chlorine

chlorine
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

Like a Moth

Tuesday, January 30 2007
24:01

Another field trip to Tukwila today. Traffic was really bad this morning for some reason – apparently, it was so from about 8 until at least 11. So it took me an hour to get to work. Turned around almost immediately for Tukwila – thankfully, I wasn't driving. A couple minor snags getting things installed, but went pretty well overall. The two racks are no pretty much packed, with 52 computers in them using something close to 10kw of power. Stopped at Newport Bay for lunch on the way back – food there isn't bad, but it's kind of turned into a dive.

Got sucked into a long discussion / argument about global warming in the afternoon. I think I may have been trolled. It was interesting at least.

music: Cocteau Twins – box set stuff; Failure - Magnified; Swans - Various Failures (didn't even notice the "failure" link there until just now).

cautionwind

cautionwind
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

Sound and Vision

Monday, January 29 2007
24:27

Good practice tonight. Ran through a potential setlist for the first show, then spent the second half on new material. I definitely had a strange sort of energy the whole time, luckily it ended up mostly coming out via having some fun. Actually the phrase came into my head that, these days, I've got "the juice". Ah, I hope to look back on this time from the future with some fondness. Out to the Hi Life afterwards for a drink and some wonderful "Lil' Lamb Burgers". Michelle's last day there is next Tuesday; we may just have to find ourselves a new post-show hangout habit.

My upcoming vacation will come not a minute too soon.

music: The Minus 5 – s/t; Bowie - Low; Herbie Hancock - Headhunters (definitely liking this so far).

Week Beginning

Sunday, January 28, 2007
23:50

Saturday: up at 7, mostly more of the same at calisthenics. Onwards to the other 12 variations of the First Primary though (ah, yes, that was what else we did last week, the first 12 – well, the first 6 when ascending and the last 6 when descending). Sitting and coffee run as usual. First real meeting with guitars for the year – yay! It was mostly a run-through of what we have more or less available right now, with some looking at what will need to change when either I, Curt, or Jaxie are gone (as we will each be once during the first three shows). For the last hour, some work on the Zeppelin conflagration which is coming along nicely and still lots of fun. Oh yes – and Andrew is IN for this season, so that means we can do the full nine-part arrangement of Triangulation.

Came home after that. Mostly was depressed and wondering what to do about it. Did get some more of my old Diaryland entries saved off locally. Also double-checked some of the Kashmir parts, yep that's really how it goes. Went up to Tacos Guymas for dinner – too hungry for two tacos, but the burrito was too much. Also, the al-pastor meat works well in a taco but again in the burrito with guac and cheese and all that, it's too fatty, should have got chicken. Stopped by Easy Street and did some browsing. They had some Bauhaus on the system, good stuff. When "Telegram Sam" came on, I thought, that's it, I should get some T-Rex. It was a mostly 70s pick, with The Slider, Bowie's Low, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, plus the most recent Minus 5 cd. Back home, watched some more TV, which didn't help the depressed state at all. Finally, found myself dozing off around 9 so I went to bed.

Today: the blackberry woke me up at 7:30, had to go kick a server, then it was back to bed for a few hours. Some more work stuff needed attention after that, no alerts went off but I happened to see the 2nd-order fallout and figured something was up. It actually sort of fixed itself, the appropriate engineer now has a fix ready to go out tomorrow morning though. Starbucks for breakfast. Then I figured I had to get out of the house, so I headed down to Lincoln Park w/ camera in tow. Beautiful day out, a bit chilly but clear skies. Took some more photos w/ altered white balance, almost all of them that way this time, and many of those then altered again back here. Walked down the trail to the waterfront for the first time. It was windier down there. Sat on a bench and absorbed the sun for a while.

After processing and posting the pictures, finally got around to doing the 1099s. They really didn't take very long. Just got a cramp in my hand from writing hard enough to go through 4 layers of carbon paper. Finished grabbing all the Diaryland entries off. The first post is from October 26, 2000; the last (real) post from December 21st of that year (there's a post several months after that w/ a link to the new place, which was on the "Seattle Practice Circle" website). The first day's post:

2000-10-26 - 11:47:14

Ooh! The first entry in my online diary. I wonder how well I'll keep this thing up to date. I suppose I should go to work now.

