Get along little dawggies! On Thursday, October 16, ISU students saddled up for the Westward Homecoming royalty pageant. It was rootin,' tootin', high-falootin', and . . . Hawaiian? Maybe it wasn't really Hawaiian, but the antics of M.C. Matt Spencer had the crowd rolling in the SUB ballroom aisles as he explained the Hawaiian significance of all the Old West decorations, playing the ukulele, and clad in Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops.
Slam poet Byronn Bain swept the stage of the ballroom and declared behind a thick hip-hop beat, "This isn't a performance, this is a concert!" Bain hyped the audience as he invited them to chant with him, "We need critical minds for these critical times!" Bain, along with slam poets Kevin Coval and Jason Carney from HBO's series "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry," hosted an intense evening last Wednesday of dramatic rhythm- driven words and movement powered by ideas of religion and race.
Students walk barefoot, talking into their Nikes like cell-phones. A man cries out in agony to the audience for a doctor's help, but receives only laughter. A girl squirms uncontrollably on the ground, trying to rid herself of an invisible frog down the front of her shirt.
"Yeeeeahhh, ISU," screamed Rich Dunn, ASISU vice president. Thus the ISU bonfire and Bengal cheer competition was kicked off. Almost 150 students gathered at Bartz field Saturday to show support for their team. As jazzed as the people in charge were, however, most were not pleased.
Parades are a part of our American culture. They seem to be entrenched in our childhood memories. Every major holiday in American culture incorporates parades into its festivities. Saturday thousands of Pocatello citizens came out to show their support for ISU Homecoming and the football team.
PART TWO: So yeah, back to that whole irony thing I was talking about last week. There's a lot going on these days that can only possibly be explained by assuming ironic origins. What else could be the case for something like the "trucker fashion" movement, which began as some kind of underground thing before being swallowed whole with barbecue sauce by the mall gluttons of the world? The result? Mesh caps with deer on them, classic western shirts with pearly snaps, and mullets-and none of it any longer reserved for the privileged likes of your uncle.