The name Alaric is apparently derived either from the Gothic Alareiks or from Germanic elements, ultimately meaning "noble ruler"

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is finally winding down a bit before it climaxes yet again in the excitement of New Year’s Eve. Hopefully everyone had a good time, gaining some nice things and memories without the holiday pounds hitching a ride on cookies and pies and such. I know that I got not a few cool things and memories this past week; I’ve been on the run nearly every day since I got home from exam week! Saturday I was in Hocking Hills for celebrating with one side of the family, Sunday over at a family friend’s, Monday I opted out of a trip to Amish Country for a short reprieve, Tuesday was pure chaos, and today I went to the archery range with my father to test out my new bow before heading to an outstanding sushi lunch.
I was not at all expecting to find a new bow in my hands this season, but upon spotting the suspiciously shaped box, I had to entertain hopes, and they paid off in the form of a late sixties, early seventies Kodiak Bear recurve bow. He’s lovely and gorgeous, and he even has a special bowstring that Chuck kindly made custom to match him as a gift! (Didn’t I tell you he was great? Even though the bow’s been fired before, it’s rather touching to be the first to fire the first arrow off of a string made by such a man.) I’m also getting new arrows to go with him, but Chuck had to order the correct sort of shafts, so I’ll be getting those within the next couple of weeks.
In other news, I now have a delicate glass teapot that is excellent for showing off flowering teas. Flowering teas are something best experienced in person, but these teas come packed in tight little balls that open up and bloom not unlike an exotic flower before the eyes of anyone with a glass and boiling water. My grandmother was rather excited at having found a glass pot perfect for this, so I’ll definitely have to have her over again this week to test it out again and let her get some use out of the teacup I found for her in one of the Delaware antique malls.

German Word: Es ist mir kalt! I’m cold! Seriously. But it’s my fault for wearing wooden sandals around the house without socks when I know how cold it gets in here. Just remember never to say Ich bin kalt, which would be the direct translation of “I am cold” to avoid an awkward faux pas. If your house is hot, unlike mine(warm, perhaps, if I commandeer the cat, much to his displeasure), you could say warm(pronounced ‘varm’) instead, unless, of course, you’re just fine and dandy, in which case you could just casually say mir ist gut.

Photos!
Making tea with my new teapot. That questionable-looking, dark ball thing is actually some of my blooming tea stuff before the blooming action.


Just add some boiling water and….


This one is called faerie blossom or some such nonsense, but it’s gorgeous. The other one I tried out took about a minute to open, but this one rocketed out, shooting up that streamer of white flowers. Very pretty in person!



Last but certainly far from the least, Alaric Frederick, my new bow! He’s a bit tall to easily get in a photo easily by himself, but perhaps next time I go shooting I can get some shots of us together.

The traditional day for St. Nick's Day is the night of Dec. 5, when he'd drop gifts in children's shoes or leave coal. Also check out Krampus.

Apologies for the total lack of updates for so long! Things got a bit crazy before Thanksgiving break, and having multiple exams and papers (sometimes on the same day) make things ever so fun and exciting, particularly when one becomes ill at the start of the week. Still enjoying coughing spats from that on occasion. Luckily I have plenty of work in our last two weeks to keep me company through the joy of pseudo-illness, which is never fun all alone.
In my English course we’ve been working with Milton’s Paradise Lost, which I adore, and might even beat Spenser’s Faerie Queene, which I had not a little fun reading. It’s always heartening to know that not all of the literature one is required to read for classes isn’t as dreary and tedious as it often may seem! Things in-class are shifting to finishing PL off and looking towards review for our exam and also our large, semester-long projects. We’re each compiling our own poetry anthology with a variety of texts based on a theme of our own choosing, which has been an interesting experience, as we must ‘get off the tour bus’ as Dr. Prindle puts it. This involves us poking about online and in books other than the text we’re using in class to find lesser-known texts that will really shine. I’m working an angle with weaponry and swords (surprise, surprise), and I’m so far using familiar things like Hamlet all the way to obscure things and sword manuals one would rarely commonly read anywhere outside of interest groups.
Archery has been going very well as well; we’ve been going just about weekly, with only a few exceptions. A few new people from the dozen or so that responded with interest have gotten to go with us, which is always a lot of fun, if only to see what interesting ways with which they attempt to nock their arrows. (One would be surprised, trust me.) Chuck, the proprietor, has unofficially adopted us and is beyond amazing when it comes to helping us out. It is beyond words how amazing he is. If you have any bow, gun, or hunting needs, go see him at Delaware Sports Center on 36/37.


