productively unproductive

45/70.

Here we go. The home stretch. The final lap. Get through April and everything will be OK. I am sitting at my desk with the itunes open, and I'm in the middle of listening to 3 albums that I haven't listened to in their entirety since probably sophomore year in high school: Tell All Your Friends by Taking Back Sunday; Second Stage Turbine Blade by Coheed; and Emotion is Dead by The Juliana Theory. Since then two of those bands have gone mainstream and the other bit the dust. I cleaned my room up big time yesterday, getting rid of unwanted schoolwork, old clothes, cardboard boxes, and the like. There is still no room to move in here. School is officially a useless drag at this point. Music "Theory" should have its name changed to Pointless Music "Facts." One funny thing that did happen was that someone politely asked "can you go over the difference between an inversion and a retrograde again?" Teacher says "No." I wanted to laugh, as I'm sure a few others did as well, but nobody gave in. I have nothing else of relevant interest to add right now, except it's supposed to be a mild 60 degrees tomorrow. Shorts and flip-flops? Perhaps.

Cheers.

Hey, Eddie! Fuck You!

I have mentioned time and time again how much I hate my boss, and how much of a chronic liar he is, and all the excuses he makes, yadda yadda yadda. He got transferred to manage another store in our precinct this week, so my first reaction was something along the lines of "SCORE!!! =D"

Let me say this: I would give anything to have him back running the store I work at.

This new guy whom I think is named Eddie, not sure and don't care, is a total flake. Dumbass. Lazy. Intrusive. All of the above. Our first encounter with each other was not pleasant. He told me to go shave (we're not allowed to have beards, but I tend to get away with it), and I proceeded to give him the "Who the hell do you think you are?" face. A few hours later, and he's trying to give me and this other girl that's worked at the place for years a lesson on what we're supposed to do. I HAVE BEEN WORKING HERE FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS!!!! I KNOW WHAT TO DO, YOU FUCKING GOOK!! (too far? nah.) I DIDN'T GET EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH THREE TIMES BECAUSE I'M A LAZY ASIAN CUNT LIKE YOU!!! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!!!!!!!

sick of ric

40/70

I'm not going to Rhode Island College next year. End of story.

rock show

Here is my expanded synopsis of the happenings of March 21, 2008. I had one class that morning, and so I was free at 9:00 AM. With nothing better to do with myself, I decided "Screw it. I'll go up now." I pahked my cah in the pahking grahge on Froynklin Street abowt a half moyle from the club. Between roughly 11:30 and 3, I did the following: escaped a giant homeless man looking for food, went to Dunkin Donuts, browsed a record store that only sells vinyl, browsed a bookstore, went to Wendy's for lunch, went to the Middle East box office to see what was up with will-call, hung out in the LeMeridien hotel fancy classed-up lobby, browsed the Star Market grocery store, attempted to nap and kill time in my car, and walked maybe 10-15 laps around Central Square. As I was walking down Mass Ave on one of these laps, I caught out of my peripheral vision a silver van towing a white trailer. This peaked my interest when I thought I saw Virginia license plates. I walked the Mass Ave-Brookline St circle again, and five minutes later, I find myself assisting band and crew members unloading a packed trailer full of road cases with "MAE" stamped on the majority of them. I had never seen so much gear move from point A to point B at a high rate of speed considering the small narrow staircase that served as the load-in point. When that was done, I went along my merry way and by now, it is 4:00pm-ish or so. I went to a McDonald's across the street for dinner, completely passing up the opportunity for a chicken wrap from the Middle East, which is delicious. No, Mickey D's it was. Immediately after began the waiting process. Three hours in unbearably windy and below-freezing temperatures. The five of us that got there early to experience the cold were dead-set on a Mae acoustic performance roughly an hour before doors opened (after all, that was what we all read). 7:00 went by. 7:15 went by. By 7:30, we all figured that either a.) we missed it, or b.) there was none. I was on the brink of hypothermic disaster by the time doors opened, so I was pretty stoked to finally get out of the cold. The Middle East lets people in 5 at a time. I was number 1. I got a pretty got spot, visually, in the place as you can depict from photos and various youtube videos that have been posted. 8:15 rolls around, and whaddaya know, 3/5ths of Mae come out to do an acoustic set. The setlist comprised of "Going to School," "Ready & Waiting to Fall," "Home," "Sun," and "Tisbury Lane." I looked like a complete idiot during Going to School, but that's another story for another time. Showtime.

