I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS-Free Folds Five E.P. (2011).

With the purchase of Ben Folds’ Imitation of Myself, I received a free download of this E.P.  It contains five tracks: three demos and two live tracks.

The demos are for “Underground” (1992), “Stevens Last Night in Town” (1994) and “Song for the Dumped” (1994).  Demos are a strange thing.  For fans of a song it’s interesting to hear an original version, especially if it is radically different.

These demos are not radically different although there are certainly some differences.  “Underground”‘s opening spoken bits sound more comical and less sung (it’s clearly just not mixed well).  And “Steven” has a strange spoken word section during the instrumental break.  It’s also less manic than the official release.

The most drastic change is in “Song for the Dumped” in which the chorus ends not with the humorous “and dooooooon’t forget my black T-shirt” but with the more abrasive (and Ben said harder for him to sing) “you fuuuuucking whore.”  So these demos are interesting for knowing that these songs were pretty much always meant to sound a certain way (and that even Ben has limits for how much he’ll curse).  But the official releases are better.

The live versions are both from solo shows.  “Narcolepsy” (1999) and “Dr Yang (2008).   Ben live is always a fun prospect.  He puts on a fun show and often stretches the songs out with fun jams.  “Narcolepsy” is notable for the incredibly buzzy bass guitar that they’re playing.  Neither one of these songs features any jams, but they both have a heavier, more intense feel than the studio versions.

Since the Imitation of Myself included live songs and demos, these make a nice addition to the set.  Although they’re certainly not essential.

[READ: March 15, 2012] “ΦΒΚ: Love of wisdom, the guide to life”

My family has traveled to Colonial Williiamsburg for our last few vacations.  We don’t spend all of our time there (Busch Gardens is just down the road, after all), but we have really enjoyed the history.  So last year I sent them a nominal fee and got some kind of membership coupon.  And then about a week ago, we received this magazine.  I don’t know why it took so long to get to us and I don’t know how many more we’ll receive.  I wasn’t even sure if I was going to read anything in it (I like Colonial Williamsburg, but probably not enough to read a whole magazine about it).  But I was delighted by the content of the magazine.  And I’ll mention a few of the other articles in the near future.

This one is about the origins of ΦΒΚ, Phi Beta Kappa.  It’s something I never even thought about, but once I started reading it, I found it really interesting.

ΦΒΚ was founded in 1776 by five students at the College of William and Mary.  There had been student societies before the creation of ΦΒΚ: The FHC formed in 1750 and the PDA formed in 1773.  They were secret and elite and the meanings of their initials were kept secret (so FHC became known as the Flat Hat Club and PDA was known as Please Don’t Ask).  Thomas Jefferson belonged to FHC (he was one of six members) and noted that it has no useful object and was designed as more of a social society.

And so ΦΒΚ was started as more of an academic society.  The meaning of its initials were also kept secret until notes were uncovered in 1831: Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης (philosophy, the guide to life).  Lombardi reckons that the society was created to be unbound from “Scholastic Laws” to get around topics proscripted by the curriculum.  At the meetings they would create written arguments and then debate a topic–topics included:

The Justice of American Slavery, Whether a wise State hath any interest nearer at Heart than the Education of the Youth; Whether anything is more dangerous to Civil Liberty in a few State than a standing army in time of Peace; Whether any form of Government is more favorable to public virtue than a Commonwealth.

Some early bylaws included a five shilling penalty for missing a meeting and a ten shilling penalty for appearance of intoxication.

While the founding of the society was interesting in itself, the fascinating twists that occurred in its history are even moreso.  Phi Beta Kappa wanted to split its charter to other universities.  In 1779, a charter was founded at both Harvard and Yale.

This proved to be fortuitous as in 1789 Benedict Arnold led a British invasion of Virginia.  The College of William and Mary suspended classes.  Phi Beta Kappa also suspended its meetings, hiding all papers for safekeeping.  But when the College resumed, ΦΒΚ did not–its member were scattered by the war.  One of the members took the papers and hid them; they remained hidden until 1848 when they were returned to the William and Mary ΦΒΚ chapter.

The loss of the William and Mary chapter inspired the removal of the secret nature from the New England chapters.  Secret societies were also under attack from religious authorities who feared the advancement of philosophy over faith.  This also led to a change in focus for ΦΒΚ.  The debates slowly went away and by the 1820s it became an honor society for scholarship and academic achievement.

In 1851 the Virginia charter was revived, but ten years later the College was again shut down by war.  The Civil War was devastating to the campus.  Although ΦΒΚ was again revived in 1875, there were no further meetings until 1893, nearly 100 years after it first shut down.

I suppose anyone who is a member of ΦΒΚ knows this history.  I wasn’t and I didn’t.  So, thanks to a nice vacation, I found out this fascinating history of smart people.