This one's a reader. My improv group enjoys profuse abuse of our panlist (email group list). Over tour, there were a few songs that caught our attention. One was "Cooking by the Book, Lil bigger remix", you can look that one up on your own. The other was an old song by LFO (Lyte Funky Ones, yeah the people who sang "Every Other Time)...singing "Summer Girls". First, the video:

Now without further adue, I present the email which set off this unfortunate chain of critiques, and critiques of critiques and so forth.

The Grammatical Essentialization of the Other:

ya'll,

shouldn't it be "I like girls WHO wear Abercrombie & Fitch" instead of "I like girls THAT wear Abercrombie & Fitch"?

Surely objectification of women abounds on the lyrical level in "Summer Girls", but far more insidious is the grammatical objectification of the girls in question. A seemingly harmless song is, in fact, a nuanced assault not only on the personhood of young girls but also the English language itself.

-S

See the followup after the jump, sure to get anyone in academia excited about the VQ's next show:

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So I'm still sick, which is going to ruin my Thanksgiving break. The Health services people have ruled out basically everything except mono. So I went and got blood drawn for that. Unfortunately, I failed my Strep Tests worse than my Philosophy tests....downer. Anyways, to prove that I'm not letting whatever I have get the best of me, I decided to write a little song called "Ode to Acetaminophen" (the active ingredient in Tylenol). In reality, I'm alternating Ibuprofen and that, but it's just such a cool name. Anyways, this is sung to the tune of some song, maybe "Ode to a Superhero" by Wierd Al, or just make up a tune, or read it as beat poetry. Anything should convey the message, song after the hop...

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First and foremost, there's a new picture on the photoblog. A nice portrait shot of one of the VQ cuties.

Moving on, I have created my first theorem of my college career. Through it, Croom's constant is derived. Of course theorems don't make constants, but it sounded cool. This constant promises to revolutionize the way we view modern society and architecture for generations to come. Interested? Good...Read on...

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I awoke early this morning to go take pictures of a brand new elementary school opening in New Haven. I must say, it was rather impressive, certainly rivaling ELHS. I sprinted back to campus (with 30 pound backpack) for German. After which, I proceeded to go to lunch, sit in my dorm for a bit, and headed to "Consumer Culture". A very interesting and extremely work heavy class I look forward to.

After my class I ran back across town to pick up some other course materials and went on another photography run. Only now have I had time to sit down and do some work (Until my theater meeting at 4:00...Light plotting starts today!). I seemed to have finally come to terms with college life now that all these activities are in full swing. When I pulled out an article from "The Chronicle of Higher Education", however, I was surprised to find why my happiness had returned...

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