music machinery, verbal wizardry

Monday, August 14, 2006

Unfortunate Clown



I came across this little troll on my 3 1/2 hour "Tour Through Boston" on Saturday. I had seem him as a I was crossing through the Fanuiel Hall area an hour or so earlier and figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a pic the second time I passed through. Now, I know that it is rude to call a complete stranger a troll, but I've seen this guy before, although not dressed as a clown. If i remember correctly (and I probably can't, since all I remember from the first time was his horrible angry goat-face) the last time I saw this youth, he was being an asshole to his mother on the T. Or maybe his girlfriend. Whatever. All my T observations blend together. Anyway, I want to know how he got a job making balloon animals for tourists. He had his headphones on! And he wasn't even wearing clown shoes or makeup! It was just his scrappy-bearded self stuffed into an awkward clownsuit standing around looking like an asshole.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

3 Years Running

Every year, Doug and I talk about going to Pop Montreal. Every year, our plans fall through. Total bummer! Obviously there's great bands that play there, but mostly it's a great excuse to go to Montreal for a few days. Also, I love any chance I get to frighten Omar with renditions of Tainted Love.

Anyway, I really had high hopes for this year. It was a week later than NEMO, and a few weeks before CMJ and.. and.. well, it's not gonna happen. Why? Because of band I adore called Harvey Danger playing on October 5th, the second night of the festival. If it wasn't their first tour in 2398908 years and if I wasn't presenting it and if it wasn't Tim's birthday we ruined, I might consider bailing for the North... but I can't. One day I'll make it up there dammit. It will be glorious.

Jeff is leaving for Chico next week after finishing up his summer internship, and I am very succeptible to guilt tripping, so it looks like I will be attending this tonight:


I like trying out new nights and I've been meaning to give Middlesex another try, but something about the neon and the bling makes me worried. Or does it make me excited? I'm not really sure. Hopefully this will be as ridiculous as it looks.

Last night I started to piece together a database for You Like It.. which means me sorta experimenting with Filemaker. So far so good! I can now store someone's address, phone number and email address! ......


Last night I set my alarm with the full intention of going to the gym (as always) but when my alarm went off, I was having a lovely dream of waiting for a table at a mexican restaurant and rolling down a hill into a shallow pond, so in my half-sleep, I reset my alarm.. too bad I neglected to turn the thing back on, cause I woke up about 10 mins before needing to leave for work. Heeyy greasy.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Intimidation, intimidation

For months (years??) now I've been swirling like 50,000 ideas around in my head but have yet to get to a place where I can put them into action and I'm starting to get a wee bit frustrated with myself. What is the point of a good idea if it can't be properly executed? I spend a lot of time watching Project Runway, you'd think that I would understand the importance of that. If I was on the show, Heidi would have Auf'd me a long time ago.

Example #1:
Turn August 19th into a sweaty dance party called Wet Hot American Summer with So Many Dynamos and Porches on the Autobahn and DJs Finger on the Pulse. Free popsicles, fun hula hooping. Play movie all night. Have sponsors giving out free stuff. Have ridiculous fun. Change it up.

Problems: FOTP can't DJ. I have no DJ still. Which leads to.... no fliers. Also no sponsors yet. Can't get Porsches dude to respond (especially since I was slow to respond). No photoshop on my computer= relying on someone else to make a flier... Can't rush someone I've only given like 2 days notice to. Ugh.

Example #2
You Like It. Right now you can look at THIS.. It's not the real thing, not even close. This has been the #1 idea for some time now. It's been discussed with many, applauded by most, and then shoved quietly onto the back burner while I deal with other things like: work, work, The Plan, work work, Team Courage, sleep etc. But I'm sick of ignoring it. On one hand I like the idea of letting an idea develop in my head a bit, but this has been far too long. Almost a year I believe. So I will begin putting together a database.. begin creating the structure of how it will work and when. I will figure out how I will pay for it too. Any once it takes off, I will count my riches and my blessings and move into a loft apartment with a water view. Or something like that.

Example #3
Team Courage has been executed but in soft form. Three shows so far, each moderately successful (well, sorta.) But with nothing coming up until October, it's time to expand and think of new places/things/etc. to add into it.


I guess the main obstacles are time management, money management and focus. So yeah, as soon as I fix those things, we're good to go!

Friday, August 04, 2006

M.I.A

I thought perhaps, since it's been a while, I'd venture into the blogging world again. So now I blog about blogging and reading this blog that linked me to this other blog.

Last night, after Nate and I fed ourselves wine and beer and watched Arrested Development, we headed down to Great Scott for a little Mattress Disco. Right before leaving the apartment I was dancing alone in my room to CSS, so it was pretty obvious that these ol' feet were itching for some movement. So we went, and we danced and saw some old friends and saw some new friends and it was a good time. Carl and I even figured out the secret to getting people to dance. Doesn't mean we'll put it into action, but at least we know what we "should" do if we ever desire anyone besides late-arriving drunk assholes to start grinding.



Anyway, here's what else I've been up to....


This was the pool party at McCarren's Pool. It was hot and fun and I got to see Nika and Loryn. Greg even made me smell his beard. Lovely lovely day.


One night we went to Love Night and danced a lot and Jeff drank too much and threw up in the bathroom. If there's one thing people love to do in Boston, it's vomiting!


I spent 4th of July with my family in Kent. There was a lot of food and drinks to be had and a lot of stories to tell of "my life in Boston." These were the fireworks over Lake Meridian.


Even though this is blurry, I like this picture. I practically grew up on this lake... or as close you can get to "growing up" in a place that's an hour and a half from your actual home. Anyway, this is where I learned to water ski and also discovered how great a Fun Island is. I still miss my grandma's old house.


I got to go to Suicide Squeeze's 10th anniversary party on their last night, which meant I got to hang out with Lindsey from Merge. This was our second time hanging out since we decided we should be friends at Macrock. Lindsey makes the face I'm making when she gets drunk. I'm pretty spot on here.


SEE WHAT I AM SAYING?!?!? Also, meet Hannah from Spectre.


This is Bekah from Suicide Squeeze with the Russian Circles dudes. Pretty great photo I think.


It was Canada day too. The guy in the middle is Justin from CFUV. We put eachother to sleep on the phone but in real life we share a love for Ketchup chips.


I've been friends with Maria since 5th grade. We had to take this picture 10 times to make sure both our eyes were open etc.


I met Zach, Sean and Wade for the first time. They are Mel's dude friends. Sean is Mel's #1 dude friend if you know what I mean. This picture is pretty epic. Just like them.


Mel and I got to rekindle our love when I was home. It's pretty great to rediscover how great someone is after 5 or so years of knowing them


Sun-burned and properly martini'd at Chapel.



And that, my friends, is my life in pictures.

This post wouldn't be complete unless I mention how great the new Dears record is. Eli knows this. He also knows that I haven't stopped listening to it since I got it a couple weeks back.

YOU AND ME ARE ON THE OUTSIDE OF ALMOST EVERYTHING.