Used accumulated credit to "buy" the follow cds today:

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come (I had a tape copy)
Nada Surf - Let Go
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Pete Yorn - Music for the Morning After
White Stripes - Elephant

The Refused album, I feel compelled to mention, is quite possibly the best punk album released in my generation. Its just as good now as it was in 1998. And in 1998 it was like the word of god itself. I listened to this album twice a day in the winter of 98/99.

Sorry I missed the post-a-thon yesterday. I had my eyes dialated at the eye doctor - and it took about 6 hours before I could focus and no longer looked like an anime character. So computers were not an option for most of the day. Neither was sunshine. Actually, I was pretty bored. But today - fun posts to read, new Buffy on tonight, some swimming after work. Things are looking good.

Wow, nearly ever lakeffecter has something to say today. (Kainui? Steph?) I don't, but it seems a shame to pass up a five for seven day.

We just got done playing a show with Ilya (of San Diego). It was our fourth great show (out of four shows). We are seriously the best band since... um... Bach. If Jesus had a band, he'd be weeping because we are so much better than his band.

Honestly, if people don't stop saying nice things about our band, I'm going to turn in a completely insufferable gasbag. You see how full of shit I've become just from this post.

Dr Teeth is fast becoming my favorite Muppet.

It's been a good three weeks since I posted: Here's some things that have happened to me from my time in Boston to present in somewhat chronological order:

1. Met the infamous Mike Freedom
2. Performed and had a piece performed in Boston successfully
3. Got hit by a car
4. Left Boston, Mike I left that fallafel sandwich in your fridge, I hope you got rid of it.
5. Had x-rays taken of arm (this process took three days
6. Fell in Love
7. The person I fell in love with fell in love with me (this too happened in about 3 days
8. Jeff Herriot stays in Pillow room, becomes Dr. Jeff Herriott
9. Still in Love
10. Robots start smoking, too nervous before concert
11. arm gets better
12. Host Kainui for Dada Rex residency
13. Perform some pieces
14 Perform some more pieces
15. Kainui Bakes and Bakes while I'm at school
16. Get new shoes at mall, while holding hands with someone
17. Kainui and I walk around Buffalo
18. I sleep through K's departure
19. Still in love
20. Type lakeeffect post

if vic chestnut and especially m. ward come to your town, don't miss it, especially you angie!!

Steph - I haven't caught up with the current seasons of either Buffy or Angel. I'm trying really hard to. I'm watching, like, four episodes a day now, but I'm still only on Buffy season five and Angel season two. I still like Buffy very much but the endless parade of misery in their lives by season five is starting to wear on the shows ability to move the characters forward. Angel, on the other hand, has that brilliant midseason (two) arc where good Angel goes all mean and evil despite his soul. I loved that.

I'm going to watch the last few episodes of Buffy despite not knowing that much about the events of the current season. I'm avoiding Angel to try and preserve some of the surprise.

---

I haven't seen the crush in about two weeks. This is a bummer and I'm trying not to dwell on it. I think it's probably the smart move, but I never really know anything for sure.

Shelly - that was a beautiful post.
Angie - running, kick ass. It's been super workout week for me. I'm going swimming after work today - first swim on the season! It's sunny and 85, and I can't wait to be in the pool Did yoga once already this week and a yoga/pilates/tai chi hybrid last night. Something about it staying light out later fills me with energy.
Zach - are you watching this season of Angel - it was so creepy and good last night? Any updates on the crush?
Upma - definately ask for a promotion. You work your butt off. Just document that and go in with full confidence.

i wonder if you knew that wishes are in season?
we used to call them dandelions, though i think they are actually something else.
they start with an impertinent yellow flower which turns into a downy fluff. you pick them and blow the seed tufts in every direction while you send your wish into the wind.
the yards right now are full of those flowers, and you should gather some up if you see them tomorrow.
because i think the wishing season is short, with the capricious whims of a windy rainy northwest spring. it is months before we'll have a still, hot day.
and since the season only comes once a year, (except, perhaps, for birthdays) you'd better wish them now, before they blow away.

tonight on my walk a saw something on a lawn which looked like some wayward marine life. upon closer inspection, it was almost certainly some sort of abandoned sex toy, the likes of which i've never seen before.

