self-titled: ^_^

I was supposed to do laundry tonight, but i was rummaging through a bag looking for some wires, and i found a clean white shirt and i was like "fuck you, laundry, i got what i need to go another day." and that was the end of that.

yesterday i slept late, went to work, we called nons all day, so i got a whopping 2 pledges. then i came home, and watched tv and played final fantasy 6.

today i went to work, listened to some music. the spiritualized disc is super duper awesome. the mum disc even better, it's organic electronic, soothing like boards of canada but a wider array of instruments. the that dog disc is good as well, lots of good songs about simple crushes. makes me want to get the album before it, "totally crushed out." track 6, "minneapolis" has done a wonderful thing. it's given me that really good kinda chills feeling. about a girl who sees a guy at some party, and asks about him, her friends tell him she asked, and she leaves the party and he follows and they talk and she's all timid and embarrassed and then he invites her to see Low when they play in Minnesota. something about songs mixing rock music and love just do something crazy to me. and that fucking melody, woohoo.

and then i got dinner and then i went to work. calling lybunts, we did a lot better today. i got like 1500, and 6 credit cards, but apparently the "4 credit cards = 10 bucks" is just a bullshit promotion that they only pretend to have. oh well.

during work #1 today, i went out to radioshack and picked up my record player, it's pretty nice actually, i did some internet research and saw it being sold at a couple places for over $100 used. it's from the mid 80s, but i guess really, how far has record player technology come since then? i got it for $20 bucks.

I just came home now and tried it out. a couple things i noticed. first, is the warm not-quite hiss that leaves it's mark on all the songs. it's what i like to call "the love," and am fine with it. the other is this high-pitched quiet mechanical noise that i can hear during extremely soft parts. that's what i like to call "i need to check my connections." I think it's a mixture of the wire and placement of the table in relation to other electronic appliances.

i realize that i have like no free time with all this work and shit. which really isn't a problem. class will end this week and things'll open up. but hey, this phone job is an extra 100 a week at least, and that means like 10 cds.

so yesterday was my first day at work on the phones. it was scary at the beginning, but got easier as the night went on. my biggest concern isn't sounding like an ass to the prospects, but sounding like an ass to the supervisor. but i got a whopping 2 contributions from my list of non-donors. which actually isn't that bad considering i only talked to 10 or less prospects.

after work it was of course time to drink. throughout the day, katie and i were on the phone remembering the night before, and realizing all the many things we couldn't remember during our epic powerhour. of course, nothing we did last night could match thursday's glory. mike katie and i powerhoured, and i got drunk and we went to steph's and i left about 15 minutes later because i wanted to go pass out. and i did just that. and i had some fucked up fucked up dreams. nothing epic, nothing really interesting, just bizarre. in one of them i was at a record store talking about the cub version of "new york city" vs the tmbg version. i think i bought a cub record.

i woke up to my alarm at 8am this saturday morning. "oh shit," I thought, "i'm way too drunk to go to work." and then i hit snooze. I was worried, because my roommate was actually in his bed, and i go through like 4 snoozes and that'd probably piss him off. No problem though since at the first snooze, i thought "wait, i think it's saturday" and turned off the alarm.

Caught breakfast a little later and then i went down to cambridge.

planet records: billy joel - 52nd street, streetlife serenade, and cold spring harbor (which, jude, is the 1983 remaster) r.e.m. - life's rich pageant, csn - csn lps. that dog - retreat from the sun, paul westerberg - 14 songs cds.

in your ear: r.e.m. - murmur, reckoning, godspeed you black emperor - lift your skinny fists... lps

othermusic: mum - yesterday was dramatic, today is ok, silver jews - american water cds

newbury comics: spiritualized - ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, preston school of industry - goodbye to the edge city cds.

money spent: like 90 bucks or so.

i also went all the way around the universe trying to track down a record player. I eventually found myself, desperate, in radioshack. I asked, and then the guy took me into the backroom and told me he has 4 players he wants to get rid of. come back tomorrow or monday and i can check it out and take it. score.

then i had some miserable pad thai at the cheesecake factory, and then went to see planet of the apes, which i enjoyed a great deal. it was just fun seeing all these people in monkey suits. and the bad ape was tim roth, which fucks me up. too bad the only thing keeping the ending from making zero sense is one quick shot that's hard to see and is very reliant on the viewer to have a keen eye and an incredible memory.

i'm writing in the middle of a power hour now, probably not the best idea, but katie forced me to do it.

no entry last night because i came home at 2am fuckingwasted. you see, yesterxay was my first day at the phone center doing the phone calling thing. actually i was just doing taainig or some shit. but whatever, the nyu chick who ran the thing is dumb and dull as a post, but ther est of it seems fucking cool. i start on the phones tomorrow. anyway, last night, after work, katie and i went to a work party with the work kids and i drank beers and beers and more. at the end of the night, i shared a 40 with my supervisor (the cool one.) i also smoked a pack of cigarettes, which was a bit ridiculous. i saw some bats. bats are cool.

so the work thing is fun. but i didn't set my alarm, so i walked into work like an hour an a half late. whatever.

uhhh

i'm buying arecord player tomorrow and records because i'm fucking way cooler than you are.

i had class today and then after class i came home and was going to work on this must be pop (opopopppopo), but i checked my messages and found out that stephanie is havig a party tomorrow, which means mike katie and i have to have a power hour, so i needed to make a new cd. then katie came over and made me drink beers and we worked on the plwer hour and we finished it and then she was all "dude, let's do a power hour" and i was like "no way, i have work tomorrow and my mom wouldn't like it" and then she was all "fuck your mother . hail satan!!! adamator rules!!!" so i couldn't fight that logic and now i'm drinkign.

