big huge wooden chairs that have to be crammed right next to each other so that you have to slide out really carefully. or you can sit down by leaping over the top ala the dukes of hazard. the group “aeh!!!” (i can’t duplicate that sound with letters) that greets and announces another latecomer. this is the big chaotic mess that is thirty plus people at pizza house. i think we set new records tonight.



and if we didn’t break records at pizza house, i’m sure we did at karaoke. i think we had maybe twenty two people in a room meant for twelve. we were spilling out of every nook and cranny. highlight song of the night? martin and leslie ripping out alanis’s you oughta know. martin is a super star. leslie has enough angst for half the female population. the couple who owns the place remembered me again. and they remembered george. even though she hasn't been here since probably my junior year. i always feel like they won't remember me but they always do. because i come in about once a year. that's kind of depressing and nice at the same time. years after i've left, i'm still remembered by the karaoke couple.

it's easter sunday and tetris has come back into our lives. i have to get going. like i said. tetris is back in our lives. james has just left the building.

dance mix was pretty much nothing short of amazing. i had my camcorder but i decided that i wanted to pay attention to the performances for once so i just flipped on the nightvision and taped the balcony crowd. led by funKtion, the participant’s corner went nuts all night long (singing along, making silly innane comments, “i see you's”). i think many people thought they were excessively rowdy. or maybe that was just kyle’s sister.



i can’t even really talk about the performances because everyone killed it. dance 2xs killed it. the alumni got soul? crew killed it. funKtion killed it. amit pandya as super diva killed it. eric agustin, editor supreme, killed it with his video retrospective. even the funny asian guy with boomshaka killed it. in his own nerdy asian guy way.



i think i miss the energy surrounding performing. being on stage is cool but that performance moment is always too fast. i miss cheering for friends. loudly. rowdy-ly. most of the memories that stand out in my mind surrounding dance performances are backstage or right before and after a performance.



i love the big group pictures that happen after performances. i like looking at the sea of matching costumes and matching smiles. i wish there had been a chance to get everyone from any time up on stage to take one huge big groove culture picture. that woulda been dope.



oh, and does louis know how to make an entrance or does louis know how to make an entrace? walking in totally unheralded in his big john woo duster. getting a stampede of people rushing down the stairs to greet him. what a bastard. not telling anyone. you too caroline. and greg. and whoever else knew. haha. i love michigan.

re:generation

at the millennial rolling-over point

baby boomer one-time-hippies

turned parents across these United States groan,

"when we said

'you can be anything' we meant

'you can be a brain surgeon or

district attorney or

genetic engineer' -- we

didn't mean you should become

a... poet." [continue]

-marty mcConnell -

back in michigan. again and maybe for the final time. i should learn to stop saying that because i've said "for the final time" at least three times in the past year. i can't really decide if it's a blessing or a curse to be able to come back so much because it just keeps me attached to an irresponsible period of life. staying up all night, sleeping all day, eating over and over. but then again, it's so damn fun! i would've shot myself if i didn't get to come to dance mix.



we ate four times today. in about six hours. pita pit. good time charley's. cafe zola. jimmy john's. at good time charley's we had about a dozen people and it was just an exciting feeling to see so many old people and new people and just......people. afterwards, we went to watch funKtion and the alumni practice at MLB. funKtion is hot. that's it. plain hotness.

apparently, the creators of south park have finally, really, killed off kenny. it's no ploy. it's no joke. kenny has been replaced by a character named butters. "they killed kenny," one of the more tiresome phrases to enter the cultural lexicon, can now be uttered with finality. (and now caroline can erase the kenny picture on her dry erase board). this once again proves that you can only rise from the dead so many times before you never rise again. but you can reach eternity in re-runs. in related errata, this sunday is easter. when jesus arose from his deep slumber. this friday is good friday. when jesus was crucified and entombed. this friday is also dance mix at michigan. an event which will hopefully trigger the death of the last of my pre-reality, post-collegiate fantasies.

a few things i want to do/see. i want to see the guggenheim museum in bilbao, spain. i want to watch "seven samurai" and "rashomon" by the great japanese director, akira kurosawa. i want to read alice in wonderland. i want to jump off a semi-high cliff into the water. maybe. i want to get super rip roaring drunk and do crazy things that i won't remember the next day. i will, at some point in my life, skinny dip in the ocean. on some deserted beach, by myself (with possibly one other person doing it concurrently at a different beach), with no clothes on. thus, the skinny part. i've been inspired by the recent naked excesses of a friend and i think about the thrill of walking into pounding waves fully free and unencumbered. i'll tell you how it goes when it happens. maybe we can have a group freedom session if this first experience goes well. why run naked if you can swim naked?