i’m back from northern california, and i came back with an evil cough and stuffy head. when in the airplane, we landed and my ears didn’t pop. i sat in my sit wiating from my brain to explode. i stuck my finger in my ear and looked at the tip fully expecting it to be covered in blood.

i’ve had little to do but sit around and watch tv and play with christmas loot and wonder what i’m going to do with this site in the next few days when UW will kick me and all my shift off their server. seems like a waste that i finally got back and my foundation is ready to be moved again already. oh, well.

this fire theft song is pretty hot and promising. tell you the truth, i wasn’t all that into the last two sunny day real estate records, and still hold diary close to my heart (though i haven’t listened to it in ages), and this song seems to kick back to that time pretty well. they’re coming to seattle and l.a. in january, for cryin’ out loud. listen to those loud, controlled, and hard-hitting chops from goldsmith. now that’s what i like to hear. from the fire theft site www.thefiretheft.com: it’s over.

insomniac

“It’s a clean dirty bookstore now.” dave attell mops up the dirty movie booths, delivers milk, and eats fried chicken. i’m glad he gets paid to get drunk and funny, because he’s damn good at it.

south park
mr. hankey comes back with his family, including his “nugget” children, cornwallis, amber, and simon. i haven’t finished watching it yet, but i also haven’t laughed out loud yet.

revenge of the nerds

prequel to ER, dr. mark greene finds his nerd roots and encourages everyone else to do so as well. bet you didn’t know the other head nerd is david carridine’s half brother, who heads the arguably better sequel, in all it’s late 80’s glory.

saturday night live
i stand by my contention that robert de niro is not funny. regardless of the blatant absenteeism of anything funny at all even without him, the addition of robert de niro in tonights show was still stupid. which is disappointing, since tina fey is indeed funny.

christmas time is here.

i’m heading to nocal for christmas, i’ll be back next week, but here’s where i’m at: moved in to our new place, computer is back up, dsl is cruising. need to get back into a writing schedule, and i will as soon as the holiday madness is over with. and if you want, i’ll send you what i got done on my novel last month, just shoot me an email or leave a comment.

i’ll say it: my all-time favorite winter song is blacking out the friction. ever hear the live version with the joy division homage at the end? ever see it? here, you need quicktime, filmed in seattle at the emp Louisville at Headliners…: savonarolamustburn.com/music

i still haven’t finished packing, and my flight is at 930 in the morning. i haven’t been getting much sleep lately, but then again, i also haven’t had the quality time i liked to spend in front of my computer for 3 weeks, either.

and i tried hard to find a video of this, but could only find the audio, have a happy holiday and if you don’t hear from me for a little while, it’s because i’m enjoying mine: christmas is coming

Huh, this is interesting, “Wife of Brak’s dad to spend two weeks at exclusive spa resort. ‘I just needed a daggone break,’ she explained.” Isn’t that an interesting story, mother?

I’m not mom, dad. I’m Brak, your son.

Oh right. Ooh, look at this! “Big rap-off tonight at the high school Rhymatorium. First prize is a fabulous all-expenses paid vacation.”

All expenses paid!? That fits my budget perfectly! I’m gonna enter that contest and win it.

Brak, you don’t know how to rap.

Dad, you don’t know about my rapping ability.

What you’ve got is futility, futility!

Come on, dad. That’s a mean thing to say.

Hey you want to be a rapper, gotta play that way.
You gotta roll marchly and right correct.

I hear ya loud and clear dad in full effect.
Check me out, my name is Brak and that’s a fact.
I got a mom and a dad and a yard out back.
We sit by the pool and we nibble on snacks,
And we eat a big lunch and we all take naps.

We don’t have a pool, Brak, but don’t you know the score?
I haven’t been employed since 1984.

I thought we had a pool. What’s that hole out back?

Just a water-filled crater from an alien attack.

I still got a dream, dad, and it’s the best.
I’m gonna be the winner of the rap contest.
Jigga-who, jigga-what, jigga-me, jigga-you.

How’d that flavor taste going down, daddy-man?

Brak, I’d like to wish you all the luck in the world, but, er, right now I’ve got to get down to the Bat Cave and see what Albert wants.

You go do that, daddy. I’m going to go down to the rap store and check out the competition.

