major labels & their distros are in trouble for price fixing... in the music industry? never!

I also got... Bookshelves! They have these great three shelf numbers at target for $24 a piece. I feel like I've been reborn. My bedroom is new place. FYI this is how I spent friday night - rearranging everything and alphabetizing books (also seperated by subject/fiction/non-fiction - my own little dewey decimal system.) I'm such a dork. Next on the organizing agenda... Records!

I'm such a wuss. I get piss-drunk one night and I'm still feeling it. On saturday Danielle and Amanda came down (both from their respective d-towns, being Dallas and Denton) for the Queens of the Stone Age show. So they get into town 5:30-ish and we pretty quickly we head downtown to get some drinks and some grub. Apparently there was some kinda big street fair going on on 6th. Who knew? Anyhow we forced our way through the crowd and started off at casino el camino. This was followed shortly thereafter by street pizza and then to some sushi-bar where Danielle knew the bartender. He made us some lemon-y 100proof whiskey drinks then we went to Stubb's.

Peaches was playing when we got there. 1000 stoner rock fans didn't seem too into the teaches of peaches. She was fun, I guess. I'm not a huge fan but I liked her show at emo's earlier this year - it was a bit more intimate. Then Trail of Dead played and they were actually pretty good. I hadn't seen them quite a while. At least 1 1/2 years. It was odd to see them play to a place that big. Its weird to think the first time I saw then they were a two piece playing to 20 people at the blue flamingo.

QOTSA played last and kicked much ass. They sounded huge. I had forgotten what big rock shows were like. Mark Lanagan from Screaming Trees came out and sang a couple of songs (as he does on the records.) By the end of the night we were covered in sweat and dirt and beer. Sometime during the encore we were treated the "feel good hit of the summer" off their last album. There's nothing like hundreds of people screaming along to the chorus of "c-c-c-cocaine!" Big thanks to Amanda for venturing not once, but twice, through the crowd for beers.

Anyhow by the end of the night I was very drunk and very tired. We had to keep checking the time - it was only 12 when the show was over but we were just about done in. We trooped on and attempted to find the afterparty but we were thwarted by faulty information. It was just as well. We hit star seeds for some late night dinner and crashed out.

That was saturday night. This is monday morning. I still feel nasty. Perhaps I should have taken a shower sometime between then and now.

I'm big on lists these days. So in that sprit here is a list of authors that I'd like to read more by (or any at all.)

Saul Bellow
Graham Greene
Joseph Conrad
Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis

Not exactly obscure or anything, but just people I'd like to read more by. Why are there no female authors here? Good question. Any recommendations?

Its not as is I have to try to reveal myself as the dork I really am, but I have to express some excitement at the fact that tonight is the season premier of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow is still the cutest geek-girl on tv even if she kicks with the other foot these days.

I went to half-price books at lunch today. I blew my hard earned cash on...

Don Quixote by Cervantes - It was super cheap and I always wanted to read it.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Likewise cheap and as I haven't read it since high school I thought I'd give it another spin.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - I don't have this one and the hardback copy I got is from the Harlingen High School Library.
Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick - One of his "exegesis" books in which PKD shows just how off his rocker he was by then end.

Sometimes I feel as if I am compelled to respond to other blogs and/or sites. On the main page of the Naughty Secretary Club, Jennifer lists the best songs heard on the jukebox at Hot Freaks on Friday night. While I agree that the songs she listed are good and that the jukebox at said bar kicks ass, I must take exception with her list for it's lack of the single best song played that night. Inexplicably, she saw fit to leave out "Two Headed Boy" by Neutral Milk Hotel. This oversite could be due to faulty memory or a lack of judgement - I just don't know. I will not let it go unsaid, however, that this song was at least in the top five played that night (and in my judgement easily earns the top spot.) I will make this concession, though, if any Bill Withers had been heard that night we would not be having this discussion.

I just put up a new link to the right. This is to the Official Stanislaw Lem Homepage maintained by the author's son. Lem is a fantastic Polish Sci-Fi writer who is best known for his book Solaris which was made into a film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1971. A new film based on the book (not a "remake" of the other film) directed Steven Soderberg will be out in November.

Some unsolicited advice from me to you...

Beware of bands that have matching suits and/or outfits if they are not...
A) black
B) Rocket From the Crypt circa 1993-4

It seems a weekend update would be in order. Honestly, not much was going on. Hmmm, Friday night I hit Hot Freaks with Hope, Jennifer + friends. We had some drinks. We talked. There was nothing groundbreaking. Jennifer's friend Erin is a vet and she had pictures on her digital camera of a dog that got its nose cut off by kids playing with a samuri sword. They sewed it back on.

