In Progress

I'm in the process of writing a detailed description of my time spent in Boston's underground poker scene.

Poster

After searching for my first silkscreen print poster to purchase, I've decided that this is going to be the first piece in my collection. In order to prevent my poster from taking a beating via the USPS (I would know), I drove out to the Alewife store. June's friend Erin was working there. I met her a couple weeks ago when I woke up in the middle of the night to grab a glass of water and she was sleeping on my couch with a few of her friends spread throughout the living room.

I have two projects in the works that I am working diligently on. A couple of friends have agreed to help me out with one of them. Darrick Lucas, the pride of upstate New Hampshire, and Maryland's own Jeffrey Santos are likely to contribute. Very excited.

Hero

Lately, I've been hustling more so than usual at work in order to finish my mail route early. I know that I'm a little late on this, but, as it turns out, I have an overwhelming addiction to Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, I don't own a game console, leaving me to go to my local Best Buy to play (while being paid by the government.) Over the past two months, I'd say I'm averaging between .7 and .9 visits daily. Some days I go more than once. As most people know, there is a yellow-shirted security associate at each exit of Best Buys. It recently got to the point where I'm embarassed to walk by them. He knows why I'm there, and I know that he knows why I'm there. I sense some animosity between us, but once I shake him, I'm home free. The ole pretend-like-I'm-talking-on-the-phone-to-avoid-the-awkward-greet has recently been added to my arsenal of tricks.

I can put on quite a show with "Mississippi Queen" since I've graduated to expert status. Ask the 2:30 crowd of high school kids that roll up to play.

"And I know it takes a new addiction to keep you from what you're addicted to."

So, I've taken up this.

Austin

If I were to personally draw up a schedule for this year's Austin City Limits Festival, it would look very similar to the 2008 list. Coincidentally, I took 9 days off of work, which overlaps the days of this extravaganza. David Byrne, Iron and Wine, Vampire Weekend, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Jenny Lewis, M. Ward, Beck, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, and Delta Spirit all have scheduled sets, all of whom I listen to on a semi-regular basis.

Aside from the fact that it's a 39 hour drive to Austin, I see no reason for me to let this opportunity pass me by. Because of such short notice, I don't really know of anyone willing to go.

Overall chances of me being in Austin by September 26th: 65%

5 Albums

These are my 5 favorite albums at the moment:

5. Pavement's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"
4. Andrew Bird's "The Mysterious Production of Eggs"
3. Silver Jews' "American Water"
2. Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago"
1. Bedhead's "Transaction de Novo"


I won tickets to a Melissa Ferrick show on the radio. I'd classify her music as "over-the-top folksy feminist activism/angst." Her shows are always entertaining, so I'm quasi-excited. She plays at the Berklee Perfomance Center on Saturday. See you there.

Sarah

This is going to be a long, unstructured rant about happenings of this weekend and my thoughts on the views and political background of Sarah Palin.

Drinking Newcastle Brown Ale and UFO Wheat Ale while listening to Talking Heads' "The Name of This Band is Taking Heads," Weezer's "Blue Album," some boring Arcade Fire album, and Bon Iver's, "For Emma, Forever Ago," with June and Kevin. That's what my Saturday night consisted of. A lot of fun.

I voyaged with my station wagon over to East Cambridge for a party on Eighth Street on Friday night. My roommate's friend Stephanie was having people over, a normal occurance on a weekend. I never go to these parties because there's no one there I particularly like very much with the exception of my roommate, Junith. I invited a bunch of people over in order to cancel out the amount of weird, lame people there. Didn't work. After John finished up waiting tables at Cambridge Common, we filled up a bag full of Bud Light and consumed them on the ride from Cambridge to Somerville. After avoiding police, talking to a dude with knee pads, throwing gang signs (and having gang signs thrown back at us) in traffic, we arrived and there was a dying party filled with scene hardcore kids going on in the apartment downstairs. We spent a good hour drinking and subtly mocking and making fun of them. After that, I think I fell down, got up, and went home.

It blows my mind that a presidential candidate of a major political party can select a vice president for the sole reason of "shaking up a ticket." I partially understand the reasoning behind it:

- Her views aren't as widely known as John McCain's, creating a situation where her views on energy and foreign policy can be molded in a way that can properly fit the part of a conservative VP much easier than if Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty were selected.

- She expresses interest in developing Alaska and other domestic areas for the extraction of natural gases and oil. Rather than spending mind blowing amounts of money for what can only be a temporary solution to the energy crisis, why can't solar, wind, and hyroelectic solutions be further explored? I understand that these solutions are viewed as something that isn't a necessity at this exact point in time, but the more money spent and manpower used to make this a reality, the less time we would need to build 11 mile pipelines for a bandage on a rapidly growing gash in this country.

- Palin opposes a women's right to chose and is against gay rights. Enough said.

I just hope that the American publican can understand that Sarah Palin is an attractive politcal pawn with virtually no prior foreign policy experience. Running a country involves a lot more than adding polar bears to the endagered species list. Maybe in Alaska, thats a priority, but no one is going to base there presidential vote on that (wishful thinking.)

Conservative views are dated.

Gloucester

Gloucester, MA is such a beautiful place. Recently, I've been spending a lot of time there for two reasons:

1. The beaches are beautiful and alchohol consumption isn't properly regulated (at least not at Good Harbor, anyway). Paying $25 to park is a little pricy, but I'll shell it out as long as they don't take my beer away.

2. All through my childhood, I remember classmates talking about the Gloucester quarries. I went there with a slew of hoodlums (Lee Aulson, June Politano, Kevin Darcy, Matt Darcy, Ali Miller, Jim Brophy, Mark from Florida, Pete the EMT, and Barbara from Mississippi) with beer aplenty last weekend (Labor Day). Basically, its a gigantic trail with man made holes filled with fresh water, spread across acres. From what I understand, rocks were taken from the site and sold in the 1950's, leaving these giant, beautiful holes and some pretty sweet views. There are 5, 20, 40, and 70 foot jumps that are safe to jump from. Out of the group I went with, I was the only one to complete the cycle (although I did stand atop the 70 foot for 1 hour+ in order to muster the courage). It was the most liberating experience that I've encountered in a long time.

For anyone interested, I'd like to take 128 to its end for one more jump before the weather no longer permits such an activity.

Razzie's

Today, I woke up with a foggy memory of the night before. After coming home from a long day of hard labor in the sun, I sat on my porch and played guitar while watching the cat run around. An hour of two passed, and I catch word that there is a karaoke night going on without me at a local bar called Razzie's. A handful of Molson pitchers later, I recall yelling along to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" with a couple friends and a bunch of strangers. My friend John, and his friend/co-worker, Ted, were sleeping in my living room as I stumbled toward the shower.

After a long thought about my current employment situation (in the shower), I came to the sad realization that I need to find a less stressful, less life consuming job. At the moment, I work 50+ hour weeks as a letter carrier for the post office. The management is heartless and my fellow employees are empty, unhappy people, for the most part. I can feel my surroundings starting to effect me and it bothers me. A lot of my friends in the resteraunt business tend to seem more lively than I. Maybe its that they get to sleep late or maybe its that they actually enjoy what they do. I need to find something that I'd love to do every day.