I'll show you what little I see

I knew I'd get behind at some point! I'll just hit the highlights:

- Wisely did not go to Club Overboard.

- Finished Moby Dick. I ended up loving it. Immediately started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was a pleasantly diverting mystery (finished it last night actually, and I'm pretty pumped about the next entry in the series, due out at the end of the month). Next up: alien parasite novel Infected. I think. I could easily burn through another trashy book or two before moving on to something more edifying. Actually, I'm going to read Grant Morrison's run on Batman and Final Crisis next. I have very low expectations.

- Spent the 4th on the beach, stealing someone's chairs for a minute or 30, playing in the ocean, and lying on towels in the hot sun. That night, we went back to the beach to watch fireworks. There were three big displays (not including random people shooting off fireworks on the beach, which was happening pretty regularly). Two of them were sort of typical fireworks displays, and unfortunately we couldn't see much of the second one because our view was blocked by hotels. The third, however, was pretty unique. It was almost as if 10 - 20 rich people said, "Fuck it" and bought $5,000 worth of fireworks each and just shot them constantly for over an hour. The sky in their direction looked like a flaming carnival. On their own, the fireworks would've been pretty dinky, but when the sky was filled with them constantly, it was an ever-shifting pyrotechnic kaleidoscope. Pretty awesome.  Took pulls from a jug of St. Sebastiaan while all this was going down. It was pretty good, but not as good as my precious St. Bernardus. I failed in bringing some of that sweet, sweet nectar back to 'Bama with me, as the store that carries it didn't open until 1 on Sunday. Boooooooo on that.

- After the fireworks display, argued for a bit about some stupid bullshit and then went to play skee-ball! We won so many tickets on the various money-siphoning games. My favorites were the basketball game and skee-ball. I got ripped off on those stupid games where you try to land a quarter somewhere, which was my own fault for playing them in the first place (I was kinda drunk). We exchanged our tickets for a bunch of useless crap, though I did get one awesome thing: a bright yellow floral print beer t-shirt koozie. That sounds confusing, but it's like a little t-shirt for your beer! It's pretty cute. I kinda love it.

- We continuously ate filth all weekend, and both I and my bowels are glad to be back to my normal eating habits.

- The traffic leaving Destin was a nightmare, which led me to decide to avoid vacation on holiday weekends in the future, or at least avoid traveling when everyone else will be traveling.  In the future, I will also be sure to give myself a post-vacation day of doing nothing at before returning to work. I believe that this is crucial to the success of the vacation. We didn't get back until 8 Sunday night, and I had to be at work at 9 Monday morning. I need more downtime than that following 4 days of doing shit constantly. Vacation is exhausting!

- Halfway through Washing Machine on the SY trek. Washing Machine is actually a lot better than I remembered, and Experimental, Jet Set etc. much, much worse. What an execrable album. I'll be totally happy if I never hear another song off that album again. I should've known there was something wrong about it when I got halfway through and there still hadn't been a Lee Ranaldo-sung song. The songs sound more like ideas for incomplete songs, and not very good ones at that. Washing Machine, however, is really good so far.

- Returned my parents' van and got my truck back.  The panel under the steering wheel fell off, exposing the wiring. I can't wait to get rid of that piece.

- There is something fucking chirping every 10 fucking seconds in the library. Time to regulate.

Daily log 7/3/09
9:00 a.m. - Headed down to Silver Sands for breakfast by myself, as there was no waking Ellen. Ate biscuits and gravy and cheese grits. The cheese grits were so cheesy and buttery that there was a thin layer of oil on top that I had to mix in. Delicious.

11:30 a.m. - After much preparation and a bit of reading, headed to the beach.

2:30 p.m. - Got out of the brutal sun. The waves were really rough, which was fun, except for this one moment when I accidentally got pretty far out and had to fight the undertow to get back to shore. Good times. Rode waves on a boogie board covered with kittens.

3 p.m. - Ate lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. Sure, it's a chain, but it was right next to our hotel, and since there were five million people on the road, there was no reason to go anywhere else. It was alright...I had crab cake sliders, and Ellen got a shrimp po' boy. The biggest downside was the servers erupting into dance anytime a really loud song came on, which happened three times during out slightly-less-than-an-hour visit. I would not want to work a Joe's.

4:30 p.m. - Fell asleep while reading Moby Dick during sun break.

6 p.m. - Woke up and began to notice sunburn. Mine wasn't so bad, but Ellen's was harsh.

7:30 p.m. - Checked out the entertainment center next to the hotel. I don't really know what else to call it. They had mini golf, bumper boats, bumper cars, go-carts, bungee jumping, and an arcade. We were pretty into the idea of mini golf until we saw the line for hole #1, which was about 20 deep. Pass on that.

7:50 p.m. - Really, really wanted to get three airbrushed shirts for Beaux Animaux. One would be a horse (Elizabeth), one a unicorn with a rainbow in the background (me, on pink of course), and one a hammerhead shark (Evan). The text would just say Beaux Animaux. I think it would look amazing if we played live wearing those monstrosities. Too bad the shirts cost around $25 each.

8:20 p.m. - Ate dinner at Shake's. After Joe's Crab Shack, I had proclaimed that I wanted a light dinner, but it was not to be. I had a Chicago dog (hot dog with a dill pickle spear, tomato, mustard, relish, and hot peppers), a Frito pie (don't ask, it hurt me), and a vanilla custard coke mashup. Ellen had a slaw dog, chips, and a malted chocolate shake. Both of us had subsequent gutrats.

9:30 p.m. - Ventured out to Target for post-sunburn treatment, bottled water, and glasses for the beer.

10 p.m. - Cracked our first beer of the trip, the St. Bernardus Prior 8. It took a few sips to get used to it, but I started really liking it (though not as much as the Tripel or the Abt. 12). It had a vaguely chocolatey taste. Ellen took about 3 sips of her glass before wussing out and going to bed. I finished the entire bottle while reading Moby Dick. I'm almost done with it, promise. Less than 50 pages left.

