High Zero

Gena is in town.

Tonight she and Jeannie and I went to Baltimore's High Zero festival, which is a showcase of experimental improvisational music. I did not specifically enjoy it, but it was not specifically bad. We had a good time, either way.

It did bring back a vivid memory of Eric, Drew, California Mike, Blind Ryan, and Myself setting up recording equipment and various and sundry instruments on the stage at SLUH and recording some improvisational jams, perhaps the most well-known of which is 'Door is Ajar.' If you haven't heard it, ask me to play it for you sometime. This particular recording session took place just a few days before I left St. Louis for Baltimore, and it featured Drew on cello, Blind Ryan on my Korg synthesizer, California Mike on a tiny Casio keyboard, Eric on microcassette recorder and also recording engineer, and me playing on stuff when other people weren't. Also vocals by Ryan, Mike, and Drew. Ah, good times.

The other night, Patrick From Work, Elizabeth, FCW and Sarah came over and we drank a bunch of Guinness.

Bad Dreams

Ugh. I'm up too early, because I can't sleep. I had a "nightmare" about being at work and having a persistent, annoying customer who required help for at least 30 minutes after the store had closed. My nightmares are usually like that, never the usual horror-movie type scary stuff, but more like things that, to me, seem truly terrible but are not the stuff nightmares are usually made of. In other words, I do have dreams where I'm being shot or being chased but they never seem that bad, but the dreams where an annoying customer keeps me at work a half hour longer than necessary wakes me up in a cold, annoyed sweat.

Well, the dream put work stuff on my brain and now I can't get back to sleep.

And I am also hungry and have semi-intense gas.

Busy Day

Congrats to Jeremy and Emily, who now have a new baby boy, Ethan Robert, weighing in at a respectable 5 lbs. 3 oz.

Tonight I interviewed a new guy at the B&N. He was pretty nervous (so was I. I haven't done this much. Luckily Cindy sat in on the interview and chatted everybody up.), but I think he'll be fine. Very nice, polite, seems reliable.

Tomorrow I unexpectedly have the day off, because Elizabeth's Dad is having surgery on Friday so she asked me to switch our days off. She and Patrick and FCW are, I believe, coming over here tomorrow night to drink some Guinness and maybe play some games and fart and trash talk.

Jeannie's all done with her soup. We're going to drive our car in to the shop for an oil change and to get it checked out before we drive to Ohio and St. Louis. I'm getting sleepy.

Baby Mamma Drama

Jeremy at work's wife Emily could very well be at the hospital birthin' a baby right now. Isn't that exciting? It is exciting, because it will be fun to watch Jeremy be a daddy. But sad because once he's a daddy he won't work at the Noble anymore.

Jeannie and I met up with D. Calloway and his ladyfriend, Lisa, this evening after work. We met at One World Cafe and chatted and had some onion-y nachos. I think "nachos" should actually be spelled "natchos". Wouldn't it be better? I also think it would be better if "pizza" was pronounced with a short 'i' sound and a softer 'z' sound, so that it rhymed with fizz-ah.

I have been skimming through 'Infinite Jest' recently, because P. Kilpatrick might still be reading it, and our friend Chris is reading it, so my interest has been re-aroused. Jeez it's a good book. I'm making so many new connections in it, and I feel like I'm so close to a 'unified theory' regarding IJ, but there's still so many questions I have....

I'm sleepy.

Another blog day.

Today was a little sucky, just because it turned out different than I expected and I worked a longer day than I thought I would. But other than that, it wasn't too bad.

I miss Rich's blog.

I always enjoy it whenever Eric's sister Amy posts a new blog. She's such a good writer that even though I don't know her very well, I always enjoy reading what she's writing.