several blocks later, i saw what i thought was going to be the motherlode of free piles along the curb. as i got closer to the disarray, i realized there were two men, one helping to watch over the remains of all of the other's belongings, which had recently been tossed out into the street in the rainstorm.

on the night walk home, all the worms, and slugs, and enormous snails, with their antennae fully extended, had emerged from the tiny patch of moist ground on one side of the sidewalk to make the treacherous migration to the small patch of damp peat on the other side of the cement walkways.

i've already spent a good portion of the "spring" this year collecting and piling rocks on the beaches around seattle, so when i saw the preview for Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time, i knew i had to see it. he is a scottish environmental sculptor who creates ephemeral sculptures in nature. the film is ok but the visuals are really stunning, and watching Goldsworthy work and talk about his work is pretty cool, even though i generally hate voice over. he piles rocks, builds things out of flowers and twigs and leaves and tide pools and river currents. words are not the medium for this. see it if you have a chance. it is sort of slow moving though, so if you end up renting it, you may want to use it more as ambient visuals than active watching.

another passtime i've taken up is writing notes upside down and backwards, left handed, and most recently also in spanish. i think this accesses a different portion of my brain.

i've been seing a lot of music lately: Mars Accelerator, Kinski, Wally Shoop, Arab Strap, Bright Eyes, Long Winters, Bettie Seveert, Palo Alto, 4 hurs of Bach around the Clock, Pussy Chop Banana, Euphonison.
i'm going to see M. Ward and Vic Chestnut and the Dirty Three soon.
i'm skipping Cat Power and Crooked Fingers this go round, cause really, there is only so much money in the world, and most of it doesn't belong to me.

Upma - you rock lots and lots and lots.

Upma, that rules!

Stupid bugs begone.
So I got up early this morning and went to the Farmer's Market. I've been compulsively smelling the basil ever since I got home.
Zach - you are a kickass songwriter.

Best compliment I ever got after a show. We had just finished. Our last song was one called "Twink." We kicked its ass. When we were breaking down this guy and his girlfriend came up to me.

Freshman-looking guy: (tentative) Hey man, did you write that song?

Me: uh, yeah.

Fresh: It was awesome, dude... but what was it about?

Something about that just struck me. He was so sincere and nice. He just really wanted to know what the song was about. Like it really mattered to him that he knew.

The lyrics. Which are weirdly out of place without the music.

Twink

Hey, your honor, there is no crime in loving a girl
One little madonna not long for the world
Please, I don't smoke cigerettes
I'm happy to pay my own fines
My mother has come in the rental car
But she lost track of the time

There are beasts lurking in cover of night with lust in their eyes
Maybe tortured as little brothers
Maybe just regular guys
I have seen the path before her house
I have seen them pitch and weave
One giggling graduate gripped by a sailor on leave

Hey, your honor, there is no crime in protecting a friend
I live less than a mile away
And I saw that bastard going in
As a boy, I collected Christmas lights
I saw them whereever I went
Every star in the galaxy
And my walls held them in

She was a light, she was a light
She wasn't fooling the night

There is no easy way to amend when a life is at an end
A birthright, crouched in a shadow
Sometime you can never win
Could you give a note to my mother?
Just put in on her windshield
Tell her I have taken a lover
And we're running away...

She was a light, she was a light
She wasn't fooling the night

Angie - I haven't decided yet about the Old Settler's Music Festival. I'll let you know if I decide to go out on Saturday. What night is Patty Griffin playing?

Dear Federal and State Governments,

Thank you for giving me $982 of my money back.

z.

The new Dawn Chorus slogan is going to be "Dawn Chorus: Continuous Soft Rock." I see it on everything. Demos, t-shirts, patches, drink cozies, change purses. And it fits so well, because, guys, let me tell you, we are some Lite FM-playing motherfuckers. We have a purcussionist, for christsake! We're all Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Its pretty sweet.

The show on weds is going to be stupid good.

I'm reading a really cool book right now - It's called Wicked - it's the Oz story told from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view.
I dig the green spring color.

