Monday, February 28, 2005
I'm home!
okay, since we last spoke I atteneded Wilco shows in DC, Cleveland and Kalamazoo, stood out in sunshine, rain and restaurant, ate Jamaican food, the Big Boy Breakfast Bar, House of Blues, traveled by plane, train and car, earned a free Southwest Airline Ticket and THEN came home and saw Andrew Bird! some vacation!
oh but it was fun... I think my favorite show was Cleveland. I'll post in more detail soon, and pics! woot!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
WTF?
Why is my typing so off on this keyboard that everytime i typed "pictures" i typed "pictured"? sooo interesting i'm not gonna go back and edit it.
crisis averted!
We went to the skyline caverns today, and as I took pictured with my previously owned Canon digital camera, it finally ceased to take pictured and the screen read "E18". rather than panic, i went to the internet and found that this was a commonly occuring error when something gets in the zoom lens and prevents it from opening. The fun thing was reading people ranting about how its a big flaw in canon cameras, blah blah... look something gets in it and it won't open, how hard is that to understand? it's a machine, it's not infalible! the common solution seemed to be sending it for repairs for $155 OR buy a new camera. I'm not into disposable technology, so I found
this website which has a step by step guide on taking apart the camera to fix it! I'd like to say I was succesful, but LO! It was my bro-in-law Chip who succesfully followed the six pages of instructions for like 3 hours, and FIXED THE DAMN THING! he fixed it so well I now have an extra screw!! he even found the piece of cavern dust or whatever it was the caused the problem. Some 100,000 year old piece of something that was pretty tiny disabled the damn thing. anyhoot, i got a few good pictured before that all happened, which i will share when I get home. Later, Mary, Collin, Owen and I went and had CHIK-FIL-A!!!! OMG!!! YUMYUMYUM. okay, onto DC tomorrow!
Monday, February 21, 2005
mountains!
i'm in the mountains of VA before the wilco-thon. Today i went to a 2 year old's birthday party! there was cake! ice cream! my new nephew colin is quite the cutey but he doesn't do much but sleep and eat. oh he got a bath today. what a life!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Woot I'm off!
...so posting will be sporadic, but perhaps I'll see you in Kalamazoo, DC, or Cleveland! alright! gotta fly in a few hours. I'm such a damn insomniac. PS the new M. Ward album is really really good. Oh I and I finally broke down and got the Arcade Fire album since it came out on vinyl. It does grow on you.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Those Wonderful Marvelous Plants!
Went and saw an AweXome school play tonite involving plants that take over a school and tell you all about why plants are so great. And they are! I'm not gonna argue!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Not Much Going On
Though I am leaving on vacation type thing Saturday to spend a few days with Mary and Chip and the new baby and the old Owen in that mountainous region of VA with feral cats. Then it is off to DC for a couple Wilco shows, then Cleveland for a Wilco show, then Kalamazoo for a Wilco show, then Chicago for Andrew Bird (swooooon) with Ani DiFranco.
shit, I'm tired just thinking about it!
Sunday, February 13, 2005
look who's on the cover of Guitar Player magazine!
OMG, it's Nels Cline! AND HIS FREAKIN' GUITAR!!
oh i forgot to mention!
Andrew Bird was on Leno with Ani DiFranco Friday. It was cool because when she wasn't singing they totally were ALL OVER him playing the violin! I welled up with much civic pride. and speaking of welling up with civic pride:
WILCO WON THE GRAMMYS!!!!!
best packaging, which i was sure they wouldn't win, and Best Alternative album...beating Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse! Though it really really sucks that they don't show that award, or most awards. boooooooooo!
whoa
I totally forgot how great the original Degrassi is! All these characters are totally coming back to me.
Worked today, then went to the Rainbo, and kinda got tipsy with Alison, Kris, and Kristina. then we ate some chicken and watched Svenghoulie and Graham and Kate came over and we kept drinking! wooooooot!
I am now home watching the Degrassi DVDs in bed with Amelia. woof.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Road Trip!
Just got back from a mini Wilco Road Trip. Sooz, Paul and I went to Champaign (and met up with Mark) and saw the show there, then Paul and I drove to Indianapolis and stayed at a lovely Motel 6 then went to Columbus the next day, arriving just in time for the Autumn Defense at an instore.... then across the street to the very modern theatre. the shows were good, even if they were damn seated shows. Paul and I had fun on the road, we keep the same hours and like the same crappy food, so it was perfect! even the snow wasn't so bad.
