Dripping in this strange design...

don't pronounce the "g".  you don't pronounce the "g" in "paradigm".

*breakbeat*

yeah.

anywayz, on account of lots of things and other vagaries, i'm thinking of shifting my blogging to google (blogger).  i'd keep this blog (i could still comment on people's blogs and stuff and wouldn't lose any old posts), but most of my new posts would be on blogger.  i'll still occasionally cross-post with album news, pet deaths, things like that like i already do with my myspace blog, but most things will now be on blogger.  i'm currently setting up the address and once i have one i'll update this post with it. 

i don't have a problem at all with LJ, but at least for now it's just a question of efficiency.  who knows, i may eventually end up coming back.  but since google currently controls 98 percent of my life, this seems like the obvious move to make. 

haven't been blogging much lately, but that's because last week was sort of consumed by rushed loads of grading, which aren't really worth reporting in detail to anyone about, and this week was consumed by other, more pleasant things. 

this seems to always be the case with me and my ridiculous life, but even more so now than pretty much ever things are totally up in the air.  i can't go into specifics about what's been happening lately because it's not really stuff that everyone on the internet needs to know about (and the one or two of you that have some idea, it'd be cool if you didn't say anything on here either.  dudes.), but i've been a bit shocked out of this idea that the next few years of my life need to be constantly struggling towards a degree i may or may not want, immersing myself entirely in my work and not really thinking about what might make me happy.  this is a good job, a great career for me and i'm almost certain that i want to end up working in higher education, but i've also realized how long i've really been unhappy in other parts of my life and that having the best job in the world isn't going to mean anything if i just keep dragging myself there day after day to mitigate the fact that i'm miserable when i'm not working. 

anyway, i'm sort in limbo waiting to see how things are going to work out (and probably will be for a long time, possibly eternity), but this has the potential to be a really good thing and so i'm sort of in the midst of reorganizing my priorities slightly to factor it in.  i'm still applying to a few schools next year, but probably only 3-4, just because i'm not sure it's what i really want to do (this is actually something i've been doubting since about august) and because of time and money constraints.  i'd like to save some cash, some time, and some worry, apply only to a few places that i really like (and not a lot just for the sake of guaranteeing an in "somewhere") and spend the extra time trying to get a few of my writings published, finishing this new album and getting some shows under my belt, etc.  then, if i haven't completely worried myself to death by may, we'll see what happens. 

it's much easier to write nonchalantly than it is to think about nonchalantly.

in my current sort of zombified depressive state, i ordered a bass guitar today (they cancelled my last order for no apparent reason).  it was pretty cheap...only 150 bucks for a really decent bass (two pickups, nice design, four strings) and a gig bag.  i'm pretty sure i bought some other things in the last few days too...it's been one of those things where i know i've done a bunch of stuff, but i don't really remember doing any of it...sort of like i've been dreaming or something.  it's going to be hilarious when shit starts showing up on my porch.  or the utility company comes and kills me because i can't pay my billz.

this is a ways off still, but just to give everybody a heads up, i'll be playing a show at Susan's in Kent on December 29th.  it'll be my first semi-solo real show, so show up if you want to see me make an ass of myself :)

i'll be playing some stuff from the old album, the new album, the new EP, etc.  it should be about half acoustic and half semi-quiet electric.  bring your friends, bring your enemies, and don't let them mingle with each other because i don't want no fighting at my rock concert. 

keep it realz.

for my own edification, since i no longer have any fellow grading-sufferers around to share with, I just wanted to note:

my all-time record for papers graded in one day was 25, which i'm going to exceed today.

i'm also going to log a total of about 18 hours in avery between sleeps (my record is 25, though i'm not really sure if i'm capable of matching that on my own). 

i'm going to max out i think at 26 papers in 18 hours...the all-time super-record of anyone that i know is 32, which i'm going to attempt to beat tomorrow.  considering i started grading today at 8pm and am still going to get 26 done (by like 4 or 5am), i think i can get at least 33 all day and night tomorrow :)

it's on!

