Blah-bliddy-blah-blah-blah! Listening: I gots girls, girls, girls, girls...
Okay... brief. My brother is in town. Yesterday I had thanksgiving lunch at my house and dinner at a friend's place. I dunno what I'm foing this weekend, but the gym is on the list. Next week is filling up. I have appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Dessert, dinner and dinner. Should be fun... Oh yeah, Monday night too. Monday is gonna be kimchee fried rice night at my place with Ye-ah and The Violent One, along with whoever we can rope in. Coolz. Got the pizza from PJ. Haven't made it yet. Too busy. Gonna make it tonite or the next day prolly. Kay... buh-bye!
Pacifist Moby Takes It To The Ring Listening: Yes, yes! Here we go!
There's not a lot to say about last night. I got home, passed out for a half hour, ate dinner, passed out for another hour and then went to the gym. By the time I started working out it was just before eight and already dark outside. When I got there, there were maybe fifteen people in the small gym, just few enough for me to snag the last eliptical machine. Now, on Saturday, I received a MD from Ye-ah of OMG's Colby acappella group. I listened to it to and from work yesterday. Consequentially, I had it in on the way to the gym. It was all fine and dandy until I hit the eliptical machine. Even for the first ten minutes it was good. However, when the second half of the disc kicked in when it's all live recording of the fiftieth anniversary concert, it all went down hill. It was all mellow and I just couldn't figure out how to keep going with this mellow sleepy music. So I changed it to my road trip mix. Things got better from there.
After being on the eliptical machine for a half hour, I started lifting. Since last time I worked on the upper body, this time was all about the legs and abs. My legs were already tired from the eliptical, so I think I could have lifted more on a more fresh set of legs. During some of the leg extensions, I felt like my quads were gonna pop. My quads used to be in such good shape when I played soccer in high school. I don't know what happened. Another thing about the leg workout, there are far fewer machines designed to work the legs than there are for the upper body. I also did some work on my abs. They're kinda burning today. After about a half hour of lifting, I went to the aerobics room where I popped in my new Moby CD and did some boxing with the heavy bag. There's nothing like rocking out to Moby's Feeling So Real with boxing gloves on, looking at a heavy bag, and picturing Mumbles' and Dickhead's faces on it. That ruled. I worked on that bag for a good twenty to twenty-five minutes. Jabs, crosses, hooks, front kicks and roundhouses. I killed that bag. I even took some time to do a bit of shadow boxing against the mirror. The music added to the footwork and the gloves added a bit of extra weight to keep the workout going. By the end of that, I was sweating up a storm. After that was over, I tried to jump a little rope. Granted, I was never fantastic at that as a kid, but I tried anyways. I had it going for bits of time, but I always lost concentration. That was the end of that. There were some situps and pushups alternating sets of ten. After tiring out my abs and arms, the music was so good that I had to throw the gloves back on and do some more shadow boxing. It was a lot of fun. After that I did fifteen minutes on the erg machine as a cool-down. By that time it was a quarter to ten. There were only two other people working out at that point. It was a great workout.
When I left, it had started raining. It was cold freakin' rain and I had no umbrella. It made me wish I had my long hair again. It was dripping on my scalp and it was cold as anything. Luckily, my house is only a ten minute walk. It seemed a bit longer last night though. By the time I got home and got cleaned up, it was a bit to late to call OC Girl. She works early and goes to sleep early from what she tells me. So I called Raver Girl in CT instead. I had been thinking about her while I was rockin' out to Moby. She likes Moby a lot. Turns out that she had been thinking about me the other day and we were just on the same wavelength. It's really great to have a friend like Raver Girl. We sat there and talked about DJs and music for the better portion of a half an hour before moving onto other fun topics. I think she and her man will be coming up to Boston to visit while the grandparents are away. Should be good stuff. She's good people. We both appreciate the same things. Food, music, funky style, quality alcohol. We are definitely the same type of people. From what I know of her boyfriend, we'll be people too. She makes him out to be incredibly amusing. I like amusing people. People who aren't afraid to be out there, or who are out there all of the time when their friends are around. Yah yah! It's freakin rockin' talking to her. We have some great conversations. Too bad we don't live in the same city. I'd be dragging her out all of the time.
Anyways, today is over. It was a lot more laxed compared to yesterday. It was even mildly pleasant. Now it's time to go and get some stuff for dinner and then homewards bound. My brother comes into town tonite. Should be interesting. Tonite, nothing on tap. Oh well, I have to go before the stores in Chinatown close. A nice relaxing evening on tap.
Breathe... Just Breathe.... Listening: Do you ever get me?
Wow, what a day. I feel like someone just kicked my ass and then made me work in financial services... oh yeah... Both of those people were me. Anyways, here's how the weekend goes...
Friday night, I went home and bought the sneakers that I had been looking at. They're like my old sneakers, but they're runners and not crosstrainers. The new model of the crosstrainer that I have looks like it's the fruit of the ugly tree. It's white with black and orange accents and a bright orange ribbed tongue. That tongue certainly isn't ribbed for the pleasure of anyone I know. Shit, dood. This was an ugly sneaker. I can't be expected to go to a gym where I may just oogle hotties on treadmills wearing ugly sneakers. I gots ta be wearing something slick on the offchance that one of these girls A) won't have a man who is twice my size and B) will actually come over and say something like, "Wanna go back to my house and get a whole different aerobic workout?" Heh. I amuse myself. Anyways, I settled for the runners and was on my merry way. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to work out before dinner and not enough time after dinner between the end of digestion and the beginning of a party I was supposed to go to. So I put it off.
