Seen on Washington Ave.: 10 police cars in a row, lights and siren off, leisurely running a stoplight
- posted by Eric @ 9:51 PM
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Wait, so who sent me a Rainbow Brite e-card? It doesn't say.
- posted by Eric @ 8:49 PM
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New issue PDF to be posted momentarily...
- posted by Eric @ 2:09 AM
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Interesting....
- posted by Eric @ 12:59 AM
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I finally checked out the quad since the protests started. There are the tents of protesters, and then the tent protesting the protesters, and then the tent protesting the protester of the protest. I'm getting the vibe that local news is characterizing them as stereotypical protesting-to-protest activists, but I'm starting to feel like with all of the debate, they're the only people on campus that've actually done their homework. Someone in the Student Life Forum suggested that their time would be better spent with this swell idea that they just came up with that the SWA teach English to workers that only know Spanish. Well, guess what! They already do, and they have been for years! For all of the people complaining that "oh, those rich Wash U. students, hah, like they're connected to the workers," they're the only group of students on campus I've seen firsthand that have consistently been holding discussions and dialogue with the workers instead of ignoring them completely, and I doubt that many of the critics could say the same of themselves.

I disagree with the stipulation that the current contractors should be dumped (I rather like the current employees, and would like to see them continue to be employed here), and if it's true that people "took turns" hunger striking, that's pretty unimpressive. In general, though, I think the students are projecting way too many misconceptions upon the SWA. I was reading SLU's paper the other night, and a few years ago, with a similar issue at hand, SLU just outright hired all of the employees and ditched the contractors. Their pay, at this point, is superior that of people working at Wash U., and I want to say they have better benefits (and maybe unionability?) as well. SLU gets reviews as a great local employer. SLU set a great local precedent - so what about our fancypants school out west here, eh?

As for people accepting and rejecting offers, the back-and-forth accusations about who did what are way too convoluted to begin making my way through.

As a final word, the new WUnderground's coming out tomorrow, and it's fantastic. I urge every Wash U. student reading this to pick one up.
- posted by Eric @ 6:31 PM
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Interesting - you know how lofts are getting popular downtown? Well, apparently, it's catching on. Just of what I've heard so far, there are lofts opening in commercial areas of Creve Coeur and Kirkwood. Come one, come all, it's urban living for those who lack the cojones to actually live in an urban area. And yes, it's practical - downtown Kirkwood has plenty of pre-established businesses versus the unsure upstarts of Washington Avenue, but...

This would be great if we were all living in the Kirkwood Metropolitan Area, but this is St. Louis. We have an economic epicenter to worry about, and it's called Downtown St. Louis.
- posted by Eric @ 8:39 PM
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Meanwhile, in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area... Wow.
- posted by Eric @ 10:38 PM
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Whoa, it's Thurtene Carnival already? There's too much going on this weekend! There's the Chinese Student Association Night Market, Carnaval at Edison, Lysistrata on the Quad, and Puerto Muerto playing at the Red Sea on Saturday to boot. At the very least, I'll be getting a samosa out of the whole deal.
- posted by Eric @ 2:33 AM
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My wings have been clipped here. I love driving around St. Louis. I just love exploring cities and places in general, and if that means my hometown, then by all means. Doing that, camera in hand, ready to take more of the kind of stuff I have up on the portfolio page, listening to CDs or to KDHX - that's what I love. I could ask for nothing more in life and be sated. But I have a car with a turbo engine, so that requires premium gas. And the car is 15 years old, and it's starting to have problems, so I'm certainly not taking any risks with lower-quality gas. My wallet can't handle this. I can't just drive around anymore. Gas, for me, approaches $2.50 a gallon. I want my photography back.
- posted by Eric @ 11:34 PM
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The Wash U people already know this, obviously, but just for completion's sake, I feel I should give the follow-up story to the Alpha Phis getting thrown out:

http://www.studlife.com/news/2005/03/25/News/Student.Life.Stolen.From.Newsstands-902748.shtml

Obviously, these three provided much fodder for the April Fools issues of Student Life and the Wash U Political Review (in addition to being posted up at Fark.com). Only problem for WUnderground is, what can we write that hasn't already been written? How can one even top the humor of the actions themselves?
- posted by Eric @ 10:02 PM
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The other day, I went to an expo of potential music subscription/legal downloading services that Wash U may pick up. I walked to every display, and used their shiny new computers to search for os Mutantes and/or the out-of-print Chocolate Genius album. One had the Chocolate Genius. A couple had the cheesy Luaka Bop (and I say that with all due respect to David Byrne) Mutantes compilation. When those people can provide me with a subscription-based way to hear the second Mutantes album, I'll sing their praises then. In the meantime, I have no need for their ganked-from-CMJ extra tasty crispy musical choices. The movie stand had a foreign film section with not an ounce of Fellini! You know, if it weren't for a college student, like so many now, deciding he wanted to come up with a way to share and steal music (Napster's Shawn Fanning), none of these people would have these jobs. The legal online download industry would not exist, because the companies that support it need nothing less than a threat to their livelihood to force them to deal with this medium. The guy at the Napster booth wouldn't be giving that "we're legal now, all thanks to the corporation!" spiel, at least.

In other news, the Coke machine downstairs has been refilled. It's been completely empty since November.
- posted by Eric @ 8:44 PM
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I just started looking into the stuff on the SoundClick site of Rami from Twink and Nui, and it's like when Ken first played me Quelnt's stuff, and I realized that there was this motherload of great music being made by a friend of a friend of mine. Great stuff. I just gotta wonder, egads, how did all of those SLUH kids manage to be such great and prolific musicians?

http://www.soundclick.com/thegreenlion/

89 songs. 89 songs.

Oh, also:

Aqueduct. Cicero's. April 21st. Be there or be hip to be square.
- posted by Eric @ 9:40 PM
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The owner of the infamous Pabst Van has been IDed:

eBay item 4538994525 (Ends Apr-05-05 18:00:00 PDT) - GMC : Other Models

It even has its own website!

www.pbrvan.com
- posted by Eric @ 10:49 PM
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