10.31.04:
Fall back, Spring ahead. Time travel is your friend. Chew more gum. Shoes: A Nice Commodity

8:38 AM when it feels more like 9:38AM. Last night I tried to watch Saturday Night Live. I bet it's been over a year since I last watched SNL. and it was awful, just awful. There wasn't one funny moment in the thirty or so minutes that I watched.

Listening to: Mobile Safari - The Pastels

10.30.04:
9:13 AM...

Listening to: The Stone Roses (Every time I listen to them they sound just as fresh and unbelievable as the first time I ever heard I Wanna Be Adored when I was 16. I went through two copies of their debut before I joined the cd revolution. Amazing)
Reading: Paradise Reclaimed by Haldor Laxness (Reading Laxness always makes me want to book a flight to Iceland and go gnome hunting.)
Drinking: Coffee (If I drink coffee past 3pm I turn into a complete mess.)
Looking for: A good reason to vote for Kerry
Not voting for: Bush
Wondering: How I got that spider bite
Playing: My Epiphone Casino hollow body electric guitar (Spent all last night working on a new song. I just wish Logic Express 7 would arrive so I can record properly.)

9:58PM...

Watching: The Royal Tenenbaums
Eating: White Chili (Recipe from the Whole Foods cookbook. Very good.)
Tomorrow: ?

Earlier...

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Mum

"Stop the world! Stop the world, I'm getting off."

10.29.04:

You know you're going to have a good day when you start it with Saint Etienne's So Tough, and a good day I've been having. This morning, within less than an hour of arriving at work I received a promotion, which was totally unexpected. So that was kind of exciting. And then, to make things even better, as I was looking on amazon.com for an ice cream maker I came across the latest in at home heart defibrillators. Oh, joyus day. Now I can rest easier at night

But I guess it makes sense that the public can purchase one of these if they so desire. Me, I'm going to wait until an at-home plastic surgery kit is available.

10.28.04:

Death From Above 1979 -- These guys fucking rock, and they only use bass and drums, but they do get all Romantics with a singing drummer. This is seriously one killer of an album. Canada is the new Sweden. This is one of those rare albums that metalheads, punks, and indie hipster will totally get into. Brilliantly simple stuff, and the flute, cowbell, and moog on the last track work together in the most wonderous of ways . Oh, and I can't help but totally dig the cover.

10.27.04:

Yesterday, while hanging out at Tower Records on Clark waiting for The Delgados to do an in-store acoustic show, I finally was able to locate a copy of Annie's Anniemal. Laugh as you may, but I'm liking this album way more than the latest Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, which is a great album too. Maybe I just need something sugary and slightly disposable. Yet this album isn't all that disposable, especially the fifth track, Heartbeat, which along with Chewing Gum, happens

Zerostars new:
Show -- November 27th @ The Beat Kitchen.

We're supporting a band from NYC called The Picture. They kind of remind me of U2, so it'll be cool to play a show with a band similar to Zerostars as I'm tired of playing with mediocre bar bands that want to be the latest incarnation of The Bends era Radiohead -- to that which we can thank those soulless bastards Coldplay. Okay, that was harsh, and Coldplay have a decent song or two. I think Yellow was a fine single. I guess I'd rather have a bunch of Coldplay styled bands than John Mayer styled bands.

I saw a sign on a lawn earlier that stated:

Safer With Bush

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Were not the twin towers destroyed while Bush was in office? We need to be more afraid of asteroids than terrorists.

While FDR's first inaugural address is known by all it's worth repeating some of what was said:

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

And so we have a Republican campaign based on some nameless and unjustified fear.

10.26.04:
Now, I know I shouldn't care, but this quote on the whole Ashlee Simpson lip-synching disaster is just laughable (from cnn.com):

"Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track that she pushes so you don't have to hear her croak through a song on national television," Joe Simpson told Seacrest on Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM. "No one wants to hear that."

Did Joe Strummer ever use a backing track, or Joey Ramone, or Ian Curtis, or Thom York (I probably shouldn't throw Thom York in with a bunch of deceased singers)? Granted I don't think any of those artists were ever on SNL. but still... I don't want, or even expect, vocal perfection at a concert. I think it's a sad state of things when you think your heros are infallible. I'll take passion and urgency over a stellar vocal performace any day of the week.

This is some sad news...

Listening to: I Do Dream Of You (Jennifer Gentle - Insanely happy and psychedelic garage nonsense from Italy. Catchy as hell.)

10.25.04:
My equilibrium is off. Since the day started I've walked into a number of walls. I'm trying to fix this problem with caffeine, but I have a fear that it, as in the caffeine, will not bring an end to me walking into walls.

Last night I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Coffee and Cigarettes, both of which, with the exception of the Bill Murry/RZA & GZA segment, depressed the hell out of me. I started thinking of my Kerouac and Sartre days. Hours and probably days spent ingesting unhealthily large amounts of coffee at Cafe Express in Evanston. But those days are long gone...

