Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Laundry Day

Laundry is an essential aspect of campus life.

I clean my clothes at the laundromat a block off campus.  It's cheaper than using the on-campus machines, and if you have more than one load to do, it's usually quicker too.  (Plus, it's kinda fun to watch the clothes swirling around in the machines.)

If you don't happen to have a girlfriend with a car who can drive you to the laundromat, the washers and dryers on campus can get the job done.  All the major residence halls have them.  Half the machines are coin-operated, and half are card-swipe, drawing cash from an account linked to your student ID.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

SU's Spring Concert: Jack's Mannequin

Saturday night we headed over to Weber Chapel Auditorium for evening full of the piano-driven rock music of Jack’s Mannequin.

When I’d heard SU’s spring concert was going to be Jack’s Mannequin, Holly and I each bought two tickets, two for ourselves and two for my friends Jimmy and Sheri from back home, because Jack’s is one of Jimmy favorite bands. He’d seen the band twice already, but Saturday was Sheri’s first concert ever.

And, lucky for Sheri, it was a great concert. The second opening band, fun., had this really great rock-and-roll sound you don’t hear too much anymore, an ELO/Queen/Blood, Sweat, and Tears kind of sound. I downloaded their album Aim and Ignite off i-tunes three days ago and haven’t stopped listening to it.

Fun. playing a show in Los Angeles.

After fun. finished their set, Jack’s Mannequin took the stage, and they didn’t disappoint. They opened with a song called  “Crashing,” then Andy, the band’s pianist and front man, told us all how excited he was to be here at “Sus—ka—honna.” After the fans crowded around the front of the stage corrected him (“Sus—qwa—hanna!”) he played a great high-energy set. At one point in the show he was actually standing on top of his piano stomping on the keys.

For the encore, Andy came back out alone and played “Swim,” one of my favorite Jack’s Mannequin songs, and then the rest of the band joined him and they finished off the night with “Dark Blue.”

It was a great time.

"Swim" by Jack's Mannequin