School Year 1991-1992
President Emeritus
No longer president of MPS, I nonetheless maintained my Completely Different duties, though my lackadaisical journal habits continued to worsen.
According to the fall schedule, our Fall meetings consisted of: September 4, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in the Penn State Monty Python Society; September 18, The Interview Show; October 2, Skits-o-phrenia; October 16, Homecoming Parade preparation; October 30, A Night in the Dark; November 13, Show and Tell Party; November 15 Ides of October Mystery Event in November.
I showed up at the MPS executive meeting in order to pass off the president's folder, a.k.a. "President's Bilge," to Cathy Nelson. Jean Prior, the secretary, had told me about the meeting, and I showed up to put in my two and a half cents.
Mark Sachs, who was then president of the Penn State Whovians, also attended.
I wrote in my journal:
When I first showed up, I recited a poem I've written, a silly little thing I preambled as such: "I've written a poem about modern aesthetics and the dichotomy between 'what is art' and 'what is artifice."I threw some beads to the floor
and said, this is poetry.
I kicked myself with a back aerial half twist
and said, this is art.
I listened to two recordings of the same song,
one played at 45 and one at 78 and backwards
and said, this is poetry.
I listened to something which I will insert here
and said, this is art.
I looked at my poem
and said, this is shit.
I crumpled it up
and it was art.The meeting went very smoothly. Cathy's a take charge kind of person. I'm sure this will be a good year.
It was Cathy who instituted the practice of showing a Monty Python episode
(or other British comedy) at the end of every meeting.
About the Interview Show meeting, I wrote:
Tonight was a Monty Python meeting. The theme was The Interview Show. I was the interviewer, and it went very badly. I was embarrassed, but it could have been worse. Holli [Weisman] had been talking on the air with Karen from the morning team at 97 Quick. This was at the HUB student involvement fair (I couldn't participate, because my schedule was too hectic). Anyway, Holli had invited her to the meeting, and Karen had said something about possibly coming. So it could have been worse. I could have been un-funny on the radio, not just in front of a group of friends.
Afterwards, Meg Jeffery and Matt Sheldon walked me home in the rain. None of us had umbrellas, but they didn't seem to mind.
