The Rise of Tragic Shisler

2009-12-31T04:31:00.001-06:00

I've gone NERVIO!

No problem, comment-bot.

2009-11-23T20:35:00.001-06:00

I've enabled comment verification forms since I've been getting some stimulating comments from bots. Ugh.

Dear on-line diary,

2009-11-23T02:35:00.003-06:00

Well. Three weeks till the semester ends. I can hardly wait. As much as I love the classroom environment, I can't really stand some of the bull-shyte "activities" I've had to participate in.

Some things I've learned about things:
-Online classes are a huge pain in the butt. The constant discussion-board interaction is no way to participate in a "discussion." How many more times do I have to type and/or read, "I agree completely." as a fulfillment of responding to someone elses post. Ugh.
-While I don't consider myself anti-social, I abhore group work of any sort. This is exaggerated by the general lack of social skills most IT students seem to have mastered at a young age. Years of sitting behind a computer screen in their bedroom instead of chasing down the BMOC for the big dance translates to more of the same.
-HTML coding is extremely time consuming when designing a website from scratch with little previous experience.
-One never learns how to do something right with no feedback from the instructor.
-Some things never change... I'm still a procrastinator.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the semester break. Why? Because shortly after I finished six months of chemo, I was tossed into a completely new weekly schedule. It's been a difficult task to get acclimated to the change. All in all, it's made my life feel like it was put into a shoebox right around the time I got back from Hawaii in February and then that shoebox was subsequent, violently shaken, repeatedly. Good times indeed.

In other news, Where the i Divides is currently kicking ass and taking names on the next album. All that really means is that I'm spending one night a week without sleep with a guitar in my lap and a keyboard in front of a computer, redrafting demos for distribution to the rest of the band for their "creative" additions. (Lyrics and melodys, Drumbeats, Bass lines).

Sleep? Like I used to say in undergrad... "I'll be dead soon, then I'll sleep."

In preparedness...

2009-10-27T20:01:00.002-05:00

This Thursday, I'm planning a live-blog for my Thursday night class... Computer Hardware Essentials.

Check back late to see it, or just read it on Friday. I will do my best to make it as entertaining as the title of the class sounds.

It sure as hell can't be any more boring than the class I'm sitting in right now. YAY!

I would direct all readers to the band's new website, but it's not up/functioning and such and such.

Too much meat on the plate, not enough salad.

Detroit is awesome!

2009-10-07T18:23:00.002-05:00

I spotted this article after I finished up my mid-term.

Made me think of this "article".

Detroit is awesome.

I've pushed this before...

2009-10-01T18:19:00.005-05:00

Sitting in class... awesome!

Check this out for a laugh.

Yellowstones

2009-09-03T03:06:00.002-05:00

I made a playlist tonight while stuffing dollars into the jukebox at the Black Bear aka second home.

Track 1: Blame it on the Tetons - Modest Mouse

Track 2: Future Proof - Massive Attack

Track 3: My Own Summer (Shove it!) - Deftones

When I got home, I added these:

Track 4: Stop Whispering - Radiohead (Live in Boston, 1996)

Track 5: Bury Me - Smashing Pumpkins

Track 6: Politik - Coldplay

Track 7: For Martha - Smashing Pumpkins

Track 8: An Anniversary for an Uninteresting Event - Deftones

Track 9: Dope Nose - Weezer

Track 10: Fairest of the Seasons - Nico

Track 11: Set the Ray to Jerry - Smashing Pumpkins

Track 12: Aurora - Bjork

Track 13: The Day the World Went Away (Quiet) - Nine Inch Nails

It's been quite the day.

Cancer stuff...

Not that I have time for any of that anyway. School started last Monday. Ugh. 16 credits, 2 part-time jobs, a band to run. I guess I'm never as happy as I am running myself ragged. Try and stop me.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words, thoughts, prayers, judgements, idiosyncrasies, wisdom, patience.

There are many more songs I want to add to that playlist, but I'm going to limit myself. It's supposed to represent a certain place and time. Yeah.

Blame it on the Tetons.

Heard that song on my ipod on the way out of the parking ramp at the hospital today after I found out I was in remission.

It'll end in some crying

2009-08-28T02:34:00.004-05:00

So apparently the new guitar hero is pushing a computer generated image of Kurdt.

Fuc dat!.. and Duck Guitar hero... he was never a guitar icon like the quiads in Dragonforce and he'll never be one. He was just a guy with something to say.

Like this...

total bullshit!

But on a good note, I'm going to pass out listening to This Mortal Coil's It'll End in Tears in my parents basement. I may not be 43 and it's not my birthday and there's nothing near a bowl in my room, it's still going to make me laugh through my dreams with Shakes the Clown. Just google werewolves and lollipops... makes me laugh every time

Two in one month...

2009-07-20T16:59:00.002-05:00

Things are going to be great!!! in several weeks.

Today is the first day that I don't feel like chemo is going to drag on for the rest of my days. Five more days till the last dosage. Two weeks from that and I'm expecting to start feeling less anemic. I CAN HARDLY WAIT!

For myself (as always), I picked up a David Cross album and a Patton Oswalt album today. Can't get enough funny to try to "pick me up".

Also got a copy of Public Enemy's Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age to replace the one I lost in Montana. It's probably my favorite Public Enemy album. Great stuff.

And lastly, if you have a chance, check out the movie "Moon". Saw it on Saturday and was rather impressed.

Well well... (on the road to)

2009-07-08T15:05:00.002-05:00

Chemotherapy continues to drain me slowly of energy. With 16 days left till I'm done with my last dose, I'm certain it can't come any slower.

No news about my progress/response to treatment. My last CT Scan was late April and the oncologist suggested that we wait till after I finished chemo for the next one.

Where the i Divides finished the album finally. It's available for purchase. $10.00 for a limited edition, hand numbered copy. Email where_the_i_divdes AT hotmail DOT com to find out how to get yours. Of course, we're already talking about getting the next one finished by next summer. It's going to be a busy year.

Jenny Lewis rocks!

2009-06-05T12:50:00.002-05:00

Last night I went to the Barrymore theater and saw Jenny Lewis perform. She rocks! Great show. If you dig good songwriting and clever lyrical twists with superb singing, check her out.

I was reminded of a friend that went to see Britney Spears in Chicago for both shows. He spent a lot of money on that. When Jenny Lewis walked out and started her first song, I couldn't help but think that there are people like my friend who would rather pay an exorbitant amount of money to watch a performer dance and fake sing instead of a musician with talent in an intimate theater for $20.

Those people are idiots.

... and lame.

I also wanted to share this:

Rip-tide

2009-04-07T11:35:00.002-05:00

Once again with the Nupogen! Yay. Got a little too much of the ab's instead of the fat on top of them today. Hurt a little bit.

Album meeting went super well awesome good!!! Everything for that should be wrapped up by next week (except for the part of the thing where I depend on someone else to give me material for the insert and they let me down daily... eh, hem JOE!). Ya'll don't go getting your hopes up about getting your grubby hands on a copy any time soon. We haven't decided anything about selling this before our release date of July 3rd. (Stupid party rule or something.)

Chemo is going the same as ususal. Makes me feel a little "ick" but I can't complain. It could be a whole hell of a lot worse.

And the music theory class I'm taking this semester is finally starting to come together. Holes are being filled in (in my head) and the knowledge is beginning to fester... better have that checked.

Up to the latest

2009-04-06T14:40:00.002-05:00

Well. There isn't much to report. Treatment goes on as usual. The weekend's I have it are sort of fun. Mostly spend them sleeping when the mood strikes.

The band is pushing the album forward. I have a meeting tomorrow to finalize images and put the packaging to press. The insert is a different story... only because someone else is in charge of that. And that someone is a big, lazy procrastinator. "I'll be back from California in a week." What about the insert? "It's not done yet."

Whatever.

The television show that's associated with the band is also moving along slowly. Most ideas involve too much cost for costumes or issues with having a place to shoot that won't involve the cops at some point. We'll figure that out... when I'm not feeling like throwing up.

If Wikipedia were right...

2009-03-17T14:43:00.003-05:00

This post is post 301. Not that amazing but I thought I'd make it public.

This past week has been full of ups and downs. I felt like an old man on Friday because of the Filgrastim. If you ever have a chance to be on that... do it. It's so much fun. (that's a typo... "m" should be "o")

I thought I'd share the list of all the wonderful drugs I've been taking these days.

Post Chemo Set:

Pre-Chemo and Chemo (ABVD)

Non-Chemo related

I get some of these only when I need them. Most of them I get either the day of chemo or take to manage the chemo side-effect train in the following five days or so. The only one I take every day is the Lexapro. And that's the one that keeps me smiling... well that and that great Eric Idle song from Life of Brian. (Thanks to James for reminding me of that movie. Watched it again on Sunday.)

Post 2nd treatment

2009-03-09T14:56:00.001-05:00

Second treatment's going about the same as the first. I've been much more responsible in regards to getting my rest. Feeling stronger in one way (less fatigue so far) but also feeling like crap. I got a cold and my neutrophil count is low. I've been on antibiotics and I start shots tomorrow to boost my bone marrow output. It's going to make my bones ache! Hurray... not really.

But I've given up trying to sneak a few drinks in during the week. Going sober and getting more rest. I don't want to end up in the hospital and it's already a possibility that could happen very soon. Yikes.

My bone marrow biopsy came back with no signs of cancerous cells. This means I'm stage two. Pretty good prognosis for that. Five more months and I'll be back to normal. Give or take a few. (most likely give.)

I couldn't believe this when I heard about it.

2009-03-05T11:05:00.002-06:00

One day, Where the i Divides will do the same to this town. The Rockin' R was not my favorite place... and Boodles... never liked that either.

I sincerely hope the best for anyone that may have been injured in this event.

Word.

Uh huh GRR!!!

2009-03-04T17:11:00.002-06:00

It seems like ages since I've posted... but I'm only getting older.

What's new in Zach-land? Nothing. I have my next round of drugs (chemo) on Friday. I'm finally getting back to feeling my normal self and they're going to hit me again. Awesome!

The band is going to be done with the album. We set a "near-future" deadline for completion by mid/late April for the sake of having our next Madison show being our release party. It's good news for me. I'm sick and tired of working on this stupid thing and want it out of my hair forever!!! You hear me? Good.

I did pick up the new U2 album yesterday. It's grown on me. I feel like before I know it I'm going to be going to a U2 concert while muttering under my breath something about the rolling stones and being ancient and sucky. It's not a bad album. Some of the songs are growing on me even but I can't help but wonder why they keep making albums that sound the same. (that's somewhat rehtorical so perhaps you should save those answers for your own blog instead of the comment section.) Or another way of stating it is like this, "I can listen to your old albums and enjoy those songs. Why aren't you guys challenging me with material that's different?" It's perhaps a catch-22 (whatever that means) but I hope (or fear) that Where the i Divides will fall into that same pattern. Maybe not. While I do have a certain approach to the way I craft a song and the types of sounds I create, I also am willing to let anything fly idea-wise. It's never good to kill an artistic idea before it's had the chance to prove itself "Worst Idea Ever" (Favorite quote for Pirate Idol? "Worst peg-leg ever.")

Anyway. Work say's I've got to stay until 5:30 these days. This last half-hour may turn into blogging time. (I love getting paid to sit and do nothing. It's almost as great as having a job where I actually want to work because the work is fulfilling...)

More later. Or never. You figure I figure. Yeah.

A month later

2009-02-24T15:10:00.002-06:00

I started Chemo treatment for my Hodgkin's Lymphoma last Friday. I'll be posting updates on my general malaise and mal-con-tent-ed-ness in the upcomming weeks.

Till then, I've actually been getting some decent sleep for a F*&King change and I've had a lot more focus.

This means I've been working more on the band's collective media pile.
Check it.

2009-01-26T13:11:00.002-06:00

I didn't get to go to the Monster Truck Rally this weekend. It's actually really sad what happened, but I got a refund for my tickets.

I "strolled" on over to Garfield Minus Garfield. These two made me laugh.

Yeah.

The band recorded Running to Stant Still for the Triple M "covers" album of the Joshua Tree. I'll be adding my guitar tracks tonight and tomorrow and then mixing while I'm in Hawaii. Ever since I found out that I might have access to some studio monitors, I've been very excited about this trip to Kauai. Before that, I wasn't as interested in going... yeah...

So that's that. The band also played it's usual last Sunday of the month residency at the Jazz Estate in Milwaukee. We've gotten much more acclimated to the room and I think it translates to the audience that we feel like we belong in there.

29.5

2009-01-23T14:02:00.002-06:00

Today marks a significant moment in my life. 29.5 doesn't mean much to many people, and with the speculative nature of the reference, I don't really want to get to revelatory.

Needless to say, yesterday's news coupled with events earlier this week and the forthcoming excursion to the north side of Kaua'i next week, I'm sitting on the verge of lots of new territory to cover.

While on vacation, I expect to finish the damn album. (the monster that's been hanging over my head forEVER!). My friend I'm visiting has offered to attempt to scrounge up a pair of studio monitors for me to us. Nice. Ideally, I would have something like the KRK RP5G2 Rokit G2 Powered 2-Way Active Monitors, but I'm going to hold off. Once Over the Terminal Moraine is in the can, I won't need to be doing such high end work for a while (until the next album, Doomsday Annie).

Other than that, not much else in the way of news.

Will be attending "Tim and Eric" tonight at the Barrymore. I'm looking forward to that.

