First off, congrats to Par-t-com for their (unofficial, but whatever) sweep of Shootout. Claiming this year with the "mockumentary" genre, the winning film can be seen here: http://www.par-t-com.net/rough_road.mov
Awesome work fellas!


In an hour or so I will be headed off to Columbus for what could very well be one of the greatest live experiences. That's right kids, Sigur Ros is playing at Promowest (ok sorry.. "Lifestyle Pavillion", wtf?). I just we can get there soon enough to grab a chair, this is certainly a sitdown and absorb show.


We've started a band, mostly due to Jim's daydreaming. I'll recount that later... in a 3 hour documentary possibly.

After about 5 hours in the studio last night I finally came up with about 2 and a half minutes of stuff I thought sounded decent enough to pass on over to MA for Phantas. It premieres tonight at 9:30 in Mitchell Auditorium (the art building) alongside Nothing Man (par-t-com), which has some wonderful audio mixing courtesy of Sir James Cartwright and a cool soundtrack a'la Kyle Hartzel. Check those out if you happen to read this within the next hour!

Thanks go out to Mark Adam for asking me to contribute some music to his film and to Jim for fielding my numerous recording questions at 2am. I look forward to doing more of this crap in the future!

Sometimes you fling poop, sometimes it is flung at you!
What do you do in that situation? Do you throw it back? Do you hold on to it for a while and wait for the perfect opportunity? That's kind of gross. Or you could go with that approach, maybe just eat it right there, gross them the fuck out. But then you'd have nothing to throw. Would it matter?
I think the best bet is to just pretend as though you like the poop, you understand why it's there and acknowledge its presence as just another unchangeable entity.
Sit with the poop long enough and you just might convince yourself.

Mark Adam said "listening to Rilo Kiley makes me wish I had a girlfriend". I listen to Mirah because I can't listen to Rilo Kiley. I think I thought I knew where I was going with that but I guess I didn't. That's irony right there, folks.

I'm old enough to buy wine for my lunch which is nice, although I think I need to work on the amount that should go with said lunch.

The title says it all, I think. I need to practice singing again and water my cactus and also make soup. Not necessarily in that order.

This update is pretty honest, but I'm in that mode at the moment. I would say I'm not going to post it, but I am... I'm not that pretentious. I could say I just wrote it for myself but I'd be lying, and I like doing things for myself but I'd rather do something for someone else.

Thanks.

Sometimes people ask me "what do you like?" in reference to music. I always draw a blank at this point, I never have any idea what to say. For some reason I can't think of anything so I try to conjure up my stack of ticket stubs and attempt to read them off from my head. This usually works.
Other times people ask me for my Top 5 albums. Of all time? What does that mean/matter?

Well anyway, here are my Top 7 albums of all time, I suppose. There are seven because I have seven. Five feels like I'm cutting some, this isn't a contest, and 10 feels like I'm struggling to think of more. Thus, it is a Top 7. I'm putting this here so A) I don't have to answer this question anymore, and B) so now I can just remember this post and list them off immediately if asked.

A word of warning.. this is not an objective list, these albums are the ones that I just plain enjoy the most. Either out of nostalgia or personal reasons, not because they were made poignant political statements or changed the world or whatever. I like them.


1:: OK Computer - Radiohead

2:: Origin of Symmetry - Muse

3:: Rockin' the Suburbs - Ben Folds

4:: Lifted - Bright Eyes

5:: Some Cities - Doves

6:: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

7:: Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol



They aren't really in any particular order. Things like The Beatles and Dylan are good, but they're like my wheat bread. They are good to listen to but I just don't listen to them all the time. All of these albums I can and have left on repeat for an entire day.

I hope you're having a good year.

I felt like writing in here again, so I shall!

I went in to the art building today to fill out my work-study stuff but some man with an earring (on the gay side) told me to come back tomorrow. This is neat because it means I may have something to do during the day, you know since I don't have class till at least 3pm every day. A job filing papers for the art dept. would be swell, to say the least.

