Movement

Everyone’s mornings would go a lot better if they were forced to listen to New Order first thing in the morning.

I think I may have finally filled that rotating ‘fifth favorite band of all time’ slot.

np – New Order / Technique

Spin The Black Circle

…Almost forgot – I got a copy of the Lake Holiday split-7″, on which I do not appear. Nor can I listen to it since I have no turntable. But I can hang it on my wall and bask in the glory of the crying bumble bee that is the artwork.

What could make a bee so sad? I may never know.

np – John Vanderslice / Life And Death Of An American Four-Tracker

Band practice tonight was great fun. Centred around what was probably 20 minutes plus of just jamming. Got a basic drum pattern going from my Yamaha keyboard (well, Enrico’s Yamaha keyboard) and Five Seventeen started knocking out a Joy Division-esque bassline… and it was all over. Something about that sort of groove just sends me over the moon – New Order redux. We were doing cool syncopated slashing guitar rhythms, new wave-y synth leads, ultra-simple yet effective lead bits, sampled loops. So much fun it oughta be illegal. This is a facet that I definitely want to incorporate into our sound. It would make us unstoppable. Well, except that we don’t have a drummer… The search must begin in earnest! This, I command!

I’m just worn out now. I should do some more work on my song, ideally it’ll be in a state that I can at least bring the multitrack down to practice Thursday and play the song – with melody lines – for everyone. I figure after adding the main guitar figures, I need some percussion (drums not going to happen at this stage), bass and oh yeah, vocals. Which will require lyrics. Something else to look into.

np – Matthew Sweet / 100% Fun

If This Is A Plan

I hate Mondays. It’s been buck-nutty all day, putting out fires (some not started by me!), doing estimates, answering emails… where are my slothful days? Man. One hour to go.

101 Things You Can Do In Mozilla – I’m not usually the evangelical type with software, but I do like Mozilla. It’s not perfect, but at least when something doesn’t work, I know why, as opposed to IE which was its own impenetrable little black box – in and of itself, not a problem, but impossible to debug when it inevitably decides to stop working properly. Plus using Mozilla adds to my geek cachet, which is sorely lacking in the computer-nerd department.

One hour to go.

np – The Delgados / Hate

Closing Time

Finished Joseph Heller’s ‘Closing Time’. I’m not too proud to admit I really didn’t get what the hell was going on in this book. There were essentially three narratives – one detailing the life of Sam Singer, one about Lew Rabinowitz, and one that ostensibly detailed the later days of Yossarian, a wedding for the ages in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a dunderhead President, a Chaplain passing heavy water in his urine, etc etc. There were some terrifically funny scenes in this third and primary plot thread, but on the whole it seemed overly scattershot and was ultimately unsatisfying. Whatever Heller’s point was, it was lost on me.

The biographies of Singer and Rabinowitz were what made the book worthwhile. Written with great care and affection, it’s the story of two Jews from Coney Island who go through World War II and their lives after they return. The only things remarkable about them is how their lives peripherally intermingle with Yossarian and the madness that is his existance, but I couldn’t help but care far more about these two pedants than the de facto protagonist.

So that book took me ages to complete and I now move on to less weighty tomes. Gonna finish that TapeOp book and start a short novel Mark lent me, ‘The Silent Strength Of Stones’ by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. No idea what it’s about, but it looks to be a quick read anyway. It’s nice to have a stack of books on the go.

Tried to install the USB CD-R drive tonight, works like poo. Good as a coaster maker and that’s about it. But now that I have the notion of burning CDs in my head, it’s inevitable that I get a CD-R for my box. Time to do some research.

np – Pulp / We Love Life