in which i review the shit out of chinese democracy

i love the leading off with "in which" and i decided to snag that one, thanks to my sister and i think someone else a little while ago and the beginning of the let it be album. i've been giving chinese democracy a lot of thought since the most recent and finally true release information came out. hope i don't jinx it somehow, since it hasn't technically been released yet. i like guns and roses just fine, but they are not exactly my favorite of all time. i think they squandered what they had in a lot of instances. but they also made some pretty damn good music. enough to make me pretty curious about what axl rose would do over the course of fifteen years with a small army of sometimes bandmates. they're streaming it now, and i'm not doing much, and i was mostly unsatisfied with the reviews i've read thus far. so i am going to review it myself. probably favorably. if you do not want to hear a lot about chinese democracy, do not read this. or for a fun trick, imagine all references to the title of the release refer to the notion of democracy in china. don't forget your free doctor pepper.
starts out epically enough by building with ambient noise and gradually crescendoing unintelligable speaking? deliberate note-by-note guitar lead in before dropping into super heavy riff and an old school axl howl. starts off with pantera-esque bombast, giving way to prevalent overdubs of axl over himself in his upper end of the range. the rocking guitar is enough to carry this track on its own, although it seems to shift a lot, i am assuming different people played parts for this one. but hot damn. the song is satisfying overall, even if most of it sounds like late 90s metal acts (the ones not flirting with rap stylings) that had obvious g n r influences and a sick lead guitarist.
i guess the next one has been out for a while, and it is pretty grating at first blush. it sounds like it wants to grind along like something that could keep background, but then decides to assert itself rather intensely again. this one is a little over the top but not in a funny yet totally awesome way like the finest gunners stuff, just kind of silly, screams pay attention to me. there are a lot of abrupt changes, and now the sort of barked vocal noises are more like the awesome stuff i was references. but it has to change again and end the monkey noises, and just goes in reverse like it had started out. a definite listening experience, intriguing if not entirely pleasurable to hear.
things slow down at start out with a sort of trippy drum track and vocals. things snap together into a lean riffing mid-tempo rocker that trudges on methodically before predictably once again giving away dramatically and cranking it up to eleven. this is really my kind of track at some points, and it seems like axl might have actually been paying attention to the world around him and not just what he already had. i like that he managed to pick up some influences of major-league indie rock (not an oxymoron, i say). overall, my favorite track so far.
ballad time, which for axk means piano plinking time. i can dig that. stays pretty low key for a while before going monster ballad style. pretty old school right here. the strings come in to complete the scene. crunching riff and a guitar solo that doesn't soar quite as high as it could or should, no reason not to sustain the notes on something like this. it goes all the right places, but there are way better solos in this set, and that would have been prime time for one that was wasted alongside another elsewhere on the record. false ending, oh hell yes. almost makes the guitar fail forgivable, this is what i love about this band, epic cheese and unashamed. great structure to that track.
next one starts out with some flamenco guitar over electronica drum machines before a funk riff and strings (why now?) kick in. very strange stuff, axl trying to move in new direction is interesting. i hate to say it, but chuck kobesaw was totally right about this song. he said it sounds like a late pierce brosnan-era bond film both titularly and musically: "if the world". this is the counterpart to when the smashing pumpkins tried their hand with electronica influences for that batman and robin movie around that time. so while it is an update on gnr, it is not really current. total gorillaz moment there, sounds good but also dated and derivitive. it is not bad, just kind of forced indutrial sounding.
next one kicks off with some choir and then jerks into something that sounds like the backbone of a mid-tempo rap song. things shift into ballad mode again, and once again there is a lot of muscle backing it. this is some classic axl singing. there are some strange samples kind of muffled in the background, chalk that up partially to streaming from myspace i guess. kind of dragging a little before getting to the guitar solo, this one is more appropriately sonorous, if a little mournful, appropriate for the melancholy lyrics. everything comes together for a while before another solo, this one more of the bitchin' variety. things get pretty extreme here as they really rock it out, very well-orchestrated. incredible guitar part, really letting it all go. the conclusion is exactly what is expected, and does not disappoint at all for what it should be, and bring that choir back to finish things up.
another plodding rocker with a desparate, dramatic feel. this song would probably be much more appealing in a different place in the order, but at least the synthetic drums elements aren't present three times in a row. more good to great guitar work, enough to spare. this song is a somewhat definite member of a species, and a fine specimen at that, but out of its natural habitat. the listen begins to take on a little bit of an indulgent feel at this point. i must say the piano playing is right on and the guitar remains a respectful distance at appropriate times. this song is like a mountain without a peak, carrying a lot of weight and considerable height but it doesn't lead to anything in particular since it tries to be the big punch everytime the music shifts.
this starts out with some positively ridiculous vocal exercizes, almost an r&b kind of a thing but with an awful lot of axl. the guitar is menacing but immediately loses its effect as a result of the high-pitched response backup vocals and becomes merely cartoonish. once those go away, this goes back to the late 90s power metal feel and does do a great job of it, yet remains consistent with the proto-version of the sound the band named the same thing these guys are using did early in its career. predictably, the backup vocals return for the refrain. i don't really care for most things that come of as trying to be anthematic, and this song crosses the line at certain points. if i spent fifteen years on this song, i think i would realize that the lyrics sounded a little ludicrous even by gunners cheese standards. don't try and stop you axl? don't worry about it. we all wanted that dr. pepper.
this doesn't sound like axl at all at first, or like gnr for that matter. axl just did something really really weird with his voice there. slow tune but not a ballad. wait for it, you know it is coming... psychedelic rock out. the whole thing is like some perverse interpretation of late-era beatles and its descendents up to and including the turn of the century. yet another stylistic element comes into play with a notably bluesy guitar solo. the song takes on a very comfortable feel, a more resigned angst than the bitter nervousness that gives some gnr material its edge. this is like a take on alice in chains, and it works out well overall. still, a lot going on and some parts are better than others.
brooding opening, tries to be spooky and then spacy before picking up a dancy feel for a moment. more vocal shenanigans before any lyrics. another abrupt change here, another strange electronic noise there. rocking out pretty hard for the most part, a song that lurches between classic driving guns and roses and iron maiden filler album cuts. those vocal shenanigans return, and it sounds like he is almost trying to do his own immigrant song thing. fortunately, guitars to the rescue. pretty sweet, sounds like something zakk wylde might play.
classic rock time, and they do it up right and proper. there is a fine line between a feel-good song you just want to sing along to and trying to be anthematic, and axl gets it right this time around. i don't know the words yet, but i am considering learning them and ordering a whiskey and putting this on a jukebox somewhere for a good time. not that i would really be able to keep up with some of the screeching axl does here. i really wonder when that part of the vocal track dates to. this one is a highlight for me, but there isn't any real ending to it, which is unfortunate, i wouldn't have been opposed to another false ending in all honesty.
horns first, then strings on top of it. once again, it is unclear who is even singing here. it is the same person always, but it wavers between sounding like axl rose sounds and sounding like no one else ever has sounded. kind of strange. things slow back down but not too far. more mechanical-sounding drums drive a steady pace, and things culminate with the guitar paired along more samples from cool hand luke and something else, i don't know. the strings add some bravado at the right time but then put things back to where they came from after a brief rock-out. for some reason this track seems like it should be the last one on the record. it is just that kind of a song. not bad, not the greatest all the time, but really good when you want to hear it. when you don't want to hear it you can be pretty comfortable about ending the listen there, and that is why it should be last. anytime you sample martin luther king jr, that is just something that should finish things. this one fades out the way it should but the final strings flourish is a little unnecessary.
this is not a cool ballad right now. painful axl. too much, even the piano isn't doing it for me right now. predictable strings. the soft music just makes axl seem that much more piercing. this is one of those times he should stay down in the range. the mandatory guitar solo is quality but restrained.
the final cut is not as good as the song that should have ended the album, but it does have that same the record finishes here feel. the two songs are relatively disparate, but they accomplish the same feel in different ways. this one almost seems even more deliberately crafted for that regard. makes sense, if you're going to spend fifteen years on something and keep it from sprawling out of control, presumably you also have an interest in some album-craft to the point of specific beginning and closing songs. this is a long, dramatic, choreographed farewell sequence. it serves its purpose well. personally, i was so ready to say goodbye at the twelth track that i am more than ready to do so with this one. it was, however, good to me.
all of these songs are really full of ideas and the 15 years thing makes some sense. i think he could have made just as good of a record, and bizarrely as cohesive, if he just spread things out instead of trying to do too much at once. this could have wound up like the white album. being what it is, chinese democracy stands even less of a chance of a fair review than just about anything else in some time.
people almost always approach any given thing with the sum of their life's experiences in relation to whatever the context is. lots of things factor in, and just about all of them, at the end of the day, are opinions. the point is, a lot of people have a lot of opinions about this record before they have even heard it. it works that way for everything, but in this instance, those opinions are particularly strong among certain segments of the population, namely just about everyone who has any interest in hearing a guns and roses album that was fifteen years in the making and is made up of basically axl rose and a bunch of other dudes who are not recognized for their extensive credits on previous studio material under the name guns and roses. those are just a few of the aspects that make people inclined to either want to love or loathe this record.
music is by its nature a very subjective thing, but the people interested in chinese democracy can probably agree on a few basic things. axl rose has previously been involved with quality studio material. he is, whatever else one might say about him, a reasonably talented individual. fifteen years is a lot of time to spend working on a single release. there are therefore bound to be at least some good points about chinese democracy.
all that aside, people have several reasons to know how they want to feel about this music before they have even heard it. admittedly, i wanted to like it. i also wanted to appraoch it as objectively as possible, but it just doesn't work like that. music is a language that doesn't function as one. this is why everyone has different ipods and pandora stations, and moreso why you'll always skip something on someone else itunes library or especially why your carefully whittled internet radio station eventually plays something you have no interest in hearing or downright detest. the pandora thing is based on the objective elements, and sometimes they just do not add up right at all.
this is not too far off from what is going on with chinese democracy. axl has an established palette to draw from, but he adds to it appropriately for the most part. the occasional offending elements are certainly present, but most of the time, this record is actually precisely what it should be considering the incubation and perfectionism. it has its own relative spectrum of good and bad. as a whole, though, this is really pretty good music. everything on chinese democracy is well-crafted if a little too deliberate at times. it deserves to be listened to closely. i just wrote down my first impressions and certainly went back for more. if you think you would like something like what was described above, this will be worth checking out. if you don't like guns and roses, of course you won't like it. if you think fifteen years means it will be the best album ever, you won't like it. if you just want to listen to a strange record some time, you might like it.

