Posts Tagged ‘Scene’

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Update

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2003

What a day! I woke up at quarter till nine — too early — and went to Astronomy. It was okay, but I need to get another book for the course. I thought I had some free time, so I went grocery shopping at the Country Store. Here’s my list:

  • 2 cartons of milk
  • A can of Pringles (regular)
  • Easy Cheese
  • Some cereal
  • Some water
  • a box of Pop Tarts

The cereal pissed me off because it’s only available in single-serving thingies, not boxes.

Anyway, I got back to the room and checked my schedule, but I found out I had a class then! It seems that The Bear, which hadn’t been working before Astronomy, decided to single me, yes me, out and screw me over! So I missed my first Poetry Writing class. :-( Speaking of which, I wrote several today.

John and I tried to meet Brooke at the Food Zoo for lunch, but it was closed for the “Welcome to UM” mixer. Brooke didn’t show up, so we went to the UC food court. I had a veggie calzone. Verrrrrry good. John was happy because the seasoning was quite varied and he could salt his fries just the way he wanted.

I went to my room and Charlie from the Flying Men of Zimbabwe stopped by to get the CD I’d recorded of them back in December. We shot the breeze for a while, then I napped.

John, Aaron, Brooke and I went to the UC for the mixer. They had these icky taco-like beach things for dinner, which none of us particularly liked. And the dessert, which was usually top-notch, was Starburst! It was a disappointing culinary experience. After dinner we went to watch a little bit of Ocean’s Eleven, then watched a reggae band. It was okay, but reggae is not the best dancing music in the world. And I was kind of feeling down at this point, so I left. John wasn’t distraught, though, because he was teaching a chick — Tara (I remember her name when John couldn’t. He owes me big) — to swing dance.

I went to Knowles — Brooke’s room specifically — and met her roommate. From Brooke’s descriptions I was expecting a neurotic neat freak, but she was pretty nice. We had cheesecake (Aaron and John found their way to Brooke’s room) and then I returned here.

Oh, yeah. While Aaron, Brooke and I were going to Knowles to get my cheesecake there was disturbance that required the dreaded Public Safety to be called. Some kids got noise complaints but refused to comply. They were belligerent and it laters turns out drunk. We were coming back to Brooke’s room when two officers led one of the kids out in handcuffs. He was trashed and yelling ethnic slurs at one of the pseudo-cops, who happened to be black. That was a shitty way to end the day. I hope he has fun in detention sobering up.

That’s it. I’ve got Applied Literary Criticism tomorrow morning at 10:00, so I should get going to bed.

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Like Mom & Dad

Monday, September 1st, 2003

I finally figured out what’s been happening to my parents these last few years. It hit me on Friday. I was playing at the KidsFirst Poetry Slam™. The plan ran thusly: first I would play a solo acoustic set, then guitar with Chris, Tim and Shawn, then I would play with the Flying Men of Zimbabwe. I tried to tell my dad this.

“So just one band is playing?”

“No, three bands, and I’m in all of them.”

“So you and the Zimbabweans are playing together, right?”

Then my mom cut in. “No, there are three different bands, and he’s playing in each of them.”

It was at this moment, when my mom explained what I was saying to my dad, that I realized my parent’s metamorphosis. They’re turning into my grandparents. It started happening so slowly I never noticed. First, my dad’s eyesight started going. Then his hearing. He would mishear things, then my mom would reiterate them. This is what my grandpa and grandma used to do all the time. My grandpa usually couldn’t follow movies without a running explaination from my grandma. It was a typical old person thing: the wife would explain to her not-listening husband.

My parents are doing this more and more often. It’s starting to freak me out. How long until my dad changes his wardrobe to just jumpsuits? How long until he starts slathering mayonnaise on everything, including cereal? How long until my mom starts clipping every coupon in the paper?

It’s awful, because they are slowly losing their ability to function as normal adults. Granted, the change will take years, but it’s happening. My parents are becoming my grandparents. And you know the scary thing?

That means I’m becoming like my parents.

Creepy.

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FMZ Show

Monday, August 25th, 2003

TWO TOWERS COMES OUT TOMORROW!!!! WOOO-HOOOOOO!!!

We plan to watch the movie at John’s house sometime this week, then again in rec room at Knowles Hall after we move up to Missoula. Probably a good way to meet fellow geeks. I need to call John to get him to get the ball rolling. He’s a lazy bum. Examples? The 4th of July float down the Bitterroot that nearly ended in several deaths (although, technically, most of the near-death experiences were my fault) and his somewhat unplanned (though fun nonetheless) jaunts up to Missoula this summer.

