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December 5th, 2005
 | 02:56 pm - Weekend Update: Davy Jones' Lunchbox
Surprisingly, I'm in a really good mood today. No reason for it, especially given my general lack of sleep over the weekend. Last night I sort of made up for it, but I didn't get a whole lot more sleep than usual. Go figure.
Anyway, my weekend:
Friday:  wendybyrd's birthday party. The theme was "corrupting your inner child." I had a good time hindered somewhat by the fact that I was tired and fatigued, and in a bad mood (presumably because I was tired and fatigued). I had some good conversations though, mostly trying to convince r3507 to listen to The Spine. I tried to enjoy myself and generally succeeded until I was too tired to do so. What I'm trying to say is that it was a great party, but Friday night was just not the right night for me to attend a great party. Regardless, I think Wendy had a happy birthday, and that's the important part.
Saturday: I was home all day working on stuff, mostly music. Mostly the version of Pictures at an Exhibition which I just finished, and which I'm still terribly, terribly happy with. In the evening I hung out with agaysexicon and fuzzyinthehead. We watched several episodes of an anime called The New Cutey Honey, in which the main character loses her clothes and transforms from mild-mannered attractive blonde to butt-kicking super-heroine every time she says "By the power of Grayskull!" "Honey flash!" I also beat myself up over whether or not I was going to Rocky Horror. The answer turned out to be yes, and it ended up being a good thing since (despite all the snow) they had an audience (albeit a small one). It was a good time, but afterward I was only awake enough to go to Country Kitchen, eat, and go home.
Sunday was the_tick27's birthday gathering in Chicago (well, Arlington Heights (who cares? (the citizens of Arlington Heights, I suppose.))) at Mitsuwa Marketplace, an Asian (specifically Japanese) mall. I rode in evil_jim's car, with matt_william and Jon (of offBeat fame) who doesn't have a livejournal. About half way there Matt received a voicemail from crabmoon saying that she and Tick wouldn't be coming, and then as we pulled into the parking lot he received a call saying that they were coming after all, and that they were just leaving. Jim, Matt, Jon and I had lunch at the food court. I had Oyakodon Donburi which was (basically) chicken and eggs served over rice. It's much tastier (and a more balanced meal when ordered at Mitsuwa) than it sounds. The name of the dish translates in English to "Mother and Child," and (thanks to this handy link provided by Jim (who also ordered the Oyakodon)) was the inspiration for the Paul Simon song you just thought of. I couldn't finish it all, which I blame on the chopsticks. I've become sufficiently proficient with them, but I can't simply shovel scalding hot rice into my mouth at lightspeed. Between that and the conversation, my brain registered that my hunger had been satiated before I'd finished half of it.
We did some shopping, and I bought a few stocking-stuffer-type items for those on my Christmas list. We ran into seanorange who lives close to Mitsuwa. I suppose I should have assumed he'd be invited, but it really didn't occur to me. Shortly after he showed up, Lindsay and Tick arrived -- more than two hours after we did -- with lord_alucard, theenigma42, and Chad in tow. Jon and Chad did not bond over not having livejournals, though it would have been funny if they had. They made a quick circuit of the store while we looked at manga and overpriced region 2 DVDs in the bookstore. They had a couple of kits that looked interesting. Jim purchased the build your own Edison phonograph kit, and I was terribly interested in the automagical, retro-looking, CD-recording Gramophone kit (not its real name), but there's simply no reason for me to buy such a thing. What I did purchase was about $8 of stuff I'll actually use. Unfortunately, my $1.50 belt hanger is not interesting enough that you'd want to read about it.
After Mitsuwa we went to J1Toy, which is a great place to go if you're interested in collecting anime and Ultraman memorabilia.
I'm not.
After wandering the store and watching Jim and Lindsay play DDR, the two groups parted ways. We headed home so Jon could get some rest before class this morning, and the other group went to Sean's apartment where (I gather) so much fun was had that it has to be hidden in a protected post. Anyway, it was really an enjoyable trip.
Here are a couple of memes:
I took the Which Musician Shares Your Taste in Music? quiz this morning, and it tells me that I share common ground with The Cure. It's not worth copying and posting the HTML because all it has is that sentence, a picture of Robert Smith, and a link to Smith's celebrity playlist on iTunes. I've posted the tracks and his comments below. It's interesting in that I only know about half of the songs on the list, and they're pretty well divided between songs I like and songs that would make me switch over to NPR if they ever appeared on the radio. Quizzes like this one are fun, but they're more indicative of their author's personal biases than anything else.1. Jimi Hendrix -- Are You Experienced?
Music from another world - when I first heard this it made me want to play guitar and sing all night - it still does.
2. Nick Drake -- Time Has Told Me
The most heartbreaking sound - and maybe where we got the name from.
3. Tom Waits -- (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
Perfect melancholia - poignant, evocative, heartfelt.
4. Janis Ian -- Tea and Sympathy
Another one of the saddest songs I ever heard...
5. Thin Lizzy -- Don't Believe a Word
Melodic and powerful - the grooviest rock band I ever saw.
6. The Clash -- White Riot
And then this happened and everything changed - a riot of my own...
7. The Psychedelic Furs -- Into You Like a Train
The Furs were such a great mix of style and substance... of styles and substances.
8. Cocteau Twins – Lorelei
Breathtaking.
9. Pixies -- Monkey Gone to Heaven
Falling upwards...
10. My Bloody Valentine -- I Only Said
The music playing at the end of a world.
11. Nirvana -- Heart-Shaped Box
Raw, passionate, heartbreaking Kurt.
12. Supergrass -- Alright
So insanely happy it makes me cry.
13. Interpol -- NYC
Twilight memories...
14. A.F.I. -- Girl's Not Grey
Dark, seductive, romantic...
