So now that Pat’s atoned for his neglect of the blog, I figure I must do the same. After all, there comes a time in every good blogger’s life when he realizes just how severely he has forgotten about the dang thing. He then vows to turn over a new leaf and post several times per week, if not every day. This lasts for exactly 1-2 days until something shiny catches his attention, and the cycle begins anew. Friends and colleagues, consider this the point in the cycle where I vow to turn over a new leaf. Don’t get your hopes up, though. I go back to school in a week, where there will doubtlessly be a plethora of shiny objects.

Anyway, since Pat recapped his spring-break week, I will do the same (though I swear I came up with the idea before I saw that he had done it). Grinnell, being the fine establishment that it is, gives its students two weeks for their spring break, which means that I’ll probably be bored out of my mind next week, as everyone else has returned to school. Still, the past week was interesting.

It began with a trip to The Jazz Showcase down on Clark and Grand last Sunday to see the James Carter Organ Trio. That was highly entertaining and the band was certainly having a good time. Most of the songs (especially those with the auxiliary percussionist) were based around the band getting into a groove and then building up and breaking down the intensity around the soloists. Carter was quite impressive, getting a number of different sounds out of the three different reeds he played throughout the show, and also sampling from different styles of jazz during his solos. When he quoted the horn line from Bill Cosby and Quincy Jones’ classic “Hikky Brr,” the drummer just laughed and shook his head, as did I. In conclusion, nothing beats a good matinee jazz set.


Now...on to other developments. I was accepted into the International Sri Lanka Education Program, which means that from the first week of August to the middle of December, I’ll be studying abroad on an island of the Southern coast of India. Wacky, huh? I’ll be staying with a family there, so that should be interesting. I’ll also be taking conversational Sinhala, though it’s my impression that nearly everyone there speaks English. Then there will also be classes ranging from subjects such as Buddhism (the majority religion in Sri Lanka), to the environment there, to socio-economic class structures. It should be quite the experience and hopefully I’ll get enough periodic computer access to make an international post or two on this hallowed blog.


That’s all to report for now. Stayed tuned for tomorrow’s update, in which I share my reactions on the Academy Award winning film “Tsotsi.”