trogdor!!

well now. i'm going to get some coffee in a minute but first i wanted to post a little update about my life. i'm finished with school for the summer and i'm happy. i changed my major to english shortly before the quarter ended; i feel much less conflicted about my life now, although i feel like the punchline of a garrison keillor joke. i've planned out all the classes i need to take in order to graduate, including my major, my honors program, and an intended minor in anthropology. i'll come out with some extra credits but whatever. i've gotten grades back from two of my three classes - both a's - i pretty much decided, when i went back to school for what god in heaven i hope will be the last time before i get a degree of *some* kind, that if i'm going to do this i'd better do it right and get a's. obviously if i take a class in which i completely suck, i will be fine with not having an a as long as i worked hard to figure out what's going on. if, for example, i manage to completely screw up my required course in logic, this will not be a tragedy. (by the way, symbolic or inductive - i can take either one - recommendations pls?)

the rest of my life lately has been about getting ready for colorado. i'm making the trip at the end of the month and it will be the event of the year. i've already doodled most of my packing list. i originally started doodling these lists out of boredom at a mall kiosk job, and then i discovered that this was a good way to figure out what clothing to wear. i can't keep it all in my head, so if i want to plan my outfits in advance, either i put it down on paper or i pull it all out of the closet and scratch my head for a bit. the former is a little easier to do at work lunch in the break room, which is not in my closet.

saturday night was great. katy and i shopped for new clothes (i have gone up a size and also should probably stop shopping in juniors before i turn thirty), then grabbed m and went to noble roman's for dinner before heading downtown for a concert at canal street tavern. the room is great - it's a bar, first off, but mostly a performance space. much of the seating comes in the form of church pews; more in the back is old wooden stadium seating from what must have been the old ballpark. there's a long bar mirror behind the stage and a woody guthrie poster off to the right. this place has got it, whatever it is.

the opener was erin mckeown, and she's the one we actually went to see. several of you know that erin's music and i go way back (right, chicky?), and her shows are even indirectly responsible for at least one relationship. she bounded out with lightsocket hair and a mechanic's shirt on and proceeded to completely charm the crowd with her readings on ohio industry and her audience participation. she asked for requests and i shouted out "dirt gardener," which totally wouldn't have worked at ALL (very long, quiet song, downer backstory) and i realized that as soon as i said it. so it was a good thing she said no, too hard, to that one. afterward, i grabbed a copy of her latest cd and waited to speak with her. one of the people in front of me produced a bunch of photos of herself and erin at various shows and offered to buy erin a drink, a little desperately. another one had just graduated from umass and got into a discussion with erin about the housing market in the pioneer valley. people kept butting in just as i was about to speak, and then i was in the way of the cd sales, and finally i just had to cross the aisle and squeeze in right next to erin. i'd forgotten how tiny she is. i was in wedges that gave me a few inches, granted, but i looked down to her and i'm only 5'1" in my stocking feet. she'd seen me waiting and addressed me as soon as the last person stopped talking.

"would you like me to sign your cd?" she asked. no no no, you don't have to, i said, and she smiled and relaxed a little. i told her i just wanted to say sorry about the dirt gardener thing, and she was animatedly apologetic, if that makes any sense, and said she'd hoped i hadn't taken it the wrong way, it's just a really tough one to play and maybe she'll get the right room someday, but she was afraid she'd lose them, and i said no problem, i totally understood. and she thanked me for coming and shook my hand. then, just as a parting shot, i mentioned that i used to go to fire & water back in the day. her whole face changed. her eyes grew huge and round. "oh my GOD," she said. "that was a long time ago!" her smile was different then when she thanked me for going to see her then and said she'd see me again soon. i offered my hand as a goodbye and we shook once more.

the main act came on. i'd never heard of johnny a, but i'd checked out clips on his website when i saw he was playing. he's strictly a guitar man, not a singer, and travels with a drummer and a bassist from the other side of hell. he was phenomenal. he played a number of originals but also several covers, including a whimsical rendition of a beatles tune and a terrifically unrecognizable, very jazzy "the wind cries mary." his cover of "texas flood" was a religious experience. the crowd whooped in a frenzy of amens. we couldn't stay for the whole thing, so we called the game at ten minutes to midnight, slipping out into the city.

ok, i just have to say, i took a survey a minute ago given by my university activities board. not normally as exciting as the surveys i post on here, right? but this one, as all surveys, did require someone to state a sex/gender. however. the options were male, female, and transgender. someone is taking a step in the right direction...yet another reason i love my school...

also i watched american idol tonight. after my beauty and the geek obsession, no less. i've been watching both and i should be ashamed of myself but i'm not. i think i have a total crush on that one guy who sang that kenny rogers song. you know, the one who was a backup singer for christina aguilera and was really good-looking with a great smile? that one.

yes, i could talk about my political science class, in which i find myself in a room with not one but two people who have held statewide political office; or i could talk about my geology class, which veers between a constant stream of "wow, that's cool, i didn't know that" and "wow, the professor just giggled at the word 'cleavage'." but it's late and my brain is done, and it only has room left for simon, randy, and paula.

