What hasn't happened?

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

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...

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...

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

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.

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....

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

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?

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?

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

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?

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"

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.

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

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

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