This is just a test

I want to see if I/Phil will get messages if I post here.

 

Come back to me, Past!

Hey yo,

Up late again. I just deleted yet another OKC profile and instantly wanted to make another. I have problems, but nothing some Ancient Age and pinot noir won’t exacerbate! WOO HOOOCH!

Whatever happened to me? I used to get up the gumption to talk to girls I’d see on BART. Now I just wait it out and imagine how I’d rewrite the scene in my movie. Tonight I did just that. The girl even turned out to be a neighbor of sorts, but no words were exchanged beyond calling out “On your left!” as I passed her cycling home. The old me would have sat down next to her and chatted or at least said “Hi.” What is happening to me? I don’t even want to celebrate Halloween. Things are going sour.

Yesterday, I put in my 3 and 1/2 weeks notice at Yoshi’s. It would have been 2 weeks, but my boss was heading out to the Caribbean for a week and a half and he’s been good to me so I figured I’d wait. The bicycle light company I’m working at is going to take me on full time and I’ll have evenings again!

I plan on putting out a new dance mix, but I also want to do something different. Maybe a love mix. Something you can listen to with your lover over coffee or post-coitus. It’ll be like Sigur Ros, but with lyrics you can understand.

Two things about my love life, aside from the all too recent OKC profile purgation:
1) My lesbian ex recently made an effort to reconnect via Facebook.
2) My last lover is well on her way to birthing an Englishman’s child after having been in London for a year and a half now? Hell, he might not be British, but it’s more fun that way.
These two incidences have correlated pristinely in a general mind-fuck of emotional turbulence. I don’t know what to do, but I feel like I should make a better effort to talk to strangers on BART and try to get laid by other means than the Internet.

Next Tuesday I’m going to play a gig in SF at the Hemlock Tavern. It might be my first paying gig, but if not it’ll still be my first gig in the city. I’ll be playing keyboards for my friend Brendan’s band, Flying Pigeon (see Facebook). I don’t play keyboards! I just own a keyboard for therapeutic reasons. This is going to be one hot mess, but it might help me get laid…

Pandora stations I recommend:
Lefty Frizzell
Mastodon
J Dilla
Kiss Me Deadly (song by Generation X)
Fiery Furnaces (yeah, I know)

Talk to you soon, my lovely Internet!
hearts and kittens
-aa

 

Pour Your Misery Down On Me

The blog entry title has nothing to do with anything. I’ve just had that line stuck in my head for days. Hella mad days. Garbage, I’m only happy when it rains. I suppose it started when it rained almost a week ago? Maybe a few days? I don’t know.

I listened to Benton Harbor Blues Again by The Fiery Furnaces and thought about how this is a great happy sounding sad song and how it seems like a progression from the launch pad of Belle and Sebastian. I found If You’re Feeling Sinister in the process of moving down to Santa Cruz for that year… That whole Belle and Sebastian phase of my life is bittersweet melancholy crap, the kind I’ve been romanticizing from a young age. Arguably the best year of my life if you like to argue.

 

Urge

Man, what was I about to say? It had something to do with…

So I don’t enjoy listening to the Circle Jerks. I think I’ve always known this, but tonight I secured the feeling. Fucking Joke Punk.

Remember when pictures of cats with captions on them were funny? I feel so old.

The desk is still here

 

Phone Etiquette

Hello there,

Here are a few pointers on phone etiquette with professional strangers.

When you ask a question, please don’t try to guess what the answer could be. This habit is extremely annoying. Obviously, if you have to ask the person on the other end about something, they probably know more about it than you do.

Get to the point. In most situations there is no need for a back story. If you have an issue, state the issue and let the person on the other end take the reigns from there. Unless they are incompetent, which you should never assume they are without proof, they will most likely understand the system and necessary process better than you do. That’s why they are paid for their service. It is in the interest of YOUR time that you let them do most of the driving. If it turns out that they are indeed incompetent, ask to speak with a manager, but do so politely, or they are likely to put you on hold for a long time and tell their manager you’re a dick.

If the policies of a business have changed, it will only prove to aggravate the employees of said business to inform them of how the policies used to work. It will not change anything about said policies and will only result in time wasted in a fashion that is less than entertaining.

When someone answers phones for a living and has to say the company’s name in the greeting, you are neither clever nor original to address said person personally as if he or she were the company. Example:

Employee: Thank you for calling Generic Inc. How may I help you?
Customer: Hi Generic Inc.! How are you?

