hyper ballad
tuesday, november 27, 2001
we live on a mountain right at the top
there's a beautiful view
from the top of the mountain
every morning I walk towards the edge
and throw little things off
like:
car-parts, bottles and cutlery
or whatever I find lying around
it's become a habit,
a way to start the day
I go through all this before you wake up
so I can feel happier, to be safe up here with you
it's real early morning--no-one is awake
I'm back at my cliff
still throwing things off
I listen to the sounds they make
on their way down
I follow with my eyes 'til they crash
imagine what my body would sound like
slamming against those rocks
when it lands, will my eyes
be closed or open?
---bjork, hyper ballad
let's see. as predicted, i did none of my school work during my 5 day stay at angela's house. apparently, napping on a couch with a sleeping dog draped across my chest was a little bit more important. so. i was at the library until 1am sunday night scrambling for literary articles on ann petry's the street for a presentation on monday at 10 am.
monday morning, i woke up at 5.30 am, skimmed through the book again and try to get through the 10 pages each long essays i got the night before and figure out what to talk about. so. i get to class two minutes early. nervous, nervous. and then--the professor's home, ill. this is his first time of cancelling class all semester long. can i get a whut-whut? hee!
of course, i found out the professor is home today as well, so i worry a bit. when people who, as a rule, believe that nothing less than death is a valid excuse for cancelling class and stay well into the evening grading stuff, suddenly stay home for two days.. well. creepy.
he's a neat guy, this professor, feared by most. until you figure him out. then he's hilarious and treasured. he's a... character. i found out that next year, he will have been an english professor for 35 years. this school is his alma mater. he has the biggest collection of nccu school t-shirts i've ever seen, and as a rule he wears a different one for each class. i have this image in my head of a mountain of nccu t-shirts with various school symbols all in a mountain at his house, ready to be washed in between semesters.
last week i bothered him a bit and asked about what the civil rights stuff in the 60s was like. he said he got arrested three times for sit ins.
i had no idea the artsy fartsy movie theater down town was one of the hardcore segregational spots in durham back then. now it hosts an artsy and cultish selection of videos downstairs, like a whole section of dario argento movies.
he said there were hundreds of them, protesters, and one by one they would have to walk up to the ticket window, or lunch counter, depending on the venue, and ask for a ticket/to be served. when they were denied, they would walk to the parking lot and sit down, until the ground was covered. they would hook arms and sing what you would imagine--"we shall overcome" and all that.
as they'd sit there in protest, rocks and spit and insults would be hurled at them from passing by white people, or children. the police would be parked right across the street, watching and waiting until enough police vans could be rounded up to fit the protesters into.
the first few hours in jail everyone would be united and singing and making speeches, and the energy would be running high, but come 1 or 2 a.m. it was all "okay, um, someone bail us out now?" .. i smiled when he said that, because it made it more real than the always passionate protesters i've seen in movies.
anyhow. i don't know. i know i'm not telling most of you anything you've never heard before about the civil rights movement in the 1960s. i guess it's just so.. different hearing about things i already know about in a historical, or plain cinematic way, in a real context. i guess everyone could benefit from that. i mean, listening to people who were in various concentration camps during world war II made it more real than, i don't know, watching schindler's list (as much as i like that movie).
um. this is not exactly a novel revelation. i'm not going anywhere with this. i just think it's a first that i actually hope a teacher is back at work tomorrow, even if it means i have to give my stupid presentation. yeah.
so. yeah. um. like. bye? �� 4:49 p.m.
