Tonight was Thanksgiving! Long long day, so here's a short post to recap:
Woke up at 5:20am, took a car to work, worked 7-9am, hung out with Angie at work. Had to walk from 5th ave to work because of the parade route. It was very cold.
Left work at 9am, took the N down to Times Square, S to Grand Central, searched for a cheap water bottle but settled for a $3 one. Got a seat on the Metro North train, thought about switching cars because of a loud annoying kid but didn't.
Had the 2-seater to myself the whole way to the transfer at Southeast. Read some of the New Yorker tech issue, thought about things, looked out at the scenery. Transferred and sat next to a girl, read California, there were still lots of orange leaves on the trees outside.
Got to Harlem Valley-Wingdale, parents and Kevin picked me up and we drove to Newtown talking about movies etc., family firing on all cylinders.
Got to Lizzie's, hung out with Peter and John and the kids, helped cook, ate lunch, played with the kids outside, came back in and watched football while chatting and drinking and cooking. Old Christmas movies were playing on a small TV in the kitchen. We made the rum rolls and called Nadine and Scott and Grandpa. Played piano with John.
More relatives were arriving, lots of fun and noise and dogs. Sat to dinner around 6pm, food and conversation were great, lots of potatoes. Turkey was as good as turkey can be. We talked about Aunt Jessie's Chinese project, and Columbia administration and housing experiences, and Vietnam with John. Talked about travel plans with Melinda.
The kids were super cute, we played soccer with Ale, Javi was boisterous, I pushed Andy on the swings, and Bella is very smily. Tommy is a baby.
Pumpkin pie and apple pie after dinner, lots of red wine. All in all a great day.
Drove back to Brooklyn with Denis and Melinda, talked about Sirius, listened to their Bourne-ish book on tape, snoozed.
Busy weekend now with work tomorrow morning and family here all weekend, so I wanted to write this all now and try not to forget. Now 6 hours of sleep, and then work.
Holidays!
Bill Evans- The Two Lonely People
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Late(r)
It's 10:11pm and I should be asleep already, but I've gotten used to 7 hours rather than 8 a night.
if I were trying to do prose I'd rewrite that sentence to make it better but this is supposed to be diary, not prose.
I'm listening to DOOM''s Food and have 15 minutes to write so here goes.
Lately:
Halloween was great, I went around the days before trying to find a lime green blazer for my Dougie Jones costume but to no avail. I went to Park Slope, Salvation Army on 9th ave, Goodwills, Thrift Stores, NYU area, Lower East Side, everywhere. Nothing. So at the last store at the last minute, I figured I could do an Eleven costume based off a funny tweet I'd seen, and that people would find it fun. It worked to great avail.
Also, the Wednesday before Halloween weekend I got drinks with Holly and Manon at McSorley's, it was great. We gossiped work and went to the Halloween superstore afterwards, it was very nice.
Halloween Saturday was Madeline's party, I went as Eleven, helped set up a little, drank and met people, danced and DJed a bit, was one of the first to arrive and last to leave. Great party. Thea and Baxter won best costume of course.
That was 20ish days ago, since then, what?
Stranger Things 2, which I enjoyed a lot. Thor Ragnarok with Yuan and Richard, some football watching ( :[ ) . I watched the baseball postseason which was great, worked a lot, saw Ringo Starr and Erykah Badu in person which was cool, shared an elevator with Neil Degrasse Tyson and made him laugh with a quip.
Him: Do you know your APE index? Me: I think I lean more towards Orangutan.
I got a chuckle, I felt accomplished.
Since then, what?
Draenor, new albums, playing a lot at Stratosphere. My piano playing is good but still needs work, my drumming's actually been getting very good mostly. Playing live with other musicians really is the best practice.
John's birthday dinner, hung out with the whole east coast fam. Going up to Connecticut this weekend!
Madeline's birthday party was this weekend, was very fun. Drank and met people and danced at Radegast Bier hall in Williamsburg, a live band was playing rock and roll and we did rock and roll dancing. Everyone was white, but it was still fun. I was into a girl who turned out to be in a relationship with a polyamorous satanist girl. So yeah.
Yesterday Devin, Madeline, Kelsey and I went and filmed a scene from The Room to submit for a online campaign thing, it was very fun and silly.
(side note: yes my prose sucks tonight, it's Sunday night and I'm tired, lay off!!!)
We then hung out at the Dekalb mall which I didn't even know existed, we ate dinner while a bassist and pianist set up and started playing jazz, very lucky! It was pouring rain on the walk to the subway, we got in the station and it was a 15 minute wait for the train so we called an Uber, the Uber took 20 minutes and didn't show up so we called a Lyft and had a nice $16 ride back to their apartment where we watched Borat because Madeline and Kelsey had never seen it. And they liked it a lot! It still holds up.
We then played Monopoly while Troll 2 played in the background, I won Monopoly because I'm secretly very competitive. Or maybe because I used to be very competitive about Monopoly as a kid when you play a lot and the strategies for it were hardwired into my brain. Anyway it was all super fun.
Today (Sunday) I didn't do much, played some piano and watched some football and wasted some time, but I got a muffin and croissant which was nice.
Now a busy week.