Because I can, and because this is a blog, and because you have no choice but to read it, I will now write about what I was doing 5 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001:

I was living in St. Louis at the time, but happened to be visiting Baltimore, and I was actually scheduled to be flying back to St. Louis later in the afternoon. The flight was cancelled, of course. I was staying with BJ and Pat at their 12th floor apartment in the Marylander at St. Paul and University Parkway, just up the street from where I live now. The night before there had been a fire just down their hallway, and the whole building had been evacuated.
BJ had gone into work at CSC relatively early that morning, and I woke up to the sound of him leaving a message on the answering machine: (spoken in typical loud-nasal BJ voice) "Uh, hi guys, it's BJ. I was just calling to see if you guys were up because there's been some strange things happening, uh, terrorist activity, and I don't know if Dan's going to be able to get out of Baltimore. I wanted to see if you guys were up. Talk to you later." Or something to that effect. I remember him mentioning terrorist activity and thinking to myself, "What in the fuck is he talking about?" So I turned on the TV and saw what was happening and went in to Pat's room to wake him up, and I distinctly remember him laying naked on his bed and seeing his big ol' Pat-ass sticking up in the air. I don't remember if I woke him up or not.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out how to get me back to St. Louis relatively quickly, since all the flights were cancelled. A strange set of coincidences occured and it ended up that BJ had to drive to Texas to replace an actor that was on tour, so it was decided that he would leave for Texas that afternoon, stop in St. Louis to drop me off and stay at my apartment for a few hours of sleep, and then continue on to Texas the next day. So BJ and I left Baltimore at around 2 in the afternoon, and it took a hell of a long time to get out of the city, and we drove halfway across the country in Heidi and Ian's Pathfinder, listening mostly to NPR when we got a good signal (I remember a news story about members of Congress standing outside the Capital singing, 'God Bless America' or something like that and thinking that that was a strange thing to do), and pulled into St. Louis at around 5 in the morning. It was a very surreal day.




Right now I'm waiting for Jeannie to get home so we can eats us some dinner. I just had 2 pickles, one baby sweet and one bread-and-butter. I would like to have a beer tonight but don't know if I should. The other day on my day off I got out my recording equipment and did some recording that I was initially excited about but then it all got too convoluted and muddy and I erased it all. Elizabeth called out from work today.

A Pleasant Surprise

Tonight Jeannie and I decided to go out for dinner, so we went out walking, and the first couple of places that we went by were closed, and we were walking back to Rocky Run when we ran into our friend Katie and her sister Alice, who were also out looking for someplace to eat. So we decided to have dinner together and it was a good time.

One of my favorite things about Charles Village so far has been running into people while we're out on walks. It's such a nice thing to unexpectedly have dinner with friends...

Work is boring!

Crystal Ball

Another boring work week is upon me. Not much to look forward to until Friday, when I have the day off and our friend Gena comes into town for her visit.

This week the plan is to interview some folks for the B&N. Hopefully I'll find some good people, because a girl that was supposed to be transferring in to our store is no longer transferring in, and I've got people leaving in the next couple of weeks that I need to replace...such are the troubles of the lowly music manager.

Is that how 'lowly' is spelled? It looks funny.

Jeez, I can't wait to go to Ohio. It's looking like we'll be leaving either the night of Friday the 22nd or the morning of the 23rd. Woo-Hoo! A long drive with my Jeannie with friends at the end! Is there a better thing on Earth? I think not...

Good News!

Tonight I discovered that 'The Schnapps Shop' (the local liquor store), has Murphy's Stout, my beer of choice. Although I'm drinking one now and it's not as flavorful as I remember it...perhaps because I was too lazy to pour it into a glass and am just drinking it from the can, Missouri style...

On the way home from the store I saw someone driving a horse-drawn wagon-thingie down St. Paul.

Jeannie's off at a meeting with someone for whom she is drawing up kitchen remodeling plans, so I have the house all to myself. It's kind of warm in here...

Tomorrow I have the day off and the only thing on the agenda is laundry. Perhaps I'll finally dig out the old keyboard and work on some music. I feel kind of like working on some beats. Or, I could waste the day playing Civ III, which I have not done in a long time. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Here's a big shout out to A-Train Aimee, who is now an employee of the B&N in Pikesville, MD. She's the last of the 37th Street roommates to work for the Noble, and that includes Jeannie (the "unofficial" [i.e. non-rent-paying] roommate).

Of Coursey!

After a relatively uneventful and unremarkable day, I met Patrick From Work at Rocky Run and had a 1/2 price burger (not as good as the Rec Room, but it was ok because the Krabby Patty [burger with crab meat on top] was one of the 1/2 price ones) and some beers. We discussed jobs and whether one should try to have a "meaningful job" or just a job that pays the bills, and I offered my theory that one should not try to get a job doing the #1 thing they love most in the world because it will end up killing the love. I think that one should try to get a job doing something that is near the top of the list but not at the top. Patrick disagreed. And so the discussion went. It was a good time, though, and one that we should repeat in the future.

