Where the pi divides

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

*************************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)...

t

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

Eco-newz

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

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"?

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

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

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

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

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'

"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...

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

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")

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....

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.

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)

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

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

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)

*****************************
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.

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)

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.

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

Today is not a good day.

That's all.

Where I fall asleep

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.)

Where have I been?

Well.

I know everyone is wondering... What's up with Zach?

This past weekend, I went up to Cable, WI for a weekend getaway (car) and relaxed with friends from Albuquerque and Oconomowoc (and my sister.) By relaxing I of course mean skiing 23K. That's right. It was my first time skiing the Kortelopet with the crew. Bugger of a trek that near blew out a tendon in my right foot. Stupid crab walking up steep hills will do it every time if you aren't properly trained. I didn't perform terribly but I know I can do better. It took me 2 hours 39 minutes to finish the race. I came in somewhere in the middle of the pack in every division except for my age range where I was 9 out of 11. Oh well... that's what I get for not quitting smoking like I had planned. But I've been clean since last Friday. We'll see how that goes through this week and then the next month. Yeah?

In other news, the band is still crapping along. Other members seem to be on task as far as their assigned duties. Joey V. is actually writing lyrics for new songs. Trav has started acting as the booking agent for the band. Danny is still doing whatever the hell he does. And me? I've got two songs that need some work, one song that has some arranging issues that I would say is halfway done and two new ideas that I'm going to start working on. New demos for seven songs will be ready tonight and so forth. The gloom that's been surrounding this labor of love for the past few months seems to be lifting.

As for recording, we still have vocals to track. Lots of vocals to track. Everything else is in the can. That should (hopefully) be wrapped up this weekend... which is unfortunate in one respect, since I got my new 1971 MXR Distortion + in the mail this weekend. I hooked it up this morning before I went to work and cranked out a few tunes, tweaking the sound and deciding that it was a very worthwhile purchase. There's something about vintage guitar effects that modern digital stomp boxes just can't match. A sincere thank you goes out to Adam Selzer of Norfolk & Western for pointing me to this pedal.

One of these days (by the end of march???), I'm going to take the time to build a traveling case for my Fender Twin with room for a pedal board and a cable stash. One easy package ready for some jerk-hole to rip off in an alley behind a bar in some jerkwater town in the Midwest. That lucky person could be you... let's all hope so. I know I've got an itch to enact some vigilante justice, Broadway style.

And the Oscars... blah blah blah... didn't watch 'em. I did catch the performance of the song that won best song by those European people. That made me pretty content that they won. It's a beautiful song.

And there was something else that I caught on the radio today. Visa has its IPO coming up in the near future. What the hell does this mean for the average American in these trying financial times??? only the future will tell, and in it's own time. But won't it be fun to speculate?

Emerald Creatures

I'm being lazy again. Here's another email from Trav.

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

i did a bit 'o' research today, and on the completely inconsequential tip, grimace's emerald uncle, uncle o'grimacey, did indeed exist sometime around the late 60's, early 70's...if you type his name into google there is a link that references him by name and has a downloadable (which i can't do here) version of one of o'grimacey's finest moments...i'm assuming "the moment" involves shamrock shakes in one way or another...

joe should change the lyrics of that song to be about o'grimacey's "moment" w/ the shamrock shakes...(slurping through a red straw, at what i left behind, in the bottom of my shake cup, we're talkin' mint, not lime)...ok, its not that good...that's why i don't write lyrics...

then we should change the song's title..."the failsafe momentary lament of al o'grimacey" anyone?

word...i'll be around...
trav

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

So I did my own research... and found this site (which is what I think Travis is refering to.)

Enjoy.

Vandalism at its finest

I rarely post about certain specific topics. Today is hardly an exception.

I've got an interest, a prospect, things that I've got in the works.

In time, I'll be able to say whether or not those things fall into place or onto place... what have you.

Work is not kicking my ass as much, but I'm still busy as hell. I've finally gotten into the new database. It's a good thing I did all of that reading last year. I would be lost as hell without it. It's also a good thing I know how to read.