German Word: Kaese is cheese. What? Exactly.


Pictures!
Bartok, a resident King of Cute on campus. He belongs to someone in a SLU, I think, but no feeding him or letting him in the dorms! Forbidden!!


Yes, my aloe has grown unspeakably huge. I’ve had him for a year, and I think he’s tripled or more in size.


A rainy day on campus… it was so lovely out! I love walking about campus in the rain; it’s gorgeous. Now it’s covered in snow and slush and ice and more slush. Not as fun as the rain.


Straight out the glass roof of Ham Will… it was such a nice day. =)

The word 'autumn' is derived from the French word "automne", and came into common use in the 16th century

Last Thursday I presented myself with the usual college question: do I procrastinate some more by finally updating my blog, or do I grab that book and finish studying for my exam tomorrow? The exam won out, as it rightly should, and there was much rejoicing. Papers and exams seem to be popping up all over the place for a lot of people I know; I have a five page paper due Wednesday myself! I would say that I at least have tai chi to look forward to on Wednesday, but, alas, I do not. No, it has not been canceled for the day for one of eighty reasons; it has been canceled for this module entirely. And I assure you that I despaired not a little upon opening the email that informed me of this, hoping that it was somehow a mistake, but we didn’t even have class today, so I am now sure of its demise. I refuse to loose heart entirely; I shall continue my tai chi studies outside of our classroom, and perhaps contrive a method of getting to one of Master Nathan’s classes in Columbus.
In other news, it’s finally acting and looking more like fall around campus! The trees are look gorgeous as they take on their bright fall colours, littering every sidewalk and patch of ground that they can. I took a few pictures during the time that I usually reserved for calming down right before tai chi, but now shall be the time that is merely time again now. I have a few of those shots below, as well as a few of campus I took later on.

German Word: If one recalls, I have before mentioned that summer is sommer. Fall/autumn is Herbst (hairbst)!

Pictures!

The First Longbows were Difficult to Master, Namely Due to their Estimated Drawforce of 80-200 lbf

Much excitement this week!! And more to come, too, as mid-semester break looms at the end of the week! Papers must be written, tests taken, and all semblance and sanity lost as it is thrown haphazardly to the winds!!
MARRCA is definitely keeping to its word of branching out this year, and I’m more than proud to announce that the bud that was once the idea of doing archery is now developing very nicely!! With not a little help from Sam, our extremely talented smithy, and her roommate Lindsay, I have assisted in this cultivation! We’re now aiming for having at least one practice a week since we located a range that is not far off; the gentleman running it (the amusing Chuck of an earlier entry, for any avid readers that may or may not exist!) has been outstandingly helpful… his digital range is amazing, but I’m still torn between feeling like an idiot and awesome when Chuck’s various customers walk by, notice a bunch of girls actually doing archery, and stop to watch for a bit. (At least Chuck offers advice, tips, or tells one something random when he’s watching rather than chuckling and moving on!) We shot for over an hour (I think, as I am awful with time), and there was never a low point, not even when the board kept falling asleep while we were taking aim.
On Saturday the MARRCA fun continued! We took our annual trip down to the Ohio Renaissance Festival!! This is always a blast, as many club members suit up in roughly period garb and carry one of the wasters around, causing not a few of the vendors and workers to drool with envy! The full tale of the adventure is long, filled with silliness, and fraught with battles between savings accounts and high priced boots, shinies, and other things of immeasurable prettiness… I would be happy to recount more of it for those interested, but I unfortunately must cut it short for now, since I really should be looking into writing my paper on Tai Chi Chuan Yang style and getting my reading for Friday done since I’m booked Thursday night with archery, Stammtisch, and what will prove an outstanding National Colloquium film. (Do the Right Thing is the film, and I’m looking forward to it, if one could not note!!)

