My first night at the Beats & Hippies class, written while in class:

The professor is a wiry cat with a beard that is somehow scraggly but neat. His gravelly tone is poetic in rhythm. The class is full - a wide assortment of students glace at each other with first day curiousity. As the prof was rattling down the roll, a young woman named Molly, I think, sat down right in front of me. I was hoping the desk would stay empty but she had little choice. She's wearing some sort of shirt that leaves most of her upper back bare. I'm not physically drawn to it, but I have this urge to softly draw and write here and there across the skin. Prof is now discussing how and why some of our text may be found offensive. He just told us that in that time period, there was no AIDS; that if we are going to copy some of these characters, he says, use intelligence and use a condom. After that, he mentions about drug use in the reading. We all end up signing a statement saying that we acknowledge but don't necessarily endorse such content. We also watch the first section of a documentary called Making Sense of the 60's. Tonight's portion was the "Seeds of the 60's" and very fascinating. I want to rent this and watch it with S. sometime. Hopefully I can watch the whole series...prof says we'll watch some more of it in class later.

Anyway, class was really great and I'm excited for the whole semester. My professor said he was the first in the country to do his doctoral thesis on the Beat Generation and has studied under various Beat authors and authorities.