Where the i Divides rocked another set at the Klinic last Friday. It was lackluster this time around. Joe decided it would be awesome to knock a mic stand into me while I was playing a solo. The solo didn't turn out so well.

With the work not as pressing, I have a few more hours in the evening to work on new song demos to distribute to Trav and Joe. Trav-zilla and I usually write stuff together with him playing root progressions while I crank out some generic delay loops. We slap the song together and then I hide in my lab drafting drum loops and guitar layers. After that, the songs go to Trav for him to come up with his parts without the pressure of me demanding that he have the perfect part RIGHT NOW!!! After he gets his confusion figured out, (I was thinking that Confusion would be a good name for a dog.) we record them on the demos and ship them off to Joe so he can gum up the sound with lyrics. Danny... well, he just plays drums so it's all, "What order do I hit the drums this time... duh... I'm hungry!"

What was I posting about... oh yeah, the universe.

Here's to four more months. This is going to be the best summer ever. (First time spoken this year, January 19th)

PS. BPilgrim. I'll hit your blog if/when we play in your area. (I'm hoping it's sooner than later.)

Two in a row?

I'm just throwing this up like spaghetti on a wall. It made me chuckle. If you knew about the fortune cookie, you would laugh too.

*******************************************************
Travis Wrote:

yeah...i've been constructing a time machine from old fortune cookie missives, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and plumber's putty to transport me back to 2007 to get this done (now, that's "effort")...i think there's an outboard motor somewhere on that thing, but i'm not sure...(cookie says "your time machine is a death trap")

...i'm going to need safety goggles to properly traverse time...although if i put my eye out i suppose i could just travel back in time and prevent the whole "losing an eye" thing as well

...but first i have to fill out that application...busy, busy, etc...anybody need anything from 2007? be quick, decisive, and thorough...i ain't makin' two trips...

but seriously, these people don't seem to have "their stuff" together yet...who's in charge there?...so, i would say that we're "ahead of the curve"...take a moment and drink in that feeling...ok, that's long enough...

later
trav

Weekend up

My last guitar session was yesterday. Trav and I finished up our tracks on USA #1 and Cinnamon Magic. I only have four songs where I need to set up some studio effects on certain tracks but we can do that during the mixing process. Then I'll be done. (yeah right!)

Next on the docket, vocals. Joe says he is ready for them. He's not going through a sordid breakup/divorce this time around so we'll see what happens. It has been almost 12 months to the day since we first began recording this stupid album. I'm feeling certain that he will do better this time.

Danny's buddy is working on cover art. He's an out of work tattoo artist who offered to come up with some different illustrations for the title "Over the Terminal Moraine". I think he has a good sense of what I envision it to be and he'll do a good job on it. It's nice to have other artists who are willing to throw in their two cents on an idea. I could do it myself, but I have felt like I wouldn't ever come up with something that I would be happy with. Best to let someone else do it and keep my hands out of it.

That's about it for studio news.

I'm more wrapped up in writing new songs. I've come up with a really cool idea using a long delay (about 700 milliseconds with a short decay) that has a couple differnt ways it can be applied. This isn't going to be one of those "crank it out and move on to the next idea" songs either. It's going to be a slow, over-analyzed process of trying out different directions for additional sections and then a long and tedious process of arranging those parts into an aggreable addition the the "Doomsday Annie" collection. (Doomsday Annie is the working title for the new batch of songs. Our idea was to create some sort of linking concept for our second album and Trav offered up an idea of a comet smashing into the earth. He penned a list of potential situations that differnt people would be in on their last night alive before the planet was destroyed and I've sort of used those ideas as mental templates for sonic directions. Once Joe gets lyrics written I'm going to make him settle on a track order and then take the time to come up with some musical segues. We talked about doing that with some of the songs on the first album but we were already in the thick of recording and I didn't want to take the time in the studio (on the clock) to craft some half-baked ideas that may or may not have worked out.)

