ohio, mixing, and a new instrument

so.  i once again have gone multiple weeks without a blog entry, and now have to play catsup.

i finished my work at Eventric and moved back to Ohio the same day.  it was a good time, mutually beneficial and educational like last time.

the drive back to ohio was my easiest yet.  probably should've burned some more cds, but i ended up listening to my old standbys, The Replacements' "Let It Be" and "Tim," and The Clash's "London Calling."  Joey made fun of me once, because by the time i finish up with 6.5 hours of those albums, my voice is hoarse from all the singing.

left my bed in chicago, took the record stand.  my life's story.

saw Tommy Johnagin on dec 9.  he put on a good show, his opener did too.  i think her last name was Ashley.  she had a first name for her last name, i know that for sure.  after the show, i took big bro and his wife to see a Bonnie Prince Billy secret show, and proceeded to my roommates' end of the quarter festivities.

day after that, Joey, Zack and I started mixing the first two songs from The King's Jetfighters.  i made a pretty odd mistake with that.  i didn't eat for nearly 24 hours.  i'm one of those people who loses track of all basic needs when i get really involved in a project.  so, when i started mixing at 11 am, i wasn't terribly hungry.  when i finished mixing at 6 pm, i was on the verge of fainting.  healthy, right?  but then we got chipotle and went to a show at the Monster House.  Spooktober, Seascapes, and a couple others. i liked Seascapes best, i'll be keeping an eye out for them.  also saw a group who seemed to be composed entirely of transsexuals, singing songs mostly about the plight of transsexuals.  they were pretty solid too, their bassist was from Spooktober and did some ridiculous bass lines.

since then, i've met with my research advisor, done some data analysis, went to my mother's preschool class' christmas program, watched a ton of the simpsons (half of season 4, all of season 5), chopped wood, shoveled 3 driveways, and slept an average of 10 hours a day.  this large amount of sleep has actually led me to start dreaming again.  i haven't dreamed much for the last couple of years, probably due to the lack of sleep and excess of stress, but these past two weeks of relaxation have led to nightly dreams, ranging from meeting Eminem at a race track to being a sailor in the 17th century.

Zack recorded his vocals for The King's Jetfighters in his dorm room, and i mixed both of the songs fully.  learned a lot about mixing and mastering this week.  we'll almost certainly be rerecording his vocals, but it was good practice.  it's sounding great though (from a completely unbiased perspective, as the band's producer and Alien Orders bandmate), and i'm very optimistic about recording an Alien Orders EP on our own.

i'm now living at my parents' house.  i thought that when i left last summer, i'd never be back, but i haven't been able to make contact with my subletter to talk to him about when he's moving out of my room.  so, without a place to stay, i've been living with my parents.  livin the dream... on the plus side, i've had a place where i can practice trumpet and guitar loudly without neighbors hearing.  i'm starting to pick up trumpet, slowly but surely.  wrote my first song with trumpet in it yesterday.

by now, i'm tired of writing and you're tired of reading/skimming disinterestedly.  so i'll end with a video:

this video is from The Replacements' appearance on SNL.  they were banned from the show after getting massively drunk, switching clothes between bandmates between their performances, yelling "fuck" on national television, and joining forces with Harry Dean Stanton to trash their SNL dressing room so thoroughly that their brand new major label (Sire Records) reportedly had to pay for repairs upwards of $2,000.  not bad for an hour-and-a-half-long show.

Flamenco Sketches

ok, i thought about posting Flamenco Sketches by Miles Davis here (because i'm posting SKETCHES from the last two weeks [get the wordplay? {yeah!}]), but i decided that it was far too slow for me to put here.  so here's another Miles Davis tune for your listening enjoyment while you disinterestedly skim over this post.






i'm not going to even try to remember every day since my last post.  so here is a bullet point summary of things that stood out over the course of the last 20 days  (edit:  i decided that i don't feel like making bullet points, so i opted for short, disjointed paragraphs):

my aunt died, one of my favorite family members.  we'd been preparing for it since april, but we still weren't ready.  a few days after her funeral, one of my cousins had a baby and named it Abigail Jayne, after Aunt Jayne.

been on a songwriting spree lately.  written around 7 full sets of lyrics in the past two weeks, probably as many melodies.  only one full song has come out of it so far, but since it involves comparing a person to a time machine, i'm ok with that low writing-to-completion ratio.  some of the songs that have been tabled for now include a surf/jazz/reggae monstrosity and a flamenco-sounding, overly-dramatic, should-be-used-in-a-bullfight-scene song.

i got my guitar speaker cabinet back from being repaired.  this whole thing has been like some weird greek tragedy.  in late july, i found this amp and cabinet in a guitar center for $200 less than it should have been.  a week later, the amp started acting up and needed repaired.  then the speaker cabinet started acting up and needed repaired.  long story short, i finally had both my amp and cab fully repaired on sunday, november 28.  at which time, i had to leave all my electric guitar equipment in ohio so i can move the rest of my earthly possessions in a single mazda protege

ok, i googled "mazda protege matchbox," hoping to find a toy car version of my car.  this image showed up five pages into the results, and i felt obligated to post it.  this is ty cobb, one of the meanest guys to ever wield a bat, and the list of dangerous bat-wielders includes mafia members and loan sharks.  notorious for sharpening his spikes to inflict maximum damage, he once bunted down the first base line, knocked the pitcher down while he was trying to field the ball, and spiked him in the chest.  then he made it to first base.

anyway, my mazda is a small car and i couldn't fit all my material possessions in it when i move back from chicago, so i left my electric guitar equipment in ohio.  which means, after waiting for 4 months to use the amp and cab that i bought and love so dearly, i have to wait another two weeks to play gloriously loud music, despite the fact that they're both finally repaired.  just like oedipus, right?

i experienced the first of the chicago winter.  instead of starting off with snow for its first wintry precipitation, the chicago weather gods decided to rain tiny pellets of jagged ice on the unsuspecting populace.  as you may suspect, this put a damper on my lunch break to Sultan's.  i want to take this time to comment that Sultan's has the most delicious falafel sandwich i have ever encountered, and if you are ever in or near chicago, you need to eat there.  plus it's like 4 bucks for a falafel sandwich.  i thought about it yesterday, and i think i have eaten there at least once a week since august 30.

