The research papers started coming in earlier this week, and I’ll be receiving batches this week and next as well. So there’ll be a fair — or perhaps unfair — amount of grading in the next couple of weeks. Still, I have a few moments of peace in my office this weekend, so why not share them with you?
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For much of my time here in Mondoville, I’ve listened to Hans Kesteloo’s Utrecht-based stream of garage and psychedelic rock, Beyond the Beat Generation. However, Mr. Kesteloo decided to pull the plug some weeks back, so I’ve had to hunt around a bit for streams of ear candy (Spotify handles most of my post-Spirit of ’66 needs). I seem to have run into some luck, though, having discovered two such streams, including a brand-new one curated by collector/expert Mike “Mop Top” Markesich.
Markesich is the author of TeenBeat Mayhem, a definitive documentary guide to more than 18,000 American garage rock tracks, and a book that holds a place of honor on my office shelves. The volume also lends its name to TeenBeat Mayhem Radio, now audible here. Well, at least some of the time: the channel is weekends only until the new year, but will eventually go 24/7 with the thousands of frat rockers, surf and hotrod tunes, would-be Beatles, and gas-huffing psychedelicists in the Mop Top’s collection. Interstitial announcements come from Freddy Fortune, late of Fortune & Maltese, and more recently of Freddy and the Four Gone Conclusions (whose version of “Dracula’s Deuce” is a fave of the Spawn’s.) I can see this becoming a regular soundtrack chez Mondo.
But there’s also Psychedelic Jukebox, a stream based in Apex, NC. The Jukebox offers themed days (for example, Sundays are reserved for folk and folk-rock), but also offers music from beyond the US, and from revivalist acts (including, ahem, The Berries). Either way you go, it’s a musical good time.
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Yesterday was the home opener for Mondoville’s women’s basketball team, who got past a stubborn squad from UNC-Pembroke. On my way out of the gym, I heard a woman telling her daughter, “You should take pictures of all the colleges you visit. They were looking for an appropriate backdrop, and I pointed out a couple of possibilities while striking up a conversation. The family is from Florida, and while the daughter is a high school junior, they’re starting to make unofficial visits and look at schools. So we chatted for a few minutes and I told them a bit about why I’m glad to be here and why it might be a good place for them as well.
But one interesting moment was when the mom asked me if I was related to any of the Mondoville squad. I said that I wasn’t, but that I’m a regular at the games (three rows up, just barely on the home team’s side of midcourt). She asked why, and I explained that like numerous colleagues of mine, I want to show the kids that I’m interested in who they are and what they do when they’re outside my classroom, just as I am when they’re in class with me. I don’t know if it made an impression on the visitors, but it has the advantage of being true. In any case, I wished the family the best of luck and safe travels. Who knows? She might be in my Froshcomp class one day.
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Meanwhile, the Spawn has started a new gig with a company that provides marketing and creative management services to other companies. Her job title is Content Steward, but I still think she should wear an ascot and beret and become a content stewardess. Even so, she’s excited about the position, and we wish her luck. Even more importantly, we’re eager to see her and the Main Squeeze when they come to visit over the semester break.
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I’ll go ahead and wrap things up here with a song I’ve shared before, but that I heard last night as I listened to TeenBeat Mayhem. From Aurora, IL’s West Aurora High School, here are the Shadow Casters (NOTE: Check the comments after the linked post, where some of the band members join the discussion!), with the moody, melancholy “Cinnamon Snowflake.” Good stuff for an overcast November day.
See you soon!
Professor Mondo 