Monday, March 03, 2003
So there's some bitch with a blog that's about her cat "written by her cat" on Blogger...HAHA SO FUCKING ORIGINAL YOU WHORE! thankfully we're spared her cat's witticisms because she then pretends to be a pirate (i'm not kidding) and spends her time updating the site with things pirates might say. Its times like these that make me so glad my life was never so PATHETIC as to start a web-diary under the premise that the included incoherent nonsense is co authored by my CAT.
some people clearly suck.
I was thinking, as another wasted night drew by washing jenn's dishes because i'm being nice, that on the off chance that Maryland wins the NCAA's this year (or even if they don't really), college park will probably have riots again and alot of people will get hurt and alot of stuff will get broken.
I don't know why i was thinking this, but it seems with Duke losing to St. Sucks' the other day and no other teams in the ACC being even close to the Power Rankings top 10, that college basketball this year - while exciting - isn't going to be a boost to anyone's hometown pride that i know of. I don't know anyone from Arizona or Kentucky, which is why this seems true; the highest ranked ACC team in the Power Rankings is Wake Forest, and god knows who the fuck likes or has even been to Wake Forest.
So my intial reaction to the probability of college park being in yet another sports indcued riot wasn't very thoughtful - let the fuckers burn. All the people involved in those riots make their own beds by living there, attending that school, being so ridiculously over-invovled with their sports teams, and wasting all that money on hyping shit up until it becomes like a coked up case of blue balls every time they fucking lose.
"GODDDAMM IT WE (won/lost) I GOTTA BREAAAAK SHIT AND SHOW MY (support/discontent) AND MAYBE GET TO SEE SOME TITTIES"
Sometimes , that seems like all there is to it.
But then you've got to think about what it's like to be in a riot.
When i was training to be a Teacher for Princeton Review i was sequestered for two weekends in DC with about 10 kids who were going through the same tests and preparations as i was. Most were in their late twenties but a handfull were actually still in college, and these two particular chicks who ate lunch at Chipotle and very much looked the part were both seniors at UMD. When we had breaks most of us would either go out to smoke or make mundane small talk about our schools - thankfully, no one gave a shit about Hopkins, except to wonder whether i really went there. SO this one guy was from Seattle and said that he had been involved in the anti-WTO movement that staged a bunch of protests there last year, and told some pretty wierd stories about the marches that had happened. This got the girls from Maryland into the conversation.
Girl 1 "How many people do you think were marching in the streets?"
Guy "At times it seemed like a lot, like hundreds. But there were so many cops everywhere that people just ran from spot to spot trying not to get arrested"
Girl 2"Haha"
Girl 1"Hey (to girl2), were you in the riot (whenever) at school?"
Girl 2"Shityea. That one was actually not as good as the one when we almost made it but lost... people went nuts that time"
Girl 1"Oh i know. Seriously, I was with all my friends out in front just watching the shit happen - we could see the fires and all, and they were trying to break a bunch of store windows but mostly people were just walking around trying to get in fights or flash eachother"
Girl 2"I KNOW IT WAS LIKE MARDI GRAS!"
(I want to, but don't say anything)
Girl 1"yea, but it sucked because it wasn't even the students doing the looting mostly. it was just older people from around town. I saw this on guy wiht no pants..."
(this goes on for some time, but you get the idea)
Haha.
Like Mardi Gras.
Clearly, these two chicks were on the front lawn of thier dorm wherever pounding beers and cheering to sight of half naked men and women stumbling around a bonfire. As much as theyd like to think they can say they were in a riot...
my 2 cents.
i imagine that a real riot is nothing like that.
I like to think that a real riot is kind of like a larger version of the pit at a live show, without the focus of the band playing. Maybe it's more like a fight where alot of people are drunk and semi-involved, and no one's sure how far to take it or what's going to happen next because there's no one in charge except the intertia of group dynamics.
Whichever...
What it really seems like to me is one of those situations where the individual dissappears into this werd zone of mob-conciousness, where everything is deteremined by some sort of tidal influence rather than reason or ethic. I've been in crowded fights and concerts and shit where normal rules of interaction give way to larger rules of excitement, anger, and frustration. It's a really fucked up and really exhilarating, and the less you think about the situation you're in the more it feels like you get to piss in the face of everything that ever got you mad or held you down , and those things become whatever persons' face, or whichever store window, or whichever piece of public property is nearest and most easy to break. So besides the anonymity of being part of a huge crowd thats fucked up and inevitably gets to see some sort of nakedness...
Riots are not like mardi gras.
