the center for writing and speaking is holding this weekly writing competition. students submit a short essay on a selected topic for a chnace to win a gift card for wawa(?). last weeks topic was a vague one, just write descriptively about something. i submitted this piece i wrote about the mona lisa in the louvre. i was proud of it. i felt it captured the emotion i was going for well. i modeled it after this exceprt from a short story i read once. actually, i read that short story fairly often. anyway, i hoped to win. not because i wanted a dumb gift card, but because i wanted validation. well, i didn't win, but a piece about gloves did. i thought that was one of the dumbest things i ever heard. they didn't even share the glove essay with everyone. for all i know its bad.

been listening to the weezer album pinkerton a lot recently. not sure why, the first time i really listened to this i was in the middle of an infatuation with a girl. hope that's not the case at the moment. that being said, i rediscovered how good it is. i still think el scorcho is my favorite song. still can't look past the "bring home the turkey, bring home the bacon" line. like, that's bad, rivers, why would you write that? i guess a lot of this album also has that "why?" feeling to it. can come off as whiny. probably because it is, but i don't mind. reminds me of high school. german put me onto weezer junior year. i shared my spotify with him then, and his playlist was mostly comprised of weezer's discography. one day i asked him why and he said they were that good, that they were one of his favorite bands. the blue album was very good and then pinkerton was too. apart from that, there was a huge drop off. don't feel like getting into all of rivers' shortcomings. i really like the deluxe edition of the album. the live recordings are fine, but "long time sunshine" and "getting up and leaving" are two gems. i'd argue that "butterfly - alternate take" should replace the album version. i think it has a smoother and softer sounds, more refined than the album version. i am especially fond of that false-start, with the slightly shaky voice. also love the way his voices pitch rises a bit when he sings "maybe you're as real as me. maybe i can live with that." though i feel that that's ultimately why it wasn't on the album. and then long time sunshine, that last minute and fifteen seconds, wow. how there are four recordings of rivers singing different songs playing simultaneously, like, amazing. god, i miss the old weezer