Power, Harmonicas, and Wine

Mr. Buchanan,

I apologize for the lack of activity in the past two weeks, I've been pretty busy. But for starters let me pick up where I left off last time. As promised, here is the Set List for my Open Mic two weeks ago:

Two Coins
Hotel California (reggae Style)
Dancing Nancies
Farmhouse (by Phish)
Slide
Carry You
The General

That night was actually pretty eventful. Before I came on this guy named Gordon got up and played harmonica. He was good enough that the bartenders gave him a free drink (they never gave me one!? I was a little bitter about this). Anyway, afterwards I introduced myself saying that I knew some songs that I thought he would like and that we should get together and Jam sometime. He seemed interested and promised to friend me on facebook. More on this later. Later that night a girl and guy duo got up and started playing. The girl (whose name I never got) stunned everyone in the bar as soon as she opened her mouth. It was like Eva Cassidy was performing in the bar for us! She was unreal. She sang "Summertime" "Walk away" and "Babe, I'm gonna leave you". The Led Zeppelin cover was particularly surprising and yet pleasing. I didn't think that a female singer could pull that song off, but she sang it in such a way that someone who had never heard it would have thought that it was written for a female singer, not Robert Plant. My friends said that despite the fact I had a really good set, it was good that I went on before her, because she was impossible to follow. I couldn't have agreed more.

That week we had lectures in IR concerning Power and its place in the discipline. These were perhaps some of the most interesting and thought provoking lectures thus far. With discussions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Marx, to current IR theorists and sociologists, my favorite of whom was Michael Mann. His theory basically says that instead of thinking of power as the ends (like machiavelli), he thinks of it as the means for whatever desires humans have. He then divides power into what he sees as its four sources: political, military, economic, and ideological. While this may seem like a no brainer, its actually considered a pretty radical in the field of IR.

In English we finished Wuthering Heights, which I loved. I found it to be my favorite writing that I've read in a good while.

In Swimming we swam against Dundee, who beat us (sadly). Not much else to say about that, other than the fact that at the post-meet dinner at the Whey Pat Tavern I found out that ale must be an acquired taste because I found it to be DISGUSTING. I think I'll stick with beer, cider, and wine for now. Speaking of Cider, I'm wondering why cider isn't popular in the United States because its really good. It's pretty popular here.

Another international difference in Taste-buds I found interesting is the Scottish obsession with anything fried. Fried Snickers and Mars bars are pretty amazing. But, fried Pizza? come on now, that's just ridiculous. Jenna and Josh tried some last week, and thankfully reported it to taste just like it sounds, disgusting.

A few weeks ago was the Rugby World Cup. In case you didn't know, the England/ Scotland Rivalry is similar to that of Yankees and Red Sox, which is to say, "I support two teams, The Red Sox, and whatever team beats the Yankees" (insert scotland or england for yankees or red sox, depending where you are from). Needless to say, the Bars were packed to see England play France. St. Andrews has kids from all over Great Britian so the supporters were pretty evenly split, which made for a fun but tense atmosphere. England barely outlasted France, but went on to lose to South Africa in the Finals (much to the happiness of all the Scots).

Last weekend was pretty fun. Friday was the "Fancy Dress" bop. However, don't be fooled by the name the way I was. When somebody told me it was fancy dress, I assumed I would be wearing a coat and tie to the dance. However, "fancy dress" in this context actually means the opposite. There were pirates and togas and I dressed up as a rapper, wearing warm ups, a Michael Jordan Jersey and a sideways Texans hat. Pretty "fancy" hunh?

As promised, Black Cat Bone came back to Aikman's bar and again played a killer set. I saw my harmonica playing friend Gordon was there and suggested that we should jam sometime. We realized that we couldn't jam between then and then and the next open mic, so we planned on jamming before the next one.

That night I found out there was an open mic at the Union, hosted by the St. Andrews Music Association. I played three songs (hotel california, steeples, and the general). I had a good enough set that the Presidents of the MUSA asked me to give them my contact info in case someone around town had a gig and needed someone to play at it. So that was exciting.

At the open Mic on Monday, however I got an idea. I asked Gordon if he could just solo over a progression in A minor. He said that he could. So I played him the riff so he could get it in his mind before he got up there. I told him I would play that song last in my set. So i proceeded to play the following set:

Steeples
Here We Go
All Along the Watchtower (DMB style)

Gordon played amazingly during the solo for Watchtower. It sounded awesome. Josh and Jenna said it was by far the best set I had played thus far. Hopefully I'll be able to play up to it next time. Gordon and I had a great Jam session on Wednesday. We played some DMB, Dispatch and good ole' classic blues. It was so fun that I forgot about my Laundry in the washing machine!

This week in English we learned about my grandfather's favorite subject of criticism, Feminism and Queer theory. While my first lecture on these subjects I absolutely hated, the lecture I had concerning a feminist reading of Pride and Prejudice was actually very interesting. It discussed gender roles in the book and explained many characters actions through these gender roles. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was interested by and agreed with much of what was said in this second lecture.

