October 10, 2022

Listening to Weird Al in the laundry room

One of the formative experiences in my late adolescence was doing laundry at nerd camp, also known as the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth. It was my first time doing laundry for myself, and it had unremarkable results as a chore. The atmosphere, however, was the interesting part. 

Twice each session, on a weekend, I'd get up early alongside the other guys in my dorm. (Nerd camp is held on college campuses.) Some guys I knew from my class or a previous year, and others were new to me. The laundry-doing experience was a great equalization - everybody basically had to do it, from the c to the shyest wallflowers (like 1996 Neil). I can’t remember why exactly, but you couldn’t get away with doing laundry with your friends from another building, that just wasn’t feasible. We'd trudge down to the basement laundry room and by turns, do a load or two each, before a dining hall “brunch” and whatever mandatory fun the counselors had cooked up for the weekend.

 

While we’d wait our turns, we’d chat a bit and read. Many of us were high-strung young men, and this was practicing patience in a collective, productive way that I realize now is a funny side benefit of the process.  I remember pretentiously reading Brave New World one year and poring over the massive Deadbase IX the next.

 

And there was always music. It was the late 90s: boomboxes with CD players were everywhere. For me (and I think for many others) learning about new music was a big part of the CTY experience. Campers traded recommendations constantly; nothing was too off the beaten path. There’s a “canon” of beloved CTY songs across decades and sites. You’ll be unsurprised perhaps to learn that a lot of mid-90s nerds loved They Might Be Giants. The dorm is where I’d learn about Depeche Mode from my best friend Neal (yes! I know, right?!) and that same year I’d learn about Cornershop from my Writing the Personal Essay instructor Colleen. I’d hear the cheeriest Kpop song, H.O.T.’s “Candy” from a classmate in 1998. At a talent show, I’d hear my now-friend Beth sing “Over The Moon” from RENT and have no idea what it meant.
 

But back to the laundry room, on a Saturday morning with other unshowered guys. Somehow, there more any other space around camp, we twenty doofy teen dudes listened to Weird Al's "Bad Hair Day" album and Adam Sandler's "What the Hell Happened to Me?" We treated them like holy texts. We played them repeatedly and thought they were the most brilliant media we’d ever encountered. The whole CTY atmosphere was one of finding like-minded young people, learning what’s important to them, and also celebrating idiosyncrasies. And discovering very silly common ground was in the mix too. 

I’d been familiar over my young years with other intersections of comedy and music: Stan Freberg, Monty Python, Victor Borge, late night Dr. Demento listening sessions. Some of that had my parents’ stamp of approval. Some of that felt like me discovering my comedic preferences. 

But Weird Al and Adam Sandler will always remind me of an upstate New York dorm laundry room, wondering how much detergent I’m supposed to use, and thinking these boys around me are geniuses too. 

Reading:

I read a lot of things between March and September. Here’s some items that were memorable!

I can’t stop thinking about the Margaritaville retirement piece in The New Yorker. In another piece about lifestyles, did everybody else read the van life wildness in the New York Times Magazine? Kansas has a small town that sound utopian but maybe flawed. People in Poland LARP as Americans, and that's fascinating. How did Hot Ones become such a great celebrity interview show? I was very lucky to read an English edition of Kristopher Jansma's The Idealists, and I hope you get to do so too some day.

Eating:
As is my custom, I’ve eaten a lot of breakfast sandwiches. And in case you missed it, I wrote all about Philly’s BS/BEC/SEC scene for The Philadelphia Inquirer! My first time in print! (Archive.org link if the paywall throws you off.)


 

Beating:
The spring had me listening to pretty much every show of the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 tour and the accompanying Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast oral histories. My friend Sarah recommended I check out Washington, an Australian singer, whom I wouldn't have encountered any other way. Joni Mitchell playing Newport made me cry. I went to see Phish play two nights at The Mann, the first night of which is currently my favorite Phish show that I’ve ever been to.

Deleting:
Let’s assume I cleaned the fridge a time or two since you last heard about my decluttering habits. I might have even gotten rid of a few books.

Retreating:
We visited family in Cape May Point for a night in the spring. I returned to Cape May a few weeks later for a bachelorette party weekend. Around that time I also attended the Poconos-y bachelor party for that wedding, complete with Dream Crush and 10 pounds of pork roll. Kelsey and I discovered Mariton Bird Sanctuary which is very out of the way but we want to go back! We also went to Alaska for ten days in July, then Maine late August for a quick weekend wedding trip, two new states for me.  Alaska was incredible. The main reason to go up was my friend Emily's birthday party. Kelsey & I did 7 days of road tripping before meeting up with Emily and other friends. Because of how we planned this epic trip we were averaging 220 miles of driving a day: Seward, Kenai, Denali National Park and environs, Fairbanks, and then back to Anchorage. We saw humpback whales and rode a helicopter to a glacier. The weather was perfect, despite a wildfire near our cabin in Talkeetna. A++++ trip of a lifetime. Also, I learned how to use Notion and created the most, let's say, deliberate travel plan database I've ever seen.
 

Meeting:
I’m in the latest Philly Current magazine with a very fun piece about what’s a day like in my life at First Person Arts. It’s not available online, only in print. I’ll be on upcoming Uncommon Good and Fair Deal podcasts.

I may also be on an upcoming Breaking Mayberry! We’ll see! Since I last sent a newsletter, I’ve spoken or performed on Amplify Nursing, Miranda, and Oh Honey. At various times this fall, catch me on Alyssa al-Dookhi’s talk show "Sabah il-Khara" and WHYY’s restaurant review show, ”Check Please! Philly.”