Saturday was pretty hum drum. Went to half price books and got a nice book about the Beatles. Its part of a series of books about 20th century composers so it is a nice change of view on the Beatles in that it follows their progression as songwriters rather than in a straight biographical way. That night we went to Chris H.'s art opening. The show was nice. They had no beer. We left pretty quick. Michael joined Joe and I in going to Jeff's house for a party. Jeff brews his own beer then has people over to drink it at parties. MMmmm. It was a nice evening. We got nice n' toasty. Joe got married sometime during the night apparently. I played piano in the garage.

Sunday I woke up and read my new Beatles book at the counter at Stars for breakfast. This has become a habit on sunday mornings. I hit some thrift stores looking for a good bookshelf again (didn't find one.) I sat around reading most of the afternoon. Later, I joined the sunday night bowling crew for the first time in quite a while. I did pretty bad but decent for not having bowled in a couple of months.

Its such a nice day out. Why am I inside? Cause that's why I get paid the big buck$! I went out on my break to read in the courtyard and despite being behind tall fences and having an interstate whizzing by 50 feet away, it was great. I settled into my chair, put my feet up and read a bit in Solaris. Since no one notices how long I take breaks, after a little while I put my book down, rolled my head back and dozed off for 15 minutes or so. I was woken by the wind blowing the trees above me around so that the sun hit my face. If only Texas was like this year round. Then it would Southern California, though, and who would want that?

The Flaming Lips on my headphones will make the world ok.

Why, oh, why do I keep bothering with bands that play until 2am on weeknights to the other bands, the bartenders and whatever friends we can guilt into staying. It is so not worth the effort anymore. When I was younger I was just excited to get a chance to play. I knew it sucked but assumed it would get better. How wrong I was. I guess it got better there for a while but it quickly slipped back downhill after a few shows opening for decent bands with my old band.

how about a list of "currents"

current listening (at this exact moment): Wilco - Summerteeth
current listening (in my car for the past few days): The Amalgamated Sons of Rest
current reading: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
currently finished reading: Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
current weekend plans (fri): none
current weekend plans (sat): Sat art opening at Gallery Lombardi for Chris H then party at Jeff and Alicia's new house
current snack in my hand: Nestle's Crunch
current place I want to move to: Boulder, Colorado
current place I'll never leave: Austin, Texas
current fave music website: none. why do they all suck so much?
current way to waste time at work: blogging

Its been a long week and it isn't even over yet. Went to Temple yesterday for a funeral. That's never fun. I hate that whole seeing friends you haven't seen in awhile but being disappointed that you can't see them under better circumstances.

At least its finally raining so perhaps the humidity will ease up a bit - its been pretty oppresive.

I had Soft Set practice last night after getting back from Temple. We did some impromptu Rolling Stones covers for fun - "Dead Flowers" and "Waiting on a Friend". We also did some Misfits - "Where Eagles Dare" and "Last Caress". We'll be playing a couple of new songs (none of them covers) at Beerland tonight. I hope I don't foget my parts.

You read my blog - come to my show...

Thusday Sept 19 @ Beerland, TX (Tonight!)

music will begin with... Voxtrot
music will continue with... Via Satellites (ex-sixteen deluxe and cherubs)
music will finish with... The Soft Set

cover = $4 (US - don't try to pay with that canadian shit)

So Max passed away this weekend - apparently sometime during our hellish party on saturday night. I can't but think that was the kind of environment in which he thrived. Chaotic and yelping and always talking - he would have known everyone there.

The first time I met Max (I had known his older brother Bill a bit when we were in high school) was the summer after his sophmore year of high school and after my freshman year of college. I was at home in Temple bumming around for the summer. He snuck out of his house and Victoria and I went to pick him up. He snagged a bottle of rum from his parents and we went and got slurpees from 7-11 to mix it with. We ended up in an empty lot somewhere drinking most of the night in that inimitable small town way.

We were never the best of friends or anything like that but I will miss him and the crazy enthusiasm he had for life. He always had a smile and a hug and some weird story about something he had just done.

College was awful. I'm done with it. I have my degree (for all the use I've gotten out of it.) So how come I keep trying to talk myself into going again? Civilian life is just too difficult, I think - or unglamorous. I think that I still imagine myself as some stodgy professor type holding court during office hours. To make things worse, if I did go to grad school, I'd have to go to some second tier state school because my grades for my last year of college were so awful. 2.89 GPA ain't getting anyone into anywhere decent. Right before I graduated I asked my Poli Sci prof if he would write me a recommendation for grad school and he replied that he would as I obviously could do a good job studying independently since I never actually went to class and still pulled A's and B's in his classes.

