Over a month with no update. Joy.

New website coming just after the new year, or something.

I know that I tend to overlink the shit out of Wired News, but they've posted yet another article that resonates strongly with me and I think that it's deserving of linkage. I actually remember the location of the first discussion I had with someone about Aerith's (the american name was Aeris, I recall) death in Final Fantasy 7. I was in Dunkin' Donuts on Hamburgh Turnpike with Imri. We were picking up sugar soaked iced coffees to sip on whilist we bowled a few stores down. We were both sad and a bit angered by her death. I remember thinking that I didn't want to play the game anymore because it had completely broken my heart. This probably makes me lame. **

I'm completely exhausted from this past weekend's pop punk geek fest up in the poconos. It was an amazing weekend for more reasons than I have the time to list here, so I'll just throw this group photo up here and let you draw your own conclusions:

If you haven't been keeping up with the Jack Thompson / Penny Arcade feud you can get a quick summary of it here, courtesy of Wired. The article offers up no opinions but I guess there are none really needed. The guy's a jackass, Penny-Arcade is funny and staffed with genuinely good people, and kids shouldn't send death threats to anyone... especially if that dude is inclined to report people to the FBI. The whole saga is quite humorous, though. *

Last night Paul, my dad, and myself went to the Devils / Penguins game at the Meadowlands. We missed the first period, the 2nd period wasn't too exciting, but the 3rd period made up for any previous lack of excitement. The Devils lost and the beer was expensive, but I don't have any complaints for the evening.. I'm hopinh it serves as fuel to finally get me back into hockey, which is something I've been trying and failing to do all season.



I enjoy this picture because it looks like a videogame. *

Pop punk "camping" trip this weekend. 30 geeks holed up in a huge cabin in North, North Pennsyltucky for three days... Lord only knows what the results will be. I'll take pics. And by pics I mean n00dz. --

I'd decided prior to this halloween that I was not going to let myself get excited for halloween. The past couple years it's been a dissappointment of New Years like proportions and I decided that I was going to treat it like any other weekend night, you know, with costumes. On this particular halloween night, however, we were asked to play a set of Screeching Weasel cover songs at the Charleston in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in front of a roomful of pop-punk dorks and semi-celebrities. Jim Testa from Jersey beat was nice enough to document each of the bands here. He was also nice enough to up to me after the set and tell me we didn't suck, which was awesome. Truth be told, it was some of the most fun I've ever had playing music. Everyone knew the words, we played pretty close to the originals.. and everyone was drunk, in costume, dancing, and stealing the microphone to sing along. I mean, Hallie Unlovable, who's very lovable, was chief microphone stealer.. who'd a thunk it? Role reversal much? So, it ended up being the best halloween in a long time. The best thing about not having high hopes is the rare occasion when something kicks your ass with awesomeness. And Saturday night certainly did that and more. --

I prefer Wired News' quick video game reviews to the PR crap that IGN and Gamespot kick out, and highly recommend giving yourself a minute or two to check out this review of Shadow of the Colussus... the game that essentially cost me about $160 because I had to buy a used Playstation 2 to replace my broken one just to play it. Funny thing is, I haven't even played it yet after owning it for over a week. I haven't even opened it, in fact. These past few weeks have been dizzying and the only thing I've managed to do that was the least bit constructive was fold the monstrous pile of laundry I've had piling up forever (let's just say that when I got to the bottom of the pile I found bathing suits). Regardless, once the smoke clears I will be playing the shit out of this game. **

This weeks time eater is the Hot Cops show on Saturday in Brooklyn. It's a halloween show in which all 9 bands performing will be covering an entire set of another band. We opted to do Screeching Weasel and at this point have three more days to learn about 8 or so songs. We've been pretty good at picking them up thus far, but knowing that Mr. Larry Livermore will be in attendance at the show certainly makes it a bit tougher to settle for "pretty good". I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that our opener is I Wann Be a Homosexual and that I'll be dressed up, literally, as a Hot Cop... short shorts and all. My mom would be very proud. **

So, it goes without saying that in.circles pretty much sucks. After six years, the thing is finally going to be killed off. I'll provide more details when I have them, but I'll be moving my whining, fuzzy cell phone pictures, and whatever the hell else it is that this thing is, elsewhere. Paul's coming, too, even if he doesn't know it yet. --

Thus far I've watched the Devils ugly loss to the Rangers and the slightly less ugly victory over the Panthers. I have no doubt that hockey will pleasantly supplement the lack of baseball in my life these next few months. If you're offering up chips, Paul, I'm thurr. I'll bring the balloons, crackers, Orange Juice, soda bottle bongs, etc. **

While moving along at a dizzying pace, these past two weeks have been pretty awesome. Lots of fun, friends, booze, music, ringing ears, etc. etc. Fall is indeed living up to the hopes I had for it. **

The Hot Cops pictures from last weekend can be found here, courtesy of Miss Toni:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toniluca/sets/1178392/

I think the pictures make the performance seem a whole lot better than I remember it being.**

We also played a party on Saturday night at my friend Oliver's house in Queens. I had really, really good time both playing and partying there. Dr. Frank from the Mr. T Experience was in attendance, which kind of rattled my nerves a little bit prior to doing our set. Four Budweiser's in about an hour calmed that down with the quickness, though. It ended up not mattering, he left before we went on.

Here are a few pics:


Clock-wise, from the top left:
Chadd as Wario and the Slaughterhouse Four, Some metal dude passed out on a couch, Carla giving a thumbs up that looks more like a punch, and Janelle and Anya almost making out. Sort of. --

hay guys

ugh. bag of hell and such.

so chris, dive into the nhl. i got the info you need. personally, im a fan of the devils, cause i gotta be. but above and beyond im just a fan of the sport. and when i think of all that hockey is and the teams that know that and understand it, i dont think of the devils.

the exciting teams to watch, in my opinion, are (so far) the nashville predators and the minnesota wild. the predators. they are a young and new team. they made it pretty far along last season. most of all they have an eskimo on their team. his name is jordin tootoo. hes 5'8" 198 lbs. thats a pretty big boy for that size. he likes to dance with the big boys and he throws the body around like hes a whole foot taller and a couple waist sizes bigger. unfortunately he isnt playing with the team much as of yet, but they are having a good early season so i wont say shit. the wild, on the other hand, are coached by ex-devils coach jacques lemaire. this guy is impressive, he coached the devils team that everyone remembers. he also runs a good game. he knows who to put on the ice. case in point hes playing this guy boogard, from saskatoon canada, who dials in at 6'7" 270. hes had 3 fights so far this year, in the two games hes played, 2 in 1 and 1 in another. in his first 2 fights he knocked one guy out and took on an ex-philly player, used to be called the fridge, fedoruk. an absolute beast. he hasnt lost any fight. thing is hes just a good rookie and he works well with lemaire's little empire. on the ice when they need him.

more or less the other teams i usually watch are vancouver or toronto. i watch em all but you know, everyone has favorites. toronto ruined their team with a bunch of veterans, and also liquidated most of the players i came to love last season. i dont think we'll be seeing owen nolan, joe niewendyk, brian leetch or alex mogilny with them anymore. instead they opted for eric lindros. the guy with all the concussions on the rangers. hes doing better with the leafs, but, you know, i used to put them as my priority, now i have other priorities. oh, im pretty sure ill always watch X vs philly, because i want everyone on philly to be injured and their coach, ken hitchcock, who looks like alfred hitchcock, should be hit with a puck in the jaw. hes a prick. i do not like them. basically there are two teams that are undefeated so far, nashville is the surprise, and ottawa is pretty much a given. once we get later into the season i promise everyone that hockey will be very exciting to watch. i have to hold this as an evident truth because i invested alot of time (just now) and alot of money into this season. so if you ever want to watch a game you can be sure ill be watching. let me know. ill get chips.

It's channel seventy-two. But perhaps I should stay away as I clearly jinx whatever sports franchise it is that I choose to follow these past few years. Brodeur's slow start should probably be more attributed to my desire to follow hockey intently this year than anything else within his power. Sorry, dude. **

Saturday night the Hot Cops played a show. All told it was kind of a let-down, as far as the performance goes. 75% of that let-down can be attributed to factors out of my/our control, though. We'd been led to believe that we'd be going on at either 11:30 or 12, but didn't actually get going until 1:40am. I can't remember ever, ever going to see band that went on at 1:40. During the band before us, The Terrible Friends, whom I genuinely enjoy hearing and watching which is a rarity for local bands, the one microphone on the stage stopped working. After 20 minutes of playing with wires, etc.. they got it working again.. but that was just the initial snowball that started the avalanche to follow. The mic they gave me was the same one I've seen at Radio Shack for $19.99. The monitor speaker was shot so I couldn't hear my singing at all. The PA speakers sounded like they were emitting sounds from the bottom of the ocean so pretty much no one else could hear my vocals, and the bartender / sound guy (oh yes, he was pulling double duty) was hell-bent on keeping everything as quiet as possible. Those little frustrations multiplied by the fact that I spent that extra two hours waiting time at the venue nervously pounding Budweisers led to a pretty sloppy over-all performance. I tried to ease the tension with self-deprecating stage banter... but I think that probably just made it worse. I guess they all can't be winners. It didn't really bother me too much except for knowing that a lot of people had given up their evenings to come see us and that it probably wasn't much fun for them.