We already have 8 new songs in reserve.
Track list (most titles are working titles only):
1. Cinnamon Magic
2. Pandora's Fuzzbox
3. Yes or No
4. The Lament of Al Davis
5. Cicada City
6. Enough Already
7. Nine
8. Song That Saves the World From Self-destruction

Writing the songs for our second album could potentially be finished in the next few months, allowing that I don't decide some songs suck and shouldn't be used. (Cicada City) I've got other new ideas popping up all the time, I just need to take the time to flesh them out. That's mainly due to my new christmas present of an ipod. It's been three years since my old mp3 player was ripped off. It makes the hours standing in front of a computer and copier fly by these days. Work? No... I was researching new ideas to steal and use on upcomming songs.

But enough about that... other mysteries occupy my mind and I'm keeping those in my head.

34 days (or so) until the Birkie!

And other assorted german phrases...

First offical day back at the routine.

I finally got out to do some cross-country skiing yesterday. I had been waiting for the shop I purchased my new skis from to put on the new bindings. I think they may have called me to let me know that they were ready for pick up but I never got a message... just a hang up from a downtown number. Hmm...

I've been using an old pair of Alpina skis and boots that I'm pretty sure were manufactured to convince people to stay away from cross-country skiiing. The boots were the most uncomfortable footware on the planet.

But all that's changed. I also got a new pair of boots. Boots designed for the backcountry. Long days out treking. Comfort was the word of the day.

The skis are slick. Super fast. They don't grip as well as they should, but I can take care of that with a little base tweaking. On the flats I was having a blast just cruising without even really having to exert any effort. The hills were a little sketchy but managable.

All in all, good first day of the year. After Skiing, I made a huge pot of chili. Kicked back and sat next to the fireplace while zoning out to the dull glow of televison.

I have about six more weeks of "training" before the Birkie. Will I be ready?

(probably not.)

Another post?

I suck at keeping up with this blog.

That said, when I actually have time to sit and post, I generally have nothing to say.

The band is still in the process of retracking the album. On Friday the status was four songs left for the album that needed guitar work, two songs that needed the organ, and two new demos that needed guitars. On Saturday, I learned that we're going to rerecord one of the songs for the third time (the drums are still unsatisfactory.) That took the demos out of the equation since we can rerecord them as well and hopefully get a better couple of tracks out of the next drum session.

With that news, I went out to the studio yesterday to finish off guitar and organ tracks. It went well. Better and faster than I had expected. I had to make up a new part for "Believe" (what a cheesy title) with the organ since I don't play that part live ever. Something or something, I got the chords down and then took a couple stabs at it before I got it close to good. (good enough)

I had been having some thoughts about "The Moment" and the original guitar part that I play live. Changing it up, dropping it off this recorded version entirely. The organ holds down those same chords so it sort of makes that track redundant. The ambient slide space noise additives over the verses got a little more "rowdy" this time around and it bleeds into the guitar solo section. It's slowly becoming the song I envisioned it last February. (I could even go out and record some walking on snow and city noise to throw in there... hmmm. Maybe.) I decided to add a lead part over the second verse and will probably revisit the song on my next trip out there. Some lead-in noise in A minor??? Sure.

"Transfusion" went smoothly except for the solo. I've never had a set idea for that solo. It's just an attempt at making noise that sometimes comes off great and most times leaves me mad at myself for not actually writing one. (Prescribed solos are so boring though!) I have a starting point and an ending, but I never know where to go in the middle. Something with at least three notes to add texture...

This means that now I've got "USA #1" left to track. Yuck! It's one of the first songs I wrote for this band. Lots of delay. Requires some precise timing with the rhythm section that they're not up to speed on yet. Once the drums, bass, and guitars are tracked for that song, it's then only one session to set up automation on the guitars with studio effects and finally time to put the vocals down.

We started this damn project last February. February 2nd.

One year later... still not done, (but it sounds a lot better this time.)

We have seven new songs that are musically complete. Three new ideas that we are assembling and working out still. If we used all of those songs we could record the second album real soon. Put it out the same time we put ot the first one... Sure. (Chinese Democracy anyone?)

But enough about the band... even though that's what I spend most of my time working on.

The "Holiday" season is almost over. Pretty soon, I'll be able to go to work for five days and then work for the band for two. Gym four nights a week. The normal routine. No out of town guests. No days off in the middle of the week. No closing down bars and working in the morning. Just a mindless gear-turning as the saturnic return nears and passes... oh boy.