My last post was in August, so I missed all of September and October pretty much? What happened in them?
October was baseball and football watching, leaves changing and worrying about the wildfires in Northern California. USA didn't qualify for the World Cup and I am sad. Tom Petty died.
September was Matt Cain's last start, which I watched. Nathan for You came back. Charles Bradley died :( . I finished Twin Peaks, Game of Thrones finished the season strong, at the end of August I went to Yuan Kevin and Richard's apartment party, hung out with them and Shem and Thea and Baxter came.
This ended up taking like 20 minutes so I'm over time now, but I'll try to write more frequently.
Shame on you past Brian for dropping the writing ball, please carry the torch future Brian.
for the changing autumnal colors, Yves Montand, Les Feuilles Mortes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRe1U17n5OY
if I were trying to do prose I'd rewrite that sentence to make it better but this is supposed to be diary, not prose.
I'm listening to DOOM''s Food and have 15 minutes to write so here goes.
Lately:
Halloween was great, I went around the days before trying to find a lime green blazer for my Dougie Jones costume but to no avail. I went to Park Slope, Salvation Army on 9th ave, Goodwills, Thrift Stores, NYU area, Lower East Side, everywhere. Nothing. So at the last store at the last minute, I figured I could do an Eleven costume based off a funny tweet I'd seen, and that people would find it fun. It worked to great avail.
Also, the Wednesday before Halloween weekend I got drinks with Holly and Manon at McSorley's, it was great. We gossiped work and went to the Halloween superstore afterwards, it was very nice.
Halloween Saturday was Madeline's party, I went as Eleven, helped set up a little, drank and met people, danced and DJed a bit, was one of the first to arrive and last to leave. Great party. Thea and Baxter won best costume of course.
That was 20ish days ago, since then, what?
Stranger Things 2, which I enjoyed a lot. Thor Ragnarok with Yuan and Richard, some football watching ( :[ ) . I watched the baseball postseason which was great, worked a lot, saw Ringo Starr and Erykah Badu in person which was cool, shared an elevator with Neil Degrasse Tyson and made him laugh with a quip.
Him: Do you know your APE index? Me: I think I lean more towards Orangutan.
I got a chuckle, I felt accomplished.
Since then, what?
Draenor, new albums, playing a lot at Stratosphere. My piano playing is good but still needs work, my drumming's actually been getting very good mostly. Playing live with other musicians really is the best practice.
John's birthday dinner, hung out with the whole east coast fam. Going up to Connecticut this weekend!
Madeline's birthday party was this weekend, was very fun. Drank and met people and danced at Radegast Bier hall in Williamsburg, a live band was playing rock and roll and we did rock and roll dancing. Everyone was white, but it was still fun. I was into a girl who turned out to be in a relationship with a polyamorous satanist girl. So yeah.
Yesterday Devin, Madeline, Kelsey and I went and filmed a scene from The Room to submit for a online campaign thing, it was very fun and silly.
(side note: yes my prose sucks tonight, it's Sunday night and I'm tired, lay off!!!)
We then hung out at the Dekalb mall which I didn't even know existed, we ate dinner while a bassist and pianist set up and started playing jazz, very lucky! It was pouring rain on the walk to the subway, we got in the station and it was a 15 minute wait for the train so we called an Uber, the Uber took 20 minutes and didn't show up so we called a Lyft and had a nice $16 ride back to their apartment where we watched Borat because Madeline and Kelsey had never seen it. And they liked it a lot! It still holds up.
We then played Monopoly while Troll 2 played in the background, I won Monopoly because I'm secretly very competitive. Or maybe because I used to be very competitive about Monopoly as a kid when you play a lot and the strategies for it were hardwired into my brain. Anyway it was all super fun.
Today (Sunday) I didn't do much, played some piano and watched some football and wasted some time, but I got a muffin and croissant which was nice.
Now a busy week.
My last post was in August, so I missed all of September and October pretty much? What happened in them?
October was baseball and football watching, leaves changing and worrying about the wildfires in Northern California. USA didn't qualify for the World Cup and I am sad. Tom Petty died.
September was Matt Cain's last start, which I watched. Nathan for You came back. Charles Bradley died :( . I finished Twin Peaks, Game of Thrones finished the season strong, at the end of August I went to Yuan Kevin and Richard's apartment party, hung out with them and Shem and Thea and Baxter came.
This ended up taking like 20 minutes so I'm over time now, but I'll try to write more frequently.
Shame on you past Brian for dropping the writing ball, please carry the torch future Brian.
for the changing autumnal colors, Yves Montand, Les Feuilles Mortes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRe1U17n5OY
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Serious writing
Well obviously that plan didn't work. I guess I should have figured that me at 7am post subway pre-lunch would not be very motivated to wax poetic. At that time I only care about getting the wax paper off my bagel to eat it.
(My bagel is wrapped in tin foil, not wax paper. But cleverness>truth).
What to write about? An English professor of mine in college, in a Shakespeare class, told me I'm a talented writer, if a bit careless, and that I should really try to marry my ideas to less non-chalant writing. That probably won't happen on this blog because it's supposed to be non-chalant and semi stream of consciousness, but I would like to try to write something for real. What to write about? Life, the universe and everything? The merits of a butter-and-extra-toasted bagel?