UPDATE:  i have now graded 46 papers in a 24 hour period.  that's definitely a new record.

just got my amp yesterday.  here's some pictures.  i took one with the guitar in it to show how enormous this thing is.  it's crazy.  anyway, more thoughts on it later.  right now i'm trying to get done working so i can sleep.

here's some pictures of campus i just took whilst taking a break from work:















sorry i always walk while taking pictures, which makes them all wonky and crooked. 

when the first play of the game was a Niner interception by Jason Webster, it seemed like the Cardinals were going to get steamrolled into the turf of their own stadium.  when it was 14-0 Niners six minutes into the game, it was looking inevitable.  then, suddenly, the Cardinals scored a touchdown from 60 yards out, and just as suddenly the Niners' offense completely collapsed.  by halftime, it was 21-17 in favor of the Cardinals. 

fortunately, the Cardinals, who had 200 yards in the first half, were completely stymied by the Niners' defense in the second, gaining barely 50 yards in 30 minutes.  the Niners, propelled by 2 Stewart field goals and a touchdown, including a final field goal with 2 minutes left to put them up by nine, stayed on top to win 30-21. 

Webster starts off with a pick:


a few plays later, Bowes scrambles in vain for a fumble (later ruled not a fumble):


prewett celebrates a touchdown with a manly belly-bump:


McCormack throws into quintuple coverage (yes, thank god, it was incomplete):


ernie gets blocked out of the endzone, setting up a fourth down field goal:

i hope to god someone got my obscure-as-balls reference to beverly cleary's "ramona" books.

so, today is my first day of not spending 8-12 hours at work for the first time in 13 days.  it was scary at first, but i'm adjusting. 

i was going to write some new stuff this weekend again, but word on the UPS street is that my new amp is already in pullman and ready to be picked up Monday.  so, what that means is i really need to start thinking about this EP and how things are going to go with that.  i also found out that i in fact have access to a piano, a cheap bass, and a set of bells for which my bro is sending me mallets.  so i've got to start thinking about how i'm going to work all that into the new LP, which for the moment i'm calling Ricochet based on the fact that that's pretty much how i've felt for the last four months while i was writing these songs.  it think it's fitting.

anyway, i want to at least have bass, bells, piano, acoustic and electric guitars and vocals on this new record, and depending on how things go, i may have a few people record some percussion and post-produce it in.  i'm really excited about it, but it's going to be a LOT of work.  and it's cutting into my free time that i was using to write this new novella, which is also sort of cool...it starts out semi-autobiographically, focusing on the end of a relationship and goes from there through a series of flashbacks that sort of set up the narrator's last five years of life, before going into a road trip story that's sort of an amalgam of the last 8 or 9 times i drove across the US.  fun stuff, and much more fun to write than dragons or space aliens.  a nice change.

anyway, i passed on writing new stuff today, on account of the reasons i mentioned earlier, and instead have been working on learning pentatonic, blues, minor, and (just for fun) myxolydian scales all day.  as a result, my fingers feel like someone tried to pull them off one by one, but the scale stuff is really more straightforward than i'd originally thought.  once i can sort of "hear" the scale in my head, i just have to know what key i'm in, and i'm off.  fun. 

so anyway, the record is going to be a full-on "band" sound, i think.  i'm even doing my own harmonies in a few songs (though i know a few excellent vocalists, female and male, that i might request do the harmonies on the actual record).  i've abandoned the idea i was using for Ride...essentially to have an 80 minute record with segues between the songs that just sort of wanders on forever until you get to the end.  instead, i'm going to shoot for another 50-minute record with a lot more sounds to it, that's just 10 to 12 songs of layered, precise material. 

the EP, which is just going to be called California now, is going to be the jamz.  it's basically reworkings of a bunch of songs off the first record, only recorded using three guitars, louder vocals, and stereo recording.  that's what i'm going to tackle first once i get this amp, and while it might have a little bells, piano, bass, etc. on it, it should just mostly be guitars and me yelling shit.  it's hard to not yell when you're singing over three layered guitars.  here's the tracklist that i'm thinking of right now:

1. Sunshine (with feedback intro)
2. Dreamed I Was God
3. Palace >
4. Caroline (short version) >
5. Enemy (with feedback outro) >
6. Not California
7. Love Song In D (acoustic demo version)

i'm including Love Song in D at the end because i have a demo version from last year that i recorded using andrea's guitar while i was recording Not California that i left off that album at the very last second and want to put it on here, but everything else on this EP will be all-electric (read: no harmonica).  i've also written new musical parts for pretty much every song on the list except for Caroline, so i'm expecting this thing to clock in at around 40 minutes or so, despite the 7 tracks.  it should be something different...whether it's going to be good or not, who knows?  i'm just excited to do some rocking.

