I thought of starting this week’s installment of TPOCIGR with some moderately witty and self-deprecating jokes about bands I’ve been in over the years at Pomona College. But, out of respect for the other people in those bands (and the inability to actually come up with anything funny to say), I decided not to do that.Then I decided to write in the first person just to annoy that kid who wrote a Letter to the Editor complaining about TSL’s subliterate writing.

All quasi-hilarity aside, though, I would like to draw attention to how awesome last weekend was! On top of Point Given’s impressive victory in the feature race at Santa Anita on Saturday, my intramural basketball team’s first win of the season, and my Steve McQueen movie marathon, the weekend of March 22 was also quite possibly the best weekend for music that Pomona College has seen since I’ve been here!

Start with Thursday, since we all know that Thursday is the first day of the weekend. Or maybe the second. At the Motley, depressingly few lucky people got to see San Francisco’s Jim Yoshii Pile-Up. Four guitars, a singer with a beard (there has never been a bad band with a singer with a beard), and anthem after anthem of beautifully orchestrated post-hardcore (which some might call "emo"). Aside from KSPC’s Blowout Concert Series, getting to see well-respected bands on tour for free is a rarity in these parts, so this was especially exciting. Also on the bill were local cute-band-alert phenoms We Are Scientists, a band worth smiling about who you should definitely see if given the chance.

Do you remember Conor Friedersdorf’s article from a few weeks back where he suggested that Pomona College transform itself into a state school for a week? Well, I think that the closest we’ll ever come to Mr. Friedersdorf’s dream was Friday afternoon. Just as people were leaving lunch at Frary, Benjamin Kraines ’02 and Michael Gaertner ’02 actually took some initiative to do something fun and brought turntables out to Walker Beach. Their music made for some great atmosphere and people responded by tossing the old Frisbee-brand flying disc around, dancing with their shoes off, shooting basketball on netless goals, and bringing homework outside. For once, Pomona actually looked like a real college where people like to hang out in public spaces! (Please, somebody take a hint here and do more spontaneously fun things that don’t involve drinking vodka out of your Sparkletts water cooler.)

Then, after sitting outside all afternoon, I went to the Swim Team’s SCIAC Party in Eversole Courtyard/Grooveline. Upstairs, DJ Lifestyle rocked the party like no other can. Mad turntable skillz, jaw-dropping song selection, and none of those fruity CDs!! Making the courtyard even more bearable was the noted absence of too-drunk first years dancing on the walls. It was fun to be at a party where it felt like people were dancing for fun and not to mate, a situation encouraged by Mr. Lifestyle’s unwillingness to overwhelm the party with cheap, hook up-themed songs.

Downstairs was something entirely different again. Shen Weiss ’01 played crazy-dark jungle and drum and bass for hours, breaking out of the house/trance mold that’s so easy to fall into. After the DJing, the Dusty Baker Cock Explosion played classic rock to the most classically rockingest degree. Wailing guitar solos, dancing on the fireplace, Dean of Campus Life Matt Taylor, and hot dudes with their shirts off!! Refreshing, raw, and surprisingly creative for a cover band, the DBCX will be missed next year.

The appreciably challenging night of the weekend was Saturday. At the PoSA opening, some artsy hipsters with shaggy haircuts played an exciting mix of Wesley Willis, Suicide, Bobby Brown, and more that somehow brought out the best in them all. To be sure, the lime/lamp/record-player contraption could only be balanced by DJing that concentrated on creative construction of sets.

Even more fantastic is that this isn’t everything. There was much more music around this weekend that I didn’t happen onto! There are other musicians who weren’t performing this weekend! For those youngsters out there, you weren’t here back in the days when parties were DJed by professionals and you couldn’t find a campus band that was doing something new for your life. I see two big reasons for this change toward music at Pomona. One, student DJs finally have places to play, as well as see others play. Thanks to Table Manners, CCLA parties, and a few peoples’ rooms, students can finally get exposed to and inspired by amazing DJs without having to go to spend tons of money and travel for hours. Two, Matt Taylor got the funding for a practice space for bands. Bands now have a steady place to practice without getting Campus Safety called on them, allowing bands to spend time not just rehearsing, but also creating new music.

Challenged by fellow musician-students and able to explore the creative process, students at Pomona are finally able to start expanding their music vocabularies. Hopefully the future will hold more changes in this direction, but it won’t happen unless we encourage it. Take advantage of the gifts that we have: places for improving our musical and places for performing music. Support campus musicians by hiring them for parties, going to see their bands play, and making cool events happen. We have plenty of talent at Pomona and we’re just now starting to see it come out into the open. There’s no reason every weekend can’t be like last weekend.