2.6.07 eta: his name is brandon rogers. yay for recaps. also, i am a dumbass. for some reason i heard kenny rogers's voice singing that song in my head when i wrote this. but i woke up the next day and heard willie nelson's voice and slapped my own forehead.

babies. listening to tool. performed on the glockenspiel.

the WaPo article (text beneath cut...)

( no shit. )

and i found the website!!! and you can hear samples of the songs!!! and they're so diabolically wonderful and creepy!!! and LOOK AT THE ALBUM COVERS. they're PERFECT:

http://www.babyrockrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=products

as soon as i saw the radiohead cover, i squeaked! it...it makes me so happy...*sniffle* I WANT TO BUY THEM ALL.

so the ani concert in columbus thursday night was awesome. ("like a hot dog?" never mind.) the vibe was great. i went with my sweetie and a friend from spanish class, and we walked around downtown for a bit before the show. nice downtown, except who knew there was a chipotle that closed at 4pm? the look on my sweetie's face...he's an addict. bd's stood in as a good substitute, though.

it was an outdoor show, which was inconvenient for us when it rained in the pre-show hour, but fortunately it trickled off as hammell on trial started. and oh dude. i will never look at ann coulter the same way again. instead of being exhausted with anger i will now laugh. this is the power of this man. you should hear him and laugh and laugh and learn, and he does a mean muddy waters.

and of course ani. this is concert #7! nothing particularly outstandingly special, just a really good evening. she and todd were obviously having an enormous amount of fun. hammell had said something about the evening being recorded, so i'm hoping they were recording her show and not just his - objectively speaking, i think it'd make a good boot to add to the series. not that i'm at all selfish. ;) she played a fair amount of stuff off reprieve and a song she said is so new she's still getting it dialed in, so i doubt it's coming out with this album. wish i could remember enough about it to say for sure. she played some old stuff too, including "done wrong," which i'm not sure i'd ever heard her perform live, except possibly she might have played it at the colorado springs show i went to in 2000. and that was a super-intense show, about the time she was probably going through a lot of the stuff she sang about on revelling/reckoning, so there was a lot of stuff from dilate being hauled out at that one and it was obvious that she was not in a good place that night.

but anyway. this version of "done wrong" was free of all that weight, free to be deep, rich, shimmering. it took up extra space, warmed up to a deep auburn hue from the slate it had always been in my mind, which was unexpected and beautiful. and one of the new songs she played - i don't know, possibly "millennium theater"? maybe not - felt as though it had been resonating in me all my life and i finally got to hear it out loud. her music is just, i don't know, perfect. in its imperfection it is perfect. that makes no sense. let's try again. every time i hear it, strings are plucked in me that can only be plucked by that music, and it's like coming home. the feel of the west, the sheer america of it, is just me. i don't know how she does it.

i also suspect that there are many people out there who like her, who listen to her, but who do not get her at all. she made several jokes that were completely lost on the crowd when i laughed out loud. not to say this as "i get her! we're LIKETHIS" or anything, because obviously this is someone i do not know. but i think she's fucking hysterical and i do not understand how people can not get her.

so yes, i said concerts, plural. i unfortunately missed my little brother's show at the bitter end in new york this week. he's going to try to get me a tape of it, which would be wonderful, because that's a historic moment and there was no way i could be there for it.

i also missed my stepbrother's band's show in columbus, but it was the night before ani and i just couldn't make the drive twice in two days. however, they're playing tonight at the beachland ballroom in cleveland, and it's the late show, which means i could make it if i leave soon. but that means getting a hotel and coming back here tomorrow. (or staying with my mom, but a) the show will be late and i'll want to see my stepbrother (the one in my user icon) afterward, and b) if my sweetie comes with me that is just NOT HAPPENING.) and i was away last weekend at my dad's house, and i'll be away next weekend camping and whitewater rafting in north carolina, and i was working this morning at the gospel mission (long and not particularly interesting story, though it was a good time and i'm glad i did it). so i'd kind of like a chance to just lie around the house for a day. but if i don't see jimmy's band tonight, i have to drive a ways to see him next, and the closest he's getting is morgantown, west virginia. also, we'd like to travel to see another ani show or two this summer, and this is going to get expensive quickly. :)

ok. i have half an hour to make my decision. the show starts at 9:30 and it will take me that entire time to get there. hmmmmmmm.

