742 Evergreen Terrace

so we told our landlord a few weeks ago that we’re on board for another year, which means that we’ll be in this house until at least september of ‘09. i’d love to be right in the middle of things in this city, but for a person like me i still think our current location is ideal. a block from brighton center, a block from the B line (two stops from the harvard ave T stop where i spend most of my weekend nights). not to mention it’s soooo quiet here at night. if i were downtown, or even in most areas of allston i’d definitely have trouble sleeping at night. who knows, maybe i’d adjust, but i’ve never been a good sleeper. i also love the fact that we’re up on a hill and surrounded by trees & rocks. i really couldn’t have asked for a better place with my first real experience of living on my own. the weather has been getting a little nicer lately, which has made me like this area even more. hearing people walk by during the day, enjoying the backyard a bit, walking everywhere (on weekends at least, since i have to drive to work). last weekend my cousin john was in town from wisconsin, and we walked all the way back to my house from harvard square. probably about a three mile walk. half of it is enjoyable ‘cause there’s actually stuff to see, but the whole middle portion of the walk is pretty tiresome. anyway, we had a pretty good time while he was here. went to mayfair in harvard square on sunday, which was nice, but i feel like it could’ve been set up a little better. john was mainly in town for his friend’s wedding, so unfortunately we didn’t get to go out at night. and the nightlife is where it’s at around here. although the one thing i still don’t get about this city is why everything closes so damn early. starbucks closes at 9:00 on a saturday night! that’s just insanity to me. i lived in a suburban area of jersey almost my entire life and coffee houses, including big chains like starbucks are always open until at least 11:00 on weekends. oh, and store 24! don’t even get me going on this one. not sure if it’s only the one on harvard ave, (which is a prime location because of all the college students getting drunk all night & then trying to hunt down junk food and cigarettes) but they close at like 10:00 or 11:00. it’s a store 24, for convenience sake! and another thing…why does the T stop running so early (again, especially on weekends). aren’t we trying to prevent drunk driving? why aren’t the trains running at least an hour longer, if not through the night, like most other major cities?

on a completely different note i think i might have to start keeping a log of the ridiculously smart/cute things that my niece says. unfortunately most of them i can’t hear directly from her anymore, but i get my fair share of stories. not to mention that when i see her she always manages to overwhelm me with her cuteness. anyway, here’s the latest.

Natalia’s prayer before bed time: “Thank you God for broccoli and rainbows. Good night.” classic.

i just wrote a huge review on death cab’s “narrow stairs” and realized that i suck at writing music reviews somehow. you’d think with the music collection that i own and the amount of music i listen to on a daily basis that i’d be writing for cmj or something, but no…i suck. the one thing i have to say about “narrow stairs” is that it doesn’t sound all that similar to “plans,” which is a bit surprising to me. it kind of breaks their cycle. their first two albums (”something about airplanes” and “we have the facts and we’re voting yes”) pretty much sounded like they could’ve been the same album, and the same goes for “the photo album” and “transatlanticism.” so even though i don’t ever see “narrow stairs” comparing to any of their older albums it is a bit refreshing to hear a new sound; good or bad (still trying to decide on that). with the exception of a few stellar tracks i’m really not all that impressed yet, but i’ll give it time.

someone was really putting me to the test over the course of this past week. anyone who knows me knows that my two biggest fears are public speaking & bugs. well this week in particular i’ve had my fair share of both. those enormous, disgusting centipedes have been creeping their way back into my room lately. i figured this would be a problem come the warmer weather since the last time i saw them was back in september. so i really have to talk to our landlord about this soon, just in case there’s a nest in the walls or something. i seriously can’t explain how unbelievably large and ugly these things are. but on top of battling the centipede monsters here at home, today at work i was the facilitator for our bi-weekly meeting. basically all it consisted of was introducing the actual speakers, but it still meant standing up in front of about 100 people and saying a few words; sadly more than i can handle. i stressed out about it all week, and felt sick to my stomach all day at work today. no matter how much i told myself “all i need to do is just say a few words, and i know exactly what they are. chill out, and stop being such a wuss.” it just didn’t make a difference. i’m just sooo relieved that it’s over with.

