Out of the darkness and into the light

Best of 120 Minutes: I’ve occasionally been called a sexist pig. Ok, more than occasionally. I’m not sure why that is the case, just because I’ve stated that girls are bad at math doesn’t make me sexist. It means that engineering is an all male endeavor. Well, that and it probably makes me a sexist pig.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that one of my statements that people use to prove my sexism is “Women are unable to play a guitar solo. Except for Bonnie Raitt and she doesn’t count because she was taught guitar by blues legends.” That quote is from tonight’s featured artist, Juliana Hatfield. I still don’t know why women can’t play a proper solo, you could probably write a thesis based on the imagery of a guitar being slung low across the waist and all, but Juliana sure had great songs. She still does, but like most members of alternative nation, she’s a lot harder to find today.

Random High School Note: I have to congratulate my high school for making the final eight of the football playoffs for the first time ever. It’s a great day to be a Nazareth Roadrunner as we were able to showcase the awesome power of the roadrunner. Yeah, that nickname never really worked for the football team. Having a mascot that is best known for running away is always odd.

To give you a sense of my high school and the nature of my hometown, the national anthem at the game was sung by Jim Petarik, possibly the most famous native of Berwyn in history. Who is he? He’s the lead guy in Survivor. Yes, the guy behind Eye of the Tiger is from my hometown. That my friends, is the pinnacle of art where I’m from. Well, it is kind of cool…

Switching gears, it’s dawned on me that I can only write when it is dark out and that means that now I can start writing at 5:30. Yep, it’s time for my annual time change rant as I am currently lighting a candle and cursing the darkness. The time change in the fall doesn’t bother me as much and I really wish they had changed the time last week like they always used to. Did anyone seem a little out of sorts last week because we were still on daylight time? I just felt off, like it was just a little too dark in the morning and a little too light at night.

It’s strange just how much this will affect everyone this week. The entire country will have jet lag for a day and things will just not look right. I know that the official explanation is that this makes it light in the morning for schoolkids but really this is all about money. You want it light when people are awake and can do something and spend money. Personally I’d just appreciate a couple more hours in the day. Then maybe I could get everything accomplished.

What? You want me to talk about a football game this weekend? Wasn’t that Illini game great? We were able to finally defeat the Gophers in Minnesota for the first time since I was a senior. Oh, you mean that other game. Yeah. I’m pretty sure it didn’t happen. I’ve been watching football my entire life and Notre Dame always wins that game. Someone must have just keyed the score in wrong or something.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Mindy Smith “Long Island Shores”
2) Pieta Brown “In The Cool”
3) Cowboy Junkies “Studio”
4) Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
5) Wayne Toups and Zydecajun “Fish Out of Water”