The fact that I have a schedule directly opposing my roommates and also that I don't live in dorms anymore means more noise-making time for me. I was somehow able to fit most of my instruments and whatnot in my room (which has a great view of the kitchen table outside my northern window). I've been making songs like mad, all the parts too... I just don't have anyone to play them! I lack recording equipment for the most part and so I'm stuck with my loopstation and my memory for figuring everything out. I don't have a drum-set in here either so keyboards fill that role (albeit embarrassingly).

I bought a cactus, it was the nice one with the flower on it, Trevor got the asshole cactus. The pot might be too small but so was my dorm room last year so I'm not getting a bigger pot for at least 9 months. Shared experiences bring people together.

Still looking for a place to live for next year. Odds are it'll be somewhere on East Stimson near Elliot street (I wanted to live across from 3 Elliot Studio but some clowns yoinked that place right quick). It will probably be just Trevor and I but who knows, I may just live out of my car instead.

In other news I'm not sure what to do about Halloween either. The two best ideas we've come up with are to be either characters from Megaman or Team Zissou. The latter sounds easier but after some searching on the internet I can not find anything which resembles the uniform for the life of me. Do people just not make powder-blue bowling shirts with white stripes on them? Even the outfits that came close were $30-40 for the shirt alone. Blah.
If anyone wants to join in on either of these ideas (i.e. you've always had a strong inclination to be Wood Man or want to wear a red hat for an entire night) let me know. Also, if you think you might know where to obtain a Zissou-like getup, likewise get ahold of me.


Hearts Stars and Horse-shoes,
Stephen L Clark

I went to see the Killers with Hot Hot Heat last friday.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much, and it turned out to be a somewhat humorous show.

The openers, Hot Hot Heat, were good, if not slightly awkward to watch. Let me provide a little background. When I was a junior in high school, my friend Seano was always a step or two ahead of the game when it came to music. By the time we decided we liked what he was listening to, he had moved on to something else even more obscure (nowadays he's all about indian music and atonal Schoenberg stuff). I used to go over to his place after school and he'd start dragging songs off his playlists and make a bunch of cds and just hand them to me. I listened to it all, often times having no idea who played what song. It consisted of things like Pedro the Lion, Kind of like Spitting, Desparaceidos, Spoon, Trail of Dead, Hot Hot Heat, John Vanderslice, Dismemberment Plan, Commander Venus, etc etc. Now, I don't mean this is an indie eye-roller sort of way but... how did Hot Hot Heat get where they are now? Call it a trend shift or something, I don't know. But I find it odd that a band who made my friend's "you've probably never heard this but it's good" CD could end up, 4 years later, at a show with guys in pink polos and gelled hair waving their trendy yellow bracelets around. Oh yeah, and the next day at Easton I saw the video for their single playing in American Eagle.

The Killers are damn good players, just watch the drummer, he's a jazz drummer and you can tell. However good they are, they seem to be a victim of their own catchy sound. We were in the very back of the lawn for the show (the best spot by far) and we had a middle school dance next to us. No joke, a bunch of 8th graders were jumping around with little or no rhythm and a few seemed to be drunk for the first time. It was ridiculously annoying, and I came to the conclusion that this crowd was not filled with my type of people. I flew a double thumbs-down when they started playing Mr. Brightside because it is simply a terribly stupid song. I never liked that song, but I liked the Killers, and when I learned that Mr. Brightside was BY the Killers, I was hopelessly confused. Anyway, everyone else cheered like mad because it's a single. The most poignant and ironic moment had to be when I scanned the crowd while they were playing "Indie Rock and Roll", watching all the yuppies and 15 year old girls in short skirts bounce around to a song whose meaning had been completely lost on the audience. It's a good thing there was a dance beat.

To their credit, however, not a single bulb burned out on the giant flashing THE KILLERS sign behind the stage. Kudos.