It's worth noting that I was incredibly happy to see so many different people from so many different parts of my life all together. Old Wayne friends, current Wayne friends, Boston friends, New York friends, Internet friends. While that warmed my heart for sure, it also made the poor performance all that much more embarassing. However, most people have said they enjoyed themselves and I even read a review of the show from someone who has no clue I've seen their blog and it was 100% positive. I really am very happy to have the friends I do although I probably don't do a great job of helping them realize it.

Friend and photographer extradionare, Toni, will be uploading some pictures from the show tonight. I'll be sure to link 'em here.**

Two cell phone pics, one of Grandpa from earlier Saturday from dinner at my grandparent's house... and one of Jimmy just prior to us taking the stage, which I don't remember taking:


--

I still haven't watched hockey. I should probably start with tonight's Devils/Rangers game. Paul says Devs are on channel seventy-something. Bitchin'. **

A few nights back I had one of the creepiest dreams I've ever had. I was lying in bed and all of a sudden felt a decent amount of weight on my body, like something way laying on top of my covers. Without opening my eyes I instantly thought that it might be my cat. I then remembered that my cat is no longer at my house... My second thought was to turn over and see if it was the person sleeping next to me. I then remembered that I was sleeping alone. At this point I started getting an uneasy feeling that someone had come into my room and was crawling up my bed slowly towards me. At this point I opened my eyes, became fully awake and saw that no one was there. The only thing I'm unsure about is whether I was awake the whole time or didn't wake up until I actually opened my eyes. I've had a tough time sleeping since then... **

I lost my cell phone a week ago today. It surprisingly hasn't really affected me all that much. --

Out like a lamb and back like a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it, hockey's back. I, for one, am excited. But am still yet to figure out whether or not Devil's games will even be televised in my neck of the woods. I believe I need to locate the Outdoor Life channel... or something... which makes no sense to me considering hockey is a decidedly indoor sport. **

Terrorists are trying to blow up the NY subways today. Methinks I'll be walking this evening, za? **

Hot Cops (who soon may change their name to Laundry...? or The Casual Ties...?) had their first practice in their new practice space last night. Cable TV, DSL line, guitar stacks, drum sets that sound good, a refrigerator.. if we weren't paying for it ourselves I'd say I felt like a rockstar. We were able to conceive, pretty much from beginning to end, an entirely new song in just a few hours time last night...which is incredibly rare for Los Coppos Hottos. I think that practicing outside of Jeff's basement will be beneficial for cranking out new material and I'm pretty excited about it. Here's a picture of Jeff, drummer and part-time bassist, slinging back a cold one prior to getting started:

**

Last day of summer is tomorrow, the cold cometh this weekend according to weather.com. I'm breaking out my scarves... it's my favorite time of year.

Where were we when I left off? Ahh, yes. Staring down at the prospect of a relaxing weekend. That didn't quite happen. Friday night was a drunkin' romp throughout Hoboken watching various innings of the Yankees / Sox game at various bars, houses, etc. There was also an accidental trip into the bedroom of the girl that grew up across the street from me (i was looking for the bathroom and drunkenly looking for a non-existent light switch while swearing under my breath) and a three hour night of sweaty / shaky sleep on a stranger's couch. I think I went to Jimmy/Toni/Dan's pad, the Hot Cops/Mitsuko/some other dudes practice space, and The Loop Lounge on Saturday night, but it's all a bit blurry. As are the pictures that lead me to believe that these things happened...




--

Dr. Frank quoted me on his blog today. It was in reference to his book and a message board post that I wrote. You follow? It's just two words, "fucking perfect", but hey.. how many people get to say that they've been quoted by one of their childhood idols? If for nothing else, it's certainly a testiment to the strange way that the internet is able to bridge the gap from people of note to proles such as myself. Neat-o. Score one for the internet. Even if he was making fun of me (us).**

Paul and I grabbed a quick drink or three last night. I suck at 11-Ball again. **

I'm enjoying the Wolf Parade album immensely. I didn't want to like it. I didn't even want to listen to it, to be honest. But now that I have, I am hooked, and am proud to publicly state that it is head and shoulders better than The Arcade Fire. I've only been to Montreal twice, but I kinda wish I lived there sometimes. If I ever do, I'll send my regards to Omaha and New York, two cities full of bands that are no longer hip. **

Yankees / Red Sox. It feels like a holiday around here today. People anticipating all sorts of things. Baseball's just a came played by very wealthy people whom I will never meet. But for some reason it means more to me. Perhaps some day I'll be able to explain why. --

I sent Paul a text message that said "De-Op, Kick, Ban!" for pretty much no reason. I was bored at work and had the geeky IT guys behind me yammering in my ear which reminded me of my own geekier days. I didn't know that Paul had blogged at the time. There are probably three people in the entire world that can appreciate this incident.

am i even welcome here anymore?

well. shit on your shin in a pin if ya dish. its like that every once in a while. but sometimes you end up at the friz. let me tell you. ugh. there is non sense and none such sense, but this is where we stop. i went to the shins + whitestripes + m ward the other nite. there is an m ward song called from a pirate radio sermon. i dont know if he played it cause we didnt even see him perform. i went with pete kristen and miss gabby. all good people. but yeah, that is a good song. sometimes you hear songs and they inspire you to make these epic playlists/mixcds. i wanna give that a whack. but really, ive been moved by music lately. specifically back in the day by erykah badu and anything by barrington levy. they dont call it soul for nothin folks. well ive been ripping through flickr lately, i posted about 25% of the pictures i would like to have up there. in due time. but for the time being there are some interesting ones. i mean you can tell when you get the realworld to hit the lens with something nice and pleasant and maybe emotionally inspiring in some way. its different with every subject and every thing, animated things bloom in certain light with certain preconceptions of human behavior and even sometimes knowing an image in context due to presence at time of taking etc.

breathe

its something else, being inspired. its like psychic fuel. it motivates and pokes at some unseen machine. it sets a state of mind off towards the sunset, it brings images and visions to help unravel the present and gives a nod to your state of being. whether inspired by cynicism, bad mood good mood, its always fair to remember that in the end, back at baseline, its just me waitin there. me being you and such

thats what its about. its about bathing in shit only to wash it off. its like these quotes i have for you, sort of:

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail -ralph waldo emerson

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily. -zig ziglar

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. -tom robbins

The man who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself -nietzsche

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise -oscar wilde

sometimes there there for ya. but really, ziglar on far. im at the library whacked up on coffee... lots of coffee. i found two books for sale here, they were fifty cents, by haruki murakami. norwegian wood and bathe the sheep or something. i recently wrote two reviews at amazon. that was an experience. one for a murakami book i read and one for the alchemist. there is a book folks, check that one out if you have 2 or 3 hours. but where was i going with all this.

Blogger just made me input my username and password three freakin' times just to get to the posting screen. Perhaps they are trying to discourage me from blogging. Perhaps they're trying to say "dude, i know it's called in.circles and all. but do you really have to write about the same shit all the time?" I know, it's been years of the same ole drivel, but it's a good way to kill a few minutes at work and a good way for me to use as reference points for "what in the hell was I doing on date x?" So, no Blogger Gods - your incessant password prompting will not chase me away. I'm a stubborn fuck, ya know. *

Saturday I hung out with Grandpa at his American Legion Hall in Secaucus, NJ. Anyone who knows me knows I think very highly of my grandfater. Even though beers were only $1.50 each and I didn't mind paying at all, he took a lot of pride in the fact that I showed up to his first event as Captain of the legion, and sent free Coors Lights my way with a wink and a nod all day. He is the most youthful old person I know, despite his physical ailments, and I was happy to see him having such a good time in an environment I know he loves. Two pics from the day:

*

While watching yesterday's Yankees / Toronto game I damn near welled up with tears from all of the Bernie Williams love that the fans were pouring out. Coming back from a commercial break to an in between innings curtain call for Bernie prompted by overwhelming chanting was probably one the best moments I've ever seen in baseball. *

The HBO show Rome has really started to kick ass. Last night's scene in which Pullo tortured and killed Evander in the aquaducts was on par with some of the most intense Sopranos scenes. The show's taken a bit of time to grow on me, but I'm definitely hooked. --

The woman at the desk next to me is eating, and has eaten for the past four days, the most vile smelling sandwiches in the history of sandwiches. I asked her what she was eating today and she said it was canned chicken. She said she gets 10 cans for $3. I figure a 6-pack of Nuggets from McDonald's, which I'm sure is just barely passable meat costs about $4. If you do the math that's $0.66 per nugget. Her sandwiches contain about 4 nuggets worth of meat. Which works out to about $.06 per nuggets worth of meat. By my numerical and nasal observations, I'd say she is eating something akin to pure horse shit. *

I went to my second Yankee game of the year last night. The seats weren't as good as last time, but the game was far better and the fact that there's only 11 games left and the season's coming down to the wire created a far better atmosphere. Here's the view from Section 12 in the loge level:

*

I've been listening to Jets to Brazil a lot. Particularly Cat Heaven off of Perfecting Loneliness. My eyes have started welling up over the more romantic Lawrence Arms lyrics. So, it's happened again. Head's in a tail-spin, heart's in the blender. I hate caring and wish I could figure out how so many other people I know seem to be able to not give a fuck. --

Danny Suko and I went to go see one of the last four Q and Not U shows last night at The Knitting Factory. We opted for the earlier of the two shows, mostly because I'm getting old and the idea of being able to see a show in the city and get my ass in bed at a reasonable time seemed preferable to the alternative. I first got into Q and Not U in January of 2001. I remember this because they were the soundtrack to my bitterly cold commutes from Boston's Back Bay to the Warehouse district in which I did my first internship. Along with Frodus' ...And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea, No Kill No Beep Beep, the soundtrack to my first stint as a full-time working man was happily littered with angular guitar shredding and lots of screamy vocals. I remember this time period very fondly. They've come through cities that I've lived in a handful of times but I was never able to convince anyone to come along with me. I wasn't going to miss them this time, come hell or high water, and I was very happy that Dan was willing to come along with me even though he ended up getting a $95 parking ticket on the corner of Church and White.