i heart google ads

i did find something to do yesterday after that blog post. it was quite an adventure, but it is not the story i intend to tell at this time. right now, all i want to say is:
(link) Supreme Court
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hot dog

oh man i just ate a couple of pretty excellent hot dogs. on par with epic sandwiches? not quite. it is, after all, a hot dog. however, this has been a breakthrough in its own realm. this was achieved with the assistance of the achewood cookbook. a number of small but important adjustments make all the difference. first of all, toasting the bun. this is very simple and absolutely key. also, cooking in a little bit of water in a frying pan. this is probably the ideal way of heating the dog, very even and undamaging. typically all i really care about on a hotdog is ketchup; other things seem to get in the way of this basic enjoyment. i do like onions, but you never need a whole onion's worth of onion for a hot dog or two. fortunately, roommates with the assist. the fridge had half a small red onion (still only needed a couple slices), some dank mustard and crucial relish. this was truly the budget gormet, and having the little things required in small amounts on hand makes all the difference. i have not felt this good about eating a hot dog in some time. i mean, yesterdog is good, but it has been a long time and also i still recall that one almost never feels good about eating yesterdog.
the whole hot dog thing started with a conversation a couple days ago that dwelled on them for a while, although i cannot recall the exact point of the conversation. i awoke the next morning with an acute desire to eat a hot dog. i thought about it for a second and decided that was a silly thought. after a while i realized the craving had been ignited by that conversation and that i still wanted a hot dog. after about four hours i decided that i really truly did want a hot dog and would probably be pretty satisfied if i had one. it isn't a huge investment, after all, and they make for reasonably priced personal food units. and so i did indeed purchase hot dogs to sate myself and i thought it hit the spot. i must say that the much-desired albeit overly and unevenly microwaved and ketchup-slathered object possessed a very small fraction of the crude culinary delight i have just experienced.
the point is, sometimes the little things kill, and sometimes the little things never let you down, never run around and desert you. if you have also gone some time without a hotdog, you should probably have one. a delicious one. that goes double if you are a vegetarian. no matter who you are, do it for taste. do it for america. do it for freedom.
sweet jesus, did i just write a blog post about hotdogs and close out with references to bush and rick astley? i should probably go do something.

breaking news

i am not up to a whole lot. very little, in fact. just wanted to keep you posted. in non-news:
exams are drawing perilously near. i have not been over-committed to concerning myself with them, but we are approaching the point where there is just too much ambient angsting to ignore around the school. in that environment, the worst things thrive and multiply. this is one of the many reasons i do not like to study there. there is so much anxiety and fear-mongering and even the inoculated succumb to the pandemic. i'm doing my best though. i'm not going to buy any fucking flash cards. all answers will be in the book. i already bought that. these people go through life solving problems by throwing money at them. i try to solve most problems by doing nothing. recent studies suggest that the two approaches have a nearly identical success rate. both of course fail when compared to logical, well-reasoned courses of action. that being said, i think logical inactions result from the preferred method more often than monetary transactions do. the takeaway comfort here is that, in law school at least, i am confident that i am just as well off as those poor souls oozing stress and returning that unique and putrid scent to the bunker we call a school. i don't know if it is them or flooding or something dead in the heating system anymore. however, the proximity of actual events does demand some attention that may or may not be forthcoming, as remains to be seen.
and just a little more law school: this morning i had the misfortune to sit by people before class. these were the sorts referred to above. amid other exam bitching, a girl mentions that she "doesn't get" why explanations for answers are an essential part of law school exams. after all, if she knows the answer, why should she ever need to understand it? just like math, she says: if she can write down the correct answer, why should a showing of methodology be demanded? foolishness, but a basic sort. this is only the set-up, though. then she adds that professors should assume she possesses requisite understanding if she has a correct answer because, of course, "i'm already in law school, they don't let idiots in here." shoot me now, folks.
just a little more law school: that one girl i used to complain about and may or may not have labelled as my personal nemesis? i have a class with her this year again. as it turns out, she is not so bad. not entirely unpleasant to talk with. really a pretty alright human being. i do not know which of us changed much, if either or both, but i suspect it is largely perception. although i swear she was a real bitch last year. we're not going to be best friends forever or anything, but she is a friendly acquaintance at this point.
not law school: i am currently sporting a moustache i must say i feel pretty good about. the beard is not entirely gone because for one thing, i didn't want it to be, and for another thing, that would require a razor that i do not own and do not wish to purchase. so basically i trimmed everything pretty far down except the moustace. the ends are curled up and kind of point toward my nose, as they can't quite complete the full circle yet. with a little more length or a bit of murray's, this should be doable. it is pretty silly, but also pretty old school. it goes well with the notorious h.a.t.. the best explaination so far is that i look like other a prospector or haberdasher. also, take that, law school. hah, snuck it in there on you.
pandora is treating me pretty well these days on jimi hendrix radio. the cool thing about pandora isn't always so much discovering a new artist with more than one song you dig or a deep cut from a favorite as much as it is hearing music you know and love but do not get to hear very often and wish you had purchased back when you bought a ton of music. the kind of albums a friend has and you always meant to get a copy of and never did. music you knew you like but had no idea how much.
recently made a christmas list. strange exercise, really. i'm not sure what it says about someone, but a collection of twelve or so items that one would enjoy but not necessarily independently purchase says something. it was also bizarre to put it together as a series of hyperlinks. a good thing, really, as there are more things available through the internet than any physical place in the world on its own. i do not understand how dhl fucked up in an era where so many things are shipped, but that is neither here nor there. i was able to suggest something that doesn't even exist in the specific form, and there is some mystical appeal to personalization these days. people have commissioned things for a long time, and this is simpler, but i think the appeal is somewhat similar.
finished that riddley walker book a while ago. very thought-provoking. my preferred kind of fiction, good story with lots of hazy metaphor and playing with language. the style forces you to constantly think and interpret and makes for slow going, but is ultimately fairly rewarding. if you don't like the idea of reading a book with everything spelled unconventionally, then you should probably make sure you do not read this book. if the concept doesn't bother you and you enjoy literature from when people still worried about nuclear war a whole bunch, this comes highly recommended.
the heater is finally kicking on. it has turned cold here, but no snow yet by any means. allegedly some shall fall soon, but i remain skeptical about its significance. i actually kind of want to see some snow fall though, and might even go outside and look. in any event, i am sure i will see enough when i go peninsula stlye. yeah, i went there. should be back on or around a week before christmas, and for a while. looking forward to seeing everyone.

