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
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| 3/31/2004 |
| Happy Birthday, My Brother |
Today is the birthday of my most fabulous and newly-minted Brother-In-Law (or just brother, as I think of him), Mr. Kevin Chesley. That's him in the photo there above, performing with his spectacular sketch comedy troupe TROOP! They do all kinds of shows all over Los Angeles, including some coming up in April, so all of my LA friends should be calling up the venues and making reservations to attend. They'll be in Chicago in May, and hopefully back here in Seattle this October, for the Seattle Sketch Fest. They've been here every year for that since 2001, so I'm hopeful they'll be back this year. They are wonderful, and I don't just say that because Kevin is married to my baby sister. Why not fritter away some of that free time you've got, and head to the TROOP! video page, where you can see the kids in action. And then write and complain to them that Kevin isn't in enough of the videos. I find the "Tetherball" clip particularly amusing. |
| 4:38:31 PM |
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| 3/30/2004 |
| The Liar Redux |
| Some of you have been sending the occasional clamor for any resolution to the Story Of The Liar Who Backed Into My Car And Then Lied About It To The Insurance Companies. I haven't written anything about it of late, because nothing has happened with it. The whole thing ended up going into some kind of Insurance Company Arbitration process because the Liar decided to change his story and dispute my version of events. Since it's extremely likely that these Insurance Guys probably have to deal with literally thousands of these kinds of incidents, I had always figured it would be months before it got resolved. And it still isn't resolved, but there is apparently movement afoot. I got a call from State Farm today, because the case is finally going to get looked at by Those Who Make Decisions. The problem is, the tape of me giving a statement to State Farm got munged somehow, and the people whose job it was to transcribe my ramblings couldn't make out what was being said. So, today I had to give my statement about the whole sorry business once again. I actually went back to my .Blog entries of November and December to refresh my memory - it's been a while since I gave the matter any thought. I had even forgotten the Liar's real name, since to me he now is only: The Lying Liar of Liarpants, Esq. Anyway. Statement was re-given. We'll see what happens. For those keeping score at home on this one, I'm still out some $530 as a result of all that's happened. While it would be nice to get that money back (and rightfully, that's what should happen), I've already written it off. If they decide to believe the Liar and his Lovely Deception, oh well. I know what happened, and my conscience is clear. |
| 12:17:55 PM |
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| 3/28/2004 |
| It All Makes Sense Somehow |
I always like to find out what new labels are being invented to describe folks. Turns out I'm a "None!" So nice to have a nice shiny label to put on my forehead.
Today we're back in the studio, Lizzy in the hot seat. She has slews and slews of guitar parts to record. Anyone wanna bet that she finishes them all today? My guess is that there's a little too much for her to get done, even in a long day like we have scheduled. She actually has more guitar overdubs to do on this material than I do. This band ain't no Billy Corgan-style operation, where he plays everything in the studio and then has a live band to play the material in front of audiences. One of the more exciting prospects of the current project is that I don't have to do everything. I just get to sit in the back of the room, frown a lot, wiggle my eyebrows, and intone auspiciously: "Let's try one more take of that, OK?"
Speaking of Billy Corgan, I just picked up that famous double album he did in 1995 with the Smashing Pumpkins called Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and it's really good.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen, and I urge you to go see it instead of the Mel Gibson movie. I need to see it again. And again.
I'm listening to a song I downloaded on iTunes by an all-female group called Kittie. At the time this track was recorded, they were teenagers. It's very weird to hear a teenage girl doing the metal guttural roaring thing. |
| 10:21:40 AM |
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| 3/23/2004 |
| Behind Am I, Yes, MMMmm |
| Man, everyone is documenting the past weekend's studio activity way better than I am. Brian Timpe has started up a journal for recording the recent YHZ activity. It is filled with a startling amount of detail. There was (and will continue to be) a lot of video of the sessions as well, which I'll get edited up into a little movie clip dealy in a few weeks. I finally should have a little quality time for some real writing tomorrow. |
| 4:00:43 PM |
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| 3/21/2004 |
| What Weekend? |
| Just had a great, and exhausting, time in Darin's studio all weekend. I'll write some more about it later this week, but Darin has already written up some stuff about it at his site. This is the first time the current band has gone into the studio. Things are sounding stellar so far. |
| 11:37:16 PM |
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| 3/14/2004 |
| Sunday Afternoon |
When you're younger, you say, "I don't care what other people think," and then you wait and see what they say in reply - because you really do care, after all. When you get older, at some point you realize - "Hey... I really don't care what other people think." Somewhere youthful bravado melted away and left... truth.
When you're younger, everything you do is in some way a declaration to the world that you EXIST, you ARE HERE, you ARE VALID, and you desperately want to believe that you will be NOTICED. Because to be noticed, is to be appreciated, in that moment, you are WORTH SOMETHING. As you get older, increasingly what matters is that you are still doing the work. That it, even with all of its imperfections, is a close facsimile of what you intended, with as few compromises and re-thinks as possible. What matters to you is not that it is NOTICED, or that you are given CREDIT for it, but that it is truthfully made with care. That it is the best thing you can contribute. Contribution... that becomes the key.