Farless - not gonna lie, they lacked presence on stage. I dug the music.
Between the Trees - too much presence on stage. I dig the music, and these kids look like they should still be in high school.
The Honorary Title just gained another fan. Enjoyable performance.
This was my 8th time seeing Mae, and they sounded better than any other time I had seen them. People wouldn't shut up because I guess they couldn't hear Dave, but I knew that was going to be the case right away when they ditched the floor wedges. You can't blame the band in that situation, it's just that the Middle East has a strange way of setting up their PA system. If you're standing in the front row, you're essentially standing behind the mains, so all you really hear is what's on stage. People are just too ignorant to realize that and needed something to complain about so there was a lot of "TURN UP THE VOCALS!!!" Sorry, I'm sure it sounded good in the back. Blame the venue, not the band.

During "The Everglow," the crowd was split in half like Moses splitting the sea and this one belligerantly drunk fella stormed the stage, shoved everyone out of the way, and continued to look like a complete douche. Another dude tried to push me out of the way, but I gave him the ol' elbow shove, pushed the kid back like 15 feet, gave him the dirtiest look I could muster, and retained my focus on the stage. I stayed around for a few minutes after the show and made some short conversation with Jacob and I think a southern comfort-influenced Zach. I picked up an old-school globe shirt on my way out and drove the hour from Boston to Uxbridge. I went to sleep at around 3:00 AM and had to be in for work three hours later. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

mixed feelings.

35/70 (halfway there)

CD Release show = suck. Everything that went wrong was out of our control. Blame the venue. Bands play at the living room every single night. They make a lot of money due to cover charges, and alcohol sales.

They don't maintain/update their sound system.

I was setting up, and I usually bring my own microphone. I exchanged an SM58 that looked as though it had been rammed up a goats vagina, if goats vagina's were in the shape of an octagon. I know Shure is notorious for making the most sturdy gear, but please...that microphone just looked horrible. Soundcheck went OK and I'll give them props for the cool LED lights they installed.

Our show starts and Zach's got a bad mic cable so all I can hear through my floor wedge is BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Dumbass sound guy exchanges the cable "OK you should be all set now dee dee dee." BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ. No dice. Vocals didn't kick in all the way until our set was past halfway over. Major bummer, but there's nothing we could do about it. Other things happened that kind of just added onto the whole clusterfuck that was our show tonight. Thank you to all that came. Come out to BVT on April 18th and see what we can really do, because I can guarantee you that what you saw tonight was in no way indicative of what this band is capable of doing.

PS. Fuck the Living Room.

pull over to the station and fill up on fuel

I have seen the headlining band on this tour 7 times. As a result, I've gotten to establish some minor acquaintances with those dudes, whether it be 5 minutes after a show, or taking a 3 hour joy ride around Worcester. That said, I don't think I've been this excited for a show in a long time.

blast from the past

I got reacquainted with some old friends of mine. I didn't realize how much I had missed them. I miss a lot of people, however it's safe to say that some of those people who I haven't spoken to in person in a long time, should not be spoken to again...at least for a few more months. I also figured out many more benefits to playing to a click track during live performances. Eh, that's all for tonight, nothing else really worthy of jotting down here.

playin' the blues.

My approach to music has been wrong in the past. Before, I would try to force something out that I felt would mass approval. I'm trying to achieve the same results, but I'm going to go about it in a different way. I have a lot of musical ideas in my head, but piecing them together and making something out of it has been difficult. I think by having a week off from school, I'll be able to sit back and write some damn good tunes, and have fun doing it at the same time.

can it be summer yet?

30/70

Today was a pretty good day, except for -$3 disappointment in the Smithfield D'Angelo's today. I ordered a chicken caesar wrap and it was delicious. However the idiot spanish looking dude that was at the helm of the cash register jipped me $3in change. I guess I'm the idiot because I didn't realize until I had long since gone that there should have been more money in my wallet. That further solidifies my theory that the only jobs that scumbags can get are in the fast food industry. They make the intelligent workers, such as myself, look bad because of their stupidity. Hell, one girl that I work with can't even make out 94 cents in change. 3 quarters, a dime, a nickel, 4 pennies. Easy.

Moral of the story: Stay in school.