tonight is a good night i think for updating neglected blogs

if you are picking up what i am putting down that is good and we are friends. if you are not, we are friends and you should spend more time with your friends at qwantz.com, official home of always making me laugh on the internet. i believe i have mentioned this previously, but i also believe that it bears repeating.
what have i been doing? the same things i normally do. i have been remiss in relating many adventures of the past month or whatever it has been. some of these adventures: philly won that world series, there was some dancing in the streets. they had a parade on a day that also happened to be halloween. i wore a milk crate on my head most of that day in the crude semblance of a costume. i did the same thing at night that i did last year and chronicled in this space and it seems like a lot of time has passed. i went to go see rocky horror picture show as a stage production. my friend was frank n furter and he showed up just about everybody else by being fucking amazing. another friend was also in the production and i was unaware of that until he emerged as rocky from the lab table wearing very very little. i taught my buddy how to brew beer. despite my repetition of the fact, he was still amazed at the ease of the process. i went to baltimore and hung out with mando and the dwy. we went here. there was good beer and delicious garlic-rosemary fries. that man who speaks eloquently and raises hell of funds won a contest that night too. i assume the people who live in this house around the corner (across from the old place) from me were pretty excited. seriously, click that link and look around. i promise that one will not barackroll you.anyway, i probably did some other stuff over that month that was fun too but is not presently springing to mind.
law school is still law school. i don't know if i hate it less than i used to or if i just hate it differently. i choose classes now and i feel like maybe i could do some kind of lawyering perhaps someday, i don't know. trademarks are pretty alright. there are still a lot of unpleasant people to be around though and i do not feel like i am engaging with things too much or even like i could if i just tried a little harder. it is less fun now because one of my best friends is not going anymore. i mean, the people i am friends with at law school share my distaste for the ordeal, but we are mostly talk and stuff. but she is gone and it is kind of different not having one of five people i am actually friends with not be there anymore. but she lives close by now. i can't blame her for doing what she is doing and i do not know if i wish i could or not.
i have not been forced to leave my current housing due to lack of respect or anything else. i like living here and i think i do better when i have people around. my hope of working more and harder because i lived alone mostly just resulted in being lonely and having a lot of trouble getting out of bed for like anything except class. i wonder what will happen in a year when some of my friends here say they will move to portland. i would like to move to portland maybe. it seems to be a pretty common sentiment among the people i know and spend time with. but i have things to do here. nobody knows what will happen ever.
i have had some pretty exceptional brews over the last month too. victory's hop wallop is out again and you should enjoy some of that. i found founders harvest ale and i was happy to find it and happier to sip it. weyerbacher's fresh hop was also top notch. i must say i was not overwhlemed by that magic hat you kids have been extolling, the fall brown whatever it was. it was okay. i look forward to tring the winter odd notion. roxy rolles is out again too. i cannot recall if i mentioned that imperial pumpkin ale or not. if you ask and also say nice things to me i might bring one for you for christmas. it is pretty remarkable. the real revelation in the world of brew for me over this past stretch has been some heady cans. i knew oskar blues' dale's pale ale pretty well, the ultimate beer for events where you can bring beer but not in glass. that could not have prepared me for the big fat malt fest of old chub scotch ale (watch out old founders dirty bastard) or the sticky hoppy nirvana of gordon. i do not know why these folks wanted to do the can thing; they do not need a gimmick.
i have been enjoying the musical stylings of band of horses. as usual, i am not at the forefront or anything, but those guys are pretty frigging good man. i have a fever and the only cure is more reverb on the vocals. i get the my morning jacket comparisons and i like both but i hear some pretty significant differences. horses have put out much less material and thus it seems to me like they are more consistently good, but that is because my pandora keeps playing obscure primitive mmj tracks. i have also been digging on modest mouse and do not think their most recent album is quite as bad as everyone else does. also on the music front, tea leaf green is playing a lot of shows pretty close by but not in the city. i am pretty frustrated because i can't seem to find a way to any of these gigs. hopefully something will give; i have to believe there are other people on the internet who are making at least the short trip to lancaster, if not stroudsburg and towson. i am listening to the most recent philly show and i still recall it as one of the best nights of my whole life.
i feel like i haven't really gotten much on the table here, and yet the whole typing is kind of cathartic. questions or comments? please fill out a survey card and put it in the box.

timesuck

so i have been wasting time all over the interwebs (int0rwabs? teh? the gore? i just don't know anymore), pretty much everywhere but here. this has, however, led to some maintenance (can never spell that one right; i swear i tried it that way already) of the links section. so here is your shocking update: the comic linked under 'funny' has been removed because it has not really been funny at all recently. boo to that, so i dealt the site the crushing blow of removing it from my links. it has been replaced with another one, though, of course. this other one is somewhat reminiscent of dinosaur comics (which should really be moved to funniest) but there are some differences. the artistic concepts (although this one changes every time) and humor are along the same lines. also added a link to my sister's new blog that she is writing from the land of thai chili crisps, a.k.a. england. she is a super good writer and this is a great chance for you to learn everything you wanted to know about libraries in london (and some other stuff) but were afraid to ask. check it out.
in addition to tons and tons of stuff i have learned about that no one else would care to hear about, i recently turned up one item that is probably of fairly pervasive interest: npr's website will stream the new dylan album for the week leading up to its release, starting september 30th. i'm sure plenty of people knew that already, but either way, i think it is pretty cool. this is a perfect thing to have streamed because it is something that has the opportunity to be really good or er, not, and plenty of people are going to purchase it anyway.
as i mentioned earlier, my sister has departed to a place across the ocean with confusing signage. before she left, there was a send-off soiree at her place where i had a good time. while many people show up to these sorts of things with somewhat convoluted connections, i always seem to be a little out of place despite the gene pool thing. in any event, this party was also talk like a pirate day, so i made grog. i thought grog was just rum and hot water, but there is other stuff in it like sugar, citrus juice, cinnamon and cloves. in fact that is all the other stuff that is in it. it comes out kind of like mulled wine. kept it warm with a rice cooker which did the trick splendidly. however, there were an awful lot of bevarages present and not all of it got consumed during the party. it sat around at my place for a couple days until a few of us were up late drinking and ran out of beer. this led to the invention of quite a delicious drink combining about equal parts grog and a iced tea/lemonade mix. pretty diluted at that point, but also entirely delicious. i do not know if letting things sit about for a day or two has any effect though, and we decided we should probably make it again and find out.
the next night brought a crab feast, which was pretty frigging awesome. the whole idea got started because we took on an additional roommate for a couple months, a friend of a current roommate who wanted to get out of baltimore. so this guy is coming up from maryland, and the idea is to have him bring up a bushel of live large blue crabs. we will wait here for him and drink beers and get things going in the afternoon. well he was late out of the gate, and upon attempted purchase of crabs discovered that prices had skyrocketed and the desired type of crab was not even available. fuck that, we said. what wound up happening was many phone calls resulting in a lengthy expedition into the northern part of the city and a savings of roughly eighty dollars. the girl who drove actually left before we even got the crabs cooked though! i felt bad. fortunately, we had copious amounts of boulder brewing's 'hazed and infused' which is a quality beer that is ideal for protracted good times such as a crab feast. somewhere between a pale and an ipa in terms of bitterness, with a svelte body that makes for smooth and easy drinkability, especially combined with the overall refreshing floral character. a good time was had by all.
speaking of baltimore, i found myself there again the other weekend. i was in exactly the same part of town that i had been to before for the kinetic sculpture race. at first i was surprised, but when i thought about i realized that the sorts of things that would draw me to go down there would probably be in the same general vicinity. checked out the american visionary arts museum, which was very intruiging but kind of small. it looked like there would be more from the outside. the outside is almost as good as some of the stuff in there though. to be fair, one of the floors in the main building was closed for the instillation of an upcoming exhibit, and we got discount admission. still, the permenant collection just wasn't as expansive as i assumed it might be. size aside, that stuff was really really cool. the artist bios are also a lot more interesting than the typical fare. the idea with the museum is that everything it has comes from entirely formally untrained artists. so there were some pretty crazy people who had stuff in there, and it was pretty nifty. the set-up of the museum is also a refreshing change of pace, three different buildings with different layouts and purposes. i think i would have been a lot more blown away by it had i not seen so much of the cool stuff outside when i was there before, but it was still worth exploring fully.
the real reason to go to baltimore was for a concert, though. we had a bit of a tough time finding the venue, which turned out to be a little embarrasing. it was at this place called the pier six pavillion, right, but all the stuff around had signs for what was on pier five or four or whatever. we had no problem finding those piers. but we were trying to hard to follow directions instead of common sense that says pier six is probably not too far away from pier five. oh well, we found it with time to spare.
i was unaware that the first band was even going to be on the bill. they were called [someone's name, justin something?] and the driving rain. pretty innocuous and a little bland, but very adherent to solid americana rock and roll. mid-tempo country rock with a lot of organ. the guy played whatever he had through a leslie, and that sounded pretty damn good. frontman could sing. just nothing i could get all up in arms about. kind of reminded me of the wallflowers.
i was not there to see a band of that description. rather, i was there to see the avett brothers, who i have been raving about and constantly listening to ever since i got talked into riding along to a free show of theirs in pittsburgh a few months back. they did not disappoint. i don't think they could if they wanted to; it is just not in them. it was a much different experience to be intimately familiar with the catalog this time around. spent more time being pumped about what was being played than looking around and enjoying myself but a little of unsure about how incredibly excited everyone around me was. great show, could tell the guys were a little tired but giving it every once of energy they had, and the crowd was just wild the whole time, couldn't get enough and couldn't calm down, although people were impressively respectful during quieter numbers. seems like this band is always on tour, and i cannot stress enough how worthwhile it would be to get into this band through a live show or any sort of recording. let me know if you need something, seriously.
despite the unbridled enthusiasm of the crowd for the avetts, they were not the headliner at this show. that would be the drive-by truckers. i feel like most people who should be into this band already are, but if you've enver heard them you probably should. some serious southern-fried guitar orgy balls to the wall rock. it was really good live and loud as fuck. they played their asses off too. one of the three guitar players spent a decent chunk of time on the pedal steel, and i can never get enough of that. their backdrop had some things on either side that looked like demonic swans. i am not sure what was up with that, but whatever. let there be rock, indeed. all together, it was a great show at a chill venue in a beautiful setting; an ideal combination. saw some wire-status parts of the city on the meaner out, just to keep things interesting. and then there was the ride. i like rides. that was a good day.
i know today is supposed to be friday night or whatever, but i'm totally just going to sit around and watch the debate. i don't know why; i usually don't bother. kind of curious, and it is one of those things it feels nice to have one's own interpretation and understanding of. i'm sure plenty of people i know here are going to go out and watch it. to me, going to a bar seems like the worst possible idea. no good can come of that.
in fact, as i was writing about this, one of my roommates said goodbye. i asked where she was going. to the bar to watch the debate, of course. but apparently she is watching it in a semi-private room with some organized group of obama supporters. as long as your someplace where you can avoid a fight, you're alright. i don't feel like that is real likely a lot of places i would go to. freedom, terra, etc.

