04.30.06:
April showers bring May flowers. I could use some summer sun today. A new month tomorrow.
The project for the day is a little bit of Spring cleaning. Maybe I'll even catch up on some movie viewing and reading.
I've been neglecting my jazz collection. Today, will be a jazz day. Well, Dylan, Rivulets, and Gainsbourg aren't jazz, but that's okay… (A few of us were having a discussion about the meaning of the elusive ellipsis marks and proper grammar associated with using elipsis marks.)
Listening to:
Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan
S/T - Rivulets
You've Got Your Own EP- Rivulets
Histoire De Melody Nelson - Serge Gainsbourg
Sunday at the Village Vanguard - Bill Evans Trio
Mingus Ah Um - Charles Mingus (I just love the way Mingus screams out, "Oh Yeah!" in the lead off track Better Git It In Your Soul.)
S/T - Sarah Vaughan
Watching:
Broken Flowers
Happenstance
Run Lol Run (After watching Happenstace I figured I needed to seewatch Run Lola Run. I've watched it a ton of times, but still…"Everything else is pure theory." I have to give credit to Run Lola Run for getting me into German techno. I love the stuff.)
04.29.06:
Thanks to everyone for coming out to see Zerostars today at The Abbey. It was a fun little 20 minute set of music. Thank you Derek for sitting in on the drums. Thanks to the IPO for having us play the festival. Thanks KK for snapping a few photos.
Listening to:
Springtime Can Kill You - Jolie Holland (This album is from the future and the past.)
04.27.06:
Listening to:
The Last Broadcast - The Doves
Either/Or - Elliot Smith
Strand - The Spinanes (Rebecca Gates has one of the sexiest voices ever. Strand is so underrated.)
04.26.06:
Last night, after sleeping for about an hour, I woke up, walked over to the door, took the security chain off, and went back to bed. For some reason I thought I had a roommate, and that if the chain was on they wouldn't be able to get in. About an hour later I woke back up and remembered that I didn't have a roommate. Was I sleepwalking? Hopefully my seven mile run after work will tire me enough so that I sleep through the entire night.
Listening to:
The Earth is Blue - Damon & Naomi
Cup of Sand (Disc 2) - Superchunk
Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night - Stereolab
04.25.06:
Listening to:
Universal Audio - The Delgados
Blue Eyed In the Red Room - Boom Bip
Armed Forces - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Stick Around for Joy - The Sugarcubes
Cup of Sand (Disc 1) - Superchunk
04.24.06:
Listening to:
The Runners Four - Deerhoof
Apple O - Deerhoof (There's such an insane amount of joy in this album.)
Reville - Deerhoof
Lookaftering - Vashti Bunyan
Different Stars - Trespassers William
04.23.06:
Lately I seem to be fascinated with taking photos of numbers and addresses. I'm sure it's just a phase. I also saw a bunch of birds earlier andI thought to myself, "I wish I could fly." But man was not born with wings, so he builds airplanes and dreams of flight.
What a gorgeous Spring day. KK.com took me to look at condos with her. I have to say it was a great learning experience. I know that when I look some day I'll make sure to find a place with a nice sized kitchen. I can't believe all the tiny galley kitchens in Chicago, no wonder people eat out so often, there's not enough room to cook a full meal.
Listening to:
American Whip - Joy Zipper
Maritime - Minotaur Shock
Time of No Reply - Nick Drake
Tomorrow the Green Grass - The Jayhawks
Pink Moon - Nick Drake
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
Meat Is Murder - The Smiths ("Scratch your name on my arm with a fountain pen...")
04.22.06:
Flat tire is fixed. Similar problem as last week. I was pretty upset when the service guy told me what was wrong and asked, "How are you going to repay me for the inconvenience?" He apologized and gave me a coupon for a free oil change. I told him that maybe they need to retrain the guy that does tires, or maybe find someone new. I've learned my lesson, never go to the dealer for new tires.
Just finished a seven mile run. I love running long distances. Today was cool, and there was a breeze, so it was pretty much a perfect day for an afternoon run. Plus, I really needed to get out and just run and think about a lot of things.
