Back when I was still in school, mostly the UMASS days, I would make a point of seeing They Might Be Giants if they played within 45-200 miles of where I was. I made friends that I still keep in touch with, through our mutual love for TMBG and our involvement in the various online newsgroups, chats, and web forums dedicated to the band. I enjoyed their live performances before I actually appreciated what it was like to be a performer in a rock band and continued to be impressed by their abilities after I had played in several bands. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Giants show, but Sarah was looking for possible gift ideas for me and we found that they were playing in Chicago, next Saturday. We bought a couple tickets, today. They weren’t doing the kids-specific albums back when I saw them, but there were plenty of kids at the all ages venues I’d see them at. My favorite solution to the kids-in-a-bar situation was at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. The stage was at one side of the room, the all-ages crowd filled in a large space between the stage and the opposite wall, but the bar was on that wall, so they erected a net around the bar which only had one opening in it, where the staff was checking IDs. Nowadays, they have their shows with very specific age restrictions/policies. This show is a 14+ show, should be fun; Seriously looking forward to it…
Archive for the 'Music' Category
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Today was yard sale day. It was also in the 90s and the heat index made it close to unbearable outside. We didn’t have as many customers as we’d hoped, but at least a bunch of the sorting and lifting is already done. There’s plans for a bigger, better yard sale in early October. I don’t think I’ll be out here to help, but I feel like I’ve done my part. It may not have been an immense amount of work, but the heat over the last two days has made it feel like an extremely immense job.
After the sale, I took a much needed shower and then headed off to Worcester. I explored a little, to rekindle some Worcester memories, mostly of the times when I lived out there, which is really getting to be a long time ago. My final destination was the Java Hut, where Mark and Raianne were playing tonight. The place was pretty crowded and kinda warm. I got a milkshake on the way in, and it didn’t settle very well… too sweet or something. The opening performers were pretty decent, but in the middle of Raianne’s set I got a phone call from Sarah (about this awesome all night flea market she was attending) and some douchebags stole my seat while I was outside. I stood for a few more songs, but the combination of the heat and the milkshake eating my insides and the fact that I was standing after a ridiculously long day out in the ridiculously hot heat was just too much… so I got in the car and headed back to Mom’s. It’s past my bedtime, anyway.
Plans are starting to dwindle.
I think tomorrow’s itinerary includes sleeping …maybe some eating …possibly getting dressed.
Things that I’d like to accomplish back east:
help Mom with stuff for the Yard Salevisit Camp Foskettvisit the Hock Teen Center & Camp Elmwood- catch The Bangles @ the Woodstock Fair (sweet)
- take pictures @ the Woodstock Fair (hopefully better than theirs)
- see some Wormtown music (maybe a Wormtown Wednesday)
- hang out with whoever says they miss me
Northeast Stuff to acquire and bring home:
Devil DogsPeggy Lawton CookiesCoffee SyrupMoxie & other Polar Sodas
Find and bring home:
- folding chair with footrest
- last year’s Nalgene bottle with the good lid
Before I leave:
make sure I have coverage at the Yget new sneakersload up iPod with audiobooks/new musicget new iPod mount for car
What’d I forget?
I usually don’t forget, it must be the new environment. Yesterday was Groundhog Day. I haven’t even looked up what the result was yet, but the real tragedy is that I didn’t listen to Pookey Bleum’s brilliant, yet danceable, February 2nd. I remember waking up everyone who lived with me on at least one occasion by putting the song on repeat, extremely loud, until they gave in to it’s power and got up and danced and said, “Hey!”
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Doing lots of cleaning and packing this week. Gonna pack up the mac and zombie (which now has a legal copy of Windows on it, due to a find while cleaning a closet) as well as a couple basses, and at least the top half of my bass amp. Those things plus most of my clothes and maybe all my movies/books/etc. will come in the car with me, out to Chicago, and stay out there. I’ll come back after Thanksgiving and clean out everything else that’s here. Looks like that means everything, too, cause nothing seems to be happening on the sublet front. I got an extra day to clean due to a day of work being rained out. It’s decreased the pressure of the whole cleaning/packing situation, and made it seem a lot easier to accomplish. It’s been pretty easy so far, but there’s definitely a lot to be done.
