Blog

It's true, I have not been writing here for a while. It's largely because I've started working full time once again, saving up some dollars. While I do spend all day in front of a computer now, I'm usually working quite a bit, and if I have a minute, I usually want to break from doing this. And I know that I'd just write things like "I'm at work," like I'm doing right now.

It's been a long week. I'm keeping busy outside of work by not using my computer at home, which has been edifying. I've moved my computer out of my room and put my 4 track there, so now rather than reading a website when I'm bored in my room I start working on that instead. Amazing how much placing an object in a different room can change one's behavior, because it sure wouldn't be difficult to go to the other room. I guess I'm just taking advantage of my laziness.

Also, I went to bed at 11pm on Wednesday. I was remarkably refreshed the next day.

Yesterday I rejoined the world of on the go communication. I didn't mind being away: using payphones is satisfying, and it was more exciting to have some uncertainty with everything I did.

It was the wrong week for it though. I had guests staying with me all week. Cousin Sasha and her friend Annie were here with school to meet established photographers and shmooze with them to try and get employment in the near future. They are also graduating in the near future.

The thrills this week heightened for me with several clashes of poor service. I like to think I am normally very calm or understanding about such things, but I had two episodes where I became very frustrated.

I was having photocopies of my album cover made on cardstock, and the man who photocopied them did them all wrong. When I returned to get them replaced, he blamed me, saying I approved them. I showed him two correct test sheets that he gave me, and he still blamed me.

Then at a wireless store, I tried to get my phone numbers copied from my old to new phone. After agreeing to be overcharged for the service, they gave me the two phones, both containing three telephone numbers. They overwrote everything.

The loss to me was minimal (I lost the phone data and I agreed to pay for the new cardstock) but I felt wronged.

song for download - song for friends

I feel very scatter brained right now. I put on some music which is not helping because it was referenced in Questionable Content, which was just referred to me by Mr Keesan.

I enjoyed seeing the Fiery Furnaces live, but was not satisfied by the recording on first listen. I'm taking to it more this time.

I recorded myself for the first time in over a month today. It was fun. I have to get back into doing more things like that. I've been working on my new album with Dashan, and we're nearly done. It will be called Slivers and Bits. Maybe I've said that here already. Recording should be done in less than a week.

I think nearing the completion of recording and finishing school (for real) has been too much closure for me too soon. There are more things to do, but I feel like I'm done with it all.

My colloquium went very very well, it was a real pleasure. Met up with Dan and Matt and had lunch, and then spent the rest of the day with Yoko. Recorded with Dashan today.

Recorded that tiny bit here (at home), and then I saw a little friend. Apparently, our mice have finally ventured to my room, after a year of hanging out in the kitchen. I don't keep food in here, so I don't know why it was here. Satisfying it's wanderlust perhaps. I haven't written a song about a mouse in a while, I think it's a sign.

While I think it shouldn't be here, I'd like to think we could get along.

On Thursday my undergraduate education will http://www.nyu.edu/gallatin/prospective/ba/program.html. I am excited to talk about law, music , and computers with three people who I find particularly interesting. I'm taking the week off from work to study up, relax and play some shows.

Last Friday I started working on a new album with Dashan. It is going very well in my opinion. We've worked a lot, I'm very happy about it all.

I am going to start recording a new album with Dashan this weekend. I have some new songs which I will re-record, and others I haven't recorded.

For months, I recorded hours of myself making stuff up, and today I decided to go through it to maybe get an unremembered gem. The first tape I'm listening to (the last recorded) has a few notables:

• an early recording of a song
• a live recording of the lobster song from october
• a recording of yoko, phoebe, jim flynn and i in jim's apartment, talking and playing songs

I'm not done with the first tape. Rolling up. I think these are my old photographs.

Friday Dashan and I headed into Philadelphia to see The Michael Nace Family Band. Dashan and I haven't talked much since our trips to other countries at the start of the year, it was good to do that. They sounded great, and it was really good to see Sara and Kevin in a not-CheeseOnBread situation: it's a rare thing.