Sorry to everyone who cares about me updating.
I was on tour with Por La Noche.
And now... bitching!

School is officially a joke now, I am ONE credit hour short of junior status, which screws me out of ALL classes I need to take fall quarter of next year. It also means I am not exempt from the dorms/dining halls next quarter, and I have already signed a lease. A 5 person lease which must already be covered by 4 people since someone bailed on the day we signed. If I have to live in the dorms or eat their fucking trash for one more quarter I am out of here, I can advance my chosen career just as well without school.

I also have to take my loft down and return it a week before I move out. There is not enough space in my itty bitty closet sized room for anything WITHOUT the loft, so I am screwed again.

I am not a happy person, no sir.

I'm not even looking forward to the summer, I will have to find a job after everyone else has picked them over since they've been out of school for a month already.

Someone tell me something good, or buy me a bagel. Or both.

!!Important Announcement!!

My imaginary band, Por La Noche, has just announced plans for their 3rd reunion tour in under 2 years!
This unprecedented event could just be the moment you've been waiting for... to... you know, ask someone to marry you or admit that you are gay or that you just really never liked Family Matters.

At any rate, the boys of Poor Little Nacho are loading up on instruments for this round, including an Inuit choir and full orchestra to flesh out some old tunes as well as bring in some dazzling new sounds. What new sounds, you ask (or don't ask, in a purely one-way print medium)? Well Pure Lame Notch's 15 minute orchestral epic, entitled "Michael Jackson in A Minor" will debut at one or more shows along the tour! A three minute radio edited version renamed "Mike's Soul is Devoured by the Press" is already available on the iTunes Music Store... for 99 cents! It costs 99 cents because it's worth just as much as "Toxic" by Britney Spears and also "World War III Blues" by Bob Dylan.

On this tour Peer Low Nader will be fortunate enough to be preceded, and likely upstaged by, the popular Irish rap trio The Re-Micks. Think Beastie Boys meets Green Day (no pun with the green thing, haha!) meets Damien Rice, this power trio delivers scathing socio-political messages through thick, almost unintelligible Irish accents! The Re-Micks took Europe by storm with their repeated performances of "Clovers and Fuck the Catholics" in front of every religious location they could find... what rebellion! While I've never heard this song and sources say they have never performed any other songs, I assume they kick a (metric) ton of ass and will be the perfect opening gig for Piss Lou Never!


Anyway, buy a bunch of products and stuff, and be sure to watch lots of TV.
Also go see Por La Noche with The Re-Micks coming soon to a theater near you! ! ! !

Yes I am updating.
I stopped for a while because, as I told a few people, when I post all my musings here folks actually read it. When they read it then they know everything and I find I have nothing to say to them. "Oh hey guess what.. oh, you know? Oh right, you read it.. in my... journal, ok then. Well bye."

Actually that conversational quote is bullshit but I suppose it's close.

Quick recap of Spring Break. I drank 24/7 and screwed everyone south of Tennesee. HAHAHAHAHA. Lie.
Ok in truth I went to my Aunt/Uncles and listened to music and also attended a house party in their neighborhood. Their neighborhood is 90% gay so it was quite interesting. I got to hear a great story about how some aging punk-rock revolutionaire made out with Michael Stipe in an East Lansing club at the age of 16. The chap was actually pretty interesting and had some neat thoughts on pop culture and the rap wave. That's a teaser. If you want to hear more you have to ask me in person.

Also, Lina (her super cool indie rock star name) Facebooked me and probably rolled her eyes soon thereafter or maybe even before. Nuff said. Ask me about that too.

My classes are lax this quarter. TCOM202 is basically "Liberal Whining/Info 202", Anthropology might be a bit of work, and Pbio is hilarious. Today I woke up at 9am for a 1 hour informercial on products made from or related to the Pawpaw fruit.
Fucking grand.

That's it, the abridged version.
Here are the past 3 weeks' songs, with brief reasoning. Just take my word for it and check em out.


