Here's What's Cookin'

Monday, July 30 2007
24:04

Twice today, found myself driving in circles. First, on the way out of the garage from work, took a left to head towards 520. Then realized I was going to take I-90 to get to Capitol Hill. 520 would've worked, but figured it was still faster to go around the block and head back the other way. Then, on my way home, somehow Madison wasn't actually Madison, and I was heading away from the I-5 on-ramp-age. So, OK, I'll take the bridge over to Beacon Hill and then head down to the WSF. But which street is that bridge again? About a block past 12th, realized that was it. So, another trip aound in a circle and back, just to take the scenic route home.

So, looked at two potential spaces tonight. One is a ready-made theater space, a very large black box, that we would get for four hours each Monday night. It'd be up to us to make it work for our show, and tear down afterwards, every week. We'd probably keep renting the current space to use for rehearsals. The other space is a large, underground, concrete room that used to be a photo studio I guess. Also on Cap. Hill. It doesn't sound like much, but it's really something – great acoustics, and lots of space. We would be renting it full time, for a cost that is still more than the other + the current combined. We could probably build out some spaces to sub-let inside, eg practice and/ or recording studios, etc. Very different prospects. Maybe neither one is right. Who knows.

Nice day today. Another evening commitment tomorrow, a board meeting this time.

music: Swans - Various Failures; The Cure - Head on the Door

Sunday

Sunday, July 29 2007
24:38

Spent most of the day either reading or watching TV. Reading time split between Destiny's Forge, which is OK so far, and a book I borrowed from Curt last night - Geometry, Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension. Already there have been some passages in it that have really cleared some things up for me. It straddles the line between detailed math and layman's explanations pretty well.

Yesterday – slept in a bit later than I hoped, did make it to the sitting though. Nine people after that for the first non-TTA-rehearsal Saturday guitar circle in a while. Mostly circulation work.

Last night, went to see Spinal Tap at the Fremont outdoor film thingamajig. (wow, thingamajig is in the Word dictionary apparently). It was great. Been about 10 years since I last saw it. A lot of the jokes make more sense now, beyond the really big obvious ones. Also picked up a few puns I never did before – Isle of Lucy really had me laughing. The outdoor theater was interesting, never been to that before. A pretty mixed crowd, including lots of teenagers. It was a beautiful night so the whole thing worked very well.

After that, out for a couple drink's at a place down the street from Curt's. Talked a bit about the property search and practical sides of paying for the sorts of places we've been looking at.

Speaking of which, going to look at two of them tomorrow night.

P.S. Congrats Steve and Regina! woo.

music: Throwing Muses – s/t; Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Originally uploaded by pegahi

TFhruirdsadyay

Friday, July 27 2007
24:21

Went to the dentist today. The tooth most recently filled has been hurting, and not only not getting better, perhaps getting worse. They took another x-ray, and my dentist figured that what it might be is stresses placed on the tooth by the filling having contracted a bit too much when it cured. So they numbed me up to go remedy that a bit. While she was in there, she decided that it'd be best to just re-do the filling entirely. this time, with a different compound, that apparently exudes fluoride to help continuously strengthen the tooth near it. This filling reaches pretty near the nerve, hence the sensitivity. For most of the afternoon, the lingering numbness but growing ache left me feeling like I'd been punched in the face. Took a couple Tylenol after dinner, and that had a dramatic effect. So far, it's still feeling OK, only slightly more achy than before I went in, and less sensitive to shock and cold. Hmm. She said if it doesn't feel better in a couple weeks, it'd likely need a root canal. ugh.

Beautiful weather today. Was all planned to go do my condo walk-through tomorrow, then a last-minute change of plans as it turns out they don't have all the cabinets installed yet. Next weekend they should. Urgh.

