Diary8/12/00Today's big issue: maybe the Gambler will be there... I haven't updated my diary in almost a week. Poor thing. The past couple of days, I actually did stuff! My cousins and aunt and uncle that live in San Francisco came up for a day (!). I picked up my older cousin, Ronnie, from the airport - he had just gotten off of a 14 hour flight from Chile. Suprisingly, it was on time. It had been a long long time since we had seen eachother, but we still got along great, so I was happy. Everybody else came about six hours later and we all went to dinner in a place that had nothing for me to eat, but that's ok. It was nice seeing everybody again. Yesterday, I met one of Zak's friends from college - it's always weird meeting the friends your friends meet when they're not around you, but she seems nice. She did say the most despicable sentence in the English language, though - "I can't stand Shonen Knife". *gasp!* Tomorrow I'm going back to Vermont to visit Ariel again, but her mom is driving this time. Yay! List of other things I did while I was ignoring my journal (and the whole website in general): got myself the bombtrack four-track (well it's not that great, it's pretty old skool and I got it used, but I likes it bunches), played a bunch of super nintendo Zelda, worked on my skills at being lazy and useless and got into a weird argument. Tah dah. np: the Holy Childhood - Up With What I'm Down With (yeah it's so fucking good that I've been listening to it almost nonstop for a week, sucka) 8/06/00 Today's big issue: rah! Yay I successfully visited Ariel! Zak and I left early (9am is early for us) in the morning and made the 200 mile drive up to Brown Ledge Camp on saturday. I only got lost maybe once or twice! I never got really really lost either, just a few of those "hey look! there goes the road i was supposed to turn on to!" kind of things. We finally arrived at her camp at around 1, and after a little bit of perplexed searching for her, she appeared and gave me a hug. She showed us around for a bit, and we met the people that she's spending the summer with. I feel a lot better now because she's not staying with strangers anymore. She had to go to a play rehersal, so Zak and I made our first search for a hotel room. We're such wonderful planners - we didn't make reservations anywhere, we just figured that we could find a place to stay that would be cheap and clean and vacant. The first place we tried was a really short drive from her camp, but when we rang the doorbell, this terrifying man with three brown, jagged teeth and a greasy t-shirt told us that there we're any vacancies. Oh well. Our time was running out before we had to go back and meet up with Ariel again, so we gave up for the moment and went back. We chilled for a bit more and then went searching again. We got desparate and decided that we had to go someplace even if it was too expensive, so we tried a Sheraton. When I asked the guy at the counter if we could get a room for that night without a reservation, he laughed. He was helpful, though because he pointed us to the only hotel in the area that actually had open rooms. As it turned out, that place is awesome (at least by our criteria). It was actually still under construction, so it wasn't officially opened yet and there wasn't air conditioning and there weren't phones. This meant that it was pretty cheap. It was, however, huge. Our room was actually a few rooms, and it had a kitchen and a balcony. It was the first time that I ever slept in a king size bed. I couldn't touch both sides of the thing simultaneously. We admired our room a bit and then rushed back to Ariel. We went out to this Thai restaraunt that she likes. I love it too because I could get tasty vegan food. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to stay there since we got in at about 6:30 and she had to be back by 7:15, but we managed. In Burlington, we kept seeing this guy that we named The Gambler. He's this old man with a huge, filthy beard that, when we first saw him, was standing by the ramp onto the interstate shuffling a deck of cards (the man, not the beard, was shuffling the cards). We saw him again that day, and then one more time on the next. The last time, he had a new vest. We assume he won it. There were two back-to-back plays at her camp that night, so Zak and I went. She was doing technical stuff for the first one, but she sat with us for the second one. The first one was odd - there weren't any words and it was in black and white - which is a strange thing for a play to be. It confused me but I kinda liked it. The second was was a more traditional play and it was quite cute as well. I'd recommend that anyone go back in time to see them. It was late when the second play ended, so Zak and I went back to the hotel. I pretty much slept like a baby. Zak was woken up at about 6 by the fact that it was 42 degrees in our hotel room. It turned out that the air conditioning wasn't so non-functional after all. We were all pretty rested, though, and after a breakfast of juice boxes and potato chips, we went back to see Ariel one last time. We went to a play groud that was near the camp. There were some totally weird bits of playground equipment there and we had a great time. Ariel said something along the lines of how other groups of kids our age go to playgrounds at night to get drunk and such and we go during the day and have grape juice. Goodbyes came around noon. We were all regretful that she couldn't hang out with us more, but her schedule at camp is pretty packed and unalterable. She gets worked to death between the school years, and I worry. The day before she apologized for not spending more time with us after we drove so far to see her and I just said that we were happy just to see her for a