Hey look! My girlfriend’s a model (perks of working for Threadless, I guess):
I’m very excited about being with Sarah, and the job hunting, and the trip to Florida for Thanksgiving… should I try to contact my brother and see him while we’re there? Or my uncle? or both? I’m not sure.. brother Ernie is not really good at keeping in touch. It could prove to be more trouble than it’s worth. I’ll give it an honest attempt.
| listening to: Gimme Fiction Artist: Spoon |
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I got the 5.1 speakers hooked up to my TV earlier this year, and have been pleasantly surprised by the occasional movie or TV show that makes really good use of the surround sound. Even when it’s not used well, like that weird Wal-mart commercial I was watching, where all the sound suddenly shifted to the back speakers for no apparent reason, it’s still kinda cool. It creeps me out for a second, and then I remember that there’s speakers back there and it’s intriguing. Sometimes I just think about the guy who mixed the sound, and what was going through his head while he was putting sound back there.
Today, I listened to two old albums in a very different way. 
A few years ago, a bunch of us tried to get the necessary CD players and coordination to play the Flaming Lips four disc Zaireeka album the way it was meant to be played… but it proved a bit too difficult to really experience it as intended. So I was thrilled to find out that it wasn’t just a fluke or a phase for them, and 
that they’ve re-released a couple albums in 5.1 surround sound. Not only that, but the liner notes include these big long explanations of the entire concept and the mindset and the steps that led to this style of recording. They also included maps explaining what kind of stuff got mixed where and a little bit of why and how. It’s a lot of fun, and it makes me want to tweak my speaker set-up so that it’s just right.
So, does anyone want to come over and listen to this stuff? It’ll motivate me to clean and pack faster if I know company is coming, I think. It’ll be a listening party… I’m not sure when I might have time, but lemme know if you’re interested.
The Spotmatic that my cousin gave me has a sticky shutter… I did get the battery for the light meter and that part does work, but the sticky shutter would probably cost about as much to fix as replacing the camera with another one like it. So it might not be worth it, I haven’t decided yet.
I’ve got a three part plan of attack for my career. Step one is to approach someone about Andy’s old position, even if they’re only willing to offer some sort of assistant director position. If that fails, step two is to contact Charlie from the ropes course training/inspection/construction company about working for him or any other ropes courses that have steadier work than my Y is offering me. If that doesn’t work out, step three is a school in Arizona which offers a degree program in Outdoor/Adventure education. I haven’t been able to bring myself to accomplish step one, yet. The brand new Executive Director was a legitimate reason to delay, but I don’t think I can justify it any more.
With all the time off I’ve had lately, I’ve been itching to get out and go somewhere. Instead of taking the road trip I desired, though, I convinced myself that it was financially irresponsible. It was a total cop-out, but I’m kinda glad I did it, because I did get to catch up with a few kinda local friends that I had been ignoring a lot for the last few months. I’m still longing for the long roadtrip, but haven’t determined if I’ll have the time off that I need to do it yet. It’s hard when I barely get my schedule a month in advance and with Ropes in the state it’s in.
The new band only had that one practice, and various things, however little they’ve been explained, have prevented us from getting together again. I do really want to try playing again, but I don’t know if prying into the reasons it hasn’t been happening is something I really want to do. There’s a break-up and some other touchy stuff involved, i think. There may be another offer on the horizon, though, we’ll see, I guess.
I’ve had some new webspace all lined up for almost a month now, but haven’t decided what to move first or how to do it. Whether I should attempt the CPanel back-up idea, tweaking all the settings once the sites are in place, so that they work again… or if I should just do fresh installs and import the databases.
