Friday, July 31, 2009

Pong!

Last night Jeannie and I headed over to the neighborhood where we're looking at houses (and where our new apartment will be) to walk around and see what was going on. We walked around a bit and then headed into a restaurant/bar called the Parkside that we've been to a couple of times before. I like the place - it's relatively new, pretty spacious, well decorated with genuine old stuff, usually not very crowded, and nice folks working there. The menu could be a little better, but they usually have good beer. Well, last night we stopped in to have some beers, and noticed that they've set up a ping-pong table, foosball table, and air hockey table in the back. The bartender said that folks are encouraged to just go and play if they feel like it. So we did and had quite a good time. Free ping-pong is a good draw, I think. For me, anyway. I'll spend my beer money there in the future.

Today the Jeanners and I both had the day off, and this morning we met with a plumber and a general contractor at the house we're looking at. We outlined some of the changes we're interested in making, and they looked around and said they'll come up with estimates on how much those changes would cost. So we should find out some stuff by the middle of next week. We spent the rest of the afternoon down at the City Municipal building, getting city drawings of the lot and trying to find out if zoning laws would allow us to add a driveway to the lot. Basically, the laws don't really allow us to do exactly what we want, but because it's a corner lot we might still be able to do it. It's all a little confusing and overwhelming, but I think it would be less overwhelming if we actually owned the property.

Who knows what we'll do tonight? Maybe more ping-pong...maybe not.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

False Start

I thought I had to go to work today, so I woke up early and got to work at 7, as usual, only to find that it was actually my day off. So i got to come home and run a lot of errands instead. It was a decent day, got a lot done. It's starting to get hot.



Today I saw a woman in roller blades wearing shorts that did not cover her ass.

I went to the library today, and they found a CD that they said I hadn't turned in but that I really had.

The Jeanners made appointments today with a contractor and a plumber, we're going to look at the house on Friday and get estimates for the changes we'd like to make. Also, over the weekend we put a deposit down on an apartment (we'll be living in the apartment between the end of August [when our current lease is up] and when we find a house and finish making the major immediate improvements that would need to be made). We're glad to have found a place, but it's smaller than our current place, so we're gonna have to figure out how to make it work. Hopefully it'll be very temporary.

I feel like over the past few days I've had interesting things to write about but they have all escaped my brain.

The Beej is coming for a visit!

The Jeanners' parents are also coming for a visit!

I think August and September are going to be busy months.

Our friend Gena is an awesome photographer. She has a new book. At this site, you can see a preview of the book, and order it if you so desire, and vote for it in their readers' poll. Her stuff is seriously really good. I don't normally think people should make their living doing artsy things, but I think she should.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

No Jack & Diane. Idiot.

Went to the conert tonight. Got to Ripken stadium at 4pm (doors opened at 5) and there was already a bit of a line to get in, but luckily there were a lot of older people in the crowd who wanted seats, so I was able to get down pretty close to the front for Willie's set. This is what it looked like when I got there:



There was a forgettable opening act, and then Willie came on and started his set. He was awesome, pointing and waving and smiling, playing some wicked lead guitar on that beat up old guitar of his.





Unfortunately, during his set, a big storm rolled in with some nasty looking lightning, so he had to cut his set short and they made everybody clear the field. Sucky.



After awhile the rain stopped and the Coug came on. When they let people back on to the field, I was able to get right down in the center in the front row. It was a nice spot to be. The Coug did not play Jack & Diane, which I find nearly unbelievable. It was impossible, however, to not sing along during "Hurt So Good". At one point I noticed that the Coug was sporting a little bit of camel toe, although I think it was just because he was dressing a little bit to the side.



After the Coug finished up, Bob Dylan came on, and although I have heard bad things about his live shows, I thought it was pretty good. I was glad that I was up close because he doesn't do much physically but he does a whole hell of a lot with his face. Weird smiles and looks and poses. It was also really strange to see the relationship he had with his band. They kinda seemed to love him, respect him, hate him, and fear him all at the same time. And every member of the band watched him like a hawk. For the whole set. "Like a Rolling Stone" was definitely the highlight of the show for me. By the way, Bob Dylan's drummer was pretty awesome and looked a little bit like Jeff Tweedy.





Some fun facts about the shows:

1. I'm sure that Willie pointed at me and smiled.

2. The Coug plays a "G" chord differently than anybody I've ever seen.

3. The Coug's drummer looked like a cross between me and Richard Dean Anderson.

4. The Coug had a totally badass anorexic fiddle player. She was awesome.

5. Number of non-white people seen at today's event: exactly 3. One of them was
the Coug's bass player.

6. I ate a lot of food today for breakfast and lunch, and by the middle of the
Coug's set, the bowel-rattling bass guitar and kick drum nearly worked it all
out right onto the field. Luckily the sewage-stench of my farts in the crowd
was masked by all the pot smoke.

7. Bob Dylan is either very strange or very smart or both.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Freewheelin' Applebee's

Tomorrow I am going to go see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and John 'Cougar' Mellencamp in concert. The show starts at 5:30pm, and is at Ripken minor league ballpark. But first, in the afternoon, I am gonna go to motherfuckin' Applebee's. Because I have a gift card and I want a steak. And I'm gonna have a salad, too, and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Aw shit. I am expecting nothing less than the best day of my life.