random note ‘cause i’m tired of forming complete sentences, but thought that this was pretty crazy…justin saw a city deer on his way home from work last night. just chilling out right next to the path by our house that leads down to the T. we have some trees around our house, but i wouldn’t really call it a wooded area. the closest woods to here are miles and miles away, so this thing was waaaay off track. poor city deer. reminds me of liam lynch’s street bison.

over the course of the next few weekends i’m gonna be quite the traveling man. this weekend i’m headed down to jersey (LBI to be exact) again for jeff’s wedding. still getting adjusted to the fact that pete is now married. had a blast at his wedding, and i’m sure jeff’s will be just as much fun (especially since it’s on the beach, and i’ll be seeing some more friends that i haven’t seen in awhile). next weekend i’m going up to northern vermont with phong & the gang. we’ll be spending the 3 1/2 day weekend up at his cabin in cabot. lots of sailing, kayaking, camping, and other adventures. last time they went up there they saw a moose. this time i’m hoping to see a whole flock of moosen. the weekend after next i’m gonna be in my glory (or as helio would say “touching the glory”). three excellent shows in two days. on the 30th it’s sea wolf, with the jealous girlfriends, and hallelujah the hills. then on saturday during the day dr. dog is playing a block party in harvard square. they were originally supposed to play mayfair, but mayfair was postponed to the following weekend due to bad weather, and by that point dr. dog was already touring across the country. so now they’re coming back just for us. then to completely top off the weekend, the month, and probably the year, i’m seeing jeremy enigk with damien jurado that same night! and they’re playing great scott, so it’s guaranteed to be an intimate show.

i have a story from work that i really wish i could share on here, ‘cause it’s so absurd, but so funny at the same time. ugh…

this is so poorly done, but still amuses me…

and now i’m off to catch the season finale of the office!

dear old lady in front of me in the self check-out line at stop & shop,

sincerely,
pissed off youngster standing behind you at self check-out register #3

on a completely different note nada surf was amazing as usual last thursday. not the same old nada surf i was used to seeing years ago, but nonetheless an incredible performance. josh’s 30th birthday party was also a blast. ryan came up just for the night, which was a hell of a drive to spend a few hours, but i think he had a good time as well. i made a bonehead move (or should i say lack of a move) on saturday night that i’m still regretting. even when opportunities are placed right in front of my face i often still tend to blow it. live and learn i guess. this weekend’s events include seeing jerry seinfeld and someone still loves you boris yeltsin. is it friday yet?

okay, no more lame excuses for me not posting. it’s pure laziness, and the fact that if i’m not going to put any effort into my posts, then it’s pointless. i think i lost interest in this site years ago, and it definitely shows. so on that note i will continue with the occasional post every now and then, with the hopes that maybe i’ll have something interesting to say one of these days.

a few shows that i’ve attended since the last time i posted:

pela with static of the gods, headlights with via audio and the evangelicals, say hi with the big sleep, jose gonzalez, great northern with the gutter twins, and explosions in the sky this past weekend in providence…all equally as good in their own way (with the exception of the evangelicals who were just horrendous, and weird for the sake of being weird). actually the biggest surprise of all of those shows was jose gonzalez. i was obviously expecting a good show, otherwise i wouldn’t have gone. but i also expected it to be very tame, and maybe a bit boring. it was anything but. i highly recommend seeing him live. i swear it feels like he’s playing his acoustic with three hands; one playing bass lines on the lower strings, one playing lead guitar, and another playing percussion on the base of the guitar. i don’t get it, but i loved every second. explosions in the sky was good, but had the potential of being even better if they had some sort of visuals, which i think is needed for atmospheric instrumental music such as theirs. nonetheless i definitely had the best time at that show. phong and i drove into providence late saturday afternoon to meet maniscalco, jacqueline, and a couple of their friends (who i vaguely remember from college). we ate some food and drank some beers in town for a good two hours before we even arrived at lupo’s for the opening artist. best part about going to lupo’s was seeing the freak show of explosions’ fans. usually i don’t enjoy picking people apart the way we did, but i have to admit that it was extremely enjoyable. we couldn’t count the number of super long haired (almost 80s metal style) dudes. this one guy (who we just kept referring to as gregg allman) must’ve walked by us a good 30 times throughout the course of the night. the gregg allman look wasn’t really a first for me. what threw us was that he was wearing a nirvana t-shirt and a lei. just the combination of the three was pretty hilarious. anyway, i see now why i don’t post anymore. like i said, nothing good to say, but i still ramble on and on about nothing. back to the shows…

this week: nada surf (unfortunately i’m seeing them on the same night that nbc FINALLY airs a new episode of the office).