Listening to: No Cities Left (The Dears - I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised by this Canadian band's debut, or at least I think it's their debut. Touches of Blur and Morrissey mixed with some wonderful romanticism. Much better than the current crop of 80's new wave revivalists like The Killers - although I really wouldn't lump them in that category as The Dears are much better. Worth checking out and buying.)

10.24.04:
Finished reading The Captain Is Out To Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship. Here's a bit more of his brillance:

We can't examine ourselves too closely or we'll stop living, stop doing everything. Like the wise men who just sit on a rock and don't move. I don't know if that's so wise either. They discard the obvious but something makes them discard it. In a sense, they are one-fly fucking. There's no escape, action or inaction. We just have to write ourselves off as a loss: any move on the board leads to a checkmate.

Listening to: Just As Well (Emily Sparks — From What Could Not Be Buried. Opening line, "Strange how someone you once loved can become just another person you once knew." This tiny song has been on repeat for a while now.)

10.21.04:
Reading Bukowski I come across this passage:

We are paper thin. We exist on luck amid the percentages, temporarily. And that's the best part and the worst part, the temporal factor. And there's nothing you can do about it. You can sit on top of a mountain and meditate for decades and it's not going to alter. You can alter yourself into acceptability but maybe that's wrong too. Maybe we think too much. Feel more, think less.

Listening to: A Grand Don't Come For Free (The Streets) and Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars (Julie Doiron)

10.18.04:
Yesterday I picked up M-Audio's Firewire 1814 recording interface. Very cool, and already I'm liking it way more than the M-Box. Now I just have to wait for Logic 7 to come in and I'll be up and running. I also grabbed Grageband, which is quite fun. You can either write your own tracks or use existing loops to create songs. I've decided that I'm going to create a number of songs using only the loops, and then I'll write and record some vocals over them.

Here are two brief examples:

Oh My 1970's Haircut (Built on loops and samples. I will say that the drum loops, especially the Motown loops are quite good, and I will integrate them into some real songs.)
Punk Rock Bass Explosion (I actually recorded in my own bass and added a bunch of awful effects.)

10.16.04:
Sitting here in my apartment, freezing my ass off. The heat has yet to be turned on. This morning I called my landlords and as usual I got their answering service. Seriously the worst landlords/management company. Since moving in two months ago they still haven't closed the huge hole in the bathroom ceiling. Pretty fucking ridiculous... Well what do you know, a knock at the door and it's the maintenance guy. Ahhh, the crackling of the pipes as the room starts to heat up, that's music to my ears.

Last night I made carrot ginger soup, quite good. The spicieness of the ginger complimented the sweetness of the carrots. A very simple recipe, perfect for the fall.

After not bowling in more than 20 years I managed to get a strike on my first attempt last night. All I can say is that the Lincoln Recreation Center Bowling Alley on Lincoln has a hell of a lot if super cute girls.

Listening to: The sound of a freight train.

10.15.04:


I know, cnn.com is awful, however, I found this one statistic worthy of posting:

Human rights groups believe about 300,000 people were killed during Saddam's 24-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003.

That's 12,500 people a year. I'm not making an argument for Bush, just stating a fact.

There are times when I wonder if maybe, just maybe, the Cold War was a necessary evil. At least during that period there was a sense of balance. I'm not arguing for or against communism or democracy, just for a sense of balance. I guess it's all hindsight.

From an article on HRW.org discussing human rights in North Korea:

We just need to remember the lessons of dealing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. We learned then that in the short run, it is possible and often necessary to strike agreements with repressive governments that diminish the threat of nuclear war. We learned that it is possible to manage insecurity through arms control. But we could not banish insecurity in this way. The underlying tensions that might have led to war between the Soviet Union and the West did not disappear until people behind the Iron Curtain won their freedom and their basic human rights. I believe the same will be true in Korea. I believe that is one of the paramount goals we should be working for, right now, for the sake of the North Korean people, and the security of all people.

I think the above is just as applicable to the current Middle East situation as well.

Five days since the marathon and I'm itching to get out and run. Hopefully the rain will cease by the time I leave work so I can go out and do a nice two mile run.

On Tuesday night, after finishing Lenny Bruce is Dead, I grabbed The Captain Is Out To Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship off of the bookshelf. I'm always astounded at Bukowski's poetry and prose. I go through these periods where I stop reading him for a while and then I rediscover him. Really this is just a collection of journal entries, but it's nice to know that Bukowski was a Mac man, or at least he used a Mac and not a PC.

Two days after the Chicago Marathon. Looking forward to getting out for a run next Sunday. I'm still pretty sore, but either way I somehow managed to complete 26.2 miles. Trying to find some decent words to describe the whole experience. I think everybody needs to run the marathon at least once in their life. There's nothing quite like crossing the finish line, especially with all the people cheering you on. Sign me up for next year!