Fuck Christmas!

I've been playing "Matchmaker" today. I don't know how I feel about that... somewhere between excited and Jealous.

When's hype gunna get the run'in? WHEN?

All in all... Fuck Christmas. Total bullshit waste of time holiday. I'd rather be driving a semi acrost frozen lakes in Ontario than sit around and watch the greatest Christmas Movie EVER!!!

I knew those southerners were totally backwards in re: superstition, but a Christmas Witch? Hell's Yeah... that's the kind of religious defecation I can get a'behind!

(drunkenly) BOO-Yah!

Christmas Cheer

I always think of that TV Funhouse Christmas episode when this stupid holiday rolls around. It's the one where the Anipals perform a spinal tap on Doug the Host to draw out his Christmas Cheer... which they proceed to freebase and the go out caroling in Times Square.

If only Christmas was really like that.

Instead it consists of sitting around at my parents like a miserable convict stuck in a cell. (MC Chris is a bird, Debbie. You can't cage a bird.)

Back when life was simple

In an attempt to distract myself from the wonderful day of sitting and staring this one has seemed to want to become, I started checking out the old Onion archives.

Man did that take me back. Sitting in the video room with The Song Remains the Same taped off of VH1 playing on the small television during study hall reading the week's news.

Shit. Back then, they had two offices. One in Madison and one in Boulder.... Good times.

"Some nights I'm so touched by the KidCares feature that I break down and cry in my TV dinner. I just can't get enough of those anchors!"

"Some days der ragged, emaciated bodies of ze junkies are staked up in ze back like corpses," says von Kreutzen. "But even zat has its roots in German culture!"

"When I come to schools to talk to kids about the importance of dragon safety, one of the first things I tell them is, always be sure to turn around completely if you think a dragon is stalking you,"

"Despite fully expecting to defeat the rich kids and learn something about themselves in the process, the only thing the Camp Winnepesaukee underdogs learned was that they were too poor and outmanned ever to stand a chance."

"let's say that those men were willing to risk arrest and a $110 fine for public drinking. They certainly would have taken the extra 10 seconds to make it a little less obvious by simply pouring the alcohol into a soda can or paper cup or something."

Re: who brought the "sorry" to the party?

Just a quick note here: this was a series of email exchanges between Travis and myself sparked off by Misty's email. We were generous enough to "CC" all of the other recipients in on our exchange.

misty wrote:

Hey Guys

Just wanted to send the reminder for tomorrow night. You can come anytime after 8pm. (Zach will this give you enough time for your work thing?)

Let me know if you need directions to my place.

Hope to see you all there!

Misty


Travis Wrote back:

word. should i bring anything? you know, like, food-wise?

napkins?

people always need napkins. (and the person who brings them is usually "the hit" of the party). i mean, i likely would be anyway...

will there be intoxicants? not that i need them to have to good time or anything...because i don't...i just need them to have a good time around other people...

thanks for the invite and the hospitality...

travis

Then I wrote:

Der...

should I bring the napkins?

Der...

Travis' reply to me:

your royal hypeness...

are you mocking me and my light-hearted (yet heartfelt) attempt at a little holiday humor while still trying to be helpful?

i call that "multi-tasking"...you should look into it...i already have a little "multi-tasking" you can try at home or even right now...its called "perch and rotate", homes...

let me know if it doesn't take...

and no, you can't (because you're insecure)...i'm already bringing the napkins (and the funk)...

My response to Travis:

Mr. Xxxxxxx,

That's all good and well. The perch and rotate did in fact take quite fittingly... thanks for you helpful (and heartfelt) suggestion.

Now as for what I am to bring then to this gathering, I'm thinking that I'll be bringing along "the class". I wouldn't expect someone such as yourself to even know where to begin to find something so foreign in the wastelands you called home (Mxxxxx County). (And no, working as a taxi service for the Amish does not count.)

But all politeness aside, I strongly suggest that you multi-task your ass back to charm school for a few more weeks so as to learn proper etiquette for attending a dear friend's festive holiday gathering without offending, insulting, and generally reeking of fetid onions and body odor.