German Word: This edition’s German word is actually a phrase! Ich weiss nicht (ish vice nisht) simply means ‘I don’t know.’ Because, honestly, ich weiss nicht.

Pictures! Some shots of us at the archery range and at the Renaissance Festival! Both were ten times more fun than they appear.








Yay group shot-ish! Our president is the bold fellow in the kilt. =)


Last year’s president, Susan, joined us as part of an after-graduation visit!


MARRCA is a very serious club. We don’t laugh. Ever.


He may look all innocent in this picture, but this knight does an excellent King Arthur impression when followed by a Patsy clacking together coconuts found in England. African or European…? You make the call.


We may or may not have been contemplating how to distract the knights so that we could ‘borrow’ some armor.


And seeing as how MARRCA is such a serious club, it should come as no surprise that we would never be found testing out the possible uses and durability of padded combat items originally intended for small youths.


No, we would never be caught doing such a thing. Unthinkable.

Gunther von Hagens Performed his First Autopsy at Age Seventeen

I have noticed a slightly unsettling pattern with myself. I look forward to the end of each week, thinking happily of my days off and how next week will somehow be better, that next week I’ll have just enough time to breath easy so that I can catch up with my sleep and sanity, but then ‘next week’ never seems to get here… Possibly a space-time paradox not uncommon for college life…. Thank goodness I have plenty during the week that does not involve my nose being buried in Shakespeare, Goethe, and Microsoft Word documents. There is always MARRCA, which received a recent spotlight in the OWU school newspaper, The Transcript. It’s great to have some press, even if we were misquoted a bit and come off as not a little cheesy, but press is press, mostly. Tai Chi has also been amazing… I’m clinging to it, and admit that I probably study more for it than any other class. (Granted it’s hard to beat a class that you can study for by just standing a certain way… so awesome!)
More importantly, I was given an unforgettable chance last Wednesday to view a famed exhibit that has stopped by Columbus- Gunther von Hagen’s Koerperwelten (“body worlds,” or the title it has been given for its American tour, Bodies)! This exhibit has gained much press, both for and against it, but I must say that one needs to experience it before running with the critics one way or another. Bodies, for those who do not know, is an extraordinary display of the human body, for it takes actually human bodies that have gone through von Hagen’s unique plastination process, whereby the body’s fluids are all removed and replaced with silicon. Sounds a bit disgusting, a bit odd, a bit out-there the first time, perhaps, but when one sees these gracefully posed and poised forms, a whole new level of appreciation opens up. Walking amongst the displays, I smiled to myself as I watched almost every guest bending and moving their limbs as they studied the corresponding ones in the cases; bending their wrists, feeling at their carpals and tendons; it was moving how much each of them must have been taking from seeing what lies within them on display. The Bodies exhibition in Columbus has 21 bodies and over 200 organs on display, all of which are humbling and inspiring all at once… I highly suggest giving it a visit, or, if nothing else, google it for a bit… photography was not allowed within, so I have no photos of my own from inside, but I did get a couple shots of the line as we left… amazing. It’s very good to see so many people coming out to such an event as this…

~*~ Special THANK YOU and shout out to Dr. Kremling for being awesome, and also for coming up with the idea to go to Bodies and following through with it fantastically. I honestly cannot thank you enough for this opportunity. ~*~


German Word: Also super-secretly embedded above, the original German title of Bodies is Koerperwelten, literally translating as Body Worlds.

Pictures!

Gunther van Hagens, creator of the Body Worlds exhibition



Body „slices“ similar to those one will find in the last section of the show at Easton. Don’t miss the chance to touch a real brain and liver in this area as well!!