2009-01-22T14:25:00.002-06:00

Things here have gotten incredibly insane. I finally have health insurance. I went to the doctor last Friday. I have an appointment with her in a few hours to find out "the news".

Don't get all worked up about anything.

I'm not.

Except for that crap they pumped into me. That was an unpleasant experience.

Sigh.

First post on a first year

2009-01-12T23:24:00.002-06:00

Something about Hogwarts and the Hot Tub... emphasis on the second "t". That kid is so dang cute.

Went to Red River with the ABQ crew and had a blast. Had a bit too much of a blast and ended up blacking out. Felt totally embarrassed about that. It's happened one time to many now. Gotta give it rest. All of it.

I found that when I returned, all of the stresses I'd forgotten over the weekend had returned like a flood. Jezzy. Can't get out of the dark tunnels I'm running through right now. Whatever... things gotta change soon. They will. I'm optimistic (like that Radiohead song).

I'll post some pics when I get them uploaded... didn't take that many though.

Word.

Paths that Cross

2008-12-17T14:57:00.003-06:00

I saw this on another blog... had to steal it because I’ve got nothing original to post.

1. Put your iPod (or media player) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN, NO MATTER HOW awesome IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY? Even Better Than the Real Thing (artist: U2)
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? To Sheila (Smashing Pumpkins)
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Kingsize/Acid or XTC (DJ Micro)
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? Transfusion (Where the i Divides)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? 17 Ghost II (Nine Inch Nails)
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Stand Inside Your Love (Smashing Pumpkins)
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Letting You (Nine Inch Nails)
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? La Mer - 2. Jeux De Vagues (Claude Debussy)
WHAT IS 2+2? Rape Me (Nirvana)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Everybody But Me (Lykke Li)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? My Best Friend (Weezer)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Somebody Else’s World (Sun Ra) Ha Ha!
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Yes Or No (Where the i Divides)
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? MLK (U2)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Here’s to the Atom Bomb (Smashing Pumpkins) Ha Ha!
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? Dreaming (Blondie)
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks) (Grateful Dead) Too funny!
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Traveling Riverside Blues (Led Zeppelin) That’s Right!
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Disillusion (7 Year Bitch) not really a secret
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Horse Sweat (Three Mile Pilot)Good one!!
WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)
HOW WILL YOU DIE? Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Nirvana)
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? Band of Gold (Frida Payne)
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? Intro (Cloud Cult)
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? Exit Music (Radiohead)
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED? Creep (Radiohead)
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? Near the Cross (Iris DeMent)
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU? You Look At You (Rollins Band)
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? Keys To Your Heart (The 101’ers)
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? Paths That Cross (Patti Smith)

Post show fatigues

2008-12-16T14:06:00.003-06:00

Where the i Divides played an awesome set on Friday night. We tore up the stage with hammers and prybars. Actually, I was the one doing the work (according to attendees opinion.) I had my work holiday party earlier in the evening and decided to get an extra Christmas bonus in liquid form. Needless to say, I had a good buzz going when we took the stage. Nothing like the Klinic show last December where I spaced the end of a song and played terrible solos and sloppy chords and whatever. We dubbed that show "A Christmas to Forget".

I got home around 4 am. Got up at 10 and went out cross country skiing with a few friends. Gotta get out on my skis before I head up to the Birkie again (for another three-hour pain-fest). I'm looking forward to the race this year. I'm definitely going to try and raise the bar on my sister. If I could come in ten minutes ahead of her with limited training and lungs full of smoking toxin residue, I'm going to try to best her by even more. (and she reads this blog, so maybe she'll be the one upping the stakes on me. Eh?? Either way, the competition is merly friendly.)

Sunday was a yawn-fest football style. The Chargers managed to squash the Chiefs (the Lions of the AFC) and Denver managed to lose. The Packers lined up in their usual "fourth quarter failure formation" and subsequently lost the game. (They really should put that formation in the next Madden along with Wildcat.)

We also auditioned Dave from Know Boundaries to play guitar in the band. He approached me after our show on Friday and asked if we would be interested in a second guitar. I was excited. The jam session went well on Sunday. We were all a bit worn out so we didn't spend a lot of time working on stuff and he and I will have to sit down and work out different parts that work with the existing songs but it sounded fuller overall. I've been having some reservations pop up yesterday and today about the whole ordeal. Part of our sound is the delay-laden guitars (much like that one band from Ireland). I don't know how much I'll be able to keep working in that vein with a second quitar player that isn't as interested in the "delay" sound. It's all up in the air. I'm getting together with him on Thursday night to either work out parts or to take a stab at some new ideas. He and I will talk.

I also registered for an Intro Music Theory class for the spring semester. It'll suck for the first few weeks while I relearn some of the things I've forgotten since high school (and learn things that I never knew in high school or beyond). I've never been a fan of reading music. It's always just too much work. Yeah.

Lastly, my other sister (the non-ski race competition) is getting in from San Diego next Tuesday for a few weeks. She's going to sing some back-up tracks on our album (finished by the end of December. I swear to all that is unholy). She's also going to have me record some of her songs. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks for me. Holiday gatherings, relatives, music obligations.

Tis the season.

2008-12-11T14:05:00.004-06:00

I just about crapped my pants when I read this.

Call it guilty pleasure, but I like to read Manga.

I also finally purchased my copy of Praying for Fire by Yovee.

It's missing Dylan's bass playing.

I'm also working on demo's of the new material with Trav tonight.

Gunna figure out how to edit some video and make some stuff in the near future. You don't believe me? Neither do I.

It does heal.

2008-12-11T02:54:00.002-06:00

This just makes me laugh... through the nose.

So does this.

At rehearsal minus vocals tonight, we talked about Danny O.D.ing and what we would do if he did... drop him off at the hospital. He said he believed I would even if I was messed up. I said yes. Then Travis said there would be some way to pin it on Joe. "There's always a way to pin it on Joe." And that led to leaving Joe with O.D.ed Danny at the ER and telling him to sing him a "healing song." One of the things that Joe has said (out of many, many, many things) is that our music is designed to heal.... anyway.

I prefer laughter. And insomnia

Picture time!!!

2008-12-10T02:02:00.004-06:00

I tried to take a picture from where I took the one from my last post but they have closed off the roof-top of the Monona Terrace. I would have just jumped the fence and gone up there but some dude with one of those golf carts with the ginormous pipe cleaner was scrubbing the snow off the side walk over there... meh. This was as close as I wanted to get.

Now that I'm fully prepared, here are some of those pictures I took on my trip to Lake Superior (sometime back in mid September.)

I-39 North of Wausau, WI

This is somewhere on the Lac Du Flambeau Reservaion

Little Girls Point, MI. There was some weird shack thingy sitting in the water. I didn't walk down there to see what the hell it was. Figured they're'd be some meth freaks in it or somethin'. (gotta love that MT paranoia coming through)

On the way to Little Girls Point is an artesian spring. The only other time I have been on this road was back in 1995 on a bike trip. We stopped here (in the middle of a long and annoying hill climb up from the lake shore into basically the foothills of the Porcupine Mountains (not really mountains) and filled up our water bottles. I had a few water bottles in my truck that I filled up and took back to Madison with me. Ah... memories.

Keepin' on the steady

2008-12-08T23:13:00.003-06:00

I would just post some pictures but while my camera is here in my room, my adaptor is in my truck. So too bad, you don't get to see a few pictures of my drive up to lake Superior.

Tonight I finished drum loops for demos on the last two new songs. I'm in the middle of transferring the files to my laptop so's I can kick out some guitar tracks and have everything set up for Travis to toss on some bass lines. Click tracks and instruments to Danny for him if he ever feels inclined to rehears to a click. Joe gets loops, guitars and bass for the lyrics.

We do have a show this coming Friday. Tis with a few other bands that rehearse at our warehouse. I'm not looking forward to it. I can guarantee you I'll be tired and grumpy, craving some isolation with a few friends instead of being in a crowded bar talking to people about gear and bands and blah blah blah. I can do that, but it's not my passion. I really like working in the lab. So yeah.

Bugger of a day tomorrow. Lots of things to go down in such the way as that they don't actually go down but rather stay the same (apply for another job, get my affidavits/services/retrievals caught up, get to work on time, etc.)

And teh AG asked me if I have a facebook...

Tri this on for syze

2008-12-05T14:13:00.004-06:00

I'm at work. I'm listening to music. I'm drinking coffee. I have some severe lung congestion action that's totally rocking my world. Like that lady on the people's court corrected the judge by saying that she said to the Plaintiff at the time of the incident, "I told her I would 'Rock her world'". But not in a good way.

I'm sure glad we don't watch small claims court tv anymore in the office. Those were dark days of people arguing about their stupidity.

Yesterday I bought my ticket for a trip to Hawaii. I don't really want to believe that I'm going to Hawaii. Sure, I have been known to adamantly state that I will NEVER set foot in the state of Texas, but Hawaii always seemed like a place that I had no interest in visiting (I'm assuming there will be a lot of bugs. I don't like bugs. Except for Hobo Spiders. They rock my world.)

Anyway. The only way I'm going to Hawaii is like any other trip I ever take. I have a friend that lives there. I'm visiting and not paying for accomodations. I don't have to rent a vehicle. I just have to pay for food and junk I want to buy... pretty sweet. Pretty standard. One of these days I'm going to take a trip that costs me nothing. (the great beyond)

In other, band related news, whatever.... I "auditioned" for Know Boundaries finally. It didn't go so well. I'm not a great drummer anymore since I'm so far out of practice (and was I ever a great drummer? No.) I also haven't listened to any of their music in a month or so. And my understanding on the whole ordeal was that they weren't as interested in mimicing the drum parts for their old songs as they were finding someone who worked well with them. No no no. They want someone to ape those damn drum parts. So I have some work to do if I want to take a real stab at the gig.

Where the i Divides is in talks about doing all kinds of things and stuff and I'm pretty much out of the loop. I'm avoiding my responsibilities in the band as of late and it reminds me of the episode of Home Movies (the bestest show ever) when Brendon doesn't want to work on "The Wizard's Baker" anymore and Jason and Melissa are pushing it really hard. I can sort of see myself staring off at the clouds and saying things like, "That one looks like Hailey Joel Osmet. A little Hailey Joel Osmet," while Joe, Travis and Danny talk about video shoot ideas for the "soon to be happening" album release and "Singles" and blah blah blah. I still haven't taken the time to blast out a fifth pass (I've probably mentioned it in the last three posts now) of the mixes. There are other things I want to think about wishing I was doing besides all of that... like auditioning for a band where I'll be playing an instrument that I'm not as interested in anymore. Yeah! (I jumped in the air and raised my fist when I said that last yeah... in my head. I Did that in my head.)

Also. I ran into Laura Marling on All Songs Considered. She's British. Her album is called Alas, I Cannot Swim. I really like her. A few months ago I drove up to Lake Superior and listened to her (mostly). I was going to do a blog post about that trip and put some pictures up and yeah yeah but I just never think about it. So anyway. I was at Staryucks and their "hot music" sampler CD, featuring DeVotchKa and other (not-so) indie acts also touted Laura Marling on the sticker. That sort of publicity really makes me want to dislike her, but a credit to her music that I still listen to it. Wait till it gets overplayed like that one chick with the piano and the bad singing style.... (You fill in the blank.)

Also. I officially dislike Robin Hilton's taste in music. You reading this Robin Hilton? Your taste in music is DILDOS!!! (And your musicricitical analysistic "Rock" journalism could use some expansification. Not every lame-ass electro-pop or freak-folk singer/songwriter to take a dump in ProTools is putting out powerful, thoughtful, beautifully layered music.)

Where has that boy gone?

2008-11-21T13:08:00.002-06:00

In response to a clamouring from my adoring readership, I've not been myself as of late. Incredibly tired and run down from spending far too many nights in the public houses every week, avoiding my responsibilities to the band and my work.

I've had a turn-around about this in the last week and it's felt nice to be able to get out of bed in the morning and not be late to work.

Travis and I are working on a new Christmas song for this year. We are also going to rerecord "I'm Gunna Use My Hands (for Christmas)" and potentially submit it to Triple M for their local musician Christmas showcase. I haven't gotten around to mapping out a drum loop for either song yet, but it'll get done probably Sunday morning before lazing about in front of football game after football game until the sky is black and Monday morning is lurking in the backs of all our minds.

The concept for last year's Christmas song was about being broke and not having any money to purchase gifts hence the use of hands to craft things to be given as gifts. It's not the strongest song by any stretch, but lyrics like "if Santa Clause could see me now, he'd smile a toothless grin and shout, 'You're not letting Christmas pass you by,'" make it good for a laugh.

This year's Christmas song will probably be about being alone on Christmas day and then going out to a Dance club on Christmas night and the emptiness of it all... (discotech style). Fun.

We've also started talking about writing a new birthday song and a song for lesser holidays (the ones that seem to be distressingly lacking in songs to sing their praises, like Thanksgiving. Why aren't there any songs about thanksgiving?)

Word.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Joe will be joining Travis and myself up in Sparta for the Second annual "Shields Family/Where the i Divides Thanksgiving on the Farm." I believe that I said, "this is going to be the best Thanksgiving EVER!"

All for now. I've got suboenas to ditch on some suckers.

The degree

2008-11-06T13:30:00.004-06:00

I made copies of employee files this morning and saw private, confidential details of people in a firm. It was sort of depressing... but nothing to get me down.