Maybe it's because my expectations were too high, but I wasn't as impressed with Q live as I thought i'd be. Performing those songs with three instruments at a time takes quite a bit away from the sound... and all of the instrument changes between songs becomes incredibly distracting. Regardless, they played a pretty solid setlist, mostly centered around Different Damage, and I'm happy to say that I got to see one of my all-time favorite bands before they dissappeared into the sunset.

--

I've received two text messages from Paul since he gained the feature on his phone. The first one, a few weeks ago while I was walking down 7th Avenue: "sno dome Cock floater!". And the second one, last night while I was watching Rome: "sno dome You are gay". Now that I look at it I'm sure the sno dome at the beginning is probably applied to all his text messages. At any rate, I wish he sent more. They're clearly worth the $0.02 incoming fee.*

I went to Boston this weekend for a friend's moving away party. The fact that he's moving to New York, will now be working in the same office building as me, and that I'll probably see him a few times a week wasn't enough to keep me from heading up for a party. It's been awhile since I've been to Boston.. and his departure is significant because the amount of people I know that still live there has been widdled down to very few. I'll guess that from here on in my trips to Boston will find me sleeping in hotel rooms, instead of people's floors and couches. I guess some might see that as a step in the right direction, but I disagree. I have a conflicted relationship with the place. I love it. Being there makes me want to move back there. But there's also a part of me that feels like I'm passed it and should embrace the bigger, badder New York. I've been slow out of the gate with that embracing.. but I think that in due time I'll step up to the plate. Just a few more months stowing away some loot and then it'll be on... *

On the way up I listened to the new and very forgettable Death Cab for Cutie album, Plans. I disliked the last two so I wasn't really surprised that I wasn't too in to this one.

While in Boston I picked up the new Sigur Ros, Mount Eerie, and a CD by a tri-state area band, The Ratchets. All three provided fucking excellent listening on my solitary drive home. The new Sigur Ros is definitely the cream of the crop, though. The songs are way shorter than usual.. but still pack the same emotional highs and lows as the older stuff. This is the first Sigur Ros album I don't feel like a total pussy for enjoying.

The new Mount Eerie is a winner musically... but lyrically it's almost cringe inducing. From what I can tell it's about a solitary camping trip Phil took in which he accidentally forgot his flashlight. For the most part he gets into how different things like lakes, mountains, etc. look different at night with no unnatural light. It's certainly an Elvrum-ish topic, but I don't feel like his elaborations offer up any insight like his obsessions of old and don't feel like it warrants an entire full-length. It's nowhere near the brilliance of The Glow Part 2, but I think that it's something I'll end up listening to often and enjoying more and more as time passes. I haven't had the chance to examine the packaging yet.. but the LP+CD version I bought (which I think is the official and cheapest version) looks like it has a ton worth checking out.

The Ratchets are a rootsy punk band that have some killer riffs and catchy as fuck choruses. Jimmy sent me an MP3 a few weeks back and told me that Dan from Plan-A Project (and the willowbrook mall skate shop) was in the band. He sent me Heart of Town, which I thought was great, so I figured I'd give their EP a shot. It sounds like a lot of things I haven't listened to in years.. but was certainly worth picking up. I believe their website is simply www.theratchets.com, check 'em out if you get a chance. --

Two things happened to me yesterday on the lunch break I skipped to go to the post office to apply for a passport.

The first thing was that I walked by a truck that was parked along the street. This truck had a hose connected to it that was apparently sucking out trash from one of those sidewalk-cellar doors you'll often see in Manhattan. The portion of the truck I walked by must have been a vent of some sort because holy fucking hell I was treated to a blast of the most vile smelling air that I've ever come across. I literally doubled over and and was a half-second away from throwing up. Thankfully I kept it down... but the for the next few hours I could not forget the smell. Awful.

The second thing that happened was that I realized that I forgot my birth certificate at home. I remedied that today, though.. and am now pending passport approval. --

fuck ya'll nigga

I just got laughed at for eating Cookie Crisp for breakfast. Are you kidding me? Cookie Crisp is, and always will be, the supreme champion of sweetened breakfast cereals. Working in an environment in which Cookie Crisp consumption isn't deemed "awesome" is terrible. I really can't wait to get outta here. *

This cell phone photo doesn't really do the view any justice, but I had amazing seats at the Yankees / Devil Rays game last thursday:



Too bad the game was miserable. I'll forgive the Yanks, though, as they provided exellent baseball viewage Vs. The Sox this weekend. *

Dr. Frank blogs about a blog about the various changes to the cover of Catcher In The Rye over the years. His comments section revealed this cover, which I've heard about but had never previously seen:



Ouch. Pretty awful. The original blog author describes his dislike for the current off-white cover with the rainbow lines in the corner.. but having grown up with that cover and having never seen the maroon cover in which he is so fond, I think the real point here is that it's not the cover at all that matters. This book resonates with a time in all of it's admirers live's, and the cover only serves as a visual reminder of what we like so much about it. --

It's been brought to my attention that I am liar for claiming to get back to blogging while not actually following through. Sorry about that, last week was busy and this past weekend's weather was too nice to be spent indoors.

I spent Friday and Sunday night watching movies and going to bed insanely early, trying to get back the precious sleep that I've been depriving myself of all summer. Saturday I headed upstate with a coalition of Wayne-ites and folks from Brooklyn by way of Boston College for a night of camping. I sort of regret not going for two nights like everyone else since it was a hell of a lot of fun, but I had my heart set on relaxation this labor day and didn't think that drinking for a second straight day and sleeping in a tent was what the doctor ordered. For the most part it was a typical camping trip.. wiffle ball, burgers, campfires, guitar strumming... but of particular interest to all might be the fact that we stumbled upon a pink and apparently used dildo about 30 yards outside of the campsite. I included the beer can in the image to help with size perspective:

*

I picked up tickets for one of the last four Q and Not U shows ever. I opted for the earlier of the two Knitting Factory shows on 9/20. I've been trying to see this band for about five years now, so I'm glad I'm finally going to get the chance even if it's to mark the end of their existence. *

The Hot Cops will be recording a song tonight entitled It's Going To Be A Long Night. The song is part of a project proposed by Christian Tattletale in which multiple bands take a crack at writing a song using the same chords and song topic. The idea is to see how differently the songs can all turn out despite the fact that they all use the same building blocks. The topic he chose was making out and so far the offerings from The Ergs!, Tattletales, Steinways, and Peabodys, among others, have been pretty awesome. I'm pretty happy with how ours turned out and hope that we can get some sort of a decent recording tonight in Jeff's basement. I'll be posting a downloadable MP3 on our Myspace page, hopefully as soon as tonight... so keep an eye out for it. *

Snoogins. --

My own personal office space is a little desk stuck in between two other people's personal office space. Seven people, all sitting adjacent to each other, make up a row. The room in which I sit has about thirty of these rows. Here's your visual:



The folks in the row in front of me threw some of those $0.25 sticky balls that you get out of a machine at the supermarket onto the ceiling at around 12:15. It's now 1:02 and I've been staring at them slowly making their way off of the ceiling for 47 minutes.

This is awesome. --

The weather these past few days has been intoxicatingly (is that a word?) awesome. I use the word intoxicating because it more or less has the same effect on me as a bender of an evening in regards to work. "Are you kidding me? Do I really have to go?"

Although it's safe to say that it doesn't take much to find me unhappy about going to work these days. I do the same thing every day, give or take maybe one or two things. When I was told there would be a lot of variety in this job, I really didn't think it was going to be the shuffling of a few meaningless things. The only thing I do that's not machine-like is post bullshit on internet message boards, screw with my fantasy baseball team, and read as much non financial related news as possible.

But back to the weather. It's sunny but brisk. Warm enough for short sleeves, but not without getting a few goosebumps while driving around with the windows open. Throughout my entire youth this is the weather that I've associated with new beginnings. Until age 18 it was a new school year. From 18-23 it was a new apartment, a new year of college, another round of youthful idiocy with my just barely grown up best friends. Even last year, it was the start of this new job. It's a bit discouraging that this amazing weather that I associate most with driving North on the Saw Mill Parkway in New York State on my way to Boston for all kinds of new beginnings has been met this past week with a ridiculous degree of sameness. I'm waking up in the same place, getting on the same bus to sit at my same desk and do the same work and... well, you get the idea. Why the hell do we spend our entire youth looking forward to growing up again?