i've been on a sci fi movie binge.  not just any kind of sci fi movies, though.  only ones i haven't seen before.  last night i saw a polish/japanese film called Avalon, about an illegal, addictive video game that takes hold of the populace.  pretty good, as far as low-budget sci fi romps go.  i think i've seen 10 sci fi movies in the last two weeks.  i also saw The Shawshank Redemption for the first time, i highly recommend it as a prison film.  however, Cool Hand Luke is still my favorite when it comes to the prison film genre.






i have established a rapport with a cta bus driver.  he's a cool guy.  i should probably ask his name sometime soon.  maybe we can be pen pals.

had thanksgiving at Grandma Bradney's house in Amanda and at Aunt Susie's house in Marietta.  good times.  lots of food.  i can still taste grandma's egg noodles.

today's my last day at JMA.  still working at Eventric through dec 8.  i had a confrontation with my boss at JMA over ethics, and won out in the end.  i guess either way my boss would've lost out, i probably would've quit if he gave me an ultimatum.  he wanted me to do research for a paper that his daughter was supposed to write.  he really does love his daughters, and i guess that i can accept that as the root of asking me to commit academic misconduct, but it still bothers me that he asked.

going to see Tommy Johnagin on dec 9.  excited about it.  he's a great comic, all three of you reading this should check him out.

music.  lots of musical happenings.  listened to Kanye's new album (wasn't terribly impressed), The Clash's Vanilla Tapes (demos for London Calling), a little of Florence + The Machine (i need to get their full album, really digging their first two singles), tons of The Replacements, tons of The Thermals.  the big revelation has been in Joe Strummer's London Calling, a BBC radio show he did sporadically through 1999 and 2000.  it's what i imagine radio used to be.  completely unpredictable, smile-inducing, and full of foot-tapping tunes.  lots of world music, but that shouldn't turn you off.  it's all good, from mariachi to reggae to Eddie Cochran.  and it's free:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-strummer-london-calling/id285877923

i read American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson.  he is actually a very good writer, i enjoyed it very much.  he's a favorite comedian of mine, and has led a very full life of drugs, rock and roll, tv, film, and late night talk shows.  i loved this one quote from his book, it goes like this:  'i sometimes wonder if fear isn't just God's way of saying, "pay attention, this could be fun"'

i think i've written a sufficient wall of text to describe the past few weeks.  i'll be moving back to ohio on dec 8, moving into my house in columbus on jan 1.

perpetual night and the increasing oddness of my bus rides

i'm in chicago.  in case you didn't know this, chicago lies directly on the easternmost edge of the CST time zone.  

this isn't a problem at all during the summer, but after the fall equinox and daylight savings time sets in, dusk falls around 4:30 every day.  now, if i were a morning person, this would be lovely.  i'd wake up at 6 am, enjoy the sunshine for three hours before i have to go to work, and be a happy, vitamin d satisfied human being.

however, this is not the current situation.  i frequently wake up past 9am (i don't work until 10am at either of my internships) and go to sleep around 2am.  also, i work in a building where i have access to one window three days a week and no windows two days a week.  so i've been living like a bat for a week now.

artist's interpretation

i wish i was batman.  how sweet would that be?  i mean, even if i just had his utility belt, i would go places in life.  namely, places requiring grappling hooks or vials of acid for entry.  bruce wayne had it all right.  it's like a swiss army knife that keeps your pants up.  and was made by Dr Emmett Brown.  if you have some time, you should look at this wiki page, it's intense:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman's_utility_belt#Contents

so, the title i gave this entry alludes to odd bus rides.  i should probably talk about that.  my recent experiences on the CTA buses have been nothing short of outstanding.  here is a list of some scenes i've witnessed on the #50 CTA bus:

• methheads tweaking, of course
• a cross-eyed girl with corrective tinted glasses playing ukulele
• a bum who talked to ukulele girl about jack benny, how jack benny was the greatest violin player of all time, how jack benny wasn't racist at all, and listed several other entertainers from the 40s and 50s that were and weren't racist in his honest opinion
• a bum playing harmonica
• a guy in a slayer tshirt, sporting van dyke facial hair, asymmetrical piercings, and long unkempt hair, reading a junior novel
• a huge middle eastern guy who insisted on leaning on me while we were both standing on the crowded bus
• and my personal favorite, a guy in his early forties holding a sheathed fencing foil with a plastic bag over the hilt.  the guy looked like he was somebody's dad, and was wearing a wedding ring.  he's got to be at least a cool uncle.  i refuse to believe that there isn't some impressionable child looking up to his or her sword-wielding uncle in the chicago metro area.  maybe he was the highlander.  that would make a lot of sense.  usually highlanders have their own cars though.

i'm trying to think of a good way to end this.  here is the hastiest ending i can think of.

i lied.  i forgot to log what's happened in the past few days.

tuesday, i went to work.  had a pretty shitty day, now that i think of it.  people have been changing pipes in my apartment building, and they forgot to hook up one of the pipes or something.  as of now, i still do not have water in my kitchen sink.  this gives me a very valid excuse for not doing dishes, but has resulted in my dehydration for the past few days.

wednesday, i went to work again.  drew up a diagram of my band's recording setup for when we move our equipment into my basement in columbus.  here it is, for your viewing enjoyment:

yes, i realize no one cares about this but me and possibly three other people.  but look at the COLORS!

thursday, still working on it.  at work right now, awaiting the boss's evaluation of my latest promotional video.  planning on seeing Cheap Girls at the Beat Kitchen tonight.  i should be working on my research.  i'll go do that now.  catch ya later, alligators.

Chicken, Hot Dogs, and Research

i'm a vegetarian, have been one for about 2 1/2 years now.  i still crave meat from time to time, though.  i usually think about the animal it's made from to stop craving it.  it's not like having been away from meat that long diminishes any cravings for it, it's sort of like me craving butter beans or something else i haven't had for years.  i thought about fried chicken yesterday and hot dogs today.  i might get some tofu dogs the next time i go grocery shopping.

another odd thing about being vegetarian, when people realize that you don't eat meat, they say "oh, you can't eat jello?" and stuff like that.  "can't", not "don't" or "won't".  semantics, maybe, but it still makes me drift off into imagining vegetarians bursting into flame if they eat meat, and things like that.

i wrote a song a few days ago, sent it to joey, zack and adrian.  joey and i had the following conversation:

i like your song

good

now what's wrong with it?

its sucks

good

it pretty much sums up how we look at our music.

saturday i saw the Morning Benders at Lincoln Hall.  they put on a good show, much better than when i saw them open for The Black Keys.

