Buy Yogi albums!
half-pint demigod (2005)
at CDBaby.com
Salve EP (2003)
at Amazon.com
at CDBaby.com
Any Raw Flesh? (2001)
at Amazon.com
at CDBaby.com
Sister Sites:
HalfZaftig.com
Wonky-Records.com
MySpace
|
| 7/31/2003 |
| New Goal |
Oh, yeah - I forgot about my new goal.
The last few days have been way too hot for civilized people. I hate the hot, which I have mentioned many times before, so I won't belabor what should be an obvious point to anyone who's ever read these ramblings of mine even semi-regularly. So anyway - it's been really hot. Today, we're getting a nice respite, but you know. Hot must die.
I now know what I want to do about it.
I need to like, get some money. That's the first thing. OK? So, get some money. All right, now, once the money is in hand: I need to get a little house somewhere in the woods around here. That would be cool, but it doesn't, in and of itself, deal with my goal of never experiencing the hot.
OK - so with the money that I didn't spend on the little house in the woods outside of Seattle: I need to get another house - this one somewhere in the southern hemisphere.
Get it? See, so I'll live in Seattle-ish House #1 from October 1 to March 31 every year, and then on April 1, hop onto a plane to my Southern Hemisphere Abode #2. I'm thinking something in Wellington, New Zealand, or perhaps Sydney, Australia or something.
Via this new and revolutionary method, I should always be able to avoid the hot at all costs. And as an added bonus, get to experience my favorite season, Autumn, twice a year.
These are the ideas one has sweating in one's bed at night when it's just too goddamned hot out.
So: who's got some money? |
| 5:31:15 PM |
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| Toe Jam |
So maybe I broke a toe?
I'm asking, because I honestly don't know. Here's what happened:
The other day I was padding around the house in socks. I was walking down the staircase (carpeted), and about two steps from the bottom or so, I "caught" my right foot on a step, and kinda, you know, dragged it forward. It felt like a toe-stub. It definately smarted, in fact, I jumped up in down in place at the foot of the stairs the way I sometimes do when I stub a toe, that ritual of "OW, that really smarts, soon the pain will dissipate, but damn, right now that really hurts, and so for now I will jump up and down." Which I did, and it did. I mean, the pain went away. Mostly. Later that night, still in the same socks, I decided to go for a walk now that the sun had gone down and it wasn't so ungodly hot outside. I noticed that my toe was still kinda achy, but you know, it didn't really hurt all that much. It was uncomfortable enough though that during the walk I decided to not go as far as I had originally intended.
When I got home, it was shower-time. I finally, after having had them on all day, stripped off the socks I had been wearing. My right "ring" finger toe was the shade of a grape, from just below the nail to the first joint. I had never seen a toe look like that, and it was most upsetting. It looked like it should be really hurting, but it was still just kinda achy. I checked the sock I'd had on that foot for signs of blood, but there wasn't any. So I had this wildly reddish-purple toe, and it was weird.
This was two days ago this happened. The toe is still kinda achy, but the angry red-purple color is starting to fade. Today I told Sean about this and he gave me a DUH look and said, "You broke it." I did? "Yeah," said Sean. "I used to go running to my Mom and say, 'I broke my finger,' and she'd answer back, 'Is it purple? Then you didn't break it.'"
So... maybe I broke a toe? Since to my knowledge, I've never before broken any bones, I have no idea what it looks like when you do it. I would've thought I'd be in more pain than I am. Actually, now that Sean's told me that I've broken it, the toe is annoying me more than it was - perhaps I am now manifesting some of this pain I'm expecting, now that I expect to have it?
What does one do with little toes that are broken? You can't put a cast on it, can you? And hell, now that I'm unemployed, I got no medical insurance anyway. I wonder if it will heal up all disfigured now that I can't get a toe-cast. Will I feel an ache now, everytime it's fixing to rain? Will all my old toe-rings fit anymore? The mind boggles at the implications. |
| 5:17:17 PM |
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| 7/29/2003 |
| It Was Ten Years Ago Yesterday |
First, I must wish a very happy birthday to Chris G! Goddamn, man, you are OLD! And you are allegedly in town, so give me a call ya bastid!