Despite what the above words might appear to say about my current sentiment, I'm (1) excited to potentially have a new job in the pipeline that would solve a ton of my current issues with life should it work out (I'd say it's 50/50 at this point), (2) planning a November-ish trip to London all by my lonesome. I want to wander down ancient cobblestone streets with a notepad, a camera, and a slight buzz on to try and figure out just what in the hell it is that I'm doing with my life. Makes sense, right? And (3), really getting excited about playing in my new band and writing songs. So it's not all bad, really. I just always want more no matter what... which I hope is a good thing. --

This picture sums up the part of my weekend not explained in my previous post.

I went to JCrew today to buy the comfortable plain white T-Shirts they have. After deducting the little balance from my leftover gift card I would've spent about $6. I somehow walked out of the store with $200 worth of shit and no t-shirts. *

After waking up at 1pm hungover I spent the majority of my day on my deck reading Aaron Cometbus' Double Duce, which I picked up in Baltimore three weeks ago. He's a smart motherfucker. The fact that I haven't read his stuff earlier is a goddamn fucking crime. The sun has made me tired... and even though I've only been awake for 8 hours today, I think it's time to head back to bed. I've got a big bad week of job hating in front of me.

I'm going to try to start writing here again. We'll start with baby steps, though.

My declaration of hate still stands, but I'm doing my best to avoid work at all costs at the moment and I'm out of other things to kill time with.

This is probably the first weekend all summer in which I didn't have a single hamburger. Lots of pasta, pizza. BBQ Chicken once. I think I'm going to have junk food for lunch today. I'm thinking Big Mac. I'm having hamburger withdrawal, apparently.

I felt guilty buying a new TV yesterday, on what was one of the most amazing days of weather we've had this summer here in the muggy mid-atlantic portion of the US. Sadly my hangover just couldn't stand the bright and hot sun, so I wasn't able to enjoy it quite as much as I would've liked to.

I've kicked the smokes for good and my heart is happy about it. Now it's time to to cut down on the booze. No more drinking during the week and less drinking on the weekends.

I'm going to Baltimore intwo weekends from now. That'll be fun. Maybe I'll tell you about it later if I run out of ways to kill time again. --

I've grown to hate this weblog. I've been in denial for about a year and a half regarding how much I loathe it. I am no longer in denial. I hate this weblog.

My, my... where do the days go? I waited so long for the warm weather to return, and now that it's here, it doesn't feel right. Part of me still thinks it's winter. I walk out of the Port Authority every day expecting icy blasts of wind to be rushing down 8th ave. I reach for my scarf before realizing that bitch named winter is in hibernation. My pal spring opted out this year and gave up all weather duties to summer, sans a few wonderful days last week. Summer's no bitch, but he can often be a son of a bitch when he wants to. Especially on days in which I'm not allowed to enjoy his company in a leisurely way. I digress. The point I'm making is that I rarely know what time it is. What day of the week it is... and that my brain can simultaneously believe that February seemed like yesterday and ages ago. The weeks seem to fly by after the fact, but when I'm stuck in them they feel endless. I rarely sleep. I often drink. I do lots of work during the day but probably couldn't recite what I'd done with my day come night time. Someday, I hope to catch up on sleep. Someday I'd like to take it easy and not drink as much. Someday I'd like this routine to feel normal and comfortable.. rather than temporary and miserable.

I actually had a blast this weekend. I thought I was taking cool pictures with my cell phone at the Mitsuko / Ergs! / Arcade Academy, etc. show on Saturday night.. but they turned out to be drunkenly stupid. You can see them here:
www.flickr.com/photos/christophermatthew/

Cheers.

i think its about time i started using flickr so i did.

you can access my flikr page here

Doctor Frank and Ben Weasel did it, so I figured I might as well waste a few minutes at work and put together the same type of quirky random playlist from my iPod. The jist of the game is that you alphabetize your playlist and then pick the first song for every letter. The artist that comes up most often is the "winner". I added an entry for symbols/numbers just to spice it up, but it didn't affect the outcome:

'97 - Alkaline Trio
A-List Actress - Hey Mercedes
b - Lync
C'Mere - Interpol
D4 = Putting The F Back in Art - Dillinger 4
E to W - Appleseed Cast
Fabricoh - Archers of Loaf
Gadget Arms - These Arms are Snakes
Hair ad DNA - Hot Snakes
I'll Be In The Air - The Microphones
Jackie - New Pornographers
K214 - No Knife
La La Love You - The Pixies
M 16 - Descendents
Naive - The Jealous Sound
O'No - Q and Not U
Pacific Theme - Broken Social Scene
Quality Revenge At Last - Hey Mercedes
R U Still In 2 It - Mogwai
Saccharine - Sunday's Best
T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)- Against Me!
U-Mass - The Pixies
Vague Space - Stephen Malkmus
Wait It Out - The Riverdales
X-Polynation - Q and Not U
Y Plus White Girl - Q and Not U
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

You'll notice that Q and Not U just barely edge out The Pixies and Hey Mercedes for the victory. Looking at their winning entries coupled with their band name makes it seem like they were almost built for this sort of game... --

Como Esta bitches?

My body physically returned from my memorial day vacation in San Diego Tuesday evening, but there's no question that my mind is still swirling with visions of palm trees, desert cliffs, california fast food joints, and if you'll allow me to be brunt: just barely not naked girls on the beach.

New York has neither palm trees nor cliffs. The fast food joints aren't really even that cheap and are no doubt rat infested... and the girls here are very much not wearing bikinis. I guess I can excuse that, it's not really acceptable to strut your stuff down 5th in a bikini... although there was that one time I saw bikini models doing that promotion in Soho...

See? I told you. The mind is a-swirling and I expect that it'll take me a few days to get it back to the norm: 100% miserable, working 9 hour days, and getting 6 hours of sleep every night.

Cell phone images are here. Digital camera photos will soon follow. **

I will spend the majority of this weekend down in my parents basement with Jimmy and Jeff recording the band's demos. We'll be recording four songs, which I hope to follow up with writing 3 or 4 more rather quickly which will enable us to learn a few covers and hopefully play a few shows thereafter.

We still don't have a name... I'll reluctantly list the two that I can ever remember being considered: The Palisades (geographically appropriate and not too shabby sounding.. although it may imply a more smoother type of sound than we actually have) and The Death of Fun (which accurately describes where the three of us are pretty sure we're at in our lives but might imply that we slaugher baby calves while performing, which is untrue). I figure that no matter what we go with I'll dislike it, feel awkward saying it out loud, etc. But you've gotta buck up sometime.. and I imagine we'll have bucked up within the next few days. --

I haven't looked at or even thought about in.circles in a few weeks. Strange that when I finally bring it up to blog on my lunch hour Paul has just recently chimed in. I hope everyone's monitor resolution is high enough that I'm not forcing his entry completely out of your screen, as his images of fire embody all of the excitement that our little (big) hometown has to offer - especially the last one in the list. **

So how are we all living? Good? Good. **

Wired News' updates for today were particularly entertaining as it reviews Episode III and gives us a tongue in cheek quick-shot about the new Sony and Microsoft consoles. In my former life I would've probably taken off from work, printed out these news bits, and rolled around in the grass naked with my printed pages rubbing against my naughtier parts while eating buffalo wings. But these days, I'm just not excited about those things. I cringe at spending $500 on the launch day of a new console, know I won't have enough time to play it anyway, and cringe yet again when thinking about the raping of my fond childhood Star Wars memories by Episodes I and II (although I will still most definitely be there on opening weekend). -- My mind's clearly in the gutter, so let me move on. **

The band! Last we spoke we had a song or two and didn't have a name. Well, now we have a song or five and still don't have a name. But there's progress!: We play tighter each and every practice and every new song seems to be a bit better than the one before it. And plans!: recording 4/5 demos the first week of June and doing our best to perform a 6 song original / 2 song cover set to actual human beings a bit later in June. I'm hopeful we'll hit both of our goals - and from the limited feedback I've gotten from the few outsiders I've given a glimpse of our tunes, pretty hopeful that at least a few people might dig 'em. **

So here's to Summer. Or Spring. Or it's almost summer but barely feels like spring. Or whatever. Here's to something. --

hey. things are good with us. i was on alps yesterday at petes and a fire broke out at the florist next to his house. there was a huge turnout. i guess all the houses in the vicinity lost power as a result and people lined the streets. weird thing was it had the feel of a parade, the whole thing. wayne churned out like all their rescue vehicles sans the 6x6, which is the swamper for the floods. i didnt get many good shots, but i got shots none-the-less. enjoy

http://img175.echo.cx/my.php?image=fire4ey.jpg
http://img130.echo.cx/my.php?image=fire21ra.jpg
http://img130.echo.cx/my.php?image=fire39jj.jpg
http://img130.echo.cx/my.php?image=fire43pi.jpg
http://img130.echo.cx/my.php?image=fire61ng.jpg

http://www.duelinfiremen.com/movies/duelinfiremen_divx.avi

Rather than re-type it and try to put it in Blog context, I'll just cut and paste my little story from Friday night exactly how I sent it to a friend via email:

" Brad and I were leaning against the bar and this 50+ year old guy with a thick (slurred) irish accent wearing a pinstriped suit came up to us and asked us if we knew how to get downstairs. The bar had no downstairs. I said "are you looking for the bathroom? That's in the back, but I don't think there's a downstairs." He mumbled a couple of other things and then walked away, so Brad and I went back to talking. Then all of a sudden he walks back over to us and starts choking Brad and I ate the same time.. one of us with each hand. Brad knocked him backwards and then all of a sudden a bartender's hand was grabbing at me yelling that I was getting thrown out. Everyone around us started telling him that we didn't do anything, so they let me go. Five minutes later another Irish guy came over to us and said "i'm sorry about my friend... he's been drinking since 6 o'clock and is pretty drunk. he's fought in three wars.. He's also a delegate (or maybe he said diplomat) in the UN... so if they let him back in here - which they will - you might just want to stay out of his way."