Your younger self sneers at this. "Chickenshit," he mutters under his breath. "You're afraid," he says. "You've become jaded - all this talk of TRUTH and CONTRIBUTION is pansy-ass shorthand for 'I give up, I'm done, uncle, uncle UNCLE UNCLE ALREADY!' The great ones are the ones who pushed their vision through to the masses, regardless of the cost! You could just admit it... you've failed." These last words are spat at you through gritted teeth. "And you never even really tried."
You're older now. You chuckle. You look at your younger self, and you smile. His gaze falters a little; this wasn't the reaction he expected. But how can you not laugh? How can you not shake your head in admiration! The passion on display is remarkable, and absolutely appropriate. "Now, now," you reply. "I've only just gotten started." |
| 1:19:25 PM |
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| 3/10/2004 |
| Way Too Purty |
| Spring is showing up a little early hereabouts, it seems. We're seeing an awful lot of sunshine of late, especially for this little corner of the world, and this has made me exceedingly happy this year. Today was an excruciatingly beautiful day, and I drove around a little longer at lunch to enjoy it, even when I should've been coming back to work. As you may know from reading my late-summer ramblings around here, by the end of summer time I'm usually begging the rainy season to get started. The winter doesn't typically bother me at all, in fact I look forward to it. I've learned that this view is not generally shared with my fellow Washington transplants. Even though Seattle doesn't get any more rain per year than does Washington, D.C., we do have an abnormally long period of overcast days, which tends to really bum the people out who need lots of sun. But I have felt myself getting atypically impatient for the good days this year. I just want the good weather to get started now so I can get my butt outside more often. I want to get the hiking started as early as I can this year. If it's decent on Saturday, I'm gonna head up to the Mount Si trail. Please, please, please PRETTY PLEASE, Weather Gods! I'll be your bestest friend! |
| 4:55:03 PM |
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| 3/6/2004 |
| Reverie |
A couple of days ago, I got home from work and found out that the first girl I ever truly loved had left a message for me to call her. She lives all the way across the country from me now, and I usually hear from her once or twice a year, for birthdays and Christmas and whatnot. I finally got around to returning her call this afternoon, and she gave me the good news - she'd gotten engaged. Wow!
Wow.
Don't get the wrong idea - it's not as if I've been pining for this girl all these years. We broke up about 12 years ago now, and I finally stopped missing her, and our relationship, about three years after that. Does that seem excessive? A three-year "mourning period"? Again, don't get the wrong idea - it's not like I stalked her for three years, leaving pasted-together mash notes under her windshield wipers. You wouldn't have found me standing in her back yard night after night, Cusack-like, with a boombox hoisted over my head, blasting "our song" at her window (not sure what "our song" would've been - maybe "Pictures Of You" by The Cure, or one I wrote called "Won't Change My Mind", I guess). And I dated during that time, though most of those entanglements didn't usually even qualify for "fling" status. She and I had been together for three years (still the longest I've ever been in any relationship), and I was the dumpee at the end - and even though I'd seen it coming, the reality of it when the day finally came still ranks as some of the most intense emotional pain I have ever experienced; the only thing that ever came close, before or since, has been the death of a family member. And it was a death - if only of an "idea". There had been a time when I was sure that this girl was the one I was going to marry. We had the names of our kids picked out. All that stuff. She was my first true love, and like the snarky commercial says, you never forget your first one.
And so obviously, we've kept in touch over the years. My move to Seattle came almost exactly one year to the day of our Day Of Reckoning. She visited me here exactly once, and later when she made a move for her job to a mid-western state, I visited her exactly once. No "romantic rekindlement" happened on either visit, and it was actually when I was sitting on the plane after my visit with her that I realized: I was finally over her. At the time, I'd wondered if I'd ever let go - and I'd gone and done it somewhere back there without even noticing.
So now, she's getting married to someone who isn't me. And I'm very happy for her, yet I still can't help but feel reflective at the same time. We're the same age, and we're both getting to be old enough where it starts to look "funny" to people that you've never married. Especially for her - the societal push for women to get married by a certain time in their life is definitely greater than it is for men; no one uses the phrase "old maid" anymore of course, but I think it's still a concept that exists in our societal Group Mind. Most single women who are my age are generally divorced (just my own personal observation). It's actually somewhat of a surprise to me that it's taken her this long to wrangle a proposal out of someone. While she certainly doesn't fit any of the current "Celebrity-Based Standards Of American Hotness", she's a sexy little thing, and she's never wanted for male companionship. A part of me was secretly amused that we were both officially "unspoken for" for so long, and we'd joke about it sometimes. But now - or, more specifically, next year, she'll be somebody's "Mrs."
Wow. |
| 9:12:52 PM |
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| 3/4/2004 |
| Culture Wars: Divide And Conquer |
| Senator John Edwards talked in his campaign about there being "two Americas" - in his view, one for those who have money, and one for those who don't. I've actually seen a different divide, and this piece by Andew Sullivan does the best job I've yet seen in articulating it. Could we be headed for another Civil War? Sometimes I wonder. |
| 12:47:26 PM |
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| 3/1/2004 |
| HBD, BT! |
| A quick wish of a Happy Birthday to YHZ bassist Brian Timpe, who is now officially Older Than Dirt. Yay! |
| 8:27:12 AM |
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