little bit. It's true too... np: the Holy Childhood - Up With What I'm Down With (again) 8/04/00 Today's big issue: "I flied?" "No, you falled." I'm going to bed early tonight, for early tomorrow morning, Zak and I are going to hop into the Suburban Attack Vehicle and go up to visit Ariel! I've never been so excited about going to Vermont before. Yesterday, Zak and I (and eventually Kevin) watched the Land Before Time. Say what you want, but I love that movie. Yup yup yup. The plot to Dinosaur is shockingly similar to the plot to that movie, too. Egg rolling around in a Rube Goldberg manner at the beginning of both, a green valley surrounded by a harsh world devoid if it's former vegetation as the goal (and ending scene entered by the main group though a cave) in both... different species of dinosaur having to work together to reach their goal in both... however, there are none of those stupid lemurs in the Land Before Time, and Ducky is one of my favorite cartoon characters ever, so it is obviously a far superior movie. I will say no more on the subject. There was something else that I wanted to write down about the past few days but I can't remember for the life of me what it was... ah well. np: the Holy Childhood - Up With What I'm Down With 7/31/00 Today's big issue: la While I was ignoring my diary: I found out that I have nuns in my family, I got to meet everyone in the Orange, but I was tired and depressed so I probably came off as a jerk, I got the cutest guestbook entry ever (Sawako) followed by the most annoying one ever (by "DR SIMMONS" - normally I wouldn't care, but he emailed me and I emailed back, forgetting to remove my signature, meaning this terrifying person now has my phone number and address), I played the Sims far too often, and I finalized plans to visit Ariel (more or less). Today barely existed for me. I got up, milled around, went over to Zak's for an hour and went back home and it's almost midnight. I'm glad I'm putting my summer to good use... np: Bright Eyes - a collection of songs written and recorded 1995-1997 7/28/00 Today's big issue: bwar...bwar..bwabwabwbbbbbbb I got two cute new effects thingamabobies for my guitar: a tremelo pedal and an analog delay thingie. The delay is so much fun. It opens up a whole new world of hideous noises for me to make. I've been playing the Sims a lot lately. That game eats up so much time and I'm not quite sure whether or not it's good or bad. I've made a really successful politician - I either want her to be the president or corrupt. Or both. np: the Secret Stars - Geneolgies 7/26/00 Today's big issue: sigh So I got home at 2 a.m. and had the strangest urge for a bowl of cereal. I got out the store brand Captain Crunch and as I poured it into the bowl, I noticed there was a little cut out thing on the back, addressed "hey kids" that is a little wheel thing for learning a few phrases in a few languages. I thought that it was a really sweet idea, but it's sad at the same time because despite the creator's best hopes when he was designing the back panel, very few people are ever going to read it. For some reason I pictured the person writing it as just this sweet guy who wanted to help kids to learn other languages, but he was being so naive and innocent in thinking that anyone cared. The next thing that popped into my head was this web site and I got all depressed. Now I go to bed. 7/24/00 Today's big issue: yay! Ariel called today! Ariel called today! We made tentative plans for visiting. Zak, Matt, Kevin, Eric and I chilled at Eric's house for most of the night. We tried again to coat that unfortunate GI Joe with sugar crystals. We saturated the solution better this time, so hopefully it will work now. We had a bunch of really sugary water left, so we put it back on the burner to see what would happen. It turned brown and gooey and if we let it cool off it would harden. Another perfect GI Joe trap. I wonder what it's like to be a grown up. 07/22/00 Today's big issue: no, I would not like to play money making game. I did nothing all day. Yay. Past days' events: mostly wonderful trip to New York City, meaning that the only wonderful part was the Secret Stars/Ida/Other good bands show on tuesday, slightly marred by the hotel, but when you think about it, it doesn't really matter what floor you sleep on. Macworld, despite all of the hype, is just a lot of people talking about computers, a concept that is inherently dull. The only interesting parts were this guy with a perfect handlebar moustache, The Reddest Hallway Ever, and Kevin and I snapping ourselves in our necks with our passes. The train ride back was pleasant enough. - it turned out that Kevin's dad was on the same train, so we chatted a bit and then I listened to a three hours of Ida. The first thing I did when I got back was take a shower - the hotel didn't have a shower that I could find and I wasn't about to ask the people at the desk since I was crashing there illegally. After that I just chilled. I found out that someone, somewhere, felt it was a good idea to send me six free movie passes. I do not mind. Thursday I went to see Chicken Run with Zak. It was quite cute. The next day, Zak went off to a wedding somehwere that will occupy him until monday. I went to that The Orange/Elliot Smith show that I reviewed and then went over to Eric's and did nothing in particular. It turns out that the GI Joe that we tried to coat with sugar crystals didn't turn out right because we didn't saturate the water enough. As it stands now, he's just a very unhappy GI Joe tied up and hanging upside down in a half of a soda bottle filled with brown, sugary water. We used all of the sugar in Eric's house to do this. Which brings us to today. I did nothing other than pick Kevin up from the train station, but that only occupied about 15 minutes, so you can see why I'm a tad bored. But that's ok, because... np: Ida - Will You Find Me 07/21/00 Today's big issue: sleepy.. It's late - I'm going to write a proper entry and show review tomorrow. short version: great free show with the Orange and Elliot Smith, chilled at eric's, tired, happy. 