i think we're on song 2 or something now, i'm going to close this so that katie and i have to talk or somethign.

well of course the day i figure out the neat like-a-webcam-only-better-and-less-naked winamp thingy, it breaks. Probably partly due to me and all the other posters over at SA. Oh well, maybe it'll come back, maybe not, either way i don't really care.

today at work, i uhh, you know, did work stuff. like sit on webboards and read about music and shit. got my shudder to think and uk indie rawk mixes in the mail from britain or wherever the hell they came from. For some reason, i actually listened to very very little music though, so i didn't crack into them. reworked a piece for class, went to class, classed it up. and then i came home, and spent the remainder of the night until now working on my latest masterpiece.

it'll most likely be a two disc set. It's called "this must be pop (opopopopopopopopopp)," and it's being created in honor of today's release of N*Sync's Celebrity. The rules are simple: there are no rules. But it helps to be short, 44 of 47 of the candidates right now are under 4 minutes. 32 are under three and a half. It helps not to suck. Tight Harmonies are looked favorably upon, and the use of hand clapping almost guarantees a place in the starting lineup.

There will be a limited run of cds. And when i say limited, i mean i'll burn copies if cds are supplied, or if i go to a store to get more. It spans 3 decades and a lot of continents. Three, I think.

It is clearly the defining moment of the new millennium. Brian Peterik and N*Sync: hand in hand for children.

check the new thingy down at the bottom. aww yeah, now when you read, you can see what mp3 i'm listening to at that very moment. it's better than a naked webcam!

anyway, this was the weekend that i drove a billion hours. After work on friday, i packed up some stuff and got on the great american highway down to princeton, nj, to party with sean and his friends. hit a few traffic bubbles, but it was bearable. at around 9 i stopped off at the bridgewater mall so that i could eat, and since it was right there. I went in and went into sam goody. I saw that they had the new built to spill album, and nearly shit my pants when i saw what they were charging for it: $18.99. Nineteen fucking dollars, othermusic, which i consider "the expensive" store, had it for 14, newbury was selling it at 12. I looked around sam goody, nineteen bucks was a pretty common price. I was very very suprised. I ran into the gap to replace my flip flops but alas, they had none in my size. I grabbed some dinner at nathan's and headed back on the road.

got to christina's after a good deal of hassle thanks to sean's great directions. He had me looking for a numberless white house. Christina's house was blue. Anyway, drank lots of beer. along with sean and christina, tim of my room next year fame and dimitrios were there. and then a bunch of weird sean friends and some people apparently neither sean nor christina knew. One of sean's friends liked to talk. a lot. but aside from that he was ok. we played a lot of asshole, i held presidency for 8 terms before the game dissolved. got really drunk, but the good drunk where i don't need to pass out. nothing really exciting happened that night, at least nothing i remember. but the parts i half remember weren't exciting, so i doubt i'm missing anything huge. but it was a real good time. stayed up drinking till 5 am. got up noonish, showered, said goodbye and headed to the only place in princeton you really have to stop at: the princeton record exchange.

milled around in there for a good hour and a half. Left with the belle and sebastina box set of singles, vic chesnutt's "the salesman and bernadette" which is one of them concept albums, grandaddy's "under the western freeway," because it's good and my mp3s aren't great, sigur ros' "agaetis byrjun," because, despite perfect mp3s, it just feels good to own, and that cover art rules me. Also purchased was an advance of sparklehorse - good morning spider for two bucks, pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain (which i now declare my favorite pavement album), and wilco - being there because hey, eight bucks for 2 cds? why the hell not.

ate soup and salad at some foofy princeton restaurant, and then headed to nj. bummed around a bit and then went to the movies. saw the first 30 minutes of final fantasy. after 30 minutes i had seen more than enough. the technology is really stunning. most of the time it's just jaw-droppingly good, but obviously CG, sometimes (mainly with steven buscemi's char and the band of extras) it was really awkward looking and made me uncomfortable, and there were a few times where all i needed to do was squint just the tiniest bit and i'd 100% believe it was real actors. this happened a lot with the old man voiced by donald sutherland, and also in a scene between the chick and the alec baldwin dude, where the animation was just so good but on top of it, the characters did all these subtle expressions and shit that i totally bought. too bad the story was shit, though, and after i soaked in enough of the tech, i walked next store and caught legally blonde.

i'm embarrassed to say this a little, but i absolutely loved it. i was grinning like a fool the whole time, except for those scenes where i was supposed to feel bad for reese, in which case i felt really bad for her. she was just so good, a real joy to watch. the movie was dumb, but had some great lines, and like i said, reese was absolutely wonderful. one idiotic scene with a bunch of women in a beauty parlor, but i'll forgive it that, and say hurray for legally blonde.