He actually did come back in. But he didn't even remember what happened. And I was having too much fun at that point to care. "

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction... --

Just about every credible video game news outlet has been running pieces in the same vein as this slashdot thread these past few months. To be honest, I think it's absurd to think that the entire games indsutry is doomed to games with cadrillion dollar budgets, celebrity voice overs, and the same ole same ole just because historically new hardware and the eye candy that comes with it has been the primary growth driver. It seems like a no brainer to me, really... wait it out folks. It's still a young industry in terms of traditional arts/entertainment. There will be people demanding innovation and there will be innovative people meeeting that demand.

For every lame summer blockbuster there's a film like Sideways. For every Britney Spears there's a Stephen Malkmus. I expect the games industry to follow suit... eventually. **

Ranch 1 really is the greatest grilled chicken on earth. Well, at least if by Earth they mean the fast food industry.... regardless, delicious. --

I went to Boston last weekend. Aside from one very quick trip up there a few months back it's the first time I've spent a significant amount of time there in awhile. Towards the end of my time there as a student I was starting to become irritated with it and became incredibly excited to head back home. While I'm content here living in Jersey and working in New York for now, there's no question that I've grown to feel more comfortable in Boston than where I grew up. **

I downloaded the new Nine Inch Nails album, [With_Teeth] to listen to on the ride up there and I'm not so sure I was very pleased with what I heard. Perhaps it was the fact that it was pouring rain while I was listening and I was focusing on the road... or the fact that I was listening to it via my fuzzy iTrip... but it just sounded a bit thin to me.

I'll give it a shot with headphones during my commute home from work today, but in all likelihood I'll be passed out by the end of the first track due to my combined 8 hours of sleep for the entire goddamned weekend. I'm reaching new heights (or depths) in tiredness. For real, this shit is avant-garde. --

According to this article, if you're happy, you're healthy. It later offers up religion as its sole source of scientifically verifiable happiness, while (correctly) indicating that other sources of happiness are unique from person to person and far more elusive. So unless you're prepared to take the plunge into the land of naivety and insanity... the world at large best be prepared to find happiness in a much tougher way, or face the consequences of our unhappy bodies. **

Found a leaked copy of the new Stephen Malkmus album last night.. and I'm pretty darn happy with what I've heard so far. I was dozing in and out of sleep while listening this morning, but I heard the first and ninth tracks in their entireties and couldn't help but be reminded of older Pavement stuff. Pig Lib never did much for me, so it's nice to be pleasantly surprised with Face The Truth. --

Too much booze, too little sleep, and too much coffee has made my heart skittish. And I don't mean in a metaphorical way in which I'm using the word heart to describe the status of my personal life or even mental well being. I mean the beating thing in my chest that makes the blood course through my veins and whatnot. I've always had a slightly irregular heartbeat... but these past few weeks it's gotten a bit creepy. If you listen closely the shit sounds like some experimental trip-hop beat or something. I think I'll try to get more sleep. And maybe drink less coffee. Maybe. **

Been listening to the new Despistado a lot. Not great, but pretty damn good.

Rented Sideways last night. Very good except for the fact that midway through my Playstation 2 decided to stop working... leading me to tinker with wires for about 30 minutes before it inexplicably started playing again. Whatever. Saw Sin City Friday night. The white blood looks like cool whip and I love cool whip. Even the low-fat kind.

A few days late on this one, but I'd have to agree with this chick's review of the song "The Engine Driver" off The Decemberist's Picaresque. It harkens back to the days when people were pegging The D's as being the next Neutral Milk Hotel and shows how moving they could be if they downplayed the showmanship just the teeniest bit. I think Picaresque is a huge step in the right direction, way moreso than Her Majesty was and hope that this tune is a sign of things to come. **

Similar to just about every NY Post sports columnist... I think anyone that took to their feet and saw fit to boo Mariano Rivera yesterday should seriously re-evaluate their lives. It was game three of the first series of the season! It's essentially worthless in almost every regard other than in fueling the overhyped "rivalry"! And you do what? Boo the man that you owe just about all of your Yankee pride to over the past ten years? He's 35! He just got over Bursitis! You should die! Seriously.

Seiously, it's the fucking weather, man. It's very apparent that it's not just something I like to say to cheer myself up anymore.

There was this obsessive compulsive rich kid that lived down the hall from me my freshman year of college that used to have this weird-ass fluorescent light fixture at the foot of his bed. He'd stare into the fucking thing for 15 minutes every morning because he claimed to have some crazy condition in which lack of sunlight made him severely depressed. But he was so petrified of cancer that he had to avoid the real sun at all costs. He wore lots of black and was as pale as a goddamned vampire. At any rate, I never took him or his condition seriously.. because it was way more fun to tell him you had just finished whacking off and watch him cower away from you anytime your hands came within three feet of him.. but maybe there's more to it. It just can't be a coincidence anymore. **

May I cut in?

We need a band name. Not immediately, but sooner rather than later. I think it will help me envision the band we have going on being an actual thing that actually exists in time and space instead of this sorta non-designatable "thing" that "we've got going on". We've started out slow just kicking around a few songs... but last week things really started to solidify. I think we all compliment each other well and can create some pretty cool sounding stuff together. I know I should've learned by now to shut the fuck up about something when I get excited about it, as my words have pretty always come back to bite me in the ass... but I'm thinking that this is something beyond that. Something that's been slowly taking shape in my head for years that I'm not willing to fuck up. Most of the things that end up biting me in the ass are passing type things anyway, this is something that's been stewing inside me since I was a kid. And I'm happy to be doing it with the people I'm doing it with. **

These past few years my winter's have been incredibly cold. Filled with lots of bitterness and a lot of lousy things happening to me. Thankfully, these winters have historically been followed by warm springs with all of the wrongs becoming rights and all of the lousiness turning into luck and well being. I'm starting to think that the tides have turned, but that this time it's for the worst. It's just in the air... something I can feel. I hope that I'm wrong.. because I know the more I believe it the more that my own lousy self-fulfilling prophecy will kick into effect. So if you see me in a rut... Buy me a beer. Tell me to get over myself. It'll help, I promise.

No one has fooled me yet today.

However, it's worth nothing that today's Penny Arcade comic proved to be quite amusing. I do believe that the PA boys have hit a naztee stride once again, after what I thought were a few months of dissappointing comics. Or maybe it's a strut. Yeah, I think it's more like a strut. **

I just paid $9.33 for a medium chedder broccoli soup and an 11.6 oz. bottle of Ginger Ale. F Manhattan! --

Saturday night I dreamt that I was in Florida on the spring training squad for The Yankees. I was hoping to make the roster and have this season be my rookie year. Joe Torre started me at 2nd base and I immediatly made two errors in one inning. The third time the ball was hit to me Derek Jeter sprinted over and made an amazing catch, clearly trying to ensure that my errors did not continue. In between innings Torre and Mattingly talked to me about calming down and just playing instead of worrying about it. I stepped up to bat as the lead-off and was walked. I instantly stole 2nd base. I'm not sure if I made the team, but I remember thinking that I had finally calmed down and was ready to play for real.

Last night I dreamt that I was walking on some anonymous boardwalk somewhere in Jersey and stumbled upon a bandstand. Jughead from Screeching Weasel's new-ish band Even In Blackouts was playing. I've never heard them before. There were lots of aging punk rockers there looking to have their guitars signed and a huge sign near the merch table that said you had to buy your merch no later than the ending of the fourth song. I left the stage area to head "home", which ended up being a walk on the beach similar to a dream I've had many times.. where I'm am walking slowly home along the beach. This walk home has occured in Jersey, Manhattan (no beaches), and Las Vegas (also no beaches). I'm always by myself, heading home sorta bored/dejected, and seeing lots of other people having fun. I have no idea.

I know that I had a fairly vivid dream on Sunday night, too... but I can't remember the details right now. *

My PSP and I are getting married. Details to follow. --

Tracked down two leaked releases over the weekend...

