Unable to sleep as Monday approaches, the weight of last week’s unfinished business pushing up against the imaginary wall that separates one week from the next like rising water against a dam. Why are Sunday nights always like this? The only night I consistently have trouble sleeping.

So I teach myself some Son Volt songs by using the Online Guitar Archive, a resource that has changed the lives of bedroom guitarists everywhere. And then I improvise a song I’ll call “The Insomniac Waltz.” Am and G for the verses. C, Em, and D for the chorus.

Tomorrow night at 7:00 is my first official lesson. And yes, the first song I ever learned was, in fact, “Stairway to Heaven” back in 1981 or 1982.

On the other side of my life, in one class tomorrow we’ll be discussing late medieval mystery plays, and in the other we continue our discussion of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740).

If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Remember my neighbor with the loud television?

Heh heh heh.

• Had a dream.
• Tried to answer the dream.
• Success!

I just learned how to play (and kind of sing) “Rockets” by Cat Power/Chan Marshall, the subject of the original dream. Lyrics here. Half-assed music transcription here. Download the (free and legal) mp3 by clicking here.

I’m a happy man.

Now I have papers to grade.

I am soliciting information from those more knowledgable than I. Is there any legal reason why a library would be unable to put items on reserve more than once for the same class taught in different semesters? Has our copyright law gotten that bad? Does anyone’s university or college library have this policy? Alternately, have you put things on reserve more than once for the same course in different semesters without any objections from your library?

Recommendations for further reading are welcome. Comments do not allow HTML but URL’s are autolinked.

I should have mentioned this earlier. The UMKC Undergraduate English Council is encouraging students (and other interested parties) to attend the 7:45 showing of American Splendor (a film about writer Harvey Pekar) tonight at the Tivoli Cinemas in Wesport. The plan is to go afterwards to the Broadway CafÈ for post-movie discussion. Your Tivoli movie ticket gets you a free drink at the CafÈ.

Later in the year will be, I think, a reading and discussion of some of Harvey Pekar’s work.

Hmm. I wonder whose idea this all was?