Oh yeah, earlier that day, i was at a stoplight where two lanes become one. next to me was this guy in a porsche boxter. we looked at each other, and you just knew it was on. the light turned green, and my little 4 cylinder honda accord smoked his ass. that ruled.

i think i want to get a record player. i don't know what for, it's stupid to switch from a cd collection to vinyl, mainly because of portability. but something just feels so goddam sexy about buying a 12" and setting a needle down on it and getting on with the music. maybe i'm turning into a snob, but i want one. if for nothing else but to sign up for the subpop singles club.

if i had anything else worthwhile to say, i've forgotten it.

the smell of my room makes me want to vomit. And i know idiot beck boy is behind it. It seriously is one of the foulest smells i've ever encountered, and i have no idea what to relate it to. it's just terrible.

writing workshops is fun. their great. i should really see about taking some more of it in my already to crowded senior year.

i'm going to jersey tomorrow. looking forward to playing music on the ride down. Not looking forward to driving the speed limit so that i don't get my license taken away from me.

I've got nothing. i'm doing laundry, i'm tired, i have shit to get together for tomorrow that i'm putting off until tomorrow so that i don't get to sean's until midnight and i'm really tired and have no interest in a house party. Oh well.

oh shit. there was something i wanted to write about, and i didn't write it down because i thought i'd remember, and now of course i have no idea what it was. fuck, it was really cool, too.

oh well, i did at least just remember something from a few days ago or last week. I read an article about homosexual dolphins. Now i thought the whole expose on gay animals having sex for pleasure was already done, but apparently it warranted a new study. In it, i learned that a collective of dolphins studied for a while they observed 22 instances of lesbian oral action. I never really thought about dolphins having sex organs, but i bet those snouts come in pret-ty handy for those gals.

now i've never seen jurassic park 2: the lost world, but i think i understand enough for the following theory to hold water. JP1 ruled. JP2 comes along, they try to make it work like JP2, but the scares are cheap, and the plot is more cumbersome than the T-Rex it stars. JP3 comes along, they learn from their mistakes. They take the simplest thing from JP1 that worked: the dinosaurs, and scrap the stuff in JP2 that didn't: the plot. We get a stupid movie, constantly plowing ahead with mindless action scenes and glorious dinosaur shots. There is no plot. There is no honest suspense. There is nothing that makes you feel like you're watching a well-crafted film, but it's an entertaining ride. There is no real climax and the ending is the most abrupt piece of shit ever. The movie has no real structure, the minute they land on the island, our stalwart travelers are instantly attacked by two huge fucking dinosaurs. Moments later, there is trouble with a pack of raptors, etc. Jurassic Park 1 was an exceptional suspense movie, and it looks like fucking citizen kane next to this schlock. But hey, it's good schlock, with dinosaurs. The action scenes were equal part thrills and outrageousness that made us laugh. But good god, seeing tiny pterodactyls pecking at a person just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Looks like i'm picking up a second job. Hopefully, next week sometime i will begin calling BC alumni during dinner time to ask them to donate money. Woohoo. Something about an extra $100 at the end of the week makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

The Pernice Brothers album sat really damn well with me today. Cleanly produced gorgeous pop. I figured from the live set last night that it might be what the album was like, but last night was a wash of loud noises, hard to hear vocals, and feedback and sloppiness and shit. Not a bad set, but i had a feeling not the best showcase of the pernice sound. Posies album was nice too, it was a live recording, but infinitely more clean than last night's performance, which was cool because i got to appreciate the music more than i did sitting on the stage last night. but i'll say this, they put on a fucking rock show. it was great, even if my ears had trouble distinguishing most of it. The chamber strings last night sounded like a rockabilly act mixed with some 60s strut and swagger. Album reviews suggested something completely different, but i wasn't about to drop $12 just because i thought i had read that it was really pretty and stuff. Not that they were bad, but it was a far cry from anything remarkable.

Some fun people in the front row for the posies last night. There was idiot bearded dwarf man standing right near me. He's the guy who somewhere along the line, found a connection to the band, and spent all the time that a band wasn't performing dropping names. He even made some comments to the singer dude about sending his brother a tape of a show or something, and he just kept going, "john" this and "john" that, and john was very curt in his replies and i gave him a look and he gave one back to me like "yeah dude, i wish this asshole would just shut up." Bearded dwarf name dropping guy also played air guitar during like every song. Then there was non-chalant taping dude, who had a mic stealthily taped to his shirt and wires coming out of his crotch. And he stood front row and tried to keep a low profile, every now and then pulling his machine out of his pocket and keeping it below his waist trying to look at it without being noticed. Unfortunately, due to his retard preoccupications, he stood the whole show in the front row looking barely interested. And then there was epilectic dancing guy. This dude, looked like someone i've seen before, and spent the whole show kind of teetering towards the stage and away from it, doing some weird retarded epilepsy dance. And also there was way too happy looking asian girl who had this huge fake smile and was mouthing along with that look like "wow, i'm so into this and filled with pure joy that i'm going to explode." and she looked dumb.

like, i guess the posies don't tour much and they're supposed to be broken up or something, and apparantly we got a good show last night. unfortunately, i was familiar with none of the music. But from hearing exclamations of surprise and looking at one guy off in the corner, we were treated to some pretty unexpected songs during the encore. They guys were also piss drunk, knocking back audience donated tequila all night. the encore was like 6 songs. the last 2 with the house lights on and music playing. that's pretty fucking cool. they're past the time they're supposed to be off the stage, the house lights are fucking on and they're just like "fuck it, we'll just play louder than the house system." makes me feel like i was part of something cool.

jesus christ. that goddam sandwich has become my life. That piece I wrote last week or whatever for class i had to revise for class today. so i did it. And now i have to do it again for thursday when i'll do a full class workshop. Good god, had i known it's future, i would have read a different one in class the other day. So i gave it a good workover today, read it, and now apparently there are all these racial overtones that are relevant to the BC scene of the divide between the rich white kids and the work-release or whatever black dudes behind the counter. I was just writing a funny story about my neurosis and sandwiches. For my rewrite on thursday i wonder if i'll try and play that angle up, it certainly can work, it's just a matter of whether i can make it work well. jesus, man. it's about a fucking sandwich.

