leaving this town, pt. 3

the time is coming. fast. this will be my last post from houston. probably going to break down the computer tonight. how i'm going to live without a computer for a half a week, i don' know. i haven't had to do that since those dark ages before the internet back when we had massive shelves of encyclopedias with way outdated information. i remember the ones we had at my house stopped with reagan being president. i was using these when i was 9-18. way outdated.

"we need encyclopedias that don't refer to the burgeoning civil rights movement as 'trouble ahead.'" i'm not sure if that quote is exact, but it's still funny.

i was going to make a list of things i would miss about houston, but i'm not going to. there are too many and many of them are selected memories of mine that won't make sense to anyone else. the way a day was in my head, or the way a tree looked and how everyone was smiling and how big everything was and clean and septembers and early mornings with breakfast. there are many ghosts in this town. and i'll miss them, but i have to go. i think they'll understand. plus if they're really ghosts, they should be able to travel with me. that's the advantage of being a ghost.

remember that astros game?
remember that night in my car?
remember that terrible storm?
remember our first dog?
remember the movies we snuck into?
remember graduation?
remember swinging at the church?
remember all the sweet girls?
remember laughing our heads off?

anyone for tennis?

the bachelor party was cool. not at all crazy, but fun nonetheless. the best part was the concert. the national were something to witness. through the course of the show, the area i was standing in was slowly filling with people, so i got further and further from the guys i was standing with. during the last song, i found myself standing alone basically and the lead singer got off the stage and started walking and singing in the crowd. i made a beeline for the action and was standing next to him singing vanderlylle, crybaby, cry. it was totally awesome. i was singing loud too, which i found out the next day, i was singing the wrong words!! ha! i wonder if anybody else noticed. probably not. the line is "someday i'll explain it to the geeks." well i was singing, "someday i'll explain it to the geese." fail!

but either way, either words, it was fun.

new band on the scene: tennis. they're actually from colorado, so i'm ready to get to know this band. go to the hype machine and search them. pretty sweet tunes.

10 miles stereo

beach house was amazing last night. teen dream is such a fascinating, scintillating record. it doesn't build to anything tremendous, but it keeps you at that perfect level the whole record. the female vocals voice is incredible. her energy was tremendous.

vampire weekend was full of it too. they were on top of their game. the songs were quick, crisp and a total blast. i dig them even more after seeing them live. vampire weekend's lyrics sometimes are a little harder to figure out, not what they mean, but the hell they are talking about. my friend found the vampire weekend dictionary. here it is. it certainly helps.

the national is tonight. we'll see how that holds up to last night. my concert in houston. hopefully it's the cat's meow. what? where did that come from?

four!

golf is totally boring and makes no sense to me. but this has to be one of the coolest pictures i've ever seen. it was a total missed shot by tiger and it went right at this guy's camera. amazing photograph.

here comes change

mitch hurwitz talks about the blessing and the curse that is being the creator of arrested development.

great new series at the avclub about the 90's music scene. one of the things i loved about the article was the idea that it took real effort to be an underground music fan growing up in the 90's. there was no internet for the most of us, no close independent music stores and the only way we heard about bands was through magazines and late night videos. we had to really try and almost earn the music. now, we google it and read about it until we've had too much. i saw "just" by radiohead at about 2 in the morning on mtv and was blown away. i bought the album the next day, probably at a circuit city. i bought "being there" by wilco because it was 9.99 at best buy. i'd never heard a wilco song before in my life. but there it was, on display and on sale. both were extremely lucky finds.

i'm currently listening to brian wilson sing "let's go to heaven in my car." it's another ridiculous, brilliant song by the greatest pop writer of all time.

uptight

i have had that song in my head for a better part of the day and i have no idea why. i really don't like it that much and i don't know half the words. just "baby, everything is alright, uptight, out of sight." that's it. just swirling and swirling in my head. enough little stevie!!


the going away party was a great success. seems like most people enjoyed themselves. i know i did. it was great seeing everybody. plus some people brought gifts, which i didn't expect. i got gifts for leaving!! maybe if i come back one day, i'll get gifts for that. i wonder.