The Jeanners and I went to look at the house again. We are both leaning towards making an offer, I believe. The guy who used to live in the house was named Lino, and he used to write little notes on everything, like when the washer and dryer was installed, and who installed it, and how much it cost, and when they died. He also had notes where he would write down his name and address, and notes about the weather, and notes about his mood. He was a photographer and had a lot of his photos hanging in the house, some with little notes. I don't know. The house would need a lot of cleaning up and work, but it's in pretty good shape. And it seems to be the right size.

Earlier this week, I tried to give Jeannie the nickname "Stinko," but she got upset so I can't call her that.

I called in sick to work on Tuesday. Then I was off on Wednesday. And now I'm gonna be off tomorrow. It's been a nice week.

Still doing a lot of recording. Trying to do a little bit every day. Most of it sucks and just goes in the trash, but they're nice little lessons.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Strike That

I went to the strike for the Twelfth Night set tonight, and goddamn it if I didn't have a good time. Lots of people turned out to help, and although I'd much rather have a few competent people than a lot of incompetent ones, having lots of people around made it seem like a much more social event. Plus, I got to karate chop and kick boards and it felt good. Although I did get some rusty screws in the back of the leg. Jaw...locking...up......blargh.

The Jeanners has been playing around with the floorplan of the house with which we've had an on again/off again relationship, and come up with an idea that we both like, and one that requires a relatively small amount of work. Our realtor is currently on vacation, but maybe when she comes back we'll make an offer. In the meantime, we went and looked at some apartments, and we've got an appointment this week to look at another. It will suck to move twice, but it will feel good to have some temporary housing lined up.

Life feels alright right now.

I'm not a Pete Yorn fan, but there's a couple of songs on his new CD that I'm enjoying. There's one in particular that I really like, and there's two lines that stand out: The first is, "you kissed the best and had enormous breasts," and the second is, "I googled you in quotes - got no results." The second line in particular I'm interested in, because it seems really shallow and like a smug pop-reference, but there's also a very specific emotion and loneliness that runs underneath it. I'm impressed by lines that can have a completely unpoetic word like 'googled' in it but still conjure a very specific, sharp, and common emotion. I don't know, I'll just link to the song over in the playlist and you can listen for yourself. It's called "Social Development Dance."

That's all I got right now. Don't feel like getting up for work in 5.75 hours.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hog Butcher to the World

The other day at work my back went all funny and I was seized up in pain for a few minutes. Then it would do that randomly every now and again for the rest of the day. But I went home and laid on the floor and iced my back and now it's been fine. Huh.

The house that we liked last week, we like less, although we still like it. It's very close to being the "right" house, although we're not sure that it's gone ahead and crossed the "right house" line yet. We'll watch and see if the price goes down. So tomorrow we're probably gonna go look at some apartments since our lease is up at the end of August.

Been doing a lot of recording. I think I've done more productive recording in the last few weeks (since getting The Boss) than I've done in the last 6 months. Feels good.

Some phrases that have made their way into the D and J vernacular:

"Dropping an L.G." - means taking a stinky shit at someplace other than your home bathroom.

"Taking a Harry Truman" - means taking a nap where you strip down to your underwear, but the nap is no longer than 20 minutes.

Finished A Brief History of Time. I was in over my head for most of the book, but I still enjoyed the read. Pretty interesting, and it made me think about stuff that I haven't thought about for a long time. Like astrophysics. I'm now currently reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which so far seems to be entirely about coming up with different ways to describe things as gray, dead, and ash-covered. But I'm liking it.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A New Place

Well, there's another house that the Jeanners and I are considering making an offer on. We went and looked at it yesterday, and were expecting not to like it, but we both liked it. We were expecting not to like it because it only has two bedrooms and it is only one story and it is made out of cinder blocks. But we liked it anyway. I'm making it sound uglier than it is. It's actually pretty cute, and on a quiet corner lot. There's 17 trees on the lot. I know because went went back there this evening and counted the trees. We also got a chance to talk to 2 of the neighbors, Donna and Jackie. We also sat on the front porch to see how it felt. Felt pretty good. It also has a cool front door.

I had a good day today. Work was pretty decent, I think because I started my day by having a chat with Bobo Jubilee on my way inside from the parking lot at work. Bobo Jubilee is a guy who is a bouncer and multi-purpose man who works at the bar/restaurant near the B&N, and he deserves a blog post all to himself. Needless to say, he has the greatest name in America. He's also quite a character, and he comes into the B&N and orders wrestling DVD's with some frequency. Anyway, it's good to start the day with a chat with Bobo because he's a sweetheart. And he has a potty mouth.

For the past few weeks I have experienced the longest stretch of wonderful weather that I've ever experienced. It's been wonderful. A wonderful experience.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

National Lampoon's St. Louis Vacation

The Jeanners and I took a trip to St. Louis last week. It was a good trip, and we got to see a lot of people (everybody except Drew, who, like us, was busy with familial obligations). Next time, Drew. The trip was not too hectic, and even contained a lovely day where jeannie and I walked around the south Grand neighborhood, and dropped in to see Shannon and little Adam, and ended up sitting and chatting for a few hours. Lovely weather, too. I felt strangely uncomfortable for pretty much the whole trip, though. I think it's because I don't really feel at home in Baltimore, and I don't really feel at home in St. Louis anymore, so I just felt very rootless. It was, in a weird way, comforting when we got home last night. It was good to see a lot of the cool kids, though.

The Jeanners has been gone all evening, so I've been doing some more recording. She just called a few minutes ago to tell me that she'd been driving one of the trucks from her work and it overheated, so she's stuck downtown with one of her Americorps workers waiting for a tow truck. Sucky.



This one might turn into something. Later.