Song(s) of the Week(s)

March 27 - April 2
Title: Rejazz
Artist: Regina Spektor
Album: 11:11

Regina owns. People harping about her Soviet Kitsch album and how much it sounds like Bjork can go sit on a screwdriver. Yes she sounds like Bjork on that album but go listen to 11:11. Absolutely amazing vocal talent and with such minimal accompaniment it shines all the more. Fiona Amos DiFranco go eat your bleeding feminist heart out.
In Soviet Russia, album listens to YOU!


March 3 - 9
Title: Vancouver
Artist: Jeff Buckley
Album: Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk

The timing on this song is really cool, the melody is pretty, and Jeff Buckley sings. What more do you want? It's too bad he drowned, because this song and album as a whole present us with what could have been, if only people were able to breathe underwater. Buckley, if I ever wore a hat I would tip it to you.


March 10 - 16
Title: E-Pro
Artist: Beck
Album: Guero

It's not a cop-out to suggest a single from an album. This song is sweet, indeed Beck is sweet. If for some reason you didn't know, Guero ("whero" for you Americans) is slang for "white guy". Thank god Beck teamed up with the Dust Bros. again, there was no way he could leave us hanging with Odelay. I love all of Beck's albums, and you should too!
Get jammin'.

So far I've rocked 4 of my 5 exams, and I don't forsee Folk Music being too grueling. You never know though... that Uncle Milty, he's a tricky one.
I'll be done by 9am tomorrow morning but I don't leave till late Friday afternoon... how grand! Oh well, that leaves St. Pattie's day open though so that's nice.
Last weekend I played some tunes with Routson and Geroski at a "we're drunk and old so watch us dance" party and I made 40 bucks. I also missed Brendan and Pat's formal wear birthday party... for which I have been reminded by numerous people many times and so thank you for that you heartless bastards.

My brother wants to be a drummer.




Song of the Week March 13-19

Title: Hands Away
Artist: Interpol
Album: Turn on the Bright Lights

Well I must confess I wasn't a fan of Interpol until I forced myself to listen to Antics and Bright Lights all the way through over and over for the past 3 days. This is a good trick, you should try it, although maybe not with Aqua or ABBA or... (will he say it??)... 311 ...(omg omg he said it!!). I still maintain that Cathedrals are better simply because I prefer the vocals over Interpol's droning, but now I see how it sort of fits in a weird way. This song I picked out in particular because it's just gorgeous with all the sparkly melodies and strings and little guitar notes and stuff. I also watched some Interpol videos again after deciding that I liked them and I will say that after seeing Slow Hands repeatedly I could only hope to be that cool. I mean look at them, they're not even TRYING, come ONNNNN, whoa.

I took another one of Tim and Rachel's online quizzes because I think they are fun. I like that kind of stuff, and Facebook, and astrology, because they are interesting. Some people roll their eyes or huff at those things like they're above it and I'm being influenced by the trite masses, or something. But I roll my eyes and huff right back because so are they. My favorite part of the old Ninja Turtles toys was always the back of the box with the little profiles detailing Rat King or Shredder's favorite color/food/sexual position, or political affiliation or whatever... you get the point. ANYWAY this turned into a cynical rant real fast, just like everything I write, but here is my god damn quiz. By the way this is from the internet and therefore 100% true and you should use it to make all of your decisions about me. Like say if you were going to spontaneously buy me a hamburger you would know exactly what to put on it after reading this quiz. Here goes:


You are a RSIG--Reserved Sentimental Intellectual Giver. This makes you a People-Pleaser.

Oh, RSIG! You are the most complicated and dynamic of any type. You are brilliant, tender, romantic and a joy to be with. You're the favorite of many of your friends. It's just not a party until you get there. You are bursting with feeling and sentiment and insight but you very rarely express it -- it's not how you want to present yourself to the world. Although you are always studying your non-romantic relationships -- you turn a blind eye to romantic relationships.

