the best 27 seconds of her life
1. My mental stability is a point of pride for me. Most folks I know take pains in declaiming their craziness; as long as the check comes every two weeks, it doesn't wash. Yet I have been away from my normal means of communication - e-mail, Blogger, last.fm, Stylus messageboard (ok, the new new people on Stylus weary me) - largely because I still haven't mailed a nice Duke grad student a mix CD. Afraid of an e-mail informing me of her failure to receive it, I stayed away from my main e-mail account. For some reason, my fear of that deadline also caused me to lob Stylus articles like spitballs from another room. Todd had to call me to add an intro paragraph to my power ballads piece. Unprofessional of Brad.
2. Why don't I just send the CD to her now?
3. Uh.
4. The job's great. I racked up eighty bucks in travel reimbursements my first month, and so far USPS's kept down every bit of postage I've fed 'em.
5. Our director of development - who reads Stylus, mostly for the year-end articles - has copied my Separation Sunday, Mecca and the Soul Brother, and Ramones to his office computer.
6. Rahsaan Roland Kirk sounds like NPR transition music at proper office volume. It fucking sucks, but now I wonder: does every dentist I've ever been to actually have great taste in music?
7. My only taste of Stiv Bators for years was the single version "The Last Year," as heard on a Hallowe'en years ago on some college radio tribute to the dead. But, uh, it really should've been "Make Up Your Mind". Swoon.
8. Someone from Minty Fresh e-mailed me to say she cried after reading my NMH piece. A lovely thing to read, even if I wasn't going for the tear ducts at all. As of today, I'm not real happy with that piece. Mike got me to clean it up, and that helped a lot, but there's too much being-cute in there.
9. My Nirvana piece really turned out well. Shout-out to Cam MacDonald.
10. My pieces go well if the guy named for Crime and Punishment doesn't make some vague pronouncement about the end of everything.
11. The Four Tops! "I Got a Feeling!" Listen for three Tops to sing "take me, take me". Swoon.
12. TheKate knows the true pronunciation of "Moog".
13. Tangerine Dream's Phaedra may be the only album I need of theirs question mark.
14. I've got this On First Listen to write about Kraftwerk. The thing is, they sound exactly as I've imagined. I downed a two-disc comp while sitting on a washing machine last month (skipping the English-language dupes). Can't say I shook my robot ass, but it was very enjoyable. Much fewer synth washes than expected.
15. People finally doin' stuff on Questionable Content (and the indie rock shtick seems to be firmly lodged in the back of the jawline, hurrah), Bill and Erik finally updating, the lovable jampot of A Lesson Is Learned, I finally ran across those existential Garfields. Truly a great week not to be watching men in videos do awful things to women and occasionally milkcows.
16. Red McCombs is supposed to show at our annual meeting. Hopefully I can ask him how glad he is to've dusted the Vikes off his sandals.
17. This meeting's running me ragged. It'll be overtime and tuxedos this weekend; I had to miss the regional finals of the Air Guitar Championship. Honestly, I feel like I've been granted a reprieve. Going from the graveyard shift to sun-lovers' hours, getting my own computer, shirts that stay tucked in. All this little white collar shit is improving my morale majorly. And for some reason, all I can think of is ramping up my Stylus schedule.
18. The Stycast. Dammit.
19. I beat my neighbors in Scrabble last night, then drank the last Pabst. Every time I visit, I bring a 12-pack.
20. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Sarah McLachlan. Want worse? And Harry Chapin. "Cat's in the Cradle" is mephitically bad, a perfect storm of pity and wonder. Who called whom? Where's Rhymefest?
21. I missed the best New Singles Jukebox yet. So in summary, Clarkson's = 10, and the new BEP has a chorus straight outta Canada. I'm thinking PGMG or New Pornographers. It's uncanny, that "turn it up" part.
22. Someone on my floor has a solid-gold iTunes playlist. 94 classic ska, reggae, and rhythm 'n' blues cuts. And some Faces/solo Rod work. It's labeled "mako's music," and I can only access it for an hour or so at a time before it disappears. This happens at least once a day. I'm thinking of leaving sign on the lavatories, but if it's a lady it'd be one of those meet-cute nightmares, so maybe we'll consider it a hauntological playlist.
23. Started reading Augustine while I'm waiting for registrants to appear. So far, so good. In Confessions he argues convincingly against appealingly bathetic entertainment. Why gain catharsis through staging et cetera, and I start thinking about all my precious albums.
24. Anatomy of Hell sucked. So does the LSD-march album on Last Visible Dog. What a piece of half-assed Krautkrap. Big ups to Prince's "Starfish and Coffee". Best line: "Cynthia had a happy face, just like the one she’d draw/On every wall, in every school/But it’s all right, it’s 4 a worthy cause." I guess you have to hear it. Which is great news!
25. In case it isn't clear, I've spent the last couple days in the basement of a hotel, directing elderly Texans to Ballroom B and the book exhibitors' displays in the Rio Grande room.
26. One friend of the Association is donating 400 prints from four famed Texan illustrators. He had the auction catalog printed and bound, adding comments on and anecdotes for the items where appropriate. He promised a limited print run of 100, made 25 over, and he told me in the elevator that once any damaged copies are replaced, every extra book will be destroyed. His wife had a prairie-woman handshake, hearty and unassuming. I left their hotel room, having temporarily retired the over-100 copies there, and walked back to the registration tables. The hotel is basically a 15-story atrium with spectacular, four-wall indoor views. As I walked along the fourth floor hallway, a mariachi band was holding forth down by the lobby bar. The reverb was majestic.
