Weekend Round Up

This weekend saw the Shelter for the Storm benefit shows I, along with a heap of other people somehow related to local music, helped coordinate. That meant Friday I was at the Ballroom to see the Nice Jenkins headlining. Which was better than I expected for myriad reasons. Mainly, I thought the band sounded better than ever which was nice. Plus I had good company, a good buzz, and somehow managed to avoid the feelings sometimes brought on by extended Ballroom exposure [see previous note re buzz]. We raised a bit of money and hopefully all shows combined genrated enough to make a bit of difference down South.

Saturday was fairly worthless, aside from the penis shaped baking pan i so graciously received as a gift that day and the subsequent gorging on penis brownies and ice cream in which we partook. nice

Sunday, after Adam and I trekked to Target for etceteras, like you do, I came home to find my cat trapped in the sewer. In terms of cats I've known over the years, and not just because he's mine, I think Holmes is fairly cunning, but I understand that this foible places him squarely in that category of 'retarded' amongst most of my friends and fellow countrymen. A call to the fire department later, and theyre on my street with the huge hook and ladder truck making the biggest scene of the affair possible. Largely, I think, just to drive home the point that 'this is the biggest waste of time for us so we're going to make it the grandest affair ever. Your cat is an idiot and you obviously raised him as such.' Sweet. Anyway the cat was soon saved [only to go missing again later that night...but hes back now, for good, i swear] and our Sunday summer bbq could commence in peace, with at least one psuedo interesting story to relay throughout the evening. Unfortunately, attendance at the bbq was lacking, due, i figure, to the fact that it doesn't even really feel like summer anymore so people must just be really confused. Naturally, I'm sure it had nothing to do with us. Especially since this time we provided arts and crafts to entertain the masses...and the paintings came out GREAT, i swear. I'm sure they can find a home hanging in our basement, maybe next to the animal skull we recently found near the dryer.

As for the CD reviews I had such hopes and dreams for prior to actually starting this...well theyve fallen by the wayside haven't they. In fact lately I've been listening solely NPR, Interpol, and two tracks off the Bloc Party remix CD [2 & 3--good god isn't three good?!]. But now Ray's burned me the extraordinaires cd Adam has been raving about of late [so this isn't their page, but come on, it's awesome isnt it?...especially the sax player they photoshopped in] so maybe that will get reviewed? Maybe ill keep being lazy and continue not to give opinions on anything? Maybe I'll get off this danm thing and get ready for work already?

Rats in Togas and much much more

So about two weeks ago I thought I'd finally do something around the house to give Ray and my mother (yes she was living with us, and yes that's a whole other story) a break from doing all the housework while i sat around and watched reality tv about the playboy mansion or avoided being home (see note re: mother) altogether. Anyway I just 'learned' how to mow this summer, it was always a chore my brother and father undertook growing up, but once Ray corrected my poor turn around technique and showed me how to start the damn thing, i realized i actually kinda liked that whole mowing thing. So I'm out in the yard thinking I'm doing a great thing and almost finished when i inadvertently run over the water meter cap. The mower stops. i give up after trying to restart it a few times and resign myself to letting Ray deal with it. Fast forward two weeks and indeed Ray has dealt with it, since he knows me well enough to know that it'd be about April before I did. Apparently he gets a call today saying the thing is totally broken. what the f? i BARELY run over something and were totally screwed? thats bs. what the hell. i demand a recount. honestly i will feel so bad if i broke the damn thing. who the hell breaks a lawn mower. i know how to mow! Ray taught me! grrrr!

In other news...there's a rat at my work. I probably shouldn't divulge that but there it is. A rat. I've been calling him Larry. I'm about the only person that sits in here quietly so I'm guessing I'm about the only person that ever hears Larry doing his calisthenics or whatever the hell he is doing that is SO FREAKING LOUD! It's like he's got a symphony of plastic bags back there that he's directing. Or he's invited all his rat friends over for a keg party where they all dressed up in saran wrap togas and got wasted on beer thats dripped on the floor. I'm not terrified of rats, but I wouldn't come to Larry's party in a toga either and the fact that this has been going on ALL DAMN DAY is starting to piss me off.