Sidebar before all that: the recent past.
Last Saturday night (today is Thursday) I went to Radio City Music Hall with my cousin John to see Dave Chappelle and Childish Gambino. Hannibal Buress also did a surprise opening set. Two other comics did short openers, Mo Amer and Will (Sylvance?), and they were both good.
I'd been looking forward to this night for a long time, and it didn't disappoint. Radio city is an amazing venue, maybe the nicest theater I've been in, and it impressed in both size and luxury. There was a band playing in the lobby before the show and during intermission which was great. Hannibal did a really funny set, using video in it to great effect. I'll now forever remember the image of him humping a toaster that he wants played at his funeral. I also appreciate that he still uses Flylo as his walk up music.
Side side note the guy sitting next to John (John made it to the show just in time after driving back from Nantucket with Aunt Jessie) was extremely drunk, getting progressively more drunk throughout the show. He passed out during Chappelle and then was close to falling over the balcony railing during Gambino. It went from funny to sad to scary, I'm glad I don't drink like that.
Chappelle was amazing. He's a gladiator. He commands the audience so forcefully, even more so than in his early career I'd say. His demeanor and presence have changed as he's gotten older, from a spritely young comic inviting you into his personality to a wise sage revealing his worldview. But the material is as strong as ever, maybe even stronger. He's able to toe the line of preachy or "mmhmm that's true" material but stay funny enough while doing it that it never feels like a sermon, but instead a hilarious lesson from a hilarious professor.
Also he did the man rape joke and I got to see it live and I'm still bewildered at that, since it's one of my favorites of his. With a new punchline on the end too.
His content and technique were impeccable, but his presence was most important. He's a leader without being a preacher, a clown without being an embarrassment, and a human without being an open book.
Gambino was good too I guess.
No but really Donald Glover is ridiculously talented. It's weird to watch someone perform a full funk concert of music they've made and realize he's doing all this while also writing, directing and starring in the second season of an Emmy winning show. John and I talked afterwards about how his music is building on old funk greats like Funkadelic and Bootsy on its sleeve, but that's okay because he's actively adding something to the conversation and trying to do something exciting. I doubt his next album (supposedly his last) will have the same sound, and that''s good, he's exciting for his fresh ideas.
After the show we went to Fat Cat and talked about my future in business, what I hope for in radio city, what he's experienced, and we played pool. As usual I shot well then lost my mojo the later it got. Maybe I should drop everything and become a pool shark, I can actually be very good at it when I practice and really enjoy it. It's like yoga for me.
Other than that, I still need to write about Ireland, the rest of summer, I think 4th of July?, and more. Work today was fine, Manon and Holly were both out so I covered everything and did Today Show Confidential alone (with someone covering phones). On the way home from work the trains stopped working at Barclay's Center so I got out and decided to walk, stopped at Shake Shack for a milkshake on the way.
What to write about? The problem with writing something serious like an essay about the world is confronting that some of my ideas about the world I think would be smart are not smart, not good. Those ideas you say "well I'd say them but they'd never be put into practice anyway even though they're really good and would solve problems", well maybe they aren't in practice because they actually don't work. Or maybe they could work but people can't commit to them so they won't work. So you keep them in your head so you can relish their supposed quality, rather than illuminating them to find that they don't shine as brightly as you'd hoped.
That sentence is me trying to get less non-chalant (more chalant? I think I'm going to start saying chalant and will it into being a word), but not fully. Some of the Chappelle stuff above was me approaching serious writing as well.
Serious writing is difficult because it's a combination of good "academic" writing and honest "non-chalant" writing. It's easy write well in an academic manner, for me I suppose because of so much practice, but it's very difficult to infuse that academic prose with honest expression and emotion. I think in the paper I wrote about objectification I had some of that, because I felt I was writing some very novel and personal ideas.
{the above is "serious writing}
(the gist was that we all objectify the partners we desire because -get this- they're the "object"!! of our desire. Meaning, you value their personality traits as objects to fulfill your desires in a partner much in the same way you value their physical features as objects. Is it bad then to objectify? Not really, but try to recognize when you're doing it, understand why, and what you're valuing in a person. You can't really desire someone without valuing them because they fulfill your desires,
no that's not what I mean. I was going to delete that sentence but I'll let it stand for posterity.
What I meant was, in the more sophomoric sense, we value bodies equally with minds, but we feel worse about valuing people for their bodies. Marrying someone because they're rich is pretty much the same as marrying them for being hot, it's just different calculations of values and desires. So then how to avoid valuing someone based on how they fulfill your desires? Be Kantian and treat them as an end in themselves? That seems to be somewhat it, understand that you're also valuable to their desires and try to fulfill them as well.
I'll read back through that paper and see if that's what I was saying).
^Tangent!
Well, this has mostly been an attempt to get my writing juices flowing. The writing club I used to be in (RIP) was good for developing some creative writing, but I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a full fictional creative writer. There's enough material in the world that I don't need to go creating my own.
So, where do I start?
Music still, too!