I started reading Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality. It's been screaming at me from my bookshelf to read for some time, so I figured it's about time. Greene writes about physics in a way that non-mathematical people like myself can understand. I'm sure some would accuse Greene of dumbing down the concepts, but I'd argue that as an unfair accusation since he's bringing an understanding of physics to those who might otherwise look for something else to read or learn about. I'm quite interested in Superstring Theory (Theory in which fundamental ingredients are one-dimensional loops (closed strings) or snippets (open strings) of vibrating energy, which unites general relativity and quantum mechanics; incorporates supersymmetry).
TimbercliffeCottage.com is getting closer to completion. I'm really pleased how it's turning out. Hopefully this deign sets my parents apart from the other Camden, Maine B&B websites.
Listening to:
A Ghost is Born - Wilco
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons - Blonde Redhead
The Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada
Befriended - The Innocence Mission (This is the one album that makes me miss all the people I have ever cared for but no longer know or speak with. Then again, it gives me hope as well... "Don't worry darling, the sun is coming up.")
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - PJ Harvey
Et Si Je M'en Vais Avant Toi - Françoise Hardy (Ms. Hardy goes California country for this album.)
The Best Of: Unhinged - James
Stoned And Dethroned - The Jesus and Mary Chain ("Fuck with me and I'll fuck with you..." Classic. Whenever I listen to this album I think back upon my year at the Univertsity of Iowa. Lots of good memories and some not so good memories from that year.)
S/T - Joyzipper
(The type of album that makes me wish I did drugs that made me all breezy and loopy.)
04.21.06:
Another flat tire, this is getting ridiculous.
Listening to:
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young (I love how the piano sounds on this album)
Pink Moon - Nick Drake
Hard Ni Sasete - Tujiko Noriko
Having - Trespassers William
Veedon of Fleece - Van Morrison
04.20.06:
For the past week or so I've been walking around singing "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by Neil Young. Such a spectacular song. The Saint Etienne cover is quite good as well. I think someone needs to make a movie based on this song, or at least use this song for thematic purposes. Or maybe an entire movie based on After the Gold Rush. I could listen to it in repeat.
The best night of the week to do laundry is Thursday, aftter work, and before dinner. With the exception of the Polish lady who owns/runs the place (and her telling me not to put too much in the washers) it was empty. Tonight it was just the hum of the machines on spin cycle and the dryers spinning. There weren't any little hispanic kids running all over the place, or people wanting to talk ultra conservative right wing politics with me.
Album:
The State of the Ark - The Ark
04.19.06:
Work, mini golf, dinner... Tomorrow Zerostars play a brief three song acoustic set at Uncommon Ground (weird, if you go to the Uncommon Ground website and find the info. about Zerostars there's a photo gallery. If you click the photo gallery link you'll see a photo of my red couch, a photo I took of Enid, and a photo that Jason took. I wonder why they picked photos that have nothing to do with the band.) We play sometime after 11.
Listening to:
The Concretes in Colour - The Colour
04.18.06:
Song:
Honey/Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Live@wync) - Doveman (Download)
04.16.06:
Happy Easter. Today, after church (church twice in a week is rare for me, but it felt really good to go. I need to attend more often), I noticed that I managed to get another flat tire, the exact same tire that had a flat on Wednesday. Yesterday I had two new tires put on, so it's weird to get two flats on the same tire within less than a week. Thankfully it hadn't started to rain yet, so I didn't really mind changing it again. Plus, I got to demonstrate to three super cute girls how to change a tire. I'm sure none of them will ever change one, but at least they saw someone change one. And thank you Lisa for buying me the bloody mary as it was much needed and very much appreciated.
And thank you kk.com for hosting an Easter egg coloring party last night. The pasta salad was delicious, as were the cookies. Hopefully my blueberry ice cream was good. Fun times.
It's been a good three day weekend.
Listening to:
October Language - Belong (Stunning layers of beautiful distortion)
04.14.06:
The day starting at around 9:45 AM and ending about 9:45 PM...
04.13.06:
KK.com commissioned me to do some artwork for her school's mix CD auction for charity event. Here's what I came up with...
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I think the French pop one turned out better, probably because it's a less is more design. I love French pop, or at least classic French pop.
Yesterday I had a taste of that new Coke Blak. Awful, hideous stuff. It tastes is if someone decided to burn Coke and sell it to the public.