I always remember G's birthday, where I usually forget those of everyone else I know, because it's the day after another very large milestone in my life - it's the day after the anniversary of my arrival here in the Seattle area. Yesterday marked ten years that I have lived here.
It seems impossible, really. "Ten years" seems like forever when you say it out loud, but as I reflect on all the things that have happened in that timespan, and, all the things that haven't happened, it really does feel like only yesterday that we set out. Four of us left Northern Virginia in July, 1993: Chris G, Tobe, Sean, and myself. We didn't know anyone out here. Sean had a job already, the rest of us had no prospects. We drove out in a four-vehicle caravan, all of us equipped with CB radios so we could communicate in real time. Terrified and excited at the same time. Tobe, Chris and I had our rock star dreams together - and Sean was gonna be our soundguy/recording engineer. At that time, we expected to find a fourth person for the band when we got here - someone to play bass. Tobe ended up just playing bass for our short-lived trio called Stop Hitting Me when we couldn't really find anyone.
This is me at one of the many "going away" parties generously thrown by our friends that we attended in those last few weeks. If I recall correctly, I was thoroughly altered in this picture, enabling me to not look as scared as I remember feeling.
This is us somewhere in the middle of the country. I'm pretty sure it was in Wisconsin. If you look carefully, you can see that I'm badly sunburned on only one side of my body. The driver's-side window side. The Honda I drove didn't have air conditioning, so the windows were down the whole way. One day I got hit in the eye by a suicidal bug. I was less than thrilled about that.
Here we are, with the Mississippi River in the background. I think G still has those shorts and sunglasses.
And here's where we spent our first week in town once we finally arrived in Seattle: the Marco Polo Motel, on Aurora Avenue.
We had the farthest left room on the second floor. We didn't know that we were in perhaps the seediest area of town. Let's just say that the Marco Polo has hourly rates, mmm-kay? The water there was brown. I slept on the floor of the room. Sean set up his then state-of-the-art 386 PC and we worked on our resumes. We drank Rainier beer (which I haven't drunk since), and sat around and worried a lot. The adventure being over, we now were faced with trying to build some kind of life in brand-new surroundings, something none of us had done before.
The good news is that we all turned out OK. Our band dream floundered, but we've all managed to do alright. Chris G was the first to leave, just this past May, when he left to try and be a touring drummer in L.A. He vows to come back some day when it's time to "settle." I could see myself permanently settling here, but you never know where life will take you. I do love it here, and I'm glad we came. I wish I could wax more poetically right now about that time, but I keep typing a few words and then stopping and dissolving into my own private reverie. Thinking about those days is hitting me really heavily right now. |
| 10:10:34 AM |
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| 7/24/2003 |
| Cell Phone Crack |
I don't have a cell phone. I don't want one. I think part of the reason for that is that they are everywhere, and being a textbook contrarian, I don't want nothin' that everybody else already got. It bothers me that, when someone gets a cell phone anymore, they can't stop touching the things. They've always got them in hand, doing... well something. Who knows what they're doing? People with cell phones seem to be unable to just sit still and do nothing. The other day I was at the car wash waiting area. Watching the guys wiping down the windows on my car, slopping on that weird shiny tire stuff. There I was, sitting in the shade on a glorious sunny day, with nothing pressing. I could turn off my mind, relax, and float downstream...
A woman around my age, maybe younger (who can tell?) came out to wait for her car, that went in after mine. She sat, like me, in silence. For about ten seconds, and than WHAP! out came the cell phone. I wasn't eavesdropping, really. I had nowhere to go until my car was finished. Here is a paraphrased account of her side of the conversation:
Girl: Hey! Yeah. I'm getting my car washed. Yeah. Are you? Oh. Cool. What are you...? Oh yeah? Yeah. Cool. OK, talk to you later. OK. Bye.
I remember this so well because she had the same conversation, three more times, with three other people.
Part of the reason I don't want a cell phone is that I don't want my friends and family calling me on it to allay their boredom in this manner. Sure, the minutes are free, but... what is gained from this?
Can't you just see me becoming "Crotchety Old Guy" in front of your eyes? "Why, in my day, etc."
And of course, now that the cell phone headset thing is all the rage, you can no longer discount people who appear to be talking animatedly to themselves as the crazy ones - they might just be getting the grocery list from the wife at home!