Dent May, Across the Multiverse (full album)
http://hypem.com/premiere/dent+may
(My bagel is wrapped in tin foil, not wax paper. But cleverness>truth).
What to write about? An English professor of mine in college, in a Shakespeare class, told me I'm a talented writer, if a bit careless, and that I should really try to marry my ideas to less non-chalant writing. That probably won't happen on this blog because it's supposed to be non-chalant and semi stream of consciousness, but I would like to try to write something for real. What to write about? Life, the universe and everything? The merits of a butter-and-extra-toasted bagel?
Sidebar before all that: the recent past.
Last Saturday night (today is Thursday) I went to Radio City Music Hall with my cousin John to see Dave Chappelle and Childish Gambino. Hannibal Buress also did a surprise opening set. Two other comics did short openers, Mo Amer and Will (Sylvance?), and they were both good.
I'd been looking forward to this night for a long time, and it didn't disappoint. Radio city is an amazing venue, maybe the nicest theater I've been in, and it impressed in both size and luxury. There was a band playing in the lobby before the show and during intermission which was great. Hannibal did a really funny set, using video in it to great effect. I'll now forever remember the image of him humping a toaster that he wants played at his funeral. I also appreciate that he still uses Flylo as his walk up music.
Side side note the guy sitting next to John (John made it to the show just in time after driving back from Nantucket with Aunt Jessie) was extremely drunk, getting progressively more drunk throughout the show. He passed out during Chappelle and then was close to falling over the balcony railing during Gambino. It went from funny to sad to scary, I'm glad I don't drink like that.
Chappelle was amazing. He's a gladiator. He commands the audience so forcefully, even more so than in his early career I'd say. His demeanor and presence have changed as he's gotten older, from a spritely young comic inviting you into his personality to a wise sage revealing his worldview. But the material is as strong as ever, maybe even stronger. He's able to toe the line of preachy or "mmhmm that's true" material but stay funny enough while doing it that it never feels like a sermon, but instead a hilarious lesson from a hilarious professor.
Also he did the man rape joke and I got to see it live and I'm still bewildered at that, since it's one of my favorites of his. With a new punchline on the end too.
His content and technique were impeccable, but his presence was most important. He's a leader without being a preacher, a clown without being an embarrassment, and a human without being an open book.
Gambino was good too I guess.
No but really Donald Glover is ridiculously talented. It's weird to watch someone perform a full funk concert of music they've made and realize he's doing all this while also writing, directing and starring in the second season of an Emmy winning show. John and I talked afterwards about how his music is building on old funk greats like Funkadelic and Bootsy on its sleeve, but that's okay because he's actively adding something to the conversation and trying to do something exciting. I doubt his next album (supposedly his last) will have the same sound, and that''s good, he's exciting for his fresh ideas.
After the show we went to Fat Cat and talked about my future in business, what I hope for in radio city, what he's experienced, and we played pool. As usual I shot well then lost my mojo the later it got. Maybe I should drop everything and become a pool shark, I can actually be very good at it when I practice and really enjoy it. It's like yoga for me.
Other than that, I still need to write about Ireland, the rest of summer, I think 4th of July?, and more. Work today was fine, Manon and Holly were both out so I covered everything and did Today Show Confidential alone (with someone covering phones). On the way home from work the trains stopped working at Barclay's Center so I got out and decided to walk, stopped at Shake Shack for a milkshake on the way.
What to write about? The problem with writing something serious like an essay about the world is confronting that some of my ideas about the world I think would be smart are not smart, not good. Those ideas you say "well I'd say them but they'd never be put into practice anyway even though they're really good and would solve problems", well maybe they aren't in practice because they actually don't work. Or maybe they could work but people can't commit to them so they won't work. So you keep them in your head so you can relish their supposed quality, rather than illuminating them to find that they don't shine as brightly as you'd hoped.
That sentence is me trying to get less non-chalant (more chalant? I think I'm going to start saying chalant and will it into being a word), but not fully. Some of the Chappelle stuff above was me approaching serious writing as well.
Serious writing is difficult because it's a combination of good "academic" writing and honest "non-chalant" writing. It's easy write well in an academic manner, for me I suppose because of so much practice, but it's very difficult to infuse that academic prose with honest expression and emotion. I think in the paper I wrote about objectification I had some of that, because I felt I was writing some very novel and personal ideas.
{the above is "serious writing}
(the gist was that we all objectify the partners we desire because -get this- they're the "object"!! of our desire. Meaning, you value their personality traits as objects to fulfill your desires in a partner much in the same way you value their physical features as objects. Is it bad then to objectify? Not really, but try to recognize when you're doing it, understand why, and what you're valuing in a person. You can't really desire someone without valuing them because they fulfill your desires,
no that's not what I mean. I was going to delete that sentence but I'll let it stand for posterity.
What I meant was, in the more sophomoric sense, we value bodies equally with minds, but we feel worse about valuing people for their bodies. Marrying someone because they're rich is pretty much the same as marrying them for being hot, it's just different calculations of values and desires. So then how to avoid valuing someone based on how they fulfill your desires? Be Kantian and treat them as an end in themselves? That seems to be somewhat it, understand that you're also valuable to their desires and try to fulfill them as well.