Adam wants to go see the Extraordinaires at the tea bazaar tonight. i wish i was more of a fan of that place. its a bit hot and uncomfortable and filled with 16 year olds smoking hookahs for me. and the sound leaves much to be desired. but theres good people there too. id just rather be somewhere more bar-like i suppose. plus theres apparently something fantastic going on tomorrow night there as well and theres no way i can do two nights in a row there i dont think. well see. i think the tentative plan is to see the aristocrats (i keep wanting to type aristocats after that lame disney movie i never saw but which had a preview on the copy of the lion king i watched a million times in middle school when it was totall cool [i swear] to ironically like childish things like the lion king) and then the show. maybe the supposed hilarity from the former will stave off any feelings of anti (likely spawned by sobriety) during the latter.

And finally.
I got to the gym this morning only to find a friend of a friend im less than friends with. At first I was a little cold--it was the first thing i did all morning, give me a break, but the longer i ellipiticalled the more i realized that if shes here now, shell probably be here again so i better suck it up and be civil before it turns my morning workouts into some kind of perpetually akward terribleness. So we get to chatting after a bit and discuss how she used to work out at night but now with a different work schedule blah blah blah see you tomorrow morning! While simultaneously being a bit bummed I will say that in some kind of sick way it spurred me to work way harder and 'beat' her by getting sweatier/using more weight/staying longer. I relayed the whole thing to adam later on who said it was the dumbest thing hes ever heard. And hes probably right.

dummily yours
the lawnmower extraordinaire

Still Getting the Hang of This

Ever feel like the weekend is just passing you by when infact it's just begun? I hate that. I suppose we'll have to make the most out of today and tomorrow to make up for the feeling. Yesterday seemed almost like the weekend because instead of spending all day at work I had to trek over to Richmond to pick up backline for the Blackalicious show. Rather than being a two, maybe three hour excursion though, it somehow morphed into an all day event involving multiple friends. And new CDs. I picked up the Bloc Party remix and Architecture in Helsinki albums before we left [disclaimer, yes yes I will be pitfully behind on new music in general. alas] and naturally we stopped in to Plan 9 while in rva and i got a used Kinks album there and a used copy of Antics which I had lost months ago and which I can remember being the only CD I want to hear at all about eleventy hundred times since then because it's awesome. Anyway reviews of some of those might follow. More likely than not it will not be a review of Antics because we all already know it 's great, and it will not be a review of AiH because I'm not sue I could sit through that again.

Last night was Of Montreal at the Ballroom. Adam and I stopped by for a minute to experience the chaos and such but naturally I parked in the fire lane or something and the thought of finding new parking plus said chaos, times 9 since the opening band The MGMT was really grating on me, meant we left after about 3 minutes. But tonight. Blackalicious. Should be good. And chaotic. And involving friends from near and far. And today, horseback riding which is great because I haven't beeen in years and because I dreamed about horses, much like a Couting Crows song or something, last night. And tomorrow, Sunday Summer BBQ, this week ft. Nates Super Chardonnay Sipping Extravaganza. Or something like that.

The resolve to be more positive is still the MO. To the point where now I notice how negative comments from others are really a bummer. But I also notice how I still switch into anti mode when I've gotta sit in traffic or am runing late or someone tells me to move my car out of the fire lane. But today will be good. And positive.

Today's the Day

I'm aiming to turn over a new leaf of late. It'll involve hating less and more positive thinking, but my blog title was already in the works before this great turn of events [yes yes we'll see how far it goes] occurred, and I figured this might be the best place to redirect the rants. and raves. and reviews. So that's the plan with this. We'll see how far it goes as well.