hat

i am currently wearing a hat. this is not a normal thing for me. figured i would give it a shot. it is kind of weird to see it in reflections. i have tucked all of my hair under it in an effort to simulate to some degree my appearance without all of that hair. kind of livable. but i think i would need to keep the hat. maybe i can get used to this. it is not an ordinary style of hat. sort of like engineer style. the main issue is that it is maroon and sort of clashes with a lot of what i own. oh well. it is only a hat.
in addition to acquiring said hat, the last few days have not been lacking in activity and amusement, due in large part to a visit from my mother, her mother, and a family friend. although the visit was on short notice and consequently of some stress, a good time was had by most if not all.
i got to go to a play. i like plays and i rarely see them because i have not made it enough of a priority. unfortunate as that may be, it made it that much nicer to see one again. it was about joe hill, who was an early folk singer and iww union organizer. sounds like a pretty solid guy. it was a one man show, which was impressive because it was well-executed. the guy sang very well and played the banjo and accordion adequately. overall i thought it was a strange show for my family to select but i rather enjoyed it. some pretty cool theater trickery, excellent use of a minimal set, and a thought-out design of the set in the first place made it a solid experience.
the next night we were supposed to go see a baseball game, but it got rained out. instead, we went and ate a bunch of delicious food. it was sort of tapas-style, and highlights included a barbeque chicken quesedilla, calamari, cheese steak eggroll, and a thoroughly decent shiraz. this also marked the first time i have visibly prayed in a restaurant in as long as i can remember. afterwords we got gelato. if you enjoy ice cream and have not had gelato, do not eat gelato. it is exponentially superior and you may find it difficult to settle for inferior frozen dairy desserts after experiencing the rich, savory wonders of gelato.
i also went to a small-scale neighborhood music festival sort of a thing the other night. it was supposed to start at like four or something and i knew roughly five people wou were sure they were going to be there. well, of course nobody else went when i did, for various reasons. that was acceptable. kicked around the park it was at for a while. nice little place, as much a garden as a park, really. it was up in a neighborhood that has been hip for some time, and as a result the only people other than me at the park toward the beginning were parents with children who were not older than three or so. there were several of these units and then me, and also the few people who had something to do with the festival. i am always open to hearing new music, especially live, especially free, but admittedly the strongest draw of the even came from the alleged offer of free beer with purchase of ten dollar cup. and not shitty free beer either; i thought it was going to be yard's but it turned out to be pbc. those guys are pretty good too. the thing was, as the event got rolling with the speed and grace of a two-toed sloth, no beer was being poured. there was a setup for it, brought by a large truck covered in the brewery's regalia. there were people to serve it. but something wasn't right. i didn't want to be the one person hassling the people who were there to serve beer and not serving it, as there had to be some sort of a real problem to keep absolutely everybody on the scene from not even having a beer. and yes, there was a problem: the regulator for the co2 tank was broken and they had to wait for another to be delivered. it was kind of a long wait. i felt bad for the first band because there was almost no one around and even fewer people listening and no one at all with a little fermented lubrication to incite a little dancing. but they were troopers and pretty enjoyable. they are called blivit. anyway, by the time they were totally done, there was beer. and it was good beer. so i had as much of this beer as i wanted and the time began to slide past a little quicker. before i knew it, dusk was settling and some of the people who said they were going to be there at four-ish showed up at maybe eight-ish. these weren't even people i really wanted to see there, but they were indeed people i knew, and they were indeed there. i got shuffled off to one of their houses, which was right around the corner. it was not a place i anticipated ever finding myself in life, knowing the homeowner. no matter. i had enough beer in me to not navigate social situations in the manner i am accustomed to, and thus wound up at this house for quite a while. a lot of people wound up showing up and it was kind of a party, although the beer was markedly inferior to what i had been enjoying. some of the peopel who showed up were pretty cool though and actually live by me in a different part of town. i was surprised i didn't already know them, really. so that was enjoyable, but i'm not sure why they were there at all. after more arrivals and ensuing shenanigans and confusion, i wasn't entirely sure what to do. i wound up back at the festival, which was still going but wrapping up. last band was pretty good too, but my own quality was in decline after a rather lengthy afternoon. i walked my sorry ass a few blocks to the el, got on, and went as far as they would take me, which was about where i needed to be. however, it was actually even closer to the grocery store, and i decided that this would be a good time to do a little shopping. honestly, it could have gone much worse. i think i will probably eat most of what i purchased. good thing i was already totally full when i went or i probably would have purchased a lot of things i was not going to eat ever or at least before they were no longer worth eating.
i am currently killing the last few minutes i have before my night class. mondays are kind of brutal, and not because of class, but more because of sheer time spent in this god forsaken building. just being in this space is taxing for me. it shouldn't be, but it is. also, if i hear one more person talk about tonights upcoming eagles game, i may have to punch them.
speaking of eagles, i had a rough night... no. i just read a funny case where don henley was the plaintiff. he successfully sued these folks in texas who made a pun-based ad for their henley shirts. i do not know if i was aware that he shared a name with a garment. but i like cases with things i know about, like don henley.
and finally, RIP richard wright. if i didn't have class i would be trying to sort out and play each contribution he made to the floyd cataglogue. maybe i'll just stay up late. in my hat.