I went to the b-day party of a friend from high school. It was kind of odd, mostly because we don't really travel in the same kind of packs. The people there were nice. Some were even attractive, but I don't think I had much in common with any of them. Drank some wine, had some cake. Chilled out. Talked to some amusing people. Generally nothing of consequence, though. Maybe if I had really talked to someone there, I would have made a nice connection, but no one really sparked my interest enough to get to more than anything but small talk. Yeah, but I just felt like they weren't my peeps. I had some good wine though. Mmm... wine.
Saturday, I woke up, ate an apple and headed to the gym for a few hours. A half hour on the eliptical machine, an hour working out my upper body, twenty five minutes kicking and punching the shit out of a heavy bag and five minutes on the erg machine to cool down. It was actually fun. I enjoyed it immensely. I was planning on going back today right after work, but work killed me today (which we'll get to later) and I didn't feel I would have enough time between the end of work and dinner to do what I wanted to do. I think I'm gonna dig this whole working out thing. Now I just have to work on my diet as well. Too many carbs. Need more protein.
After the gym, I met up with Carpenter, had lunch and bought some CDs and a DVD. I got my father the Top Gun Soundtrack because he asked me to find it for him used. I bought myself Moby's Everything Is Wrong Remixes two CD set and the After Life DVD. I was psyched to find it so cheap. Right from there, I went and had dinner with Ye-ah and then went and watched The Pillow Book at Booch's. It was an altogether productive day.
Sunday, I hung around with Ye-ah and The Violent One. We went and posted some signs up for The Violent One's independent film that she's working on. Went to Porter Exchange where we saw OMG and Bombadier. Went to Super 88 in Allston where I had a second lunch and some almond milk tea.
Later on that night, I went to another friend's b-day party at the Ryles. I was supposed to DJ, but the schedule was made up and I wasn't on it. I asked one guy, let's call him Dickhead, if I could spin a few tracks, because the b-day girl had, in fact, asked me to spin a bit. He was like, "ummm..." Then he came back to me and said, "Well, since you weren't on the roster, would you be incredibly hurt if you didn't really get to spin?" My response was, "Well, no, but it would be nice to spin a few tracks." Then he said, "Would you be playing that funky hip hop crap? And do you really think these people want to hear it? I mean, but no offense, I really don't." I responded by saying, "Well, actually I'd be playing more funky ELECTRONIC tracks, and yes, I think people would want to hear it, seeing as a number of people have asked me to spin and are asking me when I am going to be spinning." So to make a long story short, I got to play two tracks. Dickhead has to be the biggest fucknut next to Mumbles. Sweet bajeezums, why do people have to be like that? Fucknut.
Anyways, today was rough. Mumbles was back from vacation. It was paydown day and that's all I did all freakin day long. It's all I did. I almost went nuts today. Damn it! Where is that dream job I've been thinking about? Surely it'll present itself soon. Mofugga! It's a quarter past five. I need to leave. Go home, eat, rest, work out, maybe call OC Girl. Who knows? My life is fairly unpredictable. I wish I had some more positive things to talk about. Wait... lemmie try to list some of them... Short work week this week... Kick ass palz... My AWESOME MD recorder... Chicago pie coming in next couple of days... my new Nick Hornby book coming in the next couple of days... headphones... cute girlies at the gym... I guess life isn't so bad all of the time. *sigh* Time to bounce.
No! Really, I Will Have Pie! Listening: You could sleep forever, but still you will be tired....
*Insert Happy Dance* So I have been helping PJ out on his Law school application essay/personal statement as of late. It has been tons of fun and it has been nice to get some of my line edit skills back on par. So I was hangin' out last night when my phone rang. It was PJ. He starts asking me all of these cryptic questions like, "What're you doing next week?" "What do you usually eat?" "What do you like on your pizza?" So finally, I ask him what this was about. Turns out he's sending me a Chicago pizza from Giordano's (my favorite pizza place in Chicago). It'll be here on Tuesday! Mo'fuggin stuffed spinach pizza, baby! Yeah! Who's excited? *ZEN!!! raises his hand.* I haven't had one of these bad boys in six freakin years. SIX YEARS! And, alas, this will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry. See, if you've enver had one of these pizzas, you have the misconception that you know what great pizza is. You are so wrong. Giordano's stuffed spinach pizza kicks so much more ass than you can ever comprehend until you've had it. *sigh* That pizza is so dreamy....
This is what I have on tap this weekend. Tonite, I'm going to the gym after I pick up a pair of sneakers and a bottle of wine. I'll try to at least. The latest I'm going to go to the gym is Saturday. Then tonite at nine, I'm going to a high school friend's little b-day get-together. Should be interesting. I will maybe know three people there, but hey, I'm not adverse to meeting anyone new. Tomorrow, I'm getting together with either Booch or Ye-ah or both. And then Sunday I have another friend's b-day shindig. Should be a fun weekend. I'm hoping to get a solid two hours of gym time though.
Anyways, as you can prolly tell from my journal, I have been in a bit of a rut as of late. I haven't been doing anything that I have wanted to do. Work this week was quite, but busy. I like that. No Mumbles bothering me, etc. But I think the lack of lunch and the loomingness of Mumbles coming back on Monday just has had me stressed out as a basket case. I have never hated someone that I had to work with as much as I dispise him. I haven't been meeting anyone new and I just have been in a rotten mood. I feel bad, because dinner with Booch was just like one big ball of unhappiness. She wasn't happy. I wasn't happy. It wasn't a happy scene. I'm trying to pump up my attitude a bit. Maybe this weekend will do me good. I've been meaning to call OC Girl to see if she wants to hang out or whatever, but as of late I don't have much motivation or energy to do so. I am going to try to make a point of calling her up to grab coffee or tea next week. She seems pretty cool and why not add another friend?
