Wednesday, September 12, 2007     « The Beach »

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I popped into a used bookstore today searching for a new book to read and came out instead with two used, reissued Sebadoh albums.

I've been listening while working and it's like a trip through age 19 and the horror that was living in university residence for a year after having already lived in my own apartment with my own kitchen, my own bathroom, my privacy, and my rules for two years prior. It was 1992. At the time I was supposed to be pursuing a degree in science (I had already resolved to switch to fine art) so I was living in the science and phys ed residence with the jocks.

Let me tell you that was a supremely awesome match... for everyone involved.

One of the local colleges had hot tub pub every Thursday and all the girls pronounced shampoo and food like "sham-pewww" and "fewd." The most surreal moment was standing on a bridge walkway on the first Thursday of the year looking down on two bustling hot tubs filled with frenetic, fumbling post-teens recently broken free of the shackles of parental dominance, a guy cooking hot dogs on a barbecue, and a crowd of the same hot tub-bound students attempting to 'mosh' to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" while a DJ begs them all to stop. Later, while sitting in a friends' common room trying to process that this is indeed how my university experience is going to play itself out, an enthusiastically drunk and shirtless freshman flashes past the window with scrapes all over his chest and arms.

It mostly felt like I was living inside all nine, PAINFUL seasons of Beverley Hills 90210 but with the smell of fast food induced shit, off-gassing carpets, and bacon intermingling at all times.

So far "The Freed Man" does little for me but I am enjoying "Sebadoh III." It comes with a disk of extras that includes an old favourite, "Ride the Darker Wave." "The Freed Weed" was the album I really liked from that era.

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