Then on that night I had dinner with all of the Febs here at St. Andrews. We went out to Pizza Express and spent the night just talking and sharing stories of our adventures thus far. One girl got meet Hugh Grant while he was here for the Alfred Dunhill Tourney!

Then Yesterday Jenna, Allison and I went to the Luvians Wine Tasting Festival at the St. Andrews Golf Hotel. Allison is a friend of mine that I met in English Class who is from Dallas and went to Hockaday. She actually met two girls in my grade, Hannah Herzog and Anna Nutter, while she was on a "City term" in NYC. The wine tasting was really fun and informative. It was supposed to be the biggest festival of its kind in Scotland. Jenna found out about it through the St. Andrews Wind and Cheese Club. I'm pretty sure we were the only students there (there may have been some post grads, but it was mostly adults). I got to try many wines and I found that I like basically anything from New Zealand, that my favorite kind of white is Sauvignon Blanc and my Favorite Red is Shiraz. Prior to this I really didn't know much about what kind of wine I liked, I just knew what kind of wine my parents liked. I also learned that no matter what, its pretty hard to screw up champagne.

Anyway, since tonight dinner is not served at the dorm, Jenna and I are going to the Dunvegan, which will be the first time I will have gone there since Dad left. I can't wait for the Sticky Toffee Pudding!

Cheers

Tyler

Currently Listening to:
"Dog Problems" - The Format

And so it begins...

Mr. Buchanan,

This past week has been less exciting than the previous two, but good nonetheless.

Academically speaking, I had my first tutorials in every subject. These were good for the most part except they I came to the realization that the work was actually beginning. For this reason, I'm afraid I'm going to have to make this post shorter than normal.

Wednesday night I had my first swim meet against the University of Edinburgh. We got killed. Imagine University of Texas vs Middlebury in a swim meet. It was not pretty. I came in dead last in both of my events (50 Breast and 100 IM) a first for me. But, in a clear effort to make us feel better about the shellacking they just had inflicted, they (out of pity no doubt) treated our team out to dinner afterwards.

Friday and Saturday night were pretty fun, despite the fact that I ended up taking care of sick people both nights, I managed to have fun with everyone who kept the contents of their stomachs. Saturday night, a friend joined me as I took a walk down memory lane and snuck into McIntosh Hall with me. It was crazy walking down the halls that had become so familiar only a year and a couple months ago. I walked up to my old room (but was too afraid to knock and take a peak in). The only major change that I noticed was that the old elevator closest to the entrance had been completely replaced with a brand new shiny elevator with automatic doors.

Today I spent mostly working and sulking that I am missing the craziest, most exciting year of college football ever. There are so many things I wish I could watch over the next two weeks. Among them, Texas Tech's amazing passing game (and next great receiver Michael Crabtree, who shattered a NCAA record for freshmen with 17 TD receptions in only 6 games (the previous record holder had 14 TDs in 12 games)), any SEC team (except Vandy, haha), UT's bounce back win this week, OU's loss to Colorado, USC's loss last week, and the emerging power house that is USF.

Oh yea and how about the fact that my best friend from pre-school J.J. McDermott made his first start this week after the Junior first string QB got injured last week. He went 29-for-40, with 319 yards and two touchdowns. But despite the fact he got the job done, his Defense did not, allowing Louisiana tech to have a 13 point rally in the 4th quarter to beat the New Mexico State Aggies 22-21.

So despite being here, that's what I've had on my mind today.

I did not play at open mic last week, but I expect to play tomorrow. A set list will follow next week.


NOTE: due to some sort of error with the blogger website I am currently unable to upload the photos which this following picture refrences. Sorry for the extra confusion. The pictures will be up soon.

This week's picture is my dorm, Andrew Melville Hall. Constructed when this kind of crazy architecture was popular (that it was EVER popular is hard to believe) the building is supposed to resemble two ships converging. Ironically it was built on very marshy ground and is sinking. It has actually sunk a few feet since it was built, originally the lowest floor was ground level, but that is not the case now. The interior's design/floor plan is even weirder. The building is separated into five blocks, which are basically separate stacks of rooms that are only accessible by their individual stair cases. So say you live on the 4th floor (the american 4th floor, the british 3rd floor) and you live at one end of your block (room 1 in the picture). You will have go down the stairs to the 3rd floor (the only floor that access other blocks from) and walk down to the next set of stairs go up and walk down to the end of the block, if you want to say hello to your neighbor in room 2. This is because instead of connecting the two hallways, they inserted two sets of bathrooms (the Red WC's). Not shown in the picture are the other halves of each block, which are mirror images of each-other. However, because I live on the 3rd floor (2nd british floor), I only have one neighbor (for reasons that are a little complicated to explain) and everyone who lives in A block has to walk by room to get their rooms. interspersed are 4 suites and 4 wardens quarters. the middle section (between the two ships) houses two common rooms and the dining hall.