My good friend Sean is an engineer and is quite probably the smartest person I have ever known. My sister now hates to argue with me because of all the skills I've picked up trying to argue points with Sean since I was eleven or so - I doubt I've ever won an argument with Sean, but I've learned how to hold my own. Being an engineer, Sean brings his enormous intellect to bear to solve problems of all stripes, especially those that will make his life and experience better. Last week, he decided that it was time, finally, for me to stop pretending a cell phone wouldn't enrich my life, or at the very least his, and that I just need to cry "Uncle" and get with the program. To wit: I proposed that we meet for lunch one afternoon. He said, "Great. Call me when you get to the 405, so that I know when to leave to meet you at the place." I reminded him that no such call could occur, as he well knew. With all the exasperation that one can muster via IM, Sean once again bemoaned that I could go through life cell phone free. "It would be better if you had one." To exactly what degree of better, I wanted to know. Being an engineer, Sean of course said, "ANY better at all is better enough." By owning a cell phone, I would waste less of his time, because by being able to constantly update him of my progress towards our mutual destination, it would allow him to refine his own schedule, so that we could always arrive at our location at the same time. Never again would he find himself waiting for 10-15 minutes for my late ass, while he arrived on time. When I informed him that this degree of "better" was still not enough motivation to take on another expensive monthly bill, Sean threw (figuratively) his IM hands up in disgust. "You'd have made a lousy engineer," he wisely said. I agree. |
| 3:11:02 PM |
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| 7/21/2003 |
| The Man Who Went Up A Hill... |
Ooh, today is a blog entry of many pitchas! 'Cause I done hiked up to the top of Mount Si today, and I even climbed all the way up to the top of the "haystacks" (rocky formations at the top). There are many signs on the way to the "haystack scramble" (sounds like an omelet) that ask you to use EXTREME CAUTION. Which is probably smart, because if you fell from up there, there is a really good chance that you'll be dead by the time you hit the ground. Obviously I used EXTREME CAUTION, because I am here to show you these pitchas. Thanks to Beta Girl for the use of her Beta Cam. As a review for the David Lynch fans out there, Mount Si is one of the so-called "Twin Peaks" referred to in the classic TV show of the same name.
OK, so the hike up to the base of the haystacks is 4 miles. Elevation somewhere around 4,000 feet, with a starting elevation of around 500 feet. It's steep all the way up the trail. It was a hot hike, and even though I took lots of water I could've used some more, really. Lots of big-ass bitey black flies, too - they're always out like crazy on sunny days. Little bee-yotches.
At the base of the haystacks, you look up and see this:
This is what I'd now be scaling today, like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2. There's no trail, you just gotta grab hold of the rocks, and climb up.
This is at the base of the "scramble." It's taller than it looks.
After about 30 minutes of climbing, I got to the top. To the left, there's a pile of rock that's a little higher even, which was to be my final destination. Looking down, here's what I saw:
You would prefer not to fall from here. It would hurt.
At last, I got to the highest point possible. Here's some things you can see up there:
This would be Mount Rainier.
Can you squint and see the skyscrapers of Seattle in the distance? You can't? What are you, blind? Mouseover the pic for a hint.
Beautifulness.
Progress!
More progress!
At last it was time to get down. It's much more difficult climbing down than it is to get up there. Here's what it looks like before you start your descent, hoping all the while that you won't die soon:
Yay! All done for now. I'm late for band practice. |
| 6:56:05 PM |
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| 7/19/2003 |
| Colorforms |
I don't know what it is about Friday nights lately, but once again this week I had several vivid dreams that I remember with absolute clarity - something that doesn't happen often. One was incredibly short, but disturbing. It was Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers at a news conference, being assassinated.
Like I said, disturbing.
Then another one had me weeping uncontrollably (in the dream) when I heard the news that a great aunt had passed away. And then my Nana (who died more than a year ago), came over to comfort me, but hadn't heard the news about my great aunt, and I saw her falter when I told her the news - and then that whole dream froze, like the endings of old TV shows, and slowly faded out of existence.