Current Listening:
Unconditioned: “No Regrets”
Then God, He filled my heart
He gave me hope and a brand new start

I finally listened to the CD I bought from Unconditioned at the show Friday. The music is pretty good, but unfortunately the lyrics are literally preachy. I looked on their website, and almost every track tells me that Jesus Christ is the reason I’m around. Now music should be music, but I don’t like being told the thing in which I should believe. I don’t regret buying the CD (It’s called No Regrets, interestingly enough), but lyrical message tends to mean a lot to me, so…. hmmmm….

I guess my bass was too loud when I played with the Flying Men. They wouldn’t let me play a walking bassline on “Ed Wood Fantasy”, and we skipped “Lilacs and Icecubes”, which is my favorite song because I can cut loose on bass. But we played the new ska song, so it wasn’t all bad. I just wasn’t in a playing mood. After we played John, Aaron and I left early and went to Denny’s. Then, we went to the University Campus and played acoustic guitar back and forth underneath the Skaggs building.

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Update

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2003

I worked Monday. Same guy as before. He’s moving, so we hauled furniture into his U-Haul, then down to a storage unit. NWI is playing at the Poetry Slam on Friday, as well as (maybe) the FMZ. If any of us practice. I’m in the most recent production of Lab Rats, onstage this time — as Watson. Thursday I’m going to see Laurel’s dance thingie. I was gonna bring Maggie, but I just don’t think she’d enjoy it. I’ll take her someplace else this summer — maybe to the play at the playhouse.

I’m finally finishing my pop-punk (real pop-punk, like Queers and Screeching Weasel) record from my band The Suckers. All it needs is backup vocals.

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Update

Monday, June 23rd, 2003

Sorry loyal readers, but I’ve been busy today. I worked 9-5 and five minutes after I got home Shawn called me. We worked on vocals. The station wagon got a flat, so I have to go in to Les Scwab before work and get the damn thing fixed. Oh, boy! I get to be stressed out while the fix my tire, fearing it’ll make me late! So please excuse me, but I need to write a poem for the KidsFirst Poetry Slam before bed. Current listening: REM, “Nightswimming”: “Nightswimming deserves a quiet night. / The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago, / turned around backwards so the windshield shows. / Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.” Peace.

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Update

Sunday, June 22nd, 2003
Hot and Not

Lay’s Chicago Steakhouse Loaded Baked Potato Potato Chips
“Paradise Hotel” on Fox

There’s no better idicator of the health of free enterprise than a business hiring the homeless to advertise for it: Pizza Company Hires Homeless to Advertise. By the way, be doing this weird thing, they also get free coverage from major news sources like CNN and crummy online diaries like this one! What a bunch of friggin’ geniuses.

Last night I watched Big Trouble, the movie based on the novel by the funniest man in America, former Iraqui information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. No, sorry, I mean Dave Barry (who also has a blog). It was quite funny. One of those fast-paced, cram-as-many-jokes-into-an-hour-and-a-half movies. And the hallucinagenic-squirting toad (a great name for a rock band, zing! Dave Barryism) was classic.

I would like to point out the new feature on the blog for Sundays, the icon “Hot and Not.” Every week, I’ll pick something I find so freakin’ awesome that it blows my mind, and something so freakin’ lame it’ll make the Backstreet Boys look cool in comparison. I drew the icons myself, aren’t they pretty?

Well, today I did some work. Paid work. I had a hell of a time finding the place, though. It seems that Mapquest (I am not linking to protest) told me to turn onto Main Street in Hamilton, then left on Ricketts. For those of you familiar with Hamiltonian geography, Ricketts obviously does not go past Main Street; it stops at the graveyard. So I drove around up by Schneeb’s house for close to a friggin’ hour trying to find the damn place. I finally stopped at this bed and breakfast thingie and called the guy. Maybe I should have chosen Mapquest for my “Not” pick of the week.

Current Listening:
Bad Religion: “Change of Ideas”
So many theories, so many prophecies
What we do need is a change of ideas
When we are scared we can hide in our reveries
But what we need is a change of ideas
Change of ideas, change of ideas
What we do need is a change of ideas

Remember the mouse? The dead on that scared my sister half to death? This guy’s daughter, who is about Maggie’s age, found some live mice in their animal food bucket thingie. A mommy mouse and a baby mouse. Maybe the mummified one my sister found was their daddy, huh? Zing!