Employee: *shoots head with imaginary gun and rolls eyes* Doing great, Mr. Clever Anonymous Guy. You see how I’m not asking how you are? How can I help you?

This habit is extremely insulting and dehumanizing. Yes, you’re only trying to be funny, but you are failing in your attempt and people will be less inclined to help you to the best of their abilities if you treat them like a cog in the machine rather than individuals who’ve heard that joke five times that day before you called.

Don’t ask how they are doing. I know, I know, you’re only trying to be polite, but really, do you care? What if they’re having a bad day? Do you want them to be honest with you or just lie to you in order to make you feel good about being so polite? It’s a delving and unnecessary question. A simple “Good morning/afternoon/day/evening” should suffice, or if you’re a religious person you could wish them a “blessed day” up front. Again if they’re in a foul mood, you might get off on the wrong foot this way, so 9 times out of 10 “Hello” will do just fine.

For the sake of all that is good and holy, listen! Try not to hear what you want to hear, but hear what is being said and try to understand it.

 

we need to progress

from a very young age i have had a jesus complex. i used to believe or sense that i would at some point save the world, that all of the world’s anguish would be beset upon me and goodness would prevail, or at least that’s how i see those feelings now. the gods of virtue and restitution would smile upon me and bless the rest of my days and life would be solved and pain would end. glimmering sparks of these ambitions still flare up from time to time, but it mostly seems like a pubescent trial, though it began before i started growing hair where there wasn’t hair before. an adolescence of thought and perspective. i haven’t grown out of it. i still try to find it fitting and right. i need to justify it. everything must be just.

was this a cruel joke played on the primitives, handed down to us as culture? this sense of urgency for the fulfillment of justice can also be seen as a desperate attempt to justify life itself. What’s the point in justifying life? It’s just going to do what it does and so are you. There is no justice in this world save for romanticism, but I still want to love you and see you happy.

What if that’s what Jesus said lighting up a red with a half pint of whiskey under his belt? Why do you consider or believe the Buddha to be perfect? What will that do for you, who are prone to error and folly as you are? It does nothing for me to hear that I must be other than who I am to find myself, or that the standard was set at perfect, or that giving one’s life for a cause is anything that should be praised. you can do so much more honest work alive with the living than you can post mortum.

 

Political Orientation

Being politically conservative only makes sense if you’re a rich white male. Otherwise, you are just cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Don’t let politicians use Jesus to trick you!

Anarchy does not mean Chaos. Unfortunately, a lot of people who claim to be anarchists are merely Chaos worshiping fascists. Also, never trust an Anarchist who smokes cigarettes. Think about it, they don’t want to pay rent or vote, but still fund one of the most insidious industries in the planet that used to be a slave crop?
“[A]s far as we can tell the difference between a Libertarian and an Anarchist usually seems to be a bachelor’s degree.”

Socialism isn’t radical, it’s smart. What the fuck are we paying the government for anyway? So they can wears suits and pay off the banks they borrow money from ON INTEREST?! Bullshit. It’s not like they’re gonna hire Cal Trans workers to be doctors if we socialize medicine. It would just mean you wouldn’t have to bankroll insurance agencies, who’ll try to wriggle out of the coverage they promised you at all costs.

Bi-partisan politics is absolute bullshit. That’s all there is to that.

 

Destroyer and AZITA @ Cafe Du Nord 05/08-09/09

Last.fm rulez!

Last night I was alerted to the existence of this charming ‘group’ called Destroyer. Right up my friggin alley, right? Last.fm then told me he’d be playing at Cafe Du Nord in a couple weeks with this other neat band AZITA. Now I just have to see them with The Small, The Fiery Furnaces and Of Montreal and my weird-pop love balloon will burst.

here are some videos I found:

Destroyer – Painter in Your Pocket (fan video)

*I have not heard this song yet but it seems to be a crowd favorite according to Last.fm

AZITA
can’t find a video, go to the myspace link above.

 

The Fiery Furnaces

Hey,

I drank about 3/4 of a 750ml bottle of Bulleit whiskey today and then took a nap before drinking more at a poetry meeting my friend hosted. Also a friend of mine hooked it up awesome so everything’s great, I just wish it were earlier in the day so I could play and sing music. Maybe I should buy some cigarettes and say fuck it? I’ll tell you about it next time.