some more upcoming shows that i’m pretty pumped for (a couple of which i had the pleasure of posting on last.fm): yeasayer with man man (which i may have to skip for josh’s 30th b-day party, even though i already have tickets) piebald’s farewell show, someone still loves you boris yeltsin with via audio, kate nash, secret machines, the soft drugs with the cave singers, the acorn, bishop allen, jeremy enigk (from sunny day real estate & the fire theft) with damien jurado (from david bazan’s very first band), mark kozelek, and radiohead this summer. ya, so just to name a few…i’m sure plenty more will be added to that list, which is scary, but it’s pretty much the only thing i enjoy these days; seeing tons of bands that i love, and of course still writing music (some of which i’ve been very happy with lately).

in the midst of all this “show” business i went to a quinnipiac hockey game at harvard a few weeks ago with phong, scotty, and cherie. it was actually a great game, and quinnipiac beat them for the first time this year. i’ll definitely be going to more of those next season.

apparently this seems to be the year of weddings & newborns for my friends & family. as of now i’m going to 5 weddings this year; all starting with pete’s in just a couple weeks, shortly followed by jeff’s. then my cousins john & amy just had their second baby last week, along with glenn & kristen, and justin’s brother just had his first (which now makes justin an uncle). all of them were actually born on the same day. and two are wisconsin babies. pretty weird. congrats to them!

in other “making me feel old news” josh just turned 30!!! we’re celebrating with a whole buttload of people this saturday night at josh’s favorite bar right down the street from me, the joshua tree (strictly coincidental). should be fun to hang out with some friends from work in boston for the first time.

i am dying to see these guys again, and wish they would come to boston (maybe a serious business tour with man.in.gray, and unsacred hearts):

one of the many movies i watched earlier this week (probably for the 5th or 6th time) when i was out from work with bronchitis. having time to sit and reflect on my life/job is not a good thing. i feel like i’m basically telling the “mayo story” at work every single day. in a way i am. god help me. in any case, this particular scene still had me on the floor laughing.

i may eventually get around to posting again one of these days. been going to lots of amazing shows lately, and listening to a lot of great new music. so at the very least i might have to say something about that when i get around to it.

i know it’s been a good two weeks, but need i say anything about the super bowl? i seriously couldn’t have been happier with not only the results of the game, but just about every second of it. and to top it off i got to see joe (my neighbor at work) wear a giants jersey that was literally 5 sizes too big for him. seriously…bigger than a moo moo. not only that, but literally since the day after the giants won the super bowl i’ve made drastic improvements at work. and i’ve been consistent since then. usually i’ll have maybe a couple of good days, then fall into a rut, and go back and forth. well i finally have a really good chance of commissioning at the end of this month. so thanks “ny football giants” (as announcers like to call them, which i think is hilarious) and thank you new england patriots for blowing a perfect season and failing to go into the history books as the greatest football team of all time. 18-1.

i saw rhett miller and cat power a few weeks ago, who were both amazing. i wish they allowed cameras into the orpheum theatre, ‘cause i would’ve loved to have taken some photos of chan and her bizarre movements on stage. what an unbelievable voice she has. it’s really weird, because her voice & style of singing just doesn’t match up with her goofiness. she pretty much packed the theatre, which holds 2,800 people.