so it's on to massive packing and massive moving headaches. bring them on! i should probably eat first. i'm a little famished. can you be a little famished? i'm only moderately extremely excited. what?

the wanderer

so i put together a compilation album for our party. i think it's good. it's pretty straight forward. hits a lot of the common groups i've loved for decades.

i ate two vietnamese sandwiches today. and i plan to eat one tomorrow. i'm looking forward to it. they are quite good.

currently watching our brand is crisis.

leaving this town, pt. 2

i'm back from denver. we left early thursday morning and returned late last night. it wouldn't have been so late, but we had some engine failure before we left, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear before you take off into the air for two hours.

we rented a chevy aveo. now, i loved the gas mileage on that car. but wow. i never felt so not in control of a car in my life. once it got to 55, it literally was rattling and on the cusp of disintegration. but we maintained. we had appointments all day thursday with apartment complexs. we saw like six or seven that day. all horrible. horrible. i can't go back to apartment living. there's no way. the rooms were too small. the rent was too high. the place was too run down. all of them. thursday was a major day of defeat. but we regrouped.

on friday, we took to the streets. i drove one corner of denver all day. we stopped and called every sign we saw for rent, no matter what the place looked like, because even if it was a mansion, maybe someone was seriously in need of renters. we hit three possibles. one was amazing and affordable. one was small and affordable. one was huge and not-affordable, but the owner said if it wasn't rented by sunday, the day we were leaving, he'd consider working with us on rent.

the amazing one was already in the process of being rented, by that i mean, the application was sent, but who knows? maybe the guy would disappear. so we held out hope. the small one was dirty and we didn't know why. it had been empty for three weeks. why show it dirty? weird. so we sat and waited.

sunday came. we met the guy at what we were calling the apple house because it has an apple tree in the backyard. we met the guy and walked all the through the house. great house. great basement. apple tree. amazing. garage. everything. he gave us his price and we couldn't do it. but for some reason, he wanted to show us his sister's house, which was very similar to the one we were looking at. so we went over there. while we were there, i got a call from the amazing house. dude's application was accepted and we were out. so i was feeling pretty low at that point. finally the guys asks us again if we want it. and we tell him we can't afford it. so lowers it again. and we take it. we got the apple house. i am going to eat so many mcintosh apples i'm going to be diabetic in a month.

four days driving in a chevy aveo with just me and my wife. we're a great team. i was really proud of her. she was stressed and so was i, but she held firm. so now, let's have our party. and we'll be out of here.

leaving this town

i'm back from illinois. vacations can be stressful. when you're taking a vacation for a funeral, it's even more stressful. there are so many small towns in southern illinois. you wouldn't even know the difference if it wasn't for a sign or a water tower. that's the only way you know.

there isn't much ewok influenced music out there. the ewoks played some solid tunes at the end of return of the jedi. george lucas made the choice to change the music on the re-releases. but if you watch the original, there is a song i called "jub jub" that is fantastic. good beat, good use of rhythm. the ewoks were solid musically.

someone great

we lost two great ones back to back. my great aunt passed away on thursday. and my wife's grandmother passed away yesterday.

the thing i admired most about my great aunt was her attitude. she was resilient. her humor and her good-naturedness radiated from her. she loved life by loving all the simple things. and she made you know she loved you too. she actually bought me a pair of star wars roller-skates. yes, they actually made those. it had darth vader on the side. i'll miss her.

my wife's grandmother was remarkable. she spoke her mind no matter the situation and generally when she spoke, we all stopped and listened. we watched many seinfeld reruns together. last time i saw her was when she, my wife and i watched the college national championship together this year. she started almost every sentence with, "oh, honey....". man, she was funny. we'll miss her too.

black bubblegum

excellent article, and starter for a series dealing with the subject, on income inequality in the united states; how much of a problem it is and where we stand in comparison with other countries.

stevie nicks fajita round-up

i don't know why, but i've brought this up in conversation a lot lately. so i had to see it.

the final countdown

the nfl season starts soon. last year, i picked a new orleans-san diego super bowl. i was confident the whole time in my nfc pick, the saints, but never in the chargers.

this year, i'm confident in my afc pick the baltimore ravens. my nfc pick is mostly a judgment based on last year's performance and that i just don't have a better pick. and that is the green bay packers.