Also, this:

… this is dangerous. I’m not very far into the can and shouldn’t be drinking energy drinks at this time of night (for fuck’s sake!), but it’s kind of like the best fruit punch kool-aid ever mixed with that annoying Children’s Chewable Tylenol taste you get in alcoholic energy drinks. Why can’t there just be a whiskey coke bottle? Can you imagine going into a liquor store and picking up a Jack Daniel’s and Coka-Cola, or a Canada Dry Gin and Tonic? That would be bad ass! But no, life can’t be a simple paradise! Fuck your blog!* I do what I want.

*”Fuck Your Blog” is a phrase my friends Justin and Tarika came up with to say in other words “Never mind your bullshit”, to put it lightly.

Important News: So I fucking LOVE, or as the New York Dolls would say, I LUV The Fiery Furnaces.

Here’s a video:

here’s my favorite song of theirs: (shouldn’t there be an apostrophe… their’s… English can be a daunting adversary.)

for you guitarists out there, that’s
verse:
A – F# – D (+ guitar noodling)
chorus:
E – A – F# – D (plus guitar noodling)
rhythm:
figure it out, fool.

and this song is pure gold (I don’t know about the video):

and we go further down the rabbit hole…

Here you’ll hear some of the more abrupt and random stuff they do:

“I want a restorative beer to take my mind off of these tears”:
(there is nothing to watch in this video):

This is like the funk jazz version of Led Zeppelin:

“If there’s anything I’ve had enough of, it’s today.”

I am kind of infatuated and mesmerized with and by Eleanor Friedberger’s voice for some strange reason. It’s the best part of this music for me. As I understand it, Matthew Friedberger is the main songwriter for the band, and while I would be a fan of the instrumentation, it’s Eleanor’s voice that resonates with me the most.

If you’re interested in finding out more… I can maybe be of assistance. Ask 🙂

 

03.10.09 mix up

Greetings

Update for this morning: I should know better than to drink entire bottle of red wine all by myself. Not really any hangover, but at 5 am I felt like I was going to lose those ill advised crispy burritos from Carl’s Junior I had last night. Someone from the gym I just joined called this morning to schedule a time for me to come in and get some one-on-one with a trainer and discuss my goals. I should have said I want to get ripped like shredded wheat, totally blast my pecs, get honorable mention at the gun show or something like that, but I just blew her off. This is what I want to look like:

I think it’s my diet that will have to change the most. With the exception of last night’s wine and fast food relapse and the recent re-introduction to owning a bong, I’ve been decent about eating right, or at least well. Oatmeal, avocados, oranges, greens, wheat bread, protein shakes for getting ripped, and some morning star patties. I can always count on Family Meal at work to have meat in it so I don’t have to have it at home. Then there’s the laziness…

Important News: The other day I was sitting around thinking of what I should do when my sister called me which reminded me that I was going to make her a dance mix. It’s about time.

As for the songs, some of them are old, some of them are new, some of them will show up when you least expect them to. A better one will be coming soon.

Track list:
01. Blam! – Barack Obama 0:18
02. Electric Feel – MGMT 3:50
03. Blind – Hercules & Love Affair 6:18
04. Dystopia (Turkish Prison Mix) – Midnight Juggernauts 4:24
05. Sweaty – Muscles 4:16
06. Nothin’ on Me – Barack Obama 0:08
07. That’s Not My Name (LA Riots Remix) – The Ting Tings 5:51
08. Polaroid – Shwayze 4:43
09. Harder Better Faster – Daft Punk 3:44
10. Crimewave (Crystal Castles Vs Health) – Health 4:32
11. Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex – CSS 3:05
12. My Number – Barack Obama 0:03
13. Whatever You Like (DiscoTech Remix) – T.I. 4:38
14. The Geeks Were Right (DIOYY Remix) – The Faint 2:50
15. Because You Left – Neo Tokyo 4:10
16. Too Complicated – Barack Obama 0:03
17. Heartbeats – Knife 3:52
18. Future – Cut Copy 5:12
19. Homecoming (DiscoTech Remix) – Kanye West 4:12
20. Gifted (feat. Kanye West, Santogold & Lykke Li) – N.A.S.A. 3:39
21. White Folks – Barack Obama 0:05
22. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix) – Black Kids 3:42
23. D.A.N.C.E. – Justice 4:34
24. Buy Your Own Fries – Barack Obama 0:04

RAWR!

Love.