Didn't get too many more scrapes and bruises moving servers around yesterday. Only apparently fat-fingered one power cable. Standardized IEC power cables are kind of convenient. Whoever is responsible for them being so common on the back of rackmount servers should be shot. Sometimes they fall it out if you look at them funny. Anyway, everything is spread out in the new racks for the most part, the previous density when we had only two racks was really ridiculous. Now there is lots of breathing room.

music: King Crimson - The Power to Believe; Underworld - 100 Days Off; Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

Midweek

Wednesday, July 25 2007
24:49

The moon seemed too bright last night. It was at about 60%, but as bright as a full moon. Might have just been clear air and that it was near the horizon. Couldn't help thinking of Larry Niven's short story "Inconstant Moon" however. Ah, there was an "Outer Limits" episode made from that, would like to see it. Wait, Michael Gross plays the lead. Nevermind.

Guitar circle meeting at the Wilson's tonight. Circulation work. Good stuff.

Bit of a headache nagging me all day today. Going on another field trip to Tukwila tomorrow.

music: Res - How I Do; Dead Can Dance - Spiritchaser (this is probably my least favorite album of theirs, it is rather dull); Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses

Two day

Tuesday, July 24 2007
24:43

Spent the day yesterday racking servers. A handful of minor cuts and bruises to show for it. In the evening, a band meeting: what are we looking for, in a new space, exactly? It was pretty good. Something like three hours long in total, but with a break for cookies. Not only did we get to some common ground on criteria, but a few new possibilities were opened up as to how we could test the waters by playing another short season in a shared space.

Today, dealing with the fallout of other people mucking about down at the server farm. "We swear we didn't even touch that computer, so there's no way we could've pulled the power cable out." No worries, mistakes happen, but it cost me a few hours. Finally got around to what I'd planned to do after lunch yesterday, by about 7 PM tonight.

music: Projekct Two - Live Groove; Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peepshow; Failure - Magnified; Opeth - Ghost Reveries

July 11...Extra

July 11...Extra
Originally uploaded by ozoni11

Of or Pertaining to Mug

Sunday, July 22 2007
23:12

The weather continues to be gray and drizzly. And 75, so muggy and pretty unenjoyable. Picked up my "Orientation Handbook" for the new condo today. Nothing too exciting in there. And, as expected, the latest news is that the closing date will slip a couple more weeks. Stopped by the place today, they have the balconies up but not the awnings yet.

On the way back from getting coffee this morning: I'm walking along, ready to enjoy the cappuccino in my left hand and the curry chicken salad in my right hand. I see someone about a block away on the sidewalk that looks like it could be Trey Gunn. I'm thinking probably not, and sure enough as he crosses the street I can see that it's not him. Next thing I know, POP, my drink has exploded. I've stepped on some muck on the sidewalk and my foot has slipped, and the resulting startle causes me to squeeze the coffee cup, popping the lid off and spraying half the contents into a four-foot splash on the sidewalk. I'm chuckling at the whole scene, glad I didn't fall on my ass, annoyed at the fact that the tread on these new shoes isn't really that great.

Yesterday – headed up California to go to the bank. What's this? the street is closed again this week. It's the Hi-Yu parade. Ahh. Long detour, and thankfully not that hard of a time finding a parking spot.

Bought a ticket for the Interpol show. This'll be my first time going to something at the WaMu theater. It looks too big for my tastes, though maybe it sounds better than the Paramount.

Spaced and completely forgot about the Elektrochakra show last night. Oh well. Watched Elizabeth. I can't remember if I liked it when it originally came out. I think it wasn't the movie that I wanted to see that day. Also I got the feeling watching it last night that I understood more of the plot this time around. Not that it's so complicated. Hmm. Anyway, that was good. I see on IMDB that there's a new movie, The Golden Age, which is more or less a sequel – Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth, Geoffrey Rush as Walshingham.

music: The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me; Tool - 10,000 Days; Jonas Hellborg - Abstract Logic

Friday

Friday, July 20 2007
26:25

Another gray, miserable day. Meaning the weather, not my actual day. Fairly regular in that sense, then a very enjoyable poker night at Tobin's. A large group this time. Tobin's friend Kate came late and still somehow ended up cleaning up, winning something like seven straight hands in a row. Disturbingly lucky. After the final hand I had about 20% of my stake remaining.

Sleeping in a bit tomorrow, then some errands to run.

music: Skinny Puppy - Rabies; Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album; Tom McCarthy - Spark and Luminance

What a way to start

Thursday, July 19 2007
24:18

Small gathering for TM's birthday last night at the Fiddler's Inn. Great food there – owned by the same people as the Hopvine and the Latona. Had a pretty good time. Went back to T's for some cake after that.