Alkaline Trio's Crimson and Hot Hot Heat's Elevator. After one listen I've decided that the Alkaline Trio record isn't worth the bandwidth I used up downloading it. I didn't really expect any different, though.. so it's not like I'm dissappointed.

The single from Elevator, "Goodbye, Goodbye" led me to believe that the HHH record would be a lot more of the same sort of stuff that was on Make Up The Breakdown. However, the spastic rhythms and dancy feel has been traded in for more polished tunes that border on classic rock meets funk. It's definitely not as fun, but still very decent. I'm hoping that repeat listens will provide hidden treasure chests filled with staying power.

While I'm on the subject of records released in 2005 I've also spent some time listening to the new M83, Decemberists, and Crooked Fingers, with varying degrees of likeability. In order: M83 (which most definitely unveils treasure chests with said staying power), Decemberists, and Crooked Fingers. **

It looks like my commutes, at least for the short-term future, will be filled with PSP-time, rather than iPod time.. so I expect my musical ramblings will be temporarily replaced with rambling about making colored boxes line up and racing imaginary hover crafts affixed with lasers really fast around a track.

Since I've lost all of the eloquence I'd like to believe I once had whilist writing, take Tycho from Penny Arcade's words about the PSP instead:

If you want to know whether or not the Playstation Portable is good, it's a topic beyond debate. It isn't "good." It's important.

We have a relationship to the future that is odd, in that we are constantly trying to create the preconditions for events we expect to happen. We collaborate with linear time to engineer outcomes. There are, however, coordinates in this progression which serve as milestones of a sort: points we can refer to and declare as evidence of forward momentum. Holding the device made it clear. The "future" envisioned by my eight year old self has arrived. Now, we must invent new futures. **

Rainy monday in NYC. Feels strangely refreshing. April showers bring May flowers and hopefully this week will bring my body sobriety. I've been drinking far too much, far too often lately. --

* hap·pi·ness(n): a state of well-being and contentment
* un·hap·py(adj): not cheerful or glad

I lasted less than 48 hours. My PSP is fully charged and I'm ready to welcome Wipeout Pure and Lumines to my morning commute. --

I didn't buy a PSP today. While I stand by my "adult" and "responsible" decision for not being an early adopter of a new video game system for the first time well, ever... I'm very jealous of everyone else in the world that has one. Lumines just looks too damn good to keep me away for much longer. I give myself until memorial day before I've got one in my clutches.*

Last night I dreamt that Bill Murray killed himself and nobody cared. *

You can watch a video of The Hand That Feeds on NIN.com, if you'd like. I say "a" video and not "the" video, because I'm not 100% sure that this is going to be the final version. It looks like they more or less filmed a live band performing the song in their practice space. While that's not usually up to Trent's standards, perhaps he's come to terms with the fact that there's not much room in the world of music for videos from rock bands? Ya know, no bling-bling or booties shakin'...

I kinda dig the song, though. He changes his vocal melody at the end into something that sounds unintentionally bad... but it's at least left me curious about hearing the rest of the record. *

Since today is shaping up to be a lazy Saturday filled with missing day's past, let's play the "What was Chris doing on (or around) this date years back?" game. From ye blogges of olde:

3.6.00: I somehow managed to sleep for roughly 14.5 hours last night... i don't think i have ever done this before. At around 9:30PM i hopped onto my bed to relax and watch TV. The next thing i remember is waking up in my clothes and looking at my clock and seeing 1:30 AM. I quickly changed into my pajama's, washed my face and hopped into bed. In what seemed like only minutes, my alarm went off for 12:00 noon. I honestly have no idea how i managed to so this...i had a nice, sober sleep the day before, and didn't do a goddamn active thing all day.

3.24.01: Winter seems to be fading, as well as the bitterness that so often embodies that ever-lagging season. My bones are warm and my bedroom is clean. This weekend has been a mixed bag of all things good. My roomate was gone for the weekend so there was privacy, which was incredible. Everything is A-Alright!

3.25.02: All this week I will be blessed with visitors from the fine town of Wayne, New Jersey. My apartment will be their makeshift motel for the week, while I sit at work and well... sit at work. I will live vicariously through their daily adventures as they re-tell them to me in the evenings. They arrived early yesterday, and without much delay, bottles of Bud Light were being emptied left and right in a fairly speedy fashion. When the fridge ran dry, we walked over to Chili's (why aren't any REAL bars open on Sunday's in Georgia?) and proceeded to empty more bottles, shot glasses, and full-sized glasses of a wide array of adult beverages. It was Paul's 21st birthday, after all, which justifies forcing him to drink things with names like "three wise-men", "surfer on acid", and an "el presidente", right?

Before the binge-a-thon began yesterday, I managed to pick up "The Mezzanine" by Nicholson Baker. I've heard it's a sort of "Infinite Jest"-Lite and perfect for the run of the mill obsessive compulsive. Although not quite as much as I when I was younger, I am indeed obsessive-compulsive, and most certainly run of the mill. Flipping through the pages I see footnotes that go on for pages on end... let the insanity begin! I'll let you know how it goes...

2003: Apparently I wasn't updating during March of 2003, although I remember doing so. I was living in Cleveland at the time.

3.22.04: Last night I dreamt that I was record shopping at The Sound Exchange, a record store I grew up frequenting. There were new owners, not the guys that at my tender young age of 13 would correctly insist that I'd be better off picking up records by Pop Will Eat Itself, Pigface, and Fugazi instead of whatever other crap I was probably buying at the time. I went to the register to pick up my copy of the Iron & Wine album and had an altercation with the gentleman ringing me up about the amount I gave him, the cost of the album, and the disparity between them and the amount of change he gave me.. I ended up leaving the store without the album, claiming that I would never listen to music ever again.

Sorry, I just wanted to see if that dream was just as fucking stupid written down as it was in my head. Turns out it was. *

Yesterday I drank my balls off. I'm talking non-stop from like 10:30AM until about 7 at night. I suppose that's par for the course in South Boston on the day of their big St Patty's parade... however, the fact that I was on the clock made it quite interesting. Four of us were DJing a bar on the parade route. The initial gig-time was 12-2, but the owner offered us $250 cash, on top of our (shitty) hourly wage if we stayed until 5. As much as I get annoyed with my part-time job for eating away at my precious and few college weekends... playing rock music for five hours, getting shitey with a bunch of Irish cops for free, and making about $200 ain't a half-bad way to spend a Sunday. *

--
Longest.Post.Ever.

Thirteen things that do not make sense, from The New Scientist via Slashdot. A pretty interesting read that'll make the sci-fi geek in all of us excited about the prospect of people smarter than us figuring out things that we don't really understand.

The fourteenth thing that doesn't make sense is how I'm still living and breathing after this weeks (mis)treatment of my body. I Haven't slept more than 5 hours any night this week and I've been at least a little bit intoxicated upon falling asleep three times. I don't think I'll be ready for another St. Patrick's Day until next year. --

Last night I took part in my first ever fantasy baseball draft. The chaps in my league were all seasoned-pros, which left me a bit uneasy about the whole thing. I went looking for advice from a few sources, but I found a lot of contradictory stuff, so I just decided to go with my gut and a little pre-planning. I don't know how much the pre-planning helped, but my team(for now, at least) is as follows:

Hitters
J. Lopez - (Bal - C)
C. Delgado(Fla - 1B) 
M. Loretta(SD - 2B) 
A. Ramirez(ChC - 3B) 
O. Cabrera(LAA - SS) 
G. Sheffield(NYY - OF) 
C. Jones(Atl - 3B,OF)
M. Alou(SF - OF)
S. Finley(LAA - OF)
T. Hafner(Cle - 1B)
R. Hernandez(SD - C)
A. Jones(Atl - OF) 

Pitchers
J. Santana(Min - SP)
M. Mussina(NYY - SP) 
J. Nathan(Min - RP)
E. Guardado(Sea - RP) 
C. Carpenter(StL - SP)
T. Glavine(NYM - SP) 
C. Cordero(Was - RP) 
F. Garcia(CWS - SP) 

My hitters are probably a perfect sampling of some of the slowest guys in Major League Baseball, so I don't expect to be winning, or even to be able to compete for stolen bases points. Aside from that the team is pretty well-rounded, though.. so hopefully I'll be competitive. If not, I can chalk it up to experience and cry about the $100 I spent in October. **

Been listening to the new M83 and Crooked Fingers a lot. Going to see the amazing Thermals next Tuesday, which I couldn't be more excited about. *

It's St. Patty's, time to get my drink on. Cheers. --

i went to the botanical gardens in the bronx the other day, i have here pictures from that trip...

its times like this i wish i had a better camera. i only post a select few out of all the ones i took.

let me tell you, as you can see by my last post, my state of mind has been with the foliage lately. this little excursion let me get some quality time with my buddies. dont call me crazy when i tell you that these guys spoke to me. hopefully you can see that by the pics, they are truly my pals.

here

I don't know if any of you read the comments, so I thought I would post this link that Joe had left out into the forefront here. It's a video of Ted Leo covering Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone"... complete with a bridge consisting of The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's "Maps". Fucking weird. He actually almost tricked me into liking the song for a minute or two, though. **

I enjoy it when Paul updates, too. He lulls you into these periods of non-updating.. just to the point where you've almost forgotten that he has the ability to write nonsense here on the blog. And then, just at the cusp of your mind forgetting all about his words, he treats you to line after line of genuine insanity. His methods of delivery are exceptional and for that I am grateful.