Mid-Week.

Jeannie woke me up this morning, worried that she parked the car on the wrong side of the street last night and that it had been towed this morning. Turns, out she just forgot where she parked, which is nice because it costs like $200 to get your car bach when they tow it.

My back has been bothering me the last few days, after improperly moving some boxes around at work last Thursday.

The other night we headed over to Katie's house for the first meeting of the Dinner Club, a rotating party where, like once a month, we'll have dinner over at somebody's house. I volunteered to host hotdog night.

Also, we found out that our friend Gena will be coming out for a visit in 1.5 weeks, which is nice because we've wanted to have visitors lately. We're also looking forward to our upcoming trip to Ohio later in September, where we'll get to hang out with the cool kids and see a production of Schlueter's play. Pretty exciting stuff, indeed.

Little Miss Sunshine

Tonight Jeannie and I walked down to the Charles Theater and saw LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. It was ok. I did get to watch a little kid walk around in shorts and cowboy boots, which is always pretty awesome.

Today I worked on writing reviews for folks at work, which was not fun and required lots of procrastination breaks (phonecall to parents, haircut and beard trim, etc.) but is now, for the most part, finished, for better or worse.

I also read through the latest ROLLING STONE that featured an interview with Bob Dylan, and I swear, every time I read an interview with him, it feels like he kind of talks in code or something that I don't understand at all. I like the guy, I respect and enjoy his work, I think he's one of the greatest, but I sure wouldn't want to hang out with him for longer than a few minutes. At least that's the impression that I always get. Anyway, we've been listening to his cd at work, and although it's not the greatest atmosphere in which to listen to a cd, my initial report is that the cd sounds a little tame, maybe a little boring, but good. Haven't had a chance to really hear any of the lyrics yet, which I suppose are what put the asses in the seats anyway.

Jeannie has a paint can full of plant food scraps out on our back roof, that she takes over to her friend Katie's compost pile every now and again, and over the last few days of rain it filled up with water and then the lid fell off of it. So this evening Jeannie went out and dumped out the rotted-food-scrappy water onto the roof and I swear it smells like a professional basketball team all went out and had industrial-strength diarrhea just outside our kitchen window.

In Vino Veritas

Tonight Jeannie and I headed over to Chris and Elizabeth's, friends of a friend (our friend Katie), for Chris' birthday dinner. I had just the right amount of red wine and am now feeling comfortable. Chris and Elizabeth are interesting people; smart, artistic, funny. It was a good time, and a nice way to relax into my day off tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get to hopefully do not much of anything for awhile, maybe try to catch the THIS AMERICAN LIFE that I missed today due to work, and then I have to write reviews for the music sellers at work. Yuck. I have to write what should be normal, simple evaluations of people, except that I have to do it in company-speak. I hate company-speak, and I hate jumping through hoops.

I have decided that my favorite verse of THE STEINMETZ FAMILY RHYMIN' is Jen's verse. It sounds to me like it was written by Rich, and I like the lyrics, but I also like her voice, and I like the vocal production as well. For those who haven't heard it, I will now transcribe the beginning of the verse, the part that gets stuck in my head:

One, two, crack your knuckles, here we go.
I'm the lyrical miracle with the God-given flow.
Oh damn! It's Jenny Jam! And I'm comin' in quatro,
Have you poppin' and lockin' like you're Mr. Roboto.

Alert the Media, pt. II

So yesterday I was at work, and I got a personal phone call, and I figured it was Jeannie or somebody from our home office in New York that I was expecting a phone call from, but it turns out that it was a reporter from the Baltimore Sun who was writing a story about Charles Village and had stumbled upon my blog while researching on the internet, and he asked if he could interview me about my thoughts on Charles Village so far. So I told him I would call him when I got home, which I did, but couldn't get ahold of him. So maybe I'll get interviewed for the paper.

Meta-blogging: blogging about people reading your blog.

