables. The price was for the work done on it. The best part is that it fits me, rides well and is blue – bright blue. A very sad return turned into a very sweet ride.

I was sorry to say goodbye to Mexico and my family. This will be the first summer that I won’t be in Lawrence. This is weird for both my mom and I because we have spent every summer together since forever. I was once told that Lawrence stops being my hometown when I stop coming home for the summers. When I originally decided to stay, I hadn’t even considered that I probably won’t spend another summer in Lawrence. However, I refuse to close that chapter of my life. Not yet.
This summer I have decided to stay in Columbia. Since I already have the apartment and a good job here, it was the most logical option. I will start serving several lunches in addition to my bussing shifts at Sycamore. In addition, to expand my summer experience, I decided to work at KBIA as an afternoon anchor a couple of days a week. This will hopefully give me some good experience. I trained today (at 6 a.m.- ugh) to learn what stories to chose, how to organize them and voice them. Then, after the life newscasts, the stories are uploaded to the website and the newscasts are podcasts. It will be a completely different type of experience, but I am ready for that.

To make my summer even more worthwhile, my hope is to do something that I am really passionate about. Reading, Netflix and pooltime are essential, but I would like to do something more than that. I always talk about writing screenplays or books. Why not start? What is the point in waiting to start until I take a creative writing class? The time is now. And for the first time, I may have some time to do this.

I went to Mazatlan, Mexico, which is considered the “Pearl of the Pacific.” After trekking 3,000 miles across Mexico two years ago, my brother said that we should visit Mazatlan. To fill my dad’s desire to visit Portugal, we chose Mazatlan as a cheaper option—maybe Portugal will happen later down the line.

We arrived at Pueblo Bonito, Emerald Bay. It was beautiful and the staff was so friendly- gave me an opportunity to practice the Spanish that I had been studying forever. However, while I had plenty of opportunities to speak Spanish, traveling with my brother gave me less of an opportunity to speak – especially with the drivers of the open-air taxis called “la Pulmononia” (which means pneumonia—a joke started by the competing cab companies). He took every opportunity to speak Spanish—a quality of which I am jealous.

It was great to be with the fam–he first family trip that we had taken in quite awhile. Even my brother came—which made it exponentially more fun. We went to a little tequila factory and saw how it was made. It was next to a small village of Quelite with a bakery and some delicious homemade ice-cream. They also had a place to train roosters for cock fighting. It was nice to get out of the touristy part of Mexico and into the villages. Another of my favorite part of Mazatlan was the Machado Square in the historic district. It had a European feel (or what I would imagine feels European since I’ve never actually been there).
In the historic district we met up with Antonio Lopez Saenz- who happens to be one of the most famous artists of Mazatlan. His art is hanging in the Museum of Art there. We met him because a painting was hanging up at the hotel and my dad asked about it. The concierge set up a meeting for us at his house. I translated and it was a wonderful visit- the man was so generous and open. He signed three posters for us to bring back.

My brother and I went out for a couple of nights. The first night we went to Mambo Café, with plenty of live music and salsa dancing. The next couple of nights we went to Bora Bora “a discoteca,” to dance to disco music. I learned some moves and had a great time dancing with some locals. My brother was so tall I never lost him. And he definitely danced with some locals. Seems like everyone wants to dance with a gringo.

(a gazebo in the middle of the market)