Wednesday, November 28, 2007

a breather

i could use a break from bad writing week, so here's just some general stuff. i've realized that i don't discover music any more. i mean, i haven't listened to random bands on the web at all in the past month, maybe more. songs of the week is going nowhere if it's just going to be an exploration of my back catalog, because i don't want to listen to a whole ton of that stuff right now. i'm not putting any time into it, and i probably won't. i do promise to keep the whole farce up until i can't stand it any more.

i've been thinking about high school a fair amount recently. i was laughing at this guy a lot for suggesting he had a rough time in high school. i realized finally that the issue isn't how popular or socially adept you were. sounds like he probably scored better at both of those than me. the key is, i was happier. at least, i was happier than he wants us to believe he was
for the stretch he describes there. there were things of course that were awkward about high school, but i think that despite all of it, i was fine with who i was and not excessively bothered by other people's opinions of me. y'all can beg to differ at will.

i have barely been to any movies lately. movies are where my taste tends most towards the mainstream. or, where my choices tend most towards the mainstream. i think at times i wanted to go and there was nothing. fingers crossed there's something i want to see still.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

the inside of the car

the pedals were all wrong. it was like one of those dreams where you get what you want - in this case a stolen car, the one you really wanted - and nothing's right about it. nick had no worries of this sort. he was in the back seat. kirk said nothing and kept driving. a sinisterly looming car drifted towards them from the other lane, the one going in the opposite direction. it's physics; the force of impact would be maximized as they were directly opposite each other. nick said nothing. kirk flinched, or wanted to; sweat was already beading up on his forehead, but now he didn't know what to do. how could you drive a stolen car across three states if you weren't capable of passing one oncoming car without breaking a sweat? that was the sort of question nick might ask. he was in the backseat, head half turned, apparently humming softly to himself.

Monday, November 26, 2007

clerk: i'd like to get a mix

what's happened to pancakes?

he leaned out the window, wondering where that sentence would fit. a car drove by. soot from his boots stained the floor underneath the table, but he didn't care. caring was for mothers, or hijackers; people with ideas. he wasn't much for ideas, since bruce moved out. bruce the idea guy. it actually sounded funny. the one with the suede pants. mark tied his shoes and got up, effortlessly stretching his legs one by one as his well-worn chair squeaked back behind him.

bruce was done with this laundry stuff. two driers, three washers, and $7.50 in quarters. he'd rather have his $10 back. oh, so there were 10 more in his back pocket, but that would have to do. he took sacks, took clothes, hefted them out the door. a nineteen ninety five import sedan quivered down the road across the street. didn't someone used to drive one of those?

bad writing week

in honor of all sorts of things, we undertake bad writing week. in which we will not say anything much at all.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

songs of the week, wk 6

-'throw it all away'

most of the stuff i own that i wish i was listening to has gone missing. most of the stuff i own that hasn't gone missing isn't interesting me in the slightest at the moment. there's always something, however.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

who's the fool

i was on tv a few years ago. i'd totally forgotten about this, but some morning show on a local channel in one of the east coast population centers had me on there promoting the company at the time. it came back to me when i was reading about a washed-up tv host and the lame people he had on his show. the big feature that day was apparently some type of back-to-school fashion show where they would have kids of all school-type ages parade around in their favorite clothes. maybe they were their parents' favorite clothes, but these were basically some seriously well-cared-for children whose attentive parents made a bit of a spectacle.

in the end, i decided the hosts were completely dense. i had some people with me; i'm pretty sure i didn't have the woman from our pr firm then, but she was within 10 years of my age and talked to me like an equal. this is nice when you're in your first job out of college. at the tv thing, i knew going in that i was supposed to be talking up our upcoming promotion and that there was a trivia question people could answer if they wanted to win something. no one from the show prepped me before i went on, but i'd done several radio appearances already. everything seemed totally fine until one of the hosts asked me the magic question. i answered it; what the heck else was i supposed to do? they were interviewing me and just threw that in with all the other stuff. i had no clue what else i should have done, and the woman apologized to me afterwards, saying it was too bad i hadn't known that was the prize-winning question. i had known; i just hadn't understood why they were asking me the question when the viewers were supposed to answer it.

when i thought about it today, i realized today that she must have expected me to launch into some kinda 'oh, well, i can't answer that but if any of you viewers care to find out, you can tell us and win a prize' type thing. i guess i'm the bigger idiot because i should have figured it out on the spot, but it would have taken so little preparation beforehand to get things straight. don't tv people go over anything with their guests before putting them on the air? still, now i feel like i could have been a bit less dim.