kwame kilpatrick was forced to leave due to lack of respect

ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of detroit. i know i'm a little late on this one, but hey, i've been busy. kind of. at any rate, it is more difficult to blog when not home and alone most of the week. the point is, it took kwame an even more unreasonable amount of time to remove himself from office. beyond that, i strongly desire to acquire a "free kwame" t-shirt. preliminary internet searches have proven fruitless. lots of stupid puns on "text" and so forth. but the streets of the d have to hold a trove of kwame-related merchandise. i would like to think so, anyway. so someone closer than me should probably go to shitty parts of detroit and get me some kwame swag. these will be collector's items, people. he was, after all, the first hip-hop mayor. just ask him.
i'm even later in reporting this: my favorite sentence of all time that i have read on wikipedia is no longer there. i mean, i guess they didn't have a citation, but i feel like someone in the know was just sharing the truth. through a series of events (you know how wikipedia goes) i wound up at the entry for the kottonmouth (this is not marked. something is wrong.) kings. background info: their first album prominently featured a rapper who left the group not long after the release of said album. he has not appeared with them since, and there has been no explaination for this course of events. someone who helps the world's knowledge through wikipedia knew though: saint dog was forced to leave due to lack of respect. i promise this is absolutely hilarious if you are familiar with the kottonmouth kings and wikipedia. it's still pretty funny anyway. forced to leave. there was no choice. lack of respect. who was not respecting whom? it is unclear. what was the nature of this lack of respect? also unclear. we just can't be certain. all we know is that saint dog was forced to leave due to lack of respect. if the world was a perfect place, "[noun] was forced to leave due to lack of respect" would be the next major internet meme. i feel like i could make it happen with the right picture, just spamming the hell out of 4chan until people agree that it is funny. i was actually directed to something worthwhile recently from 4chan: metallicats?
other than those important things, there has been some other stuff. i moved. it went alright, dude's everything got a little dinged up. it is over though. i like the new place and having people around again. jack is probably the happiest cat in town and straw is coming along fine as well. my shit is still in total disarray, but whatever. it really doesn't make all that much of a difference to me just yet, although there will be some improvements. but really, my bedroom was pretty much a mess the whole time i lived alone; i took more care of the areas i actually hung out in. there are plenty of places to hang out here, and they're not even all my responsibility. we added an additional room in a way a couple days after i moved in. we cleared out the basement, which had clearly not happened for some time. it was mostly just full of crap that should have been thrown away, and so that is what we did with most of it. but now we have like an additional living room down there, got a drum set, my buddy has his turntables and all his records, couple guitars, couch, tables, shit. i wish i could say i have a car and everything (fuck yeah!) but it will be a while before that happens. for now it is prefereable to have a sweet space to hang out in.
there have been plenty of misadventures and minor bitching points over the last couple weeks, but i'll spare you all but one. on saturday, i went to the red bull soapbox derby thing. figured it would be alright, maybe see some cool rides, maybe some carnage, at least a new part of town. well, that new part of town was manayunk. manayunk is fucking terrible and i will never go back there. but i'm getting ahead of myself. so saturday here was a monsoon, ass end of hurricane who fucking knows what, one of those seven that went through the other week. just pouring buckets. and we figured we'd go, maybe there would be less of a crowd. well, we got there, and it did not apper to lack a crowd. at first i thought the place was just kind of stupid, lots of stupid shops with stupid punny names and such. and there was no parking, but i wasn't sure if that was just normal, like most of the city. so we're trying to find parking for a long time, which is always kind of a drag. and then we were like fuck it, we'll pay, and we went to the lot. they wanted twenty bucks, so it was back to the search because this was not something we were about to sink money into. eventually we found a space a ways a way and took a rather long walk in the rain, arriving at the course near the start of the festivities. but the walk there made me wary: we suspended the 'teams' game due to an overabundance of douchebags. it was a good thing we suspended it early, because the roving bands of drunken jersey types couldn't have prepared me for the scene at the actual event. it was not a place where i felt like i fit in so well. there was almost no room to maneuver and everywhere one moved there was a constant press of drunken morons trying to shove their way against the flow of the crowd. just a load of crap. it took us about twenty minutes of mostly standing around and listening to the obnoxious morning-show style announcing before we decided to get the hell out of there. on the walk back to the car, one of the few middle-aged residents of the area called out to us to ask if the race was already over. not over, i replied. just stupid. now that i write it all down it doesn't really sound that bad, but i promise i was pretty unhappy about it at the time. i guess it wasn't that great of a story. oh well, i already typed it.
school has continued to progress as well of course. it is still mostly pretty stupid. i like evidence a lot more than i thought i would, and international law a lot less. probaly because i've been reading a ton of stupid fucking statutes for it. that shit just doesn't read, you know. globalization and the constitution is godawful. just absolute bollocks, people running their damn mouths. it gets worse every time. unfair competition is kind of intense, the prof talks a mile a minute. but i can pay attention the best in that class because everything communicated is worthwhile and substantive. it is quite engaging. jurisprudence is also kind of intense. i like it because i get to go back and read a bunch of philosophy stuff. the bad news is that we are spending the entire class on natural law. i feel kind of screwed, because that isn't really the way the class was described at all. not the end of the world, but still kind of lame. also, the prof is blind. and intense. he reminds me of an old-school football coach or a state trooper, all with his reflective aviators and serious demeanor. he also gets real close to people. he says he speaks softly and that is why, but i hear him just fine wherever. he has one of those delightful accents that tags r onto the end of somewords, especially "lawr". that one comes up kind of a lot. he also drops h from the front of words. we talk a lot about uman (okay, not marked, spell check is just broken i guess) beings in this class, what with the natural law focus.
normally, this would be the part where i start complaining about football season being up in my shit and how awesome tea leaf green is playing right now and how a worldwide poll about the desirable outcome of the american election is asinine, but i'm not going to do that. this is because i don't have a good place to sit and type and my shoulder is giving out and also i would like to go drink a beer downstairs with my roommates. i don't think you're missing much. what really matters is the propogation of the phrase "forced to leave due to lack of respect".

back to bollocks

the first crack back at it was notably less than inspiring. i really did try to have the best attitude i could about things, i swear, but i guess it just wasn't enough. kicked things off with evidence, which might not have been the right foot, but then i didn't get to write the schedule. it has like a hundred people in it and an awful lot of them want to be trial lawyers. this fails to thrill me. however, today i got into the homework (i didn't have books before that first class) and that went alright. very concrete, and i appreciate that. part of my beef with the first year curriculum is that it is supposed to be the portal into the central focus of the school, which is training people to be lawyers. the problem is that the material, while relevant to people becoming lawyers, and in fact foundational to that endeavor, is hurried and unfocused. it is taught by people who have a vast grasp of the material and understand how much of a gloss they are giving it, and yet no one wants to blow the whistle and say wait, we aren't really teaching in a comprehensible manner. in a rush to be comprehensive, the true goal is sacrificed. all that is left is a bizarre and arcane competition to fulfill lofty expectations that have no actual bearing on an individual's competence. the idea is not to identify critical thinkers or those who grasp the material on a deep level, rather, the goal is to discover who among the masses is willing to waste the most time on such an ultimately immaterial exercise. sorry about that. my point is that the purported goal of teaching people practical skills and knowledge is not the foundation of the introductory curriculum, and that it should be if that is how they are going to talk about it.
anyway, the material for evidence is all produced by the national institute for trial advocacy, which is more or less run by my school, and it serves its purpose remarkably more deftly than anything i have previously encountered. unfortunately, the course is taught through the lens of the courtroom, and that does not thrill me. i guess i was hoping, ironically, for something a little more broad-based. i want to know what is and is not admissible evidence, not how to object about it later. in the end, though, i will concede it is fair for them to do it the way they do. just doesn't get me fired up is all.
after that it was on to globalization (marked. huh.) and the constitution. this is one of the ones i expected to be a little more my speed. good theoretical underpinning, maybe fewer people. no. it is another huge class full of braying jackasses who string together buzzwords and jargon in an inane attempt to impress others rather than make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. this is the kind of course that i would probably have loved if it were taught as an undergrad poli sci class. but no. it is going to be a crock of bullshit where i listen to people i think very little of express opinions i care even less about. the only good news is that it doesn't have a book.
no book is great news because even though only three of my five courses have books, i have already dropped ab out $450 on books. and i am still missing the hardcover for one class, which should tag on i think about another $120. faaaack. the real kicker is that previous experience has demonstrated how pitifully little i shall even make use of some of these texts. my only hope is to recoup some money later on and blow it senselessly, ideally on high-quality beer.
this year i have my first evening class, and it holds much more promise than the rest of the schedule for a few reasons. first of all, it is the first reasonably sized class i have had here. that right there is enough to make me relatively thrilled about the prospects. secondly, it is the only class in the area of law i am hoping at this point to pursue, namely intellectual property. this class focuses on unfair competition and trademarks. this class is also the first i have had that is taught by an adjunct. normally this sort of thing would set me off, but this guy seems promising. spends most of his time practicing, has a nice long personal story of how he wound up where he is, and it is pleasingly organic compared to much of my tenured faculty. real job, real dissatisfaction, real solutions. none of this ducks-in-a-row clerked for supreme court bullshit. hopefully my optimism is rewarded.
today brought the first installment of international law, my initial fancy and contributing factor to the specifics of my current situation. i am reserving judgment on it thus far. it is, however, chock-full of all my least favorite people from last year. the prof i think is newer at my school, i think she taught somewhere else before. she called someone out on normative language though, and that is kind of cool. the text holds early promise, but i said the same thing about my torts book last year, and that turned out to be the biggest disaster i have ever encountered in professional printing. i could have shit out something better knowing nothing about the material. there is not a doubt in my mind about this. this was the class where they gave us a free updated edition (unheard of) and i turned it down. i didn't want to be personally responsible for book burning.
the one class i haven't had yet is jurisprudence. it is another one i feel could go either way at this juncture. the reading was fine by me, so we'll see how the class goes. the text was made up of selections from socrates, aristotle, and aquainas. nothing i hadn't seen, and kind of tough to approach without thinking about way too many things i had considered about these folks over the years. that is all fine and good, but we all had those couple of people in our first college philosophy class that just couldn't just the fuck and said nothing anyone else wanted to hear. i'm not worried about that happening, really. i made it through that before. no, my real concern is that as far as i can tell, a frightening percentage of "those people" decided to go to law school. this does not really seem implausible to me even abstractly. and in my experience, well... i've met plenty around here. we'll see what happens. i'm hoping for the best since the class is like two hours long.
so that takes care of school. let's have some good news. i was cleaning the other day and found these khakis, the only ones i moved out here with me. they were the only ones i had ever felt even somewhat comfortable in, probably mostly due to the cargo pockets. anyway, i hadn't worn them in a long time. i immediately recalled that this was due to their having an enormous hole in the crotch. but i still moved them here for some reason. anyway, it was the kind of tear that only rips when repaired, and so i was gonna pitch them. searched the pockets though, and found some scores. two dollars, first and foremost. all crumpled up with some other shit. other shit included an absurd amount of camel cash, a mulligan's receipt, and a gruv unit set list (from teazers!?). i was happy to find all of it, but it proved that i had not worn these pants in like just about three and a half years. and yet i moved them out here with me.
brief story about the hole in those pants: i was trying to catch one of the cats one time when he was out around auburn. i believe i went over a fence.
in more good news, i had the extremely good fortune to be the recipient of a couple old school camel wides filters the other night. i cant believe how much better they are than the new ones. they hit the spot so unbelievably well. i tried to write a complaint letter to those fuckers but i wouldn't cough up enough information, so they claimed they couldn't verify my identity. i don't want your fucking coupons, i shouldn't have to prove i'm eighteen to say you fucked up your product. just fix it already. i'm pretty resigned to the fact that such a thing is not likely to occur.
my current recourse to old school is lilly, rosemary, and the jack of hearts.
i haven't made it to any shows since dr. dog, but a few good ones are coming up and i hope to have money to see at least one and hopefully two and ideally all three, but it would be a stretch. philly slick is playing at world cafe on sunday, old crow medicine show is coming to town at a lousy venue, and the avett brothers are playing with drive-by truckers in baltimore, both sometime in later september. wish me luck.
one good thing about being back at school is hitting up a couple old lunch favorites. definitely got a cheesesteak one day and the notorious chicken b.l.t. the other. just what i was looking for. the food is alright, but sometimes just getting what one wants is as good as something high quality that just isn't fitting the mood. nice to have something work out at school, sitting around and talking shit, watching first years not believe their ears. whatever, the most important lesson for law school and many other things is to be able to have some real good laughs at it.