11:30 p.m. - Killed the St. Bernardus and cracked the Ayinger. Smoked a cigarette. Contemplated walking next door to Club Overboard just to go to a bar. I know that after this beer I'll be too drunk to appreciate the other fine beers we have (other than as a means to an end). The devil's fire is burning within me, ironically kindled by monks. I'll probably just go to bed.

Daily log 7/2/09
5:30 a.m. - Might as well embrace it.

5:45 a.m. - Played my LORD games for the day.

6 a.m. - Finished up Dirty, marking the almost halfway point in my SY odyssey. Thus far, my least favorite album is Bad Moon Rising (this will change...I know 3 later albums to which I prefer BMR), and my favorite is still Sister. The great songs on Daydream Nation are greater than Sister's great songs, but Sister's still the one I can listen to from start to finish pretty much anytime. I already want to re-listen to EVOL. Even though I've heard it a lot, it's just been awhile. Also, I didn't realize this until today, but Dirty is easily the album I know the best. When I first got into Sonic Youth, it was probably the most accessible, and minus a couple of songs, I still think it's great. I definitely like it better than Goo, which has some bitchin' high points brought down by some mediocre, even annoying songs. To be continued....

7 a.m. - Possibly broke the little toe of my left foot by walking into the coffee table. I made this weird, wordless exclamation when it happened...I don't even remember what it sounded like. One time when I was having dinner with a friend's family in Cairo, I cleared my throat a bit because I was choking on phlegm, probably because of the filthy air I'd been breathing for over a week. I didn't realize it at the time, but in Arabic, there's a sort of guttural sound that people make that, according to my friend, is sort of "the mother of all curse words, the word from which all other curse words descend." I guess they realized pretty quickly that I wasn't intending any offense, as no one said anything. She just told me about it later. Anyway, whatever sound I uttered, I'd like to think it was the ur-curse. However, it probably sounded really wimpy and defeated, as that's how I felt. Kinda like that time in Tuscaloosa when I broke another little toe (don't remember which foot) because a bug landed on my leg and I tried to kick it off, kicking a chair in the process. Good times.

8:30 a.m. - Swung by Continental Bakery to purchase some shit for the road from HOVA. Acquired two everything bagels with cream cheese, two coffees, and a tomato basil brie baguette.

9:45 a.m. - Finally got on the road. Lots of road work on 65 near Oak Mountain...down to one lane, in fact. Kind of stupid to be doing road work on a major interstate at the start of a holiday weekend, but whatever.

3 p.m. - Arrived in Destin. Before going to the hotel, Ellen and I stopped by our favorite beer store. We got two big bottles of St. Bernardus (the Tripel and the Prior 8), one small bottle of the Abt. 12 (they were out of the big bottles), one Corsendonk Pale Ale (big bottle), one small bottle of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, a really cool looking bottle of St. Sebastiaan Golden Ale, and a bottle of Ayinger Jahrhundert. That might last us a night.

3:30 p.m. - Checked in to our hotel. As I was checking in, it began to pour hurricane style. Trees were bent over and shit. We parked under the awning at the hotel's entrance, but I still got completely soaked just making two trips to unload bags. Awesome.

6 p.m. - Ate a pretty alright meal at a restaurant called Harbor Docks. I got grouper parmadine, which was fresh grouper topped with this gooey crab-parmesan stuff and shaved almonds. Ellen got sushi.

9 p.m. - Fell asleep after consuming nary a drop of alcohol. It was storming again as I drifted off.

Daily log 7/1/09
5 a.m. - Wide awake. This seems to be becoming a pattern.

5:10 a.m. - Got the shit scared out of me by Maybelle. I was sitting at the computer when she noiselessly entered the room, walked over to me, and touch my arm gently with her paw. I almost screamed. I did sort of hiss at her. Then I felt bad because she just wanted lovin', so I gave her some. Goddamn cat.

5:20 a.m. - Started listening to Sonic Youth in an attempt to go back to sleep. Made it halfway through Daydream Nation before I realized that Sonic Youth was terrible music to sleep to. Shut it off and finally got some zzzs.

8:30 a.m. - Got up and ate the breakfast of biscuits and gravy and smoked sausage that my dad had left. I love my parents.

10 a.m. - Went and test drove a loaded Honda Civic and a Honda Insight. I'm pretty sure I could be happy with a non-loaded Civic, which is actually in my price range. The Insight is a little over my price range (just barely though), but it's a hybrid that gets 40 - 45 miles to the gallon, and it has a shit ton of trunk space. The latter would be good for me since I play in bands. This will require further contemplation.

3 p.m. - Test drove a Hyundai Elantra. I might actually like this car better than the Civic, mainly because I felt like I had more space to sit up straight, which is how I like to drive. When I tried to do that in the Honda, my head touched the ceiling. Maybe I didn't adjust the seat properly though. Also, rear window visibility is better in the Hyundai. Must deliberate further.

4:30 p.m. - Hit the pool!

5:30 p.m. - Went over to David's to improv. I brought the Moog. I didn't feel like I was doing anything worth a shit until I whipped out the delay pedal, which is kind of a cop out. But, in addition to making layered walls of noise, it also gives the Moog texture. When it's dry and running through a PA with no reverb or anything, it's hard for me to improv with it as I'm still not that comfortable using it.

9 p.m. - Went out to Legion to get this week's comics. Though there were several titles I was excited about, it proved to be an underwhelming week. Fables has finally wrapped up that goddamned "Great Fables Crossover," which was my least favorite Fables story thus far. Jesus Christ I'm glad it's over...so fucking tedious. The story in The Boys was great, but the art was piss fucking poor. The art in Batman and Robin made it worth buying (Frank Quitely is the man and I will forever buy anything to which his name is attached on sight), and The Mighty was another really good issue. I have a feeling The Mighty is going to get canceled due to poor sales (like 90% of new books from the big 2 that hit the market), so I hope the writer has the story planned out to a point where he can wrap it up whenever if need be. Most of my other comics were pretty whatever, which makes me think I should start buying less.