sunday i started drafting my exploratory research questionnaire.

monday i finished it.

tuesday i probably did something.

wednesday too.

thursday i forget.  "call me on thursday, if you will.  call me on wednesday, better still."  listening to a ton of The Replacements these days.  i love the lyric that follows that line, too, it goes "ain't lost yet, so i gotta be a winner;  fingernails and cigarettes are a lousy dinner."  oh, i remember.  i stayed at Eventric till 630 so i could leave early on friday.

friday, i left work early so i could make it to The King's Jetfighters' late show in columbus.  The King's Jetfighters is all of Alien Orders except me.  Joey, Zack and Adrian started playing together around the same time i started playing with Operation America (the pop punk band that Danny, Adrian and i started, wrote ten songs, played two shows, and then disbanded).  Joey and i had been jamming together for a while, writing songs here and there, and eventually Zack and Adrian joined in.  the way i explained it to some short kid at the show on friday, it's sort of like Bob Dylan and The Band, where The King's Jetfighters is The Band and i'm Bob Dylan.  we each have material that stands on its own, but when we come together, it's much better.  also sort of like the Constructicons from Transformers.

Alien Orders:  just like the Constructicons

in case you were wondering, i'm Quickmix, Joey is Bonecrusher, Zack is Hightower, and Adrian is Buckethead.  the other two Decepticons are just placeholders for when we decide to form Devastator (aka Alien Orders).  Adrian and i somehow independently ended up at a mobile taco stand outside of a gas station.  they were good, not as good as Junior's Tacos though.

saturday, i went to the parents' house in amanda, then to a vinyl release party at the Monster House in columbus.  it's a diy house that's been around for 3-4 years now.  anyway, American War was releasing their (his?) album on vinyl, and Tin Armor and Asinine were playing too.  it was good fun.  American War played in full band format, complete with Richard on sax, and played Rhetoric all the way through. good seeing friends i haven't seen in months, too.  Joey and i ate Buckeye Donuts afterwards.

sunday, had Alien Orders practice sans Zack.  he had studying to do.  Adrian, Joey and i had a good practice though.  also met up with ex roommates Andrew and Tyler.  ate Donatos pizza, drank Great Lakes Christmas Ale, played Nazi Zombies.  good night.

monday, met with my research advisor.  research is coming along nicely, should be starting the first phase in exactly a week.  then applied for a new passport, ate at Qdoba with ex roommate Andrew, left for chicago.  listened to The Clash's Vanilla Tapes (demo tapes for London Calling), The Replacements, The Thermals, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and a mix cd or two.

Ride of the Valkyries

Wagner was a massive anti-semite.  that's a third of what i think of every time i hear that song.  here's the song:



here's what my immediate reaction is, every time i hear it:
1.  kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit
2.  i shouldn't like this song, Wagner really hated jews
3.  i love that scene from Apocalypse Now

it's a beautiful piece.  the intro is thrilling, tense, engaging, and it leads into that triumphant horn part that everyone with a pulse has heard at least once in his or her life.  it's inspiring music, really, it makes perfect sense that the Nazis would want to use it in their propaganda.  it makes you want to go out and conquer something.

it's a question of art versus motive, i suppose.  it's a classic piece of art, one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever made.  but if it's made so Hitler and his buddies can pump up their swastika-sporting brethren, should we still listen to it?  i'm not a very good philosopher, so i'm going going to even try to answer that question.  it's been in my thoughts for a couple of days now, since i saw a car commercial with Ride of the Valkyries hawking a Nissan something or other.  i doubt they worried as much about it as i've thought about it.

i'm not going to vote on tuesday.  i feel bad about it.  forgot to get my absentee ballot.  the last time i voted was in the presidential election in 2008.  i voted for McCain, believe it or not.  that may inspire a lot of gut reactions in you, but i did a lot of research before i voted.  realistically, he was the most liberal republican presidential candidate i've ever seen.  i actually preferred Obama when it came to the issues, but doubted he would have the influence within politics that McCain had, and would fall far short of his grand promises.  McCain sure as hell wasn't going to commit genocide on gay people or whatever people were scared of:  politicians these days are too scared to drastically polarize themselves on hot button issues, they'll get crucified when the other party starts gaining influence again.  hence "don't ask don't tell" and that sort of thing.  but once Obama won, i was fully behind him, i believe that's the way the populace should act unless something happens to compromise the ability of the president to lead (i.e. Watergate-style paranoia).  now, supporting the president does not mean everyone should agree with everything he says; the beauty of a democracy is the ability for people to change their own circumstances as dictated by the government.  but the general Obama-bashing is not helpful at all for the country, i believe that the vocal hatred of Obama by a rightist minority has led republican congressmen to entrench themselves and stop legislation that republicans would normally agree to.  which in turn has led to liberals pointing their fingers at the gop to disguise their own shortcomings, the conservatives pointing back, and a whole lot more squabbling.  i think Obama has done as well as we could expect any president to act in his situation.  i don't believe he is an outstanding president, but he is far from incompetent, an above-average president trying his best.

shit, how did i get started on politics?  this has been a thoroughly un-humorous post, and probably alienating on several levels.  realistically, i doubt i will ever see a candidate with the same mixture of conservative and liberal stances that i have.  i verge on radical on some liberal issues, but still have a conservative side of me when it comes to other issues (typically financial issues).

i have no clue why this ended up in a blog post.  i guess i don't really discuss politics that often.  this was a healthy thing to put in black and white, i suppose.

friday i came into work and realized the Eventric office dressed up for halloween.  not everyone was wearing costumes, but there was some joshing at my blue and white thermal's expense.  we also watched a couple of horror flicks.  i watched Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time.  it was a pretty neat movie, fun viewing.  went to North Avenue Guitars to look for a footswitch, talked to a guitar tech for a half hour, went home, watched Mad Men, and slept.  also wrote a bridge for one of my songs, played guitar for a while.  my electric guitar (a telecaster) is really starting to show some signs of wear from my picking arm and my recklessly un-technical strumming, but it's looking pretty cool so far.  seeing lots of wood through the finish.

saturday, lazed around the apt all day.  watched the rest of Mad Men season 4, then Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, which was a movie revolving around the Stones playing Altamont in 1969.  that free Altamont show is generally pointed to as the end of the 60s counterculture, with the Hell's Angels killing a guy who pulled a gun in the crowd, and three other people dying from various other causes.  they actually have footage of a guy pulling a gun, and a Hell's Angel stabbing him two or three times.  go to about 4:00 to see the slow-motion video of it, from the film Gimme Shelter.