today, rufus wainwright is a winner. he needs to be listened to more though. avey tare and panda bear is also a winner. a big winner. albeit, an extremely weird winner. it's the kind of stuff that i don't think anyone i know could get into, too much "noise" between the catchy stuff, but it's a balance that works great for me, even if it is really unsettling.

class ended earlier than usual, so i'm killing time before my concert. the pernice brothers, the chamber strings, and the posies. i've seen the first couple of names on pitchfork or allmusic recently, and i've heard the posies name all throughout my life, but the closest i've come to there music is that cut of "blow out" with their drummer and guitarist and thom yorke on vocals. Should be an interesting night.

time to go. actually, that's a lie. i still have 15 minutes or so. but it is time for me to stop writing this drivel.

so for the past hour or so, the internet has been broken here at BC and i was like "score. don't have to update." but now it's working and i'm updating.

Not that i have anything to say. i worked and then played chrono trigger. steph made macaroni and cheese so i was saved from another horrendous trip to the dining hall.

i fro'd my hair up in the bathroom and decided i'm going to grow it out like malik. and i'm going to carry a pick with me all the time and sometimes where it in my hair and it'll be really cool. I'll be known around BC as the dude with the kicking fro. I can't wait.

Listened to the sugarcubes debut at work today. the dude on there is scary, he comes in and sings icelandic and english words in a creepy gutteral growl like the guy in "barbie girl." But man, when bjork's going at it, it's all worth while. some quality stuff on that disc. all hail bjork.

i can make this look longer if i just hit enter a lot and fill up space.

see?

i've got to do some writing at work tomorrow for class, and then of course i have to go to class. There's a concert at the middle east i'm half interested in seeing: the posies, the pernice brothers, and the chamber strings. All bands i've heard of but not heard. it's only a half interest which will probably fade, but it might be fun to check out. it'd sure beat another night of chrono trigger.

So jude and daniele came up to visit yesterday. and since i really don't know anything else to do in this town, i took them out to cambridge and to my cd stores. new in my collection, disks from: television, unwound, thinking fellers local 282, avey tare and panda bear, kristin hersh, tom waits, the sugarcubes, cibbo matto, afghab whigs, and ben lee. And then we went to friday's where they were having all appetizers for 50% off, however, there were no potato skins so that kind of threw the whole thing off.

We then caught the score, which gets a big "eh," and then jude and daniele watched as katie oly mike and i did a power hour. that ended, and me and the visitors watched requiem.

that's all, i'm tired, i want to finish watching jackass and then play chrono trigger. regular updates return tomorrow.

So today at work, to the sounds of boards of canada, i composed my three 1 page pieces for class. They can be viewed here, here and here.

later this evening, i went down to Coolidge Corner to see Kristin Hersh. Engaged in some music talk with various people in line, and then eventually got in. Damon and Naomi was good enough to get me talking to Damon after the show and plopping down 10 bucks for a CD i've been interested in buying based on title and artwork alone for quite a few months.

Kristin was awesome. What a singularly unique voice. I was a little disappointed at myself for not knowing more of the music going into it, but it was still great. What a talent, just watching her play guitar is interesting enough. The show tonight was like miles away from the plan a couple of weeks ago. We were all seated in the theatre, Damon and Naomi was just a guy with an acoustic and a girl with a bass and an accordion. And Kristin's set was just solo acoustic. A nice change of pace.

I bought her "murder, misery and then goodnight" cd. Which is a tour only disc of her singing appalachian folk songs that daddy used to sing. let me tell you something, appalachia is a scary, scary place. It's home to Will Oldham, i'm pretty sure Smog, and without a doubt i'd say those fuckers in Cereberus Shoal are from Appalachia's deepest backwoods. I heard the appalachian song she played in concert, and then the first two on the CD. The song she played in concert was about a girl who wouldn't marry a dude, so he drowned her. The first song on the CD was about a girl who wouldn't marry a dude, so he stabbed her and then drowned her. And the second song on the CD was about a girl who killed herself because she didn't want to be another man's wife. Oh yeah, she drowned herself. Woohoo appalachia! And yet for some reason, she played the one in concert, and i became really intrigued in the macabre nature of the stuff and wanted the CD, so i could put it in before bed and get scared.

I wanted to buy a copy of Sunny Border Blue because i like the songs, i like the cover, and the Mp3s i have have a nasty trait of almost all being cut off. But for $15 i figured i'd pick it up used somewhere along the road.

So inconclusion. Hurray for Damon and Naomi. Hurray for Appalachia. And hurray for kristin hersh, who has a great repoire with her audience, a great voice, great skill on guitar, great songwriting, and she's really really cute.

Damn, as i was writing this, i sort of forgot i have work tomorrow. That's unfortunate, i liked it much better when i wasn't thinking about waking up at 8am. Oh well, i'll listen to music and type resumes and then it'll be over.

Speaking of music, death cab for cutie has inspired me to make a themed mix, bookended by "company calls" and "company calls epilogue." The middle will be songs that i thus determine to be "themed" appropriately. It's very much a work in progress.

Ack, Kristin's "the letter" is playing now. This song is almost too much to take.