The room filled with veins and arteries is probably my personal favourite… Dyed so beautifully and presented so well... It is hard to see how one could not call this art after seeing this room, let alone the rest of the displays.

Watch the amazing line wind around the building…

The Chance of Senior Citizens Falling Can be Reduced by 47.5% with just Fifteen Weeks of Training

A few weeks in, now, and my first exam looms like an adorably pouting storm cloud just above the horizon. It’s in botany, so that shall be exciting. The Friday after that I have several ‘plant spottings’ due for botany as well, but I must admit to hanging my head in dorkiness when Professor Wolverton said that most American’s don’t really take in the plants around them. I go in the other extreme, delighting in seeing how many oak trees I can spot, how many ginkgos I can get to grow in my room, and examining whatever tree or other plant I find interesting along the sidewalk or in the park during sword club. (I do not, however, suggest pausing to see how many seeds are left in a dropped pine cone during a roundel fight unless one is quite experienced in it; it often causes confusion.) Botany, however, though we may seem a perfect match, is not my favourite class this semester. And no, not even the class pertaining to my major gets that honour; tai chi has taken the proverbial cake and run with it like there’s no tomorrow. It’s an amazing class. Absolutely amazing. It’s not for everyone, since one has to have a certain type of patience for it, but it’s so insanely rewarding, and it’s great to have a class based on personal growth, not test grades or other performance things. Just show up, give it your best for an hour, and come out feeling great. I practice the form we’re learning nearly every day, and I still haven’t tired of it, though I wish I knew more.
The first Stammtisch of the year was last Thursday, and it was quite enjoyable. Dr. Kremling rejoined us after his sabbatical, and a few new faces also showed up. The new Smith hall provided the setting, and things were a bit busy, but this did not hinder our conversations, and things even got lively when I reported on the controversial Bodies show that is currently in Easton. Dr. Kremling and I had had a fabulous catching-up chat over some coffee the Sunday before, and the topic of this show came up, and we considered the possibility of seeing this exhibit before it leaves the area as a German fieldtrip, seeing as how the creator of it is German. Very interesting, and I definitely want to see it, but first we need to test the waters on who would be interested in going in the first place!


German Word: Schlafen. A very important verb to any college student! It means ‘to sleep!’

Pictures! One day before tai chi I had a half an hour or so, so I wandered about campus feeling very calm and artsy, as I had just finished going through the form. (Sort of like studying just before class, I guess.)

Slocum; this is a companion piece to the winter shot I got last year. I like the lighting, though the camera barely does it any justice.


Just a shot of a walkway in front of the academic area. I saw some people studying and felt it very ‘college.’


A less traditional picture of University hall… most people like to focus on the wonderfully dramatic tower, but it’s pretty from many angles. One can spot the German room and Herr Kremling’s office from there!


I love the trees in this one.


I adore this tree. Adore it. It has to be one of my favourites on campus, but I probably have fifty of those.


The sulfur spring!! I honestly don’t think the university talks this random little piece of scenery up enough, so I try to tell everyone I meet. Very important. Elliot hall, one of our academic buildings, was originally an inn people stayed at during their visits to what they believed to be the miraculous healing water that just happened to smell like eggs. Elliot used to be where University Hall now sits, but was waddled over and to the side, where it now resides amongst some trees and lilac bushes.


I offer no explanation beyond the fact that I love this thing.

