life is about tradeoffs

just put my a/c back into my window. let's do the numbers:

pro: did it myself
con: now i am all sweaty

pro: my room is no longer going to be a hellhole of heat and humidity
con: it's probably just going to be humid now

pro: i still have the foam stuff so that there's a reasonable, if not perfect, seal around it
con: it has spent the last fifteen minutes spewing chunks of dirt and petrified leaves into my room for some reason, as if instead of storing it in the 3rd story closet like i thought i did, i had accidentally buried it in the back yard

pro: added white noise
con: i think my fan gets jealous.

pro: my fan constantly sounds like it's about to fall off and kill me and/or have a heart attack
con: none

'cause it's bad to do what's easy, just 'cause it's easy

so, today was a pretty nondescript day. slept too late. cousin came into town. lost at trivia. did nothing constructive towards any of the goals i have in life.

i also recorded this song, oats we sow (it's at the top. this is my covers myspace.) it's by gregory and the hawk, who, thanks to imeem, have been on repeat for the last week or two. i really like what they do/she does, but this song especially resonates with me.

oh, hi!

addendum

i take back all the nice things i just typed about you, peregrine.

tiresome, with a smile

i never thought i was a person of strong habits. i still don't think i am-- but my appraisal has to incorporate the fact that, somehow, i have fallen into a few persistent habits. along with my other general proclivities, i'm sure this makes me a really tiresome person. i have been trying to convince certain people of this immutable fact for some time now (yet another tiresome quality of mine), and am somewhat disheartened by their reticence to see it my way (ditto).

however, in my occasional single-mindedness, or more properly my occasional obsessions, i come across some good shit which merits sharing. that's what blogs are for. so, while we're counting them down, here we go:

cappuccinos: every day. if i don't have at least two good ones, i get quite cranky. currently i am a visiting scholar of annoying the baristas at peregrine espresso; i have not decided whether i'll return to my tenure-track position at the new iteration of murky when it opens in chinatown, but in the meanwhile, this is great. it's sort of the exact opposite of murky, for better or worse: clean, friendly, small, new, tasteful, simple. honestly, each of those could be a strength or weakness, as i have discussed at length with various folks. (discussing things at length: tiresome).

songs: i frequently listen to the same songs over and over again when i'm really into them. i didn't used to do this, but i do now. i add in some filler (it's not 100 repetitions, more like 30 listens in one day), but still. recently it's been okkervil river, especially black sheep boy, especially when running. i think their recorded work is fantastic-- everything is very thoughtfully arranged. maybe it's the austin connection, but they remind me of spoon in that way, even though they're totally stylistically different (and spoon is actually good live). whatever it is, it's making me want to put a band together. also, they have perfect song lengths. if you can't run a mile in the time it takes you to listen to either black and song of our so-called friend or so come back, i am waiting, then just give up. (concept albums, drawing connections, knowing what cities bands are from, knowing which bands are good live, talking about my music, talking about running, unnecessary parentheses: tiresome).

the new yorker: there are so many good articles. i tell you about all of them. here's one that you should actually read, because it's about two movies that every single american person has seen: gone with the wind and the wizard of oz. fascinating! (posting new yorker articles, fawning about new yorker articles, new yorker articles, new yorker readers: tiresome)

the upshot of this is: 1) you should not read my blog; 2) you should not be my friend; 3) i hope i never get a job; 4) everything i do is annoying, even noticing that i am annoying.

look at all these beautiful goddamn people

thanks for coming, everyone!








oh, right, and then, this guy




credit to steve for these wonderful shots

in my experience i have found this to be true of all things

He tended to say, "It's very simple," and then after twenty minutes chuckle a bit as the threads unravelled and his narrative became "Tristam Shandy." It could be exhilirating to take on the welter of causation and consequence, but the clarity was fleeting, more of a mood than an all-encompassing grasp; there must be an endorphin that's triggered by the call-and-response recapitulation of a giant variegated clusterfuck. When it dissipates, you're left only with the conviction that our troubles are deep.

(emphasis mine, link [subscription only])

happy things

why am i in to you again, (arguably) happy things? my tolerance and knowledge of you is minimal. i feel especially sheepish after reminding all of my devoted readers (ahem) of my general grouchiness; i also feel like i'm tempting fate and karma.

but, whatever. fuck that.

here are some things that make me happy:


KYLE FISCHER. nobody on the internet knows about him. nobody. i just love his last record so, so much. yeah, it's not mine to like, exactly; it's still unbelievably fucking sweet. it's taken me a few years to feel good about life, but i knew that when i did, i would dig the shit out of it again, and i was right. go listen to thousand points of view immediately.


MAGNET'S WREN WATCH/THE WRENS. so, magnet is doing a weekly feature where they call or email charles from the wrens and get cursed at/hung up on. it's brilliant. i still love this band even if everyone else on earth has forgotten about them, and despite/because of the fact that they are old bastards, and especially because they've been so nice to me as i've stalked them over the years. also, remember how good they are? go remember, now. they even have a nightswimming cover that seems shitty but then gets awesome.


PLAYING SHOWS. yeah, it's fun. you should come on friday, and to artomatic in june, and to various other ones i'll play. you know why? because you're my friend and you read my blog, that's fucking why, but also because i have no idea how long i will play music for, and every single show is totally and utterly different. and because you like music. shut up, just come.

there are a lot of other things (honest mate, playing muscles covers, my new synth, peregrine espresso, big bear, the dc art community i've fallen into, being an adult, wearing a really foppish bandanna some days, arrested development jokes in blog tags, getting upset about hockey, the fact that ian has a girlfriend [hahahahah whatttt], running, vacuuming, staying up until 4am, etc.) but those are the ones for now. i was going to write about my plan to achieve my goals by making anti-charity threats (see here), but that might still happen.

oh, i've also upped my cappuccino intake to 3 per day. this may have something to do with it. i'm trying to replace exercise with a constant BPM of 180 due to overcaffeination. so far, so good.

hugz

reflections

looking back, this blog seems twee as shit. let's reflect:

pros:
fun to read
not depressing as shit
lots of links to new yorker articles
long post tags that are also fun to read
hilarious jokes

cons:
totally unrepresentative of my mindset some of the time, such as at the time of this writing

so! as it turns out i've become convinced i'm going to fail at everything. go listen to this.