Hello everyone!
How's it going? My name is David Fegley and -- for the past seven months or so -- I have had the distinct honor of being the roommate of everyone's favorite Oberlin blogger, Karl Orozco. Yes, that Karl Orozco. The New York Times-featured, Shansi award-winning, globe-trotting, silkscreening/blogging extraordinaire that we've all come to love.
When Karl asked me to write a guest blog, I was admittedly terrified. This is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. Karl's blog has a rabid following, including an alarmingly high number of parents who secretly (or explicitly) wish that Karl Orozco was their own child.
Hi, mom.
But the point is: These are some big shoes to fill here. Have you seen Karl's website? His resume is a nutrition facts label! He draws his own tattoos! His dance moves make Justin Timberlake swoon! Rumor has it, he once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
So with that in mind, I thought I'd begin by knocking Karl down a peg. I've compiled an exhaustive list of every negative trait I can think of about Karl Orozco. Ladies and gentleman, I present the real Karl Orozco:
1.Every once in a while, he forgets to turn the lights off in the room.
2.There was this one time where he was snoring really quietly, but it sort of kept me awake. But then I asked him to stop, so he did.
So there you have it. He's not perfect, after all. Ha!
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But while Karl Orozco may not be perfect, his latest silkscreen design is pretty damn close. I'm one of the co-chairs of the Oberlin College Democrats this year and we're going to be bringing former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold to speak on campus in May. For those who don't know who Russ Feingold is, just imagine the most integritous person you know, add a touch of folksy Midwestern charm, and you're there. Seriously, though, he was the only member of the U.S. Senate to vote against the Patriot Act and he's done more to combat the corporate money in politics than just about anyone in this country. My apologies for the sermon. I just desperately, desperately want to be his friend.
Anyway, we commissioned Karl to produce a silkscreen for our event, and -- unsurprisingly -- he turned out a thing of beauty.
Call me crazy, but I think this kid may have a future. If anyone from Pixar has stumbled upon this blog, I urge you to hire him. Right now.
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Seeing as this is an official Oberlin College blog, I feel I have a responsibility -- nay, duty -- to write a little bit about this place we call home for nine months of the year. As a politics major/history minor, my academic perspective on Oberlin is likely a bit different from Karl's. We've never had a class together and likely never will, but I know that our work challenges us in similar ways.
This week, for instance, both Karl and I will be taking part in some good ol' public speaking on two very different topics. On Tuesday, Karl will be delivering a presentation about his characteristically spectacular silkscreens from Winter Term. He'll talk about what he learned, what it was like leaving the country for the first time in his life, and (hopefully) what it was like eating pig lung. My apologies to our vegetarian readers.
Exactly 24 hours later, I'll be joining my classmates from Professor Paul Dawson's Public Policy class, as we welcome former Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to campus. We'll be holding a 90-minute Q&A session with Mr. Fenty, who graduated from Oberlin in 1992 and is a former student of Prof. Dawson's. We've spent the past few months researching his administration in DC and his efforts to overhaul the public school system there. As a Marylander who grew up reading the Washington Post every morning, it's pretty surreal to think I'll be sitting in the same room as Adrian Fenty, but I'm really looking forward to it.
(A side note to any and all potential Oberlin students: Take POLT105. It's Professor Dawson's Intro to American Government course and it is the only 8:00 AM class that you should ever take in your life. You'll learn how to think politically and have a better idea of how change actually takes place in US politics. The class will be co-taught by Mr. Fenty this fall and I hear that the tutors for the class next year are supposed to be really great. And attractive. And humble about how great and attractive they are.)
Anyway, it's 1:40 AM on a school night and I really must go and write an essay. But it's truly been a joy, dear blog readers, and thank you for letting me borrow Karl's blog for an entry. He'll be back soon, I promise.
From Karl: Sorry for the enormous blogging absence. I'll work harder on that.