You're highly adaptable, and you conform to your circumstances (maybe you're a youngest child?). You would probably be content with almost anyone, and almost anyone would be blissfully happy to have you. But just because you're content doesn't mean you're happy. Don't settle!

You'd rather ignore your problems than rock the boat by creating conflict. Please understand that in the long run ignoring conflict will make you unhappy and your partner exhausted. Try picking a fight just to see how it goes. You'll find out that solving problems is so satisfying for you that it makes conflict worth it.

Your sex life could be fantastic if you could stop worrying about everything so much (did I wash my hands? how do I look? what do I need to do tomorrow?). You need a sweet, expressive lover who makes you feel at ease and never puts pressure on you. If you feel secure with your partner outside the bedroom, it will make all the difference.

You cry at movies. A lot.

Of the 206599 people who have taken this quiz, 5.6 % are this type.






If you'd like to be pigeon-holed into 4 capital letters, click this absurd looking string of letters and symbols: http://hokev.brinkster.net/quiz/default.asp

It's fun to read I swear.

This past week I've been trying to avoid all the sick people because I hate being ill more than anything.
On Saturday I did attend OUGA's Smash Bros. tournament held in Morton. We made a ton of money and I went to watch the last half of the matches and holy shit, I never knew you could get so good at that game. I hope someday I can participate in the creation of something that people can get ridiculously good at doing, it's like inventing a sport, you have changed people's lives.
Mandi drove down on sunday evening and we went over to Sarah's as Trevor got back in town and we all watched Garden State then went to Donkey. The movie is ok, I guess, it has some really funny clever parts but I don't like the Shins plug at all, it just screams cheese. Playing a song is good enough, you don't need a really out-of-place name drop and 20 second sample of the song while you stare at some dude in headphones.
I suggested Trevor name his new puppies Pete and Pete. Only one of them survived and he didn't name that one Pete so I conclude that he doesn't like me. Instead he named it Beauregard which is a cool name, it reminds me of the barbarian dudes in 13th Warrior.

I'm glad this quarter is almost over... sort of.



Song of the Week March 6-12

Title: Marvelous Things
Artist: Eisley
Album: Room Noises

I got a sampler cd from Paste magazine (which is a really cool mag) and there were 22 songs on it. Two of them were new Bright Eyes tracks, but the only song that stood out to me was this one by Eisley. I love her voice, it's just nice to listen to and has that irish sound to it, the music itself is really cool as well, my kind of stuff. I read that 4 of the 5 members of the band are family, which must help a ton with the synergy of playing together. Check them out if you haven't already, I guess they toured with Coldplay recently.

Cathedrals played friday night.
Longfellow had their CD release on saturday night.
Par-T-Com was featured in a Cadillac commercial that aired nationally during the Academy Awards.
Trevor will probably do mediocre/good on his next O-chem exam... maybe.

I have come to the conclusion that I know some truly amazing people.
It's nice to have talented friends who rule at life.

That's all.



Song of blah blah blah
:
-- - -. ...

Just go listen to The Faint, that should be enough.

This entry is both early and late.


I signed up for a TCOM focus group earlier this week. This fella was going to ask us questions about how the TCOM school is run, and we were to get a tour of 3 Elliot Studio (a recording joint here) and also 5 bucks for a coffee shop. A number of people signed up, but only Kelly and I showed up for the actual question session. We got the tour (and boy is 3 Elliot awesome)and the bucks, plus we got to spew out all of our poison (and by "poison" I mean "lavish praise") in regards to TCOM classes and staff. We were invited to come back to 3 Elliot anytime to watch a session or shadow him, which is awesome, and Kel is living at 5 Elliot (right next door) next year so... poo on her for being so lucky.

Mr. Eddie Ashworth, being the champ that he is, said he might be able to set us OUGA chaps up with some time in 3 Elliot. Which would be killer, since now we are recording out of Hoyt's bedroom, and have to unplug the fans in his computer to get any decent tracks without that damn hum in the background.