Pulled a really boneheaded move driving yesterday. Annoyed w/ the people that don't know how to merge getting off 405, what I ended up doing was totally cutting off the guy who had been in front of me. Oh well.

Borrowed a box set today, that has DVDs each highlighting the videos of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry. Watched the CC disc tonight. Wow. There are a lot of videos on the SJ disc I'd forgotten he directed, but now it makes sense. A couple like that on the MG one too, like the Everlong video.

Mostly cloudy and some rain today. Yesterday was dark and miserable – like Seattle winter, but 60 degrees.

music: Curve - Doppelganger (this is an album desperately in need of remastering); Chris Connelly - Shipwreck; Japan - In Vogue

Pong

Tuesday, July 17 2007
24:01

There's a stretch of sidewalk outside, on the other side of the street, that smells like crap. Well it's the dirt and bushes near the sidewalk that smell anyway. I'm hoping the cause is dogs and cats. Anyway, it's funny because it smells just like one block near the Lower East Side apartment I lived in during 1994/1995 in NYC. During the winter it wasn't so bad, but when the weather was warm it was pretty ripe. That was definitely a case of "I just don't want to think about it."

Overcast and cool today.

music: Tricky - Maxinquay (forgotten, or never really noticed, that Allison Goldfrapp sings one of the songs on this); Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants

Weekend

Sunday, July 15 2007
24:15

Back to warm and sunny weather today. Went up to Than Bros. for some dinner, ran into the "West Seattle Summer Fest" or something like that, in full swing. Walked around for a bit after eating. Actually it was more in wind-down than full-swing by this point. Lots of the usual arts and crafts booths, plus a few community / political type ones. Movie night at Travgor's after that. Picked up three candidates on the way up there. Curt and Christina also came by. The consensus was: Notes on a Scandal. Wow. More than slightly creepy, and very well done. Not exactly what I was expecting.

Didn't do much yesterday. Watched Minority Report - better than I expected. Played a lot of Peggle. I'm pretty sure I'm having dreams about Peggle now.

Got some new shoes last week. Interesting. Different for Simples. The slip-ons are OK and will probably fit that role just fine. The sneakers, if you can call them that, well the jury is still out. Not up to the usual comfort standards I have for Simple. They are made out of various recycled / enviro-friendly materials. Given the rate at which I (don't) go through shoes, I appreciate the gesture from a company, but really there are so many other things I use / consume that I really think I could just have comfortable shoes and more than make up for it elsewhere.

music: The Cure - Head on the Door bonus disc.

Rare lands

Rare lands
Originally uploaded by IrenaS

Half past July

Friday, July 13 2007
26:33

Overcast and cooler. Yesterday there was a Ferrari 430 Spider and a Lamborghini Murcielago parked in front of the hotel.

Locked a rate on my mortgage loan today. 6.5%, good for 30 days.

music: Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Godfodder; Murder Inc. - Murder Inc.

Hot

Wednesday, July 11 2007
24:22

Another hot one today. Wonderful sunset on the drive home, decided to take the scenic route. Drove around Harbor ave to Alki. Sat on the wall for a while watching the last of it, and Venus in the Western sky. A satellite went over, just before ten, brightening and dimming every 10 seconds or so.

Got home to an oven of an apartment. They put the screens back on the windows after they cleaned them, about which I had mixed feelings. Not all the windows are easy to get to, I really would have rather just done it myself. Maybe they thought they'd help the temperature in here, because then they could leave some of them open – however, I don't know if that really helps. You have to have the windows all wide open w/ some breeze to cool it off in this place. It's still pretty hot.

music: Steve Reich - New York Counterpoint / Eight Lines / Four Organs; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell; New Order - Factus 8 1981-1982

Venus

Venus
Originally uploaded by Taylor Sherman

Tuesday

Tuesday, July 10 2007
25:35

Worked later than planned tonight. Before I knew it, it was midnight.

