Category: Life

Chinese Numerology

Last weekend a half-dozen people came into town from various parts. My dad came down Friday, my mom on Saturday morning (didn’t even get to see her), and my friends Odie, Juan, and Kevin were all here Saturday. Kevin was in town to take a deposition today; so he stayed at my place over the weekend. Saturday was Amanda Hickman‘s surprise birthday party – it was supposed to be at Benihana, and they checked the reservation twice; however the reservation was for 11:30 but they don’t open on Saturday until 5pm. Bunch of weirdos. At the last minute Brian had to call all 20 or so people to redirect them to Dixie Cafe. Sheesh.

I’ll have pictures soon; I thought that hooking my camera up to the PC would be easy. Sadly that has not been the case.

Happy New Year

An Enjoyable TimeNew Year’s Eve at the North Little Rock Wyndham went well. Isn’t this picture sickeningly cute? While we were playing somebody walked up and put a feather tiara thing on Natalie’s head. Superflux had played the same gig last year and just like last year I was sick for the days leading up to the show, but I made a recovery just hours before we started. Poor Cara wasn’t as lucky and took a couple shots to the bum and a variety of meds to pull herself together.

Natalie and I had a great New Year’s Day. We dedicated ourselves to laziness – leaving the house only once to go to her place for her Vino’s beer jug. We made cookies and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” and a couple of Sports Night episodes. We ordered pizza from Damgoode Pies and had an an enjoyable time. It was a great way to start 2004.

Twitchy

Blepharospasm. I’ve had one for two weeks now. It has spread to both eyes. Supposedly it’s caused by stress. What am I so stressed about? Maybe this constant feeling that I’ve always got stuff to do and not enough time to do it and a month full of Superflux gigs every weekend.

I think I’m also getting dark circles under my eyes. Maybe I’m just imagining things. Or maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe I’m stressing about getting old which is causing blepharospasms…

Only a Penitent Man Will Pass

It’s time to get thankful.

I’m thankful for lightningfield.com. I’m still digging through this man’s photolog and enjoying every minute. It’s addicting. It’s feeding a hunger I didn’t know I had. Plus it gives me great links like Ghost Town Gallery and Defunct Amusement Parks and a geographically accurate map of the London Underground and Jeff Bridges‘ entirely hand-written website.

I’m thankful for Blue Man Group who are expanding the boundaries of art and contradicting Sammy Hagar‘s theory that there is only one way to rock. They are also responsible for the amazing Exhibit 13.

I’m thankful for the music section of the Laman Library because I never would have heard Stereolab’s Dots and Loops without it.

I’m thankful for my job, despite the lack of windows in our office now.

I’m especially thankful that Natalie lets me kiss her on a regular basis. I think that means I’m her boyfriend. She’s amazing.

Of course I’m thankful for all the typical stuff: remarkably not-lame parents, family, friends, apartment, health, wealth, etc.

An Unfortunate Confluence

Why does the universe hate me?!!

I’ve waited almost two months for this day. Already irksome is the fact that Fate has conspired to bring two great shows to my town on the same night: the Incredible Moses Leroy and John Mayer. I should mention that these two acts are responsible for recording two of my favorite albums of the 21st century. Playing it safe, I chose the Incredible Moses Leroy.

Chris, Heather and I get to the venue, Sticky Fingerz, at 7:15 or so, to grab some food and get good seats. Most shows at Stickies start between 9:00 and 9:30, so that’s a good plan, right? Wrong. Nothing was even set up onstage until 10:00pm or so, and the opening act, Lucious Spiller, didn’t start until around then. So between 7:30 and 10:00 I’m sitting with my people watching ESPN college football highlights. Twice, because they loop evidently. I kept seeing the same plays.

Eventually, the John Mayer crowd starts streaming in a little after 11:00. D’oh!! My friend Randall went to the show with 6th row seats he bought from a guy outside the arena. He made it to Stickies just in time. Fucker!

The band comes in and sets up around 11:00, and plays from about 11:30 to 12:15 or so. That’s it. I had plenty of time to talk to them, and their reasoning was that the crowd wanted dance music, not their stuff. No real Moses Leroy fans there (except me, Chris and Heather and the table of people I helped bring in). I did get an autographed CD, and Ron, the lead singer and songwriter, gave me his email address. So that’s cool.

My friends go off elsewhere to continue drinking. I go home, but as soon as my shoes are off, I realize I forgot to pay my tab! So I go back to Stickies and get that done. I should’ve tried to convince Ron to go hang out somewhere, but he had some chick begging him to go to Discovery…I think he just wanted to chill out on the bus. Oh well.

Epilogue to this debacle: PBS aired John Mayer with Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section – a show I actually thought would be really cool before I even knew it was happening) this same evening. I had set my VCR to record it, but evidently I failed to properly program the show, so it didn’t catch it.

AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! Colonel Klink why have you forsaken me!???

The Joys of a Small Company

At work, I had previously depended upon the neighboring office’s coffee service (utter swill, but not so malevolent as to be undrinkable), so moving to a new place necessitated the purchase of our own coffee maker. I lobbied for better coffee, so they sent me to Sam’s and said get what you want within x budget. So I got an OK coffee maker but I also invested in some Starbucks beans (far be it from me to further extend the global domination of Starbucks, but it was either that or Folgers) and a grinder. It’s amazing the difference good coffee can make in life. Well, better coffee anyways. And I’m not just saying that because I’m amped up on unnecessarily strong coffee (in absence of any measuring devices at the office, I judged by sight, a skill that still requires refinement).

In addition, we have the added bonus of being able to play music in the office without bothering the neighbors. So this morning it’s Starbucks house blend and Victor Wooten’s Alive in America. Life is improving.

Paradigm Shift

Everything has changed. Strange roads, stops, starts, unfamiliar landmarks…even my destination has been profoundly altered. I work in a different place. My office is now located in an entirely different area, requiring me to find a new route to work, and to deal with the limitations of my new workspace. Change is inevitable, and with everything that is gained, something is lost. Previously we were cramped for space and the neighboring office’s ambient noise was often distracting. Now we have far more space than we need, and the silence is deafening. Worst of all, I no longer work in a room with windows. I do, however, have an enormous amount of dining and errand-running options nearby compared to the old place, which was in close proximity to nothing of civilized consequence.

So I now find myself doing the same job, the same activities, in a new space. It’s a lot like having a new job. I’m still trying to find the best path from home to work and back. I think I’ve got it figured out – the most direct route is least often the quickest; and it looks like driving home will need to be a different route from driving to work. North Little Rock is a maze of senseless design and bumpy terrain. It may take a couple of days to refine, but for the most part I will still enjoy the simple pleasures of driving in the opposite direction of everyone else.

Perhaps tomorrow the plumbing will be turned on and we can stop walking to the Laman Public Library to use the bathroom. Only then will some semblance of normalcy return to my life. That, and the purchase of a microwave and a coffee maker.