Back Among the Living

As I said in my post last week, I hate being sick. But as I have always been one to look on the bright side of life (and anyone who knows me at all is doubling over laughing at this comment), I've been trying to think of a positive to being sick. I think I've found one. After being sick, when you start feeling better, you feel better than you ever have before; you feel like Superman. At least I do. When I've been healthy for a while, I start to take my health for granted. I don't understand just how good I have it until I get sick for a week, like last week. Then, on a day like today, when I finally start to feel right again, it's like someone stuck me with a shot of adrenaline. I feel ready to take on the world and reassert my authority over my own life. I feel like an imposter has been inhabiting my body for the last week, and it's time to take back over. All in all, today I feel better than I have in quite some time. It's an odd feeling. Granted, at this point, last week is so foggy that I can't even be entirely sure it happened at all. If someone told me I had dreamed my entire sickness and that it was actually last Monday, I would believe that person without too much argument. I mean, my memory's not so good to begin with. Add in a disorienting sickness and I start questioning the very fabric of reality. Maybe I should change subjects before I get really confused. Or maybe it's too late already. Probably the second choice.

So, I don't think anyone would have blamed me if I had just stayed inside and lamented my poor health all weekend, and under normal circumstances that is exactly what I would have done. However, Friday night, despite the insistent complaints of every single bit of my physical being, I dragged myself down to campus for the UM Homecoming concert. Talib Kweli and Robert Randolph and the Family Band were there, and I never miss an opportunity to see Randolph, so feeling about 70% (generously) was not going to stop me.

As always, Randolph's set was an amazing experience. The healing powers of seeing that band tear into a set cannot be overestimated. I think if the losers organizing the event (I'm just kidding, I have nothing but respect for those who put together such a great free concert) had let them play for more than one short hour, I might have been cured there and then. Sadly, to be completely honest, an hour just isn't long enough for the full Robert Randolph and the Family Band experience. Shake Your Hips was noticeably abbreviated, with an awkwardly abrupt ending. The biggest problem is that a great jam band just continues to gather momentum as they continue to play, and Randolph is no exception. By the 1-hour mark, the band was firing on all cylinders, and another four or five songs would have been completely mind-blowing. As it was, the show built and built and built...and then ended. Alas. Nonetheless, it was a great hour. Those guys never cease to amaze me. Bringing out a (very) small horn section to kick into a cover of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" was an inspired new twist. I can't wait to see them again, hopefully next time as a headliner.

As for Talib Kweli, well...I'll preface this by saying that with a few exceptions I am not a fan of live hip hop. Don't get me wrong, I like hip hop; I like it a lot...on album. I have only really been impressed by three live hip hop acts: The Roots, J-5, and Cypress Hill. Talib wasn't bad by any means, but it just wasn't anything to write home about. It was highly entertaining for about a half hour, and then it got rather boring to just watch a guy rap over canned music, as is usually the case in such shows. That is just my opinion, of course. The crowd seemed to be enjoying the show just fine when I left.

Let's see, anything else? Go see American Gangster, it's fantastic. I register for classes on Wednesday for Spring, so I'll let you know how that goes.