i was so looking forward to this past weekend, not only because it was my first and only 3 day weekend in awhile, but because my parents, cara, and natalia were coming up. well they came up early on saturday morning as planned. natalia couldn’t have been happier to see me, which i always find to be adorable. we drove to the hotel (which was more like an apartment) my family was staying at in charlestown, and shortly after we got there cara noticed that natalia looked a little feverish, even though she was acting like her normal self; happy, giggly, playful. turns out natalia had a really high fever, and it only went up from there. at one point it almost reached 105, but they were afraid to bring her home since helio was scheduled to go for a major back operation today, and can’t be exposed to any illnesses. so cara and my mom took turns taking care of natalia in the hotel the entire weekend. we all pretty much stayed in and watched after her, but my mom & cara took turns coming out with my dad & i when we went out to grab something to eat, or to walk around the north end and quincy market. so they all got to experience a very little bit of boston, but not nearly as much as they had hoped. i was really looking forward to taking natalia to the aquarium, because i know she would’ve loved the penguins. so it’ll have to wait until next time, but she amazed me with how she was dealing with being that sick. the kid never cries, never complains, or anything. so in the rare instance she does cry or complain you really know there’s something wrong. so before i headed back to my house on sunday night i was really worried (as i think we all were), because she was screaming her head off. meanwhile the whole rest of the weekend she was playing with me, and even though you could tell she was sick just by looking at her, she definitely wasn’t acting it. any time i stepped out of her eyesight i could hear “where’d uncle tommy go?” it really is such a good feeling to know that someone looks up to you as much as she does. and when my family stopped by on monday morning before they headed back to jersey first thing natalia asked me to do when she came into my room was to play music for her. her memory still completely amazes me also. she remembers that i used to play guitar and piano for her. she remembers that every time she would enter my room back at home there’d be music playing. she remembers me singing the pink panther song to her when she was an infant. oh…and another sidenote, she is now 100% potty trained. pretty impressive for a kid her age. so enough talk about my niece that i don’t see nearly as often as i’d like to.

some odd run-ins or coincidences happening lately. when me, my dad, and cara were watching some street performers near government center cara happened to run into 4 people from sevilla, spain (which is where helio’s from and where cara lived for almost 2 years). so that was weird enough, but then cara told me that helio is now on facebook, so i sent him a request and noticed a girl on his page from boston that he met in spain a few years back, i guess when she was studying abroad there. well it turns out that she’s promoting a show that i’m attending next week, and a family member of hers is the drummer for static of the gods. i was going more to see pela, but i checked out static of the gods, and they bear a striking resemblance to velocity girl, so i’m pretty psyched to see them now too.

so apparently an american version of funny games is being released and it looks identical to the german version…line for line (what’s the point, honestly?):

i guess it’s okay for every other country around the world to watch all of our shitty american blockbuster movies with, but it’s too much for our lazy eyes and minds to watch a foreign film with subtitles. let’s put a few million into remaking a movie that was most likely done much better (and cheaper) the first time around (over 10 years ago) to appease the general american public. and the worst part about it is that the remake will probably make triple what the original made. how is this different than almost any other form of media? it’s not…the truly creative people get shit on (and for the most part seem to be fine with it), while the people who steal their ideas are making millions.

as expected, last weekend was a total blast. on friday night i just went out with phong to a bar called big city in allston. from there we went out to a bar in cambridge, that had the best jukebox i had ever seen. too bad the songs i chose didn’t come on before we left, but i think that’s almost always the case. there we discussed the possibility of me opening up my own smoothie/wrap place. for me it was a possibility, but when phong heard my ideas he was all about it; to the point where he wanted to start the planning almost right away. i’m not quite sure if i’m ready to handle the next step, or i’m even sure what the next step would be, other than simply coming up with a menu, which i feel like i could easily do. he told me that he would completely handle the finance end of it, which i’m totally confident he would do. but it’s obviously a huge decision if i decided that i wanted to go through with it. it’s a pretty huge commitment, and an even bigger gamble. is cleveland circle really ready for “smoothie operator?”