I googled "philosophy degree jobs" and came up with this.

At least someone is doing well with their pursued college interests. (Not that I'm doing so badly.)

I'm still kicking around several career directions that aren't really being acted on. Kicking ideas around in one's head isn't the same as just acting. I'm good at the first thing, not so good at the second thing. I'm trying to be more proactive about the second thing.

Where the i Divides has stepped it up a bit. The other members of the band are showing more interest in the future of the band. They are working on different projects, if ever so slowly. Joe got us booked into our residency in Milwaukee. As of October 26 we play at the Jazz Estate every last Sunday of the month. Next gig? November 30th starting around 8:30 pm. We are supposed to fill three hours (which we can do, just barely at this point.) so were learning a few more covers. That means the usual arguments have started again.

For the last six months or so, Danny has talked about nothing but playing "Stars" by the band Hum. You know that song, "She missed the train to Mars, she's out back counting stars." I started to figure out the guitar parts (drop D tuning) and then Joe started to say he wouldn't do that song. Danny than said he wasn't going to learn any more covers until we got that one into our song book. We finally had it out on that song and we all decided to let it go. Thank you Danny. My next pick is "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne. It fits nicely with our approach that we've taken to apply the Where the i Divides signature sound (delay-laden guitar and vocals, melodic bass, power drumming) and stamp it on songs that don't really employ those devices. "Bachelorette" by Bjork is a nice example of that. Our version of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is pretty standard and our version of "Running to Stand Still" by U2 flat out needs to either be played acoustic or dropped.

I don't know what other songs are going to be added. Joe and Danny are talking about Live songs, "Lakini's Juice" or "Iris". Travis refuses to pick another song. He claims his pick of "Bachelorette" was his last. Now all he talks about is covering Rob Bass and C&C Music Factory. Funny, entertaining, extremely open to interpretation, but I think Joe and Danny aren't entirely on board... Maybe I need to convince them to give it a shot. Look at what Ben Folds did with "Bitches Aint Shit".

Aside from that, the album is several hours away from a fifth pass at the mixes. I tacked on backing vocals on Monday night. I forgot to record the part I add live on "Do the Math." That'll happen Saturday morning. And maybe I'll have a fifth pass ready for the band to listen to by the time they show up for rehearsal at two. It's a good deadline to eastablish. The cover art is done. We need to establish the graphic design aspect but that'll happen in due time.

Once the album is complete (less some additional vocals from my sister over Christmas) I'm shifting my focus to two things. First, completing demos for the eleven new songs so the rest of the band has something to practice and write parts with. Second, I'm getting the beginning stages of our official website formulated and hope to have something (Anything's better than a bounce to the myspace page.) It's all up in the air as to how much depth and detail I'm going to put into it, but it'll be tasteful.

I would apologize to my readers for being away for a while, but I've been busy and stuff. You know, excuses. Once I get the damn wireless router set up at home, I'll have the internets in my room. That'll make things a little easire for me to get online and start spreading the Where the i Divides brand. (I hate marketing but I'm pretty much the only one who'll do it for the band. Yech.)

Word.

Again... and yet, I'm laughing

2008-10-24T12:48:00.001-05:00

Travis has yet to actually watch any of this show... but every time the rag on Murderface I can't help but laugh at "the bass player."

Love the Double Douce reference!!!

phones are ringing

2008-10-23T13:57:00.004-05:00

Phonin' it in again.

Too busy. I should be doing stuff for work and where the i divides. But instead, I'm searching for radiohead stuff and watching this.

40 inches!!!

2008-10-13T13:38:00.001-05:00

That's a lot of snow

Another Leslie Night

2008-09-19T13:25:00.004-05:00

ughh...

So I stayed up late recording guitars for the song "Do the Math".

Since I'm a (douche) I don't know how to just embed the file to play here and I don't want to take the time to figure it out today, (I still have to head off to federal court to get a copy of some brief and 30 pages of exhibits.) just stroll over to our (Leasure Suit) page... and listen to it there. I also put up new 3rd pass versions of "USA #2!!!" and "Universal Quantifier". I don't know how the band will feel about all of that, but then again, they've ignored my feelings for years.

Like all things in my life, it's not how I imagined it would be.

In other news, I purchased a copy of Laura Marling's Alas I Cannot Swim. I haven't yet listened to the whole thing, but I heard the song "Failure" on my new interest, All Songs Considered. (Tip my hat to my insurance agent for that one.)

But yeah... Tonight is the beginning of Madison's first Forward Music Fest. I've got my wristband and I'm rearin to go (home and crawl into bed) for the Leslie & the Lys with Dan Deacon show. I'm not a big Dan Deacon fan (who is? a lot of people I guess...) but it promises to be kick ass. I may also slip on over to the Gusto performance as well.

The Greatest nation on earth

2008-09-18T13:38:00.002-05:00

This doesn't prove that this is just around the corner, but it makes me feel a little less comfortable when you look at the way bathtub drugs like meth spread.

I could go on about this but I'd be just throwing out ideas that other people can explain more clearly and accurately with more gusto and earnestness.

2008-09-16T13:58:00.002-05:00

I'm being lazy today. Sitting at work and not working is the best when you have other things you would much rather be doing.

Guitar work tonight... tweaking a bridge to smooth it out. Redoing Do the Math. That's about it.

Weekend update...

2008-09-15T16:22:00.003-05:00

Andy Samberg did an nice job as Cathy, the stressed out cartoon character.

Yovee put a few new songs up on their myspace page. They recorded these songs a long time ago. We're finally getting to hear some of them.

I spent early Friday evening putting myself through third passes of the mixes for the album. Then spent the later part of the evening getting drunk, the last three drinks being "Wild Berry Wine Coolers". I could feel the sugary hangover before I went to bed.

Joe and I recorded some vocals on my computer at the rehearsal space. Then we listened to each of the new mixes and he decided to only record vocals on two songs next weekend. (One of them being Jerkwater. He probably had 70 takes on that song between February and April. I honestly feel that he'll never be able to sing that song the way he thinks he should and will never be satisfied with it. The trick then is to make mix good enough to get him to accept the way it is.

I'm going to re-record guitars on one song completely. It sounds like crap the way it is now.

I also wish the humidity would go away. It's never a good thing in my opinion. (No one asked.)

It's not pretty...

2008-09-09T16:18:00.002-05:00

I've been coughing up huge piles of phlegm in the mornings. Not fun.

It's all because I'm not getting enough sleep at night. Over the summer, I could stay up till five in the morning and then get up at quarter to noon and head to work... but not anymore. Gotta make money sometime.

With that said, I'm low on energy. I keep thinking about the line from the classic movie, Wayne's World, where Wayne says to Cassandra, "I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turns out I was just really tired." Shaa... I have been trying to get sleep this week but football last night (Packers and Bronco) made sure I stayed up for a while. (And what was that guys deal with the "Zappa scored everyone's part. He was a genius!!!" I get it, you like Zappa and your lonely and you don't have anyone to talk at... leave us alone dude!)

I'll eventually get caught up this week. A laundry list of things to take care of in the evenings... thanks to the band, and laundry. Always gotta make time to get to the gym, too. Especially on Tuesdays. Love my Tuesdays.

And I was telling Alison and Leah about this on Saturday...

Strait up Sewercyde

2008-08-29T11:14:00.002-05:00

The picture that this article paints makes me think that McCain should be her vice president.

It would make for a more interesting election.

This thing called "blog"

2008-08-28T16:33:00.002-05:00

It's what been only ten days sense that last post. Chickity checkity... got some new old music last week.

Bum stiggedy bum stiggedy bum, hon, I got the old pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
But I can fe-fi-fo-fum, diddly-bum, here I come
So peter piper, Im hyper than pinochios nose
Im the supercalafragilistic tic-tac pro
I gave my oopsy, daisy, now youve got the crazy
Crazy with the books, googley-goo wheres the gravy

Superior rhymes there is not.

Summer is coming to a close with teacher friends returning to work. No more Wednesday nights till five in the morning watching movies I've never seen before, like the Rose or Coal Miners Daughter or listening to music from the seventies that I've not had the pleasure of being overly accquainted with... what you have and so forth.

But this week has shown itself to be a test in longevity. Longevity in the since that I've had two nights with only three hours of sleep (mostly by choice) and my eyes still manage to keep open. I started filling in at the old part-time job again on Monday also. This means that I don't get to sleep in after a weeknight out. Up and dizzy and out the door. A dark cloud covers my eyes as I avoid the people on the sidewalks in their gaze and their stride. Students are back. State street has become more unbearable than ever. god bless this town.

(More late summer madness descent may be posted later... who can really know?)

Where the i Divides Wear

2008-08-18T16:30:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend we listened to the latest versions of the mixes I've lovingly (hatefully) crafted. Things are moving along quite smoothly as far as I'm concerned. Joe still wants to rerecord songs. I don't want to try. He also wants me to add some more backing vocals. I might be doing that tonight. He said he doesn't want me doing all of my backing parts that I do live but I'll probably end up doing all of them if I think the quality of the recording I can do is good enough. That way, if he says "add those other ones as well," it's already done.

Early, early this morning, Travis and I were interviewed on student radio with a friend of ours from our days of playing shows at the Klinic. I don't know if it's possible to get a copy of the show in podcast or archive streaming or what have you as of yet. If I find out any more info, I'll be sure to post it so all of the band's adoring fans (with fangs?) can listen to Travis and me divulge where the name of the band came from and how I convinced Joe to start the band with my by giving him a bag of Fritos.

In the end, the damn flies that keep landing on my arms and head are driving me crazy... like everything else. Bugger. Can't wait till "this" is all "done."

2008-08-11T10:57:00.002-05:00

I've picked up some new music recently.

Blue by Lucinda Williams.

Tears Are in Your Eyes by Yo La Tengo

Strings of Nashville by Pavement

These have made it onto the new playlist entitled I Like This Song.

Three days from now, I'll not want to listen to it. I'll be demanding something with an overcompressed breakbeat and some tweaky moogs or whatever.

But in the end, I'm really just trying to keep my head down during the week. Getting all of my weekending done on Friday night/saturday morning and then floating to Monday morning study jam... Already done with that... now just killing time until work.

Wishing I could just keep playing guitar since it takes the swirl of unfocused thoughts and squeezes them into the moment. Something I'm never fully a part of generally speaking.

2008-08-08T11:11:00.002-05:00

I'm being lazy this week... big american party!!!

I love the fact that the dream ends when the guy runs out of bananas.

Edgar Winter

2008-08-07T16:23:00.002-05:00

Where was I when someone was talking about Muppet Babies? Hmm... I want to say it was at Travis' apartment and he was talking about some messed up story involving puppets that were a rip-off of the muppet babies... and no not the MST3K Edgar Winter Babies.

Ha ha ha... I had forgotten about the indoor funny car. And Killer Shrews! Absolutely the WORST MOVIE I've ever watched.

Atruckalypse

2008-08-01T10:09:00.002-05:00

"Fruit don't talk, fruit just listens."

Many thanks to my sister for the squidbillies for my birthday.

...and "Rocks are boring".

So it's someone elses fault

2008-07-30T13:48:00.002-05:00

This article caught my eye as I was checking my email.

" President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter."

I guess I'm not part of the "American people" since I'm not let down about the vote not happening yet. The president should stop assuming he knows how I feel. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a complete picture.

"'The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions,' the president said."

This statement is hilarious. It implies that the blame for high fuel costs is now the fault of Democratic leaders since they can't fix the problem by snapping their fingers (or better yet, counting a show of hands on who wants to draw oil from off-shore wells ten years from now.)

The solution to this puzzle isn't as easy as casting a vote and then letting oil companies dive on in. It seems that the President (and many others in certain political camps) thinks it is... but he's one of those oil men himself (if not a very good one.)

Now, I'm not very confident in my political acumen, but it would seem to me that rather than listen to another word the president has to say about anything, the Democratic led congress should sit tight and wait until a new, less incompetent executive is elected (that may never happen, and if so, good.)

two long weeks

2008-07-29T12:50:00.002-05:00

It be long time since I posted here. Busy. Went to Bloomington, Indiana for a weekend. Had a birthday last week. Being Semi-employed keeps me away from locations designed for onlinery.

I almost posted something last night but decided to take care of some small things around the house.

Word. Word is on the street.

Madison is going to seize an apartment building because it's owner doesn't give a damn if the renters sell drugs as a profession. Good for them.

And the homeless guy on the radio is drying out my brain with his theories.

Dear Photo Diary

2008-07-14T22:01:00.006-05:00

I just finished the first pass mix of Believe. It's an Effin' Masterpiece. While I was bouncing the mix, I went and took a couple pictures around the rehearsal studios.

"Squalor Alley"

This is where Travis and I come to throw rocks while Joe and Danny smoke inside. It's very reminiscent of the days when we jammed in the barn. The best times were when we would grill turkey dogs. We don't do that anymore. 'The alley' doesn't lend itself to grilling good times.

"The Magic Room"

If I had Photoshop on this thing or a way to network with my PC here, I would splice these two together. Anyway. The chair in front of the drum kit is where I've been sitting, with my Mac on the stool in front of me. Notice the Leslie Hall autographed sticker. That wasn't cheap.

"Mixing with Headphones!?"

I know, I know. But like I've mentioned before, I don't have quality studio monitors and I'm not about to run out and buy some.

