-
hahaha i love these things
-
-
-
-
-
-
Spinning Colors
She pulled me out of the late July sun and into the stifling laundry room. A perimeter of washers and dryers were chugging away, spewing heat and the after burn of fabric softening sheets. The unpatterned floor tiles crunched under my feet like I was walking through a baseball dugout. She warned me that if her parents came home early I would have to leave immeadiately. Her father forbid her from seeing boys.
On a plastic foldable table she folded a grown man’s socks, along with baby pajamas and a Dora the Explorer T-shirt. The amber sunlight crept around the metal bars secured on the room’s only window. It cast a shadow on her body similar to one you might see on the face of a prisoner locked in a cell. Her hair, rich black as ink, was pulled back tightly revealing the beads of sweat accumulating on her forehead. “How the hell do you stand it in here? I’m about to pass out,” I asked as I braced my self on a vibrating washing machine. She smirked, “Don’t be such a baby, I’m almost done.”
People came in and out, checking on their loads. They stared at me in silence. I was an onion ring in a large fry. Clearly an outsider, with my neatly combed blonde hair, pure white skin, and proper English. I thought any minute someone would tell me I didn’t belong there.
She filled three white sacks with clean clothes. I was raised a gentleman so naturally I offered to carry two of the sacks back to her apartment. They must have weighed over 80 pounds each. I struggled to keep my composure while carrying them, afraid that I might look weak. She slung the remaining one over her shoulder and followed me.
I threw the bags down at the foot of her steps in relief. “I’ll carry them the rest of the way, you’re not allowed inside.” I understood and took a seat on the stoop. Her little brother and sister emerged from the apartment’s dark doorway to catch a glimpse of the boy their sister had brought over. It wasn’t hard to tell she was raising her siblings by the way they obeyed her when she called for them in an intimidating foreign language.
She finally came back outside and sat down next to me. ” Thanks for helping, you’re a sweetheart,” she said in a tone opposite from the one she used with the children. “My mom does my laundry,” I told her.
Even though her soul was aged, she managed to laugh like a newborn.Too much was on her chest. At the time I only saw what was literally there.
Outside the fresh air, after being in that dungeon of a laundry room, made me want to take off running. Then I imagined how difficult that would be if I was carrying those heavy sacks.
-
Article on Alice in Chains for school paper
Had to be about 300 words, tell me what you think.
Grunge lives: The return of Alice in chains
The 90’s Grunge scene was characterized by its distorted guitar riffs, flannel shirts, shredded denim, and bad hygiene. Unfortunately drug abuse played a part in defining this music genre as well.
When Alice in Chains front man Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002 it seemed to doom the future of the band and mark the death of Grunge. Unexpectedly, after a 14-year hiatus, AIC has reemerged with a new lead singer and album titled; Black Gives Way to Blue.
William DuVall takes Staley’s place as lead singer bearing an eerie vocal resemblance to him. I was convinced that AIC would never be the same after the loss of Staley and I was right.
They aren’t the same, but rather a new band just as good as the old one. Duvall’s vocals harmonize with, lead guitarist, Jerry Cantrell’s like a buzzing locust and the heat of a summer day.
The tunes we Grunge fans love so much about pain, suffering, and alienation are back on the band’s latest LP. Be careful playing “Last of My Kind” and “A Looking in View” in the presence of the elderly as they may be left trembling from the sheer volume and power of these songs.
That doesn’t mean granny or your parents can’t rock out too. There are plenty of soft songs on the album as well including “Your Decision” and the title song, “Black Gives Way to Blue”, which is dedicated to Staley.
Alice in Chains has come as close to perfect as a band could after losing such a vital part of their group and a 14 year break. They’ve satisfied fans reaching number 5 on the Billboard charts and receiving a 2010 Grammy nomination for their single “Check My Brain”.
AIC has pumped fresh blood into Grunge’s dead heart with this album, what more could they ask for.