So tonight's real world was a horrendous piece of shit. I wonder what snappy retort coral would have if i asked her if she knew when white history month is. Jesus christ, when you've got black people telling you to lay the fuck off the "ignorant white piece of shit" line, maybe you should just chill and actually get in touch with reality. I did gain one bit of insight from tonight's festival of idiots. When malik and mike were bonding and singing "no woman no cry" i realized something. In "twilight," the wonderful closer of the twilight singers album, it totally closes the song with the "everything's gonna be alright" from the marley song. That's pretty cool.

Today was radiohead appreciation day, in light of my conversation with Jude last night. Listened to OK Computer, Kid A and then Amnesiac at work. And now i'm listening to the Bends. Apparently, i was shooting from the hit when i previously talked about Amnesiac. The only song i have minor difficulty with now is "push/pulk revolving doors," and most of the other songs, even "packt like sardines..." i like a good deal. Well, "hunting bears," the instrumental goes nowhere and doesn't have strategic placement like the good in context "treefingers" on Kid A. But for the most part, amnesiac is cool shit.

And now a rehash of part of last night's conversation. Jude started it out with "radiohead will never accomplish in its lifetime what it set out to do on Kid A and Amnesiac." And i didn't know then and still don't know what that means. What followed was a discussion of how radiohead is alienating people and will not be remembered and not achieve mainstream success. I definitely disagree with that, i mean sure, they are losing fans, they are also gaining fans. They aren't 10 times platinum per album and will never see #1 on TRL, but that's not the point, there's no way you can be radiohead and expect that to happen. but this somehow makes the band less essential? That's where jude and i never quite gelled. He says dave matthews will be recognized as more important and better remembered in 30 years. I don't buy it. Kid A was an event. It was an event before it came out. For months, interviewers asked artists what they thought of Kid A. That doesn't happen with other releases. Why Radiohead? is it because they are so much better, so much braver, so much smarter than any other act out there? No, there are tons of groups pushing the envelope far more than radiohead, except radiohead has the balls and the opportunity to do it in a spotlight in the center of media and public attention. You can tell me radiohead isn't as listened to as other mainstream bands, you can tell me that joe average will be able to sing creep long after he'll be able to think of a title on Kid A, but you can't tell me that radiohead's presence isn't felt. There's a reason for it, one is that the music is most often exceptional. But also, as i said, because they are in the public eye and are doing nothing but pushing the envelope as far as they can take it. that's not the way things work. It's the tale told so many times, you have a brave, excited rock band doing their thing, but no one knows about them. They try things out, they play what they want to, they don't cater. They get noticed, and then they start to fit a mold because you need to sell what the people want to hear. You can't try something new because the label gets pissed, the fans get confused. They don't want to hear where you want to be, they want to hear what you know. Somehow, radiohead got to reverse this process. For whatever reason, each step of the way, they get more daring and yet they are embraced. and shit, more power to them, because it's hard to find a commercially viable act selling albums and getting positive press while being so goddam audacious.

going back to a thought i didn't finish above. dave matthews will be remembered in a better light and considered more important in 30 years. Last night i tried to change jude's mind by asking "what's more important, "barbara ann" era beach boys or pink floyd. and he said beach boys. I was out of my element, i don't really know pink floyd, but he brought them up earlier. I'm having difficulty making a good comparison here. But the whole spiel was like him telling me that the talking heads weren't important. They had a handful of popular singles. Nothing really amazing though. I can think of 5 or 6 talking heads songs i knew before i got into the band. They were pretty big. So was creep, fake plastic trees, high and dry, just, karma police. The rest of the TH catalogue wasn't know to joe average. The rest of the TH catalogue isn't know to Joe Average. Early masterpieces like fear of music and remain in light might put bad taste's in joe average's mouth. Fact is, what joe average does or does not know doesn't mean shit. The people who make music, and especially the people who make good music, are generally informed about the players in their craft. Music journalists make a career about writing about music that is good and can make a difference. Ask these people, who shaped modern music? was it the talking heads, or olivia newton john or wham! or lionel richie, who all had the biggest singles in various years during the 80s? Go find me a worthwhile band who says duran duran was their biggest influence. It might be the mass market appeal groups that shape a trend of music for several years, and there are decent mass market appeal groups, plenty of them. unfortunately, they spawn other groups who want to cash in on the same market, and do so while delievering a lesser product. Lifehouse, Train, Blink-182, Linkin Park, Staind, Uncle Cracker, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray. They're all comfortably sitting on the billboard charts. What is any of them doing that is original and is positively contributing to the future of music? Not too much, and down the road, after the imitators have gotten too shitty to survive, these "originators" will be forgotten or laughed about as well. Radiohead is doing something, they'll be remembered. Talking Heads was doing something, they'll be remembered. "Radiohead" comes from a talking heads song, i think that says something

my headphones came today, so i was giddy like a school girl all day. it's funny, they really do make a world of difference. It's not great though, since i listen to a cd, and then i listen to one of my shittily encoded at 128 albums and suddenly it's like i've lost a hundred layers of sound. so that's depressing, but for the cds i have and the stuff that's encoded not at 128 it's a lot of fun.

i can't sleep here anymore. i can't get out of bed because it's so unbelievable cold. i seriously fear taking the cover off in the morning. i've been sleeping with a sheet, comforter AND blanket, for christ's sake. I don't know why these idiots who live here insist on setting the thermostat at the coldest setting. i dunno, i thought the one guy was an indian but i guess he could be eskimo.