well, now that i've been thoroughly depressing and un-funny in this blog post, i think i'll just leave it.

insomnia + laziness = 3 seasons of Mad Men watched

been nine days since my last one of these.  ten depending on how technical you are and what your rounding system is.  i'm not exactly a pro at this blogging business yet.

let's see...

last wednesday.  i saw Avi Buffalo at Schubas, on the guest list courtesy of JMA.  (i plan on capitalizing for emphasis, excitement, and eccentricity [i had two "e" words, thought i'd add a third for the alliteration], and with no particular grammatical rules in mind in case you were wondering)  anyway.  Avi Buffalo, capitalized because it's a band name and i've arbitrarily decided that band names should be capitalized from now on, put on a pretty solid show.  it was in the vein of the surf-psych hipster stuff that's coming out of the west, but more accessible, more genuine.  if their singer got better, they might have a shot at really going somewhere.  they had the best girl drummer i've seen in a while.

last thursday.  don't remember.  probably did something.

friday.  started Mad Men, and the downfall of my activity outside of work.  i tend to go on tv binges when i watch it.  i don't own a tv, so don't really watch tv casually.  i watch tv with purpose.  i sit down, and watch one show for six or seven hours straight at a time.  which is how i've gotten through three seasons of Mad Men in less than a week.  it is also highly detrimental to my social, mental, and physical status, making me a pasty neurotic hermit that survives on frozen pizza and that burrito place down the street.  La Amistad.  they deserve capitalization.  you know the place.

saturday, watched more Mad Men, wrote riffs for two songs, messed with my tube screamer/ds-1/amp tone for a couple of hours.  did absolutely none of the research i had promised myself and others that i would do.  went to see Daniel Martin Moore at Schubas.  i was his driver to and from the Iron & Wine show at OSU a week prior, and we had hit it off enough for him to put me on his guest list for the show. i got there just as he was starting (thanks, Mad Men, you're ruining my life now).  it was a nice, mellow show, traditional-style folk that added a virtuosic guitar player who knew not to shred.  ended with a devastatingly slick loop that Ric Hordinski (the guitarist) played, with three intertwining fingerpicking parts so perfectly timed that they just let the loop go for a few minutes.  at one time, both artists were off the stage, listening.  then DMM came up and faded out the amp volume, ending the show.  i got chicago pasta and pizza afterwards, just the pasta though.  it was good.

sunday, watched Mad Men.  started to feel ridiculous about myself.

monday.  jeff's back from new york, we had a fair amount of work at JMA.

tuesday.  all interns on deck, typical tuesday.  made veggie chorizo burritos at about 10:30, because chicago is dark all the time and it's seriously screwing with my internal clock.  i may have reverted back to a 25 hour day.  studies indicate that without day and night cues, humans' internal clocks will change to 25 hour cycles instead of the 24 hour cycles we normally run on.  see, now aren't you glad you read this blog?  if you actually read something that was entertaining, you would've never heard that useless tidbit.

this thing is a wall of text.  here's something to break up the monotony.  it's a damn fine commercial:



wednesday.  perfect storm to make me late for work.  slept through my alarm, first.  then, the water was shut off in my apartment because i woke up so late and they're replacing pipes in my apt building.  so i took a boy scout shower with the water from my coffee maker, brushed my teeth, and was on my way.  but the bus didn't come for twenty minutes.  i go to my car so i can drive to work.  my car is on a one-way street, and there is a massive piece of construction equipment blocking the intersection i would need to go through to drive my car anywhere.  so i wait another 15 minutes for the bus.  end up at work an hour late.  it's ok.  i had leftover veggie chorizo burritos.

thursday.  finished my Eventric teaser video for the third time.  this time it's good, though, the bosses approve.  i get to start splicing together videos tomorrow for a trade show that's coming up.  wrote the music to lyrics i had had already.  it's got a ska vibe to it, but it's too straight of a rhythm for ska.  i'm hoping to get some weird syncopated percussion and bass to go along with the guitar part i wrote.

friday.  i'm not sleeping well.  still watching Mad Men.  i'm on season 4, episode 3, i believe.  this time last week, i had still not watched a single episode of the series.  that means i watched about 40 episodes in a week.  awful.  just listened to Beethoven's 5th arranged as salsa music on NPR.  it was ok.  not really a big fan.

i don't know if i know anyone who listens to as much music as me in a week.  in the past week, i have listened to:

on vinyl
This Is Reggae compilation from the 70s
Leave Home by The Ramones
Harvest by Neil Young
Sam by The Sidekicks

on ipod
Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens (still don't know what all the fuss is about)
Fuckin A and The Body The Blood The Machine by The Thermals
Arkansas? by Arkansas?
a bunch of Alien Orders stuff on repeat
Andy Cook Split and Rhetoric by American War
Hospitals by Off With Their Heads
... And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid
Odelay and Midnite Vultures by Beck
i'm missing some, too.

at work, music constantly on
WXRT at JMA
office radio station at Eventric (including Charlie Mingus, The Buzzcocks, Miles Davis, Neil Young, The White Stripes, Elvis Costello, and Dave Brubeck, to name a few)

i probably am exposed to 50 hours of music a week at a minimum.  i've listened to music more than i've slept this week, by a long shot.  and if we toss in playing music, then i'm up to about 60 hours a week of music.  glad i can work at places where i listen to music for 35-40 hours a week.

finally feeling tired.  gonna put away the remains of the chorizo burritos (that one tube of fake chorizo made a ton of food.  definitely not complaining, though, i highly recommend it.  i got mine from Trader Joe's), then go to sleep.

i'm not planning on doing anything for halloween.  this'll be the first time i haven't dressed up since i got to college.  i think i'm ok with it.  i think the fact that i can't wear a dinosaur costume this time is making things easier on me.

quick rundown of the past fortnight

i said i was going to be better about this.  methodically writing my thoughts on each day as it happened.  this has proven to be a gross misstatement on my part.  i have not written one of these for two weeks.  so with my trusty calendar in hand, it's time to catch up.  mind you, you may not find this very interesting, but since when did anyone write a blog for anyone else's benefit?