"Wars are God's way of teaching Americans geography."
- Bertrand Russell, I think (I could very easily be wrong in the attribution of this quote)

I'm here at work but sans work. Not that I'm complaining. There need to be more websites that update daily. Sometimes Pitchfork and Splendid just don't cut it. I need more mindless drivel to distract me - the last thing I want to do is think too hard while at work.

current reading - Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
current listening - The Glow, pt II by The Microphones

An interesting tidbit I found when poking 'round - Bruce Dickinson, singer for Iron Maiden, is now a commercial airline pilot. How odd. I'm sure he's not hurting for cash. I guess he just needs something to fill his time when not fronting what was my favorite band from fourth to seventh grade (the great Metallica/Slayer/Antrax combo took over then.) Those reissue CDs are great, by the way - all sorts of computer stuff - videos and pictures, etc..., besides the obviously amazing music. Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind are two of the most perfect metal albums ever.

After an utterly uninteresting weekend this week is starting to look up...

1) The Ultimate Dragons at Emo's on Tuesday night. "The Ballad of Galactus" anyone?

2) Sat Sept 14 will be the one year anniversary of our house burning down so we will be marking the sad day with a party at our new(ish) house. Come one! Come all! Email for details!

Does the world really need official Todd Oldham designed (approved) milk crates? Apparently, I do - I bought six of 'em for $1.99 a piece at Target yesterday. Only they're not milk crates - they're "dorm storage units."

Keepin' folks honest... www.spinsanity.com

Good Lord, I need to start saving money for my upcoming (and temporary) unemployment. I can't seem to keep myself from half-price books. I went at lunch after stopping at Thundercloud (which has a tasty new faux-chicken, vegetarian sandwich.) I browse to kill time before I have to head back to the office and its a rare day when I go and don't leave with something. Today the guilty culpret was The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom written in the late '80's about how politcal orthodoxy at American universities has killed the spirit of learning and inquiry. Yesterday it was records. Tomorrow it'll be something else. At least it being half-price books it limits what I'll spend (usually.) Then again, who can argue with empty consumerism as a path to happiness? Not me, I assure you.

I had a dream last night that I was in a mall dept store for some kind of grand opening celebration and Blue Oyster Cult was playing there. They didn't play any songs that I recognized yet I knew it was B.O.C. somehow.

How odd.

Last night at half-price books I scored two (2) nice slabs of vinyl... Heartbreaker by Free, and Emmylou Harris' Greatest Hits (which when it came out in 1979 was all her early stuff 1974-77 or so.) Emmylou was on my mind cause I just finished a rather bland Gram Parsons biography. I have an odd fascination with reading bios of people I don't really listen to (or read books by or whose ideas I don't agree with.) I guess I'm just a sucker for vicarious living through biographies.

I haven't really had much to say lately so I've been exercising some discretion and just not posting. So now I'm at work listening to Gillian Welch and waiting that last hour before I can go home. Only one more day before the weekend. Yeah, short work weeks! I went home from work early yesterday and searched most of the town for Lungfish records and I only found one (which I already have.) That's what must be wrong with this town - not enough Lungfish. All I wanted was to hear Rainbows From Atoms. Even Sound Exchange let me down (for the record, Waterloo was the sole shop in town with any Higgs & Co. - The Unanimous Hour.) SAD. Sad. sad.

#1 small thing at work that makes it bearable...

- I spend a large portion of the day with a good, old fashioned #2 pencil tucked behind my right ear. Its so ubiquitous that even when its not there, I can feel it.

I feel like my brain has been in low gear for a week or two. A couple pistons aren't firing right (to keep with the bad car analogies.) How was your labor day weekend? Mine was predictably low-key. Friday I stayed in and watched "Storytelling." It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and had some good moments. Selma Blair has incredibly small breasts (not that that's a bad thing - just an observation.)

Saturday night was spent at Wain's b-day party. I spent most of the night looking for someone to talk to.

Sunday was spent recording overdubs with the Soft Set. Big thanks go out to Reagan for loaning me the farfisa. That night we went to Le Privelage. Took a cab so we could get toasty. We got toasty. Upstairs is seperate bar that has the best jukebox in town. Give me a few drinks and play some mid-period superchunk and I'm a blathering sap. I spilled no less than three drinks (or partial drinks) on myself.

So last night was the show at Emo's. I was pretty scared about attendence on such a shitty night (monday after a holiday) and for good reason. There were a few folks out, though, and those people get some big thank you's. The performances went ok except for me being attacked by a giant bug during my wisdom teeth set. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be doing these solo shows. I really don't enjoy them very much. Well, hopefully I'll have a band soon. The Soft Set portion of the night was pretty good. We played a (relatively) rocking set. The Hidden Persauders (now known as the Bleeding Hearts apparently) stole to show. I don't know why they aren't huge. I think they are a fantastic band.