2000-10-26 - 23:31:14

zzzzzz

Didn't practice. Tonkatsu curry is yummmm-my. I had some stuff to say but forgot. Oh yeah, have to be out of the apt. tomorrow by 9 AM so they can paint my front door. That I can live with. The weird part is that they need to leave the door open all day. Good thing I don't have any sensitive tropical plants or animals in here. At least, not that I know of. What was that?

zzzz

I typed "zzzz" a lot. I also tended to write conversationally, and said some surprisingly un-veiled things about issues at the time (eg ex-ish-girlfriend), I guess I figured nobody I knew would be reading it. I don't think it was linked to from anywhere, and I didn't use my real name, so perhaps that was a reasonable expectation.

Practiced guitar in front of the TV for a bit, mostly setting the metronome and seeing what things were available at said tempo (100, 108). In a Law And Order episode, one location was a cafe named "Brasserie Nylorac". That would be "Carolyn" spelled backwards. Reminded me of the first time I met my friend Carolyn, she demonstrated to the entire freshman class that she could take her bra off without removing her shirt. Somehow I doubt that's what the writers were referring to, but you never know. Carolyn is now a roller-derby-ist known as "The Mainegler".

Sometime this evening my mood magically reversed itself. Doubts became mere uncertainties, and hope flooded in.

music: David Bowie - Low (I'd read about Joy Division being heavily influenced by this album before, but heh, seeing the liner notes, Barney even took his wardrobe and haircut cues from it!); Talking Heads - Fear of Music (felt the need to crank up "I Zimbra" yesterday); T-Rex - The Slider; The Minus 5 – s/t.

P.S. to answer my own question from a while back, the KMFDM show at the Catwalk w/ BR playing bass was July 3rd, 2002.

Still Crazy

Friday, January 26, 2007
24:25

Was thinking of doing a "blast from the past" diary entry here, from five years ago (my oldest word doc only goes back to 12/9/2000; I had some entries on diaryland before that, but it looks like I have to wait a bit for them to be "regenerated"). No entry for that date though – I was on a Guitar Craft Level 2 course in Sassoferrato, Italy; and I didn't keep a journal while there. Here's an entry from four years ago, when I was on the Kitchen Team at a course in Los Molinos, Spain. That time, I did keep a journal:

Sunday
January 26, 2003

8:56
Wonderful, windy on the way to the sitting. The bare trees nearby make a great rushing-water sound - very smooth and strong. First full circle w/ guitars last night. Concentric. Circulations in 7 and 11. Having a multiple of 4 in my circle (11s) made it easier. Went on w/ lights out for quite some time (light from outdoor yard lights providing enough to see by though). Coffee station was hectic after that. We had plenty of coffee - the hot items were hot water and milk. Got a sense in the circles yesterday that the polyrhythmic circulations and thraks were a sort of incantation. Reminded of The 37th Mandala (though not so horrific...). 7 + 13 + 17 anyone?
20;30
Worked mid-day tea today. The milk boiled over, luckily before tea time since I had to take half the oven apart (though that was simple) to clean it. Worked on The Nurse after that. Performed it at dinner - went well, something like 15 performers. Lots of comments and some observations at dinner. Good questions asked too.
24:04
More concentric circulating. Didn't quite hold together once the lights went out. A pause, then the new GC Theme (or, part of it at least) was begun. I'd completely forgotten it, sounded sort of familiar . . . yikes. Circle broke up. DebraK offered to show it to those who wished. I stuck around. Despite a large percentage of KT/Lifers, it was clearly an L2 event and I felt as if maybe I should've passed. But now I know the chords again. Leaked more energy by talking about "real world" concerns afterwards for a bit. Bed time now.

On this date in 2004 I was in town. In 2005, I was on the Big Island. One year ago, I did not write an entry for January 26th.

Today I was up some and down some. Again found that meditating for a half-hour in the evening helped.

music: The Smiths - Meat is Murder; Mussorgsky - Pictures At An Exhibition (Jean Guillou, organ); REM - Murmur

Nineteen Ninety Three

cooper_id
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

Two Thousand And Seven

Wednesday, January 24 2007
24:44

I'm going crazy over someone I barely know, and terrified of screwing the whole thing up.

music: At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command; Angels of Light - Other People; KMFDM - WWIII

spool

spool
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

One Two Three

Tuesday, January 23 2007
24:15

There's been a police helicopter circling around outside for about the past 30 minutes. A couple cruisers w/ lights flashing have the street blocked off for 3 or 4 blocks not far up the hill.

