I start school tomorrow.
I guess this is where I find out how Valley holds up in contrast to what I've heard about it. I'm hoping it lives up to its positive repuation, despite the disorganization that I have observed thus far, since I'm going to be there an awful lot.
Last night was amusing.
Rob and I went to the liquid room again, which is the rave/disco nightclub I have mentioned. The decor of the place is great. If it didn't play techno and seventies disco, it could pass for a goth club.
Last night, they were having a record release party for some New York band. It was a riot. We got there and it had all the ropes, like in the New York clubs where you have to be on "the list". But, in Kalamazoo, it's hard enough to get a crowd, let alone enough people to merit a list. The cover charge was fifteen dollars, which seemed a bit odd for Kalamazoo, but I guess they were trying to be all New York style. As you can imagine, that dwindled the usual crowd. If you have to really try to get people to come to a dance night when the cover is two bucks, imagine trying to get them to come out when the cover is fifteen. In addition, the lounge part of the club was closed as a "VIP" area. I am convinced that there were no VIPs in attendance, they just closed it to make it look more populated. There were bouncers all over the place, too. Some were very beefed up and paranoid. This, next to hippie chicks and guys wearing backwards baseball caps with their khaki shorts and birkenstocks, was a hysterical sight. The bouncers kept lingering around us, until they realized we were staying amongst ourselves. I think they must have thought that we were drug dealers, because we were the only decently dressed folks in the place. While at first we thought that we must have been high to pay that kind of money to get into a dinky Kalamazoo club, we realized it was well worth the money for the sheer culture clash between the promoters of the New York band (I think the dj was visiting from New York, though this is unconfirmed) and the throngs of Western students, who aren't accustomed to much more than hippie cover bands in brew pubs.
So, we drank a lot then went to Meijer's to do our grocery shopping. I ran into a former co worker and did the usual small talk. I was in good spirits, decked out in my club wares, and more than a little drunk. It made for a good experience. There's something gratifying about running into a former co worker when in good spirits. You're out there, enjoying life, and basically doing much better than you were at that god awful joke of a job. It gives this smug satisfaction.
Of course, we bought all kinds of munchy type things in our little spree. There's something about grocery shopping while drunk that makes it resemble what a little kid would buy if given a couple hundred bucks, dropped off at a grocery store and told "go crazy."
So on an unrelated note...
After unwinding at long last from the New York trip, having reflected on my college search, I have come to realize that I must re affirm my old art school stance.
It's not just School of Visual Arts, nor because of the attitude I received from more prestigious New York schools. It's realizing how Columbia was the worst experience I have ever had at a school, and how much it turned me off to schools as a whole. It's also just the ludicrousness I've observed on some level from almost every art school I've explored. Most of the time, the school seems to be either indifferent to any interest at all, or else they leave me feeling like I'm visiting a used car dealership.
So I don't know about this whole art school thing.I think it, like my brief career in doggy daycare, is a much better idea than reality.
I'm not sure where I'm going to go. I'm still planning on applying to UIC. There's also a private, liberal arts college that I've been checking out. I do know, though, that I don't need to be in an uber hip environment to be productive as an artist. In fact, I think not being in that environment is probably the best I could do for myself, and the best I could do for my creativity.
And with that, I prepare to enter school for the first time since I left Columbia with disgust. Valley may or may not provide a good education. But one thing is for sure: for $600. a semester, I'm not too likely to feel that I'm not getting my money's worth...