"Future Ethanol"

I took this a few days ago. I love the fact that I can still drive past fields on my way home. If the economy hadn't taken a huge dump, I would only have given these fields three years before they were track homes on roids. (Actually, these fields are testing new hybrids and their resilience to herbicides and pesticides.)

"4:30 A.M."

I have turned Wednesday nights into my new Saturday for some reason. I think I'll remember this summer (if I remember it at all) as Wednesday Nights with Tom. My friend Tom runs Karaoke on Wednesday and I usually show up right after he's done. Then we drink and talk. Last week, we went back to his place and listened to some of his songs from his Opera he's writing. Then we watched the new Hairspray movie twice, followed by highlights from the second half of the Les Miserables concert DVD. (He's kinda into musicals.) I drove home as the sun was coming up.

I think this is the only benefit of being semi-employed in summer.

I'm not a salesman

2008-07-09T18:34:00.004-05:00

I've discovered my photobooth program. Now I can document my mixing time with a photo of myself every fifteen minutes.

If I looks bored, it's probably because I am. Mixing isn't usually done with headphones. A nice set of studio monitors and a quite room are the ideal set up, but I'm working with what I got. Only two songs left. One of them I will have to return to the studio to pick up the tracks. For some reason that folder didn't transfer with the rest.

Other than that, I've been going ridiculously crazy trying to solve "the next big step in the evolution of me". I go to the rehearsal space (where I am right now)

and sit and import a spindle

of CDs into iTunes while drafting re-re resumes about how awesome I am and etc., etc., vomiting all over myself with negativity and disillusion. I'm not a salesman. Never have been, never will be. If you asked me poi

blank if you should hire me in an interview I would respond, "There's probably someone more qualified in

your pool of applicants, but you're getting predefined character if you choose me."

In the meantime, friends and others are tossing their ideas my way. Most of it is nice to hear, but I'm always on the brink of loosening my tongue to give thems the what-fer bizzness of "keep yaw i-dee-yuhs to yaw-self" (as C&C Music Factory kicks into gear. It's just such an infectious groove, so smooth... I can't help but dance to it.)

that's what I call prime distraction. What was I complaining about??? oh yeah... nothin'.

But I've "hatched" a new plan that requires some serious work in the next few weeks (right after I get the damn album finished). The new job will be nothing more than a temporary endeavor while I put the pieces into place for the next big thing in fried pine booby dance tracks... or my life, what have you...

And AG what are you Muwaaah-ing about?

With high regard form heavy metal country

2008-07-02T13:36:00.004-05:00

I used to listen to this album while driving 191 south to West Yellowstone through the park. Whenever a song off of it plays on my 'MONSTER JAMZ' playlist, all I can think about is winter elk at midnight with the full moon by the side of the road while I'm driving in my Hyundai Accent. Good memories of better, less responsible times.

I read this article a while back (in paper form when it originally ran) and the idea of a one man project has been simmering on the backburner ever since.

The reality of the situation with Where the i Divides is such to keep me locked walking in a circle while looking down at the ground. I feel like what I'm doing right now is enough to keep me moving (in a circle) but not quite enough to pull me out of that path.

So couple that article with recent acquisitions from bands such as Poster Children, Norfolk & Western and Three Mile Pilot and I'm left with my head pulled up and my eyes agazin' at the curved horzion of the earth.

Yesterday I finally figured out how to track guitars on my new computer. I'm guessing I'm going to be stuck working with drum loops for the time being. That's not a bad thing. If anything, I'm just not locked in by convential drum set rock drumming or the lack of punctuality of a real drummer. Auto-Trav is interested in bringing his signature bass sound to the mix and I've got a second guitar player willing to give it a try as well.

Once the Where the i Divides album is completed (four songs left), I'll have some time to devote to crafting some "instant hits". And then Joe can spend all of his time doing whatever it is he does best (read: PROCRASTINATE) and it won't bother me as much since I will have one iron in the fire (read: Solo Project) and a side project with my friends (read: Where the i Divides).

All that's left is figuring out a career direction for the work-a-day real world version of myself that hates being semi-employed.

Title this "Whatever"

2008-06-30T22:46:00.002-05:00

If you can release a new album roughly 20 years after you were hot, and have hype surrounding it, there has to be something up.

Starting around 1996.

I don't listen to radio. I'm sure this song will be on it.

And if I'm lucky, when I stream the student radio station, I might actually hear something that I like instead of college-age exploration of music that they've never

heard before. "Here's some terrible stuff that I've never heard before but since I've never heard it before, it's got to be cool? ::Lenny Kravitz's Stop Draggin' Around plays::"

I suggest you seek out Junior Citizen.

connections

2008-06-26T02:35:00.002-05:00

Not really... so I made a totally cool post about how "cool" I'm playing it...

Whatever.

Go see "Lars and the Real Girl" at your local DVD player.

I dare you to ball your fucking eyes out as much as I did.

Loneliness is the most powerful force that drives human existence.. Try and argue with me. I FUCKING dare you.

Chitty Chitty

2008-06-25T17:40:00.003-05:00

In case you didn't know...

I don't really remember what it was I said in my last few posts. I'm pretty sure there was a thanks nod to B.Pilgrim and maybe some whining and complaining about whatever. I've got a lot of that to spread around.

No progress on the mixed bizzness yet. Tonight promises to offer a few free hours post workout baring any sort of chaotic mindriot that will most likely swell up sometime this evening.

I had one of those while I was making copies at the court of appeals today. Standing at a copier with hot-glue bound briefs. All glasswork. It's the easiest. Their machine is also coin-op. It takes bills, but only singles. So every ten pages, I have to put in another dollar. Let's just say I was perturbed by the situation. There have been times when I've made over 2000 copies at that location. It takes a long time.

Anyway. My brain started making a checklist of things I wanted to get done today. That set me off since I was standing at a copier instead of getting them done. And then I remembered that I was getting paid like a king to make those copies. The checklist could wait... which it did.

I have two things left on that list. One of them will be taken care of tomorrow since the post office is closed. The other thing will be taken care of after the gym. The interim? Listening to Three Mile Pilot's Na Vucca Do Lupo.

Many Thanks

2008-06-20T14:31:00.003-05:00

It's always a strange event playing a live show. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys standing on a stage in a small room with people either not paying attention or paying attention or something in between. I guess I'm not comfortable with recognition as much as I think I crave it.

We did have a well received performance. Even the legendary Billy Pilgrim (Or is it the sinister Bulk Petroleum?) made the effort to come and give his two cents. The title will repeat itself here "Many thanks." I swear I'll get the album mixed by the end of next week. With the scratch from our last two shows, we should be able to cough up the remainder for mastering and sometime later this summer actually have something that some people have been clamoring for for a while now. (If they haven't already lost interest and gone back to their collection of hot wheels and vintage mustards.)

The job hunting continues as well. I've tossed my name into a few more pools with the University. Otherwise, I've got to get some motivational tapes on job seeking outside the easy avenues of state employment websites. Something about them don't sit right with me.

And last but not least, I'm continuing my exploration of San Diego indie by listening to more and more Three Mile Pilot. I used to have one of their albums on cassette back in the day ("I have all of your cassette tapes!") and I would play it while working at the gas station. People would be paying for their gas and getting sludgy bass and weird vocals and noise for free on the side. Ingrates.

What hasn't happened?

2008-06-18T14:38:00.002-05:00

Or "What IS up with that?"

In the last week I've learned a lot about a lot of things. I "fired" myself from my new job during training. Got home and have been scrambling to get (scrambled eggs? NO!) resumes out the door.

It will be a good decision since I wasn't felling like the new job was the right direction. Sure, the travel benefits would have been nice, but I've had "travel benefits" before (via a credit card and a lot of free time) and I'm still paying that back. I need to focus on certain things and have a schedule I can agree on and they weren't really talking when I asked what my schedule would be.

So throw that on the pile with the canceled reservation for my initial intake flight and the statement "You have to treat this job like it's your full time job" (when it's part time? fukyu) and I had a lot of unease keeping me up at night.

I also realized last week that I had forgotten why I decided to study Philosophy in the first place... and have been kicking around the notion that I may have finally discovered (or remembered) what it was that I really wanted to get at when I started at MSU. It got lost in the shuffle of Epistemology and Kantian Metaphysics or more likely was diluted by all of the lack-of-focus binge drinking.

But perhaps what I should realize is that "Binge Drinker" is a job title that some people carry like golden apples. Mayhaps that is truly where my strengths lie...

And the band continues unabated. Show in Milwaukee tonight with "that girl" doing some backup vocals. If you've talked to me about this, you know how I feel. If your a bit intuitive, it should be relatively obvious how I feel. Solo project idea becoming more like a storm cloud hovering over the midwest. (Speaking of which, they evacuated the hospital I was born in in Cedar Rapids last week. My grandma's house is on one of the highest hills in the city. No worries there.) Flood a'commin? Maybe. The mixing is moving along. I've been pushing this week. By the weekend I want to have twelve songs done. I've got six done right now (with just a few minor tweakings that I think need to happen.) It gets easier each time I do one. I just hope the band is cool with my refusal to actually use any of their suggestions once I'm done.

Travis: "Can you drop the bass in this song just a hair? It seems loud."

Me: "No."

And I've been wondering about the connection between "On the Road" and this blog. Someone (awesome) made the suggestion that there was a correlation.

Plane Awesome

2008-06-09T00:13:00.003-05:00

It has been a wonderful day of waking up with a nightmare hangover. The "party" was still in high gear in the back of my head. Good times. Instead of going to watch the Indiana Jones movie after band practice, I went out... and got stupid. So the first thing I did after I got up was not pack, but rather go watch that movie. It was a nice little flick. I took it in as best I could with a pile of pretzel bites and some cola. The movie itself was alright. It's a franchise and it's been years since the last one so of course there was a lot of cheesy crap. It reminded me of when I went to go see that one Star Trek movie on opening night and people were clapping at the opening credits. (Eyes rolling.)

I did finally get packed and to the airport this evening. A storm blew through so I didn't get to MSP on time... Surprise, surprise. I should have been here at 9 instead of 11:30. Oh well.

I've gotta turn in. There will be plenty of time to be "witty" tomorrow...

2008-06-08T02:48:00.002-05:00

My Profile pic is 120% accurate right now. "Fuck Miller Brewing Company!"

totally wasted... got wasted downtown... probably going to sleep it off on the couch at work.. (That's mispelled?.... drunk!)

Got 2 B "Funky"!

Redrum finger s3yz "Redrum"... dreunk... this is wayyy tooo mjuch work... Maybe I'm better off running home. The're s magic in that. Running home d4runk. No one one undergsatnsadss that ... gets that... whatever. I'm used to no one getting muxch of anything I say...

Tota, Bullshitt... fuygk that. Asssholes3esss.

(Hea4rt) Z

But I don't know how to dance...

2008-06-05T15:01:00.003-05:00

Um...

I would put up a bunch of pictures and crap from my trip but I've been kicked around by the monsters of time. (they're a band.)

Um... Yeah. Maybe tonight I'll get geo-physical about it all and start sleeping it off in a cardboard box with a scraggly beard.

Or I could make up an excuse along the line of the friggin' humidity. It's one thing I can't stand.

So in the interim (whilst you sit with shortened breath and smints) I will direct your attention to this.

Pre-flight check

2008-05-30T12:02:00.002-05:00

This was sitting in my inbox after I sent a short (and somewhat incoherent message to trav after finishing reading "Ham on Rye" at work this morning. Something to the effect that C. Bukowski reminded me of Travis a little bit. Reminded me of myself a little bit, too. He's an influence even if I'm unaware of it. Just like Hamson. In many ways it's a lot like music. For example, the day I realized that there is a huge Clash influence on the Dead Milkmen. (or there seems to be...) which in effect afforded me an appreciation of The Clash before I started listening to them (beyond the standard London Calling Rock the Cashba Combat Rock crap that everyone seems to think of as Clash.)

******************Trav Wrote******************

yeah...i read "post office" (loaned to me by joey v.) in one day...it was pretty entertaining. "time to write"...there's something to be said for setting the time aside per day to do it...a routine...but then one needs things to write about...

i guess i have those as well...

i need to do it. i know that i do. the world needs to know. about me. whatever.

do you depart this eve? have you already departed? i hope you enjoy your trip...i need to go to the treasure mart tomorrow for betsy's annual creepy gift...i wasn't even thinking about that the last time i was there...i'll affix your name to it as well. hopefully they'll be some girls in bikinis washing motorcycles again this time 'round...never a dull moment at "buck's"...remember joe falling under one of their "spells" last time? something about how she wanted to be a nurse and blah, blah, blah, she was a "good spirit" (like "casper", though per his title he was more "friendly"); and i said something to the effect of "you do realize that before you got here she was washing a motorcycle while wearing a bikini? that should tell you all you need to know..."

i'm so stuck-up.

trav

***************************************************

I had completely forgotten about the bike wash last summer and the girls in bikinis, etc... Too much cycles of consistent patterns make the aberrant events fade into the mundane. I've been here before. I've done this before, a million times. The special events scattered throughout fade due to the layers of weeks piled on top of them... or something. Whatever.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about the fact that I've got three days left at the copy shop. I've been "working" there for close to four years now. (yeah? yeah. time flies.) It's a bit weird to think back to when I started working there and the progression from paranoia of being fired every day to slipping into a comfort zone of being "the 2nd shift" crew (since when did 2nd shift start at 8:30 AM and then run till 9 PM?) consisting entirely of myself and my thoughts. I also proved my worth in the "hickory danger smoke pit" when I started diggin up my old adobe software knowledge. Suddenly I was known as "the computer guy" as well. (Yeah right.)