wed, oct 6
not much happened

thu, oct 7
not much happened

fri, oct 8
finished the first draft of a new promotional teaser for eventric.  drove to columbus, listening to the replacements (albums:  let it be [my personal favorite of theirs {although tim would probably be my favorite if it was produced better}] and tim) and the twin tones, as well as daydream nation by sonic youth and probably some neil young too.  i tried to make it to ex-bassist danny's birthday party, but he failed to stay awake past 1 am.  also, i made a mental note to make use of the chain rule in sentence form.  (check)

sat, oct 9
watched the game with pops.  we then went out to the garage to drill holes in my tube screamer enclosure, as my welder friend stephen's "car broke down" and he "couldn't drive without his engine melting" and somehow thought this was a "reasonable excuse for not driving back to columbus".  wuss.  anyway, there was some excitement with drilling the enclosure, culminating with the enclosure spinning out of my dad's hand, hitting his arm, flying off the drill bit, striking some old paint cans, and coming to rest in a fishing net beneath an earth-tone painting from circa 1974.  on the plus side, i got my tube screamer completely put together, selecting this image to put on the pedal instead of painting it:

for those of you who have not read several scores of star wars books, this is the DL44, han solo's blaster.  note that the scope that has been mounted off-center on the gun, allowing for a quicker draw.  some books say that he cut off this scope altogether in order to have as fast a draw as possible.  anyway,  i thought it was appropriate for an overdrive pedal.  then joey and i went to news of your departure's cd release, which featured several more hecklers than i was expecting.

sun, oct 10

full band alien orders practice.  got through several more songs, it's sounding promising.  then i drove back to chicago.

mon, oct 11

belle and sebastian!  now, to put this in context, i have been listening to this band since i was in junior high.  which means, i have been bopping along in rapture of this wonderful group for nearly a decade.  needless to say, i was excited to see them.  but i'll say it anyway.  i was excited to see them.  concerts pal linnea came up from columbus since it was b&s's only midwest tour date, and we watched as they breezed through a set including i'm a cuckoo, step into my office baby, and a stupefyingly good version of me and the major.  here's the full setlist:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/belle-and-sebastian/2010/chicago-theatre-chicago-il-bd51d6e.html

beautiful concert.  i left wanting to lock myself in my room with a sparkling clean guitar tone so i could try to write like stuart murdoch.  ALSO.  stuart murdoch is possibly the most charming frontman you'll ever encounter, bouncing around the stage and making disarmingly witty banter between songs.  there were some fans who were idiots, but the unpleasantness caused by this was counteracted by stuart doing things like throwing nerf footballs to all the children he could see in the audience.  it was great.  also, linnea and i ate burritos at la amistad on the way over.  my second time there, and definitely not my last.  it's not exactly picante (my old burrito haunt in ukrainian village), but it's close enough to make me hopeful about other items on the menu.

tue, oct 12

fm supreme cd release party.  fm supreme is one of our new artist development projects at jma, and she dropped an ep on tuesday.  it was a cool show, several outstanding acts.  supreme herself really might have a future in hip hop, if she keeps working at it.

wed, oct 13

not much happened, then i left for columbus.  listened to the velvet underground and nico, the clash (s/t), and london calling.  tried to memorize every word on london calling.  i'm getting there, slowly but surely...

thu, oct 14

iron and wine.  helped out from noon to 12:30am.  drove daniel martin moore to and from his hotel, shook hands and chatted with sam beam a couple of times, worked with backline, merch, hospitality, security, and others.  actually didn't eat this entire time, which i didn't notice until about the time iron and wine took the stage, when my stomach seemed to attack my other vital organs in an attempt to find food, roaring with bloodlust for a legion of falafel sandwiches.  this attack proved futile for my stomach, and it was not satiated until several hours later.  however, i thoroughly enjoyed both daniel martin moore and iron and wine, sitting on the ballroom floor with 2000 of my closest friends during a fair amount of the iron and wine set.

fri, oct 15

mco showcase.  i started the day with what has become a near-daily call to guitar center.  "we still have not repaired your cabinet, sir, and we're sorry that we're about as quick and helpful as rust, or some other slow corrosive process."  at least they finally offered me equipment to loan.  i now have a 2x12 marshall speaker cabinet to go with my music man amp.  i got a haircut before i picked it up.  a bald lady cut my hair.  we talked about small towns.  then off to band practice, where the three piece version of alien orders played our set through once so we could remember all our songs before our show friday night.  then the musician's collective showcase started.  a few solo acts played, then we played.  we were much louder than everyone else, and joey and i had to back off so zack's drumming could be heard.  i used my tube screamer for the first time, and we played our set with no setlist, and with as few breaks as possible. our set went something like this:

city life                     (joey guitar, pat guitar, zack drums)

smitten in space

day terrors

american girl

orange crush

x ray glare                (joey guitar, pat bass, zack drums)

south/north

garden salsa sunchips

i will dare

cliffs notes

then joey and i booked it so we could see the misfits at alrosa villa (famous for being the deathplace of dimebag darrell).  which was the best decision we could have made that night.  a ska band, a street punk band, then the misfits played.  a curtain dropped to reveal two five foot tall skulls with light-up eyes, a drumset with misfits skulls on the two bass drums, a skeleton arm mic stand, and a skull mic stand.  jerry only, dez cadena, and robo took the stage, and played through a really fun set that included teenagers from mars, we are 138, attitude, six pack (a black flag song [!]), and rise above (another black flag song [!]).  so entertaining.

sat, oct 16

i started off the day by misreading an email from bassist zack, then picking up ex-bassist danny on the way to being almost late to a youth songwriting workshop.  under the guidance of music loves ohio, we helped about 20 underserved youth write and perform their own songs, in just the span of an afternoon.  it was a great time, i highly recommend it.  afterwards, zack and i went to see matt groening at mershon auditorium, which turned out to be a fairly enlightening lecture.  several stories about conan o'brien licking various objects in the simpsons' office for money were told.  then faiella and i went over to ouab friend mindy's house for a beer and some terminator 2.

