It is no irony that I love music by the Books as much as I love books themselves.

As soon as I found myself purged of the disease of unreasonable expectations, I find myself infected with another disease, of an all too real kind.

This past Tuesday, I noticed an inflammation in my tonsils. It was quite a surprise to see the swollen glands hanging in the back of my throat, since in the past the phenomenon has always been accompanied by a severe sore throat and trouble swallowing. I consulted with a nurse at the university health center, and at her suggestion have been pumping myself full of ibuprofen (for swelling) and cough suppressant/expectorant (for cough, obviously) and ceased smoking. The combination of remedies has not so much cured as it has prevented any aggravation of my symptoms.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, it is cold and flu season. Most of my friends and acquaintances have fallen ill periodically over the past two or three weeks. This afforded me the occasion to inform them that I had not been sick in almost three years. This, friends, is what we refer to as "karma," in the popular understanding of the word; an immediate reckoning for one's behaviors in this life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the illness is in my throat, which is the same place from which the damning words issued.

On the other hand, because I also find that alcohol aggravates my throat, I have been enjoying a very calm and restful weekend. I should be taking more advantage of my abundant free time to make some headway in my senior work research, but after making my way to the library and grocery store yesterday, I felt no desire other than to lounge unimpressively in front of my computer watching South Park episodes online until I fell asleep. Perhaps my untaxing routine is the reason why I woke up at 7:30 this morning. Still, today I have real stuff to do, and will most likely spend another Saturday sober in my apartment, so I have time. Some time, anyway.


In other news, my birthday is in a month and a half. As a gift to myself, I bought a ticket to see the Books at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. The last time I saw the Books was at Webster Hall about two years ago, and I ate an entire eighth of mushrooms and had a wonderful mind-expanding, six-sensory adventure without moving five feet the whole time. I have been waiting a long time for them to come back to New York, and I feel like the universe has been dropping me clues... because I had to watch this film for class



And at 2:58, the little boy utters a sentence which is sampled in this song at 2:25:



AND

I had to watch the film Medea for the same class, the clip from which is actually included in the first scene of this video for this Books song:




Finally, a third instance of the Books popping up in the most unexpected place occurred Thursday evening. The school was hosting its monthly Coffeehouse Cabaret which I normally do not attend, but my friend was performing. As we were waiting for it to begin, the warm up music was several tracks from Lost and Safe, including "Be Good to Them Always". I hadn't heard their music played at that volume or in such a large area since the last time I saw them perform, and it got me really pumped for the show.

Also, I want to get some mushrooms (maybe for the show, maybe not) because in my last tarot spread, I asked the cards "What next?" and I got three cards which have been recurring in my spreads, and the other two when taken together told me to seek new ideas in nature. Because I have been turning over and over the idea of finding mushrooms since I bought my mushroom ring in December, I took it as pertaining directly to it. And since my expansive journey on acid last Fall, I have found an utter lack of new ideas in the experience... it's redundancy and inorganic quality have persuaded me to pursue more natural experiences for a while. Because I've been clearing my head in anticipation for writing my senior work proposal (meaning, I haven't smoked weed since before the semester started) I think taking a trip would be a good departure for me, especially since by the time the concert rolls around, my proposal will have been submitted for exactly a month... nothing to worry about there.

I am moving forward on the path.