Present Joys

It’s been a wild couple of weeks since I graduated college. I’ll fill you in on more details soon, I’m sure—but for now, I want to share some pictures from a very exciting accordion-buying expedition I went on this week!

For a long time, I’d been planning to buy myself a new accordion after I graduated college—a brand-new, expensive, serious accordion. My teacher recommended I visit Castiglione, a shop near Detroit, Michigan, one of the few accordion stores in the country. And relatively close at only about four hours away!

So Dempsey and I drove up there on thursday afternoon. We spent the rest of the day with some good friends and spent the night at their house. Friday morning, D and I headed a few miles further north to visit Castiglione—a bland, unassuming building housing a true accordion mecca! There were shelves and shelves of both new and used accordions, ranging from $500 to over $10,000. There were also stacks and stacks of old accordion cases in every sort of color and style imaginable. It really was a feast for the eyes.

I listened to a bunch of different things and tried a bunch of different things and ended up on this one—a Castiglione-branded Scandalli accordion, dry-tuned, with 13 treble switches and 9 bass switches. It’s heavier than my old accordion at 25 lbs., but worth it! It’s smooth.

This new accordion isn’t as ostentatious as my old one, and I was a little sad about that—but I still ended up with a lot of rhinestones. And the spectacular sound makes up for the unassuming exterior. So—I’ve finally got a really serious accordion. It’s going to take some time to get used to the extra size and extra weight, but it will be a pleasure. I’m completely thrilled to continue learning and improving with this beautiful instrument.

sexpigeon:

Who will talk about V8? Who will be man or woman enough to step to the plate, to talk about V8? I will step to this plate. I will be man or woman enough to talk about V8.

V8 is the most singularly satisfying beverage available to a man or a woman. It is salty like soup and bloody like meat. It cures what ails you. It costs very little. It languishes on forgotten shelves, near buttermilks and cottage cheeses. It asks little of you. It is a strong and quiet companion. It has quite a physique under that shirt. You’ve never felt pecs like that. It is V8, and it is great.

I’m profoundly grateful to have witnessed the burgeoning creativity and enjoyed the friendship of these two mysterious characters. They’ve made senior year infinitely more pleasant.

a little worse for wear / practically walking on air

Thursday at 10:30am, the #9youngones are finally back in Columbus.

Wednesday was supposed to be our big day to go exploring, but after a long night, everybody slept in late. We missed out on some prime morning hours, but we got going a little after 10am with a walk on the High Line. The plants made me miss Columbus a little. We walked all the way to the south end of the High Line, then over to the West Village, where we briefly visited Parsons (Mamo’s alma mater), peeked into a consignment clothing store, and enjoyed the neighborhood. From there, we all walked to the famous Katz’s Delicatessen, where Karl, Graham, Tay, and I got humungous, delightful sandwiches (mine was chopped liver and pastrami). The rest of the group had lunch at Schiller’s Liquor Bar—I wish I’d had time to do both! There is really so much to do in the city. More food and drink than is humanly possible to consume.

After just a bit more walking, it was about time to hop back on the subway and head back to the hotel so we could pack the van. Though we’d originally planned to leave the city around 6:30pm, Mamo moved our departure up to 3pm because he wanted to make sure we could complete the whole nine-hour trip without having to stop and spend the night. Little did he know what he was in for…

We got back to the hotel and Mamo pulled the car around and we loaded it up and we were out of the city by 5pm. After many hours of driving, we stopped for dinner at an Eat’n Park in DuBois, Pennsylvania, but got back on I-80 heading east—the wrong direction—and drove for an hour before anybody realized the problem. (Like I said, we were all very tired.) By the time we realized what had happened and turned around, it was almost midnight—and we still had an hour of backtracking to do. Much to everyone’s chagrin, Mamo decided we would just crash at a hotel instead of trying to finish the trip that night. We powered through and finally stopped at a Super 8 in Youngstown, Ohio around 3am—a mere two and a half hours from home. We got a bit of sleep, reconvened at 8am, and made the rest of the trip to Columbus. As you might imagine, everybody was pretty dopey.

What a time! In hindsight, it would have been nice to plan everything a little more carefully. But I suppose the fluidity of such a trip was what made it so fun. I’m so grateful to CCAD for making it a reality, and to Mr. Mohr for being such a fun tour guide and friend. Graduation is this saturday! The emotions—I can feel them coming. Soon they will overpower me completely. I’m glad I’ll have happy memories of this #9youngones trip to hold onto.