Obligatory Halloween Post

I don’t know what I’m doing tonight, but I definitely celebrated Halloween last Saturday. Naturally, I celebrate by not thinking up a clever costume, and then going with whatever’s easiest and cheapest at the last minute.

I was going to a costume kickball game followed by a warehouse rock show in honor of Elbert’s birthday, and I feared chastisement if I didn’t at least try to sport a costume. So, I cut some holes in my worn-out pillowcase and went as a pillow. Of course, most people didn’t dress up anyway.

To make matters worse, nobody even understood my costume. The closest they came was a couple people who asked if I was a pillowcase. WTF? That’s like dressing up as Babe Ruth, then having people ask you if you’re a baseball uniform. Although, now that I think about it, that would be a pretty rad costume...

“Hey, nice Babe Ruth costume!”
“Actually, I’m a baseball uniform, MORON.”

I think the best Halloween costumes let you antagonize anyone who dares to speak to you.

Is anything worthwhile even happening tonight? I might just sit in my room and eat cookies. Ah, my decadent mid-twenties. Years from now, I’ll look back and have no recollection of Halloween 2007.

House of Chocolate

I’m back from tour, with a soft belly and a mild case of delirium tremens. I’m pretty sure I’ll be throwing together a tour diary in the next couple weeks. At the moment, I’m sitting in my new house in San Francisco, procrastinating the unpacking of all my boxes of stuff. It’s a pretty good time.



This is the view from my living room. I suppose the paint job doesn’t bother me too much at the moment, but it definitely did when we first started moving stuff over in the beginning of September. Just as a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day, a house with a tasteless color scheme will be relatively appropriate a couple weeks out of the year.

I hope they change it in November.

September Wrap-Up

Well, that month went by quickly. Umm, let's see, I played some cool rock shows. And I saw some cool rock shows. I got my Mac, and all my stuff will be in San Francisco shortly. I also fucked up my back last night. Luckily, I'm about to have a month of sleeping on the floor, sitting in a van for hours on end, and lifting lots of heavy shit. That's right, I'm leaving for tour today, so the ridiculously sporadic updates will continue. But now, I'll have an excuse! And I'll write a zine or two.

Peace. Word. Yo.

September so far

My sister got married last weekend. The DJ at the reception played such yester-hits as “The Twist” and “Shout!” and “Twist and Shout,” as if to say, “Alright, Aaron, you anti-social, snobbish luddite, I’m meeting you half-way!” To which I responded, “Okay, fine, I’ll dance with old people.”

In other news, Mike got the key to “our” house, which of course is really “his” house, that is, after he pays the bank however many million dollars real adults pay each other for such things. Here he is attempting to open the front door. Aww. Remember when you had trouble unlocking whatever place you’re living in right now? Aww. He’s threatening to fill the dining room with a dining room table to facilitate his dust collection unless I can think of a better idea for the room. So far, practical suggestions like “computer room” and “vomitorium” have been vetoed.

Would you believe that my uncivilized word processor doesn’t think “luddite” nor “vomitorium” are words? And would you be disappointed to learn that “vomitorium” doesn’t mean what I thought it meant? And how come less than a month after coming up with some stupid webspeak term, people are already polluting minds with masturbatory websites and t-shirts? These are sad times indeed. Shakespeare must be rolling in his grave.

Oh, yeah, and Ajax, you can have my decrepit PC after I’m done transferring files. Not the monitor, though. Too many memories.

Life changes

All my life, I’ve lived in the East Bay.
(yes, Livermore counts)

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a PC user.
(since the days of 5.25” floppy discs)

But now, as my first quarter-century on this planet nears its end, I’ve decided to flip the polarity switch on my life; I’m moving to San Francisco, and I’m getting a Mac.

Also, I’ve started wearing white Keds.

Deal with it.

My life's so eventful

Yesterday, I sold a zine for the first time ever.

That’s all for now.

Wait, I also wanted to spill a little text on the curb for Ajax, who is no longer of this world.

And of course, by “this world,” I mean the blogosphere. He’s not dead or anything. He just stopped blogging.

So, basically, he’s dead to me.

More rock shows

Last night, I went to 21 Grand to see Mikaela’s Fiend, a two-piece from Seattle. I’d seen them a couple years ago at the WC, and I was totally blown away by their drummer, then not even old enough to buy cigarettes. I missed their last bay area show ‘cause I was sick, so I was stoked to be able to see them this time.

Since I last saw them, the drummer had blossomed into a young rock star with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for apple juice, which he guzzled from a large glass jug. He encouraged the audience to gather around him, while the peripheral guitarist just sorta blended in with the crowd. They were just as great as before, if not better. During the last song of their set, the drummer (gee, I really should have found out his name...) passed off the pieces of his drum kit to various crowd members, then retreated to a corner to work on a Rubik’s cube. He worked quickly while the noise-punk drum circle created the soundtrack. When he was close to finishing, he looked at the cube with a confused look. At first I thought he was stuck, but really, he was just memorizing the final moves. He stood on top of an amplifier and looked at the ceiling while he finished the puzzle, then leapt down to once again shred the drums.

It was undoubtedly the greatest moment in the history of Rubik’s cubes.

Incidentally, this entry is not meant to insult the other rad bands I saw this weekend: Militant Children’s Hour, Audacity, Party Fowl, and of course, the Traditional Fools and the Rantouls. They were great too. It does make me think it would be better for my self esteem to start going out to see shitty bands with members who are older than me.