Yesterday I went to the orientation thing. It was no fun. First the Dean of Students spouted a bunch of bullshit about how all the student guides were there to meet us. Then we took a math test. Since they put me in Precalc, I assume I passed. Then I had to write this thing in French. I haven't spoken French in four months, but I guess I did well enough, because they put me in accelerated French 4. Then they took our pictures and gave us a tour and shit. That school is gonna suck. Oh well.
Pretty Girls Make Graves & Seachange & some English band (of which I have so far been unable to determine the name) were good. They were playing in a tiny venue. (PGMG described it as "like a school cafeteria".) I was in the absolute front, with no one in front of me. It was awesome.
The English band sounded somewhere between post-punk and post-hardcore. They were decent, but not great. Seachange really surprised me, becaused I'd never heard them before, although I think I've heard of them. Their first song, whatever it was called, was extremely good. You could see Andrea Zollo from PGMG smiling backstage as they launched into the guitar feedback that started it out. The others were decent. "Just one more song, then it's Pretty Girls Make Graves. You be good to them. It's their last show in the UK," the lead singer said as they launched into the final song of their set.
Pretty Girls Make Graves was truly amazing. They started the set with a song I've never heard before, which appears to center around Andrea blowing a whistle. I think it's off the new album. It was good. According to the set list, which those of us up front had found before the set even started, the song was called "Whistle" (although this may or may not be the actual title). After a couple of songs, the guitarist told us to jump over the barriers that had been preventing us from getting within more than a foot of the stage. That was sweet. The crowd was extremely well-behaved: no pushing or (thank God) moshing, and no crowd surfing. They played both "This is Our Emergency," "The Grandmother Wolf," and "The Teeth Collector," three of my four favorites off the new album. They also played "Chemical, Chemical," "Blue Lights," and "All Medicated Geniuses." Sadly, they did not play either "A Certain Cemetary," my other favorite off the album, or "The New Romance," another standout track. But then again, if they had, they would've played all but two tracks off the album, so I guess it's okay. They also played "Speakers Push the Air" and "More Sweet Soul" off Good Health, and a few new songs.
For the encore, the guitarist started with the riff from "The Get Away;" Andrea complained something to the effect of, "I thought we stopped playing that song a long time ago," prompting another riff from the guitarist.
"No, no!" she continued.
Another riff.
Finally, Andrea gave in, announcing the song, probably the best in their entire catalogue. The set ended with "Sad Girls Por Vida" off the first album; not one of my favorites, but a good song nonetheless.
Alright, so I'm currently pirating someone's wireless connection, sitting in a flat in London. You probably know why, unless you don't know me and you found me on Google or something. But in that case, I don't care about you anyway.
We left the comfortable-but-boring world of Ohio three days ago, and after six hours in the aeroplane (over the sea) we arrived. So far, life here hasn't been too interesting. No one's gotten lost, no one's been picked up by the police, and no one's really done anything. We did manage to eat dried pigs' blood without knowing what it was, but seeing as it somehow became part of a traditional English breakfast, that isn't too surprising. They call it "black pudding," in case you're wondering. Go try it. It isn't too bad.
Schedule for the following week is pretty elementary. Tomorrow, we're going to Greenwich. Not quite sure exactly how we'll get there yet. Wednesday, I gotta take a math placement test for the American School but I could fail it and it wouldn't really matter. In fact, I might, since I haven't done any math in three months, and I have no idea what's going to be on it. But if I do, I gotta endure some bullshit math class for 4 months. But I'm sure I won't and all that fun shit. I think they're gonna make me meet with some college counselor, too. What happens if I tell the counselor I don't want to go to college? Hehe, I wanna try.
As my reward for taking a test six days before school starts, I'm gonna see Pretty Girls Make Graves that night. Getting out of the boonies is nice. If you've never heard them, you should go download a song ("This is Our Emergency" and "The Get Away" are the best) so you can be jealous of me. And shit.
If you really gotta talk to me, try to find me online around midnight, or a bit later. That means 7:00 pm for all you losers in the United States. You can also call me, but that's expensive. Phone number is 020 7637 1998. (You'll have to call 011 44 20 7637 1998 from America, but you probably want to use one of these unless you've got a lot of money to burn.) We got four mobiles too, but we haven't divided them up yet, so I dunno the number of mine. But don't call that, because it's expensive for both of us.
I gotta get off this wireless network before someone figures out I'm on it, although seeing as it's 1:45 in the morning, that's pretty unlikely. As always, you can email me at simon@simonster.com.
—S.