by about 3:00 am on friday night mike & kim arrived, and then in the morning we headed straight up to manchester, new hampshire for the rest of the weekend. i was amazed at the amount of people we saw ice fishing we saw on our road trip less than 1 hour away from here. i might have to partake in some of that next winter. anywho…we stopped by larry’s place real quick, picked him up and headed to crotched mountain. that’s right, crotched. the jokes were endless, but the mountain itself was pretty serious. somewhat small in comparison to other mountains in the new england, but still really nice. excellent conditions, perfect weather, and a great terrain park for when we decided to get crazy. and when i say “we” i mean larry and i. we skied from about 2:00 until almost 9:00 at night with a 2 hour bar break inbetween (which broke up the day/night very nicely). i wish i would’ve taken more pictures on the mountain, but that’s always the case when i’m skiing. having too much fun to think about taking pictures. not to mention it’s always a pain to take off the gloves, and go digging around for my camera. usually after a day of skiing i’m just ready to pass out, which i pretty much was. what i didn’t know was that it was larry’s brother’s (also his roommate) birthday. so when we got back to manchester the house was full of people. we quickly took a shower, began drinking again and then hit the bars in the manchester area. somehow i got a second burst of energy and had an absolute blast. i met lots of great people, who i will probably be seeing in the near future (even though some of them are up in new hampshire), enjoyed some more excellent music, attempted to sing karaoke, and was given a jägermeister sign from some old people in one of the bars. apparently they won it earlier in the night, and they seriously couldn’t find a better person to give it to. i quote that video “my new haircut” from youtube probably more often than anyone should, and it says right on the sign “jager bomb.” i don’t think they got why i appreciated it so much. later in the night some girls tried to buy it from me, but i stood my ground. it’s now hanging in our library/guest room/smoking room. haha…still haven’t decided what to call that room. when we got back from the bars we all continued to party at larry’s house until almost 6:00 in the morning. i talked to larry’s girlfriend (or rather listened to larry’s girlfriend) for about 2 hours straight. we played wii, messed around on the guitar for awhile, sang some pink floyd, etc… best time i’ve had in awhile, honestly. the next morning (afternoon) the remaining few of us went to go see rambo. i really had no desire to see it, but i figured what the hell. i’m still debating on whether or not the movie was simply wrong, or hysterical. that will probably remain up in the air.

work has been getting better for the most part lately, but i had my first anxiety attack in a really long time while meeting with my manager earlier in the week, which was totally embarrassing. i seriously wanted to run out of the room, but tried to keep my cool. the signs were 100% noticeable, so i’m sure she was wondering what the hell was wrong with me. if it’s a one time occurrence than i can deal with that. i just hope that i don’t start having them on any kind of regular basis again.

the smack talk about this weekend’s super bowl game has really started at work. getting shit from almost everyone including my manager…all in good fun of course. but the bets are in; if the giants win my neighbor at work has to wear a giants jersey next friday, and if the patriots win i have to where a pats jersey. the giants will have to pretty much pull off some kind of miracle to keep that filthy new england jersey off my skin, but if i do in fact lose i’ll find someway to dress up that jersey. maybe tape on a nice big giants logo. put on a big number 20 and write joe morris on the back. or keep it current and maybe make it say jacobs or bradshaw. i’ll have fun with it. but that’s IF i lose. i’m remaining hopeful. i’ll be watching the game at will’s super bowl party on his 98″ HD projector screen. might as well be seeing it at a movie theater.

and now for some mindless entertainment…

last weekend was a smashingly good time, and i expect this coming weekend to be even better. mr. joe zeni came up from delaware to visit, and a whole bunch of us (including lots of other quinnipiac-ians) went out to joshua tree in allston on saturday night. of course we played lots of “zeni games” at the bar, and created a scene; especially when phong decided to fall down the stairs flat on his face, and injure himself. on sunday my giants managed to defeat the packers. i had faith in them this season, but i never would’ve figured that they’d be up against the patriots in the super bowl! lots of big plans for super bowl weekend as well, but this coming weekend me, mike, kim, phong, will, and maybe a few others are heading up to loon in new hampshire to do some skiing/boarding. haven’t gone skiing in new england since i was in high school, so i can’t wait. it’s a totally different experience than skiing in the poconos. hopefully my camera will survive the frigid temperatures and i’ll return with some great pictures.