Trevor and I were supposed to sign our lease for Courtyard on Wednesday, they lured us up to their mountain citadel with pizza and 7up. I think we are the only two people who actually READ the lease, it was absolutely ridiculous. It's $685 a month per person, what the hell? Utilities are included, ok. But if we go over $160 we get charged for the overage?? Seriously what kind of plan is this?
Needless to say we got the hell out of there, after eating more than our share of pizza.
This morning we went with Brittany and her friend Eric to look at blueprints for this new place that's being built. It's only $1200 a quarter and looks WAY better. We'll see how this works out. Byebye stupid Courtyard, goodluck suckering in college students with pizza and "oh our utilities are included!" claims, T-bone and I are on to you!


In other news, I just read an article about the dangerous side effects of tuna. Apparently the large amount of mercury contained therein can really fuck you up over a long period of time.
Well, I've been eating tuna salad sandwiches for just about every meal since I've been at school this year.
So if I seem a little off or different recently, it's just because the excessive amounts of mercury in my body are slowly destroying my personality and memory functions.

If black people are supposed to be called "African-American" then what do you call the black dudes born and raised in France? Are they still technically African-Americans, even though they weren't born nor have ever been to either Africa or America? They can't be African-French, simply because only nationalities that end in "an" (i.e. American, German, African) can be used as both an adjective and a noun... with the exception of Japan.
You could say "He's American" or "He's an American" interchangeably. You can't replace "He's French" with "He's a French" and still be socially accepted. Anyway, you never hear African-Frenchman, or African-anything for that matter, only African-American.
So does it mean that a black person's "official" moniker it supposed to be a chronology of where their ancestors lived? Originally from Africa, and brought to America... ok so African-American makes sense. But after a few generations of living in France does that particular group suddenly evolve into African-American-French??
Will they be allowed to ride busses with African-American-Germans?
Will they steal bus seats from the African-American-Africans who went back home?
What kind of music will they make?
Will the African-American-French purists hate the African-American-French-Spaniards for leaving during the great African-American-French Sticky Bun Shortage of 2050?
Why are Africans the only nationality with officially hyphenated names?
Are they on file?
Why does Whoopi Goldberg insist on being called just plain American?

I find it's much easier not to bring nationality or historical habitat into light when I'm trying to point someone out or describe someone. It's much easier to just say "that black fella".



Song of the Week Feb 6-12

Title: Soft Pyramids
Artist: Q and not U
Album: Different Damage

I was a little skeptical about this tune when it opened with a meek voice spelling "soft pyramids evaporate". As soon as the drums kicked in though I knew I shouldn't have judged. It's just a fuckin groovy song from start to finish, and I like how it constantly changes around. The chacha-ish section gets me every time. "Select a color for your checklist"? "Commas in your checklist"? What?? Awesome!
There's never really more than 3 instrumental lines going at a time, and the sparse melodic effect makes the drums seem more powerful, which I like.
You can download this song from me even.
On AIM (sn: NoAbreSusOjos) just right click my name and go to Get File, find them in my music folder, and check out a song or two!

Well I don't feel like writing anything really.
I'm gonna eat Ramen in a second here.
Stay tuned for the next entry at which time I shall explain what ghosts are.
Now here's a song!


Song of the Week Jan 23 - 29

Title: Sexx Laws
Artist: Beck
Album: Midnite Vultures

After listening to a week and a half straight of Bright Eyes and even going to the concert, it was bound to happen. You know. This little voice in my head said to me, "Brotha man, you had best biggidy-Beck yo'self before you riggidy-wreck yo'self". And so I did. Ohh this is a glorious song of songs, and if you're suffering from an overdose of Conor Oberst, don't pump your stomach, just take some Beck and you'll be sailin, man, saaaaiilllin.
In related news, the way he sings "I'm a full grown man, but I'm not afraid to cry" is priceless. Woo, everybody dance!





