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.

The graduate

I don’t have anything especially interesting to write, but I know you must be worried, dear reader and leaver of no comments, so here’s an update.

It’s a strange life, to have everything so completely up in the air. Would you believe I didn’t even make it to half of those rock shows I mentioned because I was busy in the studio? I’ve been doing my best to sniff out recording and mixing sessions to sit in on, and as usual, I find the most rewarding experiences by exuding absolutely zero effort. I’ve started a new bank account for my meager earnings as a freelancer. Will I earn enough to properly feed myself when I go on tour? If not, I see many many peanut butter sandwiches in my future.

There are other life changes afoot, too. But we can talk about that later.

Empty nest

With Daniel moved out, and JJ+JoJo out of town until Sunday, the house is feeling especially empty. Not too much going on at the moment. But did you know we were making house beer koozies with the money from we got from letting people shoot a music video here a while back? Well, Paul’s koozie design masterpiece that he slaved all summer over was rejected by the production people because of copyright infringement. Whodathunk? Until we regroup, you’ll just have to click and dream about what might have been. We’ll see how long it takes for my Photobucket account to get deactivated for similar reasons.

Rather than publish some diatribe about US copyright laws, I thought I should write about something more important: me! Today, I take the final for my last class at Ex’pression. Which means I’m done. Like, totally done. I’m fucking horrified. It’s time to get serious. Therefore, until I get my life on track, no more drinking unless I’m at a rock show.

Here are some rock shows I’m going to, come buy me a drink, ‘cause I’m fucking done!:
Tonight- Teutonics, Rantouls, Barbary Coasters @ the Rickshaw Stop
Maybe later tonight- Snakeflower 2 @ the Knockout
Tomorrow- Trad Fools @ Thrillhouse Records
Night after tomorrow- Husbands, HRLIC @ the Knockout