I'll read back through that paper and see if that's what I was saying).
^Tangent!
Well, this has mostly been an attempt to get my writing juices flowing. The writing club I used to be in (RIP) was good for developing some creative writing, but I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a full fictional creative writer. There's enough material in the world that I don't need to go creating my own.
So, where do I start?
Music still, too!
Dent May, Across the Multiverse (full album)
http://hypem.com/premiere/dent+may
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Mornings
I'm going to start writing in the mornings at work, rather than at night when I don't feel like writing at length. Or when I'm distracted by entertainment.
Topics for this week:
Ireland reflections, two months removed.
4th of July in Connecticut and Prospect Park.
My job.
Playing music at Stratosphere.
The Sopranos?
Working out.
music for tonight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv2GgV34qIg
Bill Evans, Peace Piece.
Topics for this week:
Ireland reflections, two months removed.
4th of July in Connecticut and Prospect Park.
My job.
Playing music at Stratosphere.
The Sopranos?
Working out.
music for tonight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv2GgV34qIg
Bill Evans, Peace Piece.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Well well then
Only a two month absence this time! It's 9:38pm and I have to be up at 5:30 for work, so I'll keep this short.
My brother's in town, we went to a great rooftop bar last night called Westlight in Williamsburg, with Steve and Andrea. After that we walked to Lilia, a great Italian restaurant and ate amazing pasta with lots of wine. After dinner I briefly played a piano for them that was sitting outside the restaurant (how very Brooklyn). I played "All the Things You Are" and "PYT". Steve and Andrea walked to the subway, my brother caught an Uber and I played Autumn Leaves on the piano while I waited for a Lyft.
The Lyft driver was very friendly and there were two separate Lyft line passengers in the car! We talked about teaching and jams and where she should move, I encouraged the Bay Area.
Tomorrow Kevin and I are going to a brewfest at the Bronx zoo, should be fun.
Recently what's happened? Ireland trip will be a full post, the Warriors won the NBA Finals!!! which was great, I've been hanging out with Madeline Breda and her friends more. All in all things have been good. Some sadness or frustation here and there (lots of Trump stuff), but mostly all good.
I'm much better at piano. Today I may have written a song.
Until next time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AgdI4eyFc
Thundercat- Show You The Way (live feat. Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins)
My brother's in town, we went to a great rooftop bar last night called Westlight in Williamsburg, with Steve and Andrea. After that we walked to Lilia, a great Italian restaurant and ate amazing pasta with lots of wine. After dinner I briefly played a piano for them that was sitting outside the restaurant (how very Brooklyn). I played "All the Things You Are" and "PYT". Steve and Andrea walked to the subway, my brother caught an Uber and I played Autumn Leaves on the piano while I waited for a Lyft.
The Lyft driver was very friendly and there were two separate Lyft line passengers in the car! We talked about teaching and jams and where she should move, I encouraged the Bay Area.
Tomorrow Kevin and I are going to a brewfest at the Bronx zoo, should be fun.
Recently what's happened? Ireland trip will be a full post, the Warriors won the NBA Finals!!! which was great, I've been hanging out with Madeline Breda and her friends more. All in all things have been good. Some sadness or frustation here and there (lots of Trump stuff), but mostly all good.
I'm much better at piano. Today I may have written a song.
Until next time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AgdI4eyFc
Thundercat- Show You The Way (live feat. Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins)
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Well then
So much for writing more often. I last wrote about 6 months ago, and the subject of that post was about how I'd last written about a year before.
Wild that I'm writing a day after Prince's death anniversary and that was such a part of my last post. Today I went to Record Store Day, or at least to 1 local record store (Norton's Record Shop) in Crown Heights (technically prospect heights) because I'm sick and didn't feel like going further. Last night I went to a bar in Bushwick called The Rookery with Zach, Jocelyn, Madeline (new neighbor friend!), and Zach's roommate Claire. It was really fun, I love combining friend groups like that.
Last Saturday I went to a Yankee game with Steve and Andrea, they won after a tense 9th. Sunday was Easter at Jessie's with Liz & Guille, Peter & Britney, Dennis & Melinda, and so many babies. Babies everywhere. Javi, Ale, Andy, and newborns Tommy and Isabella. I think all are under 4 years old? Maybe Ale is 5? But yeah lots of youngins, which was cool! Always good to spend quality time with the fam.
Last Friday I went to Friends and Lovers with Madeline, Kelsey, Devin and Rachel, which was very fun. Danced until 2am, and was very sore the next days. The DJ was really good, Wizard something, apparently invented scratching? (dubious).
What else recently? I've seen some cool people at Sirius, Elijah Wood, Roose Bolton, Todd Rundgren, and many more. I started my new job since my last post. It's tight but not that tight. But it pays more than double what I was making which is tight. And my team I work with are really cool. So it could be a lot worse. New Kendrick album just came out and was great, and The Last Jedi teaser came out, was also great.
I'm going to start a music blog of some sort similar to this, but just music reccomendations. I still never spell recommendations properly. I've got to flex that part of myself somehow. The problem is how do I get people to read it. Do I do a blog, a twitter account? A (gasp) Tumblr?
Who knows, but I've got keep the creative juices flowing.
