i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

carolina runs a lot of sports camps in the summers; mostly women's soccer and basketball (for men and women), but some others, too. this week, though, it seems to be a women's basketball camp, and there are girls in basketball shorts and high tops all over campus. there are a few high school age teams, but mostly i've seen middle school teams, and all the girls are at that stage where they're still coltish, some of them grown into adult height but not yet into adults. it's that age where they're not self-conscious about their bodies, at all, really, and it's been a joy to watch these unselfconscious, strong athletes laughing and shoving at each other. not in a creepy way, i swear, just in that way where - i mostly don't hate my body, but i don't love all of it either, and it's nice to see these girls before they hit that stage. i don't remember that age much at all; i was pretty miserable for most of it, and these girls at least seem happy. it's refreshing.

it's hot here, sweltering heat that fuses to your skin as soon as you step outside, and i'm still slogging through thomas wolfe's look homeward, angel (and wolfe, ha, was an answer on jeopardy last night!), which is good but slow going. i'm feeling terribly fond of the south this week, fond of the slow pace of life and the humid air and how green everything is, and so this week's top five: top five greatest songs about place. greatest = best ever or greatest = your personal favorites or greatest = some combination of the two, and place equals however you want to interpret it.

my list (for values of "greatest" equalling "my personal favorites"):

1. "thrice all-american", neko case & her boyfriends. buildings are empty like ghettos or ghost-towns/it gives me a chill to think what was inside/i can't seem to fathom the dark of my history/i invented my own in tacoma

2. "california (part two)", mason jennings. 'cause others may know where you've been, but honey, i know where you're from/you're from california

3. "lakes of pontchartrain", the be good tanyas. and i fell in love with a creole girl, by the lakes of pontchartrain

4."every fucking city", paul kelly. now i'm in a bar in copenhagen trying hard to forget your name/and i'm staring at the label on a bottle of cerveza and every fucking city feels the same

5. "carolina in the morning", al jolson. nothing could be finer than to be in carolina in the morning

honorable mention to mike doughty's "busting up a starbucks" for namechecking piscataway, which never fails to crack me up.

OKAY, NOW YOU GO. talk amongst yourselves while i'm off installing color management software in another library.