you can shake it, you can break it

It's officially the end of the semester for me. Had my last class yesterday, handed in all my papers the day before that. Now it's time for job hunting--out of the frying pan and into the fire. A few months ago, I made it my goal to have interviews lined up after classes ended and I've been successful at that. I have an interview today at the Peabody Institute Library, which is the public library for the Town of Peabody. It's for a part-time Reference Librarian position, only 14 hours but a good job for someone still in grad school. Tomorrow, I have an interview at Simmons for a full-time position in cataloging and interlibrary loan. Seriously, the past week I've been more worried about these interviews than I was my semester-end projects. There just aren't that many library jobs out there and the applicant pool is pretty saturated with grad students, so there's a lot of competition for what little there is.

All this worrying and work doesn't mean that I haven't been enjoying myself, however. Since I had all my projects done by Sunday, I've picked up a few books and begun reading for enjoyment. At the moment, I'm reading Moanin' At Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf and Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese. I figured it was time to get back to the blues--had been a while since I had listened to the greats and the biography on Howlin' Wolf is a great way to get back to it. American Born Chinese is a graphic novel that's been out for a year and has won all sorts of awards and recognition, so I figured it was high time I read it.

Aside from some recreational reading, I've got a couple of things I'm looking forward to in the next week or two. Tonight I'll be heading into the lovely Town of Brookline (one of the wealthiest towns in the Boston area, home to John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox) where I'll be visiting with classmates and enjoying fine Belgian Ales at the Publick House. Later next week I'll get to see my first Sox game of the season, where they take on the Detroit Tigers. I had tickets for a game in April but it was rained out and postponed until August. Anyway, the game will be shown on ESPN, so keep an eye out and you might see me, cup of Guinness raised high and in full Sox regalia.

So it's getting to the time where I should start thinking about my interview. Means it's time to get to the weekly music! Since I'm reading about the blues, I'm going to post some of 'em.

The first tune is done by Bo Carter, better known as the guitarist for the Mississippi Sheiks. Their tunes are some of my favorites, with songs like "World Gone Wrong" and "I've Got Blood In My Eyes For You" representing greats covered by all sorts of musicians. But Bo Carter was a little bawdy on some of his solo recordings, playing tunes such as "Banana In Your Fruitbasket" and "Pin In Your Cushion," which made for lighter fare than what the Sheiks recorded. The recording I've made available here is a great jumping tune where Bo admonishes a woman that if she doesn't change her ways, "the law's gonna step on your . . . yes yes yes." Seems to me that plenty of times in blues music "yes" is substituted for "ass"--just listen to how close it sounds.

The second tune is by Howlin' Wolf, whose worn his .44 so long, he's made his shoulder sore.

As an added treat, I'm posting the always-difficult to understand Charlie Patton to confound you. It's an amazing display of his guitar prowess and one of the tunes that's easier to understand. He'll be serenading you with tales of "those happy days, where I didn't know your name." Or at least that's how I hear the song--see this great article (the first line of which is "Who was Charlie Patton, and what the hell was he singing about?") on arguments surrounding interpretations of his lyrics. Good stuff. Anyway, enjoy the music, posted below:

Bo Carter "The Law Gonna Step On You"

Howlin' Wolf "Fourty-four"

Charlie Patton "Some Summer Day"

it's alright kids, I'm only singing

Got up for my daily am surf of the Internet and found this great piece of news about Dylan. The New York Post reports that Dylan's been stopping by his grandson's kindergarten class and playing his guitar for them. The kid(s) refer to him as the "weird man." Well, if he comes dressed up like he did at Newport a few years ago (with a glued-on beard and a wig), or if he was dressed in the hooded sweatshirt he wears while stalking the streets, then I guess I would call him a "weird man" too.

shout, sister, shout!

It's almost the end of the semester--classes will go on until Monday, May 14th, but all my class projects will be over with by this upcoming Monday the 7th. Hooray! It's high time for this semester to be over . . . or so I feel. Taking four classes and working over 20 hours a week has been mentally and physically draining. Sam and I didn't see each other during the week--thank god I made the stipulation of not working weekends when taking the jobs I had. Now we'll have the upcoming summer, where Sam will be home all day and I'll hopefully be off, working a full-time job so I can bring home some bacon and give Sam a break in that department.

And with the end of the spring semester, I was greeted with a pleasure I haven't had since my days as an undergrad student--namely, having some big project due on my birthday! This year it was a fifteen page paper and a fifteen minute presentation on an instruction program (and, for the purposes of the presentation, actually instructing a class) for a library. My specific topic was instructing senior citizens (patrons of the public library) on Internet navigation. The paper was interesting, got me to think about what all goes into having a program like this in a public library. The presentation was fun, I was able to get people to laugh and even had a few ask if they could use, in the future, what I had prepared. If you're interested in seeing my presentation, here's the links:

for the powerpoint:
http://web.simmons.edu/~wick2/User%20Instruction%20Presentation.ppt

for the instructional web site:
http://web.simmons.edu/~wick2/page1.html

So even though I had all that due on my birthday, it was still fun. Throughout the day, I got to talk to family and friends--even got a call from my buddy, Spongebob! My sister found a website (from Nickelodeon, I think)that you could request a birthday call from a cartoon. It was pretty creepy, to tell you the truth, because the association between the voice and the cartoon character wasn't there (no visual representation of the cartoon character) so I was able to associate the voice with an actual person. The more I thought of that the creepier it became.

To end the night, Sam took me to my favorite restaurant in the area--Redbones. There I stuffed myself with BBQ piggies and had a couple of great beers. I have to admit, the only reason I was reluctant to move to the area was because I didn't think it would have good BBQ.

I have the whole day to myself. Well, myself and the two projects I have to complete before Monday. I don't have work at Pine Manor College during May--they don't have the $$ to pay their part-timers during this slow month--so I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to make that trip. If I drive it takes 45 minutes and if I take public transportation it takes 1 & 1/2 hours.

So I'll be using the rest of the day for these projects . . . but will I be able to get them done? For one thing, I'm worn out. Another, I have the wii I can play. And to add to that, they're working construction on the road outside of my house. Big noise, see below!



Since I'll be listening to jackhammering all day--then again, maybe not! I hadn't heard regular construction noises (engines, beeping, scraping, hammering, shouts, hoots and hollers at the pretty women, etc.) in a little while, so I set out to investigate. Here's what I found--at 9.00am in the morning it was already break time!



It's a hard life but somebody's gotta do it.

Enough of that, I have to cut this short and post my music of the week! My mom and dad sent me a compilation of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a gospel, blues, and jazz guitarist/singer from the late 1930's into the 1940's. And since it's gospel music I'm playing I can't leave out Sam Cooke. Enjoy Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing "Rock Me" and Sam Cooke singing "Jesus Gave Me Water."