epic sandwich

oh man. it was so good. hell, it is still good. i live quite near to a well-regarded deli. they have won some awards and stuff which is meaningful in a place this big with so many delis. but this is the real deal. i had never been, mostly due to my aversion to paying ten dollars for a sandwich. forget that, i decided. today will be the day i taste and judge for myself. as it turns out, the quality of the ingredients alone pretty much justifies the price. however, if that wasn't enough, the sandwiches they make are roughly the size of a more or less average human head. and dear god, are they ever delicious.
i had the restaurant school special, which is a double-decker sandwich on rye featuring corned beef, smoked honey turkey breast, brisket of beef, cole slaw, and russian dressing. i don't think much of cole slaw, really, in it's usual habitat of a small plastic cup. never really bother to eat it. it was damn good on this though, even though it was a primary contributor to the hellacious mess eating something along these lines makes. i even ate the pickle spear, and i never eat pickles. for some reason i thought it was tasty. i just think i was so happy about the sandwich that everything started to become delectable by association. even the ginger ale seemed better than normal. all this, and i only ate half of the thing, and i am the perfect full. not overly stuffed or uncomfortable. just in the sweet spot. it is going to be tough not to take a nap.
my main regret is that it took me so long to check the place out. i mean, it is really close. and i knew it would be a cool place, check out some pics here. it was, like i said, the cost barrier. but it was all illusory. i would not think much about paying six to seven dollars for something i thought would be a decent sandwich at say, jimmy john's. but i would more than likely eat all of it at once. and it wouldn't be half as good and i wouldn't have much to say about it. but this sandwich is not a basic PFU (personal food unit for those not in the know); it is easily two meals. in any event, this place has been there forever so i'm glad everyone wasn't as slow as me on the uptake that at ten dollar a sandwich, this is actually quite a good deal.
in other news, there is a new wilco album coming out in the spring. i look forward to that, although probably no one else cares anymore. i had noticed one or two new songs popping up in set lists and got interested. although now that i think about it, they will be more or less due to put out a new one by the time spring rolls around. time flies whether you are having fun or not, you know. also, they are playing here, but as an opening act. on the one hand this is surprising but on the other hand it is mostly just cool because they are opening for neil fucking young. i will probably not be able to afford that ticket or find anyone else who wants to afford a ticket and go along. it is in early or mid december anyway, and that will probably be exam time anyway. on the other hand, tea leaf green the night before an exam went alright last time. oh well. if anyone cares, that bill will also appear in chicago and detroit. jeff has an upcoming solo run in spain. what a dick.
i have gotten a little ways into riddley walker. this is not a book that can be read at a fast pace. this is of course due to the fascinating things hoban does with language. it is strange to read a novel at the same pace as semi-brutal non-fiction (i.e. husserl, any law commentator, etc.) but, i feel, even more rewarding. it allows for the interpretive creative space of well-contextualized artistic vision while demanding a careful and close reading. additionally, my current take on the book is that it constitutes a strenuous examination of transcendence as a natural historical human phenomenon. this gets me all kinds of excited. i might even break out the heidegger, but more likely that i will just think about it. i'll think about it when i take a break from thinking about how i clearly fucked up by going to law school and not doing something i enjoy instead. oh well, at least that sandwich was pretty good.

week? weak

until recently, i was blissfully unaware of the noose draped around my neck. i turned a blind eye to all the indications in the neighborhood: piles of ikea packaging on curbs, longer lines at the cvs, lots of people walking around with name tags. hell, i was considering metaphorically getting out of dodge entirely, to some other metaphorical place that had no metaphorical extradition treaty with the proverbial dodge. but then i decided i would do what i had to do, pay the price, and accept my sentence. no sooner did that happen then i discovered the noose was not only around my neck, but tightening. quickly.
classes begin in a week. i just found out what mine are today. but i can't do anything about them until wednesday. i am not sure if i am going to do anything or what it will be. i'm still kind of adjusting to the fact that i have accepted returning to something i have so much distaste for. it was a narrow thing, i could just as easily have said screw it i guess. i just have a tough time saying that for certain things. like this. things where everyone i know is going to have to know about it. and i didn't really know what else to do i guess. that was probably a contributing factor. i wish i could joke about not wanting to work. honestly, though, i would rather just have a somewhat decent job. even a lousy one doesn't sound that bad. go, do your thing, make a little money, go home, forget about it. plenty of people lead fine existences without graduate degrees, or degrees of any kind really. but for some reason i decided i needed another one, and even though i'm not so sure about that now, i already started, and to me that means i should probably finish. and like i said, i wasn't really sure what else to do. would have been awkward for a while.
so it will be back at it before i know it. i haven't really done much this summer, it seems. then again, it never seems to me that i do all that much in any context. oh well. it has gotten me this far. i did a few things i guess, i could always go back and check old posts. that would probably simply reveal that the things i feel are of note appear to be so only to me. tough to do the truly notable on a thin budget. sometimes that doesn't matter though, like the free show in town the other night. went to go see dr. dog. those guys are great, check 'em out, they have some stuff on archive. psychedelic indie pop type stuff. think tripping daisy/polyphonic spree (lead vocals sound like tim, and the second half of the show featured string and horn sections), flaming lips, my morning jacket circa a few years ago. a fun show, even solo, and a pleasant walk home from rittenhouse.
i actually found out about the show from this neighborhood quasi-bum type guy named omar. i see him pretty frequently and he is unfailingly enthusiastic about almost everything and he usually wants a cigarette, except when he has some he insists i take one. as the band took the stage, i saw this very same dude run up and introduce the band from the central mic. i saw him after the show and thanked him for telling me about it. he looked shocked (and drunk) and exclaimed "it's over!?". this was a couple blocks west of where they even played.
all that aside, after he introduced the band, one of them commented that those were wise words from a wise man. partly tongue in cheek, but partly factual. omar does say the damndest things. pretty observant guy, or at least more so than one would expect. under unfortunate circumstances, i feel like i could be that guy, which is part of the reason i elected to continue in a debt-accruing hell hole. he is completely off-base at all times, but never fails to say something that could be classified as thoughtful, along with a generous helping of absolute bullshit. he has a stopwatch now that he wears about his neck. he says it is to time people on their bullshit, because he can only spend so much time listening to peoples' bullshit, you know? the irony is not lost upon anyone.
in better news, i have enjoyed a nice new beer or two recently. if you get lagunitas, make sure to watch out for sirius, a supposed "hi-gravity" cream ale. very unique character in the beer; familiar flavors delivered in an unconventional manner. medium-bodied, highly viscous, sweet almost but not quite cloying, not entirely unlike common cream soda in fact. but then boom, a fairly legitimate hop kicker comes in and clears out everything else. overall a thoroughly worthwhile beverage experience, try not to miss out as it is a supposed special release.
also had the good fortune to come across rogue's double ipa on tap. wow. maybe there just isn't a hop shortage in oregon. a very very rich iteration of the style, very gratifying. my sister says it smells like armpit. i beg to disagree. find out for yourself and report back.
i have had some pretty good luck these last couple days. or at least what counts as good for me. this included my biggest score ever from a free book pile. typically when i look at a pile of free books, i think hmm, that might be interesting. worth having around. and then i rarely if ever read them. at least no one is throwing them away. there is a whole bookshelf full of my stuff back home, and a lot of it is just books that school wouldn't buy back or books i acquired from free book piles. suffice to say that i have not found anything life-changing in free book piles just yet. yesterday, i found a book i had actually looked for in stores before. like one i was totally willing to buy. one i would certainly read. russel hoban's riddley walker. i have only just started it, but i am probably going to read a lot more later today. if you're not familiar with the book, it is a post-apocalyptic novel written entirely in a posited pidgin form of english, lots of phonetic spelling and such. i may have some questions about spelling conventions in old and middle english.
the other score just happened. i'm at the coffee shop. before i went in i was finishing a smoke and a dozen of the multitude of new penn students around went in before me. i was kind of worried. for some reason, they all left without ordering. this was good enough for me. but then i tried to buy a soda. dude behind the counter, though, is like IRON MAIDEN! YEAH! (i have my maiden shirt on) and he doesn't let me pay for it. it's like a secret club, he says. i guess i can support that. i left the money for the soda in the tip jar, so everyone wins. everyone who is physically present anyway. i'm sure whoever owns the place is doing just fine and is probably not going to miss a single soda. plus not enough people tip at this place in my experience. barista wages are not known for being exorbitant, either.
the internet of course also continues to yield some treasures. those with a taste for some seriously dark humor would be well advised to check out a softer world. kind of a cool concept too; the visual aspect of the comic is one or more photos split up into panels with superimposed text. one person takes the pics, the other writes the words. it appears to work pretty well. the humor reminds me of some dinosaur comics strip, which is not too surprising as the guy who writes the text is friends with the dinosaur comics guy.
given my background being brought up in what i would consider more or less a fairly conservative christian setting, i am surprised i have never heard of jack chick, or his tracts. but now i know. thanks achewood. if you already know of them, well, then you know that they are ridiculous. absolutely ludicrous, really. an embarrassment to respectable christianity in my humble opinion. if you like to laugh your ass off while shaking your head, i would recommend angels?, dark dungeons, and bad bob! for starters. from then on check out stuff on muslims and catholics, and anything "adapted for [insert demographic]". this guy really really doesn't like catholics. i am glad i was not raised to believe that catholics aren't christians. i didn't actually hear anyone make that claim until quite late in life, and it rather shocked me. apparently it is more widespread than i thought. although i guess there is a lot of history of protestants having some pretty not-nice things to say regarding catholics. at any rate, these tracts are completely outrageous. if you were familiar before now, let me know how you were and why i wasn't.

