so i've just been sitting here doing my usual stuff, writing emails, getting rejected by grad schools, wearing weird clothes. i just get weird during breaks because i'm mostly completely by myself for nigh on a week, and it's hard even for a guy who can spend hours playing with a box to entertain himself that long. to be fair, i was invited out to a few shindigs this weekend, but i passed because by then i had descended far enough into my weirdness that the idea of suddenly encountering lots of people yelling and drinking and being all "whoop there it is!" sort of scared me. i'm an extremely social person, but i'm just generally turned off by large gatherings sometimes, especially those with lots of drinking involved. i like socializing in small and intimate ways, most of the time. and i don't, like, "disapprove" of drinking in a grandmotherly way or anything, it's just that unless i'm in a very certain mood, like 10 percent of the time, drinking a lot results in a depressing-inducing comedown. also, going to the bar and being the guy not drinking is a possibility, but let's face it: drunk people and sober people speak different languages. and it's not fun hanging out people that you can't communicate with or relate to at all. plus, a large majority of the time you drink with a group of people, it's pretty much the same. everybody gets drunk, yells loudly about shit that wouldn't be interesting if you weren't drunk, someone makes a bad life decision, and everyone else laughs at them, you grind your way through the hangover in the morning and then once everyone's capable of reasoning again, you reminisce about all the wacky shit you did that you can't really understand anymore. it's fun, yeah, but i've done it 1,000 times since i turned 21, and i don't feel the need to do it more than a few times a year nowadays. i don't know if that makes me old. maybe it does. if i was drunk at least i'd pass out. instead, i'll fall in bed at like 7am and then wake up a few hours later looking like this:
and you get all wacky from having too much time alone on your hands so you start taking pictures of yourself in the bathroom mirror.
i watched "in good company" last night, which is one of my favorite movies. it's probably the fifth or sixth time i've watched it, and i JUST NOW realized that the CD/Game Exchange (which i miss dearly) did that shit to me where they sell you a box that says "widescreen" on it, but the disc is fullscreen. so even though i've watched the DVD many times and survived, now that i know it's fullscreen i need to buy a widescreen version. it's my favorite movie, man!!! i'm a widescreen junkie!! i need to see the other 40 percent of the picture or a part of me withers and dies!!! a part of me bill withers and dies!!!
i also got a package in the mail from my friend sarah the other day. she's awesome. i hope she never realizes how awesome, because then she would also likely realize that she deserves better friends.
so anyway, when i'm not reading tolkien mythology or worrying about whether they're actually going to make the hobbit movie or eating bagels with horseradish on them and then blowing the hell out of my nose and possibly screaming in pain, i make music. some of you might know this about me. well, this week was supposed to be the week that i finished my second record (so i can start on 3, 4, and 5, which are all partially written already). well, i ended up FUCKING GRADING until wednesday morning. and then on thursday i went crazy, and according to the pictures above i'm not uncrazy yet. so not much recording got done. i've been practicing and playing a lot, even writing a little, but no progress on the actual album. so tonight around 1am i picked up my acoustic guitar and sat in the Batchair (since the recording area is the Batcave, i figure the chair should be the Batchair).
i started playing music, as i often do, and singing. however, there is one important difference this time. i hit THE SWITCH first. THE SWITCH is the mechanism with controls my pre-arranged mixing board/recording/amplifier/etc. power supplies, essentially allowing me to record at any time with the flick of a switch and not much else, i arranged this setup because sometimes my audio ideas literally last something like four minutes in my brain and i'll forget them before i can get everything calibrated correctly.
anyway, i thought it might be fun to record my midnight ramblings and post them, as a sort of internet-y penance for not getting any work done on the record. none of it's anything new, and some of it isn't great, but i know at least a few people might want to check it out. i recorded it using the stereo setting i use by default for my album recording, so the singing's in one channel and the pick-less guitar strumming (it was 1am and i have neighbors) is in the other. it's long, and slow, and sloppy. but it's music. which is better than not having music. if you have better music to listen to, by all means go for it. if not, well then here you go. i should mention i didn't listen to this. so if this is weird i will be suitably retroactively embarrassed.
1. all along the watchtower (bob dylan)
2. millie
3. loving cup (the rolling stones)
4. i still miss someone (johnny cash)
5. wading in the velvet sea (phish)
6. ways to fly
7. sunshine
8. "that spells 'bed' in music" improv song
i might be back later. i'll certainly still be awake. see you in the internets.
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