There's a part of me that wants to list that job as "Unskilled Labor". It didn't take much to do it. Just the patience to take a box of paper and turn it into two identical boxes of paper while you stare at the bulletin board of ideas and thoughts in the back of your mind and plan out the scant few hours in the evening to tackle a project or whatever. (Watch TV. Eat popcorn. Skateboard.)

But as I sit here and write this, I really don't feel sadness at leaving. It's more just a uncertainty of leaving the established rut for the untested track that leads somewhere else (probably just another dead end so what's the worry? Not much really.)

Other than that, I've got a few more hours left and then I'm out of this dirty town for a few days to relax and kick it with my adopted niece (and her family).

(Ugh... '85 Metallica? Terrible!)

Uh... I got stuff to do.

2008-05-29T14:04:00.003-05:00

So watch this instead.

I started work on the first pass of Mt. Hindsight. Mixing is going to take me forever it seems. If I just went with the simple rule of one guitar track or one track per guitar part instead of layers and slicing of parts for panning and sustain overlaps and whatever else I think might sound cool but won't matter since not many people will listen to it anyway and the few who actually do won't even notice the subtle textures I've spent hours crafting.

St. Vincent refered to those hours as the invisible hours. I'm fading by the second.

Or if you're in MSP tomorrow evening at the airport and you see a dude with a laptop and a set of Sennheiser headphones, buy him some coffee and tell him that failure comes in a bowl now.

Word.

Where tha yawn....

2008-05-27T14:46:00.002-05:00

I went to a bookstore yesterday and purchased a Bukowski book. At the counter, making my purchase, the clerk said, "Tomah." I was kinda confused. Travis had taken off on Sunday to head up to Tomah/Sparta to kick it with his parents and I was wondering if this guy knew more about me than I knew about him. I was buying a Bukowski book and Travis reads Bukowski and Travis was up in Tomah and that's why the guy said, "Tomah." And then I realized I was wearing my where the i divides t-shirt. It's like the time I was wearing my Milli Vanilli t-shirt and people kept saying smiling at me. I had forgotten I was wearing it and couldn't figure out why they were smiling.

Over the weekend I was able to get my midi capabilities set up and ready to record. On top of that, I also went out to the studio and dumped all of the session tracks onto my external drive. That took about an hour of sitting there while the drives chatted. I started working on one song... spent four hours adjusting and tweaking and modifying. I figured out the output/send confusion I was having so now I can set the drum mix to an Aux fader and then pull them down or boost them if I want. I also did some of my studio tweaking that our engineer seemed to be unaware of... opening a duplicate track with the same file in it and giving it a nudge to take it slightly out of phase to expand the sound... thicken the mix, if you will. And the biggest surprise was the fact that I may not have to use pitch correction on the vocal track on that one song... (I'm still going to use it. Joe doesn't quite have the ear to cover that himself.) If I keep hacking away at the project, I should have rough mixes done in a week or so. Then I'll let the band listen to what I've done and make their (pathetic) suggestions and then do whatever the hell I want. Yeah. That'll show them.

And there was a big tornado that took out my Aunt and Uncle's house in IA on Sunday. Frickin' crazy. There was a lot of phone calls on Monday in re: people being okay. If you watch this clip at about 0:44 you can see what's left of their house.

No one in the family was hurt or worse. This, of course, happens the week before my cousin is getting married.

And my friend with cancer had surgery today. I haven't heard what the news is yet... but my thoughts are with her.

Wings

2008-05-23T15:39:00.005-05:00

Yesterday's post was born out a lot of apocalyptic thoughts. I'm better now. Sleep is a nice little thing I've not been getting enough of as of late. Stupid vintage gaming consoles and their long playing games.

It's that time of year when the band has a long-assed meeting. We're going to discuss stuff and stuff and then nothing major will come from that. I will mention that I'm going out to the studio on Sunday to get the track files dumped onto my new drive. Mixing... well. I'm hoping that while I'm training in MSP in two weeks I'll have some time to sit in the hotel room and adjust faders, tweak EQs, set pans and listen to songs again and again and again. Tis the dream of anyone with no soul. Most likely, I'll be so tired and weary that I'll watch some boring regional cable and eat some fried chicken from the nearby 7-11 before passing out in a grease stained t-shirt and grimy workpants.

Good times.

But seriously, we may just actually discuss the first video we'll shoot. The ketchup one... I'm not looking forward to actually shooting that in the middle of summer. Pores filled with tomato condiment product at 90 F with a swarm of flies and mosquitos... that's ABBA Gold right there baby.

Shoot.

I'm gunna have to grow some damn wings next Tuesday. I'm gunna have to hold myself to it as well. Lots of big things going down next Tuesday. Maybe this universe in chaos thing that seems to be hitting right now (and the last few weeks) will come to a head then. Like a big ol' pimple ripe for plucking. (Sexy (or not))

Ever feel like your being watched?

2008-05-22T15:18:00.003-05:00

When I saw 28 Days Later, it scared the be-jebuz right out of my shortpants. Zombie movies generally aren't all that scary. They're more often that not a farce featuring dimwitted characters giving in to their baser instincts and failing to think things out. 28 Days Later changed that by giving the zombies the upper hand in that regard. If you couldn't outrun them, you had to be smarter.

So every once in a while, I look at my basement window on the ground floor before I crawl into bed and wonder if there's a "Rage Zombie" out there waiting to bust through. It's a lot like being on a camping excursion in bear country and thinking that you're safer if you put a thin layer of Nylon between yourself and the rest of the world. (Well, you're generally protected from mosquitos and wet weather.) Same as in the house scenario. It's a matter or perceived security.

I get the feeling that there's something lurking off in the near future that's waiting... waiting for what, I don't know. Conditions just haven't become prime. The chaos of pattern hasn't hit just yet.

Bowie and Cobain?

2008-05-20T22:43:00.002-05:00

I am kickin' at a nice little haunt on Willy Street where the hippies used to prowl, listening to a song off a CD I purchased in Boulder in 1996 with my sister and a friend. Imperial Drag. What the hell ever happend to them? I don't really care. They're not that good. They're not that bad. Before it I was listening to a Horde song called "the Day of Total Armageddon Holocaust" or as I would call it "Steel Snow Shovels Dragged Behind a Dump Truck, Take 13". It's an musical tour through my past with me going through the collection of discs that have been sitting on blank CD spindles in a box.

I took some pictures of the pieces at the gallery. This is one of them. I don't know.

I thought the cropping would make it clever and whatever... it sort of does. Like I'm a David Bowie here... and then Mitch Hedberg kicks on. He's great to listen to while you're stuck in traffic. Before you know it, you're laughing at him and not even giving a damn about not getting where you need to go in a hurry.

And this was just yeah, what can I say? I'm a gen.exer. The sunburn is going away thanks to the aloe. It wasn't that bad. And AG, It didn't occur to me to use protection but as soon as I sat down and the whole deal started, I looked at my pasty-white forearms and knew what I was in for.

Other than that, I finally started the airport flash cards and realized I knew more than I thought I did. XNA = Fayetteville, AR because you'll need Xanax if you're headed there. One day I'll scan some pictures of when I lived there. But yeah... I'm distracted. I'll post something else later.

Comedy Wind in a Can, Chicago Style

2008-05-19T14:42:00.006-05:00

I went to Chicago just like I said I was going to do. Kristin graduated as planned and things were as they should be. I found this neat art installation in Millennium park before the two hour ordeal.Unfortunately, the chains weren't velvet.

It was a great day to be outside. The ceremony was dry at times but there were also moments that were enjoyable. A Mr. Jerry Saltz was the speaker and he managed to make me feel smug about my educational choices. See, at one point in my life I thought I wanted to get a BFA or something like that until I actually had to interact with other art students and realized that I wasn't comfortable with the whole thing and stuff, like I didn't fit in and I shouldn't be in that department? And of course I transferred to the most usefulest field ever!!!

The smugness came on when Mr. Saltz told the kids that went to school to study art that they were artists and as artists they were different from the hoi-polloi seated behind them (their family and friends of assumedly non-art persuasion.) I muttered under my breath, "You don't know me," in my best Jerry Springer guest impersonation and then made the argument in my head that since I was already an artist, I didn't need to go to art school to have someone show me how to do that, ergo my switch to Philosophy to understand the world and universe as where I was getting my ideas from.

I also got a sunburn. (Not noticeable in the picture. This is after commencement. Hot, sweaty, grumpy. Waiting for Kristin to finish her latest Installation.)

Afterwards we went to a reception at a gallery associated with the school and I milled around the grad student exhibit. There were some nice pieces. There were some great ideas, but overall I wasn't that impressed and when I informed Kristin how I felt about it she said that SAIC was more about the conceptual approach to art rather than the classical fundamentals of art. They teach you how to focus your ideas and communicate them through your medium over teaching you to master you medium and then be able to deftly and superbly communicate your ideas. Now that seems backward to me, but I'm like that with my music. I'd rather not take the time to be able to play Eddie licks up and down the neck of my guitar as much as I would like to be able to communicate something through sound waves that don't involve the symbols of spoken language. So I don't know where I was going with that but yeah...

We also had dinner with her family in Wilmette up in the north suburbs. I had a blast trying to make my way back to i-94 since my planned route didn't include a west-bound on ramp. I ended up driving around Wanettka (it was spelled something like that) being reminded of living in the further north (and not so affluent) suburbs in the mid-eighties. All of the streets sort of look the same, matching what I remember from the superbowl shuffle days and that sort of bummed me out. I don't want to explain why. It just did.

I also bought a Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks disc at the Barnes & Noble and listened to that on the way home. It wasn't quite what I was looking for when I went to the music section (originally, I was going to pick up some early Bob Marley but decided against that after looking at the stacks of CDs and knowing full well that none of them would contain music so mind-blowing-ly awesome that I would have to stop driving to give it my fullest attention. I honestly wish there was such a thing these days. Bjork's Volta may have come close at points. Sigour Ros does at times as well, but they're still working in a realm of the familiar.)

And it rained for most of the drive home.

Is it Monday yet?

2008-05-16T08:57:00.003-05:00

Nothing quite says it the same. This weekend can only get worse... hell, the next few weeks are going to be very busy. A trip to Chicago this weekend for Kristin's graduation. (Finally.) It's about damn time. I thought I took my time getting my B.A. but spending the last 3.5 years after being a semester away from a MTA at Montana State at school is just crazy. Or not. In all honesty, I would love to be back in school again. I just don't know what to study. Philosophy ain't the bag of tea it used to be these days. The work week next week promises to be more of the same. Sane. Back to the weekly schedule with only the addition of flash card review. That's not going to be fun, but learning never is.

With the new job on the horizon, the old jobs (both of them, including the one I'm keeping) seem like complete douche-baggery. These tasks are the repetitions of my life and they have been for the last several years. It didn't take me long to figure out the pattern. I just had a lot of extra-curriculars, etc. But that isn't what it used to be either, or rather it feels more like hope dried up. Optimism scaffolded with hot air.

And speaking of optimism, the whole California Supreme Court dealie... spare me the political circumstance. Just one more thwack to the hedge to rustle out more scared pheasants during this prime election year. I'm really sick of politik.

And speaking of sick and politics, someone close to me has got teh cancer. I'm not going to go into the details. It did give me an opportunity to discuss modern medicine and the cry for universal health care. If you check out Dean's post about the boomers and the echos it brings to light so much of that general feeling of being utterly screwed over by society simply because everyone in this goddamn country thinks it's their God-given RIGHT to live for-fucking-ever. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that my friend with teh cancer will be able to get super awesome medical treatment and possibly a long life after the next few months. But the truth is that we are not entitled to these sort of contract extensions. (And when I can finally see a doctor under a health plan provided by my employer, I'll have all of the things that worry me checked out. Stupid pre-existing condition clauses and whatever... at least I finally kicked tobacco to the curb.)

"best summer ever"

What's up with "Sally"

2008-05-14T10:41:00.002-05:00

First off, I did get the job. I did take the job. I start training on either June 2nd or June 9th. I would prefer June 9th since that date wouldn't interfere with my trip to ABQ.

Speaking of which (airport codes that is.) I now have to memorize a laundry list of airport codes in the next two weeks. I really don't want to do this, but I'm going to just have to sit down with index cards and a couple of sharpies and start making me some of them flashy cards they used on me in that learnin' facility.

I'm pretty excited about it all at this point. They flew me up to MSP for processing yesterday. That was a fun little challenge in and of itself. I was scheduled to be on a 6:50 flight out of MSN so I was up at 4:30 getting myself prepared (business casual and A SHAVE!!! along with some breakfast) and I didn't sleep much during the night mostly because of nerves. So I was that feeling amphetamined-out tired buzz as I prepared to meet some of these people who(whom?) desired to hire me.

At this point I would like to explain that I was feeling edgy about the whole trip because they were shipping me off to do some pretty basic post hiring, pre training paperwork/orientation stuff that could have been perhaps just as easily handled by the manager at MSN. (Or so I was thinking.) It felt as though they were sticking extra steps into a process that didn't need extra steps and said steps only added to the "risk of failure" that would mean I wouldn't be where I needed to be at the required time. So I wasn't sleeping well. Worrying that I would oversleep or something else would happen to make me late and miss my flight.