Friday, November 23, 2007

the morning after

no milk, sick again, and the charger for my mobile phone's gone missing. i think the over-zealous cleanup effort for the t-day party at my house is to blame. is it possible someone would take an electrical adapter that was actually plugged in to an outlet and simply throw it out? you never know when you live with guys.

i had four or five kinds of pie yesterday; all were rather yummy. i wonder if thanksgiving shouldn't be made into a dessert tasting festival and nothing more. it might take up less time, which perhaps would ruin the whole thing. it's not so much the occasion of thanksgiving that's special per se, it's the fact that you can go over to your friends' house and spend 5 hours lingering over food, games and conversation and that's what everyone expects. or maybe it's the fact that you know everyone else is doing the same thing and that they've crisscrossed the country getting together in arrangements that are all different and yet serve the same purpose. but it just might be the fact that you've done it before the last year and the year before that and every year growing up and you know everyone else has and it's something you want to relive or escape or make better or start over on your own terms. in other words, it's a tradition.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

some more italy

maybe i didn't photograph anything in italy, but i saw and thought about plenty. i even wrote in my journal. it isn't most vacations that get me writing in there while i'm still on vacation.

in italy, i couldn't stop thinking about germany, especially riding the trains. german infrastructure is nice, clean, and well-made. italy's modern buildings, trains, bridges, etc do not fit those adjectives. one bridge had an unusual feature; there was a giant tubular hole designed into each of the supporting columns. this was unique, as was the bush growing out of the side of the bridge. subway cars were coated in so much graffiti that some of them looked kinda nice that way. they looked like props from a movie where the criminals have taken over the city. buildings, the more modern ones, looked like they might have been shot at. really, though, the crumbling architecture was charming and showed more character than crumbling architecture in, say, ljubljana. in spite of all this, what i really thought was that germany was probably never going to seem interesting enough any more. in st. peter's, the giant lettering alone amazed me. german cathedrals, which seem to be a main point of visiting the country, cannot measure up. the germans don't have ancient aqueducts, coliseums, or ruins. i figure germany must have had something to ruin back then. maybe i'll see it some day.

Monday, November 19, 2007

songs of the week, wk 5

-'victoria'

sometimes, you must turn to the oldest of friends, and the oldest of friends turn out to be the best. it's been a musical desert lately, but i'm not starving for anything other than fresh tunes. i didn't take any music with me on vacation anyway.

Friday, November 16, 2007

these are my pictures from italy

yeah, there are none. i will paint some pictures with words once i get the time to gather my thoughts. i'm in an awesome mood since my return.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

in form of apology

there's a reason there were no songs of the week the past couple weeks. two reasons. first, i haven't loaded anything new onto the portable device. thus, no new music, no new songs, no variety, little chance for something excitingly fresh to strike my fancy. i think nothing really deserved to be on there. i also went on vacation to a country where they put up with a lot of surprisingly bad pizza. they really don't have to. i suppose we don't either.

stick up for yourselves! insist on better pizza.

an open letter to my shoes

i'm sorry if i hurt you by stuffing feet that were a little too big or small down your throats. i really have this idea that i'm going to buy shoes that fit, but sometimes i just like you so much i have to take you even if you're a little too big or too small. many of the places you came from didn't give me a chance to try you on first, and our relationship began out of necessity - i had bought you, and i needed to get what i could out of you.

you really do mean a lot to me. on the best days, you brighten my every step. i like to look down and think how much you're doing to improve the way i look. i hope when other people look at me, they'll see that you're with me and know that i've got the right idea. even if we don't get to share as many days as i'd like, you're still a big part of my life.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

songs of the week, wk 4

-'the bleeding heart show'

here's to hot chocolate that's almost too cool to drink. here's the the smell of wool sweaters and coats. here's to blankets that reach all the way to your feet, long socks, and exercise, which takes us to a place where we can handle fall without any of those things. let's fall back down on the coach and imagine mike skinner and daniel smith working on a musical version of the ten commandments.

Friday, November 02, 2007

why does it go this way?

the list of concerts i've skipped has grown so long that i can't even remember why i missed some of this past month's shows. what does this mean? it means a couple of things. one, i enjoy the people i associate with and they don't necessarily go to things. two, even though i apparently have enough free time to think about why i'm missing shows, there are times when i have to make tough choices. three, i don't always prioritize.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

grease, it's the grease

since we're talking about lunches:

-irish nachos (bacon on the side)
french fries smothered in cheese with sour cream and a side of bacon. amazing food really; it makes the slow service at one favorite lunch spot almost worthwhile

-grilled cheese with tomato
generous and tasty tomato; a little salty but classic, with american cheese. more fries on the side, many of which i ate.

-dessert was saved until 5