This crush might be something else because I've been pretty open about it. Usually I'm not at all, because more often than not, I'm not really interested so much as the inner Morrissey in me enjoys the pain a silent crush can bring. This instance I felt a little more inclined to action on, because I had a sense that something might come of it. Jesus, Jehova, and the Holy Ghost have pulled a triple team on me to keep the chances in the low to zero range. I swear if I make it to heaven, I'm going in swinging.

also not healthy, a mutual crush, which neither of you bother to squash, which one or both of you have still decided is somehow "hopeless." all hypothetical, of course.

i think the hopeless crush can be either healthy or unhealthy depending on whether it means you wake up in the morning and notice that the trees are in bloom and the air smells wonderful and maybe you'll make this extra energy turn into a film somehow. and maybe, somehow, he'll see it and realize your true genius and reveal that he has loved you all along, even though you know that he really won't. and that is ok because you're becoming love and making art from love and that is beautiful too. not so healthy if you spend most of your time snivelling into your pillow about how everything in life is hopeless and you'll never be happy or get what you want, and you spend the rest of your time annoying your friends with endless stories about your unrequited love or secretly stalking your crush.

I've grown to like the green too. It stays unless someone has a major objection.

The weather in our fair city has been mostly shitty for about a week now. Constant rain and cold, overcast, muddy. The effect has been a city-wide bummer. I've slept through work for three days straight. This morning I woke up with the first signs of a cold, so I called in and told them I couldn't come. Tomorrow I'll do the same. Fuck work. i've never called in sick in my life until this job.

The weather in my brain has been surprisingly better. Around February I started a songwriting roll that continues. I wrote a song today that I think is pretty good. I'm sitting on a stockpile of about a dozen and a half songs that the Dawn Chorus could learn anytime. In a life short on accomplishments, a streak like this one feels pretty nice.

The tragic crush (to be referred to from here on in as "TC"), of whom I have spoken with most of you about and at length, has actually managed to kick me out of my songs about natural and man-made disasters phase. A good thing, I think. Although, I believe in my heart that there is room in this world for more songs about floods and nuclear winters and giant person-eating snakes, I've decided to try and write a couple songs that wouldn't make a little kid cry.

TC requested a song called, "Sleep" the last time we played. Of course, we did it. But I felt compelled to mention that it was about a guy suffocating to death in a poison gas cloud. I believe I said, "This is the sweetest song I've ever writen about poisoning." And people wonder why I'm not a whiz with the fairer sex. Another song, I introduced by saying, "This one is about assholes in love." It is, but I should probably learn to keep me big mouth shut.

I know the colors suck. I'll fix it tomorrow.

I was recruited by a co-worker to pose as "girl riding bike" for a photo shoot today.
Number of years since Stephanie has riden a bike: 7
Number of seconds Stephanie can ride a bike without falling off (beginning of shoot): 3 sec
Number of seconds Stephanie can ride a bike without falling off (end of shoot): 15 sec
Number of photographs taken of Stephanie riding bike: 20
Number of photographs take of Stephanie riding bike (usable): 2

congrats, Mike! i can not even imagine writing that many words in a row that relate to the ones before them

Weez, Fremont! Fremont! i'll take road trips with you to portland on the weekends.

buffy fans, sorry, i got nothin here.

i just erased a rant that i realized it was better not to air publicly. i'm feeling like a baby. a bratty bratty baby.
thank you all for being such good friends. thank you for sharing a beautiful moment of your lives with me.
thank you for all the things i don't thank you for enough.
i feel calmer already.
now if i can just get the stupid bobbin of my sewing machine threaded...

Steph - In the past year, I've become a Buffy-obsessive. I watch, like, two or three episodes a day. I plowed through four seasons of Buffy and one season of Angel in about three months time. I had never seen it before, but its become my favorite show ever in no time flat. I wish that Buffy seasons five and six and Angel seasons two-four were already on DVD so I didn't have to watch shitty rips downloaded from the internet.

Does anyone else watch this show? My favorite moments from the seasons I've seen.

1 - Joyce has just learned that Buffy is the Slayer. Spike (bad guy vampire) has just approached Buffy about turning against Angelus. Spike and Joyce are sitting together in the livingroom while Buffy talks to Giles on the phone. There is an uncomfortable silence. Then...

Joyce: so... Do you live in town?
Spike: Yeah.

(cut to buffy talking, then back to the livingroom)

Joyce: Have we met?
Spike: You hit me with an ax once. Said, "Keep your hands off my daughter."
Joyce: Oh...

Another one, from the first season of Angel:

Angel rescues a woman. Spike watches from above and adds his own dialog.

