A Rivalry is Born?

On Saturday night, several UniG faculty members attended an art opening at the Joanna, a small house-turned-gallery just on the other side of Club Bridge. A group of men calling themselves Sketch Klubb were the creators of the art. Here's an interview from Chron.com (via B.S. Houston Art Blog) with a couple of the artists, one of whom we talked to briefly and shall henceforth be known as Russell5.0:

Eng 3396: Forgotten Classics of the Modern Western Tradition

With Summer Session A rapidly drawing to a conclusion, it is time for students to begin planning their enrollment in Summer Session B classes. I am excited to announce that along with our normal selection of classes, I will be teaching Eng 3396: Forgotten Classics of the Modern Western Tradition, featuring the following:

Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald under the pseudonym of Albina Jackson, this once controversial historical romance set in St. Bernard Parish examines the corrupt state government of Louisiana that was responsible for the construction of defective 'dusky system' of dykes and levies that resulted in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. After gradually fading from the literary limelight, the almost identical levy failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina projected the novel back into the hands of readers. Critics have described the book as “An American classic!” “Important reading, a perfect example of how history is doomed to repeat itself.” and “Excellent, despite the highly misleading title and cover art…”.

Considered to be the originator of the FNS (Fantasy National Socialism) genre, John Christopher’s groundbreaking novel, The Little People, examines the outcome of a world where the Leprechauns of Ireland have allied themselves with the Third Reich. Despite being the influence for such well known FNS novels as JJR Tolkien’s The Two Guard Towers and KJ Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Hitler-Jugend, Christopher’s novel has languished in obscurity.

Most UGM students will recognize “devil’s elbow” as the street name for particularly potent brand of hash infamous for having wrecked our esteemed Chancellor last Halloween. The name is taken from Brainerd Cheney’s agrianist classic of the same name. Examining post-Reconstruction Era Georgia, The Devil’s Elbow deals with the need for a return to a more simplistic, antebellum way of life, free of the corruption found in urban environments. Much like the hash it shares a moniker with, it will mess your prissy ass up if you don’t know how to handle it.

Decisions II: Decisions Harder

While all UGMo faculty and staff members tend to have their moments that lend themselves to discussion for Decisions 101: Good vs. Bad, Yours vs. Others', I think Tour Guide Ray and I may take the cake because our episodes tend to happen simultaneously or in quick succession (see his post just prior to this one and recall the events of January 2-4 for examples). We also tend to be more self-critical in the aftermath of these events, which shows our in depth understanding of the concept.

That said, I shall begin my lecture on the decisions involved in my life last night...

Good decision: Accept invitation to join your neighbors (an older couple of gay men) for a drink later when one of them strikes up a conversation with you by your car as you are leaving for the store.

Good decision: Present yourself as charming and interesting and wonderful so that your neighbors really like you and wish to become friends immediately.

Could be good, could be bad decision: Consume a large portion of the 3 liters of White Zinfandel on hand and become rather intoxicated (though you've certainly been much drunker before).

Bad decision: After the older, more conservative one of the pair goes to bed because he has work in the morning, stay and continue to drink with the other one, who initially invited you over. This in itself is not really a bad decision, but the red flags should rise when your companion tells you that he's not gay, he's actually bisexual and that he thinks you're really beautiful...

Bad decision: Drunkenly allow yourself to consider this an okay situation and therefore allow the drunk bi man (whose boyfriend of almost 5 years is in the next room) to kiss you. He says the boyfriend doesn't mind, but how can you really know if that's true?

Bad decision: Allow the kissing to escalate to srs bzns making out.

Good decision (Hey, how'd that sneak in there? That wine must be wearing off or something!): Finally put an end to this situation by stating that you are really tired (it is after 4am by this point so this is legit and not just an excuse) and make an escape to your own place.

Not really a decision at all: Have 8 months left on your lease so you'll likely be seeing these neighbors again soon and frequently.

Case study in doing it for Teh LULZ: Last Night

• Get super drunk early in the day off tall boys of King Cobra
• Upset Tour guide Ray on Facebook
• Make racist prank calls to friends on someone else’s phone
• Have one of those people call you back because it was a wrong number (“Yes, this is Mr. Potts, you called me about niggers and shooting Tupac?”)
• Crash a random party
• Accidentally punch Oliver’s girlfriend in the face
• Repeatedly ask people if “JToy will still be hella lezzy after some 40z?”
• Intentionally punch Oliver in the crotch
• Cause Eva and her boyfriend to breakup the night before Valentines Day
• Drink ketchup straight from the bottle at a restaurant
• Get flashed by a trashy chick because we were in Brian’s new Boxster
• Probably a lot of other stuff I don’t remember