EleCivil

Alright, why not? My name is Chris. I'm nineteen, and a college sophomore. I'm the son of a conservative Southern Baptist preacher and raging liberal poet/writer. I call myself a centrist, mainly so I can argue with both of them . It's fun - I know that if I've ever got time to kill, all I have to do is bring up Reagan and watch the ensuing debates rage for hours. I have what might be the worst sense of direction in the history of the world. I've lived in this city my whole life, but still manage to get lost nearly every time I'm in a car. And sometimes when I'm not in a car. I love juggling, reading, and writing. I listen to punk, indie, folk...anything with cracking, off-key vocals and low production value.

Chapter 12 was great! The overall tone to this story is perfect.

This one: http://www.vilimpoc.org/defianceohio/share...This%20Year.mp3 "This Time, This Year" by Defiance, OH. It's my favorite song because of the memories I've got tied to it. I first heard it when I was seventeen, and just out of high school. I didn't really know where I was going, but I found their audio page and loaded all their songs to an MP3 player, then just walked around. Every day, I'd wander around the city listening to their music, getting lost and finding my way back. Then, when I saw them play it live, it was incredible. It was a small, intimate club setting, but a mosh pit opened up for this song. During the hard, loud parts, everyone would jump into each other, knocking each other around, screaming along as loud as we could. Then the slow parts would kick in, and we'd stop, throw our arms around each other for support and just sway into the crowd, who would push us back upright whenever we came close to falling. Then the loud part would kick in again, and we'd be back to moshing. It was incredible, and I think of it every time I hear that song now.

Combat juggling. When you get two evenly matched people/teams, it's the coolest thing to watch. Not a big fan of traditional sports. I follow the Oakland Raiders, though.

Zot- Jeez, you did it again. Every chapter makes me like this story even more. Rob's mom and the Coach getting some screen time was cool. And that whole modeling scene had me in stitches.

Trinity: Yasser AraCat:

Chris Clavin. He sings/plays guitar for Ghost Mice, The Devil is Electric, Operation: Cliff Clavin, and probably a few more bands that I'm forgetting. He also runs Plan-It-X Records with integrity, refusing to sell any album for more than five dollars postage paid ("If it ain't cheap, it ain't punk"). He's also been known to do cool stuff like drive a school bus full of bands across the country playing cheap shows in bars and bookstores or set out on the road as a drifter for months at a time just to prove that he can. With Ghost Mice, he performs without any microphones or amps, just letting his voice do all the work.

That's because Toledo freakin' rocks . *Nods toward signature* When I'm on busses/walking the streets, I've usually got headphones on, so I don't really start conversations - just give people that slightly upward, eyebrow-raised "Hey, dude" kind of nod. I'll take them off if it's somebody I've talked to before, or if they tap my shoulder/look like they want to talk, though. Eye contact is no problem, but I don't start coversations, just because I was raised with "Don't speak unless spoken to" so heavilly ingrained that I never really bothered to learn how. I spent my time learning and practicing responsive small-talk (the correct responses to things like "What's up?" and "Have a nice day", which I've totally got down now, as long as everybody else stays on-script). I wouldn't be surprised if it takes me a few more years to learn how to open a conversation. Until then, thank God for the "people persons" who know all the opening lines and can start conversations for me .

This one- "This Time, This Year" by Defiance, Ohio.

Putting on a funny hat (see: profile pic) and juggling on a street corner, collecting spare change from passers-by.

And I'll point out that I'm currently scouring the stores for a set of juggling penguins.

Great job on chapter seven, Zot. Loved the "If things get ugly, hit him in the face with a hacky sack" plan.

Likewise. Er, except for the part about Photoshop. I use one of the freeware knockoffs of photoshop...but you know, same difference.

I followed Underthehoodster when he announced that he'd be hosted here.

Pull on whatever clothes happen to by lying on the floor closest to me, stumble outside, walk two miles to the nearest convenience store, buy a bottle of orange juice, and drink it on the walk back. ...You know, now that I think about it, it'd be a lot easier to just buy more than one bottle of orange juice at a time. Man, I'm inefficient.

Yeah, I like Bright Eyes. If you like that but want more of an edge, try his rock band, Desaparecidos, or the band he was in when he was 14, Commander Venus. Well, according to Jack Chick, all rock music (including Christian rock) is actually recorded by Druids who secretly use drum-beats from Pagan demon-summoning rituals to get the listeners possessed by demons. That preacher was probably just trying to strike back against those sneaky Druids. Anyway, back on topic... I've been listening to a lot of acoustic punk lately. Defiance Ohio, Ghost Mice, Rosa, Against Me!, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, stuff like that. Something about the soft, folk-y acoustic music combined with the loud, gravely punk vocals just clicks with me.

Hey, Hoodster. Glad to hear you found a new place to be hosted.