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