Friday, July 10, 2009

this weekend i am watching jessie while my parents are in corning cleaning up the house. last night she wouldn't stop hanging outside of my shut bedroom door for my parent's room. when i'd open the door she would get really excited and jump up like a meerkat to see if they were finally in the bed. though she took me upstairs a little around 12, it wasn't until almost 2:30 that I got to sleep. i first thought the was fine on my floor in her bed but then she started crying and pacing. she did the bedroom door act again. then she ran downstairs and i had to convince her to come back up. i then decided to put her in my bed which worked for an hour. then she started crying again which woke me up. finally back on the floor she went to bed. hopefully tonight will be easier.

right now i'm scanning an old journal i wrote during the summer of 95. that's what inspired me to write this entry. i just listened to robert pollard's the relaxation of the asshole for the first time. his "comedy album." pretty bad. right now i have on the wrens - meadowlarks. it's a great album.

there's this new burger at wendy's called the bacon blue. it's bacon and blue cheese along with the regular burger add-ons. it's so good.

a few weird dreams lately. i've been pretty addicted to dexter lately and i had one dream where doakes was dressed as a woman to be undercover. last night i dreamed that i met a version of myself as a little kid on a boat. apparently no one ever left the boat and i was keeping a diary of my life. i told past me to always keep up with my journal, and never let a day go by where i don't write at least something. i guess that dream inspired me to look at my old journals which then inspired me to write this. how linear. i do regret not keeping a constant journal. i've tried but i've always fallen away.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

More About Texas

Ginger Ale doesn't really exist here. If you ask for it while at a restaurant, they give you Sprite with a little bit of Coke in it. That is not Ginger Ale.

There's also a soda called Big Red here. It's really big here actually. It's like a mix of Creme soda and bubble gum flavor. Really really sweet but pretty awesome. Went to a Dr. Pepper museum as a roadside attraction and got at as a float. The Dr. Pepper museum was home of the first Dr. Pepper bottling machine, as well as first bar fountain. Apart from that it was lots of memorabilia directly relating to Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper only. They were really understaffed there and no one was manning the ticket counter for a period of nearly 15 minutes. We just walked in. The asking price of $7 per person was a bit steep anyways.

We drove by Baylor University which had a pretty great campus. Their mascot is the bear, and for that they actually have a mini zoo section where two live bears hang out. The bears weren't out when we visited, but their habitat was spacious and very clean.

I think that's it for Dallas. In total we spent about two days there. Much of the time was visiting with my Aunt and Uncle who live there as well as my cousin Samantha. She is very entertaining and super mature for her 8 years. When you hang out with people much younger than you and play Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS, their reaction to how good you are gives you a major confidence boost. When I told her I had been playing the game in some form or another for 12 years, her head practically exploded. I kinda really want a DS, but then think how much I'd actually use it. But man.. I'd love to play Animal Crossing on the go. Anyways they also have 4 cats, so it was massively fun to take pictures of them. I used to not think I liked cats, but now I kind of get it. Samantha says they have the "stinkiest shits." Hmm.

On to Austin. OH MY GOD. AUSTIN WAS AMAZING. I think I want to live there someday. Apart from the no winter thing which I would miss, it is pretty perfect. The slogan of the people is "Keep Austin Weird." It is totally weird and I love it. For a capital especially, it is super funky. Capital of Texas nonetheless. I also used to think Texas was uber lame, but man, Austin was incredible. I'm in San Antonio now and that's even very cool, but Austin! I wish we were here a bit later so we could have seen the Austin City Limits film festival. I was pretty cool with the city the first day of arrival, but once we stumbled across Daniel Johnston's Hi How Are You mural, that all changed. How could I have forgotten that was in Austin?? Oh man. Pictures. Well back to the first night, I walked around the city with my dad and we stumbled across a billards bar. I had never played and the tables were really good ones, so we entered. Billards is a lot of fun, though it wasn't until the second game that I finally got the touch down. I beat my dad then, who destroyed me the first game. Then air hockey which is always fun, though I swear more points are always accidental ones than ones actually scored.

The next morning was also the failed Leonard Cohen attempt. I realized that today, I was an idiot and did not realize that the time change here would mean that the 10am ticket sale would actually be 9:00 for us. Still, it was all sold out by 10, though actually 11. Meh. Thankfully they added a second show and I will not be missing the pre-sale on Thursday morning. Well, Monday was basically going all around Austin and realizing that everything there is so much more awesome than what I am used to. Record stores are prominent and incredible, especially Waterloo Records. It's like a Newbury Comics but with 6 times the vinyl, better prices on the vinyl, a decent That's Entertainment type selection of used vinyl, and a massive CD/DVD collection. Easily the most Criterion dvds I have seen in one place. Like 5 times that of Border's. I picked up Deerhunter's Microcastle for $12.99 (the two LP edition!), and Gang of Four's Entertainment! for $17.99. Plus apparently a 33/13 edition of Pink Flag came out which I did not existed, so I snatched that up. There was also a place called Atone's which was better for used records. I picked up Lou Reed's New York there as well as Tom Wait's Swordfishtrombones. Plus for vintage stores, Austin has a ton of awesome places. It was so frustrating as there was so many things I wanted but would be impossible to get back on the plane. Oh and the video store, I Luv Video? Best video store I've ever been to. If I could rent at a place like that... they had so many obscuro sections, plus a side room for those looking for the experimental/avant-garde, weirdo cinema. So awesome.

