2008 Woodie Awards
Humor: Rockin' out the knowledge
Deborah Chessey
Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: Life
- Page 1 of 1
We are nearing the close of the spring semester and as such, it's time to pull it out and get busy. There are tests to study for and papers to write and in the midst of all this work the grass is turning green and the sun is promising a tan. It's hard to concentrate on all of the things that need to be accomplished, especially when one considers the spring sandal collection.
I have found that the only way I can get my studying groove on is if I am listening to music. Loud Music. Loud Music, with very little melody and words, that isn't thought provoking. When I am in the study zone my music tends towards Tool and AC/DC. This is not to say that Maynard and Angus don't have anything good to say, it is just that they say it in a way that doesn't interfere with my thought process.
I know a lady who studies to the classics, and I think this is a very classy thing to do. I tried listening to the classics when I was taking Literature-but it gave me ideas about The Yellow Wallpaper that weren't note-worthy enough to earn me the A. When it came time for Philosophy, I realized that the only way to memorize the forms was with the help of Unkle Kracker and "the whiskey and the water." As far as algebra goes, when Tool assures me that the pieces fit, it feels like they are cheering me on. With NIN in my ears, the idea that n=9 makes perfect sense.
I am now nearing the point of my article: I would get much better grades if I could bring an MP3 player with me to class on testing day.
You know that moment when the professor gets up to write on the board how many minutes you have before the exam is over? And you know how the sound of chalk writing "fifteen minutes" on the board sounds like the strike of a gavel on any hopes you had of actually finishing the test on time? I know I am not the only person who hears the sound of the chalk and simply wishes that they had some Modest Mouse vibrating in their ears, pushing on the flow of ideas that reminds you that Caesar Augustus used to be Octavian.
I can conjugate the Spanish verb "ser" six ways to Sunday while listening to Black Stone Cherry, but in a silent testing room I can't remember the difference between "ser" and "esta." It's the lyric that helps the knowledge stick inside my brain, and without the music I am as lost as Van Halen without David Lee Roth.
It's probably too late this semester for me to fill out a form and hand it to my professors highlighting my lyricoma so that I could get an MP3 dispensation.
But in a perfect world my disability would be understood and accepted and all my hard rockin' buddies would be allowed to come to the exam room with me. They would sing about booze and women and drugs-and me?
I would take "Rosetta stoned" to Spanish with me and I would ace my Spanish final-not because Tool speaks Spanish, but because they are speaking a language that no one understands, but it is the perfect language for the preterit tense.
I have found that the only way I can get my studying groove on is if I am listening to music. Loud Music. Loud Music, with very little melody and words, that isn't thought provoking. When I am in the study zone my music tends towards Tool and AC/DC. This is not to say that Maynard and Angus don't have anything good to say, it is just that they say it in a way that doesn't interfere with my thought process.
I know a lady who studies to the classics, and I think this is a very classy thing to do. I tried listening to the classics when I was taking Literature-but it gave me ideas about The Yellow Wallpaper that weren't note-worthy enough to earn me the A. When it came time for Philosophy, I realized that the only way to memorize the forms was with the help of Unkle Kracker and "the whiskey and the water." As far as algebra goes, when Tool assures me that the pieces fit, it feels like they are cheering me on. With NIN in my ears, the idea that n=9 makes perfect sense.
I am now nearing the point of my article: I would get much better grades if I could bring an MP3 player with me to class on testing day.
You know that moment when the professor gets up to write on the board how many minutes you have before the exam is over? And you know how the sound of chalk writing "fifteen minutes" on the board sounds like the strike of a gavel on any hopes you had of actually finishing the test on time? I know I am not the only person who hears the sound of the chalk and simply wishes that they had some Modest Mouse vibrating in their ears, pushing on the flow of ideas that reminds you that Caesar Augustus used to be Octavian.
I can conjugate the Spanish verb "ser" six ways to Sunday while listening to Black Stone Cherry, but in a silent testing room I can't remember the difference between "ser" and "esta." It's the lyric that helps the knowledge stick inside my brain, and without the music I am as lost as Van Halen without David Lee Roth.
It's probably too late this semester for me to fill out a form and hand it to my professors highlighting my lyricoma so that I could get an MP3 dispensation.
But in a perfect world my disability would be understood and accepted and all my hard rockin' buddies would be allowed to come to the exam room with me. They would sing about booze and women and drugs-and me?
I would take "Rosetta stoned" to Spanish with me and I would ace my Spanish final-not because Tool speaks Spanish, but because they are speaking a language that no one understands, but it is the perfect language for the preterit tense.
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