The Term ‘Halberd’ Probably Originates From the German Halm (staff) and Barte (axe)

The insanity of the whirlwind first week is complete, and now for week two!! My intention was to get a blog up after day one, but then several things came up, bowed stiffly, and demanded that I promptly deal with them before doing anything else, including sleep. One of these pressing, ever-important matters was getting MARRCA organized for its first meeting of the year and the club fair that took place on Wednesday. The public relations officer of the club, Michele, met with me a few times, and we brainstormed all sorts of ideas that we went over with the entirety of the executive base during the roughly hour-long meeting executive meeting on Tuesday. Plenty of changes this year!! One of the biggest changes is in our meeting days, which are now Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for any and all interested, at five, still at the gazebo in the park next to the fire station across from the SLUs! Other than that, we’re planning to try and branch out this year, hopefully getting into polearms and more hand-to-hand, but we’re also thinking of looking into sword and shield combinations, though that was set aside in the past. Mostly we thought about what to do once we’d wrangled in some willing new followers, and we have managed to interest a few, so hopefully we can implement some of these ideas. I still have some secretarial duties to finish up, including sending out not a few emails. O the insanity of it all…
Class wise things are no less crazy… I still haven’t quite burnt the schedule into my brain so that I may wander on autopilot while the rest of the mind wanders amongst its many and favourite trains of thought. It’s hard to say which class I like the most, but I most definitely most excited about Tai Chi. We’ve only met for practice twice, but I’m totally in love with this slow-moving martial art that teaches one how to use body more efficiently, to give it a short and very lacking definition. I’ve been doing it daily, and it instantly calms and focuses me, which is very hard for me to do sometimes. (Read: extremely hard to do a lot of the time due to the eighty things that I want to and should be thinking about instead.) Botany looks to be, well, botany, and if one is a foliage fan such as I, that’s a very good thing. Our first lab is this Tuesday, and I cannot wait!! My English Renaissance course had me a bit worried at first as nearly every introduced themselves as upperclassmen, most majoring or at least minoring in English. This in itself is really nothing to worry about; all of my German courses have been with almost purely seniors and juniors, and there is absolutely nothing to fear of them. Honestly. A lot of them are very nice and helpful, and once you get past those awkward first-day introductions, what class one is in fades to nothingness, but it always bothers me despite knowing this, mostly because I enjoy being neurotic about everything. The reading load is also intimidating, but Utopia, our first read, was not bad at all, and discussion thus far has been interesting. I look forward to our full-book discussion today in, as Dr. Prindle aptly puts it, “the cool, technology-friendly environment of Beeghly Library.” (Meeting there is nice, particularly when it’s hot out and the normal meeting room is brutally un-air conditioned… We’ll be seeing clips to go along with the lesson, so it’s not as if we’re there solely to burgle AC, though I think that would be cool in and of itself as well.) And lastly I come to German. Again I have Herr Wolber, we’re working with Goethe, and reading Die Leiden des joungen Werther. Great review, but now for the new stuff. We’ve started by reading some of Goethe’s poems in their German glory, and we’ve already hit on two that I’ve done more than once already. Gefunden has never really been on my list of favourite German poems, and the sappy interpretation my high school German teacher suggested for it only exacerbated its low rank. We also interpreted Erlkoenig, which I quite enjoy, and getting to hear a different interpretation made it all the better. And somehow, due to the original work’s wording compared with the translation provided by Herr Wolber, a brief comment about the elf king and a wedding dress came up, which I cannot lie about causing not a few grins as I did a quick sketch involving the version of the king I used in my poster design in a highschool project involving the poem and a wedding dress. Where your imagination takes this, I leave to you.


German Word: Gefunden (geh-fun-den) means ‘Found’ and Erlkoenig, though having no true meaning itself, is often translated as ‘elf king’ or ‘erl king.’

Pictures!

Die Leiden des joungen Werther was So Popular that it Changed the Very Fashion of the Time and was Banned for Causing So Many Copycat Suicides