When I finally got through the line to check in (mental note - from now on, e-check in) I entered my reservation number twice and was told my reservation didn't exist. The totally awesome clerk at the counter told me to enter my res. number and make sure I got the entry right (which I had done twice before he instructed me to do it again.) So I complied with his instructions while muttering under my breath, "It's not going to make any fucking difference the fourth time as the first. It's still going to say the same fucking thing, ASS!" I was told by the console to speak with a clerk so for the second time I told him it wasn't working. He then looked up my reservation and said that it was canceled. Of course! Why wouldn't it be? I was supposed to be flying to a meeting at hub and the airline that set up the meeting and the reservation was now telling me to sit and spin for getting up at 4:30 (that and taking a day off from work.)

I managed to get a hold of my HR contact at seven when she rolled in to her office. She didn't seem to know why I didn't have a seat on that plane but she was awesome enough to get me on a 9:15 flight. So I had a few hours to contemplate if I even wanted to go through with the process since I had felt like I was being treated with disrespect (and after about fifteen minutes of indignation, I decided that it wasn't anything personal and that I shouldn't take it as such.)

So I left MSN at 9:15 or so and was back by 2:30. And I'm still really tired.

In other news, I'm writing this post on my new laptop... the one that I'm going to be doing the mixing of the album on. (We're also going to use it to track everything but the drums for the next one in the fall. If nothing else, we're ambitious in that degenerate slacker sort of way. More on that later.)

Tide ya over.

2008-05-11T14:34:00.002-05:00

Well,

the news is in that I am probably going to be hired. I'm flying up to the twin cities for an meeting on Tuesday. After that it's a background check clearance away from training. It's left me feeling unsettled. I've been working this rut for the last few years and it's been comfortable, but change is good. It never does pay to keep oneself in the same place and not be challenged in one way or another. We'll see what happens on Tuesday.

As for the band, we played a show last night at a new venue. It went well. We managed to draw a crowd of friends to the place and make some money too. We also promoted our show with our first "Busking" endeavor. It went as well as could be expected. We probably didn't draw anybody to the show, but we got some sort of exposure (UV Radiation?).

There are other things to talk about. The new computer. The mixing process. Yeah... stuff... but I'm workin' a Sunday shift and trying to do too many things at once right now.

I hate interviews

2008-05-01T14:35:00.002-05:00

I always thought that there was something sinister about 60 year old Catholics.

In other news, "where tha eye divides" is still puttering around like a motor boat in a lake with no fish. Everything moves twice as slow as I would like in that world. We'll get to the mixing someday.

Until then, we're rocking two shows in Madison. One tonight and one next Saturday. Our show tonight is our standard venue. We've been playing this place for the last year on a somewhat regular basis. Next Saturday is new territory. (Different brands of beer bottles hitting the chicken wire. Same chicken wire.)

I also had a job interview with a Twin Cities based transportation company this morning. I'll know by next Friday if they want me to work for them or not. And then I'll either have to decide to take the position or not OR I won't even have to make that decision.

Yay. Whatever.

I almost didn't bother to go to the interview, that's how disinterested I am in finding a new job. (sort of) But I felt that would be a pretty "Italian left-handed" thing to do. (sinestro)

Where the pi divides

2008-04-28T15:24:00.002-05:00

The band is about three incriments from getting rough mixes of the studio tracks in our ears. I'm planning on spending some quality time deciding that all of it sounds terrible and that we should record it all one last time.

Actually, I only plan on deciding fades, pans and some effect bussing and that's about it.

Other than that, it's a matter of convincing Joe that the vocals are fine and if he were to redo them one more time, they would sound exactly the same and he should stop wasting all of our time.... well, that and figuring out if the bass is too far forward in the mix, and asking, "Where the hell is the kick drum?"

I hate mixing.

Folk Heros

2008-04-24T14:09:00.003-05:00

*************************Travis Wrote**********************

hey fellas...may 10, club tav...well, i'll just let my good buddy M.A. tell you... "May 10th club tavern opening slot 1 hour four bucks. Thanks"

everyone'd better be able to do this (that $4 could be my ticket outta this hellhole)...that's why i called and told everyone about it and nobody called me back with any concerns or dissenting opinions; so i said "yes"...as i mentioned in my message; its a Saturday night, so that's all good...and i think the club tavern could be an excellent place for us...good exposure...

i should be to handle the flier issue for the 1st show...should we even hang fliers? opinions?

hit me back, dawgs (respectively)...

********************Joe's Reply****************************
Travis et al.

I'm sorry but i can't make it...i've got to watch saturday night live with the girlfriend that i haven't met yet...so find someone else to sing these stupid songs...in all honesty, i think i'm gonna quit this lame ass band anyways and dedicate my life to writing soap operas, and honing my bowling skills...i figure if i can marry some rich, mid 40's cougar, i can get all my soap opera mateial from our daily briefings, and then i can convince her to set up a lane (automatic scoring of course) in the basement...my plan is this...while she is asleep (by nine), i'll be a practicing so that i can one day make it on the pba tour...hopefully (i pray) i'll be good enough in a decade or so to make it on the tv finals...

strike!

(gutter ball)

Travis...nice work man...may 10 hey?...sweet!

we should mos def get an acoustic set on sate st. for that afternoon to advertise...best summer eva!!!

Joe

*********************Travis Replies********************

hey man!!! step off the "cougars"; that's my deal...(big cats are dangerous; but a little...). the bowling (so you wanna bowl, give the ball a roll), however, is all yours and you are to be commended for having a solid plan to get what it is that you want/need out of life...

i wouldn't mind trying curling...or being on Saturday night live...

well played, joe. well played. that lady with the cash and the "stories" is out there somewhere...

i look like hell today.

*****************And I Interjected***************

In the end, you know that only three people are going to show up for this show. Even the entire band won't make it. So yeah. Go for that unknown lady Joey Vochich! Chase that toboggin all the way down the hill even though winter's melted away.

Or we could all go out for some ice blocking? Eh? Am I right? No one does that around here.

A bottle of Southern Comfort, a block of ice, and a fine middle-aged lady with a fat wad of cash.

Sweet indeed.

Enjoy

2008-04-23T15:19:00.000-05:00

Eco-newz

2008-04-18T13:44:00.002-05:00

I don't really get why we need to use natural gas to power our vehicles.

But then again, I don't get a lot of things.

Is this my pre-Earth Day post? Probably. I'm not usually near a computer on the weekends.
There's a pizza place that put up posters in their window advertising the sale of "special brownies" for sale at 4:20 on 4/20. These people are "awesome!", whomever they are (did I use that right? I've noticed I never do and now I'm trying to figure out the proper time to use who and whom.)

Tipping over the wagon

2008-04-15T16:39:00.002-05:00

Sliding down a hill...

Alright. I updated the layout of this stupid site... it needed a fresh shave.

Other than that, I've been pretty busy getting my drink on and working. I've actually had to work this week. Even the crossword isn't getting done on company time. What the hell is that?

If I can, I'll try to post something compelling in the next few days. No promises though.

In the meantime, check out "Shotgun Stories" if you can.

Why do I make these "promises"?

2008-04-10T13:21:00.002-05:00

The band is in some sort of limbo state as usual.

We are still working on the "Acoustic Set" with the additional singer. The band decided that she wasn't going to work out for the electrified performances. It was nice to have that drama ironed out.

And then Danny said he couldn't play our upcoming show on May 1st at the Klinic at 9 P.M. because he has to work on Friday. He told me this on the phone last Friday afterknoon a few minutes after he told me he had stayed up late the night before playing Magic with his buddies. I finished off my second shift of the split in the afterknoon and called Joe and Travis to talk about eliminating dead weight from the band. I just get tired of explaining to him every time we have a potential show on a weeknight that we aren't going to be given weekend slots without first proving we can draw a crowd. We can't draw a crowd without performing for people in the first place... it's rather Catch-22. Joe said that I shouldn't talk to Danny and that he would discuss it with him and convince him to play this show. This will come up again. (The next weeknight show.)

I stumbled onto an Indie Band Survival Guide epublished by some band. I read through some of their advice and think I should make the effort to read rest of it. Any advice (good or bad) is still something to stimulate the mind.

Then there's also the idea I've been kicking around of a solo project EP. Last night I came up with a title that I thought would be awesome, but it's something I heard a little while ago that I had forgotten that I had heard about. So yeah... I'm gunna start working on that tonight. Writing a new batch songs that are slightly different from what Where the i Divides is doing. (less drama).

And I have a dentist appointment at 2:30... ha ha ha....

These things I think

2008-04-09T13:22:00.007-05:00

I was watching television last night, or better put I was flipping through the programming guide hoping to find something with commercials that were worth sitting through, and caught a clip about how "Scientists" can predict hurricane seasons based on tree rings.

That's cool.

But that isn't what cause me to remember that tidbit. What got me was something that's been chewing me up for a few months now--the term "expert". I put up a quick post about experts last week or something like that but that didn't help get rid of the anger. (That's what this blog is all about, making you read my anger and thereby taking it from me and making it your own.)

What's the big deal with the tree rings, you ask? It was the way it was phrased on the tele. "Scientists can determine..." as if one has to be deemed a scientist in order to understand these sorts of things. Maybe it's a little of my philosophical training that's coming through here along with my "don't tell me what I can and can't do" attitude that 's making an ocean out of a fishbowl but the issue is still there--the notion that if someone has training and skill-sets, they are then able to be labeled with a term. For instance, since I play guitar, I'm a "musician". Since Travis plays bass, he's a "roadie". But then, am I really a "Musician" proper or am I just a hobbyist?

Transfer this back to "Scientist" and apply it to someone with little scientific training (read: blowing things up in a lab) but curiosity and base understanding of scientific concepts and allow or grant them the time to explore these curiosities and suddenly, you've got yourself a scientist. Or do you? It depends...

(Hmm, this idea is still in the oven.)

*************************************************************************

In other news, Cloud Cult is coming to Madison's own High Noon Saloon for a one-night performance.

AND

Yesterday was Travis' birthday. The jerk ditched me and our plans for sitting around to watch Nova's Deciphering Mayan Hieroglyphs so he could go have dinner with his ex. I told him that if he kept this sh&t up, he would have a new ex... his new Ex-Best Friend! So we'll see if he keeps ditching me to hang out with girls, let alone girls he's already run the entire relationship gamut with.

To spoil the surprise for him if he checks this while at his parents, I got him 4 clearance LPs.
-Pablo Cruz
-The Little River Band
-Berlin
-Boz Skaggs

Don't ask me which albums they are (except for Berlin. It's "Fashion Victim"[Correction the album is Pleasure Victim, not Fashion Victim". I own that but I don't know where it is... sort of like my Wang Chung "Mosaic" disc.)

I also got him a DVD of Hare Tokidoki Buta . The description on the back read as though it would either be entertaining to watch or entertaining to mock and quote in the company of the uninitiated. (or it will most likely fall into the category of "WOW, this is unfortunately neither entertaining nor mock-able... and really boring!") And the only serious present was a copy of Annie Dillard's Holy the Firm. He will like that one.

And Lastly,

Band news? Neh... I'll talk about that tomorrow. There really isn't that much going on right now in that department. Apparently there is a show scheduled on May 1st at the only place in town that will book us, the Klinic. 9PM is the slated start time. Most likely we'll get bumped to a different spot. enough... I talk about this tomorrow.

Phoning it in without the phone

2008-04-03T14:15:00.002-05:00

I don't have much to post about. Those kids plotted about stabbing their teacher... you hear about that? I was going to post about it, but I figured everyone else already had.

Some college student was found dead in her apartment yesterday a few blocks from here. There's this whole paranoia angle the local news-rag (you know, the thing that old people used to read back in the day to get their daily information) is trying to work over... "A Killer Stalks Among Us!!!"

Instead of dealing with that (or anything, like always) I'll just e-publish part of a poem without the authors permission... (not really)

i was thinking
about "ozzie &
harriet" beds...

or maybe,
a couple of cities over... perhaps,
something we could
do by phone.

hand-held.

a night on the town...

a month.

King Cobra? No, King Consumer

2008-04-01T13:50:00.002-05:00

You would think the amount of money I've dropped on new music as of late that I'm rolling in cash... but like I like to say, "Buy food or buy music? Music keeps you fed a lot longer."

I got my copy of Trent Reznor's Ghosts I-IV.

It's interesting... if you like listening to song ideas that never made it past the idea stage. It's sort of like buying Picasso sketches. They're Picasso, but they're no Guarnica. Not something that he spent a whole lot of time on.

What's interesting for me is the flashbacks I keep getting. When Furious Jones was recording in 2000, I was listening to a lot of The Fragile (almost exclusively, and almost exclusively the Left Disc.) This is when my ears started to really be able to pick apart recordings, tear up the layers, ignore the present layers and hear the sub-layers... so the work that Nine Inch Nails was doing, was engaging. This is also when I started drifting away from being a drummer and into the world of guitar.

After this last year of recording-work, it's nice to be able to have a fresh perspective on why I'm doing this thing with the band. Exploration, experimentation sort of got lost in the push to create an album that sounded like what we sounded like. I'm beginning to think that this idea needs to go away and I need to get back to exploring again. Set up some new directions with the new material... some extra layers... some hidden flavor. Seek out ways to slip these things in without driving up studio time costs. (I had a lot of fun adding the textures to "the Moment" but it took the better part of a day to lay it all down.)