Bevelations still deserves that separate post, which I'll get to. I'm writing this one on a whim, and listening to Vince Guaraldi, so bear with me.
Listening to "Christmastime Is Here (Instrumental)" and writing right now is making my inner thought monologue have a very Charlie Brown voice as I write. In case that last sentence was weird, I'm on Dayquil FYI.
[Charlie Brown voice] People tell me I'm a good writer (mostly my parents lol but also others at writing club (these parentheses parts are not in CB voice)), so I guess I should write more. I do like to write, academic or in diary form like this, and writing club has even gotten me into creative writing. ("Christmastime Is Here (vocal)" just started on my iTunes.) But who should I write to? What should I really write? I've been cleaning my room recently, and finding lots of things packed away I thought I'd want to keep, but now they seem superfluous. Will the same happen with my writing? If I write this blog every day (week? Month?) will I be cataloging too much of my life?
Probably, but so what? Maybe I'll make it a point to try to write every day at work during lunch. The first couple of posts will be retrospectives about what's happened since the last post in November. Over Christmas I went home to Oakland which was fantastic, and January was fine I guess, February and March were pretty tight. You'll learn all about next time on
I STARTED A BLOG!
Vince Guaraldi Trio- Fly Me To The Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyEc8KAB_Mo
Wild that I'm writing a day after Prince's death anniversary and that was such a part of my last post. Today I went to Record Store Day, or at least to 1 local record store (Norton's Record Shop) in Crown Heights (technically prospect heights) because I'm sick and didn't feel like going further. Last night I went to a bar in Bushwick called The Rookery with Zach, Jocelyn, Madeline (new neighbor friend!), and Zach's roommate Claire. It was really fun, I love combining friend groups like that.
Last Saturday I went to a Yankee game with Steve and Andrea, they won after a tense 9th. Sunday was Easter at Jessie's with Liz & Guille, Peter & Britney, Dennis & Melinda, and so many babies. Babies everywhere. Javi, Ale, Andy, and newborns Tommy and Isabella. I think all are under 4 years old? Maybe Ale is 5? But yeah lots of youngins, which was cool! Always good to spend quality time with the fam.
Last Friday I went to Friends and Lovers with Madeline, Kelsey, Devin and Rachel, which was very fun. Danced until 2am, and was very sore the next days. The DJ was really good, Wizard something, apparently invented scratching? (dubious).
What else recently? I've seen some cool people at Sirius, Elijah Wood, Roose Bolton, Todd Rundgren, and many more. I started my new job since my last post. It's tight but not that tight. But it pays more than double what I was making which is tight. And my team I work with are really cool. So it could be a lot worse. New Kendrick album just came out and was great, and The Last Jedi teaser came out, was also great.
I'm going to start a music blog of some sort similar to this, but just music reccomendations. I still never spell recommendations properly. I've got to flex that part of myself somehow. The problem is how do I get people to read it. Do I do a blog, a twitter account? A (gasp) Tumblr?
Who knows, but I've got keep the creative juices flowing.
Bevelations still deserves that separate post, which I'll get to. I'm writing this one on a whim, and listening to Vince Guaraldi, so bear with me.
Listening to "Christmastime Is Here (Instrumental)" and writing right now is making my inner thought monologue have a very Charlie Brown voice as I write. In case that last sentence was weird, I'm on Dayquil FYI.
[Charlie Brown voice] People tell me I'm a good writer (mostly my parents lol but also others at writing club (these parentheses parts are not in CB voice)), so I guess I should write more. I do like to write, academic or in diary form like this, and writing club has even gotten me into creative writing. ("Christmastime Is Here (vocal)" just started on my iTunes.) But who should I write to? What should I really write? I've been cleaning my room recently, and finding lots of things packed away I thought I'd want to keep, but now they seem superfluous. Will the same happen with my writing? If I write this blog every day (week? Month?) will I be cataloging too much of my life?
Probably, but so what? Maybe I'll make it a point to try to write every day at work during lunch. The first couple of posts will be retrospectives about what's happened since the last post in November. Over Christmas I went home to Oakland which was fantastic, and January was fine I guess, February and March were pretty tight. You'll learn all about next time on
I STARTED A BLOG!
Vince Guaraldi Trio- Fly Me To The Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyEc8KAB_Mo
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Year in Facebook review
It's been a year since I wrote.
What a year. Well not a full year yet, but basically a year. The last time I posted was in January, what's happened in each month since then? Let's see how much I remember, the amount of things I forget will make for good motivation to write more often.
February-
Did I do anything for Valentine's Day? I think I went on a date with someone around the time, maybe Abby, although it wasn't like an official Valentine's day date. I remember feeling proud that I'd done something romantic around Valentine's day so I must have done something. Or maybe it was a friendly thing with Thea. Regardless, my birthday was a few days later, and that was very fun and memorable. I went to dinner with Thea and Laurel, then Thea and I went to Fat Cat and met up with Anna, Zach, Kevin, Yuan, Thuto, one or two of Anna's friends (I think Cooper was there?) and maybe one or two other people. We played pool and listened to music for 4 hours, it was great. I love events where my friends from different circles get to meet and interact, like Kevin and Yuan met Zach and Thuto and they all got along well.