I have arrived at campus! Huzzah! It’s really odd to walk about, seeing familiar faces, and think to yourself about how it feels like just yesterday you were here… I still think it odd that it was months ago that I relinquished my mailroom key and hopped into Chevelle to start my summer in earnest, but I’m back again, and I couldn’t be happier. Saturday went fairly well, and, despite some refreshing rain, I moved in without incident. I’m still getting used to the new set up, though; Welch and Thomson are set up quite differently from one another!! The only difficultly that I am having, however, is the same as last year; my computer is having trouble hooking up to the OWU network. Thusly, I write this entry offline and plan to post it as soon as I have the interweb with which to do so!
Today (Sunday) has been a joy, wandering about and seeing how many of my friends I can locate and marvel at their summers and changes. I had ample time to tour about the academic side of campus locating the rooms I’ll be traveling to this week as best as is possible with half of the doors locked, and even got to hear a few minutes of wonderful organ music in Grey Chapel! I also made a trip to the bookstore, which was shockingly barren. I only purchased one book, but since the funds that one can use in the bookstore had yet to transfer to my card, I could not take advantage of the lack of lines and buy all of them. My one purchase, however, caused me to shamelessly titter with delight as I nigh ran to the register; my only German book for the semester was precisely the one I had been hoping to read: Die Leiden des joungen Werther!! (The Sorrows of Young Werther) I will admit to a slight twinge of disappointment upon seeing that it is a dual-language for of the novel, presenting the German on the left and the English on the right, but despite this convenience and time-saver, I would almost prefer a pure German version, if only for the challenge. But, if the introduction is any indicator, this version is quite full, including even the introduction and a special poem that Goethe later added. I may start reading it tonight since I have no other pressing work, and it does look interesting.

German Word: As far as German verbs that any student should be familiar with, lesen is very important, and almost depressingly so for the college student. Lesen means ‘to read,’ which takes up more than a few hours of a day, particularly when one has been gifted with a generous professor.

Pictures! Yay new Welch room madness! The plant is Natalie, my rosemary bush that I’ve turned into a bonsai tree! And, yes, my action figures definitely need to have some more picture accompaniment, and I’m working on it. And no one seems to ever make their bed very often at all, if ever. And I don’t think anyone really cares… hrm….

The Legendary Swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi Completed his Master Work on Kendo( the Way of the Sword) Only Days Before Dying

Next Monday classes start up once again! I’m super excited with an exhilarating dash of stress thrown in for good measure. I’m to move in this Saturday, but this year without the joy of climbing up to the third floor of Thomson to my tower-like domain; this year I’ll just be moseying in down the hall of Welch and making a turn. I’m crossing my fingers for good window placement, lest my dear plants not get the sun they love so! I do get to re-experience the going into a room without knowing a roommate at all, but this time I get to meet three new people instead of just one. (Hopefully none of us end up strangling one another over something as vital as having a welcome mat or not.)
Before I get too absorbed in contemplating my new rooming situation, I need to finish (read: start) packing. Last year I had no clue what I would end up wanting about, and I think that I have a better idea this time around, or so I believe, and general question marks remain, particularly on ever important details such as whether or not to bring both wooden swords the very first day. (I am, by the way, far too excited about MARRCA, a.k.a. ‘sword club,’ starting up again. If you’re at all interested, sign up to get an e-mail and come to our first practice once we get that worked out, or at least stop by the table we’ll have on the J-walk during the club fair!) But I digress! Packing! Last year I was so busy sorting out how to best cram my several-inch thick German dictionary in amongst my rolled t-shirts, CDs, and ramen noodles that I nearly forgot to toss in a few notebooks for class. (Thankfully if one is indeed far too excited about getting to the dorm to concern one’s self with thoughts of the schooling attached to this, the bookstore has a plethora of school goods both useful and ridiculous to remedy this.) This time around I’m just hoping that I don’t leave behind something that I intended to bring along. (As MARRCA secretary I get to watch over a few notebooks, which I purposely placed in clear sight so as to not forget, though I wouldn’t put it past my ADD-prone brain to let that slip.)
I’ve also been working on finishing up the pair of traditional Japanese pants that I timidly started a few weeks ago with help from my seamstress aunt. (I was terrified, you see, of messing up my fabric since the ‘pattern’ comes with no real pattern for making them; one has to measure and re-measure and neurotically worry about every wee detail.) I finally whipped them out in roughly two days, with liberal time for tea and chatting with my oma shoved in. I need to make a few final adjustments before wearing my hakama out, but they look lovely if I do say so myself. (I miss being able to lug out my sewing machine on occasion at the Uni, though I do know of a few people that bring theirs along, and, if I have the room this year, I may as well… I think I’m beginning to prefer the hand-sewn bits more, though, as they can be quite meditative, and sewing one’s own finger onto the fabric more than once is somehow symbolic despite its randomness and seeming idiocy; I like to connect with my art.)