10:30 p.m. - Made 5 mix CDs for the beach trip! Since it was a last minute thing, they kinda suck, but it'll be better than radio.

11 p.m. - Fell asleep reading Captain America: Reborn.

Daily log 6/30/09

5:30 a.m. - Srsly?

7:40 a.m. - Finished up this week's True Blood. Easily one of the best episodes so far, and it kinda made me glad I'm still watching the show.

8:15 a.m. - Continued my attempt to listen to Sonic Youth's complete discography (full-lengths only) in chronological order. Made it to track 3 of EVOL. I <3 EVOL so much.

7:15 p.m. - Arrived at my parents' house in Jasper bearing a load of laundry and one shitty ass truck that I got to dump off for them for a few days. I'm so extremely grateful and excited that they let me borrow their nice ass minivan for the trip to Destin. It would not be fun driving a stolen truck without a/c 250 miles to the beach. Made it to Stereo Sanctity off of Sister (another classic) by Sonic Youth.

7:30 p.m. - Ate leftovers of my dad's cooking. Damn yes. The fried squash was especially good.

8 p.m. - Even though I wanted to read Moby Dick, I started watching the Deadliest Catch with pops just to hang out for a bit.

9:30 p.m. - Read Moby Dick until I fell asleep.

Daily log 6/29/09

7:15 a.m. - Woke up, made tea and oatmeal.

7:20 a.m. - Showered.

7:30 a.m. - Ate oatmeal and drank tea.

7:55 a.m. - Picked Ellen up on the way to get an allergy shot, as she needed to borrow my truck for the day.

8:00 a.m. - Got pulled over by the Mountain Brook PD. The cop had been following me since the zoo, so I was kind of expecting it even though I hadn't done anything. Technically, I guess I could have been speeding, doing 30 in a 25 or something, but I didn't really think so. Anyway, I put the truck in park, rolled down the window and turned it off. The cop got out of his car and stood behind it, which I thought was really weird. Still, I figured he was waiting for backup, which I also thought was weird but possibly standard. Another car pulled up with its sirens on, and that officer got out, pulled his gun out of its holster, and posted up by the passenger side door of the first cop car. The first cop then yelled, "Driver! I need you to throw your keys out the window!" I mumbled, "What the fuck?" to Ellen, who looked stunned. The cop then said, "Now get out of the car slowly with your hands over your head. Now I want you to raise your shirt up and turn around. Now I want you to back toward me with your hands still in the air. Slowly. Keep coming. Take three steps to the left. Now keep backing up. Now put your hands behind your back." Clink. Been here before, but never at gunpoint and with absolutely no idea why. The cop then took my wallet out and said, "This vehicle has been reported stolen." I said, "Well, it's not," not even thinking about the fact that last summer the truck was, in fact, reported stolen. This occurred to me 30 seconds later, and I said, "Wait, it was stolen, but that was a while ago." The cop almost immediately uncuffed me...I was cuffed for probably a minute total. He asked who I had reported it stolen to, and I told him Birmingham PD. He then said, "Well I'd call down there and raise hell. You're lucky I didn't lay you out. The only reason I didn't is because I kinda thought it was your vehicle." I wanted to say, "OH YOU'RE RIGHT I'M SO LUCKY THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOCK ME FACE FIRST INTO THE ASPHALT AND ONLY PULLED A GUN ON ME." Fucking prick.

8:15 a.m. - Got an allergy shot.

10:30 a.m. - Called Birmingham PD to tell them that my truck was no longer stolen, and in fact had been recovered for over a year. Keep in mind that they already knew this, because when my truck was found by some random dude last year, I immediately called them and told them. They were even the ones who arranged to have it towed somewhere, as it wasn't drivable. After numerous transfers, I was connected to the detective who originally handled my case. He ran my tag and said over and over that it was not marked as stolen in the system. He also asked if it was a silver pickup, so obviously I had little faith in his competence. I was very polite and not saying half of what I wanted to say, but after his repeated denials of any possibility of error I wanted to dog cuss the man. He was saying that the Mountain Brook PD was incompetent and should not have pulled me over because the truck wasn't marked as stolen. I didn't like the way I was treated by the Mountain Brook PD, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have just lied and said that the truck was marked as stolen so they could harass me. I asked, "So what should I do? They saw something in the computer about the truck being stolen. Otherwise they wouldn't have pulled me over." He said that maybe they ran the wrong tag and continued denying any possibility of error on BPD's part. Finally, he said, "Oh. Wait, I see something here that could have something to do with it. If this was an error on our part I apologize." I asked, "So what do I need to do now?" "Nothing," was the reply. I guess now I just get to wait and see if I get almost arrested and/or shot at some point in the future! Life is such an adventure!

3:45 p.m. - A loud crash rang out from the DVD area. Thinking that someone had turned a cart over or something, I looked over to see a guy lying on the ground. My boss was already on his way to the area, and security quickly came over and called the paramedics. I think he had a seizure. I really hope nothing else calamitous happens today, to me or anyone else.

4:30 p.m. - Heard back from Elizabeth regarding my iPod, which I was certain I had left in her car. I hadn't, so I guess it's lost. Fuck. Me.

7:00 p.m. - Found iPod under the couch. Told you I was drinky Saturday night. Began eating leftover pizza and playing Halo.

10:20 p.m. - Wrapped up an extended Halo session. Evan G. and J-No came over, plus we were playing with Kelly, Shades and Uri online. Good times (except when I got my ass kicked).