WARNING: Be sure to take the recommended amount of "Beck", in "Midnite Vulture" form, two (2) to fifteen (15) times daily as directed. Use of "Beck" in "Sea Change" form could dramatically lower your resistance to romantic rejection, the concept of death, and slow acoustic guitar riffs. Please use "Beck" responsibly.

So I went to see Bright Eyes the other night.
Wow.
What a wonderful show.
Tilly and the Wall opened first, and they were slightly more tolerable than last time I saw them (also opening for Bright Eyes). They played a shorter set, thankfully, and seemed a bit more solid, but I'd never call myself a fan. Cocorosie on the other hand was quite possibly the most enigmatic band I've seen. They showed a sort of slideshow of hand drawn pictures of unicorns crying and/or raping zebras as they played on a mostly dark stage. You had these two women, one played guitar and keyboards, the other used all sorts of noise makers and tape recorders etc. to add interesting sounds. Both of them sang in these beautiful granny voices and alternated high wispy harmonies. The third person in the trio was a black fellow who beatboxed for most of the songs. One song he just stood up, started tap dancing, then jumped into the pit rapping in French. What the hell.
Obviously this was too artistic for some Bright Eyes fans and those sitting behind us decided to laugh throughout and tell people "don't stand up, it wasn't good" when they were finished. Kelly responded with a hearty "just shut the fuck up!", and they did. We left to look at shirts and checked her coat for pee and spit when we came back, but I guess they weren't too bitter.

When Conor took the stage though, everyone became friends again. He played every song off his new folk album EXCEPT for "First Day of My Life", which is the song of the week. No worries though, he threw in plenty more gems, including Method Acting. The show was TONS better than last time I saw him, and not just because Newport was being an asshole (yes, Newport is an entity capable of acting as an asshole, shut up), but he just seemed more excited and enthusiastic about his playing. He played an amazing song I assume is called "When the President Talks to God" which was lyrically fantastic, and regardless of your political alignment or whatever you had to hand it to him. He closed his first set with "Landlocked Blues" and I about cried, it was awesome. Most people were saying they thought it was too short but I thought it was perfect, I don't like it when they drag it out. Overall the show was a magical experience from start to finish (the part where we buy a gallon of water and rock out on the drive home). I really felt like I had witnessed history or something, like I could tell my kids about this someday. Our generation truly has its own Dylan, his name is Conor Oberst.


As a bonus I got to see plenty of hipsters and damn, were there hipsters. I've always wondered if they look like that all the time (which would be acceptable, almost commendable, but extremely tedious for them I imagine), or if they just do it for shows (which seems ridiculous, even embarrassing). You only ever see these people at concerts... where do they live? What do they do? Who knows!

Well this was a neat little 3 day weekend here.
It was Dad's Weekend so naturally my mom came down to visit, we went out to lunch, bought OU crap, and got supplies for my future endeavors in the crafting of many peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.
Fish and Mike also made the trip down on Saturday, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
On Friday I got sick.
Ok now that I'm no longer ahead of myself, we kicked it at Gam for a bit on Saturday. The chaps decided that icecream was a good idea (uhhh..) so we went up to Coldstone to layer coffee flavored ice cream on top of their SoCo. We stopped off at Lammers' to top off the liquor/icecream/beer sandwich in their stomachs. Our final destination for the evening was the Phi Slamma Jamma house (indeed, the final destination for all good evenings). I was finally initiated into OU's premiere faux-ternity, and seriously with a motto like "To befriend our fauxs, contend our foes, and to always put the ball in the hole", who wouldn't want to join? According to Big C, it's "all about intent".
Sunday night was a bit more low key... I guess. Mike destroyed himself on bourbon and played computer games with very audible progress reports such as "FUCK I DIED FUCK" and "HAHA THAT GUY JUST GOT HIS FACE SHOT fuck hey pass me the coke HAHAHA". The rest of us just sort of rolled our eyes in awe and went about our merry Adult Swim watching business.
I finally got some pictures developed, which is good since I started the roll in September.
I'm eating a PB&J sandwich right now. Damn is it sweet.