Our roof has started to leak a little bit. Tonight Jeannie and I gave Patrick From Work a ride to the Apple store to return his free defective printer. Then we played around with our camera until I got annoyed at her for sticking her foot in my face and taking pictures of it. Then she got annoyed at me for getting annoyed. Then we made up. Now we're sitting on the couch. I'll soon be heading off to bed, to rest myself for another most-likely-uneventful day at work.

I bought Coleman Hawkins' The Hawk Relaxes album today. It's one of those great late-night tenor saxophone jazz albums that it's just good to have.

The Figgs

Just finished a couple of long days at work, days that didn't leave much time for anything else. Oh well. I'm tired.

The other night, Jeannie was having trouble sleeping, so we were joking around for a little while in bed, and we started coming up with names for our future children. For some reason, we decided that our kids' last name would be Figg. If the kid was a girl, she would be named Blammy Newton Figg. If the kid was a boy, he would be named Jammy Juice Figg. Jesus, we were cracking ourselves up coming up with those names. It was a good time.

Oh SNAP!

Today I almost broke my damned toes by stepping bare-footed onto a mousetrap. A very Tom-and-Jerry moment. But luckily I stepped on the trap in such a way that it did no damage.

Jeannie and I had a nice, relaxin' day of doing nothing, and then rotting our brains in front of the TV, watching the mice scurry across our living room. The moral: if you sleep over at our apartment, take the futon rather than the air mattress.

Banana Hammock

Today seemed like a pretty good day. We hit the market, and listened to THIS AMERICAN LIFE (it wasn't great), then I headed to work. I was training a new kid, Sam, and he did well. I was pleased with his progress. It is always nice when new people actually make themselves useful early on.

Right now Greg Brown is telling his CANNED GOODS story on the cd player. Jeannie's reading. She just started singing a silly song to nobody in particular. To me, I guess.

The other day I told her that after I die I want her to put together a Broadway show with all of the songs I sing to her. I wanted her to do this because I had just come up with a little ditty that day that went:

Nobody likes me,
Everyone hates me,
Everyone thinks
I'm an ass-hole.

One of my other favorite songs is:

Come take a shower with me-e-e.
And my banana hammock!
My banana hammock!

I like that one because it makes no sense and it includes the phrase "banana hammock," one of my favorite expressions.

Presto-Change-o

The Great B&N Music Dept. Rearranging of '06 was a rousing success. Now we just have to catch up on the other work that has fallen behind during the last few days as a result...

Today, the Jeanners and I are gonna hit the farmers market, then listen to THIS AMERICAN LIFE, which has become our Saturday routine. Then it's off to work for me.

Now to make brown!

The Pooch

For the last couple of days, I have had the expression, "screwed the pooch" stuck in my head. As in, "Boy, Rich, you really screwed the pooch when you knocked over that jar of pickles on the new carpet." Or, "Pat totally screwed the pooch when he cast BJ as Petruchio. The show really suffered as a result!" I don't know where this expression comes from (historically or how it got in my head) as I haven't heard it used for quite some time.

Last night I estimated that around 25% of the food in our refridgerator is pickle products.

Lots of rearranging going on at work. Making more room for DVD's and moving everything around. Hopefully we should have it done in the next day or two.

Dear Diary...

It's been a couple of days. Relatively uneventful, here's what's been going on:

1. Ian asked if I could design a set for 'Love's Labour's Lost.' I agreed, and I'm kind of looking forward to it. It'll be nice to do something mildly creative again, as the B&N has been keeping me in boring manager mode for quite awile. I read the play today, and the whole thing takes place in one location! So it shouldn't be too time-consuming.

2. Jeannie has kept a journal since se was like 13 or 14, and last night she was reading through some of her earlier journals, including the one from when she was 17-18, when we met. So I made an unexceptional spaghetti dinner and we ate out on the roof and she read me some of the highlights from when we met, including our first kiss and other firsts. All the drama and excitement, the highs and lows of being young and falling slowly in love. Who would've guessed that one day she'd be reading that journal to me, now her husband, on our roof in Baltimore. Not me. And I don't miss being that young and confused, either.