[via audra’s pretty fresh mc chris and brak pages.

super-traffic this morning, took me and hour to go 15 miles– i made the mistake of taking the 405 to my doctor’s appointment, which i was an hour late for. after manuevering my way through the evil mess of the parking lot, i finally got inside and my doctor was not too pleased with me. i’d never met her before.

i got my x-rays done quickly, and she liked that and was much more chipper when she was to go over them, but was very pessimistic about my wrist. apparently, it’s not really healing. she stressed that if i had any pain, i’d have to get another operation to re-do the bone graft, and i’d be in a cast from 3 to 9 months. she discouraged me from playing drums, and pretty much told me that arthritis in my wrist would be inevitable, all the work on it is just a way of delaying that.

my computer is still dead, and we’ve moved. we don’t have a couch or dsl, which i suppose is moot since we don’t even have a computer right now. more content as soon as all that happens.

the week is ending, thank god. there’s a nice old article that i found on chris walla talking about recording:

In “Title Track”, in the beginning of the song, there is a huge level change. Is that just a level change?

Not at all. The first half of the song we recorded bass, drums, and guitar all together live in a room into one microphone and then we doubled that same performance. Ben went back and added his guitar and vocal, and then we just stopped at that point in the song. Then I had Ben go and play the drums. We did that to click track, basically the entire album was done to click track. So you have those 2 tracks and then it opens up, and it’s all on the tape like that. We ended up mixing that song a lot. I mixed a version of the full song and then I went back and mixed the first half of the song and then mixed the second half of the song, individually. Then when Tony [Lash] mastered it we slapped the two together and then Tony dumped down the beginning a little and narrowed the stereo image a bit to make it more drastic.

i’d like a nice thick glass, the kind that doesn’t shatter when dropped, but the kind that cracks, and i want that glass filled to the top with ice cubes of good tasting water, none of that tap shit. and on top of that ice, i’d like maker’s mark. and repeat. and maybe a drag or two of cigarette. or maybe a cigarette. i can’t wait till this weekend starts. i fucking hate working nights.

new additions, from amoeba:

built to spill – keep it like a secret (i’ve been itching to hear “carry the zero” for a while, was too lazy to make sure i had it for real, and convinced myself i didn’t, and then bought it), blackalicious – blazing arrow, thelonius monk – live at the it club, portastatic – perfect little door.

this weekend (including today, as my weekend didn’t really end until i got to work, which was earlier this evening):

thurs 5:30 pm– i eat my way through a turkey. i brined it, it tastes good. food is everywhere, when done, it obscures my vision, stuffing seeps into my eye sockets and all i can see are bread crumbs. it recedes as we watch the simpsons.

thurs 9:10 pm– my brother and i journey through west l.a. looking for tony hawk pro skater 4. we find it, play it all night long. neil installs a new video card on my computer.

friday 11:00 am– we leave for las vegas. there’s evil traffic, it stretches across the mojave like a train. what usually takes 4 1/2 hours takes around 6.

friday 11:02 pm– i sit at the bar and drink a $2 killians and a $3 merlot. for some reason, i get buzzed. i enjoy watching my brother-in-law play craps. i have another drink at late night dinner with my family and eat a reuben. i continue to be buzzed, and then fall asleep in the car.

sat 11:50 am– i take a picture of the toilets inside sak’s fifth ave, buy some new kicks (pumas) at nordstrom’s, sit on the floor of a department store playing games on my mom’s cell phone till the battery dies.

sun 12:23 am– i play penny video poker, get sick of not winning any money and not feeling the sting of losing a dollar, set out to play some real slots. i find the “i dream of genie” slot machine that paid so well last time i was in vegas, and then proceed to lose $20 bucks in less than 5 minutes.

sun 1:36 am– i order a three cheese omelet in henderson, nevada. it’s overcooked and the eggs are crunchy. eggs are not supposed to crunch, my friend.

sun 3:32 am– we get home and i play thps 4 again for about an hour. i forget to save. i have to do the london level all over again. i’m a dumbass.

sun 12:17 pm– i watched my dad eat his body weight in crab legs at some buffet in las vegas. it was a sight to behold. he’s not a big guy, mind you, smaller than me, yet he kept going like he was in the glutton bowl. las vegas buffets: “this is where i get all my money back!”

sun 1:10 pm– still not feeling like i’d lost enough money, and seeing a triple seven slot machine staring at me, i slip in another 20, and lose it in less than a minute. slots = bad.

sun 1:25 pm– exhausted and broke (aside from my mom, who actually won some money), we head back for l.a., into the worst traffic i’ve have the misfortune to be stuck in. this time, the 4 1/2 expanded into about 8 hours.

sun 9:49 pm– my computer isn’t working. the video card seems to have fried the port or possibly the motherboard. i am without computer.

monday 7:45 am– ali’s car won’t start. we replaced the alternator last week, dropped 250 on the thing. this week, it’s dead again.

monday 1:30 pm– drive my sister’s car to long beach airport, drop my parents off. rejoice, but not too much. glad they came to visit.

computer’s still broken, car is still broken. i’m still tired. i’ve been thinking about getting an ibook. just might happen sooner than i thought it would. pictures to come. was your t-day as eventful as mine?