sun, oct 17

obama.  had lunch with the parents at cheesecake factory in easton, then showed joey all the fun tricks my new tube screamer can do, then went with joey to see obama.  we ran into danny and others there, and waited about an hour in an extraordinarily long line to get in.  the line stretched from the oval down the long walk, by the rpac, around ohio stadium, back to the other side of the rpac.  about 35000 people were estimated to have attended, and we saw obama after about 2 1/2 hours of other democrats.  he is a powerful speaker, but he is also a politician.  and i cannot listen to a politician without becoming incensed at something he/she has said.  the parts that got me most riled up were him telling us america had to be first in everything (why does there have to be a contest between nations as to which is the most successful?  from pee wee sports on, we teach our kids that it's not about winning, it's about the love of the game, but when it comes to our nation we can't settle for second?) and his references to republican fear-mongering (which i believe is true), quickly followed by his claims that democrats do no such thing ("but if you vote for republicans, we'll go back to the way things are and slump into a depression!  be afraid!"[p.s. this is not an actual quote, but is the general gist of what he said]).  that said, he is a powerful speaker, and one who knows how to pull an audience into his palm.  afterwards, joey and i got chinese takeout at joy's village, and ate it at his apartment while watching a rush documentary.  i started driving back to chicago at 10:10pm est.  bad decision, but i stuck by it, driving through the night while listening to london calling and a mix cd or two.

mon, oct 18

called in sick to work, for good reason.  absolutely exhausted, downright evil sinus headache, possibility of much worse illness if i did anything but sleep.  so i slept a ton.  watched some simpsons, and american history x.  that is a great film, i highly recommend it.  i also took a bath, my first bath in probably several months.  i always take showers, because they're quicker, but the bath did me good.

tue, oct 19

my boss's mother died today.  90 years old, from what i hear.  hope he's ok.  

i also scheduled for my penultimate quarter of classes.  scary.  here's what i'm taking, for those of you at osu... (who am i kidding? no one reads this blog)

marketing 755:  promotional strategy

food science 201:  the science of food

music 250:  music cultures of the world

music 677:  multimedia for musicians

marketing 783h:  honors independent research

turn signals and seething, burning rage

turn signals.  they're simple devices.  a simple switch to close the circuit between battery and blinking light. a person has but to flick their wrist to activate a signal for their movement left or right.

BUT SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE TROUBLE RECOGNIZING THIS.

if you don't enjoy rants about human decency, or the lack thereof, you may want to stop reading this post.  now.

i have run into an excessive amount of people who seem to have no knowledge whatsoever of that thing sticking out of their steering consoles that clicks whenever they bump it (i know, some people have the fancy ones that they can just click with their thumbs on the front of the steering wheel:  which makes their non-use of turn signals even less excusable).  this sort of ignorance bothers me.

it's not that i have any particular love for flashing lights, or plastic sticks that can make clicking noises, but that i am a fan of smooth traffic patterns.  for instance, i love a four way stop where everyone knows how to drive.

figure 1.1
                 |              |
                 |              |
-----------------|              |--------------
                   car    ^    stopped car
- - - - - - - - -    |      |   - - - - - - - -
stopped car   V   car
-----------------|              |--------------
                 |              |
                 |              |

the two cars opposite of each other move at the same time, while the other two remain stopped.  it's an elegant ballet, complicated only slightly by left turns.

however, this breaks down when people don't use turn signals.  everything breaks down.  because driving is a very visual activity, and if other people on the road can't see what you're doing, you get t-boned.  which isn't a problem for you, you asshole, you simply toss it off to your insurance company to pay for your bmw's repair bill while my insurance goes through the roof and i have to start biking 20 miles to work until you turn right without signaling and total my bike too.  jerk.

this exact scenario hasn't happened to me personally, by the way.  but i see it happening to me every time some drain on society cuts in front of me without giving me any more notice than general sherman gave georgia.

figure 1.2

as you can see, the damage inflicted from not using turn

signals can be immense

in much shorter, simpler words that you can understand, jackass in the bmw...

use your turn signal or i will hunt you down and hurt you badly enough that you won't have to worry about driving anymore.

i also ate chipotle today.

p.s.  it took me like 5 tries to get that four way stop diagram to line up right.  you're welcome.

as it turns out, i'm a natural at blogging

... not.

this is the same reason why keeping a journal has failed multiple times with me.  it's not a necessary part of life, so it gets pushed to the side.  watching entire seasons of the simpsons and fiddling around with the wiring to a diy effects pedal... now those are priorities.

lots has happened in the past two weeks.  i helped put on a weezer show at osu.  that was huge.  i got into columbus on late thursday night, around 12:30 am, after making a record-tying run from chicago to columbus (6 1/2 hours).  i proceeded to pick up old roommate tyler, take him to a bar, realize he wasn't 21, and later go back to my house to enjoy a beer on the porch with new roommate eric.  that was nice.  i have a feeling that porch will get a lot of use when it gets warmer again.  as it was, it was perfect weather for lounging on a porch, so i lounged again on friday around 11 am.

then came weezer.  i helped out from about 12:30pm until midnight.  weezer was incredible.  they played a few too many new songs for my taste, but i compromised by not singing any of the words to those songs.  they played six songs off the blue album, and my favorite pinkerton song (el scorcho), though.  rivers also crowd-surfed, sang part of a song on top of a port a potty, and apparently had his glasses stolen.  lolz.

saturday was Alien Orders' first full band practice.  we played for a little under two hours because of technical difficulties, but went through 4 songs in that time.  not bad at all.  this band has potential to sound pretty incredible, and that's coming from a completely unbiased source (the band's lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist).

sunday i ran errands, finally got my columbus room subletted, and drove back to chicago.  on I-70, i ended up stopped for close to an hour, as apparently a car had crossed the median and had a head-on collision with a semi.  fatal for the car driver.

mon-fri.  worked.  started populating my tube screamer circuit board.  ate.  slept.

sat tried to go to a free local h show at the beat kitchen, but got turned away at the door because they hit capacity.  had to walk all the way back in the rain... i got fettucini alfredo though.  the main success story of the day was that i got my tube screamer working.  doesn't have a case, still doesn't have a permanent wiring arrangement, but it works.  i had to rearrange some LEDs and other diodes to get it to work, but it's purring like a kitten now.  a kitten with rabies.  just the way i like my kittens.  here's a bunch of sound clips that everyone will probably skip over:



sunday i saw the thermals.  fucking incredible.  i was in the second row directly in front of hutch.  cymbals eat guitars opened, and they seemed ok, but everyone knew why they were at that concert.  westin had a bass drum head with the "personal life" art on the front.  he was the first one we saw, coming out personally to soundcheck the drums.  then he went back behind closed doors, returning shortly with hutch and kathy.  they shouldered their weapons, and launched into st. rosa and the swallows.  it was like someone had touched a live wire to the floor of logan square auditorium.  not in that people were jumping around like madmen (although some were), but that the entire venue was filled with a palpable energy.  they played a lot of songs off of personal life, but mixed things up thoroughly with songs like how we know, returning to the fold, we were sick, when i died, now we can see, no culture icons, and ending with pillar of salt, which left me wondering how my band could possibly make a two guitar arrangement that was as catchy as what he did with his one guitar (he was playing the major parts of three instruments from that song: guitar, second guitar, and keyboard).  then they said "thank you" and left.