Monday, February 07, 2005
cali the lamp
Poor Cali won't stop beating up on the other kitties, so she got this bad wound that she won't stop messing with. So now she has to wear this:
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Come back for the Double Dose!
sickly. ew. sore throat. I really don't understand the double dose.
Friday, February 04, 2005
oh woe is me
i am feeling like crud. wasn't i just sick? i am achey and coughy and sniffly. thank the gods walgreens is having an AWEXOME buy one get one free sale on their generic stuff. I got 2 boxes of rest easy nite time liquigels, 2 boxes of sunshiney day liquigels, and a giant bargain on Walitin... they had a sign on the 30 pack that said "buy one at $3.49 get one free..." it should have said $13.49 but it did not. so I got 60 walitins for $3.49, normally $27. HA! I hate having to buy this crap, I have a problem (allergies), I didn't ASK for this problem, or do anything risky to get allergies, yet I have to take a pill everyday for it if I don't want to be sniffly and mildly unhappy, and they are fucking EXPENSIVE. they should give the stuff away! bastards!!! okay, i should chill and try and sleep. my throat is soooooooooooo dry. whine whine whine!
Thursday, February 03, 2005
The First Listen
The internet has totally killed the excitement of going to a midnite sale at a record store, devouring the packaging on the way home and then drifting in and out on you first listen. Okay, so not all my significant first listens occured after a midnite sale... This is really only applicable for a band you absolutely love and are totally anticipating the follow up to the last album you loved so much. Significant ones for me are R.E.M.'s automatic for the peple, which i got after taking the Pre-SAT in Indonesia. I collapsed on my bed and listened in shitty plug into the discman speakers, but it didn't matter. The next time was R.E.M. Monster. I walked up to the neighborhood Turtles Records and bought it, and even had enough for a Subway Meatball Sub meal leftover. I wasn't that excited by the album, but the sub was tasty. Then R.E.M.'s New Adventures in High-fi. My mom indulged me at a midnite sale in Orlando (we had to drive back to Jax right after). We got free pizza and stuff, and I fell asleep listening to it on headphone, and not liking at all. I guess the next significant one would be Wilco's A Ghost is Born. I got to hear that one a few months early with Jeff Tweedy and a small circle of friends. Those little wraps with the proscuitto were delicious, and it was a ton of fun to dance around to Theologians on second listen in the space it might have came into being in the first place.
Anyhoot what I am getting at is that this year alone THREE artists I adore with most of my being are putting out albums within rapid succession of each other. The first I got my hands on was the Decemberists' Picaresque. I have it only in an evil digital format, with no tangible proof of its existance yet, it's only zeros and ones and words on a screen and the sound those things make. you can't read the lyrics, see who played every detail of a song, who produced it, etc. The music is as good as I could have hoped for, but hasn't completely grabbed me like Her Majesty yet. I think there's too many stories happening on it, or something. So next I got my hands on a tangible copy of Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs. This one promptly wrapped its fuzzy self around my heart and kept me warm... and fantabulous packaging by Jay Ryan to boot! Tonite I was presented with the new Magnoila Electric Company joint What Comes After the Blues. (formerly know as Songs: Ohia always known as Jason Molina)... I spazzed. the S:O-MEC album is one of my favorites of all time. What was this one going to do? I had a tough time deciding between earphones or speakers (earphones won) and pushed the lil' button on my iPod. Not quite the same as pouring over the booklet with a CD, or better yet the 12x12 innersleeve of an LP, but it would have to do. okay one word:dang! Jennie is all OVER this kinda reminding me a little of Emmylou Harris with more asskick in her voice. I am a sucker for harmonies, and Jason and Jennie together is the shit. So you're kinda expecting this album to be all rockin' thunderclap loud like the last one and it sorta starts that way then makes a turn at Bob Seger (no I'm not kidding) and then ends up in saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad tug at yr heartstrings then just fucking yank them up but still kinda worry about the mess it's going to leave. Yes, it's THAT good.
However, I am feeling some remorse at not waiting until I have the LP in my hands. I just don't think there was anyway to resist not listening to this for two more months or however long. I'm going to buy it, probably in multiple formats (it's MADE for 8-track), as I do with anything I sneak a peek at. I rap this up with a little curse at the WWW for taking a little bit of the fun out of being a big fan. boo.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
so yeah Jeff Tweedy played in our basement?
oh did i mention that? It was a lovely nite that segued into Kristina's freakin' bday! there was good food and good people... and the music. duh! it's kinda hard to put into words, but maybe that's the red wine. I turned into conor oberst for a few hours! so anyhoot, I'll try and elaborate more soon.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
This stuff all confuses me.
