Home, 2004

A Thing of Beauty Is a Treasure Forever
A 3G 20GB iPod. Sleek. Sexy. Full of cool tunes.

Meant to Be
The hospital where Lauran is going next week is a few blocks away from the club where The Decemberists are playing in April. When I pick her up I'll scout it out. I already have my tickets.


Untitled, 2004

Filament, 2004

Untitled, 2004

Pedagoguitar
I made this little drawing to help me in my continuing frustration [education] with the guitar. I can make all kinds of copies, write on the notes, chords diagrams, barre chords, etc, and I *might* actually learn something. It's bigger in real life, of course, although the pen drawings of late are pretty much actual size.

I might need a new iPod. I might sign up to pay $14 a month for a new one. I might get one for slightly cheaper than retail through my employer (a whopping $29 off). We are an iPod family. It is perhaps the single best, most-used, most-enjoyed device in our meager possession. Not a day goes by that we don't use it. We all have our favorite tunes on it, and when we're traveling we all get to enjoy it. The boys have Thomas and VeggieTales, Lauran has Sting and Air Supply (yes, it's true, and worse than you can imagine), and I have, well, all the rest of it. So, wouldn't it be great if Lauran and the boys had an iPod of their own? So they could listen to their music while going to the doctor's office or wherever, especially if I have to be somewhere else, doing what I'm supposed to be doing, listening to music while I'm on my way. Theortetically, Lauran and the boys could keep the old 1G 10GB iPod (because Lauran knows how to navigate through it) and I could have a new 3G 20GB. Theoretically. And I also might be spending the week ripping CDs onto Lauran's iMac so she can have anything and everything she'd like to listen to when she's in Chicago next week.


Untitled, 2004

Church, 2004

Ich heisse Super-Fantastique!
The "new" Franz Ferdinand disc [is it even out in the US yet?] contains lines like the one above and other such lyrical candy. I, for one, just love gratuitous German. I'm currently very much enjoying most of the FF tracks I've heard, although my consuming musical interest is still The Decemberists. My mission right now is to track down all things Meloy. I've gotten my hands on some stuff by Colin's former band, Tarkio, and I've probably tracked down all the other little loose things that are out there. (The last and latest.) My brother, who gave me the FF disc via his connections to the indie PR industry, thinks I am a "completist freak." What he may not fully appreciate is that Colin Meloy, a mere fellow feg, is now the leader of my new favorite band. It just intrigues me. Plus, I like the music.


Untitled, 2004

Technical Issues: Yeah, Atom is here, for news feeds, thanks be to almighty Blogger, but I don't show up with anything to offer in NetNewsWire. It must be me who has the problem, like with the dead permalinks.

Aesthetic Issues: Lauran has made it known that she does not like the picture of me in the sidebar. She says I look mean, weird, and possibly deranged. Maybe. But imagine what her picture would look like if she had a blog of her own? I'd link to it right now if there was one.

Strange, But Edible
Baked goat cheese salad, from the food mag my sister gave me for Xmas. That's tonight's dinner (with leftover lasagna). Bread is a big loaf of crusty Italian with the same stuff on top as an everything bagel. Mmm!

As the bumper sticker says, Mean People Suck.
I met the guy that that's about at the gas station today.

And just let it be known that it is something like 70 degrees colder here than it was last week down in Orlando.


Untitled, 2004

Piety, 2004

Delicious!
In my continuing quest to try all manner of unusual seafood, I had stuffed calamari for lunch yesterday at an Italian place in Fort Wayne. They were little teardrop-shaped thingies, filled with nice cheeses, herbs, and shrimp. (Disclaimer: I draw the line at sea cucumber sushi.)


Untitled, 2004

Votes, Please

I bought this shirt recently. It was on sale. I also bought one in the same pattern, different colors (mustard, maroon, etc). Lauran insisted they were tres ugly and made me take them back. I kept the blue one in defiance. Is it really so bad?

Speaking of votes, what happened to Dean in Iowa? Here's to New Hampshire!


Untitled, 2004

If You Have 5 Seconds to Spare, Then I'll Tell You the Story of My Life

Untitled, 2004

Untitled, 2004

For a mere $400K this 1700 square foot bunglaow can be yours at Celebration, the planned community that Disney is building in Florida. It's a "real" town, but it's also fake. There are parks, paths, pools, and every house has a porch. It's divided into little neighborhoods. It even has a downtown. It's like a movie set version of America. It's an interesting social experiment, but it's a bit too Truman Show or maybe Pleasantville for me. But then again, reality is not all it's cracked up to be.

The International Drive strip, Orlando, all lit up.

From Sketchbook 9, 1993

It’s All Too Much
Too much food here. Too much coffee. Too much sitting still. And, oh, the drugs! Bendryl to get to sleep. Pseudoephedrine to stay awake. Ibuprofen to kill the over-caffeinated headache. I’m a regular junkie, huh?

