In OtherWords: a few Octobservations

• So I ordered R.E.M.'s Up from LaLa and finally got around to listening to it last night. I knew there had to be some kind of subconscious reason I wasn't inclined to blast Mr. Stipe's quivering vocals right away, and my subconscious totally knew what was up. Weak weak weak. I remember loving this as a senior in high school (in my defense, I also loved and still love The Bends) but it now strikes me as contrived, thin and pretentious. Thus indicating that as a senior in high school I myself was at least contrived and pretentious, though certainly not thin. Thinner, maybe. In Sum: don't bother with Up, ever again.
• Red Sox are doing well. This pleases me, much to my surprise.
• Wearing your own college sweatshirt around that college campus (this includes T-shirts, pants, waterbottles, backpacks, sweatpants, etc. ad nauseum), particularly while still enrolled, definitely is like wearing the band T-shirt to the concert. You might think it makes you really really cool, but it actually just makes you look like a gooey, crowd-following groupie. So be pretentious (like me!) in other ways: wear A DIFFERENT COLLEGE T-SHIRT! or don't wear a T-shirt that says anything. Or Go Naked, and Drink Local Wines.