here's something i find really annoying. my direct roommate always comes in, i'm sitting at my computer, doing some computer thing, and he says "what's up." i hate that. i really really hate that. i always respond with "nothing," or "not much." but it's annoying as hell. just say "hey." "hey" is fine, it requires nothing of the other person but to say "hey" back. I realized this bothered me so much the other day, i was walking down the hallway and some dude passed me and said "whats up." I responded "not much." WHAT? he wasn't actually wondering what was up, nor does my roommate, but i'm compelled to answer in some relevant way, and it's fucking retarded. I felt like such a tool when i said "not much" to that guy passing me in the hallway, but seriosly, where does he get off asking "what's up?" I'm not saying it's bad to use it ever, i see my friends, or i call someone on the phone and i will say "what's up" and i don't even always want an answer. It can be used as just a generic greeting, but not in the situations that my roommate uses it and the guy walking in the hall did. you can only use it as a throwaway with your friends - with people you're comfortable with. and that's all i have to say on that subject.

also, on the way to work, my flip flop broke. i remember when i first noticed it falling apart, it was the wednesday of senior week. I was sitting in B52 with brenda kate and sarah, we were watching tv and eating jello shots and making bizarre drinks as we waiting for the b52 guys to get back from dance of the decades. I noticed a little tear in the little band thingy, and was like "oh look, my flip flop is breaking" and kate was like "oh no, let's go fix it" and she got up and we headed to the flip flop fixing room, and at that moment the men of b52 came back and all bets were off. So i let it go unfixed, then earlier this summer, i got worried that it was going to bust open one day, so i put some masking tape on it. well, this morning, it gave way, i don't know what caused it all of a sudden, but it just broke. and i had to walk to work barefoot. i tried putting masking tape on again, but it came apart. then i used packing tape, same problem. so then i got a paper clip and poked holes on each side of the tear and then covered the paper clip staple with tape. it's holding, but the paper clip bump is rubbing against my foot and that's not good. so now i'm just left wondering "what if." What if, back in the infancy of the tear, what if kate and i had successfully repaired it... would things be different now? would i be somobody else? would my life have direction? most importantly, would i have this annoying irritation on my foot from the paper clip rubbing against it?

jude and i had like a 2+ hour im conversation today. it veered onto music early on and stuck with it for a long ass time, but it all started with jude stumbling across an old note from jenn and playing the "maybe i shoudl keep up with people game." from there we moved on to the age old question about relationships with people, and how, a few years after college we'll be talking to like 2 people from college, if that. I don't know, maybe the two of use are just fatalists. Friend and teacher amy haga said i was a "cynical misanthrope," and i agree. but seriously, how many people in their 3rd year of college are still talking at all with the people they made such great efforts to keep in touch with those first couple of years. and of those who actually are, is any of it worth anything? I say no. When i say that all these great friends i have in college will just be memories a few years down the road, i believe it entirely. maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, but i doubt it. i think it's just reality.

ok, i should've been in bed an hour ago.

i woke up this morning and was really disoriented and confused. i believe now it is becuase i had no music putting me to bed last night. but maybe it was just because i was tired and shit.

and now, a musical journey, by brian peterik

I guess it all began in the car on the way to work, vic chessnutt's merriment was still in the player, and i let it play through. The disc just keeps growing and growing on me, it's just a solid album. Not bad for a parapalegic. I got into "work," sat at my cubicle, and got going. It was a day chock full of super good music moments. First off was the velvet underground & nico, since the first track on that is "sunday morning," and despite every instinct in my body, it was sunday morning, and this seemed appropriate. I think the guitar solo in "there she goes" is one of my favorite moments in song, it's sloppy as hell, simple as anything, but hell, i love it. I followed the underground up with the new bonnie billy ep, the one-two punch of the PJ Harvey and Bill Withers songs is just too good - i got so many chills i went back and listened to that sequence twice more. The Dump prince cover album was next, and maybe i'm instable, but i got really moved during parts of "1999," i dunno, james mcnew is just too soothing, and the fucking farfasa, man, it's great. That disc is just too good. 4 and 5 are so pretty and so dense with sound it's just like "cool." and "pop life" also takes me to a happy place. I turned things up a crank with the Plans !, damn good stuff, although, despite seeing travis morrison in concert, i just can't picture that nice looking guy spitting out these crazy spastic lyrics. "ok, joke's over" is the winner i think there, but there's a lot of great stuff that's in close competition. Somewhere in here i threw in sebadoh's bakesale, another solid effort, although it's only listen 2 and i'm not good pulling out specifics. Threw in the Magnetic Fields' Holiday, holy shit. My ears were surrounded with so much pop goodness i thought i was going to burst. Best. Album. EVAR. I threw on the Amps' Pacer, and promptly became madly attracted to Kim Deal, especially with her coy little speak-singing a la Corin Tucker's throwaways. Jeff Magnum's voice was as hauntingly affecting as ever on neutral milk hotel's on avery island, and the 13 minute indian-instrument drone-jam was as good as any to close out the day. We got let out at 6. I threw in the Wrens' Secaucus, and drove to Harvard. The Wrens stuff was cool, only my first listen though. And on some tracks, the singer sounds a little too much like Adam Gardener of Guster for me to be comfortable with.