10:40 p.m. - Started watching this week's episode of True Blood.

Daily log 6/28/09

12-ish? a.m. - Elizabeth came by the party to get her car back, which was good because I was way too drinky to be driving any car, especially someone else's. I was not, however, too drinky to babble incessantly. I hate my drunk self.

? a.m. - Got a ride home and passed out.

11:45 a.m. - Woke up too late for the brunch I had promised myself. Decided to get pizza that night to make up for my failure. I have a weird habit of rewarding myself for failures. Maybe consoling is a better word than rewarding.

1:35 p.m. - Listened in amusement mixed with mild horror as a clearly crazy (like for real crazy, he comes in every weekend and talks to himself and shit) man tried to pick up a 60 year old woman. "Hey. Where do you live? Will you take me to Highland Towers?" She said, "What will we do at Highland Towers?" and he replied "You know" and waved his hand in a circle over his head. She was understandably weirded out.

3:56 p.m. - Wow. It just happened again.

5:50 p.m. - Ordered a pizza from Papa John's.

6:10 p.m. - Ate pizza and started playing Halo. In my underwear.

6:30 p.m. - Quit playing Halo, as I was getting mercilessly slaughtered. Put in 13 Tzameti.

9:00 p.m. - Finished the movie. It was alright, but I wasn't blown away. Put in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

9:45 p.m. - Finished the movie. Pretty entertaining. I watched one of the bonus features too, the supervillain try out videos. Most of those were actually pretty good, but a couple were really shitty. Decided it was bed time.

Daily log 6/27/09

12:28 a.m. - After much discussion, left for Birmingham in Elizabeth's car sans Elizabeth. Elizabeth, wanting to stay and being influenced by peer pressure, consigned her fate to chance (coin toss) and decided to stay in Sheffield. Would've been awesome if fate had spoken 45 minutes earlier. Not wishing to waste a single precious second of alertness, I departed. Began my drive by listening to Silent Shout by The Knife, which I downloaded a while back.

1 a.m. - Wondered what the big effin' deal is about Silent Shout. It wasn't clicking with me, but I resolved to finish it. Energy levels were waning.

1:16 a.m. - Began listening to Confusion Is Sex/Kill Yr Idols by Sonic Youth, thus finally actualizing my recent commitment to re-listen to their entire discography in chronological order.

1:25 a.m. - Lulled by low, rumbling, shapeless noise, eyelids became heavy. Almost ran off the road. Decided to get road fuel.

1:40 a.m. - Finally found an open gas station. Bought road fuel: 2 miniature bags of Pepperoni Pizza Combos, 1 packet of 2 peanut butter cookies, 1 packet of Boston Baked Beans, and 1 16 oz. grape juice. Primed for action, I got back on the road.

1:50 a.m. - Having pumped my body full of filth, began almost enjoying the ride. I was enjoying the Sonic Youth at least.

2:42 a.m. - Rapidly waning and unwilling to eat the last bag of Combos (or one of the two cookies, which were the most disgusting cookies ever created), I arrived home.

2:50 a.m. - Fell asleep

6:30 a.m. - Woke into a moment of panic that I had forgotten to set my alarm. Panic subsided when I checked the time. NOT COOL. Fell back asleep quickly.

7:20 a.m. - Woke up to my alarm, and it was much less cool than the 6:30 awakening, because shit just got real.

9:30 a.m. - Thanks to atypical coffee consumption, I was feeling fairly normal. Began doing mindless tasks in order to help the day progress.

12:57 p.m. - Experienced my first caffeine-related heart palpitation. Yes!

6:30 p.m. - Got off work and sat around in my underwear reading Moby Dick. Really getting into it. Only took 400 pages.

9:30 p.m. - After drinking a Witkap Pater Tripel, decided to leave the whaling industry for a bit to FUCKING PARTY.

Daily log 6/26/09

7:25 a.m. - Slept until my alarm went off! Score!

11 a.m. - Decided sometime over the past few days that I am going to get a new (or used...by new I mean different) car. Right now I'm looking at the Honda Civic and the Hyundai Elantra. The a/c in my truck died on the way to Dismals Canyon (a week ago today!), so rather than pump more cash into that money-eating beast, I'm gonna put it to pasture and get something that gets more than 15 mpg. I'm really hoping the new Cash for Clunkers program has gone into effect...getting $3,500 - $4,500 as a trade-in for that piece would be akin to a miracle. Anyway, I'm going to test drive my potential chariots when I'm off work on Wednesday.

6 p.m. - Accidentally started making a dish for dinner that takes an hour to prepare (curse you brown rice), even though the Beaux were supposed to leave for our show at 7. Whoops. Made it anyway. In the meantime, talked to Elizabeth, who decided to drive her car and come back with me! I was extremely excited about this, as it meant no hot ass truck, the ability to listen to music over the car stereo system, and no spending $40 on gas for one brief trip.

7:35 p.m. - Left for Sheffield.

9:40 p.m. - Arrived at Old Town and began the hot, hot process of loading in.

10:30 p.m. - Expected to have started playing by now, but as we hadn't even done sound check and there was hardly anyone there yet, realized it would be a bit. Confirmed that, as expected, I would be getting very little sleep that night.

11:30 p.m. - Finished playing and began the even-hotter-than-loading-in process of loading out. Began mental postmortem on the set. I've always thought that the weakest part of Beaux Animaux is our live set. Prior to recording, I thought we had really strong songs, but that didn't usually come across live. After recording, I know we have really strong songs (according to my particular taste in music anyway), yet the live show is still problematic. It seems like we have yet to achieve the comfort level playing live that we have when practicing and just sort of goofing off. I've decided to not drink anymore while playing live, so that means I'm a bundle of nerves even when playing the simplest songs. However, I prefer this to fucking up the simplest of songs due to intoxication. Anyway, one of our new songs ("La Bete a Deux Dos") got a pretty good reaction last night, and I get to play a wicked fuzzed out lead on it. However, I was so nervous about fucking it up that I almost fucked it up, even though I love the part and most people, having never heard the song, probably wouldn't have noticed a fuckup anyway. All in all, I think we did ok, but I think we need to cut loose more live, actually move around, talk to the audience some, and act like we're having a good time. Because we are...otherwise we wouldn't be doing it.