And then the longest and weirdest had me back in my parent's old house in Woodbridge. I was rummaging around in an old refrigerator downstairs for a soda (this refrigerator doesn't actually exist in real life), when I heard my Dad calling down the stairs to me: there was someone named "Mike Cobain" on the phone for me. When I picked up the phone, I heard the voice of a grizzled old guy with one eye perpetually shut (I could see him, even though we were on the phone). He was producing another in a series of recordings he had made, called "Colors." I eventually figured out that he wanted me to play on the new set he was working on. I agreed, and then we started talking about "which color I wanted to play over." I remember after much thought I suggested "amethyst", but the old guy just growled and said, "Okay, PURPLE."
I woke up with scenes from that movie Contact with Jodie Foster in my mind - that part at the end where she's testifying and no one believes her.
Man, it's like Friday night Cinema in the 'ol brain lately! This kind of thing never used to happen to me before.
The bit about "playing over colors" made me think about the fact that in my mind, I actually do perceive chords, and chord changes, as colors or a series of colors. I think it's not uncommon among musicians - I think I've talked about this with Lizzy before. Even when I'm working on new ideas, I often tend to keep to chords that go together well based on these color perceptions. A Major chords, the backbone of rock music for a very long time, are a very bright red to me. G Major is a deeper crimson. C Major is sunny yellow, and D Major is bright green. Then E (the OTHER major rock n' roll chord and key) tends to be blue. F and F# chords are varying degrees of purple, and then B major is sort of... brownish. Then there's all the flat chords in between which tend to blend between colors, and then by adding various scale tones to get "altered" chords, you start with the basic color of the major variation, but you end up with some tweaked version of it, sometimes a darker one, sometimes lighter.
This sounds really weird, but it's how I see it. |
| 11:08:04 AM |
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| 7/17/2003 |
| Memory Lane |
Today I spent about four and a half hours at Sean Hester's house, listening to old DAT tapes I've collected over the years as I recorded them digitally into his computer. These tapes are archives of recordings I've made ever since I first started making recordings - which would be somewhere in late 1986 or so, when I was still in high school. I don't have a DAT player, so I've had these archive tapes sitting in a drawer, with no way for me to access the stuff that's on them. Some of the things on the DATs I have multi-track masters for, some were dubbed from the only existing cassette mixes that ever existed. It's been a real hoot going through some of this stuff. A surprising amount of it is actually pretty listenable. Some of the highlights:
- "It Makes Me Barf": The very first song I ever co-wrote and recorded, in September of 1986. The whole process of recording this song, as silly as it is, and as amateurish as it sounds, was part of the reason I caught "the bug" with music. I did it with Tobe Ramsey and Craig Cackowski, and it was recorded in Tobe's living room. He had a recorder that you could record the two stereo channels seperately, so you could record on the left side, then listen to what you had recorded while you recorded new stuff on the right. Tobe put drum machine and "bass" keyboards on the left, then the three of us played live on the right channel - Tobe adding more keys, me playing guitar, and Craig singing. Craig was singing into the same mic that was picking up my guitar. Tobe and I went on to play together in Funhouse and Stop Hitting Me, Craig went on to be in the Main Cast at Second City in Chicago, rubbing elbows with people like Tina Fey. He's now in Los Angeles. Here's some sample lyrics (written by Craig):
When you hold me
I cough up my lunch
When you're near me, I ralph
When we make love, I toss my cookies
When you kiss me with your mouth
It makes me barf!
- "Cecilia Click Track": This is something I thought was lost to the sands of time, I almost fell out of my chair when I heard it coming out of the speakers. I think a lot of people would be amazed at the abuse many poor drummers get when it comes to the recording process. Since many recordings are pieced together one instrument at a time, almost always the drums must be recorded first. So usually some scratch tracks are thrown down on tape for the drummer to play to, and they are often embarassingly incomplete. This track was the click track for our version of "Cecilia", by Simon and Garfunkel, the final version of which appears on the Oom Fala Skepsis album that Tobe and I released in 1992. On the left side is a very loud eighth-note click track. On the right is me playing a simple reggae-style rhythm guitar part, while Tobe initially sings the bassline, and then starts singing the vocal. For some reason, Tobe's vocal is sped up, and he sounds like a Munchkin. If I recall correctly, Tobe and I recorded our parts for this at the same time, when nobody was around. Tobe starts goofing around, eventually twisting the lyrics into some hilarous and naughty variations - I remember when Eric was tracking his drum part to this silliness that he was cracking up at some of the stuff. I'm amazed he was able to keep track of where he was based on this. Maybe this one is a "you had to be there" thing, but I'd never forgotten it, and I'm so glad it still exists. I'll have to put up an edit of the funny stuff later.
