Thursday, July 31, 2008

I Must Share... T-Bird And The Breaks

i went to high school with the singer and rhythm guitar player of this band who are making waves down in Austin, Texas. their music is a throwback to the uber-cool sounds of classic R&B/funk. i urge any of you who might be reading this to check them out.

T-Bird And The Breaks website

i only hope that they'll find themselves up north for a homecoming show soon enough.

Brightkite, Twitter, And Endless Road Construction

-i am now a Brightkite user. what is Brightkite? well... suppose you had a thing for me. now, suppose you were borderline psychotic and needed to know exactly where i was at any given moment. Brightkite can help you! essentially when i am out and about i text to this website where i am. it can be specific (for instance, a little while ago i was at the grocery store and told Brightkite exactly where i was down to the street address), it can be general (tomorrow i plan on being in amherst during the day... odds are my Brightkite account will primarily tell people that i am in amherst until i decide to inform it exactly where i will be), or it can be ridiculously vague (the next time i go out of state i intend to only tell Brightkite which state i am in at any given moment). so what's the purpose of this? my circle of friends have this tendency to mass text everyone with the generic 'anything going on tonight?' text. frankly it gets annoying. with Brightkite i can show everyone exactly where i am at. i can upload pictures from my phone to the site to correspond with my location (wanna know exactly who i am hanging out with? i'll upload a pic...). i can also put little notes with my locations explaining things like how long i intend to be there and/or how intoxicated i may be. of course, you could always call me and get all of this information direct from my mouth but where's the fun in that? besides, it integrates with google maps so never again need you call for directions to meet up with me. granted, it is still in private Beta at the moment so there aren't too many people in the area using it but hopefully that will change. if you are interested in it (or need more info) i have a few invites left. drop me an email. if you just want to keep tabs on me or are interested to see what it's like to have a website keeping tabs on you (whenever you see fit) this is my Brightkite profile.

-i often forget that i also have a Twitter account. Twitter is similar to Brightkite but doesn't rely on location based entries. it's rather similar to Facebook or MySpace status updates but primarily sent spur of the moment from my phone. for the month of August, i intend to use my Twitter account to keep tabs on what's on my mind at any given moment. you can follow these updates here.

-why is it that the majority of places i need to get to are hampered by construction and detours? i live approximately 4 miles south of downtown northampton. usually it's a straight shot to get there. since sunday, however, there has been a detour through easthampton. you cannot (unless you work at the tubed products factory) simply travel down route 5. approximately 2 miles north of my apartment, also on route 5, there has been some sort of construction which brings traffic to a standstill every day between 9am and 5pm. it's just plain annoying. yesterday i went to lunch with my friend Kaliis in south hadley and there was construction on the bridge. it wasn't problematic on the way into town but on the way out traffic was backed up the entire length of the bridge to the rotary on south hadley's side. we ended up taking the other bridge (through south hadley falls) into the flats of holyoke but even then had to correct our route as we were driving to avoid the holyoke side rotary as it was completely closed off and would have forced us back into south hadley. this is ridiculous. you would think that they would attempt to time all of these construction projects/detours to make travel easier for people. and you wonder why i tend to spend most of my time at my computer in the sanctity of my apartment.

-i'm off to finish Green Wing. if you have yet to watch any of it, i urge you to. it is a British sitcom about daily life in a hospital with almost no hospital aspects involved. think Sports Night without Aaron Sorkin and with british accents... in a hospital. it's smashingly good.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

How To Best Spend A Wednesday Evening

King Khan and The Shrines are playing at the horse tonight...

The Basement has open mic at which a few of my friends will be playing...

My sister is currently at my parents' house where there is free homecooked food...




and yet, on SurfTheChannel, I have found numerous episodes of Wife Swap which, if you aren't aware, is one of the trashiest reality shows ever...

decisions decisions!

On Podcasts And Curried Goat

-i am currently listening to Ben Gibbard recorded live in May of last year. the best part of it (besides the actual music of course) is that it was delivered directly to my computer at no cost to me courtesy of NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. alongside the aforementioned concert i also have shows by Tom Waits, Devotchka, The Arcade Fire, Rilo Kiley, Gogol Bordello, The Hold Steady, and Stars (as well as a few others). the sound quality is stellar. did i mention it was free? it amazes me what you can find online. not to mention the fact that a few short years ago if you had told me about these things called 'Podcasts' i wouldn't have had the foggiest notion of what you were talking about. ah technology.