Me, before the marathon. I think I had zero hours of sleep the night before. Thanks to Eric, my brother, for driving my ass down to the race at 5:30 on a Sunday morning, and for cheering me on as I passed mile 13.

So today I will spend my time with the following:

Stina Nordenstam, The World is Saved		Panda Bear, Young Prayer		Elliot Smith, From A Basement on the Hill

Laurie & John, Arabella Frank Black Francis

I knew the new Stina Nordenstam was getting a release, but I doubted it would see a release in the US since her last album never made its way to America. Panda Bear's Young Prayer is gorgeously introspective and filled with hope, beauty, and loss. I'm listening to From A Basement On the Hill as I type and I'm trying to see if there's a message in the lyrics, some sort of answer, some sort of something... Laurie & John are brother and sister. John plays bass in Wilco, and I think Laurie is in Blue Mountain. If the Gratfeul Dead weren't so damn awful this is what they might sound like. Frank Black Francis fucking with the old Pixies catalog, but I guess he's entitled to do as he pleases.

I started reading Goldstein's Lenny Bruce is Dead late last night. I'll finish shortly, and then I'm onto...		It was either Coffee and Cigarettes or Bubba Ho-Tep. I'm going with Coffee and Cigarettes...

"Oh no, oh no, you've got it all wrong/You think you're chocolate/ But you're chewing gum." Now, if that's not pop poetry, than I don't know what is. Chewing Gum deserves to win both single and video of the year. Reminds me a lot of Saint Etienne's Tiger Bay, but more kittenish and wickedly sexual. Seriously, hunt this track down and put it on repeat. The Mylo remix of this track is quite good too. There's another

I first started listening to Robyn Hitchcok when Queen Elvis was released way back in 1989, or maybe it was 1988. At the time I was heavily into REM. Robyn, along with the Egyptians, opened for REM, so that was my first exposure to him. These days I still listen to Robyn, and almost never listen to REM. Funny how both released new albums today. I won't be picking up the new REM album any time soon, probably never. Spooked is excellent, and lyrically more accessible than he has been in the past, which is a good sign. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are all over the album. Quite excited to see Robyn play Schubas in a few weeks. It feels like forever since I last saw him. Maybe it was at that awful Soft Boys reunion show at The Metro a few years back in time. Thinking back that was probably the dorkiest crowd that I ever stood in, and if my awful memory serves me correct a fight occured which was so damn odd because it was a Soft Boys show. Had it been some metal sludgefest a fight would have made sense.		AMC saved my life. Can't say that about many bands. At the time when I came across them I was attending the University of Iowa, and my best friend in the universe (at that time) was attending the University of Illinois. I had wandered into the local record store in Iowa City and San Francisco was playing. I snatched up a copy and listened to it on repeat for days and days. I was horribly depressed, missing Kim, and as strange as it may seem, AMC gave me some hope. After buying San Francisco I tracked down the rest of their catalog and thus began my relationship with this band. To me AMC represent that period in my life when I was hopelessly and miserably in love. A few years back when I went to San Francisco I had the pleasure of seeing Mark Eitzel do a performance at Amoeba Records. It was only fitting that the first time I ever saw him was in his town at a record store. Last April AMC played Chicago. The only problem was that I wasn't with the girl that I had loved for so many years.

Both Robyn Hitchcock and AMC are linked to my memory in more ways than the above recollections. Some songs by both artists are still difficult to listen to. To this day solo Mark Eitzel recordings kill me. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. Both these albums are excellent.

I'm about as prepared as I can be for the marathon. I've been training for nearly 16 weeks and, well, this is it. I have a light week ahead of me, I mean I have a really short two mile run on Thursday.

Whole Foods veggie chili kicks ass! I'm so in love with this stuff it's insane. I need the recipe so I can make my own pot of this stuff. See, chili and soup is why I love the fall and winter. With the exception of chilled soup, I really don't eat a lot of soup in the summer, and I love soup.

The show on Friday night was excellent, and Jason did a fantastic job, especially since he made his vocal debut. Many thanks to the band and all who came out to see us play. Big fun.

Listening to: Carbon Glacier (Laura Veirs)

My dog is having surgery today, so I'm nervous. She's 12.5 years old, and she's such a beautiful dog. The vet said that if she didn't have the operation she'd die, so right now all I'm really thinking about is her. They're removing her spleen because it might have cancer. I hope she's okay.

Zerostars tonight.

Listening to: Quiet Mix
Everyone Alive Wants Answers - Colleen
I Believe In Outer Space - Lovers
All Of November, Most of October - P:iano
Song For a Blue Guitar - Red House Painters
5:01 - Ogurusu Norihide
Your Sweet Voice - Reindeer Section
The Drinks We Drank Last Night - Azure Ray
And They Look Broken Hearted - Four Tet
Late - Donna Regina
Bluebird of Happiness - Mojave 3
Not Going Anywhere - Keren Ann
Atomized - Komeit
Little Star - Stina Nordenstam
Paratrooper - Portastatic
Alone In Kyoto - Air