John West ’10

In this post: John's list of the top five ways to procrastinate at Oberlin!

In this post: skunks, skunk orgies, band names unbecoming of Baroque ensembles, indescribable smells, the philosophy of Eeyore, the curse of the Obie, and much, much more.

In this post: vegetable gardening, homemade compost bins, the anti-rot properties of cedar, sleep, Wilder Voice, inscrutable comics, the Coal River Valley, Obie activism, and much, much more.

In this post: the pseudo-triumphant return of John blogging, how freshmen walk, atrophied vocal chords, dinner parties, what I've been doing, what other people have been doing, shameless self-promotion, and much, much more.

In this post: on-campus fall breaks, laziness, pan-seared steak recipes, Spike Jonze v. Spike Lee, Oberlin Levittown, a shameless plug for the Wilder Voice website, cornfields, yes, that's right, more on cornfields.

In this post: notes on being double-degree, funny looks, historical performance, me on a soapbox (figuratively), rants on authorial intent, more apocryphal stories, why I play the recorder, musical temperament, A440 Hz, the varieties of recorders, a picture, clips of my junior recital, and Tom DeLay dancing with the stars.

In this post: the Montreal International Recorder Competition, recorders that look like plumbing, apocryphal stories, adorable taxi drivers, the death of punk, and Glenn Beck killing a frog.

In this post: coffee mugs, unions (viz. Teamsters and AFSCME), near-death experiences, pictures I may or may not have incorrectly uploaded even though I've been given two sets of instructions on how to upload photos because I'm practically a Luddite, Oberlin vignettes.

In this post: potentially job ending disagreement, politics at Oberlin, liberal ironists vs. liberal revolutionaries, debates to stay up late for, Fox News, and please don't fire me.

In this post: Mad Max, our inevitable doom, The Communist Manifesto, superempirical virtues in theory choice, Stanley Fish, those problematic humanities, and a way-too-long post.

In this post: sub-standard writing, naval-gazing, other people's impenetrable prose, my impenetrable prose, private readings, A-List magazines, and burnt mouths.

In this post: rejection letters, romantic rejection, my petty impulses, The Kenyon Review, and children's publishing.

I think a die a little bit every time someone uses the word Obie to describe a person who goes to Oberlin (as in: We Obies love to hate things). I think The Grape--one of Oberlin College's many publications--described the word as (and I'm paraphrasing here) "used only by The Review and the Admissions Department."