it's also looking like i'm going to have a show coming up on either December 28th or 29th in Kent, OH.  more details on that later, though.

enough music stuff.  work is going alright.  getting a little bit back into the groove now that i'm just teaching writing and not trying to be cute about it.  i'm trying to narrow down grad school possibilities right now so that i can get those applications started.  when i get the list down to 6 or 7, i'll pass it along. 

don't have much in mind for the rest of the weekend, just working on some of the old songs, figuring out some scales and guitar parts.  this is the last weekend i'm going to be able to do music stuff for awhile anyway...i've got next weekend "off" from work, but sarah's coming to visit and i don't think she'd appreciate sitting around listening to scales all day...then after that shit gets serious academically for a few weekends :)

by the way, if anyone wants to read what i've written on this novella so far, email me and let me know.  i'd love to get opinions/feedback.

getting back into Phish a lot lately.  the Cardinals are ripping it up on the road, but the guy who usually tapes the SBDs is on tour with them and so none of the new shows have really been popping up yet.  i went to the house of a guy that i work with a few nights ago and he's a huge Phish fan...so it sort of got me back into the sound.  they're one of those bands that sort of go in phases for me.  when i haven't heard them in awhile, i get to rediscover how brilliant they are.  but when i've been listening a lot, it all starts to sound the same.  go figure. 
so here's the question that i wanted to ask when i started off the post: why are girls that smoke so hot?  (don't make a pun about being on fire, or i'll virtually kill you.  you know who you are.)  i mean, smoking is obviously terrible for you, makes you smell bad, look bad, gives you lung cancer, makes it hard to breathe and thus be active, and does all sorts of horrible other things.  but for some fucked-up reason, people who smoke are often more attractive than people who don't.  this aggravates me because i don't understand it.  and i want it to stop.  i'm still averaging 1-2 cigarettes a week, so i don't think that's blurring my judgment.  maybe 50s advertising is reaching across time and warping my preconceptions.



oh, and if i didn't post this already, this is similar to the picture i'm going to use for any promo posters i run off for the gigs here in WA for next spring:


oh, and here's a picture of the new and improved batcave:


i might go play some madden.  if so, expect screenshot action soon.

keep it realz.

so i might not really dig radiohead.  i've always suspected that this is just because i don't "get" them and someday, as is often the way with great bands (and like Phish, Ryan Adams, Wilco, and many other more opaque bands in the past) someday it will hit me like a train hits a blind guy (sorry) and i'll be a huge fan.  i'm actually suspecting i'll either cave to radiohead or elvis costello next.  hey, in a month when i've become a huge modest mouse fan, anything's possible. 

but anyway, all that aside...radiohead charging NOTHING for their new album?  well that's not entirely true...you have to pay something like a penny at least, but you get to enter your own price on their website when you order.  this is interesting.  my always-cynical nature demands that they're just doing this to draw attention to themselves (and i'm propogating this agenda by blogging myself, of course), but whatever their motivations are, the music industry in general will be, i think, very very drastically different in a week than it is right now, at least ideologically.  this isn't like some indie band being cute, this is fucking radiohead.  essentially offering to give an album away for free, but also leaving open the possibility that their fans can pay lots and lots of money. 

i'm really freaking excited about this, and really amused at the thought of what record companies are likely thinking at the moment, but i just taught two classes on two hours of sleep and so i'll let Bob Lefsetz say it for me:

"This is what happens when you sell twenty dollar CDs with one good track and sue your customers for [file-sharing]. This is what happens when you believe you’re ENTITLED to your business. This is what happens when music is a second-class citizen only interested in the bottom line."  (from today's NYT)

what's even greater about this is that radiohead is releasing the album really soon, only a few days after formally announcing that there was a new album at all, effectively squashing the chance that promo cds and the like will be leaked on the internet because there AREN'T any promo cds.  and i'm sure the lack of media buzz surrounding the typical new release that they're missing out on is being offset by the amount of headlines flying around about this pricing thing; so they essentially haven't lost much of anything. 

can't wait to see how this turns out.        

"sky blue sky" is the best album EVAR.

yeah, yeah, i know.  leave me alone.