sometimes i find myself at the record store, for no apparent reason and i don’t remember even going there. it’s like i’m leonard – “Okay, so what am I doing? Oh, I’m chasing this guy. [Dodd stops, pulls out a gun and points it at Leonard.] No… he’s chasing me.” i found myself in sonic boom today and i picked up a copy of the woke up falling record (on accident), i was in the record store and picked a pair of headphones and put them on my head. i hit disc 3, looking at the cd on the rack. i listened to the first song, for a few seconds and hit the skip button. next song, about 5 more seconds. next song, and then i take the headphones off, set them on top of the cd player (with the cd in my hands), and before i know it, i’m at the front paying for it. my mind plays dirty tricks on me sometimes.

have a listen, it’ll sound familiar.

and because i love you, i put up something else here today. if you don’t watch the brak show, you should. right now, even.

  i had a dream last night: i was in a conference room of some sort, and a guy i see everyone once in a while here in seatle was there, and i also went to highschool with him. in fact, he and i share the same birthday. well, we were standing at the front of the room, we’re just talking and he has a set of sewing needles with him. i think nothing of it, until he says, “i dare you to put one of these in your mouth.” no hesitation.
  ”okay.” i open my mouth and he drops one in. it floats in my mouth for a while and i feel it migrating to the right side of my jaw and down my throat. i am able to cough it up a little, and it comes out. i start to chew for some reason, and there is another needle in my mouth. i can feel dozens of them in there now. i panic a little, and ask him, “how many did you put in there?”
  ”just one.” he says nervously, obviously lying. i continue to fish the needles out of my mouth but i can feel them poking through my skin and through my teeth. i leave him there, and head towards the bathroom.
  at this point i can feel them working their way through my jaw. looking in the mirror, i can see them poking through my skin. i start pulling them out by pushing on the skin and grabbing them on the other end inside my mouth. this works for a while until the needles turn into nails, and i have to start yanking them through. all this, remarkably, with little pain.
  i wonder a bit about the absence of sensation as i pull the nails out, and i marvel at how being painless is so fucking horrifying.

  a second later, i wake up.

when i wake up in the morning, i look out my window to the right of my bed and stick my finger through the shades. i pull down a little to see what the weather is like, and more often than not, it’s overcast. i stare down at my feet towards the clock, trying to see what time it is, but can’t make it out, because i don’t have my glasses on yet. the minute i put on my glasses, everything comes into focus again and i can only think of getting out of bed.

overcast weather is just so middle-of-the-road. sometimes, i need a little something to set the tone for the day. push me a little this way or that. i have to say that monk is responsible for making me lazy and skipping out on school today. no worries, though.

it’s just that kind of day.

my favorite 3 parts of everynight fire works are: (1) the polaroid snapshot sounds in a-list actress right after bob says, “come and take a picture.” (2) in what you’re up against, when the overdubs kick in right after “time in” and bob sings “breathe in” and “breath out” right after “time out” so the words fall right in between spoken breaths. (3) the odd time signature, syncopated drumming, and (i guess this one counts as three) the single bent note that slams in and fades out of let’s go blue right at the 4:02 mark.

if i ever get pulled over while listening to this album, i’m going to make the fuzz listen to the music, and ask him if he’d be able to drive slow while listening to it.

i’m not sure how long they’ve been running this feature, but the nytimes has been taking a dozen or so people in the industry and interviewing them about the films they picked. here’s wes anderson’s pick: From Truffaut’s Centimes, a Wealth of Inspiration

because missy’s is entertaining, why can’t mine be? my friday five:

1. What was your first job? when i was 16, i started working at little caesar’s pizza in richland. brandon basically got me the job, ’cause he used to work there. dustin, the manager was there, and said to brandon, “is he good?” i was standing right in front of them. it was funny. i turned out to be a better worker than brandon, whom the district manager wanted to fire because he asked brandon how he knew when the pizza was done. brandon looked at him straight-faced and said: “how am i supposed to know?”

2. How old were you when you had your first kiss? yikes. sometime between the ages of 12-14. i’m not exactly sure, but it was a dare, and it was only on the cheek, at a party. does that count?

3. What was your first car? What happened to it? my first car was a 525 (i think) bmw. i think it was a 1985 make, and it was a terribly poor car. the seats had no backs on them, and the passenger side was held up by a skateboard deck. it was my brother’s before me, and my dad’s before that. josh cracked the windshield once when he jumped on it, and andre segura ripped off the door handle as he was getting in. right now, i think it’s in rohnert park in some guy’s yard who is supposedly fixing it. i think it’s been there for about a year.

4. What was your first concert? sebadoh and those bastard souls at WSU when i was 16 (i think).

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? birthday party, oil change, html school work, and general laziness. as usual.

in high school, i remember driving with my brother in his car, having freshly arrived in richland, washington and hating it before my feet even hit the pavement after i got out of the plane.

he was listening to some tape some girl had given him, and i listened too. i’d later find out that he had identified with the song, and little did i know that that would be my first introduction to northwest music. the lyrics to neil’s down went something like “i hate it here, gotta go somewhere else. i loved it there…” and i think it was kind of funny at the time. it’s strange to think that i was already laughing at that hyperbole that richland seemed to squeeze out of its inhabitants. perhaps it’s this mutual dissatisfaction with the place that enabled me to make the friends i did.

a year or so later, i remember being in a car, hearing the song car, and thinking (and maybe even saying aloud), “this is the treepeople.” i was corrected and whoever was with me made me feel stupid about it, which i already did. that was probably about 8 years ago now, and i still feel like the theme song for that time is car.

but i still remember driving that night with my brother. the best thing about richland is how warm it is at night, and how you can drive with the windows down and not be too cold or too hot, and how the air is sweeter and fresher and the sky is clearer – brighter with stars and dimmer with black. if nothing else, that alone was enough to remunerate for my uprooting from northern california.

at one point i thought i might write something about it all, but when i got to seattle, i found someone already had. thanks, rocky.

i almost put the first song off this record on here, but decided against it, because i think i like darling, applaud better. i remember seeing camden in bellingham in the dimly lit basement of the 20th century bowl, with dozens of kids crowded around the band. it wasn’t tight, because the area was so expansive, but it was cozy. the p.a. being used wasn’t top notch, but watching them, the singer cupping his hands around the mic to compress the sound and increase his volume – it was an amazing thing.

i know, i know. i don’t know why i’m still up, but i am. for some reason, i think that el scorcho is one of my favorite videos, despite it’s relative plain-ness. that version is a big one. you can find smaller ones at weezer.net.

also, i remember seeing this video a few weeks before christmas, and i regret not having said anything earlier, but it’s a little late now. it’s a fun video to watch if you’ve ever been to or live in seattle. and i also think sean has a great voice. here it is: sometimes you have to work on xmas by harvey danger. that’s a big one, too – smaller ones at the site.

i’m back, but i’m still not ready to start making updates. but i guess this is an update anyway. i have no offerings of best of lists, music or otherwise, but i do have to say that the royal tenenbaums and lord of the rings where some of the best movies of last year.

by and by, happy new year.