Song of the Week Jan 16 - 22

Title: First Day Of My Life
Artist: Bright Eyes
Album: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Believe it or not, this was a very hard decision. I like this album a lot and I was hard pressed to just choose one song but here it is. I know I know, these albums aren't officially out yet but shit, I'm going to see the guy on Wednesday so I figured I'd give his new stuff a listen, legal or not. Every single line on this album is quotable, as most Bright Eyes tracks are. This tune in particular has a neat little bum bum bum melody to it that just soothes the soul (oh yes, I said it). If you want to hear REAL country music then I suggest you check out the album of the year, it's called "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning".

You might think my classes are a joke but they are in fact very serious!
I learn things ok!

I have two Tcom classes, Media in Culture and Intro to Audio.
The first one so far is exactly like all the other tcom classes I've taken and the only redeeming feature is that Kelly is in the class with me and keeps me amused by drawing on herself and making weird sounds with her knee.
Intro to Audio on the other hand should actually prove to be a sweet class, and for our first project we have to "record some sounds". Right on. I actually need to "record some sounds" for OUGA as well this week so it ties in nicely.
Moving right along, I have my Film class. This is interesting because the Prof is all about big budget Hollywood movies and why they "work" or "don't work". This makes for a very marketing oriented lecture which is all fine and dandy except the little group sections that meet on Friday are led by the free-form hippy think-tank filmmaker TAs who want to discuss indie flicks and why Sundance sucks now and basically everything completely opposite of what the Prof says in class. I have a movie critique due on friday and I don't know who to gear it toward, nor do I really know how to critique a film.
My last two classes are History of Folk Music and History of Rock Music. Easily my two most colorful Profs (and I don't mean skin even though Milton is black HEHEHE). My Rock teacher is a ridiculously good pianist and he plays a lot in class and I really can't say much else since it only meets once a week. The Folk class is hilarious because I feel like I'm going to church. It's always an adventure, "I wonder what kind of soulful sermon Uncle Milty will serve up today!". Whenever anyone says ANYTHING he'll immediately tell them when they are wrong but not in a cruel smack-down sort of way, but in this thoughtful "here it is" manner that makes everyone just agree and move on enlightened... or something. It's like Jesus channeled through Chef from South Park, and he teaches folk music. I throw my arms up and say HALLELUJAH at least 3 times per class.

I quickly became ill after the first day here and I figured it was because of the lack of airflow in my room and indeed this whole building. There's the AC jammed in my one window so I can't open it. I fixed the stagnant air problem in my room by switching it to "Fan Only" and opening the vent. I actually stopped being sick about 2 hours after I did this, which was amazing.

This quarter is looking up thus far and it had better deliver or... I'll just have to remind myself what a shitty time Trevor is having with his hardass classes.
Also in about 10 years, if he doesn't die/drop-out, he might have to loan me some money.



Song of the Week Jan 9-15

Title: Sunburn
Artist: Muse
Album: Showbiz

A cool piano part (which is real fun to play, by the way) to this one. Check out the guitar arpeggios over the main piano riff right after the first chorus.. fucking cool. I love Muse's use of classical chord progressions and styles, even the singing is operatic at times. The singer Matt Bellamy has been compared to Thom Yorke a lot, and I guess you can see the similarities there, but he tends to lean toward the bastard child of Jeff Buckley and Conor Oberst in my opinion... some songs just have that scream, you know? Anyway enough of my snooty comparisons, I hate it when people do that, haha. If you didn't listen to these chaps last time they had a Song of the Week, do so now. I actually have all their songs in mp3 format (most of my tunes are untransferable wma format) and so if you want this one or any other let me know and I can send it to you! Rock on.