-so i spent monday with my friends Emily, DJ, and Sarah Rose standing in a line of approximately 2000 people at Leonard and Broadway for over four hours to audition for the upcoming Spider-Man musical. for about 45 minutes we were positioned in front of a small carribean cafe. the menu looked tantalizing and featured such delicacies as oxtail and curried goat. since moving on from that spot i have been intrigued by the concept of curried goat. i am almost positive that i will find myself trying this dish in the near future. i think i'm going to attempt to write-up an actual recap of the new york trip but for now i will imagine what curried goat might taste like. heck, i can't even imagine what non-curried goat tastes like....

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dreams Made Reality

i had a dream last night. in it i went on a quest to meet more like-minded people without actively seeking them out.

passive-aggressive networking of sorts.

when i woke up i had an idea:

i am taking 25 books from my collection and writing a short note in each with my email address listed at the end. each note will be written in the margins on either page 26, page 57, or page 131. the note will be personalized to the book itself and will instruct the reader to contact me if possible. i doubt anyone will follow through but either way i am dropping these books off at various used bookstores and libraries in the valley throughout the week. if you happen to stumble across one, congratulations!

i am also considering doing a similar thing with mix cds but have yet to determine exactly what i want to do with that idea. i'll keep you posted.

on a different note: it amazes me how courageous people can be. i am a frightened person. i tend to keep to myself as much as i can. i hate opening myself up. i am constantly in a state of vulnerability.

recently i exposed an aspect of myself to somebody and almost immediately regretted it. it took a while but i received a response this morning. were i in their shoes i probably would never have gotten back to me. lo and behold not only did i receive the response i wasn't expecting but it was exactly what i needed to hear. it was cordial. it was humorous. it left no room for misinterpretation. if you are reading this please allow me to thank you again. seriously.

until next time
Things on my mind at approximately one o'clock sunday morning...

-recently i was talking to someone and they had mentioned that they had begun taking photographs. they determined that this would be a new hobby of sorts. i can't for the life remember who i had this conversation with and that bothers me. was it you? wait, i think i remember who it was. either way, i need a new hobby.

-my friend Gauge is in the hospital. it sounds relatively serious. i realize that i will be spending time tomorrow at cooley dick. i hate hospitals. i do, however, truly like Gauge and am willing to put aside my distrust of the medical professions... for one day.

-i am listening to various Modest Mouse bootlegs from the late 90's at the moment. my favorite parts are the adlibbed lyrics that Isaac Brock tends to add to the latter halves of many of my favorite songs. at this exact moment i am trying to discern exactly what he is singing towards the end of 'All Night Diner' from a show in New York City, May 19th 1999.

-tonight i watched the south hadley fireworks from the parking lot of my apartment complex in holyoke. i was not the only person doing this. i sat and talked with a woman who lives in one of the other apartments. i had never met her before as i normally do not associate with the other tenants here. we talked about life in the service industry and the fact that she was getting new teeth. she thought i was 18. i knew she was in her late forties. when she began talking about her lackluster sex life i knew it was time to go back inside. doing so caused me to miss the finale. i hope it was smashing.

-i have re-evaluated my fears in life and have discovered a new one: someday i will die. maybe tomorrow. maybe 50 years from now. my fear doesn't lie in death however. instead it relates to the fact that the majority of the people i know wouldn't find out about my demise in a timely manner. i intend to share the passwords to my social networking sites/blogs/email inboxes/etc with someone who i can trust to pass on the news to the masses. i'd hate to go forgotten.

-i couldn't tell you the last time i ate soup. i kind of want to rectify that soon.

-stumbleupon is the tool of the devil. thankfully, being an atheist, i accept all tools with an open mind.

-i had a baffling dream earlier today but now i can't remember it. that's probably a good thing.

-if you are reading this and we recently discussed the 'need to talk' i urge you to contact me. i am lousy at initiating conversation. if, however, you changed your mind about 'needing to talk' expect an email from me later this week. i don't like loose ends in my life. i also don't like soup. i still kind of want to rectify that soon.

-on a scale of 1 to 10 i deem this version of 'Cowboy Dan' awesome.

-supposedly i walked out on a bar tab on friday night. i had (wrongfully) assumed that the two drinks i had before my little shindig would have found themselves on the bill for the shindig. i will rectify this soon. maybe over a crock of soup.

-i am thinking of setting up a facebook event for lunch in august and seeing how many people i can coerce to share a meal with me. i am thinking indian food. i might be down for some chinese. it won't happen until august regardless... keep your eyes peeled.

-the time is now one o'clock. i think i am done here for now.

-if you made it this far i owe you a hug. remind me of this the next time i see you.