3. Work is getting mildly stressful again, as I start thinking about the upcoming holidays, and Elizabeth and Jeremy leaving, and schedule juggling and all that nonsense. Luckily, I am well aware that it's all just a music department in a bookstore, and it ain't really that important. I'm not going to invest too much of myself into this job anymore. I'm going to do a good job and not worry about it...

4. Had a CSC meeting tonight at Lesley and Scott's new home, which is large and still empty. I like empty houses, and theirs is very beautiful. The meeting was relatively uneventful but fun, one of those small-group social meetings that I enjoy, with wine and beer and where ideas are thrown around but not too much gets actually decided. But good ideas come up, and we all get reminded that we enjoy working with one another, and I think it renews people's sense of purpose a little bit. I think it renews mine, anyway. It's a very interesting mix of people, diverse talents and interests, and I think the diversity is what has kept us afloat this long.

5. I proposed to Jeannie that if/when we have a dog in the future, we should name it Jean Rambeau. I firmly believe that pets should have both a first and last name, and this would be an homage to American action hero John Rambo. My proposal was rejected.

I guess that's about it for now. Back to work tomorrow, not really looking forward to it.

The Boob Tube

Tonight after work, Jeannie and I watched FIRST BLOOD (Rambo pt. 1) on TV. I enjoyed it, but Jeannie mocked it the entire time, despite the fact that early on she said she wasn't going to watch it and was just going to go to bed. Yet she stayed and watched it, seemingly just to mock it and ruin it for me. It's worth watching the whole 2 hours of the movie just to hear the song at the end, which has got to be the terriblest song of all time. So very very bad.

Then after the movie, we were flipping channels and caught the tail end of K-Fed's performance on the Teen Choice Awards.

What a night!

To-Do List Blog

Things I scratched off my to-do list before going to work today:

1. Sit around in my undies.
2. Fry some bacon and eggs.
3. Watch Mr. Rogers.

Alert the Media

Eric has updated his blog. He's not dead. Praise the baby Jesus.

We've been catching some mice in our apartment. Unfortunately, they seem to avoid the happy, mouse-friendly trap that we have set out and go right for the quick, violent, deadly one. Well, it's entirely up to them...but still, we're sorry Mr. and Mrs. Mouse.

I've been thinking lately, and reading a lot, and it seems that I'm in a point in my life when I really don't give much of a damn about the world around me, or politics, or art, or ideas, or anything at all except being with the Jeanners and taking each day as it comes. And, since the Jeanners and I are technically one flesh (wink, wink) and therefore the same person, this means that I care only about myself. Which is not entirely true because I care about my family and friends, but still, the point is that I think my life has an extremely narrow focus at the moment. Should I be apologetic about this? Is this something I should try and change? Is this a viewpoint that I will eventually come to regret? I don't know. I tend to think that it's ok, that viewpoints and outlooks come and go and shift and change all on their own, they don't obey the brain or the heart. And it sounds corny and trite, but I really don't see how there can be anything wrong with focusing on loving one person as deeply and fully as you can. But still, I feel like I'm becoming narrower and narrower and I don't know what to think about that.

Rich wrote and said he got bored with blogging. Lately, I understand what he's saying. Still, I think it will be fun to look back at this in 30 years and have a laugh. Plus, my grandkids can know what my poop was like...and lately my poop has been frustrating. I won't elaborate, and you can thank me for that later.

Nu Shooz

Happy birthday to the capital-D Dude, the man who inherited Elvis' soul, known to at least a couple hundred as Flippy the Magnificent.

Today Jeannie and I spent the day exploring our fair city on foot. We walked down to the HArbor and Federal Hill, looking at stuff along the way. It was a beautiful day, and we've been wanting to walk downtown for awhile.

Also, this evening, we went shopping for some new shoes for me, and I was able to find my favorite $10 sneakers at Walmart that I haven't been able to find for a few months. Woo-Hoo!

Hot Damn.

Well, Jeannie and I both have the day off tomorrow, and we were planning on going to help move some stuff from the CSC offices. But we got an e-mail tonight from Lesley that said that things are pretty well under control and that we don't really need to come help. Sweet Jesus! I think it's literally the first time that anyone from CSC has ever turned down an offer of help. But I'm happy to accept the rejection.

So now we've got a whole day off together and nothing to do.