some things don't change

i couldn't get any internet happening at home, which is somewhat disturbing, but not quite the end of the world. i went to the coffee shop i go to when i need internet, and that is still where i am. and i still hate coffee shops. this one has its own individual issues, mostly acquired from location. some things are just how coffee shops are, like seven dollar sandwiches that aren't even made here. and also terribly stupid, loud, and annoying people. i am very sad that my headphones are broken. the music is godawful. this ridiculous chick next to me alternates between chatting on her cell and getting seriously down with her jams. apparently she is the person this coffee shop is meant for, she is certainly a penn poster child. the other people next to me are the most halfass grad students i've ever overheard at a coffee shop. they do not seem to actually know what the fuck they are doing or supposed to be doing. instead they have shifted to a lengthy conversation about somebody's boyfriend. repeating the mantra that relationships are about compromise, the girl detailed several things that this guy had better fucking do or else. it did not sound like a whole lot of negotiation was going to happen. oh man, now one of my prize-winning co-habitants just tried to get the barista to make a sandwich while she (the prize-winner) was standing next to a cooler display full of sandwiches.
also i began reading the hitchhiker's guide books again. they are still extremely entertaining, hilarious, and difficult to put down. the plot has not changed either, which is unfortunate from a predictability standpoint, but there was no need to mess with success.
this is my update: i still don't like coffee shops because i have never liked them, and the hitchhiker's guide series has not degraded in quality in any way, being a static work of fiction. also, there are several people in the world that i do not like, many for entirely superficial reasons. you are now up to speed.

it was totally people

if you missed the opening ceremonies last night, you might consider using your internet powers to find a video of it somewhere. it was actually something worthwhile on television, in strange ways. literally thousands of people involved as performers, and they pulled off some strange and entertaining stuff. a lot of planning clearly went into the whole thing. the commentary was a total highlight; the people they had announcing were pretty ridiculous. bob fucking costas. during most of the artistic portion (like two hours, it is pretty extreme and kind of intimidating), they were clearly reading off of teleprompters and saying some pretty things unnatural for them. but the parade of nations came along and those dudes said some outrageous shit.
but seriously, the performance piece was amazing. ludicrously epic. we decided that like twenty years down the road dvds of this performance will enjoy great popularity among certain segments of the college population. "what are you doin' tonight man?" "dude, i know someone who has a copy of beijing '08, we're totally watchin that shit!"
after all, it featured thousands of people in jumpsuits that had a bunch of lights on them. the whole thing was pretty entertaining though. i had no idea i was about to be into the olympics. i'm not like planning on blocking out time to catch as much i can, but everything has the potential to be alright. caught the women's beach volleyball at eulogy earlier, usa v. the netherlands. the dutch were bottom ranked in the group, americans top, usa wins 2-0. they made it close though, and got a point in the group for some reason. maybe because the second set had to go extra match points.
also had an excellent pint at eulogy, great divide hercules ipa off the tap. wholly satisfactory double ipa, but nothing to set it apart other than being a perfect typical example. i am only hard on the style because i love it so much. so many good ones out there.
i happened into eulogy on my way back from some sort of practice protest i watched. i had seen these people before in the dead of winter, so this was much better. however, the destination was not anywhere as close to an el stop. i decided to walk because i hadn't seen a lot of queen village. worth walking through, very nice neighborhood, pretty, lots of residential but not overly dominant. seems to be kind of yuppie, has a lot of townhomes with garages on the bottom floor, everything looks pretty new for how old the area is, lots of construction going on, lots of babies and dogs. telltale signs of yuppitude. lots of nice-but-not-too-nice (aka moderately affordable) restaurants, probably a great place to live. inordinate amount of dead stickers in the windows of houses and on vehicles. strange.
the event itself was pretty low key, but it was also well staked out by city people whose job it is to manage these things. good folks, by and large. lots of picture taking by all sorts of people. so many people have cameras now, and that has good and bad sides, but it is certainly a big deal these days. one guy had some sort of apparatus akin to something used for rock climbing and used it to hang off of a tall poll next to shorter ones he could stand on. pretty tenacious. especially compared with the other sort-of media types present: two of them without real clear credentials chose to interview a notably attractive young lady from the group rather than one of the two leaders. just found that kind of funny. you know how those documentary-types are, right john edwards?
not a whole lot happened, and it was hot out, so it was fortunate that eulogy was on the way back to the el. it was also fortunate that i didn't stay there long and made it back in time for the flea market. had to make some tough decisions as usual, but i'm also pleased with what i chose. reasonable prices on things that are great to have on vinyl. all in pretty good shape, and all around five bucks each. some girls, after the gold rush, a night at the opera, band of gypsies, and highway 61 revisited. the idea was to buy things that i will listen to often. it was nice to have a couple bucks after getting paid. reminds me of why a job is better than law school. i don't even want to think about that garbage.