But i guess i make a deal of it because I keep the self-inflicted and useless duty of defending even undefendable New Orleans traditions from idiots who would cheapen it even more.
But what the fuck do those girls know anyway, they go to university of Maryland.
some people clearly suck.
I was thinking, as another wasted night drew by washing jenn's dishes because i'm being nice, that on the off chance that Maryland wins the NCAA's this year (or even if they don't really), college park will probably have riots again and alot of people will get hurt and alot of stuff will get broken.
I don't know why i was thinking this, but it seems with Duke losing to St. Sucks' the other day and no other teams in the ACC being even close to the Power Rankings top 10, that college basketball this year - while exciting - isn't going to be a boost to anyone's hometown pride that i know of. I don't know anyone from Arizona or Kentucky, which is why this seems true; the highest ranked ACC team in the Power Rankings is Wake Forest, and god knows who the fuck likes or has even been to Wake Forest.
So my intial reaction to the probability of college park being in yet another sports indcued riot wasn't very thoughtful - let the fuckers burn. All the people involved in those riots make their own beds by living there, attending that school, being so ridiculously over-invovled with their sports teams, and wasting all that money on hyping shit up until it becomes like a coked up case of blue balls every time they fucking lose.
"GODDDAMM IT WE (won/lost) I GOTTA BREAAAAK SHIT AND SHOW MY (support/discontent) AND MAYBE GET TO SEE SOME TITTIES"
Sometimes , that seems like all there is to it.
But then you've got to think about what it's like to be in a riot.
When i was training to be a Teacher for Princeton Review i was sequestered for two weekends in DC with about 10 kids who were going through the same tests and preparations as i was. Most were in their late twenties but a handfull were actually still in college, and these two particular chicks who ate lunch at Chipotle and very much looked the part were both seniors at UMD. When we had breaks most of us would either go out to smoke or make mundane small talk about our schools - thankfully, no one gave a shit about Hopkins, except to wonder whether i really went there. SO this one guy was from Seattle and said that he had been involved in the anti-WTO movement that staged a bunch of protests there last year, and told some pretty wierd stories about the marches that had happened. This got the girls from Maryland into the conversation.
Girl 1 "How many people do you think were marching in the streets?"
Guy "At times it seemed like a lot, like hundreds. But there were so many cops everywhere that people just ran from spot to spot trying not to get arrested"
Girl 2"Haha"
Girl 1"Hey (to girl2), were you in the riot (whenever) at school?"
Girl 2"Shityea. That one was actually not as good as the one when we almost made it but lost... people went nuts that time"
Girl 1"Oh i know. Seriously, I was with all my friends out in front just watching the shit happen - we could see the fires and all, and they were trying to break a bunch of store windows but mostly people were just walking around trying to get in fights or flash eachother"
Girl 2"I KNOW IT WAS LIKE MARDI GRAS!"
(I want to, but don't say anything)
Girl 1"yea, but it sucked because it wasn't even the students doing the looting mostly. it was just older people from around town. I saw this on guy wiht no pants..."
(this goes on for some time, but you get the idea)
Haha.
Like Mardi Gras.
Clearly, these two chicks were on the front lawn of thier dorm wherever pounding beers and cheering to sight of half naked men and women stumbling around a bonfire. As much as theyd like to think they can say they were in a riot...
my 2 cents.
i imagine that a real riot is nothing like that.
I like to think that a real riot is kind of like a larger version of the pit at a live show, without the focus of the band playing. Maybe it's more like a fight where alot of people are drunk and semi-involved, and no one's sure how far to take it or what's going to happen next because there's no one in charge except the intertia of group dynamics.
Whichever...
What it really seems like to me is one of those situations where the individual dissappears into this werd zone of mob-conciousness, where everything is deteremined by some sort of tidal influence rather than reason or ethic. I've been in crowded fights and concerts and shit where normal rules of interaction give way to larger rules of excitement, anger, and frustration. It's a really fucked up and really exhilarating, and the less you think about the situation you're in the more it feels like you get to piss in the face of everything that ever got you mad or held you down , and those things become whatever persons' face, or whichever store window, or whichever piece of public property is nearest and most easy to break. So besides the anonymity of being part of a huge crowd thats fucked up and inevitably gets to see some sort of nakedness...
Riots are not like mardi gras.
But i guess i make a deal of it because I keep the self-inflicted and useless duty of defending even undefendable New Orleans traditions from idiots who would cheapen it even more.
But what the fuck do those girls know anyway, they go to university of Maryland.
Comments:
Post a Comment