I have written three songs for the record NWI is supposed to be recording. We might learn one. They are: “I Really Do Have a Girlfriend”, one of those joke songs about a guy who makes up his girlfriend, “Someday”, a song about living in a boring, tiny, dead town, and “United We Stand”, a song about Americans standing together in ignorance. The highlight of that tune is the a capella break that describes the flag as John Ashcroft’s “stained shit rag.” It’s harmonized! I bought a special T-shirt for our next show; it’s so awesome! It’s an American flag, and below it are the words “UNITED WE STAND” in block letters. And it was only $5.99! Imagine that; patriotism can be bought so cheaply. With that digression over, I’d like to finsih by saying that I’ve also written a couple of songs that have lyrics that are too emotional or aren’t fast enough to be punk, so those go on the next solo record, which I will probably record before the end of the summer.

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Update

Thursday, June 12th, 2003
Current Listening:
NOFX: “The Separation of Church and Skate”
When did punk rock become so tame?
These fucking bands all sound the same

Killing the Hare came over to practice; I joined them to jam out on “The Jungle Song” and an acoustic/electric version of “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Then I went up to Lake Como for Brooke’s “Bye Bye in Germany” thingie. She’s going to Germany for a month.. I wish I could leave the country. But I hate foreign people! (joke). They burned her homework. John Springer was up there; I hadn’t seen him since January during our coinciding Winter Breaks. He goes to MSU, not UM, but I forgive him for that.


This is from my “I was gonna write it in the Blog but blew it off” Archive:

5/10/03

The Science Complex is an ominous building. Huge, menacing, it resembles a miniature Death Star perched below Mount Jumbo. When you factor the dark windows (it was 9:00 PM when I visited it) and the strange whirring fans, it became something otherworldly, like some building from a third-rate Sci-Fi Horror movie (like Gremlins II). But I journeyed within despite the acute terror which had accumulated within me. I did, after all, have to get science credits or I would fail the course.


The interior of the building was much more inviting. There was a Coke machine and a couch in the lobby. What sort of maniacal genius would furnish his hellish anteroom so hospitably? It took a while, but I found the room in which the experiment was being conducted. It wasn’t much of an experiment: no electrodes, no test tubes, no monkeys in cages. Just a form and a questionnaire sheet. They weren’t even terrifying questions: “Have you ever believed you could fly?” No, I am not Superman. I finished the questionnaire, exited the building, and left the once terrifying Science Complex behind.

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Update

Monday, May 12th, 2003

I haven’t updated in a while. Oh, well. :-)

It’s finals week. On Friday my first year of college ends. I have to find a job. Kind of hard in Hamilton, MT, unless you enjoy working in food service. 😛

We’ve got a show on Saturday, along with UDA and Horseshoes.

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Update

Wednesday, April 30th, 2003




Oh, this is comforting. Jesus will make sure you never cheat!

First of all, our show isn’t really a show; we only get three songs. Probably the new one, “Hate Bomb”, “MJ Parker”, and “Vinny is a Cretin.” I’m still looking forward to it, but it’s not a show, really.

So it’s time for a rant. Today I saw some rude signs that proclaim that we must be out of the dorms by Friday the 16th. Yes, there are still Finals going on that day. So not only do we have to take whatever finals we have on Friday (I have one), we also have to pack up and check out, all by 5:00 PM! God, can’t this friggin’ university ever cut me a break? Do this NOW or you will get a fee. Don’t breath right on the minute or you will get a fee. Piss off!

So I actually went to the library to do work on a paper. Guess who I saw? My former roommate, Tony. Long time, no see. And just today somebody called the room asking for him. He was a lot friendlier than my current bro. Tonight I’ve been working on drums for Shawn’s and my pop-punk record. It turns out that altering the pitch of the snare drum slightly on each hit makes the durms sound more real. Cool.

Well, it’s ni-night time. Peace.

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Update

Tuesday, April 29th, 2003

Wow, my band has a show this Saturday. I don’t know how it happened. It’s a battle of the bands; I doubt we’ll win. I mean, we’re good, but we’re out of practice and I just don’t have self-confidence! But at least we’ll play.

I finally signed up for some Psych research experiments. Two weeks left in the semester and I sign up for them now. I have to look into getting a dorm room next year and I have to sign up for my classes. I can’t believe we have a show…. WOW.

Oh… and THIS is comforting. Apparently, statistically I’m a woman. Big surprise, huh?



You are definitely a woman!

How do we know? Well, deep down, your gender affects everything about you, from your favorite number to your views on Canada. Many women who took the test think and act just like you, as you can see from the clusters above.

Statistically speaking, you are a chick.

http://www.thespark.com

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