Found out today about the death of someone I went to college with. Didn't know him very well, he was a guitarist, looked kind of like David Bowie with spidery fingers. Lots of raw talent. I first heard about him from friends of mine – "Hey you should talk to Colin, he's a great guitarist and likes King Crimson". I floated the idea by him of playing some KC tunes at the next Jam – "Sure, which ones?", "Oh I dunno, how about Fracture, or Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part II?", "OK, yeah I like those songs". A surprisingly casual response to what are two extremely difficult pieces to play. So we got together with the drummer, Bill, and it turned out that he didn't seem to have much problem getting the notes out, but more remembering what order the parts were in. So we dropped Fracture, and after maybe one more rehearsal, played LTIA II at the next Jam. It was a total train-wreck. I couldn't play it and cue the other guys to the changes at the same time, actually I'm pretty sure I got lost too during the confusion. Anyway, I guess he killed himself a few days ago.

Passed a police car on I-90 coming home. WSP cruiser parked on the right hand shoulder on the floating bridge. Was sitting there with his door open, inches from the right lane. He pulled it closed a bit as I passed, which gave me the impression he was going to come after me, so that got my adrenaline going. He stayed put.

Holy crap it was nice today. Nearly 90. Soaked it in while going to grab a sandwich in the afternoon.

Got home tonight to find a) a hand-written letter from some Jehova's Witness in my mailbox, and b) a note from my landlords saying they'd be cleaning the windows tomorrow, please remove the screens by 9 AM. So it was that at 1 AM I was pulling all the screens off my 3rd-floor windows from the inside.

music: Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future (this is growing on me); Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero (this isn't); KTU - 8-Armed Monkey

(uh, the Blogger Create page is borked again, can't type a title in the Title bar. . .)

Monday, July 9 2007
25:06

Ugh, why is it that I never remember that the Windows "drag files onto a DVD+RW disc" feature is completely borked. The disk is full. The disk is not writable. There is no disk in the drive. Well, to be honest, the first mistake was I put the disc in the CD-RW drive instead of the DVD+RW drive. But it still didn't work after I fixed that.

Got a letter saying that I'll be getting a call about making an appointment for my Owner Orientation. Still not convinced the current close date will stick, but I don't imagine it'll slide much.

It's hot in here. Wasn't that hot today, was it? Gorgeous though.

First Monday night w/o a performance since February. Had a brief moment of panic when I looked at the clock and it was 6:45 – then remembered I didn't have to leave work at 6 tonight. Actually, I knew it when I looked at the clock, but there was still a little twinge. Like something in my brain went "WAIT! Really? are you SURE??".

music: The Cure - Carnage Visors / Faith; Mission of Burma - vs.; Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

Taylor

Taylor
Originally uploaded by Taylor Sherman

Though this is pre-haircut I suppose.

Hello

Sunday, July 8 2007
24:05

Great weather continues. Today, company picnic at Vasa park. Found out where the next trip will be – Cabo. Mixed feelings. Think I just underestimate what there is to do there. The picnic was OK, spent about three hours there.

[yoink] Sigh. Mixed feelings about the fact that I've mostly let that whole thing go for the past 3 months. Meaning not worried about it; which is probably a good thing. Definitely got a spark of that funky energy today, tried not to hold on to it.

On the drive home, swung by the old neighborhood. Wow – what I didn't expect was that it no longer feels like "this place I'm from but haven't been to in a long time". Now, it felt more like a new place that resembled the memories of where I grew up. The houses are all still there, but, well it's hard to describe I guess. The current owners of our old house are apparently working on landscaping the backyard; I noticed the three? large Douglas firs back there are now gone, which made me sad. Always thought it was cool that we had those gigantic trees in our yard. The paint on the front balcony is still peeling and horrible, not sure if it is what was there last time I drove by (two or three years ago) or what.

Napped for two hours in the evening.

Watched The Machinist tonight. Good flick. Totally engrossing. Very Lynch-ian, though a little easier to follow. What Christian Bale did to his body to film that is totally amazing. Unreal.

Saturday: woke up at 03:55, well a flashing 03:55, meaning the power had gone out four hours earlier. Got up and checked a watch: 9:35. Oh well. Got to the space about 10:30, CF calling my cell right as I walked in the building, wondering where I was. Two-hour post-season wrapup meeting, only somewhat interminable. Then 30m of cleanup.