but none of the crowd left.  well, the two annoying fucks who had been making out during songs about breaking up and dying and being disillusioned with religion, those jackasses left.  and i moved up to the very front.  the thermals came back out and played one more song, then left the stage for good.  that's the way encores should be done, if they're done at all.  they didn't have the final song listed on their setlist, it was a spur of the moment thing, utterly dependent on what the audience wanted.

today was a monday.  i'm not a big fan of mondays.  hard to believe that a person can be inclined to like one rotation of the earth better than any other rotation of the earth, but that seems to be the shape of it.

third nye blind

i spent five hours working on mostly one project today.  probably shouldn't have taken me so long, but i wanted to make it easy on me for future weeks.  now it should take me an hour or two each week to update everything on this ongoing showlist of chicago shows.  i was pretty proud of it until i realized how utterly insignificant it is in the grand scheme of things, and what i could have been doing in those five hours. 0.00259% of my life so far, down the drain, assuming my math is right.  probably a little bit less, i just rounded to 22 years... but that's irrelevant.  what is relevant is that a skilled surgeon can do a heart transplant in 6 hours, i could fly to new york from chicago in two and a quarter hours, and the gettysburg address was given in a little over two minutes.  lots could happen in five hours.

i wrote lyrics to a song today.  we'll see how that goes.  a little girl on the bus kept on giving me strange looks while i was writing it, and i felt like the woman next to me was reading over my shoulder.  who knows what they really thought.

i also got rained on today.  i was the only one at milwaukee/north/damen that didn't go for shelter.  it was a pretty odd feeling, but the rain stopped soon.  a guy smiled at me like i knew something he didn't when the rain stopped.  he had torn jeans and an umbrella.

had piece pizza for lunch and a veggie burger, chips and salsa for dinner, complemented by goose island beer and some fudge that grandma bradney had sent.

listened to part of neil young's new album today.  the other intern begged me to stop.  said it was horrible.  frankly, it's not his best album by any means, but it isn't horrible either.  it's just a guy with his guitar, and i guess that's why i like it so much.  granted, it's a guy with his guitar in a very nice studio with a bunch of very nice gadgets to make it sound pretty, but it's still neil young playing his guitar and singing.  he's probably spent decades doing that.  serious musicians spend a lot more time playing than bystanders think.  hendrix used to take speed so he could stay up and play guitar more.  clapton learned how to play all the records in his house.  that doesn't come overnight.  it's a pretty deeply personal thing, and that's how le noise comes off to me.  it may not find its way into my regularly listened records, but it has its place in my music library.

i also listened to the beatles today, first time in 7 or 8 months, likely.  rubber soul.  it and help! are probably the two albums that i have listened to the most in my life, besides so far so good by bryan adams (it was the only cassette i owned for about three years).  i need to go through and listen to all of the beatles' discography.  it's been a really long time since i've listened to revolver or the white album all the way through.

oh yeah, the title.  mike and i looked up bill nye parody songs today.  this was one of the parody bands' names.

lazy or busy

i could make excuses all day for not writing on this blog.  here are a few of my favorites:

• it's mold awareness month.  i was being aware of mold.
• i was cast in a b-movie zombie flick.  zombies don't use the internet.
• the coriolis effect

the truth of it is, i mostly forgot.  lots of interesting events occurred.  big bro got hitched, i got a second internship with eventric, i mixed a song that alien orders had recorded in practice, i finished In Cold Blood, and the cashier at the local jewel-osco shorted me five stickers for my free cookware scorecard.  hussy.

i'm going to try to be better about it, honest.

saw a fellow jma intern's band at schuba's tonight.  they were called carbon tigers, and were a very technically proficient band, which made me all the more proud to be an un-technically proficient musician. i'm not saying that what they did was bad by any means (it really wasn't bad.  they had very skillful compositions), i'm just glad that my bands have always been on the "pure energy" side of the music spectrum and not on the "intricate detail" side.  i get to jump around and yell more that way.

jeff and jill and i had dinner.  i had a vegan burrito.  jeff, if you read this, thanks again.

i'm starting two projects tonight.  first, i'm mixing a second song from the alien orders practice.  this one is called "day terrors", and is shaping up to probably be one of two songs that we play under 120 bpm (for non-concert band nerds, that's about the tempo of "getting better" by the beatles).  i'm also starting a biography of winston churchill called Churchill: A Life (creative title, right?) by martin gilbert.  apparently this 1000+ page book was expanded upon later in gilbert's career, with him advertising 14 books on Winston Churchill, ranging from 967 to 2165 pages long.  this guy has a serious hard-on for churchill.  i can't wait to read the book.

that's about it for now.  joey and i did a bit of work on some alien orders songs, rearranging them for two guitars + bass instead of one guitar + bass.  weezer on friday, alien orders practice on saturday and sunday.

oh, i also went on a serious neil young kick this weekend, as well as an iggy pop video kick.  can't beat iggy for his live show, and i probably listened to the live rust versions of "hey hey my my" and "my my hey hey" a dozen times each.  new thermals album is growing on me, but i doubt i'll end up liking it as much as their last three.

jazz fest

i went to the chicago jazz festival today.  only really saw two acts, but saw two incredibly fluid guitarists.  first was ted sirota's rebel souls.  they played a reggae- and world-infused style of jazz that i thoroughly enjoyed.  drummer played a little too showy for my taste, but the guitarist was simply amazing.  he kept going from dazzling quick solos into strange diminished and augmented chords, making me think he would just start comping for the rest of the band.  instead, he would go into a run of eighth note chordal changes to continue his solo.  not easy chord changes, either.  i honestly didn't think some of his chord progressions were even possible on guitar.  completely blew me away.  he was playing what looked to be an es-335 clone and a 2x10 music man combo, which made me really happy and sad at the same time.  i can't express how much i want to play my music man amp/cab right now... but it does have the distinction of "the loudest clean amp ever made," and i am living in a low-noise environment.  also, +1 for the band playing a charlie mingus tune.