And in re yesterday, Joe's come 'round to the realization that we are four members, not five, and he's let the idea of adding a female voice into the band go away. (That's a good thing. If he had stuck by that conviction, we may have come to blows.)

Another weekend

2008-03-31T19:31:00.002-05:00

I've seemed to obtained some sort of illness over the weekend. You know what that means? Driving around with a bottle of Dayquil clutched in my junkie paw.

The band is progressing on the stripped down style of performing. We are also dealing with another issue. An issue that needs to go away soon... or else...

but I'm not really in the right place for much of anything right now. It's been a long, dreary day and I'm looking forward to kicking out some endorphine at the gym. (Let's just say that I've got a lot on my mind.)

Nothin'

2008-03-28T16:45:00.002-05:00

"You know what I like about you...." (Nothin')

I suppose I had some time to actually sit down and put up a real post but I blew that today on things that were work related.

Tomorrow is someone's birthday... Happy Birthday. Look in the mail either tomorrow or Monday.

Other news... It's been 31 days since I've had a fucking cigarette. Sometimes it's good to be a quiter.

You fill in the link...

2008-03-27T15:33:00.004-05:00

Since when did "expert" become so watered-down?

It's worse than diarrhea these days. Simply because you ate that week-old, left-over Thai that you forgot to refrigerate, does not mean you can claim you have the necessary "experience".

Whatever.

practice

2008-03-26T13:29:00.004-05:00

I don't have time today to fully expand on this idea... practice. For some reason, I'm actually busy today. And the stink of cigarettes is serious motivation to get this crap done and get out of here asap. I would love take some time and reflect on the role of practice in lots of things in life, but instead I'll get out as much as I can in five minutes...

Where the i Divides has practice tonight. I'm guessing it's going to be three out of four. There's really no need for it tonight if Danny doesn't show up. The rest of us know our parts if we're playing acoustic or electric. His showing up switches Travis to some other instrument and results in me teaching the songs to him on guitar.

I don't really want to do any of this. It seems like an exercise in futility to continue to rehearse songs that are waning in my excitment to perform them, especially when it means that our performances of this variance on our sound will be in places that are less agreeable than our only home these days... the Klinic.

Travis made a good point today about the importance of us using this as an opportunity to get into places like lame-ass coffee houses that shy away from aplification and run in terror at the thought of a distorted guitar (let alone a distorted bass.)

Yeah.

Yet, I'm still a little giddy for this evening. It's not like the summer writing sessions with Travis in the barn. (Those were the best times, so far.) There's conflict here. Mostly related to the constant stresses and tensions that I get from certain members and their innability to focus.

Part of me really wants to stake a new claim and try diggin somewhere else. It's not the music I'm not excited about, it's the line up I'm beginning to think is what's killing my motivation. (See my desire to keep exploring in the vein of the newest song "California Scheemin'; the Legend of Sun-Paw and Rankle")

2008-03-25T13:37:00.002-05:00

I could have stayed home and slept all day... but no one would have paid me to do that.

Instead, I've been reading my newly arrived copy of Yeti 5 this morning. It's always a good read even if it reminds me that there are so many things I don't have the time to explore fully.

There are some excerpts from Pinakothek in one article. I've been checking out the archives there most of the afterknoon. Interesting, to say the least.

Eventually, I'll realize I could be using this time to look for a new job that is more "rewarding" but until then, I'll enjoy spending work time doing personal time things.

Stomp three times if you wanna hear me get....

2008-03-24T15:38:00.007-05:00

It took a long time to get over the weekend. Here's a sample of what the show entailed.

I also scored a sweet sticker that's going to end up taking up a bunch of prime "real estate" on my guitar. I'll not get pictures of that up for a while though. I'm terrible about stuff like that.

My friends Alison and Leah got dressed up in their shiny tank-tops. I'll eventually try and get some a video up here too... don't have the time for it right now.

2008-03-20T11:19:00.003-05:00

Tonight had better be the best night ever!!!

********

In other news... nothing. Here's an email from "Freddie"

*****Travis Wrote*****************************************

>
> Re: Hey Freddie, "scat" is jazz for "fun"
>
> i'm starting to like "freddie" actually...kind of has that "jazz" type
> swing to it...
>

> it'll be interesting to hear what names she calls me this
> weekend...bobby? grant? marvin?

> jared? (es muy gordo...madre de dios)
>

> i am a little surprised that john called me last night (you don't mind
> if i gnaw on your arm a while, right? just a little gnawin')...he must
> be really desperate...but, yeah...he knows what he's doing...and more
> importantly, i know what he's doing...he's a vampire, though not the
> cool movie sort...

> that also means that danny wasn't answering his phone/returning calls
> at all last night...i can understand ignoring john (he was harassing
> them on Saturday), but the greatest guitar/bass combo in the city? he
> needs a "wake-up" call from chester cheetah...the kind you don't answer;
> the kind you just hear...
>

> word.

************************************************************

Some of this is in reference to last night and our session at the rehearsal space. Some of this is in reference to the Saturday/Sunday Tension-with-Butter-Knife action in re: band matters. Seems some people think they can get away with trying to wrench power out of the hands of those that matter most. (greatest guitar/bass combo in city???) Those said some people will shortly realize the folly of those decisions should they continue along those darkened paths.

(Oh my GOD!!! is he threatening to break up the band?!?!?!) Eh... no, not yet.

Trav... er Freddie and I did write a most of a new song idea last night with the assistance of a lame keyboard supplied beat. I've been thinking about it today and the notion of keeping that keyboard beat in the song is really growing on me. "Hey! You like electronic drums right? Well check this out!" I get the feeling that I'm going to have a discussion (read, swinging guitar like baseball bat at head) with him about arranging the transitions again. Try and add a few more notes and/or chords before the bridge. A Ramp, if you will. (A ramp to the skies!)

(segue in head)

This will open things up for the possibility of the creation of methane and other organic compounds. If they can combine with water, they may be able to generate essential amino acids for the genesis of life.

I've not been called "Captian Science" in days of old for my accuracy of fact, but rather my usage and insistence in the air of those things.

keeping up promises (pt. 3)

2008-03-19T13:58:00.004-05:00

I'm going to be a bit lazy today. If the morality jibber-jabber is not so entertaining and you prefer my pointless postings (isn't it all rather pointless?) skip to part two.

Mr. Hooker has presented his rule-consequentialism thus:

"An act is wrong if it is forbidden by the code of rules whose interalization by the overwhelming majority of everyone everywhere in each new generation has maximum expected value in terms of well-being (with some priority for the worst off). The calculation of a code's expected value includes all costs of getting the code internalized. If in terms of expected value two or more codes are better than the rest but equal to one another, the one closest to conventional morality determines what acts are wrong." (citation of source would go here if I weren't so lazy.)

Follow the link to read all about the new issue I'm grapple-hooking to from across they chasym. It's the first part of trying to understand what all of the above means. Mr. Hooker gives out that he's on the objective list side of things, but with some reservations as to autonomy and fairness... I think...

PART TWO!!!

Today, I saw a woman trying to flag down a bus. She was walking along like she was ready to break out into a run except she was also holding a paper cup with some sort of liquid in her hand and was trying not to spill the contents. Judging by her actions, I can only surmise that the bus driver didn't see her trying to flag him down, becuase she took desperate action. Splashing the water onto the pavement in a flourish and spray, she broke out into a full on sprint.

I'll never know if she made that bus. I was too busy replaying the scenario in my head and laughing about it. I can hear her internal monologue. "Damn it, that bus is gunna leave. I'm gunna spill this water if I go any faster. Awe shit, he's leavin'! Damnit!!! Fuck this!!!" Splashes water and runs.

What a great country we live in. (Party finds you!)

25:17

2008-03-18T10:29:00.002-05:00

It's a guessing game as to what the day will bring.

...and I love games...

I read this:

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.”

after I read something else that dealt with the concept of reality.

Our reality is not "the reality." It's perception deciphered by our nervous system understood as necessary-for-survival information.

Buttered Rolls

2008-03-17T19:38:00.004-05:00

Ben Lee song in a Kohls Commercial? I like that song, but I don't like the use of that song for the promotion of buying stuff for yourself.

Eh... it's complicated.

Today felt a bit Carroll-ian. As typical with most Mondays, I've started the week with a sense of preparedness and optimism for the production and execution of ideas and action. However, once the afterknoon set in, it became apparent that I was going to need a lot more coffee (or something similar) to keep myself going.

I ran into an acquaintance on Friday night at the Harmony. He asked me if I would be interested in laying down some drum tracks on his demos. (Side Project!!!)

But the important thing is that over the weekend, lots of things fell into place in my head. I think I found an acceptable agreement with the "five points" as methodology for the consequentialist moral theory thing. I'll deal with that later this week after I read the next chapter (probably tomorrow night?? Maybe.)

I finally saw Paprika Saturday night. I had a fun experience with this place last summer when they showed it for what was more than likely two weeks. I didn't realize it was there until the day after it's last showing. I was not pleased with myself for not seeing it in "huge" format. After finally seeing it, I'm still disappointed that I missed it. I don't know if I can recommend it unless you're into anime.

I should get off the promises (part 2)

2008-03-14T13:10:00.004-05:00

*****************************
Aisde to "Rebecca" from yesterday's post. Kick it!!! here to find out if she is going to be in your area in the very near (tomorrow night) future.
*****************************
Feeling somewhere between Nostalgia Sickness and Wanderlust today. Must be the weather.

I was going to do an update on my continued peeking into Ideal Code but I was waylaid by some highwaymen (or some extra work at work) and didn't get into the book again like I had planned... ahh plans. What a waste.

Anyway. What's been bothering me about the methodology of Mr. Hooker is the assumption that an ethical code somehow adheres to our already in place ethical code. To me it stinks tautological but I can't quite figure where the source is.

I would like to get #2 (heh heh... stink, number two) out of the way. I have no problems with a theory or system being internally consistent. So I'll grant him that assumption, for now. (I reserve the right to retract that allowance.)

I feel like one and three are coming from the same starting point, which is to say, attractive generalizations about morality and an adherance to our existing moral convictions after careful consideration come from the same yet unidentified base of moral convictions that we (whatever sort of group "we" is) seem to have intuitively. So far, Mr. Hooker either hasn't explained why these assumptions should be granted or I've missed his explanation as to why my general feelings about ethical actions are in some way universal for all people.

So that's what I'm kicking around in my head right now. If I can't find some sort of resolution, I may just have to grant the assumptions (for the sake of moving forward) and ... enough with the fucking smoking, Asshole! I'm tired of your lack of consideration on that point ... sorry, where was I? Nevermind. I'm going to step outside to get away from the bad air.

2008-03-13T14:14:00.002-05:00

As a part of my ongoing love affair with all things live performance related and art-sy, I figured I'd just bring up the fact that next Thursday night (3/20/08) at the High Noon Saloon is going to be off the fucking charts. Did I not make myself clear? Off the fucking charts.

So if you live in the area (and I'm talking roughly a five hundred elephant radius) I suggest, strongly suggest you come have your mind blown out the back of your head while you learn a thing or two about cheetos, dancin', fried dough and romancin'.

I should get off the promises (part 1)

2008-03-12T14:45:00.004-05:00

Alright... while I would much rather talk about a Frankenstein-ian Horse that eats Zombies and children that can turn into slime a la Wonder Twins hiding from scouting robots, I said I would bore you all with some Philosophy crap I'm sort of working on.

I've been reading this book (well, not really reading as much as hauling around in my backpack and saying to myself I've eventually got to get this done) entitle Ideal Code, Real World by Brad Hooker. I mentioned it back in November (I think. I did a lot of things in November.)

Chapter one breaks down rule-consequentialism eithical theory into a simple form. The ethical code whose collective internalization has the best consequences is the ideal code. There's some psuedo-quantifable way of determining which code (collection of rules that one should feel free to follow) arrives at the best consequences. But before we get to the reasons why this is even worth thinking about, we'll have to justify the method for establishing any metaethical code... so that's were we spend most of our time.

According to Mr. Hooker, there are five points that a moral theory should adhere to in order to be considered worth study.

1. It starts from attractive generalizations about morality.
2. It must be internally consistent.
3. It must cohere with the moral convictions we have after careful reflection.
4. It should identify a fundimental principle that both explains why our more specific considered moral convictions are correct and justifies them from an impartial point of view.
5. It should help us deal with moral questions about which we are not confident, or do not agree.

Supposedly, I'm supposed to agree with everything in that list if I'm going to have a chance of agreeing with anything else Mr. Hooker has to say in the rest of the book. (except for the comment about skeptics which went something like, 'Skeptics are stupid and therefore their opinions don't matter.' "independently credible beliefs need not be certain, or beyond all challenge or revision.")

I've taken yesterday and today to sort of kick this grocery list around and I'm still not satisfied with the requsite qualifications. I'm gunna have to put another couple hours of "free time" into this before I'll get back to it.

Until then, there's always the power of imagination.