justin and i were joking around yesterday about making t-shirts that say something along the lines of “i survived the brighton power outage of ‘08.” we both took off of work because of the snow storm. we got close to a foot, which definitely wasn’t nearly as bad as the back-to-back storms we got in early december, but still a pretty good amount. and it was really heavy snow, so a lot of trees came down, taking power lines down with them. so early in the day we shoveled the driveway and then took a walk to cleveland circle to get some food, and scope out the snow covered city. well by the time we got back at around 2:00 we realized that the power was out. we sat around with almost nothing to do for a good 2 hours and then realized that we needed to go buy some candles since it would be getting dark soon. we took a walk to cvs and noticed that the power was out all through brighton center, including all the stores, restaurants, shops, etc… so we walked back here, jumped in my ride, and headed to target where we bought an insane amount of candles with phong’s target gift cards. i bought myself a nice monkey candle holder and some tea light candles. and then we got some method (my favorite brand that i promote at staples) scented candles for the new smoking room, now that we have the new couches in the living room. i figured with my luck the power would be back on by the time we got home, which actually wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. but they remained out until about 10 minutes after we lit every candle. so it was actually somewhat fun while it lasted, but if it stayed out for much longer most of our food probably would’ve spoiled, and we would’ve been freezing. the city had a completely different feel to it. the fact that everything was snow covered, and it was pitch black. i felt very disoriented for a bit.

later in the night the girls from upstairs came down with some chocolate chip cookies they baked for us for shoveling the driveway. just what justin and i needed after a day of pretty much doing nothing but eating and walking. i have to say that they were pretty delicious though. pretty fair trade if you ask me.

been going through a series of ups and downs lately, which i unfortunately don’t feel comfortable going into detail about on here anymore. i’m used to, and would much prefer every day to just be average for the most part, with an occasional exciting moment, to keep me going, but at least the good days have been really good ones, and they keep me looking forward to some more changes.

i’m not sure if i’d call them a guilty pleasure, or just admit that they’re candy to my ears, but i still LOVE cake. i just picked up their latest album, which is a collection of b-sides & rarities, and i highly recommend it. usually rarity albums are just an excuse for older bands to make a few extra bucks when their career has just about come to an end; mostly due to lack of creativity. but i don’t think that’s the case with cake. they have consistently been putting out great albums for about 15 years. they haven’t really changed their style one bit, and i guess you could argue that all of their songs sound the same, but honestly, how can you not love this band? combining pop, with a bit of funk, and country. i’ve never been a big fan of their covers, but even the covers on this album are excellent. just to name a few there’s war pigs by black sabbath, never never gonna give you up, strangers in the night, and of course one of my favorites…mahna mahna:

okay, i could really care less about the star wars aspect of this, but i had to post it simply for the song. there’s two other instrumentals on the album that are competition for arco arena off of “comfort eagle,” which is one of my favorite instrumentals

and speaking of new music, i downloaded the new nada surf album “lucky” a few weekends ago, and i think it blows “the weight is a gift” out of the water. it’s mellow, but somehow very poppy as well. there’s a song or two that sound a lot like cheap trick, which is definitely a good thing. i don’t wanna play it out before the album is actually released, so i’ve been trying to restrain myself a little, but it’s been tough.

justin and i saw mirah and spectratone international at the MFA last weekend, which was really interesting. i don’t think either of us knew exactly what to expect, but they were great. spectratone is a four piece orchestra (i guess you could call them) that played along with her, while they had some independent stop-motion films playing behind them.

a few upcoming shows that i’ll be attending in the near future include rhett miller, cat power, possibly the magnetic fields, bob mould, holy fuck, nada surf, and a few others. i was really disappointed that justice tickets sold out in under 5 minutes on saturday morning. i was intending on going to that show, and i can only assume that those guys put on an insane show, since their debut album is incredible. supposedly no band has ever sold out that fast at the paradise, and considering that they’re brand new it really says a lot about where they’re headed.

i think i said it before, but i’ll say it again. i really picked a great year to get back into sports. it’s been well over 15 years since i’ve really had any interest in professional sports of any kind. becoming a red sox fan was easy considering the circumstances, and of course they managed to win the world series. with basketball & football i basically picked up where i left off, since i can never be a celtics or patriots fan. while the knicks haven’t had a good season in years, the giants beat the cowboys on sunday and put them into the nfc championship against green bay. phong’s colts unfortunately lost to san diego, but justin (being from wisconsin) is a pretty big packers fan, so this weekend should be interesting. and i would LOVE to see the patriots pinned up against the giants (since they just barely lost to them a few weeks ago, and almost destroyed their now 17-0 record) once more for the super bowl.

oh, and after a full year i’m BACK! hopefully i’ll keep it somewhat updated, although i still haven’t really been taking many photos lately.