The Bells Sounded Noon

Screw the time, they should just ring once for every degree over sixty the temperature climbs.

Life lately has been fruitful and eventful, but work this morning wasn't really.

Spent a half hour looking for two files I should have, one of which was necessary for the work I was planning on doing... I figure my boss took it to the project meeting. Irony. Basic irony - was going to do this thing to keep me busy while he was at the meeting.

Listening to my friend Jed's music this morning reminded me of the great old quote that's something about how you'll never be great until you come to terms with being awful for a long, long time. There was a lot of great stuff that he wrote early on, but it was intermittent with a lot of really bad music. It gives me hope.

Give Me Your Moments

97x just played a cover by the band Minus Story of the Misfits classic "Hybrid Moments" - sort of an eels-ish / lo-fi / shoegazer thing. Really funny and cool. Cheers to Minus Story and 97x (link below)

It beat the hell out of the acoustic Misfits cover band that my friends Justin and Jed had (and I played with off and on) back in the day. But let me tell you, "Last Caress" as a crooned ballad with acoustic guitar backup is pretty badass.

"It's Like... Have you ever seen Terminator?..."

Today's the day that the machines take over. Or at least revolt. At least in our office. And at least some of it is my causing.

I'm glad I could be of service to my electrobrained overlords. Homo Sapiens is obsolete.

Long live our great and glorious Server!

More 97x Love

One thing about radio that I love is that even if you own (and adore) an album, hearing a good song off of it on the radio can make your day.

Today's case is Ani Difranco's "Little Plastic Castle," from the album named the same.

That was the tour my ex-girlfriend and I saw her on (five years before we got together as a couple) - it was the first of six or seven times I've seen her now, and it was life changing for reasons that may be elaborated someday.

Unexpectedly hearing that opening guitar line on 97x (link below) just made a whole lot of emotions flood back - I heard it with ears that understood the time and events that have passed between. It was sublime.

Patience, my dear boy

Months and months ago, I went to the Party Source in Newport, KY - the discriminating wino's choice - and found a bottle of Val Sotillo 1998 that they usually sold for $21.00 on sale for nine. So of course, out of curiosity, I had to try it. So some time later, I finally cracked it open, and had the first glass. I immediately thought I had been burned: tasted so much like graphite that I couldn't stand it.

I was so bummed that I just left it on the counter uncorked, not fully prepared to just dump it yet; and about three hours later, I was thinking maybe I should try another glass to make sure I really hated it. Well, that's when the miracle happened in Whoville. Its heart had grown four sizes and it was the best damn glass of wine I've ever had.

Bought another bottle after I finished that one swearing that I was going to cellar it. And you know what happens when you swear. I had finished it as well within the week.

Went back to the aforementioned Happiest Place on Earth. They were out. More accurately, there was one bottle left in the computer, but it wasn't it in the wine storage. It was gone, and I didn't know where I could get another bottle. I had screwed up, missed my chance to have something I knew to be killer to drop on guests and really make the occasion. I was stuck.

Months intervene, I proceed to drink my way through all cheap 2000 Bordeaux I can find, (making a new best friend in that one) and try various and discrete Italians, even going as far as considering making American Cabernets my new interest. Finally out of boredom, I went back to my old standby Argentine Malbecs, not ever spending more than ten minutes in the wine shop at a time, just grabbing my standbys and jetting back off to wherever.

On an impulse tonight, Chad and I went to the Party Source instead of the usual after work drink and pool game. Wandered around, was showing him to the really great '02 Protocolo Red that you'd swear they had to steal a truck of to sell at $5.00 a bottle... And I looked down. There it was. lonely... unloved... dusty... the missing bottle of '98 Val Sotillo had found me.

I won't let this one slip away. It's going to be a great occasion when I finally open this stuff.

Gently take my skull

Working on a neat little modernist house addition right now. Probably one of the more interesting projects I'll ever get here, so I want to do it right...

"Skull" by Sebadoh on 97x right now, haven't heard this song in probably five or six years.
nice. Sebadoh is a total remnant of a past life to me, it's good to reconnect every once in a while with how it was to be sixteen and grasping for anything different you could get your hands on.

Shit, that makes me regret selling all my Guided By Voices so I could eat that one week I was really poor in college (yeah, that one week...). Not as bad as a friend of mine who sold fifty of his sixty KMFDM albums to afford a trip to San Francisco to see a girl. Then again, he's not with her anymore, and he's not a sad whiny industrial kid anymore, so I guess sometimes it does all come out in the wash, right?

SITUATION NORMAL

CONSTANT CRISIS.

YOU KNOW HOW IT GOES, THREE THINGS NEEDED DONE YESTERDAY...

WE DO ALL OUR DRAWING NOTES IN ALL CAPS, AND THERE'S NOT EVEN TIME AT THIS MOMENT, WITH ALL THAT'S GOING ON AT ONCE TO EVEN TURN OFF MY CAPS LOCK TO WRITE THIS... SO I'M YELLING!

Crankitey Crank

Just finished the first real run at those interiors I've been off and on for the last week.

Now just pending boss's review.

The old receptionist / "social events coordinator" (aka, drinking buddy) Sarah is coming up for drinks tomorrow night, after being nonexistent for like three months, that'll be cool.

Rearranged the apartment last night, looks better. Going to finish that and start revising the resume tonight. Still have a bunch of letters to write, but I've got those down by now.

Nothing interesting going on otherwise...

Anchored to a Fixer-Upper's Dream

Another Sunday in the office, rather enjoying myself, though.

Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy playing at about 90db, instead of the usual 30.

[I constantly associate Blake Schwartzenbach bands (Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil) with my great friend Mark, who (I think drunkenly) called my place late last night while I was at my parents'. Miss that asshole and I need to call him back tonight.]

I'm wearing a new black Gap shirt that I found at the outlet store, and I have a fresh bottle of '02 Protocolo (a six dollar bottle of this will blow away most fifteen dollar wines I've ever found) waiting at home.

So I was about to leave a half hour ago, and the interior designer on a project of ours dropped off some redlined drawings, so I'm going to go ahead and do those...

The Gall and the Glory

Had a client this morning ask if he were installing and modifying a structural system bought secondhand, would he need a building permit, since the system's already gotten a permit before.

Wow, I thought I could ask dumb questions.

"Sure man, even though it was originally erected in another state, torn down, transported, modified and installed by your unskilled factory workers, the state would have no problem if you just did it with no inspections or review. - As a matter of fact, they'd give you the citizen of the year award and a million dollars for saving them the paperwork and saving yourself the five hundred dollars you're going to have to spend to get a permit, you cheap..."

I'm truly astounded at the level of singleminded cheapness in this town sometimes.

Got the best backrub - nay that counts as a massage - in my life last night. No weirdness, no flirting. Just the best damn things ever done to my back. wow.

I think that might help me put up with the continuing deathmarch of my career and personal life a little better today.

Also, going to gather up all the ex-'s stuff and box it, etc. tonight. Can't afford not having a roommate any more. Should be one of those joyful sad things to do that. Wish me luck.

The Fastest Slow Day Ever...

Some days it seems like I'm hoping for intensity, y'know, "alright, It's MONDAY!!! can't wait to see what I get into next!" and boss is so disorganized instead I'm left grasping for anything to do, down to cleaning pencils and making sure that that paint's drying alright...

Other days I come in expecting a quiet day of just being productive on one thing, and instead, boss drops something dumb on the desk, and before I'm done doing liege's bidding, there's something else that needs done before that and all of a sudden, I've spent more time being asked for last minute changes than it takes to make them...

That was today.

Mary Magdalene, That'd be my first sin

They used to call me Tricky Kid,
I lived the life they wish they did-
I live the life, don't own a car
Now they call me superstar.

And everybody wants to be just like me I'm naked and famous...

Shit yeah.

Under the Gun(s) of Brixton

In on a Saturday, 'cause we Junior Assistant Adjunct Cad Assassins have to take up the slack for the interior designer on a big project.

Listening to the Only Band that Matters, hence the post title.

Gotta figure out what to do with my night that's cheap and not as insane as my Friday nights have been - but that's over. Can't afford nights like that these days.

But in the meantime, hurrah for interior elevations!

Let's Get Incredible

production mode - TO THE EXTREME!!!

or to quote the high point of Western Culture, Cliffhanger... "We Like it Extreme!"

....

also to come, more stories of yesterday's shenanigans that I haven't gotten to relate yet...

Why, oh why can I not wake up on time?
And there's always something that happens from the bed to the door that complicates things further. Today it was being too hurried and sliding on the mirror finish tile in my bathroom. Flopped around like a fish trying not to fall for a good fifteen seconds (I'm sure it would have been something to see) and finally crumpled on my knee and forearm, had to take a couple minutes to, as my high school track coach would have said, "walk it off."

and of course I live alone, so there would have been nobody to find me had I been knocked out. I never wanted to be that guy...

"The Bush administration, via acting Solicitor General Paul Clement, argued against a strict First Amendment wall between church and state."

Great, just what I wanted to hear... welcome to Jesusland.

But again with the USC connection. Erwin Chemerinsky, the lawyer for the guy in Texas who wants the ten commandments removed, frequent NPR commentator, and noted constitutional lawyer, is a prof at the USC School of Law. nice.

there is a Piero Umiliani version of the old classic "Mah Na' Mah Na' " on soma.fm's Secret Agent right now that is making me very happy.

my relationship with this floorplan is souring, though.

How'd it get to be 3:10 already?

Thankfully, it's been a slow and calm day thus far.
Finally get to just sit down and draft, not freak out trying to coordinate a thousand things at once.

I hope it doesn't change, but I'm sure it will.

Proximity sometimes makes one seethe

These guys show everyone how easy it is.
Back when the Oscars were still at the Shrine, a friend (and journalism student) crashed the official Oscars afterparty (and wrote an article about it for a major newspaper) by just showing up in worthy attire.

I lived right behind the Shrine (which is next to USC's campus) and my car got towed the first day I had in in LA, because of the Grammys. USC students have had to deal with this awards show shit all the time. I figure that they get so crafty playing with the mechanisms of such a thing because there's nothing else better to do.

makes me a bit proud, really. Like watching the Rose Bowl would had I gone to Caltech.

trying to find a subject line on this client... The contractor who looked like a slapped ass this morning said that he actually met with someone and got schooled in how fire rating works. I wasn't going to do what he wanted anyway, so I'm glad I drove him to education. Maybe there's hope for this world yet.

of all the contractors in the world to do this little project, I have to be working with one who doesn't have a book of UL approved fire assemblies. Now he wants me to do his work for him. Should have just said no and made him drop the $130 for a copy of the book.

testing, testing. new client in effect.

The Deathmarch Continues

This is my work blog, it will not link to anything personal. I am anonymous for now, but the name of my employer will remain such in perpetuity. I just need an outlet for the ridiculous insanity I deal with on a daily basis.