07/19/00 Today's big issue: great show, unfortunate hotel room show good. MacWorld bad. Hotel very bad. 07/14/00 Today's big issue: groan... ok, so I'm writing this the day after... Yesterday, Zak, Eric and I went to the really ghetto supermarket and bought a big box full of barrel drinks. Barrel drinks are those brightly colored, artificially flavored, barrel-shaped bottles of pain that taste like melted popsicles. I had two and it made me sick, Zak had three and he was worse off than I, and woe be to Eric who drank four. The blue ones are the worst; they sting your throat on the way down and then proceed to expand to fifteen times their normal volume once in your stomach. I remember them being really good when I was a kid, too. I've been generally putzing around the past couple of days. I was going to write some music reviews, but I just sat there staring at the blank page without anything coming to mind. Maybe when it stops raining... 07/12/00 Today's big issue: yay! Zak's back in Schenectady! We chilled yesterday. Eventually, Eric and then Kevin came over to his house as well. We didn't really do anything. We played some weird Japanese games in a Supernintendo emulator... we saw a guy with a scary grey mullet... I might see Lughead tonight. 07/11/00 Today's big issue: gotta see gotta know right now I had my interview today - I think it went kinda okay except for the fact that I was totally nervous and fidgety throughout. I hope I can get a job there. I'm starting to like the idea of working during the school year, too. I mean, it would be a lot of pressure and wouldn't leave me with much free time, but I threw away my free time at school usually anyway. This way I'll have money to actually do stuff instead of sit in my dorm room. Maybe I'll be able to afford a car?... So here's the new big turmoil in my life: turns out that Megan can't really have me sleep on her floor for the New York show. That's ok, though - the current plan is for me to sleep on the floor in Matt's hotel room - either sneakily or legally depending on the price. It's not as fun as going to a strange city and sleeping on the floor of someone I barely know, but it's passable. I was bored today, so I went through a little booklet of guitar chords and circled the ones I liked. Almost all of the ones I circled were minor chords - does that mean I'm mopey or just boring? np: Modest Mouse - the Moon and Antarctica 07/10/00 Today's big issue: you know i don't remember the words So I was watching the Powerpuff Girls (the only good show on television) and there was an ad for a collection of "100 children's songs". Try to think up 100 children's songs. As you move on, you begin to bring up the dregs hidden in the back of the music class textbook that no self-respecting third grader would bang out arhythmically on a cowbell. By the end, you're hoping that "Mr. Roboto" is a children's song. My job interview is tomorrow. I'm so nervous. How well do you think they'll take to the fact that I'm going to leave town in the middle of the week just a few days after asking for a job? I made my resumé today, too... I was going to do that whole "include every single thing that I ever did" thing, but I went for a really spartan, utilitarian format that doesn't say very much about me other than that I had a job before and I go to school. Mel sent me the cutest bear today! I've named him Charlemagne, more after the the I Live the Life of a Move Star Secret Hideout song than the guy. He's breakdancing upon one of the new Kindercore singles of the month. same picture without the flash and a longer exposure... If you're really watchful, you'll see that the turntable is set to 33 instead of 45. That's because he couldn't say on at top speed. Poor thing. np: The Maulies - On Holiday With the Maulies 7" 07/09/00 Today's big issue: tickytickyticktick I bought my train tickets to New York! In a wee bit over a week I'll hop on a train and end up at Penn Station at about 4:30 and leisurely make my way over to the Orensanz center and see what will most likely be the best show that I'll ever see in my whole entire life. I've decided against bringing my laptop along. I mean, it would be nice to have it at Macworld, but I really wouldn't use it much and it would be another thing to worry about. Plus, it's heavy. np: Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors (this is definitely one of the best records I've heard in a long time. I've been listening to it a lotlotlot lately. I should review it...) 07/08/00 Today's big issue: can't believe how great they are (I listened to lots of Ida and the Secret Stars on the drive) I got a phone call from Ariel today! Why is it such a nice feeling to know that a person you miss so much feels the same way? It doesn't bring you any closer, but it just feels better, I don't know. I got a whole bunch of stuff in the mail from Insound today - I bought up most of the Bright Eyes stuff I was missing, RX/Pharmacists by Tej Leo, some more Of Montreal stuff, and the On Holiday With the Maulies 7" (by the Maulies). Whee! Ausable Chasm was ok, I guess. I would have preferred to just walk around on my own rather than go on the rail guarded tourist path that they make you go on to keep you from throwing yourself off of the cliff, but it was still kinda pretty. np(i've been forgetting to do these lately): Bright Eyes - Letting Off The Happiness Pictures: - A face in the rocks The older entries are here... |