Spent the afternoon making Simpsons avatars (one for each of the TTA team, 22 total) and playing Peggle. Cut my hair, just lopped about two inches off the end. Rented some movies and grabbed dinner. Last night's movie: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Great stuff. I love Cate Blanchett, but we already knew that. Everyone else was great too. It's about time I saw Rushmore again, oh and Bottle Rocket for that matter.

music: Swans - The Great Annihilator; New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

Solar

Thursday, July 6 2007
25:03

Gorgeous weather this week. Fourth party at Travgor's yesterday. Their backyard is small but works well – shaded from the evening sun by the house. There was a nearly constant supply of food. A mostly laid-back affair, though there were a couple happy, energetic children bouncing about. And, at one point, lots of women dancing in the driveway. Didn't expect to see any fireworks, turned out the top of some Lake Washington show was visible. Magnuson park maybe? Got home around 1.

There was some sort of conflagration on the SSV tonight on the way home. Got backed up on the off-ramp from I5. Diverted by police down the far left ramp to the surface, so that got us moving but didn't get to see what had happened. Lots of emergency vehicles though.

Venus has been super bright in the Western evening sky this week.

music: GusGus - Polydistortion; Helmet - Betty

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Stump on the Beach
Originally uploaded by macleong

Three Days

Tuesday, July 3 2007
26:16

Peggle officially owns my face. Now that I've completed the main game, the twelve pages of Challenge maps has me thinking I should just uninstall it now before I get CTS.

Super-strange dream last night. It involved a creature in a zoo, that was more or less anthropomorphic, had shiny, black leathery skin, black oval eyes, and a crazy, asymmetrical four-part bony jaw/beak thing. It was strapped into a hand-truck thing like Hannibal in Silence of the Lambs. To feed it, they'd press food items against its face and it would rip into them with a chainsaw-like sound, shooting streams of whatever in several directions. When I first saw it, I thought it was eating a woman's face, then I found out that it was like an amusement park ride, they strapped you in to another wheely cart and rolled you right up to it, face to face just inches away, with the foodstuffs between you. The woman was screaming madly as a river of red sprayed her in the face. I think that was a tomato, though I seem to also remember a chicken being involved. It's also possible that they wheeled her too close, and the thing's large, left jaw "hook" had gashed her cheek. The thing seemed to be at least somewhat sentient, which had me wondering what it had done to deserve this.

Show 100 last night. Last one of the season. Full house. Terribly hot in the room. Should have left the windows open. Made fewer mistakes than usual. There was a bit of a SNAFU in the green room before what was to be the second encore, causing it not to be. Which was probably OK, leave the audience wanting more (and let them get some air before they pass out). Get-together at Curt's afterward – beer, wine, margaritas, pizza, cake. A very relaxed but energetic gathering.

Sunday. . .don't remember much of it. Huh.

music: Res, A Perfect Circle, Radiohead, Revolting Cocks, Klaxons

Full Moon

Saturday, June 30 2007
26:17

OK, Peggle is good stuff. Fired it up for the first time about two hours ago. . .where am I? what time is it? Halfway through the game.

Gut was in a knot this morning. Missed calisthenics, but it resolved itself in time to make it to the sitting. Mostly running pieces that are "in the pocket" for the final performance, ones we haven't been playing lately. Lots of "Eye of the Needle". Napped through the afternoon; mostly watched TV after that.

Finished Quantico yesterday. Pretty good overall. A few nagging plot issues, but interesting and a pretty compelling read. Took it down to Tacoma with me, figured Carrie would like to read it. Fairly quiet afternoon / evening at their place. Meatloaf for dinner, with the best strawberry pie EVER for dessert. Maybe the only strawberry pie I've actually had; usually rhubarb is involved too. Anyway, it was super-delicious. The folks took off after that, then we managed to watch the entire The Prestige without Charlie waking up. Great movie still on the second viewing.

music: Jonas Hellborg - Abstract Logic; New Order - Brotherhood; Rollins Band - Weight