At this point I could cheat and check Facebook to see what I was up to around that time. I think I might for my own sake.
Okay so, in case I didn't mention it previously in late January (22nd I think) I saw Miami Horror with Lizzy, Laurel and Thea and it was awesome. I was worried because I was going to the concert after a long day at work at Doctor Radio, but I pushed through and it was totally worth it because the concert was great! When they played Strandbar the crowd was dancing the hardest I've ever seen a crowd dance. One of those magical moments where people weren't even looking at the stage, just dancing with themself and each other and lost in the music. I wish I had a recording of it, but it wouldn't do it justice anyway. (more on Justice later).
Let's go through more of my Facebook memories. Sidenote, Facebook is good as a scrapbook, although maybe it's made me more lazy and less inclined to diary my life on here.
January, Abe Vigoda died. I finished rereading Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, (I've since re-reread the Silmarillion.)
February- I watched Daveed Diggs perform at the Grammys in Hamilton, an Oakland rapper I've liked since his Small Things to a Giant mixtape. Kendrick also performed and cemented his spot as the greatest rapper alive. I started watching Baskets, which is a great show. Was Man Seeking Woman also on at this time? Another good show. Then my birthday. Very random but a Facebook status reminded me of a string of Youtube comments and replies I wanted to stage as a one act play. The thread was really intricate, emotional, and detailed, these couple of people just kept responding to each other like the world depended on it. I watched the Oscars. Earlier in the month I went with Madeline to the IFC theater and saw the Oscar nominated shorts. My favorite was the Russian one, then the Pixar one. To be honest I think World of Tomorrow is very overrated. Somehow the shitty goddamned Bear Story short won, it was the worst of the pack yet it won. rigged.
March- The Giants are back in Spring Training. It's nice reading that now to know it's not too long until Spring Training starts again. Odd year magic now! The GOP debates were going on in Early march, and were a sad portal into the future. I wish I could remember more of the day to day in March but it was winter so who the hell knows. I think at this point I was still working Doctor Radio mostly, so long nights of tedium in the hospital. Things would improve. Kendrick put out untitled unmastered. and it was amazing. On March 23rd Phife Dawg died. Zach and I did a tribute broadcast to him at WKCR, I think that's the last WKCR broadcast I've done since then. It's hard to get up there for a show, especially the ones I would do. Losing Phife Dawg sucked. For the broadcast we tried manually bleeping the curse words in his songs (it was a daytime broadcast) but that didn't go well, but thankfully I'd gotten a bunch of TV and Vevo videos of them performing with minimal cursing.
Wow so on March 28th I posted about Prince covering Linus and Lucy and how much I wanted to see him live. This was a few weeks before he died. It's weird seeing all these memories from April because it feels like not very long ago, but it was 7 months. Summer went quick. This post will cover January-April because I need to go make dinner. It's already 9pm and I need to sleep early to get ready to sleep early tomorrow to get up early Thursday for work at 7am before Thanksgiving at Liz's. On April 4th R2D2 and C3P0 came to Sirius for photos and press, and all my dreams came true. I felt like Luke Skywalker, my hero.
Damn also KFOG died on April 4th. But apparently SpaceX landed their rockets correctly.
The weekend of April 10th Jade visited NY and stayed with me, and it was great! We went to the Botanical Gardens, and chilled on the couch on a rainy day, and to Washington Square park and Cafe Reggio. We also went to Fat Cat and heard music and hung out, all in all a great weekend, even though it was still chilly.
Also Swarvy played Coachella, shouts out. I also remember seeing the guy buy a hotdog at a stoplight from a nearby cart, it was amazing. He shouted down the block to the vendor, and the vendor just went with it like it's a normal thing. NY often sucks but NY is often amazing.
April 21st, Prince died.
April 21st, Prince died.
April 21st, Prince died.
I never saw him play live, was never in his presence. Prince is gone. Prince is dead, vive la Prince.
God damn it still sucks.
I remember I was watching a show on Netflix or something, and it finished and I was very happy, then I went back on social media and learned he was dead, and I threw things across the room. My grief went from Denial to Anger very quickly. I guess I'm at Acceptance by now but damn.
That finishes April, and what a way to finish. I think late March to early April I started working on Bevelations, which has been the highlight of my year. I'll write a whole separate post about it, but it's been really great. In connection with Prince we had a whole big day, week basically in tribute to him.
More reflections to come. I'm glad to be back on this finally. Time flies. Where did 10 months go? At least they went!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 9:13pm. Just got home from day at work, did phone screening for Wilkow Majority (fill in host), Trunk Nation (technical problems, ate jambalaya), and Board Op for Bevelations (Scott produced, Andrea home for Thanksgiving. About to make pasta.
What a year. Well not a full year yet, but basically a year. The last time I posted was in January, what's happened in each month since then? Let's see how much I remember, the amount of things I forget will make for good motivation to write more often.