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| 12:14:52 AM |
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| 7/16/2003 |
| Lost Weekend |
I'm trying to find a means to feel guilty about the fact that I just rolled out of bed this morning at 9:30 AM, with no need to hurry off anywhere. After all, it's a Wednesday, aren't I supposed to be going off to work somewhere? Like everyone else? But I'm not. That option was removed from my life last week, for the time being at least.
So the days start to melt together when you don't have a jobby-job obligation to keep to... I had to think hard in that last paragraph to figure out what day it is today. This phenomenon in turn, tends to make weekends less interesting, or at least less appealing. On the other hand, each day becomes an equal thing, an equal opportunity to do whatever it is you need to do next. No more "Monday Stigma." No more "Hump Day Optimism." Or whatever. The only drag is when I suddenly realize that everything's closed early today, and oh, that's because today is Sunday. That can be a bummer.
So when you're floating around, with no regular routines to hold you down, you can get extremely lazy, or you can bless the Gods for your good fortune and get on to doing the things you've been wanting to do but haven't done because you were always too tired to do them after work. My last week, I've been somewhere in between. I've attended to plenty of things I'd been putting off, but... I could've done more.
I won't be doing this forever, y'unnerstand. Very soon I will be receiving free money from the State of Washington, so straights are not so dire, but neither will it be very easy to squeak by. Like plenty of folks, I got the car payments and whatnot. I'm currently taking digital pictures of gear that's sitting around that I never use to auction on eBay. Every little bit helps. Next week, when the first installment of free money should show up, I plan on contacting the local contract agencies that have been calling me like crazy to offer me opportunities since March. My only issue is that I can only take a 60 day assignment right now - I have to be off all of October. That may be the only difficult thing I face, but 60 day contracts in the dev and testing world over at MS are not unheard of. I haven't tested anything in 4 years, so I don't know how possible it would be to get a testing gig... my last contract at MS was in test, but I left it on purpose to get paid to be a Web developer, which I've been doing for the last four years. But shit, I'll do anything for two months.
Of course, the possibility exists that I'll be sitting around here until I leave for my October journey. I'd prefer not to do that, but it may be how things shake out. The free money will keep coming from the state through the rest of the year, if need be. If I do end up not working for such an extended period of time, I'll be making good use of my time. I've been needing to upgrade about a bazillion things on this Web site for ages, and now is the right time. I still haven't finished the Wonky Records site, and that's sad, because I've dug up some cool stuff for that. And then there's the HalfZaftig.com site, which is strictly for promoting the live band. So it's not like I got nothing to be doing. Oh, and I've got new songs to finish for the aforementioned band. I finished up two instrumental demos last week, that felt good. I always write songs music first, and for at least one of them I've got the vocal melodies in mind that I want for it. I can't wait to start playing new material with the current band. Oh, and we'll be playing shows soon - I believe the first one is Sunday, August 17, at the Central in Pioneer Square. There'll be some live premieres of songs that night, especially of material from the Salve record. It's gonna be good.
In fact, today I've got to be off to pick up a few things so I can reorganize my pedal board. Time's a wastin'! |
| 10:16:36 AM |
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| 7/12/2003 |
| Tippy Toe |
Bright Saturday morning. I just woke up from a really bizarre dream, that I'm very quickly losing the memory of, but here's the gist: I was in a record store, and I was looking around for what vinyl LP's they might have had around. Oh, the store was the Waxie Maxie's in Marumsco Plaza that I used to go to all the time when I was a kid - the place didn't look like that old Waxie Maxie's, but that's definately where I was - you know how you have that knowing in dreams, even if what you know doesn't exactly match what you can see? So, yeah, it was definately that old Waxie Maxie's. After browsing for quite a while, I went to the checkout counter. I don't recall that I had picked up anything to purchase, but I was going to pay for it just the same. The girl took my credit card, and that's when I noticed a very large tip jar sitting there. It wasn't labelled as such, but it definately was for tips. I began to feel uneasy when the girl put my credit bill of sale in front of me, right next to the jar, and looked at me expectantly. I felt my face get red, but I also felt indignant - I'm not gonna tip the counter girl at a record store! I signed the slip, and gave her the merchant copy. She looked at it, frowned, and said loudly, "How come you didn't give me any tips?!"
