Killing Time

Haven't done this in awhile. I've been finding easier ways to waste my time, I guess.
So we've gotten the last of our mixes (which puts us up to nine), and I think we're all pretty happy about them. If you haven't heard about this from my brother, feel free to check them out at www.rockwells.com
They're unmastered at this point. Poor man's mastering (aka, "try this at home"): turn the volume up louder than normal and boost the treble.
Now that the mixes are done, I have to get busy doing all the other things that I've neglected cause I was recording. This includes booking and promoting shows as well as bathing and shaving regularly (jk...or am I?). Good things are on the horizon, I think, but this shift from recording (which is pretty insular) to promoting is not the most natural thing for me. I need to buy a calendar. And a new messenger bag. I need to make lists of people to call. I need to find my map of the U.S.
Welcome to my pep talk.
Ugh.

3:23 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Delayed Reaction

I rode my bike for the first time in a month or so today. Around two I pumped up the tires, went for about an hour ride, came home, tooled around on the internet for maybe an hour, took a shower, went downstairs and talked to my landlord and one of his guys about the squirrel thing for maybe fifteen minutes, walked down the street to Sam's Party Store to get some supplies, came back, and started dinner. So now it's about five (dinner is early cause I've got a practice later tonight). I had put some water on to boil, turned on the oven, and come back to my computer to waste more time when I hear what might be described as an earth shattering kaboom. Well, maybe it wasn't so much of a "kaboom." It was more the sound of a small explosion that sends a tiny piece of shrapnel across the room, which, if it hit you, would mean a totally ruined evening spent in the emergency room.
So I get up and peek to see if something has exploded around the range area. It looks okay. I'm thinking that not knowing what has exploded is a bit unsettling when I notice the sound of an air leak.
My back tire had blown up.
Tires explode. I'm fine with that, but what the hell? It could have gone at any time while I was pumping it up or while I was riding it (which would have sucked, naturally), but instead it sits for two hours in my apartment, then dies in the loudest, most violent way something inflatable can die. Maybe it was thinking about how it's getting warmer, and I'll be riding more than once every six weeks, and decided to off itself.
What's the meaning of all this? No meaning, I guess.
Oh, and Emily R., it's looking like we'll be able to take care of the squirrel like you'd take care of any other hairy, well meaning, yet annoying housemate. A simple eviction should do the trick.

Currently listening : At War With the Mystics By Flaming Lips Release date: 04 April, 2006

2:25 PM - 5 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Bed Head
Current mood: contemplative

Hi there,
I'm killing time at the computer, letting my hair dry before bed, hopefully avoiding a stupendous case of bed head in the morning. But probably not.
If you've tried to get in touch with me via phone, you should know that my phone is losing its battle with whatever it is that's killing it. My apologies. I'll try to have it replaced with another more youthful looking phone in the next day or two. I'll probably get screwed by a cell phone company in the process, but that's just the way these things go.
The last few mornings I've been woken up around six-ish by the squirrel making a nest in the bit between the ceiling and roof directly above my bed (I don't know if squirrels make nests, but what else would you call it? A squirrel hole?). Tommy and I joked about my getting an ice pick and a stethescope (sp? you medical folks? It looks right.) and trying to spear the poor, defenseless, ceaselessly infuriating, adorable little creature. We both laughed. Ridiculous!
...or is it?
...
...
...
Probably.
I think I'm running out of steam a bit. My hair is still wet. Oh well. I have a few emails I could write. Maybe I'll do that.

Currently reading : The Old Man and The Sea By Ernest Hemingway Release date: 05 May, 1995

8:31 PM - 12 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Lazy
Current mood: lazy

Well, I'm enjoying the fuzzy brain and mild depression of a day completely wasted following a very late night. I'm not being sarcastic. There's something nice about having no drive at all for a day, when your brain can't get it together enough to worry about things. Hmm. I might need to do dishes. My sink smells, and my kitchen and den are the same room.
If I haven't seen you personally over the last week or two, you might not know that we finished the nine songs we'd been working on earlier this week, and mailed them to Canada to be mixed. Well, tried to mail. Fred and I had an unfortunate FedEx/Kinkos experience. All things being equal, the stuff should get there tomorrow.
Things very well might not be equal.
I think I've pinpointed why I'm so terrible at blogging. One of the reasons, at least. I was always taught that writing was all about revising, and this is not a form that encourages revision. I think you're just supposed to spout whatever for a few lines and see how it goes. This is not the easiest thing for me to do. If you've ever received even a short email from me, it probably took me twenty minutes to write. Which, I think, might also explain why I'm so terrible with emails.
Things are good, I think. I'm excited for people to hear what we've been working on for the past year. Someone in a bar (it was Sassy's) a couple of weeks ago asked me what I did, and I told her I mined for gold. She knew I wasn't serious, but I wouldn't talk about music. It makes just about as much sense to say something else. I mine for gold. I'm studying to be an astronaut. Maybe I'll just start saying I work at a bank. When you work hard on something that no one can hear, what do you say when they ask? "Well, today I kicked all sorts of ass, but you're just going to have to take my word for it." Ugh.
Well, I think I've about exhausted anything I could talk about right now.
Does anyone remember the person that Anne Frank addressed her diary entries to? I might start doing that. Writing letters seems easier, somehow. Maybe I'm delirious. There's just no way to know for sure.
Ok, I'm done.