February-
Did I do anything for Valentine's Day? I think I went on a date with someone around the time, maybe Abby, although it wasn't like an official Valentine's day date. I remember feeling proud that I'd done something romantic around Valentine's day so I must have done something. Or maybe it was a friendly thing with Thea. Regardless, my birthday was a few days later, and that was very fun and memorable. I went to dinner with Thea and Laurel, then Thea and I went to Fat Cat and met up with Anna, Zach, Kevin, Yuan, Thuto, one or two of Anna's friends (I think Cooper was there?) and maybe one or two other people. We played pool and listened to music for 4 hours, it was great. I love events where my friends from different circles get to meet and interact, like Kevin and Yuan met Zach and Thuto and they all got along well.
At this point I could cheat and check Facebook to see what I was up to around that time. I think I might for my own sake.
Okay so, in case I didn't mention it previously in late January (22nd I think) I saw Miami Horror with Lizzy, Laurel and Thea and it was awesome. I was worried because I was going to the concert after a long day at work at Doctor Radio, but I pushed through and it was totally worth it because the concert was great! When they played Strandbar the crowd was dancing the hardest I've ever seen a crowd dance. One of those magical moments where people weren't even looking at the stage, just dancing with themself and each other and lost in the music. I wish I had a recording of it, but it wouldn't do it justice anyway. (more on Justice later).
Let's go through more of my Facebook memories. Sidenote, Facebook is good as a scrapbook, although maybe it's made me more lazy and less inclined to diary my life on here.
January, Abe Vigoda died. I finished rereading Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, (I've since re-reread the Silmarillion.)
February- I watched Daveed Diggs perform at the Grammys in Hamilton, an Oakland rapper I've liked since his Small Things to a Giant mixtape. Kendrick also performed and cemented his spot as the greatest rapper alive. I started watching Baskets, which is a great show. Was Man Seeking Woman also on at this time? Another good show. Then my birthday. Very random but a Facebook status reminded me of a string of Youtube comments and replies I wanted to stage as a one act play. The thread was really intricate, emotional, and detailed, these couple of people just kept responding to each other like the world depended on it. I watched the Oscars. Earlier in the month I went with Madeline to the IFC theater and saw the Oscar nominated shorts. My favorite was the Russian one, then the Pixar one. To be honest I think World of Tomorrow is very overrated. Somehow the shitty goddamned Bear Story short won, it was the worst of the pack yet it won. rigged.
March- The Giants are back in Spring Training. It's nice reading that now to know it's not too long until Spring Training starts again. Odd year magic now! The GOP debates were going on in Early march, and were a sad portal into the future. I wish I could remember more of the day to day in March but it was winter so who the hell knows. I think at this point I was still working Doctor Radio mostly, so long nights of tedium in the hospital. Things would improve. Kendrick put out untitled unmastered. and it was amazing. On March 23rd Phife Dawg died. Zach and I did a tribute broadcast to him at WKCR, I think that's the last WKCR broadcast I've done since then. It's hard to get up there for a show, especially the ones I would do. Losing Phife Dawg sucked. For the broadcast we tried manually bleeping the curse words in his songs (it was a daytime broadcast) but that didn't go well, but thankfully I'd gotten a bunch of TV and Vevo videos of them performing with minimal cursing.
Wow so on March 28th I posted about Prince covering Linus and Lucy and how much I wanted to see him live. This was a few weeks before he died. It's weird seeing all these memories from April because it feels like not very long ago, but it was 7 months. Summer went quick. This post will cover January-April because I need to go make dinner. It's already 9pm and I need to sleep early to get ready to sleep early tomorrow to get up early Thursday for work at 7am before Thanksgiving at Liz's. On April 4th R2D2 and C3P0 came to Sirius for photos and press, and all my dreams came true. I felt like Luke Skywalker, my hero.
Damn also KFOG died on April 4th. But apparently SpaceX landed their rockets correctly.
The weekend of April 10th Jade visited NY and stayed with me, and it was great! We went to the Botanical Gardens, and chilled on the couch on a rainy day, and to Washington Square park and Cafe Reggio. We also went to Fat Cat and heard music and hung out, all in all a great weekend, even though it was still chilly.
Also Swarvy played Coachella, shouts out. I also remember seeing the guy buy a hotdog at a stoplight from a nearby cart, it was amazing. He shouted down the block to the vendor, and the vendor just went with it like it's a normal thing. NY often sucks but NY is often amazing.
April 21st, Prince died.
April 21st, Prince died.
April 21st, Prince died.
I never saw him play live, was never in his presence. Prince is gone. Prince is dead, vive la Prince.
God damn it still sucks.
I remember I was watching a show on Netflix or something, and it finished and I was very happy, then I went back on social media and learned he was dead, and I threw things across the room. My grief went from Denial to Anger very quickly. I guess I'm at Acceptance by now but damn.
That finishes April, and what a way to finish. I think late March to early April I started working on Bevelations, which has been the highlight of my year. I'll write a whole separate post about it, but it's been really great. In connection with Prince we had a whole big day, week basically in tribute to him.
More reflections to come. I'm glad to be back on this finally. Time flies. Where did 10 months go? At least they went!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 9:13pm. Just got home from day at work, did phone screening for Wilkow Majority (fill in host), Trunk Nation (technical problems, ate jambalaya), and Board Op for Bevelations (Scott produced, Andrea home for Thanksgiving. About to make pasta.
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