Wednesday, September 30, 2009

No Sitting Down or Urinating on the Horizon

U2 concert yesterday/last night. I got down to FedEx field at around noon and got in the general admission line. I was person number 296 in the line. So I'm a geek, but there are at least 295 people in the Pennsylvania/Maryland/DC/Virginia area geekier than me. Although some of the people in line were foreign, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, got in line and talked a little bit with the folks in line behind me. Right behind me was a guy named Matt and his wife/girlfriend Kelly. Both very nice, moderate U2 fans. Then behind them was a group of 4 women from the DC area who are teachers. They were also very nice and they brought cards, so they invited me to play cards. So we played a couple hands of Bullshit (both of which I won), and a couple hands of rummy. Helped to pass the time tremendously. Also, before they knew my name, they called me "Baltimore," which I thought was pretty cool, especially when we were playing cards. So anyway, we spent the next five hours waiting in line. Luckily, once you get to know the people around you in line, that means you can get up and go use the porta-potties if you need to. So that part of the waiting wasn't too bad. Plus, I had water and Clif bars so I was set.

Once the doors opened at 5pm, then we all raced inside and got a good spot right down in front, right on the walkway that goes out into the audience around the stage. Unfortunately, after that point it was too crowded to sit down, and it was too difficult to leave the area without losing your spot, so you basically just had to stand for the rest of the night. So there was a good 6 hours of standing and not peeing, which was not pleasant. And I was cold because I decided when I got there to leave my jacket in the car.

The show was decent. Unfortunately not life-changing (I guess my days of seeing life-changing concerts are probably over) [except for the up-coming Quants reunion, of course] but not bad. It was pretty cool being up close, although the band did not use the walkways as much as I would've hoped. The sound wasn't that great, either. Nonetheless, they played a few songs that I've always wanted to hear live but never have, so that's pretty cool.

The highlight of the day was definitely meeting and hanging out with the other people in line, which was kind of surprising, but nice.

Oh, plus, I got a guitar pick when Edge's guitar technician was walking around the walkways testing the wireless system. That was pretty cool. I think my guitar playing is sounding better already.

Here are some pics from the show:












Friday, September 25, 2009

Progress?

Alright, so we've applied for a loan, set up inspections, and started work on finding out if we can add a driveway. The ball is rolling, and though it feels like it's rolling a little bit out of control, it's nice to be moving forward.

Still going to work during the day and rehearsals at night. So far this show has been a lot more work than I anticipated. I still have to come up for a set design for when it moves indoors. And then build the set. Not looking forward to that. I've got about a month.

U2 concert coming up on Tuesday. Strange, but I haven't really been thinking about it. I just want a day off so bad that I don't even think I'm going to stand outside all day in the hopes of meeting the band or getting a really great spot on the floor. Operation: Meet U2 2009 -- ABORTED.

The J-Dog has a cold. Terrible time to be sick cause she's so damn busy. I feel bad for her. I mean, I would feel bad for her if I ever saw her.

M. Flanagan, who directed the movie that I worked on shortly after I moved to Baltimore, lives in L.A. and is working on a new documentary. He sent me a message asking if I had any songs he could use, so I sent him some songs and he wants to use them. Pretty cool. Check out the trailer here.

Hmmm, that's about it for now. On tap for today: breakfast, call the lenders that we ended up not choosing, head over to the theatre's storage unit and take a drop over to one of the indoor theatres to see what it looks like, maybe investigate homeowner's insurance, and if the J-Dog is feeling better then head down to PKP's for some babysitting. Based on how the J-Dog was feeling last night, though, I doubt we will be doing that. Sorry, PKP and T-Pain.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Wu Wei

I'm much better at dealing with boredom than I am at dealing with busyness. Fuck this.

Friday, September 18, 2009

VAG

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said, "I LOVE VAG." Classy.

Been busy as hell. Work, then rehearsals. Monday through Thursday. It's kept me busy, but it's been fun. A lovely time of year to be having outdoor rehearsals, and the place where rehearsals (and the show) are taking place is a lovely spot. There's lots of deer and other animals that hang out there, so I usually just sit in the car for a few minutes when I get there and watch them munching on grass.

