Hamilton College Admission Journals: Casey Gibson

Tears for Fears at the End of the School Year

Mon, 05 May 2008 22:18:18 GMT

I have no final exams this semester. Phew, right? Still, I have plenty of stuff to accomplish before leaving the hill this spring, which is making me want to (excuse me while I pun) Shout....

Aside from the school work I have left (including two papers, a presentation, and a test), I have a lot of other stuff to accomplish. The most pressing on that laundry list is... laundry. I have completely neglected that part of my college life in lieu of studies and social activities, so it's time to catch up. The other stuff is mostly run of the mill, end-of-year stuff. I have to bring my heavier belongings to storage. I have to register in the parking lottery for next year. I have to return the library books I've borrowed.

On Class and Charter Day, being the most glorious of holidays, I will celebrate the year that was with my peers and brothers. The weather appears unfortunately dubious this year, a circumstance we haven't had to deal with over the past two C&C days. But rain or shine, I'm sure that everyone will persevere in the celebration and be just as spirited, if not slightly muddier.

Recently divulged to me is another commitment that will make the end of the year significantly more hectic. My band, Filligar, took an offer to perform at Chicago's Metro for this Saturday, May 10. It is a great opportunity for us, so we gave the booker an emphatic "yes!"; however, the trip will be tough. I am flying out of Albany for the night to perform in Chicago, then flying back so I can finish my papers and get my car to drive back.

Overall, I'm sad this year is coming to a close. It has been my greatest year at Hamilton so far, but next year is looking good, too. After all, Everybody Wants to Rule the World.... and with that terrible T4F joke, I bid you adieu... until next post.

The Housing Lottery

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:04:52 GMT

Having never pulled a sweet number myself, I've always had to rely on getting pulled by a friend. The actual process of choosing your room for the next year is always very confusing and rarely goes to plan, but I've always come out unscathed and really excited about my living arrangement.

This year was no exception. A group of friends and I went in with marginal numbers (at best) and our idea for living arrangements changed about 15 times within the three hours we were there. Finally, we decided to pounce on a South 6-pull, the last of its kind available. That means that there are two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a spacious common room. All in South, which is right next to Commons dining hall and the library. Sounds comfortable, doesn't it?

My roommates are great. Two of them, James and Joey, are abroad right now, but they've already both been told the news and they're pumped. Bo is a great guitarist and singer, and that will be fun when I have my keyboards all set up in our spacious abode. All three of those guys I mentioned are esteemed members of the former world champion Stan Mikita's Donuts hockey team with me, so we'll have a great opportunity to do some pre-game strategy and take some carbo-loaded meals in our room before our games next year. Charlie is also with us, and he's a brilliant guy with a finely-tuned tongue for microbrews in the central NY area. And finally, a nice rising sophomore named Kurt, who I met today after we took the room, will be living with us. I'm looking forward to getting to know him.

All in all, I think it worked out way better than I could have expected. We'll have to decide how to decorate, but we are definitely thinking about going with a pastoral theme... plenty of floral patterns.

Anyone without a room yet, I wish you as great luck as I had. I'm really pumped about our arrangement, and I think it'll provide a great scene for a senior year. I look forward to meeting some of my neighbors, including some of the incoming freshman class! See you guys on the hill next year. Stop by the fourth floor to see what we've done with the place.

Spring Forward

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:06:47 GMT

As I explained in a previous blog post, team DeltaForce won our fall season of IM Softball. With a title to defend and our name on everyone's target list, it's time to get serious about the spring season.

Virtually everyone is returning, except for a few '09s who are abroad this term, so we should be in good shape going into the season. Captain John Pew is still at the reins, and still our starting pitcher. We have gold-glovers at short (Reid Snyder) and left field (Andrew Small), and plenty of power in the middle of our line-up. A few around the league and in the press are snickering that we defending champions are perhaps a little slow, eliminating our small-ball game that we built our great season around in the fall. But I'm confident our big bats, coupled with unmatched fundamental abilities and softball know-how, will give us a good shot at defending the t-shirt.

IM soccer is also starting back up. I forgot my cleats at home (of course), so I'll need to make do until I can coax my parents into sending them (please, guys??). We lost a few more people from the team, and last season was a little disappointing overall, so we hope to make strides here. Hopefully the warm weather and long days will provide a little added incentive to get out there and practice.

Other than that, it's study, study, study. Very busy end of the school year, but I'll keep my head down and make it out alive. My exam week will be relatively lax, so assuming I make it to then, I'll have a little time to hang around, soak up some sun, and maybe even stay a little into Senior Week to say goodbye to so many good friends I've made here. I'll be sad to see the class above me go... they've taught me so much.

One last note: My band Filligar just got a nice review last week for "The City Tree," our latest album, from a top American pop music critic, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun Times and co-host of a nationally syndicated rock music talk radio show called Sound Opinions. He was also an editor at Rolling Stone. He compared us favorably to Belle & Sebastian and Vampire Weekend.

Here it is: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/derogatis/867933,SHO-Sunday-derodemo30.article

Viva la spring!

F-R-I-D-A-Y Spells Relief

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:19:15 GMT

The week before spring break at Hamilton is not a designated "finals," or "midterms," or "that huge research paper assigned on the first day of class is due" week, but it may as well be. Everyone I know was holed up in the library or Science Center like it was the end of the semester, trying to get everything done before leaving campus for break.

I was a part of that lucky assemblage; I had a Jazz Composing and Arranging composition due on Monday, and two economics exams today (one in Health Economics and one in Economics of Innovation and Technology). Somehow, probably by the grace of the holy academia deities, I made it through the week. Now, only one hour-long Beatles class separates me from Spring Break.

Big weeks like this one definitely bring out the former in Hamilton's "work hard, play hard" mantra. I was able to sit down with fraternity brothers and other friends and forget about the upcoming weekend's social scene. Truth be told, I felt completely prepared for both of my big exams, and believe I did pretty well on both.

I think, now that I have some time, I'll watch a movie, do some reading about the Beatles and their Sgt. Pepper days, and get to bed early. After all, I have some serious dreaming to catch up on.

Filligar's Spring Tour

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:19:53 GMT

Booking a tour is hard work. It's similar to the composition process for our original music: There is no pervasive format for how any show or song comes to fruition. It involves every member of the band working hard, and definitely requires persistence. And often, we have to get a little creative with how to approach some venues.

Because Hamilton's spring break overlaps with Dartmouth's, we all quickly agreed that we should spend spring break doing what we love. We began soliciting clubs, bars, and colleges about a month ago, and we soon realized that two weeks might not be enough time to fit in all the performing we want to do. So, for almost every weekend in April, we are continuing with our tour. Here is what the current list of performances looks like:

3/14 - Union College (Schenectady, NY)
3/15 - RISD (Providence, RI)
3/18 - T.T. the Bear's Place (Cambridge, MA)
3/20 - Sullivan Hall (New York, NY)
4/03 - HAMILTON COLLEGE (Clinton, NY)
4/04 - Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)
4/05 - Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
4/11 - Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
4/12 - Alpha Delta (Hanover, NH)
4/24 - Castaways (Ithaca, NY)

It's easy to get excited when I look at that list. Performing with Filligar, especially when it's a good performance, is the most euphoric feeling I think I've felt. We're getting together at Hamilton before the first stop to brush up our stage show, and then we're heading to Union. This tour will be lots of fun, and will hopefully prove to be a good investment of our time.

We're waiting to hear back from a few more places, so if you're at all interested, up-to-date tour information is always available on our website (www.filligarband.com) and on Facebook.

Hope to see some of you over this next month!