This is similar to a discussion I had with a mutual friend of ours last night. We were discussing Paul's punctuality and/or attendance at social events. The short of it is that you never really know for sure if he's going to show up. If he doesn't, it doesn't really bother you at all. It's understood. But if he does, you actually become genuinely happy. Consistency doesn't allow for that kind of thing. And for that, we were both grateful. --

I am incredibly hungover this morning. Time to brew up a pot 'o coffee.

wiping the chalk off his hands.. "well that is the nature of the beast."
"certainly is, and i would assume it wise not to tangle."
"well sir, if i may, great minds have said that in order to realize you should get your hands dirty."
"hahaha"
"hahaaha"
CHUCKLE HAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHGahahhahahfhahhhhga

weel ok sure whatever why not.

well since there are new sources for just about everything and no sources for just about anyone, you see what happens.

most people wouldnt just stomp up to the desk like that and resign. well you do just resign sometimes, in thought and in theory.

i kno, know. but let me tell you this. there was a little gnome. he was constantly looking for something to idle and wile his time away. most of the time, however, he would pick different botanicals, grass blue green hood, other paraphrenalia. most of all if it was something out of the ordinary round his hut he would take a dirt sample too. when his collection grew impressive and he studied the growth of the various plants and the soil they were growing in, he carefully planned a stew. purely veggies.

the night he consumed his tea/stew, the neighbors heard awful sounds from his hut. crashing thrashing and herbal pot fasting. the next day the gnome emerged no worse for wear but his neighbors were worried. he collected the eggs now, the seeds of the various plants, their births. he studied the dimensions of the seeds, the nature in which they embedded themselves after leaving the proverbial womb.

then, as sure as sugar, he cooked up the seeds, a careful selection. no noises this nite. the fucker died. he was poisoned by some mother fucker that brokeinto his hut and tampered with his seeds. they left his body where it was cause everyone agreed on poisoning the bastard. diane julie beth susan jenifer donna gertrude genevive all those bitches wanted him dead. they just left him there. time passed and all that shit he grew sprouted. no shit, good compost. turned out some even grew from him. but that shits funny. just eating berrys and fruits and leaves and shit and people get all suspicious. so as kites fly these days, people muse and puruse and enjoy the dance of the gods in those light hearted paper doilies. shrugging away. strap a cat to the fucker and it wont fly. but billy the bad blooded cat. that mother fucker flew.

one day a bunch of kids were in the alley, knocking the cobbles like a xylophone. rocking out music with crude instruments and crude haircuts. sky above cobbles below. enter x, the cat. thing is the cat was schizophrenic. it would recline in the branches of a tree and treat it as an entity of animation and soul. the limbs speaking a language all their own which the cat abruptly learned. as the tree aged and the rings in the trunk spelled out the destiny of souls everywhere the cat was the only one privy to the secrets behest.

im just really bored and havent updated in a while. i apologize.

but really folks. im an uncle. my sister had a little girl. very cute indeed. i bought her an ipod mini and loaded it up with some hits. she listens. mostly white hassle, echo and the bunny men and select recorded shamanic rituals in flac format. ive read some carlos castaneda, and i just finished a book, the psychology of kundalini yoga. it really is an awesome book. i enjoyed it alot and tried to make it a part of me. but even at a hundred or so pages it is fucking dense. i dont think ill fully get it all even after 20 reads. but there are certain people i want to read it and no one here is one of them. so why bother. been doing crosswords, took me forever to figure out that what makes later days in the week difficult is not the nature of the words but just the distant way they clue you into them 32 across is lexicon topic. on monday that answer is always words. you get that shit on thursday and its something like usage. just very roundabout.1 down, route revealers.. maps. you get it. already im tired of this. i sub at the highschool on a fairly regular basis and its probably not doing me any good. im not doing me any good. im stuck. chris seems to be a sport tho. i like reading his updates and im glad he does. i appreciate the energy. movies, songs from teh second floor, i saw it. i like it, its subtitled in swedish and all, and even tho its a little over the top, there are some scenes that really rock your socks. notorize it.

Tonight I put on The Promise Ring's Nothing Feels Good. A record I remember thinking was so refreshing and so novel at it's time of release. Tonight, perhaps fittingly, it didn't make me feel good. It made me feel old. Perhaps things that I thought were fun or interesting in 1997 don't quite translate to 2005. *

As I was told tonight in a completely random instant message from a complete stranger...

"for student exchange kyoto university"

I don't know what teh fuck that means. *

Nothing feels good like you in....

Dear M.F.er who stole the $18 out of my wallet at the gym,

I hope you stole that $18 out of my wallet for drugs. And I hope that when you go buy those drugs you get yourself into a sticky situation, have the money stolen from you, and get a nice proper reaming of your arse. And then get arrested, end up in jail, and have many more years of proper arse reamings.

With Love,

Chris

At least they didn't take my credit cards. I guess I put too much faith in the fact that I was going to a fairly expensive gym in a nice neighborhood. Looks like I need to pick up a lock. Aside from the theft thing, running and lifting weights has thus far left me fairly sore but feeling very happy. *

So, after a brief delay the band that we've put together is back on its feet. This lineup has only had one practice, but I think it went quite well. We upgraded from standard 12 oz. Bud bottles to the long neck Bud 16 ozers, which might have helped things along. Perhaps next week we'll give 40's a try? All in the name of bettering ourselves, of course. The current batch of songs I've worked up are in the same vein as bands like Superchunk, Beezewax, The Posies, and Starmarket tinged with a little bit of that pop-punk goodness from bands like Sicko and Cub. So I guess you could file us alongside power-pop bands, but you might be inclined to just throw us in the cluster-f file labeled indie. With any luck we'll be seeing you at shows, or at an AA meeting within two months time. What better time than the beginning of spring to unveil your new band? Exactly. --

Sorry it's been so quiet on los bloggos front. I've been busy trying to learn how to be happy with this being an adult thing. The first thing I'm trying to nix is my after-work computer use. It was pretty depressing when I realized that I'd been spending most of my free time the same way I spend it at work, hunched in front of an LCD screen. So I'm doing my best to ensure that my evenings are spent doing something physical, at band practice, or at least doing enjoyable things with enjoyable people.

Besides, the blog has always been best when I update from work.. and once I get a handle on my newish job I hope to keep this site up as part of my daily routine.*

I was looking through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive and found a very old version of in.circles present. You can find it here. That was the second incarnation of in.circles you see. Spanning my sophomore through middler (Northeastern speak for the third of five years) years. The first version of in.circles consisted of material from Ryan, Imri, and myself, mostly from my freshman year of college. The third version featured Paul and myself with rare updates by both, spanning from the summer of my middler year through the following summer. And the fourth is what you're reading right now. It features mostly me, sometimes Paul, and Jimmy once. It's Spanned from the summer of my junior year until right now. [end pointless tangent] --

Ben Weasel has the nerve to criticize Hunter Thompson for "playing up the cartoonish aspects of his persona" while also claiming that his artistic output "went from medicore and lifeless, to slightly embarrassing, to painful..."

This, coming from a guy who intentionally placed a cartoon image of himself on nearly half of his recorded albums and has issued a handful of lifeless, less than mediocre, or just painful albums in his day. I brought up Ben's "obituary" to Paul who responded, "sometimes a persons harshest criticisms are their greatest insecurities." I think he nailed it right on the head.

I think that Pitchfork did a much better, and classier job. **

Speaking of hype, I am enjoying the hell out of Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. **

Happy Birthday to me. I'm 24. But I feel like 23 1/2. --

I feel guilty posting here above paul when it comes to speaking of Mr. Thompson. Everything I learned about the man came through Paul. But I loved everything about the man. Never ceased to make me smile. Never ceased to say something that didn't teach me how to live life a little bit different. HST gave me a hero in a time when there are no heroes. I am thankful to have lived in a time in which he did.

"I always felt like I was born in defeat. And I may have written everything I've written just to win back a victory. My life may be pure revenge."

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

RIP.

hst uber alles



worst loss ive suffered.