11:50 p.m. Finished loading out, and began the long, slow process of trying to leave. Was bummed that I wouldn't be sticking around to see Skeleton Family, but learned that they will be playing Birmingham soon and vowed to attend even if it's on a work night (which usually leads to me being a weenie and staying in).

Daily log 6/25/09

6:00 a.m. - Woke up, even though my alarm was set for 7. Due to an inordinate number of inflamed chigger bites on my legs, was very hot and uncomfortable. Even though I was still tired as balls, I arose.

6:20 a.m. - Put on sweatpants with the intention of working out, but my legs were so hot that I took them off and made some oatmeal and oolong tea instead. Listened to Electric Warrior while preparing for my day. In no way felt like an Electric Warrior.

7:30 a.m. - Went to Brookwood to get an allergy shot because I'm still too much of a pussy to give them to myself.

8:30 a.m. - Arrived at work where, for the succeeding 5 1/2 hours, nothing remarkable happened. Did manage to get some work done.

1 p.m. - Ate a quick bite to eat and then sat outside to read for about 50 minutes. Sure, it's hot, but it's so cold in the library that I spent the first 20 minutes just warming up. After that, sought out shade and read comfortably. Still reading Moby Dick. Might even finish it.

3 p.m. - Realized no one had or was going to respond to my Facebook post about riding with me to Sheffield for the Beaux Animaux show tomorrow night, so I posted a bulletin using the Myspace account that I really want to delete. Felt pathetic.

3:20 p.m. - Found multiple errors on books that were sent down from Cataloging after requesting that they be recataloged. Grrrr. My biggest problem with my job is the incompetence of others, over which I have no control. It is a source of constant annoyance. Want new job/career.

6:30 p.m. - Arrived at the final Sidewalk Screening Committee Meeting, at which point I realized I had forgotten to change out of my work clothes. No, I do not often wear a brown t-shirt that says "Express Yourself @ your library" outside of the library...though, now that I think about it, I also wore it to Beaux Animaux practice on Wednesday. Maybe I should rock it more often.

6:45 p.m. - Bumped my head on the lower jaw of a dead deer's head, which was mounted right above the urinal in the men's bathroom, while pissing. I wasn't really paying attention when I walked in, so I was surprised to encounter this unfortunate decorating choice. One of its antlers was missing, and its name (according to the metal tag on the plaque) was BUCK. Or maybe that was just a statement of fact. I probably could've figured it out had I inspected the other deer head hanging over the sit-down toilet, but I just wanted out of there.

9:00 p.m. - Finished up the meeting, which was pretty good. I really hope none of the movies I hated play at the festival. I think there's only one that I really hated that others kinda liked. I better get a VIP pass for all the shit I had to slog through. I watched 41 movies, 3 - 4 of which I would probably watch and enjoy watching outside of festival screening.

10 p.m. - Went swimming with Ellen to get a little bit of exercise. I wanted to be tired so I could get a reasonable amount of sleep given that I'll be driving to Sheffield and back tomorrow night to play a show with Beaux Animaux, probably by myself. If exhausted, I have a bad tendency to fall asleep at the wheel. Typically, no amount of stimulants help in these situations. I wish I didn't have to work on Saturday so I could hang around, watch the other bands, and throw down. Oh well...it is not to be.

10:50 p.m. - Fell asleep reading Moby Dick.

Daily log 6/24/09
New journal format! I'm gonna try this out for awhile, until I get bored with it. Maybe it will get me to update somewhat consistently. I reserve the right to skip extremely boring days.

6:30 a.m. - Woke up early for no good reason. Probably had something to do with being pumped full of steroids and antibiotics the night before to treat infected chigger bites. Went ahead and got up in order to have time to get prescriptions (for more antibiotics and steroids) filled before work.

9:30 a.m. - Starting operating the mouse with my left hand because I read this stupid article on Yahoo that said it makes your brain work better if you force yourself to do things with your non-dominant hand. The right side of my brain has been tingling ever since. I can feel the new neural pathways forming!

5:30 p.m. - Spoke to Ellen on the phone about the possibility of swimming before Beaux Animaux practice. I decided that I didn't have time...good thing, because Evan and I were scheduled to leave at 6:30, and I didn't finish getting ready until 6:25.

7:00 p.m. - Had the misfortune of trying the flavor of Doritos dubbed Tacos at Midnight, which taste like corn chips dusted with taco seasoning.

10 p.m. - Finished up the most productive Beaux Animaux practice in some time. Rocked out "Silhouette" (a new song) a little harder than before. The difference between the old version and the new version is kinda like the difference between "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)." We went all Crazy Horse on the new version, as opposed to the skeletal earlier version. We also played the completely fucking rad new song "La Bete a Deux Dos," which we'll be playing at the show on Friday. Good times.

11:30 p.m. - Fell asleep reading Moby Dick after taking a double dose of Wal-dryl (generic Benadryl).

Man. Elizabeth and I arrived at the studio in Sheffield at 1 p.m. yesterday, and we left at 5 a.m. this morning. I rolled into my apartment at 7:15 a.m., and I barely made it to work on time (had to be here at 8). Luckily, my boss doesn't mind me using vacation time, so I'm leaving at 2:30 for some much needed r & r. Until then, I'll be the dude at the desk in the back doing jack shit.