I don’t seem to have the motivation to get beyond the planning/contemplation stages of any of these things.
| listening to: Let It Die Artist: Feist |
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One of the other Teen Directors from the Y came into the Teen Center while I was working and suggested that I go for Andy’s old position. Being the Adventure Director would put me in charge of Ropes, Ski Club, Earth Service Corps and probably LITs (next summer, since she’s been given that responsibility for this summer). I might be able to handle that. The consant hours and possibility of Benefits are really enticing. She’s gonna put some feelers out for me, and have the guy who’s covering most of Andy’s ropes stuff call me. I also found out that the sports director doesn’t have a college degree, so that makes me a little more hopeful about getting a position like that.
iPod died; Called the AppleCare number and went through some attempts to recover it by pushing certain button combinations… none of them worked. So I went to the Apple store in Braintree and they hooked it up to their machine and officially declared it dead. Then they gave me a new one. I’m cleaning up my iTunes library a bit, in preparation for loading the new iPod from scratch. While I’d like to blame the failure on the iGrip sticky pad in my car failing to hold the iPod and it flying off the dash to its doom… that simply isn’t the case. The sticky pad actually works really well.
I decided, today, that I probably will move over to the new web host, at least with most of the sites. I might as well leave something here… since it’s paid for as a “Lifetime” account. The price seems more than reasonable and I think I can pull it off with very little downtime, if I use some of my alternate domains to set up temporary mirror sites. Hopefully, you won’t even notice the difference… unless the upgrades add some new features, or force me to lose old ones.
On Monday, we had our first practice for the new band and I had a good time. The people are really nice, it should be a lot of fun. The writing part is always kind of tedious for me, especially in a really loud, full band, situation. Hopefully we can get together in a slightly more quiet setting soon, so I can actually start writing parts and remembering them.
| listening to: Pressure Chief Artist: Cake |
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I’m gonna try playing music again. I dunno how it’s gonna go, but practices are on Monday nights. I think it’s sort of a side project for everyone, so there isn’t going to be any huge pressure or anything. I went to Mom’s and got my bass and amp and pedals. I really don’t know much else about it yet, but I’ll post all the details here when I know them. I hope my amp doesn’t give me problems. I hope my brain doesn’t give me problems, either.
In other news, I’m sick of this up and down weather. Someone tell me where the weather is like the fall or spring of New England, all year long, and I will gladly sell them my soul for a house there. I like New England, and I love my apartment, especially since I finally moved into my own room and stuff. We’re even treating ourselves to a new toy at the apartment… a countertop dishwasher. Oh yeah, four-place-setting capacity, and hook-ups to the sink. I don’t remember the last time we did the dishes, or the last time I dirtied a dish there, but I’m very excited. Counter space is limited, but who needs a drying rack when you have a dishwasher, right? But I would give up the dishwasher and the green room and the feeling of absolute home-ness that I have there, for a shack with a pillow and a toilet in a place with nice weather all year. I used to crave that sort of weather for the chance to work my ropes course stuff all year, now I’m just looking for more comfort.
It took a couple days, but I now have my Sirius and my iPod in my new car… through the stereo. I’m still sort of undecided on what kind of mount to use for the iPod, but I’ve got two pretty good options. One costs me a cupholder and the other just looks a little weird. It only feels a little ghetto to be using a tape adapter after the cool little auxiliary input I had going on in the wagon. The Sirius interface isn’t too bad. Luckily I’m into it for the quality of music and not the ability to browse the channels or time-shift or see the artist and track at the same time, the way the plug & play units let me, in the past. I’ve got my favorite channels, and they’re already mapped to my presets. It wouldn’t be a great introduction to Sirius, but it’s great for me.
Still feeling the super tired-ness that started this weekend. Still worried about work. Still slowly going broke. Still fumbling around and feeling inadequate in various ways. But at least my ride is rockin’ now.