Spike: [as Rachel] How can I thank you, you mysterious black-clad hunk of a night thing? [as Angel] No need, little lady, your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a badass vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me. Now I'm just a big, fluffy puppy with bad teeth. No, not the hair! Never the hair! [as Rachel] But there must be some way I can show my appreciation? [as Angel] No, helping those in need's my job, and working up a load of sexual tension and prancing away like a magnificent poof is truly thanks enough. [as Rachel] I understand. I have a nephew who is gay, so... [as Angel] Say no more. Evil's still afoot. And I'm almost out of that nancy-boy hair-gel I like so much. Quickly, to the Angel-mobile, away!

Ha ha ha. Goddamn I love this show.

I'd also like to nominate any exchange between Anya and Giles (Giles: "A friend is coming over." Anya: "An orgasm friend?" Giles: "Yes, that's exactly the most appalling thing you could have said.") and anything said by Oz.

Oh, oh and this great speech by Xander:

Xander: Where is he? Where's the creep that turned me into a spider eating man bitch?
Buffy: He's gone.
Xander: Damn it! You know what? I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!
Buffy: Check. No more butt monkey.

HA HA.

I'm glad things are going so well, Mike. What an accomplishment.
Sorry to have been out of the blog-loop, allergies have turned me into a lethargic, itchy, whiny baby. But we're getting a cold front tonight, so hope is near.
Shelly - I'm sorry to hear about the layoffs at work. That's a horrible situation.
Zach - I didn't know you were a fan of the show Angel. I am such a Joss Whedon slobbering fan-girl. And the end of season one is pretty good. I went and bought the DVD.

Joined netflix. On my queue: Angel season one discs 5 and 6, Steely Dan: Two Against Nature live and all of the best of the Muppet Show dvds. If I get any actually movies from this service, I'll be surprised. Soon, NYPD Blue season one and X-files seasons one-six.

I'm neither a fucking lunatic or a fucking asshole. I suspect I'm something of a fucking loser. I think I'd rather be either of the other two.

ugh. now people are actually getting laid off. worse than my stupid trip. my stomach hurts.

now i'm sad. jacob was laid off from the group he was working for today. which doesn't mean he's unemployed, but does now mean he isn't going to be one of the ones sent to thailand for the project he's been working on for the past six months. SARS and budget cuts. blah. since that effectively doubles the cost of the trip, it probably isn't so feasible anymore. on the upside i've been saving money for a trip and will still have those vacation days so maybe i'll be seeing ya'll sooner than later. i'd still like to do a bit of international travel this year though. i need to rethink my whole plan.

Got the camera. Developed the first roll of film. I am now having a bitch of a time reconciling the photos with the descriptions. I'll figure something out. Give me two (2) weeks to get all this stuff into presentable shape.

i'm unbearably happy right now.
i went to take a walk on my break and just as i was getting outside
the bells of the church began to ring.(it is one that i'm inexplicably drawn toward, so much so that after staring at it for years i've finally painted it)
i walked around the block in the brisk air which was half sunny half misty and the bells were still ringing! songs, not just tones. at first i tried to figure out why the bells were ringing. is it a holiday? did it have something to do with the war? but it was a happy sound, so i released myself to it and i sat in the shade and mist on a bench on the corner and watched the man ring them
and i watched as people slowed down at the corner to turn and stare. people stopped walking, rolled their car windows down and hung their heads out.
it was totally magic.
the man in the little bell booth was wearing his earmuffs and pumping his arms and the bells were swinging.
the bench where i sat is right by a rosemary bush so i was running my fingers through that and listening and looking and it made me so happy like i was on sensory overload
then right as my break was about to end, he reached the end of his sheet music, took off his earmuffs, replaced his baseball cap and started to leave. i ran across the street to clap for him. he nodded back then i ran around the block all the way back to work. so my cheeks are all cool and pink and my hands and hair smell like rosemary. it timed so perfectly, i felt like the entire thing had been just for me.

The oak pollen is driving me insane!

uh, thank you, weez.

had nothing to do with me.

our pink is back to normal. hooray!

ok, i thought i was the only one confused. 9th & pine is from some less than jake song and is also another blog. code borrowing gone awry?

Wow, we sure on fancy on this new page format. But what's up with those random links and blogs on the left-hand side. Nothing is familiar.