The J-Dog is heading to the Lou this weekend for a quick trip to go to her cousin's wedding. Wish I could join her, but I'm going to be taking a lot of upcoming weekends off and I feel like it really doesn't make sense for me to head home right now.

Still waiting for the owners of the house to sign the f@#$'in contract.

Many errands to run today. Poop first.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Sept 12

One year since the death of DFW. Hmm. Still sad. Still hurts. Oh well.

Today Jeannie and I went on a home tour of Baltimore in the hopes that it will get us $3000.

It's been posted on Facebook, so it's official:



The Reunion Show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers will be taking place on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at the Skatium in St. Louis. 7pm-ish. Be there or regret it forever. Plus, you can roller skate while taking a stroll through the music of 1996.

A few weeks ago, Jeannie and BJ and Aimee and I decided that Baltimore's next slogan (current slogan: Baltimore - Get In On It!) should be Baltimore - Keep Moving.

If you haven't started watching Mad Men yet, you should. It's good.

Over there at Knese's Emergency Pudding, Jeffy has posted a picture of himself with an Amish beard. I have never seen him look uglier. Maybe it's the Amish beard/wife beater combo, but god damn.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Rewired

Aw, shit, beyotches. I is back on d'net.

Verizon sent a very nice technician to come look at our phone line today (luckily I had the day off work so I was able to be home during their 9am to 7pm window) and it took him like 2 minutes to go down into the basement and hook our apartment back up to the phone box. Problem solved.

Our new apartment is OK, but it smells like smoke a lot because the guy downstairs is always home and apparently doesn't do anything but sit and smoke. I would be angry, but I'm too jealous.

We are one step closer to buying the damned house. We have agreed on money shit and now we just have to go to this home tour thing on Saturday (in an attempt to get free money from the city of Baltimore) and then we will send them a phat contract to sign on Monday. And then we start scrambling in an attempt to get an inspection, a zoning variance, and a loan. Anyway, house talk is boring.

Been going to rehearsals for Julius Caesar. It's gonna be a pain in the butt to light this thing. Lots of extension cords put up and taken down every night. Bleagh.

Progress is also being made in the direction of a Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers reunion. No formal announcements have been made, but let me just say that if you are in the St. Louis area, keep the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving free. You won't regret it. Especially if you like the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers.

For the last few days, I have had some Stevie Earl Jacobs lyrics in my head, so I'll close with those:

I got a bike lock
as thick as my cock

Monday, September 07, 2009

Hug Rainstorm

I miss the internet less than I did a few days ago. Not having a real phone still sucks, though.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Early September

September 1, 2009


We are currently living in a telephone-less, internet-less hell. Damn you, phone company. Apparently they won’t even be out to see what’s wrong with our line until a week from tomorrow. Damn you, phone company.

So anyway, we’re moved. Big shout out of thanks to the A-Train for coming to help us out on Saturday. All in all, it wasn’t too bad; we’d gotten all the big stuff moved and unloaded by 12:15pm, and after a tasty pizza lunch the Jeanners and I spent the rest of the day cleaning our old Charles Village place. Which took awhile. We’re not tidy people.

Then when we were all done we decided to go out for dinner in Hamilton (our new neighborhood) and we walked to the Hamilton Tavern, which isn’t too far from our new place. We had a damn tasty meal, and then got caught in a hug rainstorm on the walk home. Got tremendously soaked. The rest of the night was uneventful until we were awoken at 1am by two ladies arguing out in the street in front of our house. Damn you, phone company.


Sunday we went to a CSC gathering down at Ian’s house, which was pretty great. A perfect day to spend outside, lots of cute babies, and I didn’t get painfully and obnoxiously drunk.

Had a production meeting tonight for Julius Caesar. Work on the show seriously begins next week.

Still no word on the house.

Here are some interesting things:

1. At two separate times today, I seriously thought I might have shat in my pants. Once this morning as I was leaving for work, and once this afternoon while I was preparing to leave work. Both false alarms.

2. The other day I saw a guy with copious amounts of ear hair. Veritable tufts. It looked less like hair growing out of his ears and more like he had stuffed wads of hair into his ears for hearing protection.

3. This afternoon I drove to the Julius Caesar meeting on the highway, with the windows down, blaring first Phoenix’ “Rome,” and then Phillip Bailey/Phil Collins’ “Easy Lover.” Both were awesome in their own way.