Anyways, it's getting late and I need to go and get wine and sneakers. Makes me sound like I'm gonna "shoot the boot." I'm not a rugby player though. Til next time.
Well, this is gonna be brief. I've been working hard all day long and any free minutes I have had has been looking on the internet for good workout plans. I haven't really taken a lunch break in the past three days. If I have, they have been really short. I'm either going to start working out tonite after Survivor or tomorrow after work. It should be nice. Hopefully. I need new gear. I haven't really worked out in quite some time, as far as this stuff goes. I don't have that many pairs of gym shorts or a good pair of sneakers, so I'm gonna go look for some after work today. So, I'm gonna go check some stuff out after work. Time to go.
Time To Get Fit Listening: What's your flava? What's your fla-va?
The Violent One works near where I live. Really close. There's a gym by her lab, a Fitcorp place. She sent me a pdf file with a flyer for two free months. So I called the place up and listened to the fine print of the deal. I only have to pay the prorate of this month and for the month of December. Then I get January and February for free. This means that I'll be able to work out through the time when winter practice kicks in. I figure I'll get a personal trainer once and bang out a workout plan with him/her and then follow it for the rest of the three months. Yeah, baby! I think I'm gonna try to convince myself to work out three or four times a week. Maybe Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Who knows? I hope I'm motivated enough to be going as often as I picture myself going. Who knows, it may just kill the boredom that I have late at night. I'll be too damn tired by the time late night comes around that I can just drift off to sleep.
Anyways, I'm gonna go join after work today. Gotta stop off at home to get my checkbook and stuff... I think... Nope. I have it with me (thanks to having to pay my student loans yesterday). I got my hair cut yesterday. Not so fuzzy anymore. I'm re-growing my muskrat, because of general frustration in life, and I figure that growing back the muskrat could be the one thing in life I really have control over. Time to go home.
Busy. Good. No Mumbles. Good. Have Pie? Yes. Listening: In this undiscovered moment, bring your head up above the ground...
Today has been busy. I've been chatting all day online with PJ. There's lots of work to be done with Mumbles out for the week, but not nearly enough to necessitate two people doing the job. But, hey, who knows? He could be doing something of value during the day. Or, he could be shakin' hands with the pope in his cube. I don't keep track of him. Maybe he plays that awful music of his to hide his own grunts. Okay, okay. I'm getting crude. But would you have it any other way? I didn't think so.
Yesterday, I was all set to go to the Diesel Cafe to wrestle a table away from annoying college students, grab a cup of warm coffee and contemplate life. I was on my way there when it hit me. Why don't I do one of my other favorite solitary activities. It would mean not having to hand some poor Tufts student their ass in a cappucino cup while pissing on their pseudo-intellectual term paper and wiping the table with their cardigan. So I plugged into my headphones and headed to Harvard Square. From the station, I made a B-line right for Newbury comic where I stood for two hours digging through the bargain bin CDs (only two find three really great albums that I already owned) and artists A through E in the used disc section. Needless to say, I came away with nothing. But it's not the ends that I was looking for. I was more down for the hunt. I did find Boyz II Men Evolution and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Homebase but I didn't buy them because I really only wanted one song from each disc (Four Seasons of Loneliness from Evolution and the original album version of Summertime from Homebase). Promptly at ten o'clock, they kicked me out, right as I was getting finished with the Eurythmics section. Damn them. So I went to Au Bon Pain for a hot cider and then decided to check out the Harvard Coop. Closing. Damn. I stood around in the cold for a bit wondering what to entertain myself with when I remembered that swing dancing was going on nearby. So, I stopped in to check things out. I ran into a girl I hadn't seen out in a while and chatted a bit. When dancing ended, I went home and vegged. The usual.
Anyways, it's time for me to go. I have to go and get a haircut. I'll look all spiff tomorrow. I look all fuzzy today.
One final bit of big news... My best friend from high school just got engaged. Wow. Are we all getting this old this fast or what? I remember when I couldn't tell a good wine from a bad wine. Now I am picky about the alcohol that I drink. I mean, I've always been picky, but not as picky as I have been in the last year or so. But people getting married? Glare and Totoro are already hitched. My best friend from high school is next. I can't even meet a good girl, let alone find someone to marry. Maybe I'll be forever young.
Wishing For A Life Less Blah Listening: I don't know where we went wrong, but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back
So... I missed Friday. I have a good reason though. I can either tell you quick, or give you the details. Maybe I'll try to do something inbetween. Wednesday and Thursday, Mumbles was out of the office sick. Boo-fuckin'-hoo. I was secretly hoping that he caught the bubonic plague or something of the sort. Alas, no. Unfortunate. So he was back on Friday. I kinda knew he would be, because the fifteenth and the twenty-fifth of the month are paydown days. Basically this means we get hit with all sorts of principal and interest lines that could be booked correctly or could be completely wrong. In our case there were several problematic lines and interest bits and pieces that weren't making my day happy. Secondly, I was trying my best on Wednesday and Thursday to make it so that when Mumbles came back to work, he wouldn't have anything to gloat about. I was unsuccessful. There were little tiny brain-farts/faulty neurons that must have fired that day and he had shit to come at me with. By the end of the day I was so pissed that I was about two seconds from handing in my two week notice. I was really ticked by the end of the day.