See you then.

Zach "Hype"

Travis' latest response:

my dearest mr. "hype" Xxxxxxx

my polite indignation knows no bounds...

thanks, a suggestion is nothing if it doesn't have "heart"...

glad to know you'll be bringing the "class" (all of it 3rd? coach? what are you gonna do? sing "puttin' on the ritz"?). one less thing for me to carry...i'll be bringing the "substance" (and extra napkins) and setting the room on fire with my enthralling (if personally distant) conversational abilities...i may also try to bring some "charm"...that's a huge maybe though...

on the charm subject...i have attended "charm school" via correspondence...i have a certificate coming in the mail...and if i can't attend a holiday gathering with insulting and offending others (see my "awesome" fondue puns on misty's b-day) then what is really the point of getting together at all?

oh yeah...the food...and napkins... and texas.

warmest regards and best wishes travis xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

Then Travis wrote this: (for all the other people who have a bunch of emails in their inbox from Travis and me)

yeah...sorry about that...as you (misty) may very well know, sometimes
the correspondence betwix zach and "yours truly" can take on a life of
its own...i'm sorry you all had to be a part of that ugliness.  don't
fret none, fellow partaygoers, zach and i will "make nice" at the party
like nothing ever happened...(but deep down, we'll all know...)

travis "the secret ingredient" xxxxxxx

Vandals in the parking lot

"Hey bros it's been a while since I rapped at ya..." I've got my excuses. Mostly bad ones. But an excuse is just a reason you haven't accepted yet.

Or how about this one? "It's not that the good times end, they just turn into other good times." I think I screwed that one up. What's the one about rats? Oh yeah... "Rat Stevens" That's almost as bad as Ferrett Bueler or Paws Skaggs.

So what's the point of all of this? Nothing. (you know what I like about you? Nothing!)

I've been busy recording demos for the band. We have seven new songs that are complete without lyrics. Danny and Travis want recorded copies of these songs to rehearse with (this means electro drums for Travis and Bass Lines for Danny) and Joe doesn't really seem to give a damn about finishing these songs. I've been fuming about that most of the morning. Now I'm fuming about it here. Consider yerself shat upon. Then there's the two other ideas Travis has and a smattering of ideas I come up with and then forget. All that and nothing to show for it.

But I went to a 'battle" of the bands that didn't really incorporate much battl'n on Sunday night and felt that had "the i" been a part of it, we would have taken second. (behind Know Boundaries who were the clear winners by a long shot.) But it's in the past and I'm in the now. (And the local music scene here is an insular joke anyway.)

Since last week, I've been reading a book by Brad Hooker called Ideal Code, Real World. It deals with rule-consequentialism moral theory. I'm reading it to write a short paper to get an even shorter paper and I'm not going to try to explain it at this point because I don't feel like I've got a good grasp on the topic yet. Which leads into the fact that I've discovered something interesting about myself. Now that I'm not in college, I really want this paper to mean something, and not just to the audience (professor) but to myself. Several years ago, I would have read the book, cranked out a ten pager and handed it in without even bothering to proofread. There were quite a few times when I re-read a paper after I got it back that made me say, "I wrote this? This is way to intelligent to be my paper."

But this time, I want to actually know what the argument I'm positing is after the paper is shipped off to it's recipient. I would like to be able to explain to someone who doesn't give a damn about this kind of shit (moral theory/metaethics) on an academic level what it is the author proposed and what I agree and disagree with. It just takes a lot more effort to focus.

But what else am I going to do? Write lyrics for Joe? No, that's his job. (how much more of this slacking do I tolerate from him before I decide to fire his ass? Today wouldn't be a good day to ask that question.)

Don't want to believe it

Two night this week I've spent working on a song. A christmas song. A terrible christmas song... and the initial tracks are all in the can. Travis and I got together on Monday night and wrote out the chord structures for the verse and bridge and penned the basic lyric outline. Last night we got together and recorded acoustic guitars, drums, electric guitars, bass and some sleigh bells along with two sketchy vocal tracks. Yours truly singing lead and Count Trav-u-la adding the backing vocals on the chorus. I'm still working out the mix. I think it could use a jangly piano to go with it, but that's probably not going to happen unless I feel really ambitious. (Probably not going to happen.)

