I've found myself with a pretty hefty amount of free time lately. Although there's still three weeks of classes left in my summer quarter, I've completed all of the work already for two of them. The other two aren't the easiest... and the thought of the finals for them scares the living shit out of me. However, they don't require much more work than showing up to class and occasionally hitting the library maybe once a week to whip up a short assignment. I'm sure for most people free time isn't a problem. In fact, i'm sure it's welcome. But since nothing can ever be easy for me, I'm having trouble figuring out just what in the hell to do with it. I've been playing a lot of guitar. Checkin out Ikaruga. But mostly these are just glorified ways of sitting on my ass. It's making me feel lazy and a bit useless, even though I've just recently started up my daily gym routine again. Speaking of useless, I'll stop writing now. --

We're still having trouble adding Jimmy to the blog. And Paul's dead, I heard. Although I wouldn't know. Granted, they probably don't know whether I'm alive or not either, considering that I was in Jersey for the weekend and failed to meet up with them. I was actually at home for a grand total of 20 minutes not counting sleeping gents - I do hope you'll forgive me.

Speaking of Paul, I purchased Ikaruga for the Gamecube solely based on his recommendation. Actually, it wasn't much of a recommendation at all. He said "Ikaruga - REZ for the Gamecube." That folks, was all I needed to hear. I really do hope that Paul actually is alive, because maybe we could play two player or something. That'd be h-o capitalized double tizzy.

I've listened to the new Riverdales album about 500 times today. Granted it's only about 23 minutes long - but that's still a relatively large amount of spins, I'd say. Take the golden oldies feel of the first record, combine it with the drive of 'Storm the Streets', throw in some Ramones-like spookiness to the vocals, and you've got 'Phase Three'. I'm impressed. I'm hooked. But I guess that's what happens after you spend two years listening to stuff like The Microphones, Notwist, etc. A good pop record tends to jump out at you amongst all of that artsy shtuff.

I work on the yearbook staff here at Northeastern and I just completed inserting images from June's graduation ceremony. One of the images was of Brian Wilson receiving his honorary degree and he looks stoned out of his fucking mind. --

New Hey Mercedes MP3 at heymercedes.com and also a new Riverdales MP3 at 145records.com posted today. Sorry I'm not providing the direct linkage, I'm all about being on the lazy tip right now. I f-ing love those sweet sounding Hey Mercedes guitar leads for sure. Combined with that kinda-sounds-like-the-first-Riverdales-album-but-better-sound of Last Stop Tokyo these two tunes have certainly put a smile on my face on this rainy tuesday.

I'd like to quickly say fuck you to Newbury Comics for not carrying the new Riverdales album on its release date. I was late to class and walked in the humid rain without an umbrella just to come home today empty handed.

Tomorrow I rock the dermatologist to find out about this cancerous looking thing on my leg. Marissa's coming with me, which is super sweet of her. I'll let you'll know when I do. --

weird, i had a dream monday nite that was crazy... and i dont dream - spooky, am i rite?

Last night I dreamt that I was driving around north Jersey by myself in a beat up car. It was very woodsy - West Milford / Vernon-esque - and very dark. I made a pit stop at an asian supermarket. There were about 15 - 20 asian children in the parking lot setting off fireworks. I reached into my backseat and grabbed a few balloons that were there for one reason or another. I threw the balloons into the parking lot and the children threw fireworks at them. The balloons popped. I was sad that my balloons were gone so I left the asian supermarket. I took off down a dark road and noticed that I was being tailed by a cop. I sped up and at the first intersection cut the wheel hard to the right and screeched down a different road. The cops lights went on and he proceeded to chase me around a suburban neighborhood for awhile. I grew bored of being chased so I took off down a secret path to rest. When I felt it was safe I left the hideout and went searching for the house I wanted to live in when I was older. I found it and parked outside. I lit a cigarette and smiled at the thought of me being inside someday and making the windows visibly illuminated from the outside by my own hands. I wanted to call Marissa to talk to her about it but I couldn't find my phone. Then I woke up.

I guess compared to that the fact that I broke a sterling silver belt buckle in half this morning while putting on my pants and found out that I could possibly have mela-noma (skin cancer) on my leg isn't really that strange at all.

New Riverdales album tomorrow. --

The movie stars Bill Murray and the soundtrack is being done by Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine? I don't know a damn thing other than that about 'Lost in Translation' but you can certainly sign me up for a pre-order ticket!

Now that everyone's using synthesizers to death again is it time for the cyclical nostalgia machine to start up a pop-punk revival? I don't know, I guess I'll leave that up to you to decide. At this rate... I predict a huge economic boom starting late this year, lasting approximately for 4-5 years, followed by a minor recession, a war lead by President Jeb Bush, and then the mainstream popularity of a form of music that the kids call emo. And also cell phones. Fucking cell phones everywhere.

I'm just trying to get ahead of the curve here, ya know. Stay hip and whatnot.