When I left I was so wound up that I really just wanted to beat something to a bloody pulp (a manly equivalent to going somewhere and crying). I decided that I wanted to go do something violent like shooting pool or bowling, something where I got to be a little destructive and knock things down, but there was no one who really wanted to go and do it, or who I thought would be an appropriate person to do it with. It gets frustrating when you're really the best player at the table. I want someone who is on equal ground or who will push my level of play just that extra bit higher. There were no good DJs playing in Boston either, so I couldn't justify paying twenty dollars to see someone who I wasn't into. So I ended up going to see the Toni Lynn Washington Band at Swing City. I got to see some people who I hadn't seen in a while. I got a ride home with Cutesy Sister #1 and heard Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me on the radio. It left me in a mood better than when I walked in. However, I still really wanted to take a shot at something. I went to sleep anyways.
Saturday was rainy. I woke up around two or so, I think. While in the shower Glare called me and I called her back. We were trying to set up something to do that night. We decided on dinner and drinks and ended up with dessert as well. Glare, Totoro and I had dinner at East Ocean City in Chinatown (which is rare when we get together), went to Marche's for smoothies, and after a disappointing look at the desserts, we went to T.G.I.Friday's for some drinks, appitizers and then dessert. There was a promotion going on there that night and I walked out with a Tanqueray Gin t-shirt. As far as the dessert went, I ordered apple crisp, but it had a hair in it so, I opted to stop eating it. Anyways, the rain sucked and I was home by midnight.
Sunday was the worst by far. I woke up around noon and all I did was go to the grocery store (in the rain), bought lunch, rented a movie, walked back home (in the rain), made lunch, and sat on my ass watching TV all day. I had no motivation to do anything. I didn't read. I didn't work on my mixes. I sat on my ass watching TV and the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet. It was pretty good overall. I think that the only thing that detracted from it was the fact that my grandparents were speaking in Chinese loudly as I was watching, making it seem like Hamlet spoke Chinese. Julia Stiles played Ophelia in the movie. She did a pretty good job. It wasn't like anything I imagined Ophelia to be, but it was nice. Now some more words about Julia Stiles. Her wardrobe in the movie rawked. Lots of baggy pants and tight tops that gave a little belly button peek. In addition to her nice choice in wardrobe (which looks like it really could have come out of her own closet), she had this look in her eyes, this crazy shell-shocked look, that was just erally intriguing. She didn't have that many lines, but her facial expressions said everything that her character was thinking. It was good.
Anyways, that was my exciting weekend. I hope next weekend is better.
Well, It's Been A Long Day Listening: When I see you as high as a kite, as high as I might I can't get that high.
Just a short blog. Today was busy as hell. It's half past five and I'm still here. A long day indeed. Crappy overdraft stuff. Damn the broker. Damn the Fed. Grrr... Anyways, I had some fun editing PJ's law school essay. It feels nice to flex the English muscles now and then. I think tonite I'm watching Survivor and then I'm going to figure out Random Acts Of Violins. Laterz.
The Emptiness That Music And Food Fills Listening: There's a hole in my heart that can only be filled by you...
So I didn't go out yesterday. I didn't. I called up Carpenter as a last ditch of finding someone to go to this concert with (He usually trusts my judgement when it comes to music as most people I know do.), but he was catching up on sleep after a long weekend at Swingin' New England on the Cape. I understood. After I got the call from him saying he was out, I looked outside. I looked at my umbrella and jacket. I looked back outside. I changed into sweats and veged all night wishing I had someone to call. I flipped through my cellie phonebook and I decided there was no one I really wanted to call, so I closed it and slouched back in my couch and let my mind meander as I saw random images flash on the television screen. It's hard when you want to talk to someone, but you don't want to talk to anyone who is actually an option as a person to call. So I let my mind go. I started philosophizing. This is what I came up with.
There are really two things that permeate my life. Music and food. They're always there. There are other things that are there intermittantly (friends, hobbies, my blog, etc.), but there's always music and food. The more I thought about it, about ninety percent of the positive emotional responses that I have are due to either one of them. Actually it's more music than it is food, so let's just focus on music. Music fills my heart. Plain and simple. It fills me with this feeling where my heart just stops and fills with something, maybe air or whatever. I can feel it getting larger in my chest when I hear a piece of music that I can really connect with. Like when the opener for Carl Cox played Everything But The Girl's Five Fathoms. I couldn't believe how I felt. It was like the absense of feeling was filled with this rich color of life in the form of warm loneliness. I get a feeling of warmth and happiness when I'm walking around and I hear the piano part to Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles. I can only think that I use music to feel, to really feel anything. I walk around feeling nothing in my heart until I plug into my discman or MD. I feel like it gives me deep and rich emotion. I walk around the world feeling cold and angry and frustrated to the point where sometimes I want to drop everything and just shout, but even that is kind of shallow and meek as feelings go. Music takes my black and whites and turns them to color. It gives a voice to the way I feel. If I don't know how I feel at a particular point in time, all I have to do is hear the right song and I can say, "There! That's the way I feel." I don't know if I'm making any sense or if any of you all think I'm full of shit, but it's the way I see the way I feel.
I also think that it is a substitute for human contact when I'm feeling bad. When I feel like shit, like real shit, I don't go and call anyone up, I plug in. Everyday, to and from work, I listen to music. Whenever I go anywhere, I have my headphones in. I could be walking five minutes to go pick a friend up and I still would have my headphones in. Headphones are my excuse to the question, "Why doesn't anyone come up and talk to me?" It's because I have my headphones on and project an idea onto other people that I don't want to be bothered, whether I do or don't. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I see someone that peaks my curiosity and I wouldn't mind if they tapped me on the shoulder and asked what I was listening to (because no doubt I have the volume cranked so that everyone and their dead distant relative could hear it). Alas, no. But why, you may ask, do I deserve to be approached? Why don't I do the approaching? I think it's because when it comes to someone I have absolutely no connection to, I am shy. I know I appear loud or appear to have a strong personallity, but that is the difference between the two sides of me.