Again, let me remind you, IT'S TERRIBLE!!! so before you go clamoring for a copy of it, think real hard...

And now I'm going to get all detailed on ya'll. The acoustic guitars got scrapped on account of the insane action of my guitar. Every time I played through the song, I kept screwing up a chord change here or there. Nothing major, but it still didn't flow as nicely as it should have. After that, I sat down on my drum kit and played a boring beat that didn't really have much purpose behind it. It's been quite some years since I've seriously played drums. It's probably been a couple months since I even sat down and hit the skins for more than a few minutes. My chops are shot and my timing is rusty. The ideas are there but the execution is sub-par so we scrapped that idea too.

After that, I decided that I wanted to use my electric. I just plugged straight through my processor with a modeled fender preamp tone. It's not the real thing but it has a nice simulated quality to it. Travis dropped his bass track after than and then it was sleigh bell time.

The vocals are kinda all over the place. I didn't really establish a melody and winged it while reading the lyrics. One pass at the song with several breaks to get my entry note right. The chorus ends up in a different key than the verse (or at least the way I hear it) so I was singing the wrong note when I came back from the chorus. Travis put down the backing vocals with a nice Dylan-esque stamp. One take.

But enough about my boring night last night.

Tonight is "the big game". I'm going to be glad when it's over. I'm sick of hearing "two ten and one teams", blah, blah blah... There's been a big to do about Charter not carrying "the enn" in the area. There's been all kinds of ads on radio, television, and in print about how this company sucks or that company sucks but in the end, I think it boils down to one thing.


$$$


and when it's all about money, in the back of my mind I can't help but think that there's something else I should be doing. Something more constructive. Something that doesn't require me to listen to Madden and Michaels (or even worse Gumpbell and Collinsworth) yammer on about how much they want to get in bed with Brady and Moss or Romo and Owens.

I'll still be watching the game. I made plans to go to a local public house and get an average bowl of chili and a beer and sit with a bunch of people who are going to get "real depressed" after the game is over (outcome dependent) (unlike me who will at some point get depressed during the game about the fact that I'm sitting there watching it. Emphasis on watching.)

but first things first. Of to the gym to get rid of some stress.

Re: a better pen pal...

This is a somewhat mundane exchange but there's some "gem lines" in here. We are discussing plans to get together for a writing session for the band as well as plans for Thanksgiving at the Ranch (and I am also talking about video games.)

----- I Wrote -----

Travis,
I think I was better off not going to see (Scott) Beo-WHA?.. but I saw it anyway. It's alright but not great. I have decided I want to have relations with a tomb-raider-lips demon and then have my spawn terrorize my village/kingdom. (What kind of wicked spawn would my seed produce? That is Question I should not have posited.)

(Quotational overuse alert!)

Tonight, I have erronously made plans to "hang out" with some friends from "High" School. We are "Going" to get "dinner" and then make "mashed potatos & confetti salsa" (not what you hope it is... neither confetti served as "salsa" or salsa used as "confetti")

...so I'm going to head to the gym right-short after work, speed home and obtain my bestickered guitar, return to the ithsmuths for dinner and then perchance meet you at the rehearsal space around eight? I forgot about our deal for this evening as I was hurrying to get to the theater last night after a "Killer" back workout all-the-while conversing with my friend about her visit to "Mad-City" for the holy-day. I think it was the endorphines... I was a little loopy last night... forgot.

You dig?

