Skip to content ↓
MIT student blogger Keri G. '10

Gravity Rides Everything by Keri G. '10

We are gathered here today to allude to rapidly accelerating bouncy balls and The Moon and Antarctica.

I did many things this weekend during CPW:

-met you. As I said at the Meet the Bloggers party, we write stuff, put it on the Internet, and you guys actually read it. What’s up with that?!
-fed you. Even in the rain. Gotta love a barbecue. Mmmm, polish sausage and Star Market’s entire stock of organic portobello mushrooms. Think of the vegetarians, people!
-dumped (with the aid of other SH residents) six thousand neon plastic balls on you. And you. And you and you and you. Yeah, that’s a lot of bouncy balls. (Pictures, anyone? Seeing as I wasn’t on the receiving end of the drop, I don’t have any myself…)

Notice “sleep” is not on this list, as an 8.02 exam, psets for 5.12 and 18.03, and being CPW rush chair for Senior Haus eliminated any chance of getting some of that. $10 says sleep isn’t on your list of things you did over CPW either. Am I right? Hmmm?

If you didn’t meet me, then you probably met my mom, since she spent the weekend being an MIT mommy and telling you prefrosh and your parents what to expect over the next year. (She’s visiting for a week, during which she keeps trying to clean my room. Thanks, Mom. I think.) The things anyone may have said to you about classes and dorms and having a life will apply wherever you go to school next year – but you’re coming here in August, right? ^_^

But you’re probably all CPW-ed out, so that’s not what this post is about. This is about something far, far more important: music, and how I listen to far too much of it.

…what?! I’m not all about MIT, and neither are you.

There are 35 gigabytes of music on my computer right now (and as a result of this and all five seasons of Daria, I have absolutely no free hard drive space), and the number keeps increasing thanks to WMBR’s massive record library.

I have absolutely no idea how it happened. It’s about time for an external hard drive.

Once I find a good new release (or an old album by a band I’d never heard of before), my friends don’t stop hearing about it for a good two weeks. With that said, go have a listen to Modest Mouse’s new album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Granted, it’s not The Moon and Antarctica, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. Ignore any people you hear whining about how the band has “chaaaaaaanged!” or “sold ouuuuuut!” or both, and go form your own opinion instead. How many bands can last in the music industry for over a decade without having altered their sound in any way? Name two. I dare you to.

Anyway, this album is my favorite new release as of late, guaranteeing that I will a) give it far too much airplay on Hanna’s and my show and b) shamelessly promote the thing to all of my friends. (And to the Internet!) Don’t you underestimate me – I did the same thing two months ago, when Sondre Lerche’s Phantom Punch came out.

All of this is leading up to the tried-and-true open question: what have you been listening to? Any songs or albums that you’ve had on repeat? Anything that you just plain love? I want to hear about it! It’ll give me something to listen to while studying for tomorrow’s 5.12 exam!

24 responses to “Gravity Rides Everything”

  1. Aaron says:

    I’m doing this only because we mocked it-so it’s off the record. First post

    It was really nice to meet you!

  2. Aaron says:

    Omg second post!

    Seriously though, the bloggers party was a lot of fun. CPW was a lot of fun. During real MIT life though, how often is so much going on around campus?

    I slept 7 hours at least per night-benefit of MacGregor! And no I wasn’t antisocial I went to almost every activity during the day. MIT is amazing!

    They didn’t give you guys breaks during CPW? For shame. Especially for the hosts

  3. milena '11 says:

    Well I have a nice suggestion for you, if you need study music…

    If you’re up for music you don’t understand at all, try Sigur Rós, they make really relaxing music but it’s not relaxing enough to fall asleep. Beautiful stuff. “Hoppípolla” is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, even if I don’t understand a single word.

    Oh, and how could I not suggest Gustavo Cerati? He’s the sexiest man alive. Try his “Bocanada” album, it’s a masterpiece. I hope you understand Spanish!! lol

    And now, for stuff you could actually understand, I’ll suggest Mew (try “Am I Wry? No”), Imogen Heap (“Headlock”) and the Mars Volta (all of their songs are pretty amazing, but I can’t get “Day of the Baphomets” out of my head!!). Hope that helped! grin

    Oh, and I went to 5.12 and loved how the professor wanted people to ask more dumb questions lmao

  4. Sanja says:

    Whoa! 35 gigs smile I thought 7 were bad *throwes away all the blank CDs prepared for HDD clean-up*
    Suggestions: Poets of the fall & Ian Brown.
    Good luck with the exam!

  5. Keri says:

    Aaron –

    All of this stuff happens at MIT, but not all in one four-day window. CPW is a “look at all the stuff you can do here!” kind of event, where you can check out your options. Since you prefrosh aren’t here for very long, though, we end up having to sandwich a lot of stuff into a very short period of time. There’s still a good number of parties and other events to be found every weekend, though.

    zomg fifth post!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Boston by Augustana!!!
    I just can’t get it out of my head.