This morning on the way into the parking garage, one of the entrance lanes was marked off, as an electrician was working on a fixture in the ceiling. As I drove away, I saw sparks fly in my rear-view mirror, and all the lights in the garage went out. A few lights came on about 20 seconds later. I hope the guy's all right.

By the time I got in today, the server move was already in progress. Some SNAFUs were also already in progress, so things were a bit hectic right from the get-go. Eventually the minimal-downtime plan was just not happening, so we had to "down the rack" and send yet another body southwards w/ a server in tow. I got out of that job because I needed to stick around and set up the servers that did come up OK (it's easier to do via remote desktop than via the little tiny mobile console thingy we have down there). Thankfully that part of things went smoothly. The guys got the rest all ironed out by early-evening.

music: Peter Murphy - Deep; Steve Reich - Music for a Large Ensemble; Octet; Violin Phase; Rain Tree Crow

With your feet on the air and your head on the ground

Monday, January 22nd, 2007
24:45

An interview scheduled for this morning was cancelled when it turned out that the interviewee was a convicted "cyber-felon". Whaddayaknow.

Went on a field-trip to Tukwila today.

music: Skinny Puppy - Rabies; Miles Davis - Bitches Brew; Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

lyrics: "Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there."

movie: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Week End

Sunday, January 21 2007
24:47

Saturday: Managed to get out of bed at 7, and get to calisthenics at 8. Spent most of the hour working on something like the Third Relation exercise, moving the center back and forth between the 3rd and 4th strings; then, moving up and down the neck in C diatonically – four on each, then two, then one. Actually I think that's what we did the whole time. Sitting after that, 45 minutes, then a coffee run. The line at Besalu was gigantic, as always, so I went to Java Bean (as always) with DLV and had my coffee and apple fritter while the other folks all waited in line.

The TTA repertoire meeting was interesting. I put out my half-dozen ideas, it was kind of comedic as I had the scores for all of them but only one copy, so as I introduced each I put it out on the carpet in front of me. Not that anyone else could see anything. A couple other people had new material, some original and one medley of sorts. Much discussion on what our aim, repertoire-wise, was for this season, and how we were going to set things up to support it (whatever it was). Things went in circles more than once, and my patience was tried, but overall it was good. For the final hour, we worked on the medley that Igor and Travis had worked up. Sounds really good so far, and it's fun too.

Came home and mostly napped after that. Then went up to Yanni's for the Lost Pedro gig. It was a bit late, and chaotic, as usual. Hung out "backstage" (eg, in the narrow hallway by the restrooms) for a bit, then went out and sat by myself for about 20 minutes. Finally they went on, about the same time Igor showed up. D and M were no-shows, so we had two empty spots at the table. I'd sent a very last-minute invitation to someone a few hours earlier, one which was also a bit weird as I didn't think we'd have room at our table. So, I didn't think odds were very good she'd show up, but I was still kind of hoping. LP put on a good show, I really wouldn't have guessed that they hadn't played in over a month. They played two sets, the second ending around 9:30. Hung out with them while they had some food and drinks until about 11. After that, went to Travis and Igor's to watch Kung Fu Hustle, which was awesome. I expected it to be funny, but damn. What a hilarious movie, and in a totally unexpected way (well, it was silly, which I expected, just different). Got home around 1:30.

Today: slept in. Got some breakfast / lunch at Than Brothers. Then it was mostly work, of the accounting sort. And I still didn't even get the 1099s done – there was so much other stuff, between personal and SC finances, to get done. Did watch the new Battlestar Galactica, which was good. I'm thinking that Starbuck is a Cylon, or at least that's what they want you to think.

Seasick

Friday, January 19 2007
24:23

For some reason, I was thinking about events that were going on at this time seven years ago. I can't remember exactly when the SPEEA walkout began, so I'm not sure if I was on strike yet at this point. I don't think that happened until later in Jan or the first few days of February. I tried looking through my email archives, but no mention of it in messages to me (my Sent messages don't go back that far for some reason). February 2000 was a pivotal month for me. Left Boeing for a more lucrative job, which didn't last long but led to where I am now. Decided to get a guitar, begin with it by actually taking lessons (which I'd never done before), and apply for a Guitar Craft course that would happen 7 months later. My point of view, and entire approach to life, began to shift slowly from here on (after being kicked loose in March 1999).