The eyes of everyone else where now trained on us at the counter. Because I'm a decent guy, and I'm well-trained by the same societal nicety rules as anyone, I had already been feeling bad enough. Usually when I see tip jar, I always generously contribute. But I was mad at this girl for putting me in this spot, when I knew damn well that tipping retail personnel was not something that was expected behavior from customers. So I said so, as I started to tuck my copy of the credit receipt into my wallet. "I never tip workers at a record store!" I declared. "And I think it's rotten that you even asked me!"
That quieted the girl down, but she still glared at me, shooting meaningful glances at the large jar on the counter. The bottom quarter of it was indeed filled with all manner of coin and currency. It wasn't gonna work. Then I noticed something on the credit receipt.
The charges on the receipt were itemized like an automobile sticker. And just like an automobile sticker, there were strange "extra charges" at the bottom! There was a "service charge" for $8.95! I showed this to the girl who by this time just wanted to get rid of me. She said, "Oh, you don't have to pay for that," and scratched it off her copy. I was out of the store before I realized that I already had paid for it, and then I woke up. The dogs were hungry.
So what's that mean, dream decoders? |
| 10:46:56 AM |
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| 7/8/2003 |
| The Day's Most Important News Story |
| Why that... brazen... little... slut. |
| 10:39:16 PM |
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| To The Curb, Kicked |
This is getting to be like a monthly occurrence! Repeat after me, class:
I got laid off again today!
Yes, and this will be the final time I get laid off from Cogenix, where I've worked and made a great salary for the last four years. The two albums I've made, Any Raw Flesh? and Salve, were financed by dollars earned working at Cogenix. I learned a ton working there, and picked up some mad skillz as a web/software/database developer. And while I'm sad that it's over (really over this time), I'm glad to not have that whole "I wonder if today is the day" thing hanging over me.
SIGH. |
| 5:11:53 PM |
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| 7/5/2003 |
| Feels Like Sunday... But It's Snot! |
Weird, weird, three-day weekends. Just plain weird. But I am definately glad to get another day off tomorrow.
Today I went into Seattle to see The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly on the big screen. Damn, it's a great movie, and I always take whatever chances I can get to see the classics projected, big-like, whenever I can. This version of TGTBATU is actually extended, apparently matching the original Italian cut. The movie was shortened for the English version. I gotta say the movie worked better for me with the old cut, though the new stuff is interesting to look at. Most of the new footage has a lot more to do with the Civil War events that were happening at the time the original story was set. And even though I admire director Sergio Leone's obvious attempt to show us "the horrors of war," the problem is that the movie is really about these three guys, trying to get to some gold. Whenever we go off on one of the Civil War tangents, the movie grinds to a halt, especially during the "bridge battle" stuff towards the end. In any event, the movie is still a hoot, but don't buy a large drink if you go check it out: the flick is around three hours long. My next classic movie to see projected largely: Hitchcock's Vertigo, which is playing midnight shows at the Egyptian theater in Seattle later this month.
As I was walking from where I parked today to the movie theater, I passed by a guy playing an acoustic guitar and singing in the street. This is not an uncommon sight in the U-District. You'll see guys like that there all the time, usually singing what you'd expect, some Dylan song, or a Crosby, Stills, and Nash tune or whatever. Today, though was the first time I ever heard a street singer performing an Alice In Chains tune: "No Excuses." Even stranger, after I got my ticket and got into the ticket-holder line, I was still in earshot of the singer when he started into yet another even more obscure AIC tune, this time "God Am." Before he could launch into something weirder (maybe "Scarlet Pussy" by Prince?) they let us in.
He was still there when I came out of the movie. But I was really disappointed when I heard what he was singing as I passed him the second time - "House Of The Rising Sun." How typical. |
| 7:33:59 PM |
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| 7/3/2003 |
| Blissful... Or Not |
Winamp: "Pro False Idol", Jerry Cantrell
The weather here in the Seattle area has been just breath-takingly amazing - clear, sunny skies, and cool breezes. The kind of sunshine-y weather a pasty Irish/English descendant like me can easily handle. I do love the sunshine, but I don't like the hot. No hot in sight the last few days, and it's glorious. I can't imagine wanting to be anywhere else, I really can't. Not that I've been everywhere else. Who knows where I'd like to be? It was so nice yesterday that I didn't even mind getting stuck in traffic near Enumclaw where I was late for a service appointment for the new ride. Awesomely visible in the distance was Mt. Rainier, proud and gigantic and absolutely stunningly clear for all of us to admire. That mountain soothes me in ways that are impossible for me to describe.