German Word: I have often simply used the term ‘Uni’ in place of ‘university’ in my blog, or at least I think I have. (Perhaps not!) But this is an oft confusing thing when spoken, because I have confused not a few with statements about the ‘oo-nee’. In Deutschland one can shorten the term Universitaet (you-ne-ver-sea-tate) to simply Uni (as aforementioned, ‘oo-nee’).

Pictures! Here are a couple more pics from my pond; I almost fell in taking these, but then again I have next to no balance. Also a shot of my stuff once I finally got packed, and my hakama pants! Pleats may be the death of me…

‘I’m Into Something Good,’ the Herman’s Hermits Debut Single, Made Peter Noone the Youngest UK Male Vocalist to Reach a No. 1 Spot

I am, probably ironically, one of a handful of college students that has never really attended any concerts, and granted one could still have a heavy argument against my claiming the relatively modest concert I just attended not being a ‘concert’ at all, really. It is the first that I’ve been to where I’ve actually heard of the band beforehand, and I’ve been rather excited in an extraordinarily dorky fashion that involved a lot of bobbing about to ‘I’m Henry the VIII, I Am!’ Herman’s Hermits indeed played a concert, outdoors, on a stage that shook under the vehement beatings of drum and high-kicking guitarist, and I must admit to having enjoyed it quite a lot. I’m not exactly up-to-date on what music stars of today are causing teens to have minor heart attacks, but I do know that Peter Noone, lead singer for the Hermits, caused more than a few coronary failures in his own teens, and still seems to have more than a few rabid fans even as he’s pushing into his sixties. (Side Note: Proof of still-rabid fans can be found in the woman from England that spent most of the concert yelling at Peter, trying to sing, causing him to give her a water bottle to serve as a microphone in hopes of hushing her up, and in the fellow standing near me who kept insisting the drummer throw him a stick every few minutes, even after being told that he just had to wait a minute.)

Concerts of varying sizes drift in and out of the OWU campus, but I’m rather sure none of them have involved a long sing-a-long spelling of H-E-N-R-Y while an aged rock star cheers you on, insisting that it’s the best rendition of the song he’s heard in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, though it has been done better near there, and I'm not sure how well that would go over with the college crowd nowadays anyway. But Mr. Noone did a brilliant job of keeping his concert engaging and amusing, cracking jokes on everything from the Columbus airport to the fact that one’s hindquarters creep up an inch a year once one reaches a certain age, which makes accessing one’s wallet only a matter of reaching to the shoulder. Brilliant overall, and I still love how he insisted that the group I attend the concert with not clap before he got on stage, citing that they ‘might be rubbish,’ but if that was rubbish, I honestly can’t wait to see a genuine concert.

German Word: Some music words auf Deutsch can be tricky, but just add a dash of accent and change of spelling in a few cases, and you’re gold. Musik is fairly self explanatory; just give a mild moo when saying the ‘mu’ bit. Konzert is just about as clear, with only two letters changing up from the English.

Pictures! Taking decent pictures at a concert is tricky business, particularly when one’s camera gets very grumpy with bad lighting, people moving at all, and with distance between the camera and its subject exceeding about four feet.


So here's the stage from behind.


The band rocking out once Peter removed his jacket, grinning about how not many British rock stars his age could do a concert without a jacket on the whole time due to fat. And, no, that's not fat; that's his butt.


I managed to catch this high-kick in action! That shiny line thing near his head is his foot!


Peter Noone and I just as he finished off signing an old "Hold On!" album for me. Super nice fellow in person; he loves to joke.