My emotional state seems to be on a daily cycle. Not the roller-coaster of a few weeks ago, more of a ship at sea on some really, really slow 30-foot swells. Up one day, down the next. Today was a down.

The new guitar arrived this morning. Beauty. In good shape. Needs a few tweaks for the new strings / tuning, but overall it's good. Funny I'm still conditioned to basses arriving in huge boxes – when the UPS guy arrived this morning I thought, "there can't be a guitar in that little box!". But yep, gig bag and all.

car / work music: Robert Fripp - A Blessing of Tears; Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey; Swans - Various Failures

The Patient

Thursday, January 18 2007
24:45

Ended up listening to a bunch of old audio files just now. Seems like the sound quality of the Hunt the Wumpus recordings from college just get worse all the time. But they're digital. . .

A guitar will hopefully be arriving via the brown van tomorrow. Hadn't been keeping an eye on Ebay for a while, then I looked around on Tuesday and hey, just what I was looking for. Surprisingly, I didn't get outbid. Once again I got distracted and wasn't online for the final minutes, but I didn't get sniped this time. Anyway, looking forward to it.

car / work music: Soundgarden - Superunknown; Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good; Swans - The Great Annihilator

Damp, waving branch.

Wednesday, January 17 2007
25:02

A distracted/ing day. Got some work done later in the evening. Which makes it sound like the rest of the day wasn't worthwhile, not true, just many different things going on. Sat for a good little presentation on some modern threading techniques. I have a lot of experience with threaded programs, but haven't really studied the matter much. All empirical, and some if it inside of some fairly pathological and/or insane architectures (some my doing, some not). So, I learned some useful things today.

Spent some time going over the pieces I plan to bring on Saturday, printing out a copy of each. One arrangement is not yet done, but the idea should come across.

Meditated for 30 minutes tonight. The first half on air, the second something else.

Rainy and a bit windy today.

car music: New Order - Brotherhood; Rush - Grace Under Pressure

Sloosh

Tuesday, January 16 2007
24:57

It snowed last night / this morning, but was about 34 degrees out when I hit the road. Still, the slush was slipperier than I expected, and within a block I'd slid into the curb and had a near-miss with the telephone pole. Things were OK after that. Hovered near freezing all day, but luckily no ice yet on my drive home.

This Saturday will be a meeting of the team for the next TTA season, the idea being to take a look at the repertoire for that season. I'll be bringing four new pieces (new to our repertoire, at least). Two of mine and two adaptations. I know of a couple other new things brewing. This could be fun.

car music: Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal; The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow

Sunday

Sunday, January 14 2007
24:04

Went to see Film of Many Bosoms, aka The Curse of the Golden Flower, with Travis and Igor tonight at the Neptune. Wonderful. A classic tragedy done very well, and with some really amazing bits thrown in. One thing I don't understand is why some of the characters' names were different in the subtitles than in the film. Pan's Labyrinth had some interesting translation choices too – some made sense, but a few just seemed like the translator decided to add some random variations to the script.

My back was sore today, but it was thankfully all of the "hello, muscles" sort and nothing that really got in the way.

Have some work to do in my Treasurer role - stopped by Staples this afternoon to get some 1099-MISC forms. Need to send those out to a few folks that got paid last year. Also need to send some "Thanks for the donation" letters to people who donated.

In the background today, spent some time wrangling with a SQL server that decided to hit a performance cliff. Still massaging it with no real luck yet.

Oh – The subtitle on the marquee at the Neptune said, "Bang a Gong". I'm not making that up.

Later

26:27

Went over to Travis and Igor's to watch Payday, along with Curt. Great movie. Dark and bitter as hell. Travis made some chicken pita-type dish which was really good. Followed that up with Hendrix at Monterey and then Zappa's Does Humor Belong in Music?. Slow careful drive home – the icy bits were only on the side streets, but there was some fog. Somehow, in the transition from old car to new a couple years ago I dropped the ice scraper. So this week I've been using CD cases for that task.

My back muscles are starting to get sore, and my hands are bruised. Still nothing to really affect me, but I'm betting I'll be pretty stiff in the morning (haha, no jokes please).

