I’m leaving this weekend to Denver for two nights of Spearhead shows – tonight with The Wailers! Should be fun.
Next week, I get to go see The Rhythm Devils (the two drummers from the Grateful Dead)… with Steve Kimock! More Steve is always a good thing. I just REALLY want Steve Kimock Band to play more shows, but they haven’t done a thing since January 🙁
I just got another great album:
Ray Sings, Basie Swings (with the Count Basie Orchestra)
I’m not a big Ray Charles fan. But this is really good. It’s from a recording in the 1970s that had a nearly inaudible band, but Ray’s vocals came out loud and clear. The Count Basie Orchestra (minus Basie, he’s dead, too) re-recorded the instrumentation behind him.
This is musically significant because Ray Charles was in his prime in the ’70s, and there are few recordings from this era that do him justice. His spine-tingling cover of “The Long and Winding Road” is phenomenal.
If you like swing, Ray Charles, or Count Basie, get this album. (luckily I like all three, so this one has me really stoked. I miss jazz band so much!)
Wake Up: I’m Ready – Jack’s Mannequin
I wake up to find it’s another
Four aspirin morning, and I dive in
I put on the same clothes I wore yesterday.
When did society decide that we had to change
And wash a tee shirt after every individual use:
If it’s not dirty, I’m gonna wear it.
I take the stairs to the car
And there’s fog on the windows.
I need caffeine in my blood stream,
I take caffeine in the blood stream.
I grip the wheel and all at once I realize:
My life has become a boring pop song
And everyone’s singing along.
Yep, I’m emo in the morning. Eh. Once I “take caffeine in the bloodstream,” I enter SuperHappyOptimist mode. And I don’t fall asleep in my third class of the morning.
Bike to The Bean Cycle in Old Town: Penny Lane – The Beatles
In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he’s had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello
Fort Collins is the ultimate representation of the “blue, suburban skies” of Penny Lane. Old Town is such a quaint city center, with almost completely locally-owned shops. Sure, it’s only a couple of blocks long, so it’s no Mill Avenue, but Fort Collins has been blessed by being out of the way. The neighborhoods here are a little older, and really beautiful. I’d love to raise a family here. Obviously I’m not the only person to think this, since Fort Collins is Money Magazine’s #1 Place to Live in 2006.
Class: College Kids – Relient K
I’m poor, I’m starving, I’m flat broke, I’ve got no cash to spend
Sell all my books for front row tickets to Dave Matthews Band
My girlfriends at another school i know this year will test her
I called, found out she had 3 other boyfriends last semester
And that’s why I say
Oh no, not for me, not for me
Call it torture, call it university
No, arts and crafts is all I need
I’ll take caligraphy and then I’ll make a fake degree
Like I said before, College for the sake of college is worthless. Yet very fun.
Work: U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
U can’t touch this
U can’t touch this
Break it down
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh-oh
Stop. Hammer time!
Getting used to work on the Security Team can be summarized with four words: U Can’t Touch This. Everything we do is on live, critical systems that have hundreds of users logged on at any given time. You have to be really, really sure that you’re doing the right thing before you do it. We’ve had two major system failures in the last two weeks, and we have to scramble to fix it- keep in mind that there are only four people on this team. They all have more stress than I do, too, because I don’t know how to do everything yet. It’s also interesting working in an office-type team environment- that is, I almost never work with the other people on my team. I know my responsibilities, and take care of them, but I’m insecure not having a handle on everything, since I’m a control freak. I hate working in groups at school, and adjusting to working in this environment has been a challenge (the good kind- it’s not uncomfortable at all, I’m just learning how to do it).
Getting Home: Procrastination – Wendy Woo
I have been procrastinating
Well, I have been waiting my whole life through for you
I always say I’ll wait another day to do those things I meant to do
And I have been been procrastinating
And I have been waiting my whole life through
Just to do all those things that I wish I had done the day before
I really know how to waste a few hours. I deserve it, I have five classes a day.
Actually getting work done: Elmer’s Revenge – Steve Kimock Band
RidecrazinessSIXTEENTHSEPTUPLETS
paradiddlebetweenbassandsnareostinatos
PolyrhythmicRoundhouses
OPENROLLBETWEENHANDANDFOOT
RareButPerfectlyPlacedDoubleBassAttack…
I don’t know how the heck that’s supposed to help me study, but it does.
Chillin’ at night: Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta – Geto Boys
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Feedin’ the poor and hepin out wit they bills
Although I was born in Jamaica
Now I’m in the US makin’ deals
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
I mean one that you don’t really know
Ridin’ around town in a drop-top Benz
Hittin’ switches in my black six-fo’
Now gangsta-ass n****s come in all shapes and colors
Some got killed in the past
But this gangtsa here is a smart one
Started living for the lord and I’ll last
That song is way too laid-back. If you haven’t heard it, you wouldn’t know- it just looks like another crappy hip-hop song.
Weekend’s been chill. A lot of people leave on the weekends… I sleep a lot. I woke up around 3 PM today.
We played CU today in the Rocky Mountain Showdown- we won, 14-10. w00t. What I find hilarious is that our rival is the Buffs- just like MHS’s biggest rival. So I will get 8 full years of anti-Buff wonderfulness.
I have The Mars Volta’s new album, Amputechture. It’s cool on the first listen-through… Omar, the guitarist, co-produced it, and he mixed Jon Theodore, the drummer, WAAAY down. And he’s about half the reason I like TMV. And now he’s left the band, as it turns out… 🙁
That said, it’s still a really good album.
I’m bored on the weekends. I need to come down to Arizona already. Time to look at the calendar tomorrow… :-/ I miss Arizona.