Since I had just earned $230 out of nowhere, i felt obliged to at least spend a fourth of it. So i drove to planet records. you know, i'd really love for some asshole mr. smartey-man harvard student explain to me why his school, the smartest school in america, is located in the world's most mind-numingly retarded and broken 3 square blocks of road ever. I swear, trying to drive in cambridge is like trying to screw a tunnel. I guess that's not a great simile, but the point is it's really fucking hard.

after browsing planet records for 45 minutes, i made my selections.

it was singer songwriter day:
john wesley harding - awake
vic chesnutt - drunk
ron sexsmith - whereabouts
rufus wainwright - poses

and then the rest:
cibbo matto - viva! la woman
the high llamas - gideon gaye
clem snide - the ghost of fashion
throwing muses - the real ramona

the whole whoring myself out thing didn't go so bad. honestly, i was there 11 hours and it wasn't noticeable at all. i didn't even listen to that much music: just 69 love songs once through and then part of the vic chesnutt album. it amazes me, i've seen pictures of stephin merrit, and i simply can not comprehend the voice on the cds coming out of that small little guy.

and i could write more, it wouldn't be terribly interesting, but it would be more. but really, i need to go to sleep. i should've been asleep an hour ago, but i was hanging out with katie and adam and such.

out.

i have decided to take this weekend to whore myself out. that's right. i got myself a temping job doing data entry for $115 a day. it's like 12 hours, and a half hour away. But hey, i'll be $250 richer by monday. How will I do it? i'll tell you how. I'm going to keep myself going with the knowledge that every 2 cds i listen to, that's 1 cd I can buy. And whatever, what would i have done? slept till 1, wasted time till 4, and then done something lame like go to the beach with the kids (i hate the beach), and then spend money at dinner/movie whatever. And when i get back tomorrow, i can still join in evening fun - i probably won't, have to make adam cds and go to bed early, but hey, i'll have lots of new money.

today, the kids went out to the barking crab. i opted out because no matter how hard i'd try not to, i would spend about $35-$40 on a lobster that i didn't really want. I would've loved going to the italian place, but nooooooooooo, it's barking crab or nothing. That's ok though, because i ended up going to mcdonald's and witnessing the single coolest thing in the world. It was an automatic drink thingy. the guy would press a couple of buttons, and then, and this is completely automated, a cup would come down, go into a tray, get filled with ice, get filled with beverage, and get it's lid put on. I wanted to sit and watch it forever, but there were cars behind me so I was shit out of luck.

and that's my story. listened to lots more music today. the neutral milk hotel album kicks almost as much ass as aeroplane, galaxie 500 sounds a little like yo la tengo (maybe because i made my ylt mix at work, though), the mary timony album is odd, i'm undecided on it - but she still still looks damn sexy in that jailbait heroin addict way on the cover, and listening to this sugarcubes remix album makes me really want to hear more of this band.

i need to buy batteries tomorrow morning, so that i can drive my cd player and listen to music and be happy as i'm typing numbers for the man. and if they don't let me listen to music, i will pee all over their computers and go home.

and suprise suprise, my idiot roommate in the room next store is listening to hello nasty.

oh yeah, almost forgot. for all of you watching real world. Now, I love Lori dearly, but this is the funniest shit i've ever read.

well, i guess it had to happen sometime. my mother found this site. oh well. hi mom!

had some unhappy times getting up this morning, in fact, for a solid 5 minutes, i heard my alarm but i dunno, figured it was something other than an alarm. but i finally made it, and went to work, and since i had oh so much intern related stuff to do, i played snood and made a modest mouse mix for my uk dude.

the moment i left work, at 4:30, the every single freaking cloud in the world decided to explode right over my head. luckily, i left the building with the kid who is always there doing whatever it is he does, and he had his car, so he gave me a ride. Although, from the quick 20-30 feet from door to car, i became soaked like nobody's business. it was seriously bizarre.

then in my room i played lots and lots of computer games and listened to lots and lots of music.

i think the kids went to see memento, but, tempted as i was, i refrained. Because i'd be paying $20 that i shouldn't be spending on a movie i've already seen. in fact, i couldn't even go, because apparently i have $15 in my checking account. Yep, $14.88. Damn my spending spree on wednesday. Although, that was technically birthday money of which i've seen none as of yet.

No matter though, tomorrow is payday. although for some reason, i think i'd be financially better off if i were collecting unemployment.

gonna try going to bed now, earlier that i have been. i've been doing up the twilight singers album for bedtime, and it's been working quite nicely. the winner today albumwise was holiday by the magnetic fields. Although everything else was a damn close runnerup. especially the velvet underground and nico, but i guess that should go without saying, eh?

oh man, i need to be going to bed.

i woke up around noon today, and was a couple hours later dragged out of my room and away from my cds and computer games to go see some fireworks or something.

went to eagle's deli with katie mike adam oly and lori, i ate too expensive food and then we went into boston and walked around for a long time. randomly, in the common, we ran into lori's sisters and friends, and hung out with them, and walked with them, and i bought a little gay spongey thing for the shower, and then we ate at joe's, in a part of boston i've never seen or even imagined.

then, the college kids left and we walked for another billion years. eventually landing at the charles right on the water right across from the barge that they shoot the fireworks from. in the pre-show, we were entertained by the likes of Debbie Reynolds, who apparently was the chick in singing in the rain, and we also got cyndi lauper (only recognizable song she sang was true colors), and also arlo guthrie, of alice's restaurant fame (another hit we were deprived). Then the pops played the 1812, and in the finale the sky exploded. then we got the half hour fireworks show, and it was fucking cool as hell. i guess i really haven't seen fireworks for 10+ years, and wow, it was neat. even better was the idiot woman standing in front of us, listening to headphones, doing these outrageously silly dances, which at times drew more attention than the stuff in the sky.