What a week. Felt about a month long. The next few months look to be pretty interesting.

Ow

Saturday, January 13 2007
12:51

Well the day is getting off to a good start. I just fell down the stairs. The bottom 5 or 6 of the outside stairs here are covered with ice. They've been that way since Thursday, but they were slipperier than expected on my way down. As soon as I put my weight on the first one, my feet flew out and I landed on my back. At which point I slid down, bouncing on each stair, until I got to the ground. The sounds coming out of my mouth were great, something like that gurgling noise that Schwarzenegger makes in the movies when his character is undergoing some sort of trauma. When I got to the bottom, all the muscles in my lower back and gut were locked up, it took a good 30 seconds of sitting there with some directed attention to relax them. I was a bit surprised after that how easy it was to get up and walk away. I'll probably be sore in a couple hours though.

I sent an email to property mgmt. suggesting that it might not be a bad idea to scrape the ice off. I might do it myself, but I don't really have any tools that would work.

Meanwhile, it's snowing lightly outside. Slept in this morning, forgoing the earlier parts of continued renovation at the performance space. My later plans were then cancelled, due to bad road conditions. So, turns out to be a "none of the above" sort of day.

All For Naught

Friday, January 12 2007
24:37

Saw Pan's Labyrinth with some folks from work tonight. Good stuff. The theater was crowded, so we had to sit too close for me. I practically had to turn my head to go back and forth between the subtitles and the center of the screen, so I probably didn't get the full experience. The movie is shocking and beautiful and disturbing and possibly uplifting but I'm not quite sure. Went out for some food afterwards and the conversation focused on fascism and other totalitarian regimes.

One of the previews was for a movie about a guy obsessed with the number 23.

Last night, I was remembering how a comet featured in the movie Wimbledon (a cheesy but not too bad romantic comedy about tennis players) that I watched the other day. Funny how there's a comet out there now, I thought. Hmm, that one's name is McNaught. Doesn't sound romantic. Naught, as in nothing. Zero. Oh, hmm, zero is "love" in tennis. I chuckled at that.

car music: Roxy Music - Viva!; some Javanese gamelan

sunsetlight

sunsetlight
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

Light from the comet! Just kidding.

Night of the Comet

Thursday, January 11 2007
25:01

Back in the fall of 1994, my roommate Eddie and I went to see Velocity Girl open for Sugar at the Roseland. VG were great, and after about three songs into Sugar's set we figured what was the point, so we left. A few days later, VG played at Maxwell's in Hoboken, so we went out there. Totally different type of place, and that show was pretty amazing. I fell in love with Sarah Shannon right then and there, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. We loitered around after the show, and Archie was nice enough to come chat with us for a while. He said he remembered me from the Roseland show, because he thought for a minute that Kevin Shields was in the audience. I'd never really noticed a resemblance before, but could see it a little bit. Remembering this now, I pulled out my student ID and compared it with some photos of Kevin online. Holy crap. In 1994 I looked pretty much like a slightly skinnier twin to a 1992 Kevin Shields. Comparing recent pictures, the resemblance isn't really there so much anymore.

Worked from home today. Will be going in tomorrow. Got a call from my dad in the early evening, that began "If you look out your kitchen window, to the southwest or west-southwest..." and I finished, "You can see the comet?". Indeed. Comet McNaught. Glad he gave me the heads-up. I'd forgotten about it, and how it was looking to be pretty spectacular. To the unaided eye, nothing very big but a definite and clearly non-normal comet-looking type thing just at the transition from orange glow to deep blue sky above the horizon. Scrounged up some binoculars, and wow. This is the first time I'd ever seen a comet with my own eyes, despite being around for Halley in 1986 and Hale-Bopp in 1997 (the former was probably blocked by the ubiquitous clouds in Seattle, the latter by the many buildings of Manhattan, guess I wasn't excited enough about it to go over to the river). I got a couple pictures of it with the meager zoom on my camera. In them, "it's visible" is about all you can say.

apt. listening: Tom McCarthy - Spark and Luminance. This just showed up along w/ a bunch of other stuff in the mail yesterday. good stuff.

Snow Night Blue

snow_night_blue
Originally uploaded by taylorsherman.

20-s exposure out the kitchen window w/ an altered white balance.