However, we got a ton of stuff done yesterday. We recorded new parts, re-recorded many old parts (and made them vastly superior), and generally kicked all kinds of ass. We got final mixes of four songs (I think...I was so tired after the second one that I stopped paying attention or caring), but we couldn't bring any of them with us because of a problem with Lynn's system. Anyway, he's supposed to email us all the final mixes on Wednesday, which, pending our approval, he will then master, and we will be done. Shit is gonna be so tight. Even if you've heard the rough mixes, you have no idea how much better everything sounds after yesterday.

I require 3 things right now: a hot bath, a full body massage, and sleep. I will also accept sex, money, and booze. And punches to the face. Good night.

Since I'm insanely bored at work on Sunday and haven't posted in 4 weeks, I reckon I'll do so. I will most likely be rambling about the bands I'm in, so if that doesn't interest you, I won't feel insulted if you stop reading.

A few weeks ago (probably around the last time I updated with, sadly, only a Chuggo video), Beaux Animaux recorded a 15 song full length album. It was probably the easiest and most fun I've had recording, probably because we drank a lot, something I usually avoid when recording. I mean, it shows.  We made some bush league mistakes (me forgetting to record lead for one song, for example), but the Beaux have always had a sort of "fuck it/whatever" stance toward making music. I think one thing recording has done for us as a band is eradicate that to an extent. I mean, we still write really simple and occasionally goofy songs, but I think recording showed us that we can actually be a pretty decent band (in our own "special" way) when we try a little bit, and it's ok to try because our songs are great (to us at least). We are definitely a much better band for having recorded, as it forced us to consider each part of each song. I even wrote solos and shit.  It's gonna be a pretty killer album when it's done, which will hopefully be tomorrow (though I could easily see one more round of mixing considering all the re-recording that will be done).

I used a lot of parentheses in that paragraph. Sorry.  I'll probably keep doing it.

The songwriting process has also sped up after (and probably because of) recording. Despite the fact that I only got 2 hours of sleep the night after we finished recording, when we rolled back into Birmingham Elizabeth and I drank mimosas and recorded 2 demos for 2 new songs that, at least structurally, are complete. I hope to never again experience the feeling that accompanied the subsequent mimosacrash (Evan came up with this term), but the new songs are bitchin'. Since then, we've written 2 more. If we continue at this rate, we could easily record a second full length before the end of the year, which would be kinda awesome. It would be even more awesome if we could do it before August, as Burke is leaving the band to move to Colorado (boooooooo). I mean, once our songs are on Volkswagen commercials and the big bucks start rollin' in, maybe we can entice him to stay, but as of now we'll have to find a new bass player in a little over 3 months. It really sucks, because he's an excellent complement to the band in both his playing style and his personality. We all just work well together. Oh well...no use worrying about it now. We'll at least get an EP in with B-dog all up on it.

Also, the peripheral hanging out between recording sessions helped make it more fun and less stressful.  The first night, Burke and I went to Old Town for a quick beer after we were done for the day. Evan and Elizabeth had to stick around and work on vocals, so we rolled out. We kept it fairly reasonable that night, but the next day we all started drinking at noon. We got a hotel room, but I ended up going all out Florence style and staying up until 8 a.m. while my bandmates slept like a bunch of pussies (i.e. intelligent, responsible people). It was both awesome and incredibly stupid.

The last thing that was awesome about recording: the invention of the Girthdog (Girthdawg?), what we in the Beaux Animaux feel is a natural accompaniment to the Hardee's menu item the Thickburger. The Girthdog is a hot dog about the size of a baby's arm that's filled with gooey white American cheese that seeps out ever so seductively with every bite. Sold?

Unlike the streamlined song producing machine Beaux Animaux has become, No Parents is currently in a state of flux. Adam quit the band recently, but we've been having trouble finishing new songs for awhile. I'm not quite sure which direction the band's gonna go in from this point, but I foresee lots of synths being involved. Grover, Bryant and I got together last Sunday and jammed 3 synth style with occasional guitar, and we came up with some cool ideas. I feel like I haven't been devoting as much time to the band as I should because of the work I've been doing for the Beaux Animaux album. I even canceled tonight's scheduled jam session in order to work with Elizabeth on guitar parts that have to be recorded tomorrow. I feel shitty about that, but I was sort of forced into it by someone else's cancellation of a previously scheduled songcraft session (grrrr). Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I can't be havin' anything I'm involved in be less than perfect, y'know?

So yeah, that's what I do these days: work, play music, screen Sidewalk films (oh, the horror!), hang out with people, and play Halo. Hanging out and playing Halo are probably the two things I do the least, but that's because I'm constantly doing so much other shit.  I feel like I should socialize more, but I have things that I do that are very important to me that I can't really cut out of my life, so socializing often gets put on the back burner.   Once this godsdamned album's done, I'm going back to (and sticking with) only working on music 3 days/week. Any more than that and I start to go a little insane. Plus, if I'm not having fun making music, what's the point? I will never again play in a band that feels like an obligation or a chore.

Oh yeah, Visitor Q = awesome. A hilarious movie for fucked up people who are going to hell.

Jesus Christ. I don't know how I've never seen this before. This may be really old, so if you've already seen it, sorry. Come on fuckin' guy!

Hey friends. Have any of you read this?

http://www.amazon.com/Superfolks-Robert-Mayer/dp/0312339925

The following excerpt (taken from Rich Johnston's comic gossip column Lying in the Gutters) is why I'm asking:

"The Watchmen listing on Amazon is, naturally, filled with rave reviews. But, while there are 588 five star reviews, there are 14 one star reviews. Including one from a Robert Meyer.

Tons of readers are giving credit to Moore for inventing the neurotic superhero. But Kurt Busiek doesn't. Nor does Grant Morrison. Nor do most superhero writers. They give the credit to Superfolks, a comic novel (not graphic) that came out in 1977. With a quote from Nietzsche. With the smiley yellow face. With a superhero up to his neck in personal problems. And with a lot more humor.