a long trip back home, arriving close to midnight, making this day like 10 hours. an unecessary 10 hours. i mean, we didn't get to the fireworks place till 8:30 or so, but i guess the day wasn't a total waste. i'd go so far as to say i enjoyed it. what i did not enjoy was the forty bucks i spent, but what're you going to do.

then, back at bc, we watched lori read the real world message boards. funny shit. unfortunately, lori wouldn't respond, nor would she give me permission to respond with her name. but we did get her to sign some hideous web page somebody put up. words can't describe it, so check it out here. i will say that the midi on it is one of the coolest things i've ever heard. for half an hour we listened to it without a single complaint.

ugh, got to go to bed. achey as hell. i really hope my headphones come tomorrow, but to quote dean of dean's furniture: i doubt it.

at work today i played a lot of snood, and then discovered that the office closed at 3. i thought to myself "hmm. how can i properly celebrate this momentous occasion of getting out of work early?" and then it hit me: go to harvard square. so, to harvard square i went, i've been there a few times recently, checking out othermusic. well, today i realized something rather amazing: there are 4 great record stores withing like 50 feet of one another. two used places, and then other music and newbury comics. i spent like two billion dollars. here's the rundown:

from othermusic: olivia tremor contol - black foliage volume 1

from in your ear: the sugarcubes - it's-it, galaxie 500 - the portable galaxie 500, neutral milk hotel - on avery island, mary timony - mountains

from planet records: the velvet underground - the velvet underground and nico, the twilight singers - twilight as played by,,,, the starlight mints - the dream that stuff was made of, mercury rev - yerself is steam

from newbury comics: modest mouse - the fruit that ate itself, death cab for cutie - something about airplanes, vic chesnutt and mr. and mrs. keneipp - merriment, the sings - oh, inverted world, magnetic fields - holiday, and a silver mt. zion - he has left us alone but shafts of light sometimes grace the corner of our rooms

fifteen albums when said and done. not bad. still can't find that fucking mum release. anyway, the whole ordeal took me like 3 hours, but naturally i lost track of time.

got back, met lori adam oly katie and mike and ground round, ate food, went to lori's sisters' place. we watched the real world debut, it was cool. it was weird, lori's mom was in the next room, which was funny as hell. but i mean, as i watch it, it's totally lori. but lori is odd, and imagining what the millions of people who DON'T know lori think when they watch her just blows my mind. i'm used to her and her quirks and everything, but to them, she's just a random girl and ... wow, i don't know.

then after that we did a peterik powerhour, which got many of us rip roaring drunk. lots of fun there. then 6 people for a cab ride home and my left testicle squashed by fasano. hooray.

oh, i forgot my birthday. katie gave me the faggiest gift ever. bath and body works products. cucumber melon and pearberry shower gel and then rasberry hand soap with the crunchies in it. it's totally gay, but i'm totally excited for it all. karleen made me a cake, and then i got home to various phone and im messages. i honestly don't remember setting my away message to 'it's my birthday.' that's fucking weird, it's like something i would do while drunk, but apparently i did it while sober.

no, i just had a thought. i think adam set it. because, i really don't think i did it, and he sat at my computer. i just called to find out if my brilliant sleuthing was correct, but there was no answer. but i'm pretty sure it was him.

and now, i have 15 cds to unwrap and orgasm over. goodnith.

yeah so today at work i listened to the bonnie billy ep like 8 times. good good shit right there. the pj harvey and bill withers covers espeicially.

That sums up my workday.

at home, i tried playing a game, and it didn't work. so i formatted my drive and freshly installed windows 2000. not as if its a surprise, but the game still doesn't work. but hey, now i have a fresh clean OS drive.

I don't even have any observations. seriously, i'm really boring. got a couple of random inter-net mix trades brewing, i guess that's exciting.

and i guess i'm 20 now. it was funny, i was on the phone with my mom and i thought i was going to be 19, and i needed her to set me straight. whatever. i have birthday money to spend now. getting me a pair of headphones, and then, i dunno, maybe a whore or mail-order bride or something fun like that.

going to lori's sisters' tomorrow to celebrate our famous friend's real world debut. but the real excitement comes in the form of powerhour session #2. Can't wait for adam to participate.

all about eve / the birds / castaway / dog day afternoon / evil dead / fargo / ghandi / hero / ice storm / jumping jack flash / kafka / love story / manhattan / [couldn't think of one] / on the waterfront / patton / quiz show / rugrats in paris / stand by me / top hat / u-571 / [couldn't think of one] / waterworld / x / you can count on me / zelig

postscript: when out for a cigarette with katie and lori, we're out there, lori makes some comment about be having to go to sleep and i say "yeah, you know, we have jobs. we can't make it through life making appearances on the tv guide channel" and apparently that was the go ahead for some other people, who were out there to recognize lori and burst into a session of craziness. It was really quite humorous. and now katie and i have a new smoking friend. hurray.

and tim filled in my blanks: network and vertigo. gee, i'm dumb.

blah blah blah blah.

blah.

blah blah blah blah.

blah blah.

and that about wraps up my day. For those of you who are really interested, here it is: woke up, got lunch, lied on my bed watching episode after episode of farscape, had shells and cheese at katie's, and then watched more farscape and then jackass and then played snood.

i am the most exciting person on the planet.