next year's super bowl: the baltimore ravens versus the green bay packers.

on the home front, i think it's going to be a bad year. the texans will slip back to the pack and go 7-9. the schedule is too tough and we can't win the big games. hopefully they prove me wrong.

fitter, happier

my dad was heading out to target or k-mart one night, i've now forgotten which one, ultimately not pressing to the outcome of the story, but if i remember somewhat correctly, k-mart had already been overrun and returned to the emptiness of it's original state... anyway, my dad was heading to a super-store of goods and materials and popped his head in to ask me if i needed anything in the form of super-goods. i told him, "radiohead's ok computer." he gave me a weird look and left. ok computer had just come out that week. i had been a huge fan of the bends. a huge fan. i thought it was one of the best albums i'd ever heard. i lived and died from tracks two through seven and was reborn in street spirit. he returned with ok computer that night. somehow a) he found it and b) target and/or k-mart sold it. i played about fifteen times that night. i was only seventeen and had never logged onto the great expansion of the internet. but i heard the future. it was made of car crashes, buzzing noises, yuppies networking, politiking, suffocation, plane crashes and tourists moving too fast. from time to time, i come back to that album. i still can't get over it. don't lose your nerve.

snowstorm

i sold roxanne. i had that car for 12 years. i was a senior in high school when i got it.

i cannot get over this galaxie 500 album. this thing is simply rotten good. it seems like it doesn't go anywhere, but it does. the subtlety of the album is tremendous. and the cover of george harrison's "isn't it a pity" is crazy good.

i've started going to a kickboxing class twice a week. my hand is swollen from punching the bag. i haven't punched anything this much in my whole life. my hand is not used to this level of punching. lots and lots of punching. there was kicking too. but my foot was okay with that.

this class only makes me appreciate the man that is rocky balboa even more. every time i was tired, i thought, "rocky balboa wouldn't quit." so i didn't quit.

sugar cube

in my stereo right now, i have the following combination:

1. galaxie 500- on fire
2. sonny and the sunsets- tomorrow
3. teenage fanclub- songs from northern britain
4. band of horses- infinite arms
5. television- adventure

now, this weekend i had these albums in heavy rotation. last night, while cooking dinner with my wife, she said to me, "what are we listening to?" and i said, "at the moment, it's band of horses." and she said, "i like it. i like all these albums. they all go together really well." i don't think i'd ever been happier in my life.

also, i stumbled across this yo la tengo video for sugar cube. it's really great.

on my way back home

the "fairwell tour" was a great success. all participants were extremely generous with their time/couches/sodas/towels. it felt great. it felt good to go somewhere and just be myself and not worry about jobs/homes/moves.

i swam at hamilton pool, which was like discovering a new layer of earth.

i swam at barton springs pool.

i found television's adventure, galaxie 500's on fire and grinderman at waterloo records.

i climbed a giant hill and threw rocks at this bridge at four in the morning.

i ate at alamo springs.

i chose band of horse's laredo as the theme song of the trip.

i saw many friends. i saw my dad. i saw deer. i had weird dreams about my car getting jacked.

it was the final adventure/trip before the exodus. it lived up to it's billing. now back to studying/packing and making coffee.

coffee and TV

the whole blur vs. oasis battle of the early to mid 90's made me hate both bands. i thought they were both bands full of copy-cat talentless hacks who used personality to mask the fact they were terrible to mediocre pop songwriters. i believe this still holds true for oasis.

but blur is changing my mind. especially with this album: 13. this album boasts styles galour and music ranging from pseudo-soul to grunge-ish songs to simple melodic confessionals. and of course coffee and TV is basically a perfect pop song.

i liked parklife and i liked the S/T album. but 13 is worth your time.

when you dance you can really love

i passed BEC. that's half of my tests. i have now until august of 2011 to pass FAR, which i'm taking sunday, and REG. half way there.

"you see, you see...he's not a machine. he's a man."

divine comedy

stephen colbert two nights ago:

"news flash: there is no news flash."

still laughing about that.

watched capitalism: a love story yesterday.

today, currently watching maxed out.