Superfolks clearly "inspired" Moore to write Watchmen.

So check it out on Amazon. Don't just take my word for it, because I'm biased. I wrote it."

I'm mighty curious.

I got:

It's awesome. Today, I won an Ebay auction for:

I ordered 3 books today via ILL yesterday on analog synthesizers. I want to actually learn how to use the instruments rather than just randomly twiddling knobs, though the latter has, thus far, proven eminently satisfying.

I'm attempting to learn how to budget my time between work, playing in two bands, socializing, and all the shit I want to do on my own without losing my sanity. This may not seem that difficult to most, but I really struggle with it. If I feel like I have too many obligations, I shut down creatively, which really depresses me. I've even been seeing a therapist about it. "Hey man, how come I have this creative drive but I never do anything except get depressed about not doing anything?" So, I'm trying to learn how to stringently schedule my time (I love schedules!) so that I can find a place for everything I want to do. It's hard, but I think I'm doing fairly well. I really wanted to record a couple of No Parents demos before I left Birmingham, but I ran out of time because I was cleaning my apartment. At least I'll have a nice, orderly living space to come home to. I also wanted to work with Beaux Animaux on tightening up our current songs in preparation for recording, but I fell asleep at like 7:30 the night we were supposed to get together. I was pretty sick though, so at least I got some rest. I'm looking forward to a productive week following my time in Portland, which so far has been raaadddd. Watchmen tonight, for free, if I can stay awake!

The library (me) ordered the following movies this month:

Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Badlands
Being There
Bubba Ho-Tep
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Day of the Dead
Donnie Darko
Eyes Wide Shut
Fight Club
The 400 Blows (replacement)
Grand Illusion
The Grifters
Heat
Ju-On 1 & 2 (this was a request, but I kind of want to have a Ju-On party now)
La Strada
The Last Temptation of Christ
Lawrence of Arabia
Let the Right One In
Master of the Flying Guillotine
Memento
My Name Is Bruce
Night of the Living Dead
Nosferatu the Vampyre (Herzog version)
The Player
Shaolin Soccer
Vertigo

The only reason I post these lists is to show how cool I am and what wikkid taste in movies I have so that maybe some ladies will realize how awesome I am and want to have sexy time. Actually, I do it for people who live in Jeff Co who might actually want to check some of this shit out FOR FREE. If you're interested in receiving future updates, let me know. I'm thinking about doing this via email since only a few people will be interested.

Speaking of movies, I think Seth and I are going to watch the total piece of shit known as Deadbeat at Dawn on Sunday. If you're interested, let me know. Here are some links for those who don't know how to use the internet.

Chris Thrash's Showbiz Pizza Zone is open for business as of late December. Day trip to Phenix City anyone?

I'm going to an ENT next week to get allergy tested and to see if I have tinnitus (pretty sure I do). Every spring, I feel like complete shit for a good month before I realize that it's probably allergies. It wrecks my life, so I'm going to try to prevent that. If I don't have allergies, then maybe I do get SAD. In the spring. I'd also like to not go deaf.

I will write a good update one day, maybe in the near future.

In preparation for six consecutive off days (starting tomorrow!), I checked out 4 movies from the library today: White Dog, Europa, Rebecca, and Fido. This is hilarious, because I already have 5 other movies (A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and a few of the ones I mentioned last week) and 13 books checked out. I think I checked all this shit out thinking that having it checked out would force me to watch/read it. Instead, it simply makes me feel like I have homework, and thus I do everything except watch or read what I have out from the library. I think I'm becoming the kind of librarian I hate, the kind that has 5 million things on their card that they just keep renewing into infinity or accumulating meaningless late fees if there are holds on the items. I actually turn items with holds on them in (except for today....sorry Cassavetes fans!) because I don't think it's fair to make people wait, but it's kinda not fair to keep shit off the shelves for so long either. I must change.

I'm rollin' into Jasper tomorrow for a couple of days of doing nothing. Actually, I just had a pretty funny conversation with my mom about going to church tomorrow night (which I haven't done in years). I'll spare you the details, but when she asked if I was going and I said no, she said something to the effect of "Well I guess there won't be any presents under the tree this year." I laughed really hard and then asked "Mom, are you seriously trying to get your 30 year old son to do what you want by withholding Christmas presents?" She continued to try too, even though I was laughing and not taking it seriously. I had told her not to get me anything last year, and when she did I told her to definitely not get me anything this year. They got bills to pay and I'm self-sufficient, and the only thing I want from them when I go to visit on the holidays is a badass meal, an expectation which is always met. Jesus. Or rather, no Jesus. I told her we could do some secular afterward...she didn't laugh. She hasn't gotten all Jesus-y on me (or treated me like a fucking 5 year old) in a long time...I'm not sure what's going on this year.

This week is going to be exhausting and awesome. Tonight is my boss's Christmas party, followed by what will hopefully be our team whipping ass at Bottletree's music trivia. We won last week, so we're trying to hold on to the title. The topic is the 90s, which was when I was a teenager, a college undergraduate, a record store employee (for 4 years), and at the height of my obsession with music. Granted, I wasn't too aware of 90s popular music after high school, but I was more aware of popular music then than I have been before or since. I think we'll do pretty well. Wednesday and Thursday are Christmas in Jasper (wooooo...I guess?), then it's back to the 'ham for a shitkicker of a Friday. I'm gonna be hanging out with several people who I haven't seen in forever (Natalie, Adam Harper, Lambert, and David Horowitz), so it should be pretty bitchin'. Anyone who wants to join us for a night of chaos is welcome. Saturday is Robb's wedding, which will be awesome except for the fact that I have to come back to Birmingham that night. Don't worry though, I'll continue to drink there as if I was at the wedding, especially since Saturday is MY BIRTHDAY! WOOOOOOOOOOOO! It'll be awesome to actually get to hang out with my friends on my birthday. Sunday and Monday will be comprised of BAU, i.e. reading, watching movies, and playing video games. I will also be catching up on my sleep. As previously stated, it looks to be a damn fine week.