So, that's what I thought about for the bulk of last night. Is this a problem? I don't know. Should I do something about this? Am I the only one who feels like this? Sometimes I wonder. I wonder if other people just sit at home and think about life and what's going on in the same way that I do. Most of the time I highly doubt it. Occasionally I'll think that I'm not alone.
Loneliness... Is that the problem? I was talking with Booch one day this past week and she said something to the effect of "Dood, give up on the girl. It's obvious that, though she's a really nice girl, she's not right for you. Go and be single. You have to be single to find someone. B'sides, it seems like you've done it enough that your good at it." I'm sure I'm just putting words in her mouth, but it's roughly how I translated it. She's not the only person to say that I was good at being single or at being alone. What's kind of interesting is that I'm "good" at a lot of things I hate. Like, work for instance. I'm a frikkin' rockstar here at work. I can't stand what I do. I whore myself out to the corporation so I can support my CD habit.
My CD purchasing has really gotten out of control. I'm going to the bootlegger after work to go buy some CDs for my mother (who I won't see until the end of the year) and I'll end up buying myself some as well. I saw a bootleg of Stevie Wonder's Greatest Hits. I needed it. I need to hear Alright (Uptight) *Sigh* See, all of my money turns into music. My life is music. Music is my only constant companion.
Anyways, it's time for me to go. It's half past four and I need to be leaving. No Mumbles at work today. It was nice. I was busy and helpful. I felt like I made a difference today as opposed to being a trained monkey (which I really am). Tonite: Week two in the Boochie Weekly Dinners. I think we're gonna go to Fuddrucker's. I haven't been to one of those since I left St. Louis. It'll be even better if I can hear Stevie on the stereo.
All-Purpose Blue Day Listening: To the top of the world, to the top of the world...
Today, I'm kinda blue and I really can't think of why. I just am. I haven't decided whether I'm gonna go see Ozomatli tonite at the Paradise Rock Club in Allston. They're a good band and I would love to see them again. I wonder if they would bring me energy. Everyone is either busy or has no desire to see Ozomatli, as they are virtually unheard of. It's a shame. I dunno if I wanna go by myself this time. I know I've gone by myself to shows, rock or otherwise, but I dunno if I feel like doing it tonite. Frik Frak. I figure I have a few hours to decide. Doors are at seven and I figure they'll be having an opener. I don't need to see the opener. Anyways, I'm gonna go home now. Work sucks. I need to leave it now.
Gluttony & Sloth Down... Five More Sins To Go Listening: Monday you could fall apart, Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart...
Well, this weekend was fun and boring and tasty and stuff like that. Friday, I ended up getting together with Ye-ah, Booch, Anti-Scott and a few other people. I was kind of hoping to go out and shoot some pool, but we didn't. We ended up at the Thirsty Scholar, a pub, near Inman Square. I have to say it's not a bad place. It was actually pretty nice. Not nice as in plush, but nice as in cozy and comfy. The beer was good and reasonably inexpensive, so I was happy.
The amusing thing was that I saw a girl there that I dated a few times a couple of summers ago. I think it was right before my senior year. She was this tiny little Azn thing that brought me into the Armani Exchange store while we were walking on Newbury Street and proceeded to tell me how her ex-boyfriend (who wasn't her ex as I found out later) used to buy her stuff there all of the time. My immediate reaction to that was to think, "Well... we know about how long this is gonna last." Anyways... I saw her and I was kind of shocked. I was like, "Eep! I didn't think I'd see you here!" Luckily she either didn't see me or recognize me. It gave me a second to really think about it. I didn't really dig her on much more than a , "Gee, she's pwitty..." kind of level. All in all she was a bit too materialistic for me. So I was just observing what she was doing in the bar. She seemed to have been moving from table to table. I didn't realize this until Booch pointed it out to me, so we came to the conclusion that she was the Bar Bitch. Now, I felt the need to articulate this word, so I saw her and called out her name. She turned around and saw my table of people smiling at her. It took her a few seconds to recognize me. We made small talk and found out that she wasn't in fact the Bar Bitch, but instead was the Magic Hat Girl. I still felt the need to say Bar Bitch, so I said, "Oh we just thought you were a Bar Bitch." Admittedly a cheap shot. But ya gotta get all the shots you can on people who say, "Oh my boyfriend used to buy me Armani stuff all of the time." But somehow we got three Magic Hat pint glasses out of it so I guess it was all good. It was amusing.
Saturday was boring. (It doesn't deserve much more attention than that. Errands... e-mails... That's it)
Sunday was brunch with Glare, Totoro, The Violent One, Booch, Ye-ah, Anti-Scott and Chocoholic. OMG was supposed to come, but she had too much work to do. She's a freakin' workaholic. She needs to stop and smell the roses... err... brunch foods. So we went to The Blue Room and had an amazing meal. Good conversation, good food, good coffee and good wedding picture proofs. It was nice. I kind of felt like inviting Booch to brunch was like inviting her into my family. It's kind of how I feel about my friends. I love them to death, I do. Booch has slowly been meeting my friends one by one, but the ones at brunch were really my core friends. Four of the five people I couldn't live without were there. So Boochie's now a part of my family. Yay! Plus she likes good food, so she gets along with the others in my family.