I'm going to be heading to Naragansett (no idea how to spell) RI this weekend with my roommate, the lady friend, and an as of yet unkown cast of other characters. The weather outlook for the northeast isn't so hot for the weekend, but I'm excited regardless. Although my month back in Boston has been amazing, it's always nice to see the ocean in the summer.

Also, Karaoke tonight. --

I guess I should preface this with mentioning that I always had my doubts about 'punk rock'. Maybe it was insecurity because I never really 'got it'. I always liked pop-punk - that was fun. Rebellious enough for me, I guess. I never really was that rebellious, I suppose. I don't know what this says about punk rock. Christ, it might say that I know absolutely nothing about it more than anything at all... but in reading this article that was posted a few weeks ago I'd say that Rancid has struck out in the punk rock corner:

Strike 1: Signing to Warner.
Strike 2: New single features a song by some guy in that Good Charlotte band. This is perhaps the most disturbing.
Strike 3: Tim Armstrong in some band with the drummer of Blink 182?

As far as the new album goes.. I'm relatively unimpressed after a listen or two. The second self-titled one that they put out in 2000 was pretty bad-ass, if I remember correctly. And I remember digging that Let's Go one when I was like 15. Yeah. --

Been listening to:

Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Rancid - Invincible
The Rapture - Echoes

Opinions to come to soon. Most definitely before the release dates. --

Back in the fall I used to receive e-mail from readers after just about every weblog entry I posted. My closest friends would instant message me and ask me for clarification on posts if I had been too vague. People seemed to enjoy reading this thing. Back then I was pretty bitter about a whole bunch of things... so the whining came easy and I was never short on words.

Now, however, it's a little bit different. I wake up every day with a smile on my face. I go about my fairly routine business and either spend my evenings studying or relaxing with Marissa. While this is great for me, I think that the Blog has suffered severely as of late because of it. Now i'm not about to seek out things to be bitter about for the sake of a weblog... however, I do promise to search for a new voice for myself. One that can cleverly tell stories like I'd like to think I used to. This is new ground I'm treading on here. So hang out for a bit. Come along for the ride. See where it takes us.

I'm looking into adding a 'comments' section to the weblog so that people can remark on everything that we post up here. I figure I can't find inspiration of my own to blog about... I'll push it back on you and let you do it for me. --

I was just sleeping soundly. It's been a long day already and I've only been awake for seven hours. Soccer in the fens. Hot outside but frigid in my bedroom. I awoke to church bells. Someone was getting married at the church across the street. I fell awkwardly on my arm today while playing soccer and it hurts more now than it did then. I am dying of thirst. My alcohol vs. water intake has been incredibly disparate this weekend.

I'm listening to the new Beulah album, 'Yoko' right now. It's pretty god-damn good. Not quite as fun as The Coast is Never Clear, but still good. I've attained the new Death Cab for Cutie, too... but haven't given it a spin yet. Rumour has it that it's pretty slooow.

I love Boston. I love summer. I love Boston in the summer.

I agree with Paul about Blogger being a bit too simple to use. The past versions of in.circles were always a bit more annoying to update, so I would make sure that I approached the updating process with something worth going through the hassle of updating for, ya dig? At any rate, I'm easing into this. Paul has reservations, clearly and understandably. And Jimmy... well, Jimmy hasn't accepted my invitation to join just yet. We're getting there.

It's a little bit belated at this point, but my fourth of July weekend was tip-top. Friends old and new - relaxation - the full gamut.

Lately I've been listening to the new Weakerthans album a lot, which has been quite enjoyable. A little less rock and a little more rock-a-billy. New Pretty Girls Make Graves has been rockin' the discman from time to time, as well. No tracks stand out as much as Speakers Push the Air from the first record, but overall it's an enjoyable listen. Apprently the Blood Brothers were on Conan the other night... but I was too immersed in school work to remember to flip it on. Ditto for the Comedy Central re-run the next day.

I need a part-time job.

I need to put some pictures on the website. I've seen some sexy ones of James and Paul over at Toni's picture site (link on sidebar). Maybe an about page. Something. Sumpin' --

the sun rises and oatmeal

today we start another day. im all of a sudden looking forward to the siren festival and seeing !!! and some other bands. kind of exhausted on a whole in general because 20 20 is sapping the life from me.

frisbee is fun, but i lost it in maine, where i went over the weekend for the first fourth of july. it was interesting cause there was all sorts of stuff. while ive been away from the computer ive sort of kinda but not really lost all ability to droos the poos.

im not sure what i think bout the new webblog. it seems very friendly. thats always curious.

soy un perdidor

Heyo! Hope everyone enjoys their 4ths, yo. I'm about to get the ole drink on for a little bit before hitting up the MBTA commuter rail to stay at Marissa's for the rest of the weekend. We're having a slow start here... but I promise you, regularity will commence soon. You have my word.

One neat thing about using Blogger to maintain this page is that I can update it from places other than my home computer. Isn't that neat?