i saw part of zooid, but decided that i would rather listen to jazz that was more palatable than artsy and complex.  so i went to the complete other end of the spectrum:  nick colionne.  pretty smooth jazz, really not my stuff with the exception of his guitar playing.  actually, i probably would've left his set after the first song if it weren't for his guitar.  he wasn't really playing all that interesting of stuff in terms of progressions, but he was doing it with such flair and such ease that i had to watch.  he was quite the showman.  +1 for the ridiculous keyboardist, -1 for doing a really sarcastic and terrible purple rain cover.

on my way back, i walked past a choir.  just as i passed, they sang this song:



one of my absolute favorites from going to church growing up.  i may need to listen to more hymns in the near future, i forgot how much i enjoy them.  there's just an infectious feel about them, right down in the depths of the music itself.  even the lyrics are creative and well-done (like most hymns, it does seem to get a little lazy on the third verse), not terribly preachy but still getting the message across loud and clear.  i think a lot can be gained from secular songwriting with hymn style in mind.  i mean, ray charles made an entire career from doing that.

eating leftover burritos tonight.  the "medium" salsa is more of an authentic salsa, "hot" to a gringo's tongue.  i definitely was not expecting this, and drank a lot of water with my first burrito last night.  two glasses worth at least.  also watched up in the air today.  *sort of spoiler alert*  it was a very good film, but i cannot express how much i wanted it to resolve in the end.  so many loose ends, so many questions... however, it has kept me thinking about the film all day, so i suppose it ended in a successful way.

tomorrow's labor day.  i have the day off.  might go to a neighborhood festival sort of thing.  we'll see.  i also may actually finish the Alien Orders in The Shed mix, which i've been threatening to do for about three weeks running now.

listening to simon and garfunkel's bookends on the turntable.

running and lounging

i've been either running or lounging these past three days. running around chicago, finding new places, or lounging on my bed, watching arrested development, the lion king, and the simpsons (in that order). not entirely sure why i chose to watch the lion king. not really my favorite disney movie. it is a good movie, though. a lot deeper than i remember it.

played guitar for about 45 minutes each day, though. that's been nice. wrote a new riff, need to go through my lyrics to find something that matches up with it or write new lyrics.

listening to the replacements right now. wonder where paul westerberg was when he wrote i will dare. mentally and physically. i can't find anything about it. i'll probably read a biography i found, though. i heard they were lured with promises of coke to get their picture taken for Let It Be. gotta love the good ol' rock bands.



it's 5:18 am now. just spent about 7 hours investigating tube screamers. hopefully all the research will pay off in the form of a bitchin guitar pedal.

probably going to the jazz festival tomorrow. that is, if i can wake up in time after all this time spent awake. i have some ridiculous coffee from stauf's that should be able to do the trick...

little hungry right now. see ya.

two for the price of one!

i didn't blog yesterday.  i'm sure my already innumerable legions of faithful readers were devastated.  in order to make up for this disappointment, i plan to recount two days in this one post.

forgot to wear my retainer again two nights ago.  yes, i still wear my retainer on occasion.  i am sort of obsessed with dental health when you get down to it.  used to brush my teeth as many as 7 times in a day.  i've backed off a little since then because it's likely that the excessive brushing did me more harm than good.  anyway, i could tell my teeth were a little out of alignment.  obviously a terrible start to a day.

the rest of the day was fairly mediocre.  met a second intern, mike, and jeff's wife jill.  i was still a little cobwebby at that point in the morning, due to my apparent inability to buy coffee filters, and made a fairly terrible stuttering first impression on both of them.  i plan on winning them over slowly but surely, culminating in a dramatic scene at the senior prom.  or maybe that's a john hughes movie.

came back to the apartment, came in through the back door, somewhat startled sarah's boyfriend.  he was waiting for her.  nice guy.  tall.  i offered him spaghetti.  he politely declined.

i played guitar and quietly sang for a while.  it was not pleasant.  i do not sing well at low volumes.  i eventually gave up on this and gave into sleep.

i wore my retainer that night, though.  it was a good decision.

been reading In Cold Blood.  it's a great book so far, i'm about a third of the way through.  i need to mix the Alien Orders live recordings so everyone can listen and learn.  not necessarily learn how awesome we are, more so that members of our band can learn the songs and learn what was done right and wrong in the songs.

i've been eating baby carrots and peanut butter fudge at night.  two nights in a row now.  the fudge is good in small quantities, the carrots are good in large quantities.  i should probably invest in some ranch dressing for the carrots.  but for now, these are no a la carte carrots.

anyway, i've been doing stuff at my internship.  i'm applying for Pitchfork either tonight or tomorrow.  it would be nice to have a change of pace in terms of internships.  right now i spend a lot of time catching up on music news and compiling lengthy artist reports for jma reps to read over before they meet to discuss promotion plans.  i'm learning quite a bit though.

SHIT.  i almost forgot!  you need to listen to this.  it's a JAM.

Bloggin'

So.  I've started a blog.  I'm gonna level with you, I'm probably not going to keep up with it.  However, there is the slightest chance that I will blog on a regular basis, and have a record of things that have happened to me.  If anyone else read this, I guess it would be an added bonus.

FUCK MY COMPUTER.  It's gotten some stuff stuck under the trackpad or something and now randomly clicks whenever it damn well feels like it.  I have threatened it with bodily and softwarily harm, to no avail.

I literally punched the fucker just now.  It got the hint and is not giving me any troubles at the moment.

Started my internship at JMA today.  The guy who hired me apparently left JMA a couple of weeks ago and didn't tell anyone he hired me.  JMA was planning on taking a few weeks off from having interns to reevaluate the direction the program should go.  Then I show up.  I was the only intern there at 9am and one of two interns until mid-September, when the other intern leaves for UC.  Should be interesting if nothing else.

I ended up walking about 7 miles today instead of taking a bus.  Just felt like walking.  I got a pair of jeans and a bottle of Coke out of it.  Listened to Beggars' Banquet and Let It Bleed.

Saw a posse of the smelliest, most obnoxious people I have ever seen.  From what I could tell, they were a band of hobos, roaming the streets of Chicago until they caught the next streetcar.  I held my breath for about fifty feet before and after passing them.  I still smelled them.  They were young, too.  And they had dogs.  I think that's what bothers me the most, the dogs.  A terrible life for the people, but a worse life for a dog that could've lived in a more dog-friendly environment, like a china shop, or the moon.

So that's my first post.  Treasure it, it may be your last.