Today is a slow day at work. It's half past one and I was supposed to leave a half an hour ago. The market is closed and I don't have any real work to do that I didn't do between the hours of nine and ten. Mumbles tried to push some bitch work onto me, but I told him to screw off. Well, not really. I told him that what he wanted me to do was ridiculous and if he wanted it done, he'd be doing it himself. So there, bitch! Anyways, I'm gonna go and grab a beer with some co-workers. I like national holidays. They make things easier at work. Oh yeah and jeans today... yay! Laterz, kiddies.
Confessions of a Music Junkie Listening: The joy is not the same without the pain...
I'm running a little short on time today. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the greater portion of the day. For some reason there was a lot of work to do today. Mumbles wasn't much help. Tool.... Power tool.... Anyways... I was working really hard all day long. I don't think there was more than a five minute period of time where I was screwing off on the internet or something. I've just been doing a lot of work. It sucked on a Friday. Now I'm waiting to call the Blue Room to book a reservation for brunch on Sunday. Should be a good meal. There are nine of us going.
I still haven't figured out what I'm doing tonite. I hate that shit. I was planning on getting together with someone for dinner or something and it fell through. I hate when that happens. PJ was going to come up tomorrow, but that's not happening either. So I guess I'll have a pretty uneventful weekend aside from Brunch. I am looking forward to it though.
Oh well, time to go. I have to call the Blue Room now.
PIE! When Come Back Bring Pie! Listening: I'm sensitive and I'd like to stay that way...
There continues to be nothing much to speak of in my life. Life is hum drum. Not in a good way or in a bad way. There are things flying around that I find mildly entertaining and other things that I find mildly disturbing, but nothing really of consequence.
What's the world coming to? Wynona Rider is a shoplifter. The Democrats are all frazzled over one or two seats. Two people in NYC have the bubonic plague. Jam Master Jay was shot dead while playing frikkin' Playstation. Koreans and Iraqis have nukes and small pox. Martha Stewart is a crook (oh well... I don't mind about that as long as she is stuck in prison to rant about making holiday garlands out of toilet paper while having wild monkey prison lovin'). Man... This world is being turned upside down and I just don't know what to do about it. Maybe I should be come a vigilante. I'll call myself Spikey the Rice Warrior. I'll use my gel hardened hair and uncooked grains of rice to thwart the evil plans of people like Saddam Hussain, Evil CEOs, and Barney the Friendly Dinosaur. Here's just an example of what would happen:
Saddam: What? What's this? This isn't the small pox, Barney! This is chicken pox! Barney: Oh... I just thought since small pox were, well, small, that the chicken pox would be bigger and more to love because... I love you... you... Saddam: Imbecil! You should have been taken out with the asteroid that took out your parents... Prissy purple fucker. Spikey: Halt, evil doers! Saddam: What the fuck are you? Some sort of ricepatty worker? 'Cause you're definitely too short to be a stormtrooper. Barney: Do you want a hug? Spikey: Back treacherous dinosaur, or I will be forced to incompacitate you! Saddam: What are you going to do? Tai chi us to death? Barney: Don't you love me? Spikey: I'm warning you... Disassemble that bomb, NOW, villains! Saddam: Let's get 'im and send 'im into the Cretatious Period! Barney: Maybe we should sing a song first! Saddam & Barney go after our hero Spikey: YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA! Saddam: Ow! Mutha fucka! Stop that shit! Barney: Ouch! He got rice in my eye! Spikey: Take that scumbags! Saddam: Oh god! The rice is too much! We give! We give! Barney: Waaaaaaahhhhhh! I need a hug. Saddam, will you give me a hug? That guy is mean! Spikey Another job well done!
Yeah, that's kinda how it'd go. Then Spikey would go home and have some pie...
On a more serious note, I have been thinking about what makes one person find another person attractive. Why is someone attractive to you? Is it because of their face or their body? Is it because of the conversation or the intellectual interaction? Is it a mixture of both? Is it really just a bunch of chemicals that we're all oozing from our pores that gets someone there? I don't know. Is it possible to be attracted to a person that isn't your "type?" I mean, if a person isn't the type of person that you usually go for, is there a possibility for you to be attracted to them? Just a few things that I've been thinking about.
Another thing I've been thinking about, after talking to a violinist (and me being a former violinist), I got thinking about violins and pop-culture. There are so many songs that have a violin part that no one really acknowledges what kind of part they play in pop-ish music. So, I was thinking about making a mix called "Random Acts of Violins." It'll be a complilation of really good pop, hip-hop, techno, rock and non-traditional orchestra music all having a part for the violin in it. I think it should be good. When I went to buy the new Badly Drawn Boy CD, I decided that I needed the William Orbit CD Pieces in a Modern Style, which has his version of Barber's Adagio for Strings, Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Handel's Xerxes. It's a freakin' amazing CD. I listened to most of it last night as I tried to fall asleep. I had some nice sleep last night. It might have been the beer too, but who knows?
Tomorrow is Friday. Tonite, I stay home. I am tired-ish. B'sides I'm trying to save a little money. Gonna relax a bit.
I Think The Streak Is Over Listening: This boy is cracking up. This boy has broken down.
Well, this is going to be another brief blog. There's not an incredible amount to say. The TarePanda that I had attached to my cellie strap has fallen off. I think it was on Monday night when I was carrying my laundry back home. It's a sad day. I need to get another TarePanda cellie strap. I'll get one when I go back to Japan.