When I arrived home last night there was a monster sized package on my doorstep. I knew instantly that it was my air purifier... and was instantly annoyed with the size of the thing. Now, I know that this site clearly labels the dimensions of the unit... but the image on that page as well as the very misleading images on this page led me to believe that I would be able to safely stow this sucker behind a chair or in an out of the way nook and have it invisibly whisp away all of the dust, allergies, and other bad stuff that's been keeping me up all night. Not even close! This thing is big enough to be a chair. I'm considering getting rid of my night stand and just using the Whispure to hold my overnight items... or maybe I'll even hock my computer desk and replace it with this breathing machine. However, there was a significant improvement in the air quality in my bedroom last night.. which despite it's ginormous appearance, is exactly what I bought it for. *

I was re-reading some of my older blogs last night and noticed that any sense of excitement or optimism in my words is completely gone these days. As much as this blog is nothing more than just a pot for my brain to puke in every once in awhile, reading last year's entries has very much confirmed how blah I feel about everything right now. It's been nine months since I graduated college and moved back home... and I still long for living the life I did before graduation every day. I would've figured that the amount of time to conceive, carry, and deliver a child would've been more than enough to accept my post-graduation predicament... but apparently, there have been some complications. I don't really have a solution... so empty whining will have to suffice for now. I'm banking on warm weather aiding my cause... and days off from work. Often. --

God Don't Make No Trash or Up Your Ass With Broken Glass. Five tracks from The Falcon, a band that is 1/2 Lawrence Arms, 1/4 Alkaline Trio, and 1/4 Anti-Flag. $6+ shipping for a short EP was kind of a bummer... but worth it considering it was virtually impossible to find on ye olde interweb. *

I'm still battling off the remnants of what has become the cold that won't go away. It's like two steps forward and one step back with this thing... and then every once in awhile 27 steps backwards. Winter's lame. Bring on the warmth and short sleeves. --

hay hay hay

ive been fishing for music in the lossless boneless section of newsgroups.

i finished that rushdie book and i have to say rushdie is one of my favorite writers. that book was great. especially at this point in time. i realize now that it may not be that the books i read are good at the time i read them, i just apply my current thought, et cetera.

but hay, end of world time

one

two

My research concludes that (drumroll) the ionic breeze is a waste of money. I read two separate Consumer Reports articles that tested it. The first time C.R. tested it for short-term effectiveness and found it basically worthless. Sharper Image, who makes it, responded and said their testing wasn't suited to their product. So Consumer Reports did another test on it and concluded the same thing.. it doesn't actually improve breathing conditions or remove anything harmful from the air. All it does is emit ozone, which essentially tricks people into thinking the air is cleaner because it smells different (and not always better). They essentially say that the whole "ionic" thing is just a fad, and that in most cases ends up taking dust from the air, doubling it in size with ion particles, which makes it heavy and fall to surfaces like beds, couches, carpets, etc.

They gave the highest rating to The Whispure filters from Whirlpool. I ordered the strongest one today for $299... significantly cheaper than the $500 Ionic Breeze.

All said, I paid $200 less for a product that an impartial consumer publication says works very well and I don't have to have a big noisy phallic thinga-ma-doo-hicky in the corner of my bedroom... so all is well in the world. *

I had band practice last night. That's right, you heard me correctly, band practice. It's been about 5 years in the making (no joke) but myself and two other individuals whom I couldn't imagine not being in a band with got together and played some rock-n-roll last night. I had a blast and I'm pretty sure they had a good time, too. It went well enough that it seems as if practice will become a weekly event.. and hopefully things like recording and playing shows happening not too far down the road. Get ready to be (pop) rocked. 1,2,3,4! --

Does anyone know anything about Ionic Air Purifiers? Or any kind of air purifiers at all? Having a basement "apartment" has taken a serious toll on my breathing... it's to the point now where I wake up more or less every night gasping for breath. On saturday I opened my blinds to let the sun shine through the windows and was astounded by how much dust I saw fluttering through the sunshine. For someone with allergies as terrible as mine, I figure investing a couple hundred bucks into one of these miracle machines is a no brainer. However, the Internet is a mysterious place sometimes and I haven't been able to find anything credible as evidence to pick up one machine over another. Consumer Reports wrote an article back in October 2003.. but I figure new products have come along since then...

Any ideas?

Ben Weasel offers up a fairly lengthy blog over at Weasel Manor today. It'd been awhile since I heard anything out of him that didn't have to do with his NHL sim league... and while the indication is that he will continue being sporadic with updates, I enjoyed a little bit of Weasel in my day. *

Although I have a new job... I don't quite have a new desk just yet. Seems as if the IT people are rather busy and haven't been able to set up my new git up, so to speak. So I've spent the past two days sitting at my old desk, surrounded by my former co-workers.. with absolutely nothing to do. I think I've read the entire internet. Twice. *

The sun is shining quite bright in New York today. Although the chill is still in the air, there is a definite spring like feeling to it. Now, I know it's too early for an early spring even by the earliest Punxatawny estimates, but it's refreshing to not feel like your eyeballs are going to freeze upon stepping outside.*

I'm working out again. And I'm sore. --

I have not learned anything of value since May 5th, 2004, which was the approximate due date for the last of my undergrad assignments. I've worked one job for five months, tackled a two month internship prior to that, and do not feel I have learned anything memorable, anything that's made me feel more intelligent, or anything that's given me a sense of purpose. 8 months is a long time to feel mentally stagnant. During that time I've read books to try and feel stimulated... but without a general undercurrent of learning in my life I feel I've gotten far less from the experiences than usual.

Tomorrow is my last day at the mindless job which has taken away any semblance of intelligence that I thought I once had. Monday starts a new job, with new people, doing new things. There are responsibilities. Things that need to be learned. And while I'm still not 100% sure it's what I want to be working at for my entire life... the idea that I will be learning anything at all at this point is very, very welcome. I miss feeling passionate about life when I wake up in the morning. I miss living and breathing to learn and care about everything around me instead of keeping my gaze firmly set on my shoelaces while I meander around from point(less) A to point(less) B.

So far, being an "adult", at least in the sense that I'm through with college level learning, has been incredibly disappointing and sad. I'm hoping that this Monday is not another step in that same awful direction. *

Two quick other random things...

Firstly, I just received spam, in the form of a text message, sent to my cell
phone. "For a chance to win a free spring break trip..." Are you kidding me? What's next? "Feeling inadequate as a male? Dial 69 Send to find out about our wang enlargement pills.."

Secondly, did I really hear Wes Anderson in an ad for Guitar Center this morning? [terrible rap/metal being blared in the background] "Hi, I'm Wes Anderson. For a chance to win a Gibson guitar, autographed by me, stop by your nearest Guitar Center... and don't forget to see my newest movie, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, playing in theaters now." Has this world truly gone mad? --

PC Update: still not fixed. Not that anyone cares but me. (incircles... in 2005 celebrating six straight years of rambling about PC problems that nobody cares about). That's right, I've been doing this since '99.*

What records are people anticipating this new year? The only thing that comes to mind is the new Crooked Fingers, which just so happens to come out one day prior to my birthday. I predict that this will be the year that I further fall out of step with rock music and descend further into the depths of 'aging rock guy that liked all of those bands that played guitars in the Mid-90's'.*

My 24th birthday. The number 24 seems staggering to me. Like at one point in the past someone would've asked me about being 24 and I would've been able to equate it with a time in which cars would be flying, space travel standard, and robot maids being sold in the same department store aisles as common appliances (talking ones, of course). My parents were married and owned a home by the age of 24. This petrifies me. How in the world were people of that generation able to do that at 24? Isn't marriage complicated? What does this say about our generation... are we lazy? Are we smarter? I can count on one hand (two fingers) the guys that I'm friends with that are engaged.. and well, they're both lunatics. So hopefully it means that we're smarter.. or more patient.. and if that's so I guess I can understand why everyone was smoking pot in the 60's... how in the world can you all have been dumber than us? *

Amazing IT guy from work says that my hard drive is tip-top. Bootable, readable, and very secure and stable. I'm clueless... could it be as simple as a bad ribon or power being sent to the drive? I will have to investigate tomorrow on my day off (sorta) from work. *

The "sorta" is because it's a day off to attempt to get my butt back into an IT type role, as I mentioned in a previous post. Wish me luck. (anything at all will help when it comes to my luck) *

I've gotten pretty far into the songwriting process with a batch of songs that I'm really, really excited about. I've recruited two individuals to help me make it happen for real. I'm so obsessed with the progress of the tunes that my desk at work is littered with all kinds of insane notes to myself that pop into my head throughout the day.. "chorus needs to be Bb minor, G, A for two measures!... strummed like that Sicko song off of Chef Boy RU Dum" and "structure = 1X just guitar, 1X with bass and symbol crashes 2x all together, 4x with vocals before kicking into bridge to chorus." Yes, this is all jibber jabber.. but for the past few years I've written a four chord progression and passed it off as a "song". As in, "dude, i've got songs" or "hey babe, i've written dozens of songs". I've just recently really started finishing things the right way and I couldn't be more excited about it. I'm really ready to put my money where my mouth is this time. --

For better or worse... (i'm of the opinion that it leads towards worse) I haven't played videogames all that often lately. However, I have odd memories of experiencing the same sort of feelings that are addressed in this article from back when I did. The most severe case I had was when I was obsessed with creating my own world maps for Duke Nukem 3D. I remember looking around classrooms and my home intently to figure out which vents might be good for secret passageways and whether walls were "real" or "false". I even got so obsessed with looking around my own home that I spent about a month creating a level that was pretty much a replica of my house. Except for the secret passages, false walls, and dozens of dancing cheerleaders that were hidden in my ceiling.

The same goes for when I was rehauling BorisFX.com this time last year.. I was knee deep in Photoshop 7.0 for 10 hours a day and I'd get into bed and start thinking about using filters to change the texture of my ceiling and dying to make it 75% transparent using the layer menu.

I very much need to get into a technology-heavy type job again. I feel like a part of me is missing without it these days. --