15. Scarling -- Crispin Glover
Beautiful shadows...
16. Blink 182 -- Down
Perfect now music for pop people?
17. Deftones – Minerva
Simply awesome.
18. Tricky -- Moody
Mesmerising, innovative, strange-as-angels Tricky.
19. The Cooper Temple Clause -- New Toys
The eye of the storm...
20. Mogwai -- Killing All the Flies
A piece of the loudest/quietest/heaviest/lightest band in the world.
21. Placebo -- The Bitter End
Hopefully won't be coming too soon.
| Your Birthdate: June 11 | 
Spiritual and thoughtful, you tend to take a step back from the world.
You're very sensitive to what's going on around you, yet you remain calm.
Although you are brilliant, it may take you a while to find your niche.
Your creativity is supreme, but it sometimes makes it hard for you to get things done.
Your strength: Your inner peace
Your weakness: You get stuck in the clouds
Your power color: Emerald
Your power symbol: Leaf
Your power month: November |
This is interesting because it describes me to a T (except for that inner peace nonsense), right down to green being my favorite color. Then again, I found this meme through spidermoon77's results fits me almost as well. My personality is the sum of the time, culture, economic status, and family into which I was born; I simply don't believe that I'd be a different person if I were born in February or August or Octember.
I have a lot of friends who believe in astrology, and conversations on the subject lead them inevitably to say either "I knew you were a Gemini!" or "Really? I would have pegged you as a ________." The split is about 50/50, and I'd bet anything that my personality matching that of a Gemini (or people born on June 11th, for that matter) is a result some partially subconscious rationalization -- the only reason it's true is that in the back of my mind, I want it to be. It's the same sort of thought process that makes me think I like the song Indian Ocean by They Might Be Giants, even though Indian Ocean is deliberately unlistenable:I love the band They Might Be Giants.
Indian Ocean is a song by They Might Be Giants.
Therefore, I like Indian Ocean. No I don't! The song is experimental noise! I can count the number of times I've listened to it all the way through on my fingers! Still, I can't bear to delete it from my MP3 player because it's They Might Be Giants, and (in case I've never mentioned it before) I love the band They Might Be Giants. In fact, this moment is the first time it's ever occurred to me that I might rather delete it than keep it there, but I'm not going to because I love the band They Might Be Giants (just FYI).
Am I allowing myself to gloss over the (perceived) incorrect statement that my strength is my inner peace because I like to think that the rest of my quiz result is true?
I'd be interested to see how other people react to the results of this particular quiz. Go ahead and take it -- all you have to do is enter your birthdate.
Current Mood:  Cheerful. Not sure why.
Current Music: Steve Burns (yes, that Steve Burns) -- Dead
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Honestly, I haven't heard any of it yet. The MP3 I was listening to comes from a not-yet-released trribute to TMBG called "Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might Be Giants." His track was legitimately released as a sample of the album a few weeks back, but I can't find it just at the moment. I'd look harder, but I've gotta be somewhere. I'm curious about his full album, though. | | From: | sacredspud |
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| Date: | December 6th, 2005 05:38 am (UTC) |
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| | "Ducking the man." | (Link) |
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In that case, I must thank you for your comment and delete it (because my lj is totally where they will be looking...). ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/33824760/7966292) | | From: | laviorli |
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| Date: | December 6th, 2005 12:36 am (UTC) |
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| | Gross :P | (Link) |
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chicken-and-egg dishes known as "mother and child reunion" or "mother-daughter reunion" are not uncommon menu items at Chinese restaurants.
eeeewwwwww!! Colin! *laughing half amused half disgusted* | | From: | sacredspud |
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| Date: | December 6th, 2005 05:39 am (UTC) |
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| | Re: Gross :P | (Link) |
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As soon as I saw the subject line of your comment, I knew exactly what it was about. You and robert smith have alot in common, you were bothe lead singer for the Cure to start with. I thought we agreed never to speak of that again. I did a little more research and found the kits for sale elsewhere online available at a much more reasonable price than the first link I found (tho' shipping is a bit much.) The Berler Gramophone is only about $23 there & I'll likely get one when I order another Edison Cup Phonograph kit for my friend Sheri. I'll finally be able to put those AOL discs to good use. Oh, I read through the instructions & found one cup can record about fifteen seconds of sound. No idea on a CDR (other than 80 minutes.) Speaking of They Might Be Giants, they did a song once on a real Edison Recorder but I can't for the life of me remember the title. Any clues? Yes They did. Back in 1996, TMBG were invited to the Edison Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey to record some songs on hundred-year-old, non-electrical equipment. They used all acoustic instruments, and I remember hearing an interview where they talked about having to sing and play into two large metal cones ("about 12-feet long") which were used to amplify the sound enough to cause a needle to etch the vibrations onto a wax cylinder. They also mentioned that it was important to carefully arrange the physical placement of the band members because of the absence of microphones and sound-editing techniques, and discussed the fact that the faux-operatic vocal style you hear in old recordings was necessary because normal singing wouldn't drive the needle. I think they recorded more songs that way than I can think of, but the ones I recall were entitled I Can Hear You, The Edison Museum, James K. Polk, and Maybe I Know, which is a cover of a pre-existing song. You can listen to I Can Hear You as a flash file on Their website, and The Edison Museum is a free download at Archive.org.I haven't heard a lot of their music but I really like them and this is one of the reasons why.
Thanks a lot for the links. I can Hear You is the one I was thinking of... I didn't know they did so many that way.+ Could you re-add your address to my christmas card thing? I accidently deleted the poll. D'oh! 's okay, I saw that you had reposted it, and I was going to post a comment asking if you'd gotten my address. I'll repost it in a moment, thanks! |
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