Last night I had dinner with OC Girl. She's good company and seems to like to laugh (because I can't possibly funny enough to warrant the amount of laughing I get out of her). We went to the ramen joint near Newbury Street/Hynes Convention Center. She had never been there and had been working outside in the cold all day, so I think it was an ideal choice. I find talking with her very interesting, not only because we're so different, but there really have been a number of instances where we have had things in common... I can't name them off of the top of my head, but I distinctly remember thinking to myself that something from her childhood reminded me of mine. But we are incredibly different. Doesn't mean we can't hang out though. I don't know what I think. She's a fun person to go out to eat with. There shall be more meals with this girl.
Tonite is dinner with Booch. I also get to pick up the Badly Drawn Boy CD from the Harvard HMV. Happy day, happy day! Time for me to leave work. This place is dead anyways.
A Break Listening: *Instrumental... Can't you tell?*
No real blog today. I have nothing of substance to say. I've been tripping over my brain as of late. Sometimes you need a remote control to turn it off. Was gonna blog a character sketch, but I got three sentences into it and didn't like it, so I quit and erased it. Time for me to leave. Maybe I'll be more verbose tomorrow.
No, I Swear! Hell Really Hath Frozen Over! Listening: Are you as cool as you believe?
Damn... This weekend was a trip. Friday, I was exhausted, so I went home and took a nap from four to six. That's nothing unusual. I get up, have a small dinner, and go back to sleep a half hour later... until midnight. I was woken up by a call. It was one of the friends from college that I ran into on Thursday. He had told me that he was going to call me. He needed to give me #2's phone number. See, #2 was the #2 DJ on campus my senior year. He was a junior and was all about hip hop. I was the senior member of "The Vinyl Empire" and I was all about electronica, but I could diversify my sets and still have it flow. Anyways, we were harsh competitors on the decks and good friends away from the 1s and 2s. He was charismatic and loud. Much louder than I, but my music spoke volumes and I ended up teaching him a few things about mixing and how to read a crowd. Anywayz, Friday was #2's birthday and I hadn't talked to the dood in about two years. So after I was woken up, I ended up calling #2 down in DC. It was cool. It's one more person in DC that I have to visit. He said he had some gigs he could hook me up with if I came down. Turns out he's been spinning about as much as I have been over the past year. It was good to talk to him.
Also on Friday, I got a chance to IM with DJC (the Goth/Industrial side of The Vinyl Empire). He was slated to DJ Saturday and Sunday at a club near his base and was looking for track recommendations. To be honest, I'm not as up on the tracks as I used to be. So I couldn't help him very much. I pointed him in the direction of a few web pages, but nothing as helpful as I wanted. He was jumping from a plane the other day... Training to go to the Middle East. Fuck, I worry about that dood. We had a lot of things in common. We were going to open up a bar together some day. Play rekkidz from a booth above the floor. Bring top name DJs. Fucker better come back. He's got a wife and two year old kid to think about. A couple of times a week, usually when hearing Bush's rants and raves, I start to worry about DJC. Lotsa shit can go wrong there and with as many friends I have, I don't need to lose one. I just get worried about my friends now and then, especially the ones being thrown into grave danger. Jumping out of planes strapped with firearms into enemy territory where people would just as soon shoot you as recgonize the cultural difference. Anyways, enough about DJC.
This is what is defending your country.
So, back to Friday night, I ended up watching TV until three in the morning and then I ended up reading for and additional half an hour. Strange, huh? The really strange thing was that Cassius and Together were both playing at Avalon that night. For those of you who don't know who they are, sometimes they are called Daft Punk and Stardust. I was kicking myself the next day when I figured it out.
I got up on Saturday at around eleven o' clock. Surprisingly, I was really refreshed. I thought I would get burnt from too much sleep, but I wasn't. Instead, I woke up, grabbed my cell phone and called The Violent One. See, Ye-ah was moving into town this weekend and he gave us a phone number (which I didn't write down). I knew The Violent One would have it, so I called her to get it. I wanted to see if they wanted to get together for brunch at S&S Deli in Inman Square. Turns out that Ye-ah was still enroute, so we couldn't get him. However, we had a nice brunch. I really like S&S. It is rapidly turning into one of my favorite reasonable places to get breakfast or a late night snack. Fantastic. I strongly recommend it. Following brunch, The Violent One and I sat around wondering what to do for the rest of the day.
We ended up seeing Punch-Drunk Love. What a waste of money. At first, I was confused over whether it was a good movie or not. I think about an hour after I saw it, I decided that it sucked something fierce. I actually wanted to see it because PJ said it was good and I have heard a number of good reviews of it. I was excited to see the movie. I can't believe it was as bad as it was. A lot of people said to me, "You actually thought that an Adam Sandler movie would be 'good?'" I guess I was foolish to think that any Adam Sandler movie is worth anything more than a glance on USA or rental money.