So Now I will leave you thoroughly confused as I go to read more of Wuthering Heights

Tyler

Currently Listening to:
"So They Say" by Pete Francis

Week 2

Mr. Buchanan,

After a very exciting and fun Fresher's week, On Monday it was time to settle down and get started with school. Monday is what's called enrollment day, in which you go to every one of your classes and (even those that you do not have on Mondays) and officially "enroll" in that class. In each class our instructors told us about expectations, how the class will work, rules, etc.
Basically how the system works is similiar to the one at the Summer Program. All three of my classes consist of lectures and tutorials. You have 3 lectures a week (except for music, which has 2), in a lecture hall packed with about 200 kids (again, except for music which has about 15 kids) and one tutorial a week. The tutorial is a group of about 5-10 students with a graduate student in which discussions and excercises take place. I prefer this system to the normal St. John's class style.
Here's a basic run down of what we learned this week

IR: That there are many ways to define IR and that there are many theories which you can use to go about studying IR, and many methods of to use in your analysis. Basically this: IR is complicated and not straight forward like many of the social sciences or natural sciences.

English: Intro to Literary Theory and Victorian Sonnets

Music: Basic Figured Bass and Counter Point, How the Organ Works.

Elements of Music is a pretty cool class because we have two lectures a week, one on theory and one on instruments. So basically each week we will learn the basic history and function of one or more instruments. But my teacher is kinda crazy so I'm still not quite sure totally how an organ works (I know the basic idea, but not the inner workings)

Anyway, as far as the sports activities that I talked about last week, this is how they panned out.

Swimming: My first day was horrible, but I pulled myself together for the try outs the next day. Basically what happened the first day was: I started things off well with a large dinner about an hour and a half prior to getting in the water. Not a good idea. Second: No goggles. Had to borrow someone's intense racing goggles that do not stay on if you dive in. Another mistake. Third: Getting in the Water Polo player's lane. They are waaayyyyy to fast and intense man-children. I could not keep up after warm up. Fourth: After running into a backstroker after getting in, I realized that not only do they drive on the wrong side of the rode in the UK, but they swim on the other side of the lane!! Needless to say, my turns still haven't adjusted. But the next at time trials I recovered and with my new pair of goggles (yes I was also amazed that they sell goggles in St. Andrews) I managed to make the team. So all is well in Tyler's swimming career at St. Andrews. Oh yea, i forgot to mention that one pool is a good 15-20 minute walk from my dorm (then again so is class), but the other we use is a good 45 minute walk. Ridiculous. Unfortunatlely the farther pool is also the better quality pool, so its a trade off.

Speaking of walking, Since my dorm is so far out of town I have to walk briskly to class pretty much every morning if i want a good seat. I take such long strides that it appears as if I am doing the Ryan Jewett speed waddle (if you've ever seen the man walk you will totally understand me, if you haven't then I'm sorry)

Anyway Riflery is going pretty well. I was set up with my jacket and sling on Wednsday. I have never shot with a jacket an sling put its pretty cool. It's pretty hard to explain, basically the jacket and sling support the weight of the rifle and help keep it steady. I've figured out that I need to start shooting with contacts as well. Glasses are not going to cut it.

On to the more social events of this week.
Monday I played again at Ma Belle's open mic.
Here's my setlist
Crush
Questioned Apocolypse
Cannon Ball
Grey Street
Elias

I'll be playing again tomorrow night. I hope to make this a regular thing.

Saturday Night was the big event of the week. The Kate Kennedy Club hosted the Charity Opening Ball. A formal Black Tie event, this took place behind the quad. And consisted of two main rooms, A dance floor with a DJ and a large Bar Room with a three piece dispatch-esque cover band (they didn't actually play any dispatch) called Black Sheep. They were pretty sweet. Outside there were carnival games and a tent set up by Le Rondezvous, the best pannini/sandwitch shop (yes, better than cherries, trust me). I, of course, rented a kilt outfit. I must say I looked quite dashing. The tartan was a Lindsey tartan. I was one the few people with a red based tartan (most were green based). Anyway, everyone had a great time, definitely worth the 120+ bucks I ended up spending on everything (Kilt hire, ticket, food, and beverage). And for those of you wondering, I did NOT wear my kilt the traditional scottish way (nothing underneath). As this was a hired kilt, I figured this would not be the best plan, hygenically speaking.

Anyway, Reading week is coming up in November and I need some input for travel ideas.
Right now I'm thinking in the 10 days that I have off I'll go to:
Paris
Prague
Vienna
and/or perhaps
Berlin
Amsterdam

Granted I only ten days so I will probably on go to 3 cities, so keep that in mind when making your input
Feel free to email me @ dtg2007@gmail.com


Anyway I to go read some for IR now, but I'll probably make another post next week or the week after


-Tyler


PS. In the picture above is my academic family, Jenna (sister), Ashley (mother), and Josh (father). hopefully you'll be able to recognize that dashing young man on the far right.


Currently Listening to
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium Arcadium"