Welt ge aus/Down on the Corner

Hello antropodae. I'm progressing in my music in so much as folk are giving comments to my teacher that I sound amazing. I agree; I'm trying to master Bach's St. Matthew's passion (for bass), really hard to do and not sound like a Schutstappfel Oberfürer at the same time. I looked for anyone's rendition on Youtube.com, and found one which got through the whole piece and lived to tell the tale. The other difficulty is of course the words; the German phrasing doesn't translate well into poetic English, but to hear a bit of the finished product is satisfying in the extreme.
At Citydisc yesterday, I browsed for fourty minutes, to discover that I don't shop for cds anymore. It was either having to pay twenty-eight francs for a new cd, or the fact that I woulden't pay twelve francs for an old Blur album, or any old classic album because it made me feel cheap. What's more, the only album I listened to was a re-issue of Thriller, which had good re-mixes with Akon and Fergie and other new R&B artists. It still gave me a chill though.
Uni is going well, though I'm still part time so still going "nowhere slow" in the words of Jimmy Pop of the Bloodhound Gang. The current course is "A History of Western Art", the prof is a young urbane lady (who incidentally went to La Chat as a teenager). Its a good class, small and full of different perspectives but this being Geneva, a little hungover from the night before and somewhat slow on the uptake.
Some not-so good stuff to report: there is systemic homelessness in Geneva. Yesterday in Cornavin train station I was stopped by a seemingly francophone man in his 50s who could only ask for money. I couldn't walk away, and neither could he let me go, but finally a classmate passed by and pulled me away. I saw the same man on my way downtown today, praying on those using the public transportation. Today I renewed my pass, so I suppose I'm supporting him by supporting his "market" for spare change. I remember what one Roma lady on the street told me once, "If you have fair skin, you will never be poor" (she said "white" or some synonym which I can't recall.) Well, I did sort-of ask for this, to be "like a rolling stone" and all that. Clearly we need good coordination at eg. the civil level, so that people like him don't have to pretend to be homeless and I don't have to pretend that I care. Meanwhile: the name of the candidate for "Minister of Justice" in the canton of Geneva? François Paychère.