Winamp: "Transona Five", Stereolab
Goldurn I'm looking forward to band practice tonight. It's starting to look like we'll be able to get out and play again starting in August sometime. That's only a month away! I get really enthused when I sit and think about what's possible with the new lineup, and yes, I'm a dreamer so I can get carried away with the big dreamy stuff, but that's how you make things happen for you in real-life, you dream about them first.
Winamp: "House Of Pain", Van Halen (FUCKIN' YEAH! - Oh, a small fragment from the first Fantomas album went by as I typed the last paragraph, but it was gone so fast I didn't have time to spot its title)
I was telling Brian Timpe the other day how I've been spending a giant amount of time lately thinking about what the next full-length album will sound like and contain, and how it's my great hope that it will be the first true "band" album that I've ever made, in my whole musical life. The Funhouse album was really just me and Tobe with our drummer doing glorified "session" work, not a band, and I've made two solo albums now. And sure, the blinkedMissed when it's done will be sort of a band thing, but we were ending as a unit when we made it.
Winamp: "Underneath The Bunker", R.E.M. - I'd forgotten this song! We should totally cover this in the band.
So, all I'm saying is, I really hope I can have the experience of making a record with a band, and then still have that same band when it's done, and then we can play shows and have it be that band, and how cool would that be? I'm thinking that would be right cool.
Winamp: "What Is And What Should Never Be", Led Zeppelin - Man, what an uncommonly good Winamp day I'm having!
Tomorrow is the 4th of July holiday and I have no plans at all. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I'm a tad ambivalent this year about public celebrations of our nation's independence. I'm bitter about all the stuff that's gone on over the last several months in the public airwaves - the shameful "debate" that has equated speaking out against suspect Presidential policies with a lack of patriotism. The folks who have been shoveling that shit to the public continually sheath themselves in Old Glory, all the while encouraging the most base jingoistic excesses of the Great Unwashed; horrible as it sounds, these bastards have actually succeeded in tarnishing my view of the Stars And Stripes. My belief, my great hope is that this just a temporary situation.
Winamp: "Ocean Size", Jane's Addiction - It's official: this is the best Winamp day in memory. There's a new Jane's Addiction album coming. PLEASE, please, please don't let it suck.
So anyway, yeah. I don't know that I have the stomach tomorrow to go out and be faced on all sides with nothing but Red, White, and Blue everywhere you look. I'll try to remember what that flag really does symbolize - the sacrifices of my parents and grandparents, and those of all the other parents and grandparents for the last couple of hundred years.
Winamp: "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos", Public Enemy
So yeah, I think I'm going to stay in tomorrow and work on new songs. And be thankful that I live in a country where I have the freedom to do so - and remember what that freedom costs, and what it could cost in the future. I don't want to be bleak, but sometimes I think that I see a second Civil War coming in this country and that's just too terrible a thing to imagine. While we are focused on problems without, we are rotting from WITHIN.
Winamp: "Vitamin", Incubus
Damn, I was in a really good mood when I started typing this. I think I need to go outside and breathe for a bit. It's a beautiful day. |
| 2:13:19 PM |
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| 7/1/2003 |
| Birthday Girl |
Yesterday was Beta Girl's birthday! Here's the pie I baked for her for the occasion. Can you figure out how old she is just by looking at the picture?
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| 3:19:28 PM |
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| Frankenweenie |
Pete came home yesterday, and is doing darned well, if he could say so himself, which he can't, 'cuz he's a dog, and so doesn't talk much. So.
It's funny how almost the entirety of the June blog entries were all about Pete's health struggles, but hey, that's what dominated my month as well. Well, those and the first month of rehearsals with the new band.
Sure is good to have the little bugger home.
Here are both of Pete's incisions, combining to stretch all the way down his back. Everything Is Healing Nicely. |
| 3:49:30 PM |
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