That night, though, I had the best time. I opted to go see Carl Cox at Avalon by myself. It always seems that I have the best time at a club when I'm by myself. After PVD letting me down and a rough week at work, I really needed the release. Carl didn't disappoint. Actually the opener didn't disappoint either. The opener's final track was a remix of Everything But The Girl's Five Fathoms. I heard the track go on and I went nutz. I went completely berzerk. Five Fathoms is the opening track off of the Temperamental disc, which is my favorite disc by them. It has this theme that goes, I wanna love more... I just wanna love more... It has this real theme of outrospectiveness where the protagonist in the song is seeing the world and is envious of the masses of people who seem happy and loved and who have someone to love. It's a very painful song. I think one of my favorite lines is: I want to be the things I see, Give every face and place my name. The envy and the desperation is just heartwrenching. I don't know. It kind of tapped into my loneliness a but and squeezed me. I had a huge emotional response to that song. Like with any ideal DJ, I felt like that song was for me. After the excellent opener, Carl Cox came on. He came on early. Normally the top billing DJ comes on at midnight at Avalon, but Carl came on at eleven thirty. I was psyched. From eleven thirty to a quarter past two, I only stopped dancing once for five minutes to buy a bottle of water. The set was amazing. He played the crowd perfectly. The crowd was small so I had plenty of room to dance. I could spread my arms and hop around without having to worry about someone hitting me. There were periods of time where I was so overwhelmed by the set that all I could do is reach my hands in the air and jump up and down with the beat. I had my eyes closed most of the night. One time when I opened them, there was this party kid standing on the steps looking at me, pointing at me and smiling like I was the shit. It was really kinda cool. All of the frustration I had over work and over other petty things that I had going on in my life got released there on the dance floor. The music was like a desperately needed cleansing. It was the best thing that I could have done all weekend.
So I got home at around three in the morning. I was so pumped that I couldn't go to sleep right away. So, I ended up reading a bit. I decided to take a break from Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and decided to start re-reading Prozak Nation. I can't wait until the movie comes out in March.
Sunday morning, I was an idiot and I woke up at seven o'clock to go and pull the dragon boat out of the water. About fourteen or so of us went out in thirty degree weather th scrub out the boat, paddle it to a ramp, hoist it up ont a trailer and take it to Concord, MA. Paddling was the worst. My hands nearly froze in the water. It was so cold. When we got to Concord, we had to build some saw horses to put it up on, clean the underside of the bad boy and cover it. I haev to say I didn't do the most work. I was tired and still coming off of the Carl Cox night. I really wasn't in the mood to be cleaning. There was a mad amount of scum on the bottom of the boat. In addition to that, there were barnacles too. We had to use Booch's windshield scraper to scrape them off the bottom of the boat. They must have gotten there from when we took the boat out into the bay.
On the way back to Boston, I got a call from Ye-ah. It turned out that he had moved in and he wanted to get together that night. So I made the plans. Also on the way back, Booch, Bean, OC Girl and I stopped at a farmside stand to pick up some good eats. There were pies and crisps bought. I bought an apple pie for Ye-ah as a sort of house warming gift. However that night we went over to Booch's place, myself, The Violent One, Ye-ah, and Anti-Scott, to have coffee/tea and pie. It was a nice time. Everyone seemed to mesh well. The conversation at time was thoroughly amusing. I think Booch gets along well with the rest of my friends. I think it's great. It's like old and new coming together.
As of late I've felt a lot of pressure to blog. I don't know quite why, but I seem to feel like I have to write every day. I may keep this up, because I do enjoy writing this every day, but sometimes I think I should be able to let it go. I have in the past. So I'm jsut gonna try to write as much as can. Maybe it's an entertainment thing.
Also, in brief other news, with my unhappiness at work, abd some prodding by The Violent One, I have been giving some real thought into the idea of opening up a coffee shop with turntables in the back. I just think of it and I can see it. I think I'm going to do some research in the near future to determine the feasibility. I'll need partners, investors and space. I'll need permits and product. So much work. I'll start weighing out if it's worth it.
I Believe Hell Hath Frozen Over Listening: Well, it'd been a long day...
I've got a good run going on here... Three days in a row. Well, this makes four. How much do I rawk? Don't answer that. We all know the rawkin-ness of me is indescribable. Heh.
Anyways, I went to see PVD last night with Booch and Hulk. Blondie and his spouse were supposed to be there as well as Senior Super Sex, but the three of them bailed. Booch had to leave early. So Hulk and I were there to fend for ourselves. I haev to say that the night overall sucked. The music was good, don't get me wrong. It wasn't ideal, but it was good. PVD washed out the music too much. It felt like once I got a groove really going he wiped the slate clean. There is a stratiegic way to use washes in a set, and it just seemed like PVD was abusing it. Well, he's the one making millions every year, so what do I know? The place was packed with people. Hotties and not-so-hotties. People who were wearing too much and were going to overheat, and people who were wearing too little, so that you wanted them to put "it" away. I'll let you decide what "it" is. Let me just say that there was no room to really groove. The three of us each got burned at least once by a cigarette. Freakin' A, it stung. I knew it was an accident, but it still ruined my vibe. There were tons of cute party kids and kandy kids out on the floor. UFOs run amok.
I ran in to a ton of people I knew from college there as well. It was kind of amazing. It was really random too. Some of them were still in school and some of them graduated this past May. It was strange seeing them. A couple of them flipped out when they saw that I didn't have my long hair anymore. They said that "I sold out to the man," which I did. However, that's not why I cut my hair. Got some cell numbers to "go catch up" sometime.
Today I was so tired. I just wanna go home and go to sleep. I have yet to decide whether I am going to go out or not. Some of Booch's friends that I know from swing dancing are in town for dinner, and she invited me. I have yet top decide whether I'm going to go or not. I'm wikkid tired and think I need the nap more than I need to meet up with these people at five o'clock. I think I'll sleep from four to six and then deicde whether I'm going to go out or not then. Tomorrow, I can sleep in and Carl Cox plays tomorrow night. Sunday is the day we move the boat out of the river and bring it to Concord, MA. It's gonna suck. Seven thirty in the morning. Does that sound appealing to you? It sure doesn't to me. I'm gonna be sleep paddling. Prolly gonna drop the boat. Time to go home and go to beddy bye. Tschuss.