27. Be back soon; I've got trust to regain.
2. Why don't I just send the CD to her now?
3. Uh.
4. The job's great. I racked up eighty bucks in travel reimbursements my first month, and so far USPS's kept down every bit of postage I've fed 'em.
5. Our director of development - who reads Stylus, mostly for the year-end articles - has copied my Separation Sunday, Mecca and the Soul Brother, and Ramones to his office computer.
6. Rahsaan Roland Kirk sounds like NPR transition music at proper office volume. It fucking sucks, but now I wonder: does every dentist I've ever been to actually have great taste in music?
7. My only taste of Stiv Bators for years was the single version "The Last Year," as heard on a Hallowe'en years ago on some college radio tribute to the dead. But, uh, it really should've been "Make Up Your Mind". Swoon.
8. Someone from Minty Fresh e-mailed me to say she cried after reading my NMH piece. A lovely thing to read, even if I wasn't going for the tear ducts at all. As of today, I'm not real happy with that piece. Mike got me to clean it up, and that helped a lot, but there's too much being-cute in there.
9. My Nirvana piece really turned out well. Shout-out to Cam MacDonald.
10. My pieces go well if the guy named for Crime and Punishment doesn't make some vague pronouncement about the end of everything.
11. The Four Tops! "I Got a Feeling!" Listen for three Tops to sing "take me, take me". Swoon.
12. TheKate knows the true pronunciation of "Moog".
13. Tangerine Dream's Phaedra may be the only album I need of theirs question mark.
14. I've got this On First Listen to write about Kraftwerk. The thing is, they sound exactly as I've imagined. I downed a two-disc comp while sitting on a washing machine last month (skipping the English-language dupes). Can't say I shook my robot ass, but it was very enjoyable. Much fewer synth washes than expected.
15. People finally doin' stuff on Questionable Content (and the indie rock shtick seems to be firmly lodged in the back of the jawline, hurrah), Bill and Erik finally updating, the lovable jampot of A Lesson Is Learned, I finally ran across those existential Garfields. Truly a great week not to be watching men in videos do awful things to women and occasionally milkcows.
16. Red McCombs is supposed to show at our annual meeting. Hopefully I can ask him how glad he is to've dusted the Vikes off his sandals.
17. This meeting's running me ragged. It'll be overtime and tuxedos this weekend; I had to miss the regional finals of the Air Guitar Championship. Honestly, I feel like I've been granted a reprieve. Going from the graveyard shift to sun-lovers' hours, getting my own computer, shirts that stay tucked in. All this little white collar shit is improving my morale majorly. And for some reason, all I can think of is ramping up my Stylus schedule.
18. The Stycast. Dammit.
19. I beat my neighbors in Scrabble last night, then drank the last Pabst. Every time I visit, I bring a 12-pack.
20. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Sarah McLachlan. Want worse? And Harry Chapin. "Cat's in the Cradle" is mephitically bad, a perfect storm of pity and wonder. Who called whom? Where's Rhymefest?
21. I missed the best New Singles Jukebox yet. So in summary, Clarkson's = 10, and the new BEP has a chorus straight outta Canada. I'm thinking PGMG or New Pornographers. It's uncanny, that "turn it up" part.
22. Someone on my floor has a solid-gold iTunes playlist. 94 classic ska, reggae, and rhythm 'n' blues cuts. And some Faces/solo Rod work. It's labeled "mako's music," and I can only access it for an hour or so at a time before it disappears. This happens at least once a day. I'm thinking of leaving sign on the lavatories, but if it's a lady it'd be one of those meet-cute nightmares, so maybe we'll consider it a hauntological playlist.
23. Started reading Augustine while I'm waiting for registrants to appear. So far, so good. In Confessions he argues convincingly against appealingly bathetic entertainment. Why gain catharsis through staging et cetera, and I start thinking about all my precious albums.
24. Anatomy of Hell sucked. So does the LSD-march album on Last Visible Dog. What a piece of half-assed Krautkrap. Big ups to Prince's "Starfish and Coffee". Best line: "Cynthia had a happy face, just like the one she’d draw/On every wall, in every school/But it’s all right, it’s 4 a worthy cause." I guess you have to hear it. Which is great news!
25. In case it isn't clear, I've spent the last couple days in the basement of a hotel, directing elderly Texans to Ballroom B and the book exhibitors' displays in the Rio Grande room.
26. One friend of the Association is donating 400 prints from four famed Texan illustrators. He had the auction catalog printed and bound, adding comments on and anecdotes for the items where appropriate. He promised a limited print run of 100, made 25 over, and he told me in the elevator that once any damaged copies are replaced, every extra book will be destroyed. His wife had a prairie-woman handshake, hearty and unassuming. I left their hotel room, having temporarily retired the over-100 copies there, and walked back to the registration tables. The hotel is basically a 15-story atrium with spectacular, four-wall indoor views. As I walked along the fourth floor hallway, a mariachi band was holding forth down by the lobby bar. The reverb was majestic.
27. Be back soon; I've got trust to regain.
posted by Brad | 8:58 PM
4 Comments:
yes, I do know how to pronounce Moog. And that movie sucked assssss. And you don't have to regain trust because you feel it's inevitable. There's more than one options here, ya know. RAWR.
oh and HEY I'm DRUNK
I'm not, but this is still awesome. I know what you mean about avoiding email, messageboard, etc due to unpleasentness, but all that means is more to catch up on. Good to have you back.
I'm not, but this is still awesome. I know what you mean about avoiding email, messageboard, etc due to unpleasentness, but all that means is more to catch up on. Good to have you back.
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