Now that's what I'd call a Wintry Mix!

Wednesday, January 10 2007
24:00

Looks like I'll be out of town for the first show of the next TTA season. A half-season this time, from February to July.

I've boasted recently about canceling my MySpace account. It's not entirely true – I canceled the first (non-music) one, but I still have the music account. Found out today that Sarah Shannon has a MySpace page w/ samples of songs from her new album, which I also just found out about. I just sent her a friend request. Had an un-acknowledged one from FabianR from Ecuador waiting there, sorry for taking a month to approve that one. I think I also "added" "King Crimson", though I can't remember.

It snowed today. Much ado about the impending storm early in the day, then the dark curtains descended from the North sometime around 3 or 4. It looked really nice. Wasn't so good for anyone trying to drive anywhere though, the 405-90 interchange became a sheet of ice apparently. I didn't navigate home until late, it was still snowing but the roads were mostly just wet. I counted 25 cars off on the side of the road between downtown Bellevue and Mercer Island. There was much more "stuck" on the ground in West Seattle, a good 3 inches on top of cars and vegetation, with thick slush on the streets. The weather service says it's 32 degrees in Seattle right now. So I may be working from home tomorrow.

car music: Radiohead - Hail to the Thief; didn't actually listen to the planned drive home CD, Antics, with all the ice and snow and all that. Which reminds me, the ABS in my car makes an awful racket. Like a tommy gun in the floorboards.

sigh

Tuesday, January 09, 2007
21:16

Had a sort of waking dream this morning. Woke up, lying on my back, opened my eyes a little. It was still dark out, this was around 6 AM. Over in the "dream" space, there was a door in front of me, one like you'd find at a school or something, with the full-width push bar to open it from the inside. Not the thin bar that kind of turns down, but the rectangular kind that pushes straight in w/ springs behind it. This one had a little key hole on the front, not used to lock it but so you can push the bar in, then turn the key, and stick it that way so the door doesn't latch. I realized I needed to find the key and latch it open, it was good to open doors, not have them shut. After I latched it, a note slipped through, straight into my hands. It had two sentences, spaced out:

A two-ton weight.


A six-ton weight.

My reaction was that it was a clever ploy to get me to sleep again. I opened my eyes again a little bit, they were dry and sticky and I had to close them. Yes, a clever ploy. I opened them again, and a huge gust of wind blew into the side of the building where my window is, blowing right through the wall and the window, rattling the blinds, then right through me, going through me but with great resistance, almost turning me over. As it passed through me, my vision blackened then cleared. The dream space was gone and I was mostly awake, still sleepy, but eyes open and moving my fingers. I began to think about what happened, describing it as "something bad" that passed through. I looked back at that for a bit, then concluded I didn't really know if it was bad; just that I was terrified.

Didn't have as rough a time as expected falling asleep last night, though I had been a basket case all day so I was pretty tired. I did wake up at 4 AM for a bit, then again w/ the above at 6. After that I didn't sleep too much until I got up at 9.

Had a reply to yesterday's question waiting for me. Not what I had hoped most for. Almost what I had feared most. Full of uncertainty, just enough hope, but plenty of doubt. Seems like a case of the right thing at the wrong time. What's the aphorism?

The right thing at the wrong time is wrong.
The wrong thing at the right time may be right.
The right thing at the right time is beautiful.

Oh, God, how I wanted that beautiful.

Monday

Monday, January 8, 2007
24:12

Just got done playing along with Evil Empire. God that's a good album. Haven't played that, or with it, for a few years. "Revolver" is still my favorite.

A good couple paragraphs here not getting posted on the public blog. Suffice to say, took another risk tonight. This one is the real thing. Waiting to hear back. I think I'm going to have a very hard time falling asleep tonight.

car music: New Order - Technique; Miles Davis - On the Corner

nervous energy

Got a reply on that email - one that has me giddy and more than a little terrified at the same time. I've had pretty constant butterflies for the past 4 hours. I was partly hoping for a different response, one that would leave me sad but relieved. And, even if I could psych myself up, I can't really do anything about it today, at least not in person. Maybe tomorrow. If I don't explode before then.

Land

Sunday, January 07, 2007
22:42

Stepped out on a bit of a limb Friday night, via an emailed question. No reply yet, will probably have it tomorrow. Felt better immediately upon sending it.