well, crap. after thinking for a couple of years now that gerard way, the lead singer of my chemical romance, was kinda bizarre and creepy-looking, i see him with a haircut and no makeup and he's actually kinda hot. sigh. now i have another celebrity to add to my collection of celebrity hotness on my palmpilot. (yes, i really have hot celebrities on my ipod.)

i'm on spring break. i'm thoroughly enjoying myself. last night, after a weekend of revelry with friends and angel_machine, i sat my ass on the couch, had a corona, played video games, and watched harold and kumar. that is my WHOLE FUCKING PLAN for this week, thank you very much. yeah, i still have to work, but whatever, y'know? i have my evenings to myself and that's enough for now. plus i have my schedule for spring quarter set, and i have both classes with the same professor (whom i totally adore - he makes class so much fun and our brains work in very similar ways). i only had to buy books for one class and they were super cheap. more money for beer self-improvement.

ah yes, and we have tickets! to mutemath and to ama superbike. super excited. i'd like to pick up tickets to ani's show in nashville just before my birthday, but i'll have to see whether i can get the time off. the last time i saw her was in austin last february and that was an amazing show. i can't wait to see what she's got now.

speaking of austin, i've been bummed all week that i'm not in texas this year for sxsw. not that i ever actually got to the shows to begin with, because getting into austin is a total bitch that week, but it was always a goal of mine. i'm still going to do it one of these days - maybe with aliyaskie, eh? just take the whole fucking week off. i can stay in san antonio, no problem - i've got the hookup on the cheapo digs.

ok, back to TEH HOTTNESS.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your Livejournal along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to...

1. finch, "ender"
2. steel pulse, "tyrant"
3. jimmy eat world, "if you don't, don't"
4. blink 182 f/ robert smith, "all of this"
5. dave matthews band, "#41" (from the luther college cd)
6. black eyed peas, "weekends"
7. black eyed peas, "request+line"

tagging...angel_machine, faerieem, heiwalove, jinxremoving, kneidlach, mere, samhain_punk!

American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% Seattle

75% Denver

65% Las Vegas

60% Austin

60% Honolulu

okay, i'll respectfully disagree with honolulu and las vegas, though i may yet have the chance to decide in person on either one of those. but i love austin and love love denver, and i've had like three people this week ask me if i'm from seattle. *sigh*

so i have an appointment. toni & guy. geez i hate spending that much money. but at the end of it, i will have hair that matches my car. woohoo!

wanna know what color that is? go to vw.com, then build a beetle gls 1.9 tdi in blue lagoon. that will be my hair color. (and that, incidentally, is what my new car looks like!)

oh, and ben taylor is HAWT. but he sounds JUST LIKE his dad. which isn't a bad thing, just there's a disconnect when i listen to him. thanks nurí!

went to the doc today. this doc is a different person - as she explained it, she's an allopathic doctor, whereas my normal doc is an osteopathic doctor. different philosophies. she also pointed out that she has an M.D. and he doesn't, but that sounded a little arrogant so i'm inclined to discount that fact a little more than i otherwise would.

anyway, she doesn't believe in the whole floating rib thing and says she thinks it's muscle spasm. okay, whatever. she had me x-rayed and got me an appointment for physical therapy tomorrow. she said i have to improve my posture, which i can accept, and i have to strengthen my torso muscles, which my regular doc also said. fine. i can do that. she also prescribed heat, massages, and over-the-counter stuff. i've got motrin, which she said is fine; but she also said tylenol arthritis works, too. apparently the only difference between that and regular tylenol is a different coating that makes the arthritis med last longer. fancy for me.

in other news, dude i'm gettin' a dell! okay, smack me NOW.

no, really, i ordered it sunday. i considered getting a refurb and saving money but was told by a reliable source to stay away from the refurbs. so i got a dell dimension 4700. 2.8GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, SoundBlaster Audigy sound card, Dell 5650 5-speaker system plus subwoofer, 17-inch digital flat panel screen, um...a bunch of other stuff, um, can't remember now...yeah. v. excited. i should get it in a couple of weeks if i'm a good girl ;) then to convert all my bootleg tapes to mp3!

i heart john mayer. his voice is sex. that is all.