Last weekend involved a trip down to Boston for the Jamie Lidell show at the Paradise. Beforehand, my companions and I dined at the most un-Newbury restaurant on Newbury, Shino. Truth told, I was grossed out by the heat blast greeting us as we walked toward the unappealing facade, but the food was up in quality. They make all their sushi with brown rice, which also grossed me out initially, but turned out to be a rather pleasant companion to the fish. Lidell took the stage on time and powered through a killer set dressed in what seemed to be the same outfit I saw him wearing two years ago, and with much of the same indefatigable energy and bravado. Most of the content was, predictably, from his recently released sophomore album, Jim, but he threw in a few gems from Multiply to round out the set, including a freakout rendition of the title track as the encore, visions of James Brown dancing in my head. I was glad to see that while he brought a band with him (God bless his horn player), he kept some of the knob-twiddling/beatboxing/synth-freaking solo elements of his shows past.
Sunday and Monday were spent in Providence with Rosie as a sort of early send-off. Tuesday morning she departs for Ulsan, South Korea, to spend a year teaching English to youths, and I couldn’t be happier for her. She’s been trying to get out of the country for some time now, and it’s finally come to pass. Sunday night we held a party in her honor involving many of her friends and fine food in a Mexican fiesta setting, replete with piñata. Monday was spent mostly being lazy, as it was hotter than balls and we didn’t get out of the house until later in the day, although we managed to perform a good-sized clothing cull.
Tuesday through Friday, work has been work. What’s to say? The Tea Ladies, a clique of some of the Dover’s most lunatic and incendiary women, were found to be smiling yesterday by my hand, a rare feat indeed. Our new manager is great. My composure meter is rising slowly but steadily, but I’m still neglecting my community sidework, as it were. My schedule could sadly not be altered for today and I’ll be (yet again) missing the Pride March in Boston. One of these years, before I get too old to walk maybe.
Fat, old Playstation 2 has been sitting unplugged since I returned from North Conway. My fingers have atrophied from a lack of IIDX, but I might be okay with it. ![[WS]](/blog/media/end.gif)
Posted on June 14th, 2008 in Bemani, Friends, Media, Work | No Comments
The last few days of my schedule have alternated work and time off, which sounds great but subtly drains your interest in both states. You can’t get adjusted to working and always feel out of the loop, and you can’t take even a medium-sized trip or get involved in a serious outside project. Frankly, I don’t know why I’m complaining at all about it. I’m not sure I’ve ever been satisfied by a work schedule long term; I wasn’t all that thrilled by the nine-to-five either. Tomorrow is another empty day, but then I embark on an eight day coffee slinging binge punctuated by an even less restful trip to TGA and points west.
Yesterday Courtney and I spent most of the day together watching snippets of absurdist comedy shows (Tim & Eric, Whitest Kids U’ Know, Wonder Showzen) on the internet and traveling to Portsmouth. At the Friendly Toast I attempted to order something I thought might make a decent analog for a croque-madame. It did not. The ingredients were all sort of there but the result, while not unpleasant, was entirely unlike the sandwich I had been craving.
Our apres-dinner stroll brought us to Bull Moose where I plucked an old gem from the used jazz bins (Charles Mingus’ Town Hall Concert) and a newer album (Stars’ Set Yourself On Fire). The former is something I’ve been waiting to find used ever since George played it to death while we closed The Daily Grind so many nights; Scott Briggs brought the latter to my attention during our journey to Coney Island last August. I’m fair excited about both discs and am just listening to the Stars album now for what might as well be the first time. I am almost certain we had it going in the car at some point, but my musical memory isn’t good enough to recall details about a single playthrough some six months on.
Posted on January 16th, 2008 in Media, Work | No Comments
Due to the delayed onset of snow today, I made it to work pre-storm, then left two and a half hours early for want of business, hot chocolate in hand. Now I’ve got the whole rest of the day and all of tomorrow to play in the snow and generally entertain myself. I’m excited like a schoolchild. I might just get suited up and go tramping through the woods across the street later this afternoon. I will probably be enjoying more hot cocoa somewhere along the line. Also knitting. Hooray winter!
P.S. I just received a phone call informing me that the glasses I ordered a month ago yesterday have finally arrived back from the lab, but of course I can’t get there to pick them up, what with the many inches of snow on the road.
Posted on January 14th, 2008 in Maine, Work | 1 Comment
Many things have slipped past undone by me of late, not least of which is blogging. The list also includes some of my contract work, writing a letter of recommendation for a good friend, tending to my friendships, balancing my checkbook, finishing this new hat. I don’t know what’s wrong, specifically. I’ve been feeling a severe lack of energy and passion, which doesn’t help in that I’m unwilling to expend effort on non-leisure activities when I’m home from my day job. This, of course, is nothing new. It’s just upsetting because I’ve spent a lot of time since I moved home trying to remedy these sorts of problems and, to a large extent, had succeeded in doing so temporarily. Now I’m backsliding and I can’t tell if it’s just winter finally getting to me, the reestablishment of a social scene, or some sort of cyclical apathy.
So I’m sorry for not writing more frequently. I’m sure some of you would like to see regular entries here. You know how I am about promises.
Starbucks is going well. I find that it is more consistently busy than COTC was, and that helps negate the fact that we basically are not allowed any downtime on the clock. I mean there are moments when we are just standing around but they are rare and fleeting. The staff are by and large very friendly and personable, and they feel genuine. It’s a comfortable place to be spending my 40. I’ve been able, so far, to pick up shifts to fill gaps in my schedule. I’m working nine straight shifts when I come off my downtime on Wednesday.
I don’t want to talk about work.
Matter of fact, I don’t want to talk about much. Or, there are things I’d like to talk about, but discussing them here is not the appropriate forum.
Posted on February 25th, 2007 in Life, Work | 2 Comments
ITEM: Got some cute new shirts and a pair of jeans on clearance at Express. Also finally bought a beard trimmer (rejoice!).
ITEM: ITG2 at the mall sucks, hard. Both machines are bent something fierce.
ITEM: Had a “Who’s on first?” conversation today, went something like “What is this song?” “That’s playing?” “Yes.” “Right Now?” “Yes.” “Right Now, right now.” “Yes, now.” “It’s Right Now [by Van Halen].”
ITEM: Cleared every L7 song on 5th Style CS except for Regulus (stupid piano shit).
ITEM: Must do some work. Will procrastinate by watching some Family Guy.
Posted on January 16th, 2006 in Bemani, Friends, Work | No Comments