The No Parents ep still needs some touching up on the mix, just a lil' bit. I really need to sit down and listen through the songs intently a couple of times so I can let Lynn (the recording engineer we worked with) know what's up, but I don't want to get sick of the songs. I mean, I am already sick of the songs and almost to the point of not caring, so I'd rather do it when I can care again, because I know if I don't fix the minor problems I'm hearing I'll be unhappy with it for the rest of my life. This is what it's like to be OCD with a penchant for hyperbole.

Ok, I'm off work in 10 minutes, so I'm going to do something equally unproductive that is not writing a journal entry.

While gearing up for a much needed 4 day weekend, I checked out a bunch of shit from the library, including about 7 sci-fi classics (many of which I will probably never read) and the following movies: Serpico, A Clockwork Orange, The Third Man, Rififi, Repulsion (already seen this and probably won't rewatch it, but it rules), The Hunger (God this looks so stupid), Super Fly, One False Move (will probably watch this tonight, along with...), Trailer Park Boys Season 6 Disc 2, and Sandbaggers Season 3 Disc 3. I'll maybe end up watching 3 of these movies this weekend. The rest of the time I'll be playing Fallout 3, attending the Rowe School slumber party, and playing a show with No Parents at the Mellow Mushroom in Tuscaloosa. Should be a pretty awesome weekend. I love socializing and doing band stuff when I don't have to work the same day.

I want to make glogg.

I also want to buy a bunch of new sweaters, but I'm going to limit myself to 4 (maybe 5). I'm totally hot for sweaters. I would post the candidates, but I don't want anyone to know how much time and thought I've put into this. It's honestly a bit embarrassing.

I haven't updated in a goddamn age, so let me do that real quick. I just sat here and typed up a partial list of movies I've ordered since beginning work at BPL. This is something I've been meaning to do for awhile. Considering I order 40 DVDs/month, most of which are utter garbage (gotta appease the patrons), this is more of a list of films that I'd probably want to replace if they ever went missing, or it's films that I want to see and haven't yet. I'm gonna post this list in a cut. If you see shit on it that you'd like to see, come check it out! And leave a comment card saying how awesome the film collection is (seriously)!!! That way, I'll have even more freedom to get cool shit. I really haven't met much resistance since drafting the foreign film collection development policy, but still. I'd prefer to never be questioned again.

( Here's the list. )

The film collection is a work in progress. I'm adding to it every month, so I may post updates periodically if anyone's interested. Also, if you have any requests, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

No Parents has finished recording our debut ep.  The final day, which was me doing vocals and the beginnings of mixing, was pretty brutal. I was in the studio (aka Lynn's house) for 16 consecutive hours, not counting the four hours I slept on his couch before driving back to Jasper at 6:30 in the morning.  The first 6 or 7 hours was just vocal recording.  This included multiple takes of each song, followed by punching in and cleaning up fuckups, like me going off key.  This happened a lot, so there was a lot of punching.  Grey Garden and Queen of Foxes took the longest.  We probably spent two hours on Grey Garden alone, and it isn't even one of my favorite vocal takes. After the first three songs were finished, I was more used to singing on key, so the second half didn't take as long. Afterward, we began mixing.  We got a pretty good mix of Queen of Foxes, and decent first tries at Age of Distraction and Grey Garden. When I drove back to Jasper, delirious as fuck from lack of sleep, I thought it was the greatest sounding thing ever.  I've since realized that the mixes have their problems, but we called Lynn on Tuesday with our concerns. Reportedly he "mixed the hell out of it" yesterday, and with any luck we'll have the next iteration of mixes by Saturday. I've said this to bandmates already, but I think this is probably the best recorded output I've ever played a part in producing. It sounds like the kind of music I've always wanted to make, and I'm already ready to start working on new songs. I plan on doing just that next weekend, when I have four consecutive days off. Anyway, I can't wait to share the firstborn of No Parents, but I feel like we should be mostly (if not completely) satisfied with the mixes before that happens. Soon!

Speaking of No Parents, we're playing this Saturday at Greencup (I think) and next Saturday at Mellow Mushroom in Tuscaloosa. 8 p.m. at Greencup, and I'm not sure what time at the 'shroom. Should be a good time, so come out if you can!  We'll be debuting two songs that we've never played live before.

Thanksgiving was totally bitchin'. I went to my parents' house and ate tons of food and played video games. I was still sick at the time, and kind of still worn out from recording the previous weekend, so it was pretty much perfect.

Not much else to report. I've been spending my non-band free time reading comics, playing Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2, and re-reading Titus Groan.  Lately I've been participating in music trivia at Bottletree on Tuesdays, which is pretty fun. Our team placed third this week and won two tickets to the Polvo show tonight, which is pretty rad. I can't wait to see Polvo, and I highly encourage you to come out tonight. I saw them on the Shapes tour years ago, and it reigned supreme. The songs I hope they play more than most include Fast Canoe, Feather of Forgiveness (probably my favorite Polvo song), and Rock Post Rock. This is a good week for shows...Wilderness on Monday (I didn't go, and according to Grover not many people did, but he said it was great), Polvo tonight, and Deerhunter on Saturday! Check it out, I'm actually going out and doing stuff!

Alright, that's about it.  I need to work on this month's book order, which I really don't want to do. : ( But then I get to see Polvo, which I do really want to do. : )  But I can't buy beers because the stupid fucking Department of Education withdrew my student loan payment twice (yes I signed up for automatic debits and this was the month it kicked in, but they didn't give me any sort of notification!), causing my checking account to be overdrafted twice. : (
: (
: (
: (
: (
I guess I can live without beer though. I'll still have the rock.

Advertisement