Z

--- Travis wrote: -----
> zach...
>
>i still have those mother gem jams running thru my
> head...bbb...bbb..bbb...beats!
>
> i'm thinking of e-mailing her, but i have no clue as
> to what i would say...
>
> i don't want to make you rush your plans this
> eve...if you would rather put jamming off or whatnot
> its fine by me...not saying that i wouldn't want to
> work on things; but its really up to you...i don't
> want to be out/up too late in any regard as i/we
> need a fast start tomorrow...(never too late to get
> one).
>
> speaking of which, we should most likely start
> cementing those plans now...takes about two hours to
> get up there...i'd like to be there all day to hang
> with family, sorry if that would bore you...we'll
> have football to entertain us...which starts at
> 11:30, so maybe meet at my place and leave around 9
> or so? ideas? we could meet earlier and have
> breakfast, since the meal will be later in the
> day...i can feel the cement starting to dry...
>
> have to go back to coding, chat more later
> trs13

---- I responded ----

HC-13

If it's up to me, I would rather stay up a little late (as I will be doing so anyway... those MVP awards don't get handed out like divorce certificates or hydrocodone 'scripts...) but if you want to bag it early than that's okay too. (Not really.)

Here's the scoop though. My friend is leaving Joliet and heading this way probably right now. Baring traffic and weather, she should arrive around 6:30 or so. But I think she's not counting on the traffic being as bad as I think it's going to be.

Maybe we can get together early? Say six? Call it after a few hours. I don't know. Oh wait, what did my horrorscope say? Be firm and direct with what you want today/keep a low profile.

I am not opposed to breakfast in the a.m. tomorrow. (I'm never opposed to breakfast, you know that. "It's like we're married. 'What are you doing? You don't like shrimp!'" Especially bacon. Bacon pureed with coffee and ice cream what a delicious breakfast shake that would be. Funnel Cakes? Tomb raider lips intact? Check.)

I'll meet you at the 114 at 6.30. Does that work? It better. I'll head over to the other thing at about eight. From there, I'll hang out till ten, head home and finish off the regular 2007 season. (Since when did Junior Seau play for the 'Skins? Douchebag=Junior Seau!) (11-3, 4500+ yards passing, 1500+ yards rushing. MONSTER OFFENSE!!! My rush defense has held opponents to 600 yards but my pass defense sucks. The fact that I outscore everyone makes that a moot point. But on the flip side, I've got something like 40 interceptions from my corners and safeties. Crazy mad stat party. I really should up the difficulty settings but then it would be a challenge and I'm not really in this for the challenge (if I was, I would be playing NHL '04), I get enough of that in my daily routine (yeah right). It's all about stomping the shit out of someone on the field with ease, to relax.)

But back to breakfast, are there going to be any places open for breakfast? Think about it...

Six thirty? You on? You in? You out? (Turn on, Tune in, Hulk out.) Vintage.

Z-Hype

I keep thinking this is about that Ben Folds song...

...even though it's not. I wouldn't mind living on Not the Same Street.

If feeling under the weather is the mode of the week, then I'm best served with ice cream.

Don't have a whole lot of time or much to say recently. Actually, I have a lot to say but I'm venting/airing those things (mostly band related) via emails that I've not looted for a post... maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

The Holiday is going to be spent in Sparta on 'the Ranch' with Travis and his family. My family is hanging out with another family with which I don't really relish spending time. They're nice enough people and all but I think I'm just a hair off the mark when it comes to midwest middle class acceptable norms.

But I did read this today. Nice contrast. Maybe I should be on prozac. (Would it hurt?)

Montana Pictures

I think the way I'm going to do this is post a few pictures now and then of my trip to Montana. I don't have a whole lot to say right now. The band is gearing up, getting busy for some upcoming shows and tracking guitars and holidays and so on... These are some scenic pics.

A view on Cokedale Road

Paradise Valley, Looking up Mill Creek Canyon from East River Road

The ever so "scenic" Laurel, MT. This is what I think of when I think of Laurel. Coal Refinery plants.

Looking north from up on the Wineglass. Off in the distance you can see a hazy mound of the Crazy Mountains.

A shot of Baldy (Livingston Peak) from Cokedale Road. I used my panoramic feature to string two photos together.

Cough

I can't rally the mustard to get this thing going today. I feel like a cat that's ready for some poor fool to try and pet me. Let's see how sharp these claws really are.

But enough about me.

Go see this movie. Or don't. I can't really say I would suggest either film.

Shit...

I'm just going to stop this now, smoke a damn cigarette and head to the gym.