Currently watching : The Squid and the Whale Release date: 21 March, 2006

5:05 PM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Positivity Pt. 1
Current mood: frustrated

Ok. So I'd planned to do a blog about how nobody really posts blogs when they're feeling good about things (aka, participating in the "real world," getting laid, etc.), cause it's potentially obnoxious, and who cares about good things anyway.
So my blog was going to be about how I was feeling pretty good, and there wasn't anything to complain about, and even though it wasn't terribly exciting, this boring snapshot was quite reflective of my life as a whole, as opposed to that "everything stinks, I think I'll go stick myself with a knife" thing.
But no. That's going to have to wait. I'm drunk and surly and in the perfect blogging mood. I've ordered late night food and am waiting for it to be delivered. What else am I going to do at this point?
I, um...
Oh. Jesus.
I had some things to say. Legitimate things that I could defend in the morning, as it were.
But who cares? The bottom line: I'm frustrated, and frustration is not that attractive. Neither is bitching. Neither is worry. Neither is doubt. Why put yourself on parade at your ugliest? What good does that do?
I'll work on something nice.
Sorry for the delay.
-j

11:20 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

I have a code
Current mood: groggy

Why hello there! Well, summertime is officially over, and you know what that means. It's time to jump head first into the cold season! That's right, I'm drinking lots of water, skipping work, lazing around in my underwear, high on a Z-pack and decongestants, making horrible old-man throat-clearing noises every thirty or forty seconds. It feels like months since I've had this feeling. Oh yeah. Four months.
Two good things about this: I don't have strep, and I bought season six of the Simpsons, so I've had something to watch while laying on the half of my futon not covered in clothes.
Seasons five and six are very much MY seasons, in a way. I was fourteen or fifteen when they were originally on, too young to drive, but not so young that I couldn't structure much of my life around watching and talking about TV. Hmm, wait. Maybe I should have said, "but also not old enough to be ashamed of structuring my life around TV." Anyway.
It's good to revisit these things in completely undiluted, undigestible blocks of five or six hours, listening to commentaries that don't really say much, and wishing you could sleep, but you're too damned high on cold medicine.
I love run-on sentences.
But I'm happy to have something to blog about that's not a long steady stream of bitchiness and misery, which are the only things that'll make me sit down at the computer at home for more than five minutes.
No, this is nostalgia folks, and it feels like a lump in your throat you can't quite cough up.
But you keep trying anyway.
Be in love.
-j

2:32 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

These Subtle T's
Current mood: sleepy

So the only thing I've done on this site is change my profile, and what I did was subtract.
You'd think that I might add some things people might care about, things that would help paint a little picture. Like interests, say, or some books I've read. What can I say? I'm getting to it. Also, I'll get a non-rock picture up. I stole a picture from the Rockwells site because, and I don't know about you, I don't keep pictures of myself around, at least not suitably cool head shots, and I don't have a scanner or a camera.
You also might think that if I were going to grouse about the insta-profile thing, I'd go on about "check this box if you're a drinker." I'm trying to cut down/quit drinking for awhile, and that's a bitch because I don't have a damn thing against drinking, and I wouldn't want to give someone the impression that I did. So, if it comes down to a checkmark, then label me "drinker."
But this isn't it. My thing right now, the thing that I fixed about my profile, is in the bit where you mark what you're looking for through the site. You know the list: friendship, dating, serious relationship, networking.
So I read that list, and what do I do? I think, hey, that all sounds pretty nice, and check all four. And that's a problem
No one should ever declare themselves looking for a serious relationship. If someone came up to you in a bar and said, "Hey, want to get a drink, maybe some dinner, put a deposit on an apartment? I'm not fooling around here!" you'd back away slowly and tell your friends about the freak show you just met. And you'd be right to do it.
If someone is looking for a serious relationship they keep it a secret. You sneak into relationship through other means. Usually physical means. Sweet, physical means. Then one day you realize you haven't slept in your own bed for two weeks. And at that point you ask yourself, "Am I looking for a serious relationship?" And then the pondering begins. And continues. Then some stuff happens and you're engaged. Some of this is strictly speculation, mind you.
No the "serious relationship" box stinks of desperation, and I wont stand for it. I've unchecked it. No, I'm looking for friendship, networking, and maybe some time getting a beer (though I've cut way back you know) and hanging out and just, you know, no big deal, if you might want to, whenever your free, you know, get together. If you want. You know, nothing serious.

9:22 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Starts and Beginnings

Hi there. I'm just getting started on this site, and, naturally, it blows right now. Man how it blows. Interests: none. Music: none. Pictures: none.
I am filled with shame.
I'll try to get this thing looking a little better in the next week or so.
I hope.
-J

2:02 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment