nanovivid

Life has been music and artalicious recently. It started Friday night after our Arbor Day celebration at Dave’s Taverna (our == me, Ney, and Dave). We went to Mel Steffy’s voice recital of 20th century music. She did an excellent job and it was quite enjoyable. Then Courtney and I went to the "Hair House" (see, the guys who live there have longish hair, thus the Hair House) for an Oscars Mad concert. It was the first time I had seen them, and they were really good. Props to those guys for some quality music. The party itself was kind of strange, because there were a lot of people there I kinda knew or knew of, but wasn’t really comfortable around, so even though the music was really enjoyable, it wasn’t the most fun time ever.

The next musical incident was Saturday night, at Bandfest. I only went for the first two acts, Shapiro and Jibbercomb. Shapiro totally blew me away. Quality, quality music. Very arty and jam-based. You can download some songs from their website, but seeing them perform live is waaaaay better. Jibbercomb was good too, but a lot of the songs sounded really similar and didn’t quite do it for me. The best part was at the end when Ry grabbed his guitar and added that to the mix.

Sunday night was Erica’s senior art show gallery opening. It was quite nice and the food was delicious. ;-) The new pieces she created for the show are very cool, especially the lip series. I had the opportunity to buy the umbrella pieces that graced our apartment over the summer, but unfortunately Tonya had to go and get them. Grrrr. However, I have managed to forgive her because I’m getting Set Free, which has major emotional impact for me. So there. Go ahead Erica with the mad art skillz.

Then yesterday evening was Daniel Stutzman’s senior piano recital. He is an amazing piano player, and rocked the house. I don’t normally get into classical music a huge amount, but he really made it work. Great stuff.

So that is the cliff notes version of my adventures into the arts as of late. Moving on to random events (and jumping back in time), Saturday night after Bandfest, I went over to Ney’s apartment to hang out with her and Josh. That was lots of fun. Josh is so on crack, it’s great. We watched TS and I Love the 80s, and then went and rented Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a first-time viewing for both Courtney and myself. It did indeed prove itself most excellent. Party on, dudes! Classic. (And for some reason Keanu Reeves is frighteningly good at playing a stoner. Agent Smith is totally bogus, dude).

Tonight after hanging out with Erica and watching some random tv, Ney asked if I wanted to take a walk because it was freaking nice, I said of course. So we did. Walking and talking is the best. Many subjects were discussed, and it was good to connect. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and processing about some of my friendships (one in particular) and trying to shift some expectations to be more realistic. Good stuff. Afterwards, Brittany joined us for a trek to the mart of wal.

That’s just about it, I think. Work continues to be busy as we move faculty and staff to the new email system. Things have been quite smooth so far and are getting smoother every session. Only a couple hundred people left to go. Yay! :-)

For some random linkge, there are new explodingdog pictures. Ones I like:
i came here to find out who you are
i loved you at all the wrong times (I’m so feeling this one)
i need to know if i can trust you
and a silly one:
i think i need some space to think

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather. I know I am.

♫ Mint - Digital Mix

So I decided to forgo some sleep and throw the new design into place. I’m pretty happy with it. There are still a few loose ends to tie up (mainly in the cdlabels and contact sections). Leave a comment and let me know think of it.

Now it’s way past bedtime. Good night.

♫ Manic Street Preachers - Born A Girl

I haven’t journaled because I’ve been working on the new site design. I’ll update soon.

Until I get around to it, enjoy some new music. Starflyer 59 has released a track from their new album (which is called "Old"). The track is Underneath and it’s quality (not a big surprise from them :-). Download it now. It’s definitely a bit different from stuff they’ve done before… still definitely Starflyer, but with a great new edge to it. Brave Saint Saturn has also released a song from their new cd. Go download The Sun Also Rises because I said so.

♫ Starflyer 59 - Underneath

So last night I said I was going to bed at 12. Riiiiight. I ended up having a really good conversation with Dave instead. Who needs sleep when there are people to talk to?

The final trailer for The Matrix: Reloaded is out. I have two words: holy crap. That movie is going to rock. Plus, the first song in the trailer is The Wonders of You by Andy Hunter°… how cool is that? Pretty cool, I’d say.

Be sure to read this very interesting article about the special effects. It’s totally insane stuff. Mad cool points.

Ok, work time.

♫ Andy Hunter° - The Wonders of You (in my head)

I’m glad that the drought is over and all, but it sure would be nice to have some sunny weather Real Soon Now. I enjoy some rainy days, but a whole week of them is pushing it a bit. Hear that Mr. Weather? You’re pushing it.

This evening, I hung out at Dawn and Mark’s with that whole clan. The nephews (they’re not my nephews but that’s what everybody in the family calls them so it’s just easier for me to use the same terminology) were totally wound up and hilarious as usual. Jared (3 years old) told Courtney that the alligator was going to eat her clothes and then she would be naked… and then there was something about going to the naked something-we-didn’t-understand which Ney interpreted as "store." So if an alligator ever eats your clothes, watch out, you’ll have to go to the naked store.

After that, Ney and I went to a community discussion thingy in Common Grounds on "The Sex Gap." The starting point was the fact that there is now more time between the onset of puberty and marriage than ever before. In fact, back in the day, people would get married pretty close to puberty, but now there’s an average twelve year gap. What do we do with our sex drive and the sexual part of ourselves during that time? There weren’t many answers found, but there were a lot of good questions and ideas brought up. It was also really great to hear people actually talk honestly about sex and not be too squeamish about it. Making sex to be a dirty, hush-hush thing has been one of the church’s biggest mistakes. I understand that it’s very hard to move away from that mind set, and also that there is a certain level of intimacy and trust that is nice to have when talking about such a personal part of life. But still.

I came away from the discussion with a lot of things to think about, and since it usually takes me a while to process ideas, I’m not going to try to elucidate on anything further. It was an excellent event, thanks much to Safe Place for sponsoring it (go Dave!).

Tomorrow is Arbor Day, so in our tradition of somehow celebrating holidays everyone else mostly ignores, we’ll be having a meal or something in honor of the trees. Awwww. This tradition began with last year’s Bastille Day potluck (where Courtney separated the icing on the French flag cake with a toothpick). Celebrating random holidays is fun!

It might be nice to mention that nanovivid.com is now fully up and running with Assorted Internet and I’m extremely happy with the service so far. Much more than with Eryxma.

Abbey now has a journal. She funny. Go read. And laugh.

I should be in bed. So that’s where I’m going (hopefully).

♫ The Album Leaf - Last Time Here

Let’s see… I’m addicted to Jimmy the Exploder by The White Stripes (download it at Epitonic) and I’m going to need to buy some of their stuff soon. It’s such great trashy, lo-fi, high-energy rock. Also, Shiloh (I mentioned a bit ago that I’m all about their song Dream On) now has a website where you can hear clips from three of their songs (look in the shilomusic section). I’m really really looking forward to their album.

I’m ready for the rain and cold to be done but according to the forecast, it’s not getting warm until Saturday. ::pout:: Anybody want to snuggle and stay warm? Anybody at all? :-D

♫ The White Stripes - Jimmy the Exploder

I just (and by just, I mean almost an hour ago) finished watching basketball (yes, you read that right). Though I mostly watched because I got to hang out with Erica and hear more about her colossal squid obsession (and she’s quite obsessed).

Speaking of obsessions… ::drool::

I have this "major field exam" that I’m taking tomorrow night (even though I graduated in December… go figure). It’s basically me being nice to the math/cs department and helping them with their statistics gathering, or something like that. They’re feeding us pizza afterwards, thus Ney’s question…

So what time is your big pizza exam tomorrow?

Sample question: which of these is a pizza topping?
a) cheese
b) mandrian oranges (damn skippy!)
c) your mom
d) all of the above

That is all.

♫ Crydamoure Presents "Waves"

So said the subject of an email from the real Dan Lapp this morning when I checked my mail. It was a response to my Sigur Rós concert). His encouragement to not silence myself over a perceived lack of information is a good reminder to me. I’m often intimidated by people who seem to know more than me and can shout what they do know louder and more forcefully. Maybe I always will be. I needed the reminder to not let my intimidation cause me to silence myself. To quote Dan, As a parting thought, when it boils down I suppose the only one a person really needs to convince is himself, although it’s nice when others can resonate. Thanks. :-)

On a related note, I ran into a blog entry the other day that I appreciated. It’s about the notion that celebrities need to not have opinions (or not have controversial ones anyway). Good stuff.

♫ Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Live VPRO Radio Sessions - Part 3 (Untitled)

What is Tsef Te’ g-gun, you ask? It’s the opposite of Nuggetfest, a two-year tradition of celebrating the switch from daylight saving to standard time. Since we’re now doing the opposite - switching from standard to DST, we needed the name to be the opposite. Michael came up with the bright idea of spelling it backwards and pronouncing it with a French accent (of course, he also decided that a zeppelin was the opposite of a chicken nugget… go figure).

Unfortunately, I must report that while Tsef Te’ g-gun was fun, it was nowhere near as cool as Nuggetfest. We just ordered pizza and watched tv… not near as fun as sitting in the car and talking for hours (and almost getting accidentally kissed by a certain person). The evening was brightened by the ongoing debate of what Lynley should name the stray cat she found. Courtney’s suggestion (which I endorse) is Bacardi, and we’ve agreed to call her (the cat, not Lynley) that until Lynley picks a name.

I kind of wish I had gone to the barn dance that was on campus tonight, but I just wasn’t feeling the hoedown energy flowing. Now I need something to do. I guess I could just go to bed, since it is really midnight.

♫ Shiloh - Dream On

I just got back from a late night walk with Ney. And by late night, I mean early morning.

So a few mins after I posted my previous entry, we started talking on im and she asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I responded affirmatively, so we met around 2:50 (that’s in the am, kids) and wandered around Park View talking about anything and everything. Thanks so much Ney, I was much in need of some good talkage. :-).

♫ Underworld - Two Months Off (from this Andy Hunter° mixset on Maximum Rotation)