ac unit

no, i still don't have one of those. no point, really. here, though, ac is shorthand not only for a system for cooling an area, but also a system for emptying wallets/bank accounts: atlantic city. this was my first time in jersey at all, and by extension atlantic city. the drive to ac was pretty picturesque, really; at least nicer than i had imagined. this part of jersey is not completely built up, well, not with buildings anyway. the drive to atlantic city kinda builds the place up. hell, the road is named the atlantic city expressway. this is a road dedicated to people going from philly to ac, and vice versa. and it has billboards the whole way. and most of them are from casinos. and most of those are for a casino that hasn't even been fucking built yet. some of those are pretty shameless. my favorite one was "you know what this town needs? another casino."
if i were asked to sum up atlantic city with one word, that word would unsurprisingly be "weird". when you're coming into town on the highway, the first thing you see is a giant, skinny, lengthy parking lot between directions of the highway. i guess people park there and shuttle into town? given traffic on the way out, that would make excellent sense. but back to getting in, not out. after literally like at least a half mile of parking, the highway kind of turns and becomes a somewhat main street of the city. it dumps you in right by one of the biggest casinos on one side, and then on the other side it is an oxymoronic mega-mini-mall of outlet shops. everything is tacky looking, but not in a classic campy kind of way. more like this shit was all built around ten years ago kind of tacky. one of my first questions was whether anyone lived in this place at all, since it was literally retail/entertainment as far as the eye could see, which wasn't all that far.
but i got my answer after several blocks of crawling traffic: everything drops off and suddenly everything looks older than fifty years without repair, save new neon lights in takeout place windows. that part of town reminded me of medium-shady areas in west and north philly. our directions put us on the road that separated the part of town that makes money from the part of town that has no money. we made a brief detour into no-money land to get gas. in jersey, you are not allowed to pump your own gas. this seems a little asinine to me, but apparently the result is that some otherwise perfectly competent people from jersey actually do not know how to pump gas. they assume it is tricky business. i guess if there was some service someone "professional" always did for me, i would probably just figure it was better off in their hands.
anyway, we got back to where we needed to be, and parked right next to the valet parking lot for like two-fifty in meter fare for a savings of like twelve bucks. we had a bit of a walk down what i believe was actually oriental avenue. got a look at most of the monopoly streets, and several of them are in a part of town that does not bear mention anywhere really, and probably not board games. but at the end of the street was THE boardwalk. i did not find park place. the boardwalk was also weird, lots of people but not a ton going on. lots of entrances for things that had other doors away from the shore. those buildings are massive. the boardwalk has lost a lot of its carnivalesque appeal, but there is still a small semi-permanent setup of amusement rides and food vendors, and that was kind of cool. no high-diving horses, though.
so the show was at the house of blues. franchised venues kind of turn me off in the first place, but this was one of the most ridiculous things i have ever encountered. so i knew that this was, full title, the house of blues atlantic city at showboat. showboat, i was aware, was a casino. it is a massive structure to behold. supposed to be a mardi-gras thing brought to you by harrah's, but it sure didn't look real festive, more like a hospital from the outside. but once you get in... well, getting in was tricky. i expected a little bit of shenanigans due to my previous house of blues experience in cleveland, where, despite abundant signage, i was assured that i had entered a restaurant, and not a venue. but there was only one entrance far as i could see, so that was the door it was going to have to be.
so in the door we went. restaurant to the front of me, restaurant (same one?) to the right of me, and something billed as a nightclub to the left. the nightclub, or whatever it was, did not appear to be the venue at all. they had signs. some sort of male strippers or something. some real classy broads waiting to get in on that, as you might imagine, given all the variables. so up towards the restaurants is the box office, and we ask, and get directed to go upstairs. so we go up between the restaurant/s and boom, it is totally a casino. so i am trying to find a venue, and already i have been beset with restaurant/s, a gift shop, a "nightclub", and a casino, and now i have to go upstairs. we go upstairs. i know what clutch fans look like, and i wasn't seeing all that many. no, at the top of the stairs there is a much different restaurant type thing, meant to be all classy, with some fancy name. most of the people in and around this place are elderly and well-dressed. probably not the clutch show. so we keep going, walking past all sorts of people. i stop at the bathroom and some guy comes in along with me and starts spouting lebowski quotes. this man is drunk. he has a baseball hat and a beard. he is most certainly going to clutch. we haven't bollocksed it up entirely; we have to be there.
and there we were. after a brief line and some overly-aggressive security (i thought you waved the wand past me, not hit me with it), we were in. the so-called house of blues atlantic city looked remarkably like the cleveland one, no big surprise. but it was a lot bigger. one of the opening bands was already going. they were called lionize, and i quite enjoyed them. they were four dudes who clearly listen to shitloads of reggae, dub, and clutch. i loved their keyboards. it looked like the bass player was playing through a leslie, which would be strange. sounded great loud as hell. i was under the impression that there would be four bands, but there were only three, and these guys were probably like halfway finished when i got in. they made a plea to the crowd to buy merch so that they could buy pot. they were extremely explicit about this. unfortunately i did not have money for merch, or i probably would have bought an ep in any event. or maybe this badass clutch shirt made specially for this show, but i decided that even if i had the money, i probably don't need three black clutch shirts.
the next band was murphy's law, and they were kind of silly, but a lot of fun. i got the impression that they didn't really care what the crowd thought of them personally or as a band or musically. no, their priority was that those in attendance were having an absolute fucking blast. they were sort of a punk/speed metal outfit, somewhat simplistic fun stuff. their twist was that they had a money sax player who did some cool stuff. they were four predictable dudes for a band like that, and then the sax player was a black guy who was probably like 15 years older than anyone else in the band. it certainly worked. before they started, we noticed that there was a case of budweiser on the stage. we joked about it staying out there the whole time. it did. upon further inspection, there was also a fifth of jager next to said case. at first i thought these guys were going to be an instrumental band, they played a good tune, and then this big dude walked onstage with a mic and started hollering at the crowd. clearly the frontman. the band starts playing and the dude starts singing and almost immediately he leaves the stage. but not by the side, no, he goes off the front to the crowd level and takes the fifth of jager with him. he's pullin on it between lines, and starts passing it around the crowd. shameless way to endear yourself, but he really seemed to just want to be partying and have the crowd party with him, and there is something to be said for that. the set was high energy, and the dude stayed down by the crowd and they killed the shit out of that jager, and he started pounding and handing out bottles of bud. when the jager was running low he made a comment about how "this one is almost cowbelled". i thought that was a pretty cool turn of the phrase and made a note of it. however, later on, it proved to be no slang. during a drum break the lead singer walked over to the drummer and held it up and the dude just whaled on it as part of a solo. i couldn't believe the thing didn't break. it actually sounded really good. at any rate, this band had a good fuckin time, and that is just excellent if you ask me. they embraced their role as an opening band and referenced the upcoming clutch set more than a few times, culminating in a joke tune entitled "you are not ready to see the band clutch". there was actually another great humor song about happy the bouncer, sang to one of the front row bouncers. it pretty much went "happy... the bouncer!... dun dun dun... happy... the bouncer!" etc. good times.
clutch of course killed it. i hadn't seen them in a while, although this was probably time number fifteen or something. no surprises in the setlist, and they appear to no longer have the organ player, which makes me a sad metal in some ways, but the show was really well played and had some solid jams, including a legitimate (i.e. non-jager) cowbell jam. the guitar tech played with them on a couple tunes as usual, but after he was done he also proposed to his girl, who accepted. that was kind of cool; he's a good guy, been with 'em forever, has his own pretty decent band. it was also their manager's birthday, which got brought up several times by all the bands, kind of a running gag. all in all, it gave the whole evening a properly celebratory feel. too bad i can't afford to get hammered off eight dollar beers that take half an hour each in line to acquire. that place could probably have doubled their booze sales with a better setup, and tripled them if they dropped 1/4 of the price. their loss. oh well, i had a fuckin blast.
the next night was sunday, and that means quizzo. we actually took second for the first time in a while to win twenty bucks to the bar; lost by one measly point. oh well. we played as "honey, i shrunk the manginas". i don't know if i've mentioned it, but we are usually "manginas in the mist". we switch it up now and then, but it is almost always some movie with a key word replaced by mangina. once, we were manginas II, secret of the ooze. that might be my favorite. it is a fun thing to do with movies, almost as good as this.
the next couple of days (and even today) saw me work on a special quick-turnaround project for my prof. i found it interesting and learned a lot. i worked pretty hard on it, too. unfortunately, i couldn't really answer what he wanted in the way he wanted it. the argument he wanted to make just didn't match the jurisprudence. i felt like a real jackass emailing him this morning and being like, yeah, i don't have what you need, but i tried hard. not a lot i could or can do about it i guess, but i don't imagine he is real thrilled with me, and that is kind of weak. it just sucks to try hard and more or less fail. we've all been there.
but for some good news... i hopefully get paid tomorrow. that is not the good news i wish to impart. the point of getting paid tomorrow is that i haven't had a whole lot of cash, what with the rent-paying and all that. i had been at school working on that thing, and checked my balance on the way home. $3.44. ouch. but i had a few bucks on me, and given that i had actually been working hard at something, i reckoned i could do with some beer. well, that and the day ended with a y. at any rate, i wanted some beer, for real. the deal with beer across the street is that pbr forties are three seventy-five each or two for five. i had like four forty. i checked all my pockets, in all pants. even pants i know i haven't worn since i've moved. nothing. nothing at all. i don't have a couch so i couldn't scope the cushions. i have one chair that can hide change, and yeah, it wasn't hiding any from me. but there was a dime on the floor next to the chair. step in the right direction. now all i needed was a clean-cut fitty cent.
people ask me for change all the time. sometimes i give it to them. i reckoned maybe it was time i asked some people for some change. went down in front of the beer store, smoking a hand roll as always. sat at one of the two tables. other table had a couple dudes drinking some forties. i knew they had my money. talked to them for a minute, suggested that i bum them a smoke. went in for the change spiel. i don't really have a ton of practice or anything. first dude, who seemed friendlier, was all, no i don't have any cash of any sort. other dude was all, no change. fortunately, though, he had a dollar. i traded him fifty cents for the bill, and was in business. went in, got my beer, went back out and drank most of one and shot the shit. the dudes were alright man.
i've actually been talking to strangers more than normal i guess. the night before that it was the dreaded mill creek special. they upped the damn price to twelve dollars. the bartender assured me, however, that it was going into their pockets. thus, i don't feel bad and will probably just deduct it from the tip. hey man, i am on a budget here. in any event, i met some old guy. richard? he was downing tonic waters. that was all. he brought candy of his own. a well-traveled old man with a money beard. nice guy to talk to and watch the baseball. and then there was this israeli guy, benny. he graduated from moody bible institute, which stunned and thrilled me in that state. he was an interesting person to talk to. we chilled for a while. it was a good, strange time.
today didn't involve so many strangers, well, at least none that i really wanted talk to. i lucked out and got a call from my buddy at school: extra ticket to the phillies game. i was pretty psyched. just had to find a way to get there and back (thanks ben). the park is beautiful, and the game was fun. not the most exciting game ever, but a decisive 5-0 victory. the only bummer was that the reason we had these tickets was that it was like a temple prof/research assistant night, so we were sitting with a lot of people i didn't like. the broad in front of me ate CARROT STICKS at a fucking baseball game. she was also waving around some hillary clinton book talking about how she would have been "the best president we ever had". i hate those people so much. i probably shouldn't, but man. fuck those people. i hate to have to say it over some minor differences in worldview and personal aesthetics, but i really just can't stand them and their ralph loren and gelled hair and khakis and agsadgsdgagdsag. hate them. but i had a good time. and it was free. those two go together well. i'm hoping for more of that in the upcoming days.