2008-03-11T12:55:00.002-05:00

In my insomniatic furvor last night, I grabbed my copy of Negative Blue and opened it up to a random page to find this:

*****************************************************************************
Still Life with Spring and Time to Burn

Warm day, early March. The buds preen, busting their shirtwaists
All over the plum trees. Blue moan of the mourning dove.
It's that time again,
time of relief, time of sorrow
The earth is afflicted by.
We feel it ourselves, a bright uncertainty of what's to come

Swelling our own skins with sweet renewal, a kind of disease
That holds our affections dear
and asks us to love it.
And so we do, supposing
That time and affection is all we need answer to.
But we guess wrong:

Time will append us like suit coats left out overnight
On a deck chair, loose change dead weight in the right pocket,
Silk handkerchief limp with dew,
sleeves in a slow dance with the wind.
And love will kill us--
Love, and the winds from under the earth
that grinds us to grain-out.
*********************************************************************

I copied this poem in late July, 2001 on the back of a Yahtzee score card. I received Negative Blue for Christmas this year. Didn't know that poem was in there. Lack of sleep makes it seem unique that I opened to that page... brain fights that explanation.

In other news, there have been new devlopments in the Sno-Jousters story. A villian has been created. A purpose for all of the snow jousting has been cited. A sequal is already in the works. Complete with illustrations.

But that was Sunday. Last night, before the insomnia set in, I started my second read through "Ideal Code, Real World". I'll kick some "jams" about chapter one tomorrow (because I know everyone wants to gain a better understanding of rule-utilitarian moral theory, as filtered (read, butchered and transmogified) by me.)

In the mean time, I have to go to my least favorite office, court of appeals... (crowd booing in the background)

2008-03-10T14:07:00.002-05:00

This long monrning stretched out with a lack of major activity on the incoming front which afforded me the opportunity to reflect in the puddles and pools.

There was an article that caught my eye... apparently there are new sins.

I really liked this quote: “Those who trust in themselves and in their own merits are, as it were, blinded by their own ‘I’, and their hearts harden in sin. Those who recognize themselves as weak and sinful entrust themselves to God, and from Him obtain grace and forgiveness.”

Couple that with the current book I'm reading and the next book on my list of books to get a hold of and a song entitled "When Water Comes to Life" and suddenly I'm filled with a (foreign) sensation of hope. Don't ask my how that happens inside my twisted head.

(Title goes here)

2008-03-09T22:34:00.004-05:00

I don't know about anyone else. I don't know what the average person thinks. I spend too much time thinking about stuff anyway. But my thoughts are somewhat elevated and/or aggravated this weekend. I missed my usual routine on the second half of the week yet managed to maintain my vigilance in staying clean. It's been thirteen days.
>But as I'm walking around with my earbuds embedded in my frozen ears
>I can't help but wonder what everyone else is listening to
And the usual events of Friday went a tad askew. Instead of a movie and sleeping, it was out till very late and a dizzy tired feeling.
>Because they're all listening to something.
Saturday was a long and relatively unproductive rehearsal that lost focus as soon as we decided to run through some covers we haven't really played often enough. I realized that I never settled on a definitive way of playing "Bachelorette" which frustrated me almost as much as not being into playing a solo for "USA #2!".
>And that part of me that's entirely wrapped up in me (all of me?) assumes
>that whatever they're listening to isn't as good as what I'm
>listening to.
As usual, everyone seemed tired and worn out. There was apparently some tension steaming off of me about the early quittin' time too. I only said that I don't work all week to spend five hours playing music with my band. It's an all day event.
>I've thought about it. Like I said. Do you think your musical taste is better?
>Do the beats and rhythms explode with emotion in your brain?
And after rehearsal it was another Saturday night Perkins dinner (who-hoo!) where I started to draw on my hand. That's when Travis accused me of being weird. Travis said I was weird. Yeah. I mean, I am weird, but to have Travis actually say that I'm weird sort of makes it official.
>When you're listening to whatever you're listening to, do you get
>goosebumps at certain passages? Do you have to stop what you're doing so
>you can listen more intently? Focus to lose the filters?
Joe and I went to some place so he could dance. Since I'm clean, I was pretty bored but I had a sharpie and a right hand with no ink on it.
>I do.
Today was not the last day recording at the studio. One more week and then we'll be done. Mixing should prove to be more interesting than listening to Joe sing the chorus to "Jerkwater" over and over.
>And I wish you could understand. Like floating in a puddle of thoughts for a
>while.

Things I'm wasting money on

2008-03-08T10:48:00.002-06:00

Today is a consumer day. (Much like Thursday...)

Here's what I bought today.

Item #1: I discovered volume 3 in Livingston over the fourth of July a few years ago in a little shop that's since been sold and is slowly being converted into a restaurant. Volume 3 included the awesome "Blood Ninja" excerpt which I greatly enjoy quoting. "I hang out in the alley, I smoke a fatty, I throw rocks at the cats. Stone Cold Steve Austin hands me a beer. You wanna wrestle Stone Cold? Yeaaaah!" Volume 4 introduced me to Octavia E. Butler last fall and also gave me the slogan, "I am not a euphemism". (Not to mention the companion CD's that include some rare musical gems like a non-electronic version of the Postal Service's Recycled Air.)

Item #2: I heard about this band a few years ago in a music review. They sounded interesting but the band that opened for them (the Selfish Gene) was who I was going to the show to see. (This was before I had sort of figured out the whole Bright Eyes, Wilco, Phish, Grateful Dead thing and their music.) I bought "Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus" at that show and have since been rather adamant about seeing them every time they come around. Their last album, "Meaning of 8", resonated with me for a while, but I've found that I go back to "Advice" more often. Only time will tell if the Tea Party has staying power. Super Chai Power!

Chocolate Never Dies

2008-03-07T15:13:00.002-06:00

This isn't the most firey of exchanges Travis and I have had, but it's a pretty good exchange for a Friday. Enjoy.

******** Trav Wrote **********
are the "selfish gene" that much better than we are?

they're likely more polished...

i think "snow jousters" would benefit from a generous helping of "damn yankees"...like the whole soundtrack...maybe the band could reunite for recording the soundtrack (i'm entrusting the score to you...though i reserve the right to make hackneyed suggestions that are better ignored...i.e.--"more bassoon!")...

do i hear "high enough '09"...i hope that i'll get the chance to...

i was thinking about that crazy "loop" thing that kovochich and i stumbled upon that one time when him and i were messing around with the keyboard and we were running it through the guitar processor that i use...i'd like to try more "keyboard through guitar processor" stuff...no real concrete ideas, but i would make attempts to work on stuff like that when i would have my "alone sessions" at the old space (which i absolutely need to go vacuum today after work)...looking forward to having sessions like that again at the new space without the feeling that i'm distracting people from braiding hair, working on taxes, or eating their nightly ramen noodles before jamming out on blues guitar (i feel like i'm starting to slip a bit in expanding as a "musician", mostly due to not playing a whole lot on my own time this last month)...although there isn't as much room for me to pass out there...

its "pizza day"...word...

later

trav

******** I Wrote **********

Trav(isto the amazing)

The Selfish Gene (or as I like to call them "Shellfish Jean") is good and not good. Sure as blindfold at a "pinyata" party they're more polished the we, but that's merely a rehearsing issue on or part. (Right?) Their music encompasses a lot of differnt (mostly not my cup-o-tea) styles. Think Bright Eyes meets Wilco and the ghost of Phish in a dark alley to talk about the Grateful Dead's influence on pop music in the late Ninties. There tis'n't much in the way of self-stimulation by the individual members... no one is shootin all over themselves on stage (like Ted Nugent will for the reunion tour. Chomping away at that gum, deflecting bullets with his rock.) But their thing was always having edited video playing behind them... one of their songs makes me think of that Drug Movie about dreams... but that wasn't there last night, and it made me actually pay attention to either "obviously not 21 douche who stood way too close infront of me in the faux-suede jacket who kept making sideways glances at the fem-bots standing next to me" or watching the band. I could have used a few more solo/musical moments without the two part harmonies that just seemed to drone on... "we get it, both you you can sing." Hire an lyrical editor to parse your erato-musing spliff written crap. I'm not a nice person.

Sno-Jousters will definitely need lots of soaring guitar/oboe duets. You can't have lancers on snow machines flying off embankments without music to match the shrill excitement of it all. Maybe that's what we can project behind us when we get a "18+ popular in the local circuit social-scene jam-box, vacant 1,000 yard stare, go-to-college-and-put-your-ass-in-debt" crowd.
You also would have to make one of the main characters pretty much a complete rip-off of Joey Vochich, call him Jay Jay or something, where he's almost fatally irratic in his pursuit of the ideal of love... and jousting.

We will talk more about this later, tomorrow, the the next few weeks... till it just sort of smoulders out.

As for the looping organ stuff, we need to work on that stuff, but that all takes time. I know that yesterday night watching television was more worthwhile (well, the shamrock shake was. It's like I've got a little bit of Uncle O'Grimmacy in me now... and forever. He gets a hold of your gut the way "Jack Frost" (No, not the movie, rather the anthropomorphic term for frostbite) can get a hold of your fingers and toes and take them for the rest of your (un)natural, digitless life.) I still want to work out that Youngian 5/4 idea a little bit more. I was working on that last night but the chord change is pretty much the same as the Moment and that keeps frustrating me. How many other chords can I choose? and I still go for the Am, Fmaj back and forth. It's played out! All of it. Especially me. Totally played out.

Enjoy your pizza. I had a cherry walnut scone for breakfast and a blueberry latte for lunch. For dinner I'm thinking something fruity.

Word (Up)...(terrible remake)

Z

******** Trav Wrote **********

i found the subject line in an old e-mail of mine...pretty good...

"18+ popular inthe local circuit social-scene jam-box, vacant 1,000yard stare, go-to-college-and-put-your-ass-in-debt"crowd.---this was a very good rant...

i laughed out loud at the "jay jay vochich" (jim-jam bonks) characterization...very funny and very essential...he'd have to be the main character...the audience will rise and fall with his (and the jackal's) fortunes...

of course, "jay-jay" would have to remember the time before the "snowpocalypse"...a time before all of the snow and the jousting...but not before love...

all right, stuff to do...

trav

******** I Wrote **********

Trav(ette)

I thought of "Jay Jay" while I was reading, er working, this morning at work. A Knut Hamson story called "the Queen of Sheeba" about a guy who hops on a train to follow a girl he met once four years prior only to spend a week in some far off town pretending to be an antiquitor simply to discover she's married.

...Sitting here wondering if a return of service for a federal subpoena from Deleware should be notarized, living the life!!!...

I keep getting giggling fits whenever I think about "Snowpocalypse". And the obnoxious whine from all the two stroke engines. That will have to pervade every scene, even the flashbacks. Overall, I'm hearing a very simiar audial experience to Nascar Symphony 3000 for this movie... with Shaw and Blades singing beautiful harmonies about running (engins).

...is now the time to give the Atty. G. his dues?...

"but not before love." very nice.

...Tom Morello is using a Whammy there, two octavies up...

Are we going to move that organ tonight instead? I don't really feel like it's anything that should be planned. It'll just have to be a spur of the moment thing for me tomorrow morning in a mad rush to get everything squared away and not be late (all my complaining about certain people who are rediculously late for rehearsal and my own track record make me a very suitable candidate for hypocryte of the year, band related.) Suddenly I'm reminded of all of the organizing and planning I need to get set this evening. Make some (Helen Hunt) Contact with Danny about tomorrow. Orin is set for Sunday. Joey V. is all down for noon. I'm ready for a long day tomorrow. I'm not leaving at six like some people (everything to do with being a pussy...)

Alright, I have to pretend to care about work now.

Bills don't get sent out by themselves (imagine a world where they did... that would be super-fantastic. like Super Chai tea, when regular Chia just ain't enough.)

Z

******** Trav Wrote **********

let me handle contacting "the j"...i'm feeling social and thought about going over there tonight post-vacuuming...if you wanna move the organ, let's do it tomorrow (unless you really want to do it tonight)...i can come over before you head over to the space and help load it if you'd like...but you'll have to call me to let me know...being there 'til after six sounds fine unless danny takes my bass again...otherwise, unless i plunk on the keys, i tend to get bored because there's nothing for me do save bang on the toms...

word...

trav

Much better

2008-03-06T16:04:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a bad day... the earth turned away from the sun, like it always does, and then it turned back.

I woke up feeling hung-ed over as hell. Alcohol... er I mean Moon-ohol is good fer what ailed my poor brain and it's pretty much entirely gone. (Hang over and mental disturbance)

Today, in celebration of my total awesomeness, I went and purchased some new music. (I don't buy food and am filled, simply by listening to music) The soundtrack rack hauled me in on a couple of items. Suggested purchasing "Once" and "There Will Be Blood". I don't really have to explain the beauty of either of these items to anyone who's seen the movies. If you haven't seen either movie, I would recommend that, too. (Is that a dog barking?)

And somewhere, someone is wondering why I'm not working.

Bugger

2008-03-05T13:47:00.003-06:00

Today is not a good day.

That's all.

Where I fall asleep

2008-03-03T15:30:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was another long day at the studio recording vocal tracks. Apparently, Joe decided to head out to the studio last Sunday while I was out of town and work on songs. That was a great decision on his part because it allowed him an opportunity to figure out a way to make himself comfortable working there.

This Sunday was more of the same. Listen to a song, re-record it a couple times or move on. Decisions on final takes will mostly be made next week, but I'm leaving almost all of those decisions up to him. It's his part, he choses what stays and what goes. With that sort of mentality, I also spent a good portion of time sleeping on a couch with Dean-o. It's a good sign that I'm butt tired when I fall asleep during the day. I'm not much of a napper.

I read an interesting article this morning and another interesting article this afternoon about ethics having an evolutionary component. It makes the book I'm supposed to be writing some sort of report about seem a bit narrow. Maye I can work this idea in somehow. (With a shoehorn and some duct tape.)