This is Finals Week. A week where we are meant to be studying for the most important exams of the semester.
“Finals Week” is a notorious title that carries the connotation of six days of procrastination combined with cramming upon the seventh day. And what better way to waste those six precious days than inside the rabbit hole that is YouTube?
During this frenzied week of coffee, books and alcohol, I frequently find myself re-watching an interview of the greatest American philosophers of the 90s: Nirvana.
The first thing you realize after you watch it is that they’re clearly stoned. And hilarious. But even with ripped, shit-eating grins, their ideas kind of rings true. Yeah, it’s goofy, but anyone who’s been transfixed at a concert or roared with a hysterical crowd, knows that there’s something striking about a visceral, in-the-moment, positive mob-mentality experience.
I love this video because it reminds me that the present can’t always be sacrificed for the future. And that’s a concept that early December needs broadcasted over every medium for all to hear. Even if it means some frantic last-minute cramming.
I don’t say this lightly. I’m no stranger to the dread brought by the first week of December. I know the purgatory that is sedentary days spent behind the glare of a computer screen, face smashed into the spine of some ghoulish textbook. I know the buzzing of a body that’s one-part caffeine, one-part smuggled Jimmy John’s and all parts self-loathing.
But December brings something else besides finals. For the past 44 years, Miami has hosted Art Basel, a premiere international art show. This cultural event provides a platform for artists, gallerists and musicians from around the world to present their work. With a deliberate and personal vendetta for art lover’s grades, the 305 had decided the best date for this international gala was right in the middle of our early-December exam onslaught.
Via: My Switzerland
This year, Art Basel arrived hand-in-hand with some of Britain’s most genre-blurring artists: FKA Twigs, mother to smash hit “Two Weeks,” played on Dec. 4, James Blake, master of synth and bass, was on Dec. 5 and SBTRKT, genius behind “Wildfire” on Dec. 6.
When I learned the lineup and date, I quickly grew restless. Until I thought of our boys in Nirvana and that video. Sure, I could assume the role of dedicated college student and set up camp in Lib West all weekend. Frankly, with grades teetering on tightrope between pass and fail, it was a legitimate thought. Or I could give in to the intense FOMO brewing inside me, depart for a spellbinding experience in Miami and hope I could squeeze all required knowledge into my brain last-minute.
As I internally debated, my Instagram flooded with #ArtBasel hashtags by everyone from the closest thing to royalty America has — Jay-Z and Beyoncé — to my aristocratically-challenged friends.
“Nirvana would want me to do it,” I said to myself as the debate raged on in my head. “Bey and Jay would want me to do it.”
So I did it.
Via: The BBC
I spent $40 on a ticket to just one show (because who needs responsibility?). I elected to see James Blake – the producer, musician and artist who gives Dub-Step some dignity and is father to a genre of his own design. Let’s call it dewy electronic gospel funk, shall we?
And it was worth it.
Blake is a performer, yes. But it seems so much more appropriate to call him a magician. Even now, as I work diligently on meeting my deadline, I find myself still captured in his spell.
OK. I’m glad I got that out of the way. James, if you’re reading this: I love you. But I digress.
Outwardly, I may have neglected my immediate responsibility. But is it wrong to find greater value in a warm, human memory than a few additional points on an exam? We’ll find out when grades are released. But either way, the fangirl in me has no regrets.
So whether it’s in the faciest room on the third floor of Library West, at a conference table in a city office or stooping stoned in a hall for an interview, we will always encounter consuming deadlines, tough decisions, pressures to think and plans for the future. But the future is always just around the corner, and so the present deserves some love, too.
Via: Grunge Cake
With that, I’ll leave you with the wise words of our boys Nirvana, “I say slack off because we’re only going to be alive for seventy years if we’re lucky. So slack off—big deal, have fun, smoke pot, drink beer, get each other pregnant.”
Because life is more than an exam score.
Feature photo courtesy of: Finals Week Memes