The roller coaster ride seems to have stopped, at least temporarily. Noticed it last night, though I'm not sure when it happened. This morning my feet were still on solid ground. Felt a bit weird. Trying to take stock of what's left in the wake. It's hard not to believe that such strong feelings are tied to some objective piece of reality. I still feel like they are. Tomorrow could be an interesting day.

Today, meanwhile, was a fairly lazy Sunday. Put new strings on the bass, and ordered some more of the EXPs as they are working well. Played along with The Police a little. Danced around as much as can be done in this little room w/ various wires connected to me, enough to work up a sweat. Worked a bit more on the transcription of "She Blinded Me With Science". It's pretty hard for me to make out the pitch of some of the bass notes, down in a very low register w/ that classic fat synth sound, not very many overtones. The arrangement is still pretty bare-bones, I might just wait until we get some guitarists playing it to find spots that need changing.

TV today: Wimbledon; Spiderman 2; some bits of Blade Runner, and Kill Bill I and II in the background.

P.S. Still not sure who Kaz, the mysterious "woo!" er is. . .a couple ideas, some more likely than others.

singing three notes

Friday, January 5, 2007
24:34

The power has flickered here a couple times. The winds have died down for now though; they were pretty strong for a couple hours. I guess 520 was closed, I-90 was all backed up on the way home.

Another work day at the ex-and-soon-to-be-performance-space tomorrow. Sanding and priming probably.

car/work music: Tool - 10,000 Days; The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me; Mick Karn - Bestial Cluster

Hello

Thursday, January 4, 2007
23:52

Hmm, a comment. Or an exclamation anyway.

Last night's recording.

Vanilla Sky was on just now. That's another great movie that's just really, really hard to watch. Ronin was on too; it's great in a different way, and a little easier for repeated viewings.

car music: Brand X - Product; Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth

wheeeaaaaaaaaaarghl

Wednesday, January 03, 2007
22:59

I wonder if anyone reads this thing? Taking a bit of a risk, and opening up the "comments" to anyone, not just Blogger members. We'll see how that goes. So, comment away. You know you want to, and it's anonymous.

My hands are sore. Just finished recording a couple minutes of music. A bit of energy venting. I was going to say catharsis, but then that would (may)be for you, the presumptive listener. It still needs some work, just a bit of mixing, it will stay pretty much as-is; however once the last take was done it seemed right to just save it and leave it for tonight. Looks like I stopped just in time, the fingernail on my right index finger that I was using as a pick is pretty much polished down. My left hand is swelling up a bit. The bass is no worse for wear.

Forgot to call and make an appointment to have the car checked out today.

car music: Tribe - Sleeper; Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox

Wheee

Tuesday, January 2, 2007
24:40

One of the upshots of being depressed is that time goes by more slowly. With a little attention in the right place, you can actually make use of that. Not that it makes the depressed part feel any different. There were a couple bright moments in there today. Along with some Lebanese pastries that were waay too sweet.

The bass preamp (the Alembic rackmount, not the new onboard setup) is on the fritz. Or making the fritz. Fritz fritz fritz it goes when I play through it. Sometimes not too bad. But I think a tube is shot.

car music: The Cure - Faith (the randomizer picked "Carnage Visors", the bonus track, for the first time today. I didn't get all the way through it before getting to work, but the 15 or so minutes I did hear I really liked); Cocteau Twins – selections from the singles/EPs box set.

P.S. the re-run of The Daily Show last night had me laughing out loud for a good couple minutes at the mention of "Doodles von Taintstain".

That old U2 song

Monday, January 1, 2007
24:36

A new year, on the calendar at least. Generally had a pretty good time at the party last night. Quite a few people there, a more diverse crowd than I had expected. Slept in today, did some house cleaning, watched TV. Worked on transcribing / arranging something for the next season. Still not sure if it'll work.

Interesting to note that, whatever the motivation was that got me writing this journal / posting to the blog, it's had some momentum, and I'm finding myself in "did this, watched this, did that" mode.

movies today: Groundhog Day - great movie, hard to watch sometimes though. Midnight Express, I'd never seen that before. Manhattan Project - Cynthia Nixon was 20 when she made that. I also was wondering if Matt Damon watched this movie a lot when he was a kid. He talks just like the lead character.