Lou Barlow played after them, he was pretty good, but he played too long. After that Dashan and I walked to Matt's house - maybe 45 minute walk - and slept. In the morning we had some eggs, and chili. Tami hung out with us for a bit, and we had some coffee and listened to Matt's record of Hail to the Thief, which I think is not a very good album, but it is listenable on vinyl. I find the CD very harsh. Oh! to be snobby about recorded music.

Then Dashan and I parted ways, and I headed into New Jersey to see my family. Everyone is doing pretty well. My sister performed in the high school production of "Anything Goes", which was very satisfying. I liked the Cole Porter tunes.

Sunday was spent doing various things with family. I looked at pictures with my Father and Grandmother again, they are really amazing. From her parents in the early 20's, and her as a kid. I can't tell if everything looks amazing because the photographs, nostalgia for a time I'll never know, or things actually were more amazing then.

Back in New York Sunday night. My head is spinning from being in so many places in so few days.

Tuesday I wrote a huge long amount of text describing the weekend with Cheese on Bread and The Bloodsugars but I closed the window by accident, destroying all evidence that I had written anything.

But, regardless we had a great show at the Colonel Mustard in Washington DC - we played for about 150 people, the six of us wearing basketball clothes. Red gym shorts, tanktops, and warm up jackets. I like when the band wears matching colors.

On the way back, Matt and I were in the car with a voice-less Dan. Matt and I practiced our Jeff Lewis acapella covers: IF you SHOOT the HEAD you KILL the GHOUL shoot the head kill the ghoul if YOU shoot THE head YOU kill THE ghoul SHOOT THE HEAD KILL THE GHOUL. One day, we'll do a whole album.

Our Philly show was pretty exciting: since Dan couldn't sing the rest of the band took singing duties. It was pretty sloppy and rawkus. I sang "Samurai" and "Biological Romance". I was amazing. I also played electric guitar, which is something Kevin has been pushing for - I'm not sure how it sounded.

Either way, I think I need an amplifier. I hurt my wrist Saturday night. I will look into an acoustic amplifier.

The weekend was long: I didn't fully recover until this morning. I've been sleeping a lot.

Last night, a bunch of people headed over to Bob Fass' radio show at WBAI. Lach set up the show with Bob so that a bunch of people playing the festival and Sidewalk this week could play on the show. It ran 12 - 3:30am. It was a lot of fun, it felt like a school event: hanging out in a sterile environment with friends and acquaintances that I know through a common place.

Everyone was really good, it was fun to listen to the show in the lobby. Dan played "Mississippi", Phoebe played her England song, I played my walkway song, and Yoko played "Video Games". Dan and Yoko song with me on my song, and Dan sang with Yoko on hers. Bob commented that he was impressed that we all knew each others songs.

It felt like the radio show was really important, of highly cultural significance. I never think of Anti Folk as an underground thing, but I feel like it came aboveground for a minute by being broadcast like that. It's exciting that people who never heard of any of us might have gotten a glimpse of what's there.

Performed last night at Sidewalk with Yoko and Jordan. I had a good time. I think this was the best performance I've seen Jordan give, and Yoko had a bunch of great songs that I hadn't heard before. And she played "Five Days" from the Luv A Lot Compilation! I've been waiting to hear that for so long.

Dan asked me to play my song from the compilation, but I couldn't follow through. I tried, but I hadn't played it in so long. I always think I'm capable of remembering things for much longer than I actually can. Songs for example, but then at times I'll want to keep something in a safe place. I'll think "I know, I'll put it on my (incredibly messy) desk inside this roll of duct tape" because it's a weird place, how could I forget? It's such a WEIRD PLACE: how could I forget?? Flawed thought processes.

This week at Sidewalk is the Winter Anti Folk festival. I have spent a lot of time at sidewalk this week, which I haven't been doing recently, and it's been fun. I'll be round tonight and also Friday (Cheese on Bread is playing).

Sent a package to Canada yesterday: I sent my drawing of a mutated Frank FB_A to get the Frankster tape from Consumption Records. If you dig around Consumption, I recommend getting the Peter Harry Hill recording, Glove Is Not a Four Letter Word.

(image "mutated Frank FB_A" missing)