Kickin’ It Up a Notch
Went to Emeril’s (by boat, via the Royal Pacific Hotel) last night. Bam! But he wasn’t there. Oh well, it was still the single best eating experience of my little life. It wasn’t just the ingredients, the drinks, the army of highly-trained waiters who waited, ready to pounce every time we moved, to reset the table, or any other simple factor—it was the whole experience. Now, I’m not a huge fan of the guy. I don’t make it a point to watch him every night. But it was just so fantastic! I started with a Stella Artois, then a spicy little gumbo (the guy who delivered it did say the ubiquitous bam), then my entrée was a duck thing. Slices of slightly rare breast, and a whole leg quarter over a bed of rice mixed with foie gras and andouille. The whole thing sat in a bath of some reduction sauce, with a generous sprinkling of twisty fried sweet potato slivers. My companions had the following: andouille-encrusted Texas redfish; pork chops (that were humongous, like a small roast). For dessert I had the famous banana cream pie, which is, in fact, worthy of its fame. One companion had the chocolate hazelnut tart. (Which was, I must confess, not very good. The tart's crust was way too thick and hard, but after a mention of this to the waiter, it was replaced with two (2!) pieces of blueberry cheesecake. Another companion had the white chocolate crème brulee. One had something else, sort of a generic dessert, since I can’t recall exactly what it was. Yesterday was well and truly a day devoted to overeating.

Also, despite the impression given by my self-obsessed, epicurean posts, I miss Lauran and the boys terribly. Gabe lost his other front tooth and I wasn't there to see it.

I spent some time today sitting outside on the lawn in the sun. I doodled a little. I listened to some Belle & Sebastian. I was too close to some dog poop. It really upset me. Lauran says I have thing about poop. And it's not good.


From Sketchbook 9, 1993

Roasted Goat, Please
Yesterday at lunch I had to make some important phone calls, so I missed lunch at the hotel-meeting. I went across the street to a little greasy food place. A Sri Lankan sold me a gyro. While I was eating there were Fleet Street tabloids to read and Polaroids of patrons, mostly from the UK. I had no idea the lardy laddies all went to Orlando on their holidays.

Today at lunch I had tempura and sushi. The blood red tuna was good, but that delicately pink salmon was wonderful. The woman at the table next to us, with the really big blond hair (wig?), looked very surprised, but I don't think it was because of her food. It was more likely the facelift.

The people running this thing that I'm at have their own WiFi net, but it's encrypted. "Because of people like you," they said, when I asked. So I have to pay. I have 25 hours left.


From Sketchbook 9, 1993

Yum Yum Time
Went to Wolfgang McPuck’s last night at Downtown Disney (the shopping, eating extravaganza that you don’t have to pay to get into). I had smoked salmon pizza.

Here are the bedspreads at this "resort."


Here is one of the buildings at the "resort." It looks like some kind of tower block/continental tenement to me.



From Sketchbook 9, 1993

From Sketchbook 8, 1989

Random Notes While I’m Here
1. At about hour 16 of the long day yesterday I was temporarily distracted by a video billboard. It was showing some scrumptious lobster and steak dinner. While I was watching in rapt fascination I failed to notice that traffic had stopped rather suddenly in front of me. Needless, to say, when we too stopped, it was rather abrupt.
2. The housekeeping staff at this big fat “resort” are perfectly comfortable cleaning the men’s rooms while it’s being used.
3. One of the little tourist junk shops across the street sells cute little pipes. I wonder what they're for? Smoking very small amounts of tobacco?

Ha!
It was in the high 60s F today in Orlando.
Here's the weather I left behind:

Too Little, Too Late
So, the plane is delayed at the airport. Never mind the fact that we got up at 4 am to get there on time. When we finally take off the flight is fine, and quicker than I expected. My traveling companions have known each other for years (I mean YEARS, they all went to grade school together and they're almost as old as my parents), so they're having fun with each other and, thankfully, making sure they don't leave me out of things. OK. Then we get to Orlando and have to walk across parking lots to get to the car rental place, supposedly because of the terror alert. That ends up fine, too. We get to the hotel, in the middle of tourist mecca, and I'm told that WiFi is now free. I'm happy, we get settled in, go to Starbucks, and I'm ready to post something. Only I can't get on. There's a good strong signal, but I get this page that tells me I need to pay. So I go to the desk and ask what the deal really is. The guy tells me that it's not ready yet. I protest that it's on their web page. He says, yes, but the system won't beup for another week or so. So I stomp around and get mad and then realize....it said you have to pay for it. So pay for it. And here I am. Only there's no signal in my room, only the lobby and conference rooms.