We had a great day down at Ocean City on Monday. MAW and her family are such wonderful hosts, and the weatheer was perfect, and the water pretty calm so Jeannie got in and we frolicked and had a grand ol' time.

Why has Rich's secret blog been taken down? Inquiring minds want to know...

29

Today is my stinkin' birthday. It's off to work in a little while, and then the Jeanners and I are going out for my special birthday dinner. Someplace seafood-y.

Tomorrow we're going to drive down to the ocean for one last summer frolic.

Are the Seats in this Boat Warm or Cold?

Friday night, I just got home from work, and I'm glad to be home. Work is boring again. Training a bunch of new folks every week.

I have been listening to the Midlake CD very much. I like it very very much. It's not for everyone, but I think it's one of the most solid CD's I've heard in a long time. And the lyrics are strange. One song features the line, "The seats are cold in this boat," and a different song has the line, "The seats are warm in this boat." Well, Midlake, which is it? Are the two songs about two different boats? Anyway, enough about Midlake.

Our good friend Aimee came over last night for dinner and conversation. It's always good to catch up and find out what she's been up to. She said that when she reads my blog, she is unable to view the new sidebar with the random Flickr picture. Instead, the sidebar is now blank. Jeannie said that the same is true on her boss' computer. I asked my computer geek friend Patrick from work about it, and he said that it is most likely due to some sort of compatibility issue with the browser they're using to view the blog. I wonder how many others out there have problems enjoying the advanced features of this blog? Just for the record, I use Netscape to enjoy this blog as well as many other wonderful things on the Internet, which I'm told using Netscape is a very uncool thing to do. But I like it.

Alright, I'm going to enjoy some brief quality time with my wife (and maybe popcorn!) before I got to bed...

The Music Report

1. Today I bought a CD by Midlake, called The Trials of Van Occupanther. I think I'm going to like it a lot. It's kinda strange, at times very pretty, and interesting. I would say it's a hybrid of Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, and Fleetwood Mac. With maybe a little My Morning Jacket thrown in. But just a little.

2. Greg Brown has a new CD out as of yesterday. Saw it at the store, but haven't had a chance to listen to any of it yet.

Bacharach

Tonight I saw the Geico commercial with Burt Bacharach in it. He looked palsied or like he has had a stroke or something? Has Burt Bacharach had a stroke? The last time I saw him was in an Austin Powers movie, and he didn't look like he's had a stroke.

Another quiet night at home after a semi-long day of work. I'm wondering if this radio station plays jazz every night?

Tomorrow I'm running some errands with the Jeanners. Probably sell and buy some cd's. Gotta go get a key made for Elizabeth.

Also, since my bass is in Ohio with Rich, and my guitar is missing a string, perhaps it's a sign I should break out the keyboard and record some good, old fashioned, gay techno music.

Stop Time

When I was little and used to picture what I thought my life should be like, I think I used to picture a night kind of like tonight. Jeannie is sitting reading a book, I've been sitting on a chair sipping a beer, and we're listening to some Louis Armstrong and other jazz stuff. Our apartment is looking and feeling just the way we want it, very calm and spacious and relaxed.

Last night after I got home from work we watched The Squid and the Whale, which was pretty interesting. It made me think a lot about what life was like as a kid and how much easier life is now than it used to be. How nice it is to grow up and find that there's very little in this world that truly matters. Strange to think that there was more bullshit in my life when I was 10 than there is now.

Long day at work today, but not too bad.

New Look, Same Great Blog Flavor!

I spent the morning doing some tweaking to the ol' blog template, so now as you read my innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, pet peeves, and lower GI workings, you can gaze upon pictures of my friends. A steaming-hot cup of visual nostalgia.

I figured I needed to spice up the blog a lil' bit since what I've been writing is boring trash. Image over content, that's what I always say...

If you don't ever see a picture of yourself here, it could mean one of 3 things:

1. I don't really like you.
2. I don't have any pictures of you.
3. I have reached my bandwidth limit for the month on Flickr and you will just have to wait until next month to see yourself displayed on this blog.

Which reminds me, if you see yourself on here in a picture that you would like me to take down, just let me know. The only exception to this is the one of Jen Schlueter fisting the turkey. Sorry, Jen, it won't be taken down.


Today's me day off, and life is pretty perfect.