Strait up Sewercyde

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

It would make for a more interesting election.

This thing called "blog"

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

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

Superior rhymes there is not.

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

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

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

Where the i Divides Wear

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

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

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

I've picked up some new music recently.

Blue by Lucinda Williams.

Tears Are in Your Eyes by Yo La Tengo

Strings of Nashville by Pavement

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

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

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

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

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

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

Edgar Winter

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

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

Atruckalypse

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

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

...and "Rocks are boring".

So it's someone elses fault

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

two long weeks

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

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

Word. Word is on the street.

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

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

Dear Photo Diary

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

"Squalor Alley"

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

"The Magic Room"

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

"Mixing with Headphones!?"

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

"Future Ethanol"

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

"4:30 A.M."

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

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

I'm not a salesman

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

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

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

 and sit and import a spindle

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

nt

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

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

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

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

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

And AG what are you Muwaaah-ing about?

With high regard form heavy metal country

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Title this "Whatever"

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

Starting around 1996.

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

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

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

I suggest you seek out Junior Citizen.  

connections

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

Whatever.

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

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

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

Chitty Chitty

In case you didn't know...

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

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

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

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

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

Many Thanks

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

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

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

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

What hasn't happened?

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.