Upon leaving work last night I noticed that my left rear tire on my car was flat. Thankfully it wasn't raining, snowy, or cold. I'm a pro at changing tires. I had on the spare in about six or so minutes. I just wish the damn bolts weren't so difficult to take off.
04.11.06:
Being a card carrying member to Saint Etienne's fan club Lovers Unite does have its privileges. Today, when I opened my mailbox I was pleasantly surprised to see a small package bearing UK postage on it. Inside was a copy of Nice Price, a Saint Etienne fan club only release that contains a collection of previously unreleased demos and alternate versions of well known Saint Etienne songs. Good stuff, and a great way to hear how the songs sounded in demo form.
04.08.06:
Check out the wheels/rims on this car...
04.07.06:
Chris, KK, and I ate dinner tonight at La Fonda on Broadway. Good times, much better than the original place we tried on Southport where all those baseball fans were celebrating a win by the Chicago Cubs.
04.06.06:
I've discovered that the water cooler at work has the ability to dispense hot water. Actually, I'm sure I knew this all along, but I haven't taken advantage of it until now. It's quite nice as I can brew up tea without going to get hot water in the cafeteria. I've been drinking caffeine-free Rishi organic sweet mint tea all day. The tea makes my sore throat feel better.
It's supposed to rain.
Album(s):
Herbstlaub - Marsen Jules
S/T - Aix Em Klemm
I've been in this mood were I almost prefer to listen to nothing but long ambient drones (Stars of Lid, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Loscil, Pan Am and Biosphere to name a few). I created an iMix of nothing but drones, and then set iTunes to play the drones in random order, over eight hours of music.
04.05.06:
I'm watching a show on PBS about lobsters. Earlier I watched American Idol. Sometimes I think just like the hum of the television.
Maybe I have a cold.
This morning two rather ugly birds crawled into my window. At first I thought their songs were my stereo playing.
Listening to:
Lounge Mix Vol. 1 & 2
04.02.06:
Daylight saving time is some cruel joke, or at least a cruel joke to me this morning. When I arrived home last night at 1:30 or so, I knew it was actually 2:30 AM and I thought that was total crap. I woke up at 6 AM (hadn't set my clock ahead) but calculated it to be 8 AM, and went back to sleep. Woke up again at 9 AM, which was really 10 AM to the most bizarre dream that involved me trying to get two bass amps into a dumbwaiter so that the band could play a show somewhere. It was just really strange to try and fit amps into a dumbwaiter, kind of like trying to fit the square peg into a round hole I suppose.
Last night was fun. First we played video games and I've decided that I can only play 80's video games like Pac Man. Then it was off to Jake's Pub to see if Danielle was tending the bar, and she was. Nice to see the only keyboard player to play with Zerostars. Had a drink and then went to see Ray Davis play at the Vic.It was a good show, not great, just good. I will say that he's quite the showman, and I was happy to see him in concert. Finally, we ended the night at Bungalow with some friends and drinks. On the way home from Bungalow KK tried to tempt Jason up into her apartment with some tofutti ice cream sandwiches, but as usual, Jason resisted (actually, I think Jason is afraid of the stuff). All in all, a lot of fun things for a Saturday night.
After leaving Bungalow I looked down and discovered this discarded photo on the ground, so I decided to save it and scan it in for my website. I don't know who these people are, but I found it intriguing (hopefully this photo isn't cursed like that Atari 2600 video game Jason, Kelly, and I found before the Pixies show last year).
Spent the day at Garret's recording another new song. Great stuff.
04.01.06:
Just finished reading Erik Davis' book (part of the 33 1/3 series) on Led Zeppelin's masterpiece Led Zeppelin IV. The book was okay, focused too much on hobbits and magical crap for my tastes. Also, it's probably been ten plus years since I last listened to Led Zeppelin IV, so, while I can recall every song, I can't say that I have much of an affinity for Led Zeppelin or the album. I just like the 33 1/3 series.
Woke early to dreary skies, but I didn't let that stop me from running four miles. Now I'm listening to Iron & Wine and trying to figure out what book to take off the shelf, probably something by Murakami.
Song(s):
Love and Some Verses - Iron & Wine
The Trapeze Swinger - Iron & Wine