  7. Seleeke F. says:

    I’ve been listening to what seems like nothing but Soundgarden and Audioslave for the past, I don’t know, four months of my life. Funny thing, I’m listening to some early Soundgarden right now. (If you don’t know who Soundgarden is, you should first get spanked, give good ‘ole Wikipedia a whirl, then by one of their albums and be introduced to Chris Cornell’s monstrous vocals, which are some of the best in rock history.)

  8. Maia '11 says:

    Good choice with Modest Mouse. I’ve had “Dashboard” stuck in my head since I first heard it on the radio, and I noticed one of the frats had “Float On” blasting more than once during CPW. The people I was with looked at me weird when I started singing aloud…

  9. milena '11 says:

    Oh yea, talking about the frats… As I was leaving DTD’s Goldfish party on Friday night, I noticed they were playing a very… out there song called “f*ck the pain away” by peaches. You should listen to that one too, it’s very… controversial. But I hate how I can’t get it out of my head!!!

  10. Cloud Cult’s 2005 and 2007 albums are totally worth a listen. Plus the Besnard Lakes’ “The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse” can’t be recommended enough if you’re looking for dramatic rock music.

    My fave album of the year so far is Panda Bear’s “Person Pitch”, though I warn you, it’s pretty strange! Listen to Good Girl/Carrots if you want an idea of what the general aesthetic is like.

  11. Larry says:

    How do you have so many songs?! I have 500 and I thought that was alot! >_How do you have so many songs?! I have 500 and I thought that was alot! >_<

  12. Arkajit says:

    Lately, I’ve just been listening to a lot of Coldplay (even as I write this), U2, Postal Service, and some Greenday. And I’m still getting a lot of John Williams and Howard Shore when on party shuffle .

    It was nice to see you at the bloggers event, Keri. smile

  13. nick says:

    Nice modest mouse! i had 30 some gigs on my ipod at one time but decided to trim it to 11. I also dont back up my music on my comp so i dont have to worry about… ill probly regret it. theres some free software out there that can transfer from your ipod to comp if thats the issue.

  14. Hank R says:

    I have a video of the bouncy ball drop. I’ll upload it to YouTube once I stop being lazy. The BBQ was awesome. Well, standing out in the rain crowding around the grill wasn’t, but the food was great.

    That Kirkland Root Beer, however, wasn’t. I can’t turn down free Root beer though, so I chugged it down anyway.

    I seriously need new music, I just bought a 30GB mp3 player, and I only have 8GB or so of music. Anymore recommendations aside from the above?

    Oh yeah, Sunday morning from 3:30-4:30am, I basically explored the Student Center and all levels of the Infinite listening to Robin Thicke’s The Evolution of Robin Thicke on repeat. I’m also in love with Coheed and Cambria and Rob Dougan. I have discographies of both, which isn’t saying much, considering Rob only has one album. Coheed has three though. In fact, I’m listening to Rob Dougan’s album right now.

    k, enough with the long ass commenting. I have more on here than I do on my blog (namely nothing)

  15. Hank R. says:

    Oh yeah, I stayed with Snively for most of the nights, and I slept about an hour and a half longer than he did at Firehouse. So 6.5 hours over 72 hours for me.

    I got home, fell asleep at 8:30pm and woke up at 7:50am.

    Night after that, last night, I fell asleep at 11 and woke up at 9am.

    Looks like no sleep at all isn’t the way to go. Polyphasic sleep, ftw!

  16. Mollie says:

    Hey, that’s my neuron on your background! Isn’t it?

    I remember when Keri was just a little prefrosh at the Meet the Bloggers party. It makes me wax nostalgic.

  17. Yay! CPW was so fun! And you like good music! I am in love with of Montreal!!! I just went to their show in Miami! Suggestions (if you haven’t heard them already):
    The Olivia Tremor Control
    Maria Taylor
    Girl Talk (he mixes pop songs/ indie songs together and his real job is a biomedical engineer = SO COOL)
    I’m from Barcelona

  18. Keri says:

    Mollie – that’s your neuron, all right. It’s just so gorgeous, I can’t resist…

    Elizabeth – I went to Of Montreal’s show in Boston last month. Don’t they put on an awesome live show?

  19. I love Modest Mouse! I suddenly feel more cultured now that you like them, too…hahaha.

  20. nancy says:

    hey, nice blog!
    i think Andrew Bird’s music is great..you should definitely check it out!

  21. nancy says:

    hey, nice blog!
    i think Andrew Bird’s music is great..you should definitely check it out!

  22. Keri says:

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE ANDREW BIRD.

    (Yeah, I’m actually doing an 8.02 problem set, but that needed to be said.)

  23. Wolfmother, Self-titled
    Weezer- Make Believe
    Boston-Boston
    Led Zeppelin IV
    Queen Greatest Hits
    RHCP- Stadium Arcadium

  24. Cam says:

    I didn’t actually read this post in full, but I just bought an external HDD. The Western Digital “MyBook” drives are pretty good if you’re actually going to go get one.