Edit:
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we visited the 6th floor museum.. the place where Kennedy was shot from when visiting Dallas. That was very surreal as they kept the window in the exact same state as it was during 1963.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Dallas

More things of note:

Every McDonalds has a playland.
I saw a McDonalds that was shaped like a giant cake. With a banana.
There's stores called Condoms to Go. This is good because most stores make you use the condoms while there.
Also saw a massive best buy sized casket store. It was next to Fancy Cakes by Laura.

Friday, February 27, 2009

texas

I'm in Texas. No computer. iPhone. Shortened. Thoughts...

It is cold and cloudy.
Bryers ice cream = Dryers ice cream here. Weird.
Airport has McDonalds with breakfast all day.
People in airport walk really fast. I like.
Bathrooms too small. No urinal dividers. boooo


Okay leaving rental car place now. More observations to come

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Whoa

I don't really update this. I'm 22 now. I know, right.

I had a dream two night ago that I was in a class with my current sociology teacher and I was doing a presentation on the role of S&M in Toy Story. I had a key argument and even brought up specific scenes to reference. I don't remember the scenes now though. Still she was impressed with my use of specific evidence.

Uh huh.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Finals period.... is there anything to say about it that isn't a given? It obviously sucks.

I just noticed that I have people responding to posts on this blog. I never expected anyone to read anything I post here (if I did, the site itself would look a lot prettier.) Your words mean a lot, seriously. Thank you.

I'm going to get back into the journal writing habit once summer begins. It's really nice to have something to look back on. However sometimes living gets in the way of writing. A lot has happened recently, for good and for bad. I'm looking forward to sorting things out on paper/virtual paper.

So.... summer ahoy!

Friday, February 15, 2008

TONIGHT I MET THE MAGNETIC FIELDS!

Earlier this week I saw the Magnetic Fields in Northampton. It was at the Iron Horse...a super small venue and incredibly intimate show. It definitely makes my top 5 shows ever. So as he usually does Dave did a recording of the show. However this time someone behind us noticed him and inquired about the recording, wanting a copy of it. They then exchanged emails. The next day Dave got back to her and found out that she knew Sam Devol's father in law and that she could get us backstage. I was a bit hesitant to believe this at first, but once we received an email from Sam himself we knew we were in. How awesome! Amazing!!! My favorite band and me getting the opportunity to hang out with them backstage. WOW!?

We finally approach the Merrit room and he's sitting alone on a couch. Sam calls him over to meet us initially and then Stephin invites us in. Before the entering we shake Stephin's hand and tell him that we really enjoyed the show. I then tell him we were also at the first show.. "First show?" "Yeah the one on Monday?" "Monday... oh yes Northampton. Both shows? ..... That's.....odd. " Oh it was amazing. Continuing the mood it was kind of an awkward invite in...he never said come in or anything of the sort. There was a bit of a gesturing move and we entered.
He sat back down and we stood around him as he signed our copies of 69 Love Songs (we gave him Disc 1 with Stephin on the cover.) Some more brilliantly awkward small talk was made. Dave gives him the album first, so when I give it to him, I want to say something and not just simply hand it over. I mumble something along the lines of "the same thing.." meaning I'm also opting for the 69 love songs vol. 1 booklet to be signed. He says "The exact same thing?" I forget what I did here... I think I laughed and said I just meant that I also have the booklet. It probably was ridiculous. The situation seemed unreal so I'm actually surprised I can remember so much as it is. Oh yeah, before Dave gives him the album he had the box set and a few photos from Monday's show printed out from CVS in an envelope. Merrit sees the envelope and inquires about it. "Oh, what's this?" Dave explains that they're pictures from the first show. Stephin thanks us and says he'll share them with the band after the tour so they don't know what they look playing until the tour is over. Dave tells him he really likes the new album. Stephin is thankful. Dave says it's a fresh sound. Stephin looks concerned. "Fresh sound?" "Well fresh for the Magnetic Fields." "Ah, yes. For the Magnetic Fields." Claudia then enters. Stephin introduces us and asks if she wouldn't mind signing her face. She was very nice, though a bit hurried saying she was in the middle of about 14 different conversations. She asked about us and we said we sorta knew Sam. We began to explain, yet it's hard to summarize a story like that. She understand it was long and strange and accepted. She then proceeded to have a conversation with Stephin (but telling us before hand that she needed to have a word with him.) They began to speak and we stayed for maybe 20 seconds or so before deciding we should head out. It was a bit odd though as before Claudia entered we asked Stephin if we could get a picture with him. He paused for two seconds and then Claudia approached. The picture was of course still in our minds after his exchange with Claudia, but it just seemed too pushy to say "so yeah...about that picture." No big loss... just meeting the band was an experience by itself. Plus having my favorite album of all-time signed by every member of the band? A treasure. Before leaving we approached Sam and thanked him again for this opportunity. Seriously, what a nice guy. What a night.