High Above the Tundra
Why are the worst songs about airplane rides? Is it because commercial air travel is inherently boring? I think so. I mean, why else have we invented iPods and laptops with DVD-players with batteries powerful enough to watch Gone with the Wind? Back to the songs. There's that stupid John Denver song that *must* be covered by every boring performer. There's that chirpy Indigo Girls song that I just loathe. And I'm sure there's more. It's not that I'm afraid to fly (really!), it's just that it's like being locked in a cramped conference room with a lot of very possibly rude people, waiting for an expensive meeting to start. Only no one talks (usually, thank God), and we eye each other suspiciously. I try to sleep on planes, but it never works. Fortunately, I don't fly very often.


To Dream, 2004

Important Update
Packing, mostly. I have a list to follow, you know.


From Sketchbook 4, 1987

The Motions, from Sketchbook 10, 1994

My Good Stuff

Here are the shelves in my tiny little room. This is the room where I keep my good stuff--cords, CDs, guitars, cycling gear, that sort of stuff. On top of the shelves is my big black binder that holds all the discs that I have..."borrowed," as well as the waxy stuff to rub into my Doc Martens. My little box of wooden chess pieces is up there. On the highest shelf are a lot of CDs, my 41 Robyn Hitchcock discs, mostly. The next shelf down holds my little baby amp and some more music--Bach, Segovia playing Bach, XTC--a whole mess.
Below that is a bunch of books of and about music. Below that are my famous art catalogs (4 volumes now), my cycling training records, instructions for computers and bike gear, too. The bottom shelf is just a miscellaneous assemblage of stuff I don't know what else to do with. An old family Bible, office supplies, etc. (In the lower right corner of the photo you can see my cheapo leather jacket hanging on the doorknob.) Once again, it all adds up to the fact that my life is so very uninteresting, at least on a world-wide scale of interesting lives.

Family Portrait 2001

In Unrelated News...
The video for British Sea Power's Remember Me is here if you want to go see it. Singing statuary! I like it when statues sing so earnestly.

Lessons Not Learned 2004

I do have one resolution. I'm going to draw more in 2004. It's good for the soul.

Reminder
I'm thinking too much about my trip to Florida next week. I'm getting stuff I need to take, making lists, that sort of thing. In my mind I'm, putting everything into two categories--before and after the trip. It's for work and the cardinal rule of this blog is that I DON'T write about vocational matters. I already think, talk, and write enough about that. So, this all may give the impression that my life revolves around consumer electronics and slightly-obscure music, which is something I can live with. If I don't have a life outside of my work I will not be a very interesting person (not even to me) nor will I ever be able to concetrate on my work when I need to. But that's just me.
[Rats! Brian is so right! The whole permalink thing is faulty. The link above is supposed to take you to my very first post, the reason for it all. Hmm. I'll blame Blogger.]

Family Portrait 1988

No Fear 1994

The Song on the Lips of the Face of the Earth 2004

At least my brother's paintings look like something. (It's not a permalink because I don't know how to do that. Someone tried to explain it to me but I screwed it up, so this is just a regular old link to his archives. After a while you may have to scroll to see his flower picture, but it's worth it. He's a good brother, and a fine painter. But don't send him stuff in padded envelopes for goodness' sake.) [Never mind, it's fixed for now. My brother is also smarter than me.]

The Right Way 1999

A Better Me
Lauran asked me what my New Year's Resolutions were. I told her that I want to get a new pair of Doc Martens. "Not lose weight, eat healthy, be nicer, spend less money?" Nope. I already am quite impressed with myself, so any resolutions would just be a tweak. Or rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Either way.

Happy New Year
So this is the new year? I didn't stay up to watch the animatronic Dick Clark show. I figured it'll still be 2004 when I wake up, and if it isn't, then it won't be for anybody, so it won't matter. No big day-off traditions here, like with meals and stuff. In fact, I had a leftover curry chicken and leafy spinach sandwich for lunch and strawberry instant oatmeal for dinner. I did get my hands on a bootleg of Joe Strummer's last earthly concert. And I've been having fun watching my new iBook battery run for more than 4 hours on a single charge. Tomorrow I have to drop off whatever I don't feel like lugging on the plane with a guy who's going to Florida a week ahead of the rest of us. (That's a work thing, so I won't write about it directly.) Right now I'm thinking I'll send myself a case of Diet Pepsi and my el-cheapo, but customized no-name electric guitar, so I can continue my quest to play things but never get them quite right. I won't have a lot of spare time, but it might be nice to noodle around with at night, after we go to Emeril's to eat. I've got a little headphone amp so that I won't bother my roommate. But it might freak him out to see me show up at his door with the very symbol of the destruction of peace and quiet in the western hemisphere, so I don't know. But the soda [not "pop"] is going.