Sunday, July 20, 2003
i'm back from wisconsin!
Phish was AMAZING!
i couldn't believe how perfectly everything went. we somehow got everybody and everything into the car and made it to the campsite at Big Foot Beach S.P. on Lake Geneva without a hitch. the weather was beautiful from the time we arrived at the site on Thursday until the time we packed everything up this morning; it wasn't humid at all and the nights were cool. the concerts were amazingly ridiculously awesome... Jake and I got to be in the pavilion both nights instead of the lawn. they played well! and they played most of the songs i was hoping they would play! here are the setlists for both of the concerts:
| THE FIRST NIGHT (7/18) | THE SECOND NIGHT (7/19) |
|---|---|
| (set one) Axilla I Rift Bathtub Gin The Mango Song Roggae Discern I Didn't Know Dust in the Wind (Fishman plays vacuum) David Bowie |
(set one) Sample in a Jar Reba Wilson Scents and Subtle Sounds Maze Driver NICU Ya Mar Rocky Top Lawn Boy Julius |
| (set two) Down with Disease Catapult Bug Secret Smile Two Versions of Me Twist Character Zero |
(set two) Piper Rock and Roll Seven Below Prince Caspian You Enjoy Myself |
| encore: Harry Hood | encore: Wading in the Velvet Sea |
heavy on the html today. well, the point is, i just basically had the most fun since i went to NYC for new year's, and perhaps the most fun since going to Europe three years ago.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
this is it: i'm going to Wisconsin tomorrow! in seven hours, actually.
i must admit, i'm a little worried about fitting everything in my car. here are the things that have to travel in my tiny, tiny Nissan Sentra:
-Me, Danny, Jake, Andrea, and Aaron.
-five sleeping bags.
-one huge tent!
-one pretty large cooler.
-everybody's stuff.
-various things. pillows, etc.
it's going to be cozy! i am not quite sure how it will work. maybe this is why SUVs exist. a few sleeping bags may have to ride in the passenger cabin, depending on the trunk space that the cooler uses up. but sometimes it's just a matter of finding the complimentary properties of the shapes of the objects... we'll just be playing a lot of tetris in the trunk until things work.
aaron has an incredibly nifty thing called a Neuros, which is a small thingy which can store many gigabytes of files, allowing us, with the help of the cigarette lighter adapter and the tape deck thingy, to jam to Phish oggs all the way up to Wisconsin!
TWO PHISH CONCERTS. it's actually happening, my friends. i'll be back on Sunday!
i must admit, i'm a little worried about fitting everything in my car. here are the things that have to travel in my tiny, tiny Nissan Sentra:
-Me, Danny, Jake, Andrea, and Aaron.
-five sleeping bags.
-one huge tent!
-one pretty large cooler.
-everybody's stuff.
-various things. pillows, etc.
it's going to be cozy! i am not quite sure how it will work. maybe this is why SUVs exist. a few sleeping bags may have to ride in the passenger cabin, depending on the trunk space that the cooler uses up. but sometimes it's just a matter of finding the complimentary properties of the shapes of the objects... we'll just be playing a lot of tetris in the trunk until things work.
aaron has an incredibly nifty thing called a Neuros, which is a small thingy which can store many gigabytes of files, allowing us, with the help of the cigarette lighter adapter and the tape deck thingy, to jam to Phish oggs all the way up to Wisconsin!
TWO PHISH CONCERTS. it's actually happening, my friends. i'll be back on Sunday!
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
does html work in these posts?
i went to aaron's house tonight. we made burgers. we made fries. jake and i spent a lot of time doing the activity you see pictured to the left of this text, unless html doesn't work, in which case i don't know what i'll do.
sometimes i feel like a real deadbeat as far as drawing AABH is concerned. here i am, living it up, drinking the nectars of life, with nothing at all to do most of the time, and i still can't get comic pages done half the time. i feel ashamed. i can't pass it off by saying that i work too much. this is untrue: on Friday and Saturday i work a lot, and the rest of the week i sit around making farty noises on my arm. i'm trying to figure out if the problem is that i'm lazy or that i'm just not one of those people from whom art just pours. i have to MAKE myself do art. i have to practically TEAR my arm away from my mouth, where it is perfectly happy making farty noises all day, and make it pick up a pencil with its hand, and i have to force myself through the long, torturous process of creating comics. it causes me pain.
well, it's not THAT bad, but i get the feeling that art doesn't come as easily to me as it does to a lot of creators. music does come easily. i can't stop myself from doing music. maybe music is my true thing.
well, i'm leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday, so the question becomes: can i do today's AABH today, and can i also do Friday's AABH tomorrow? two comics in two days? maybe it will be good for me if i just make myself sit down and do it. i don't know if i can live with breaking my two pages-a-week streak. yeah. nose to the grindstone.
actually, i've been looking at Scott McCloud's 24-hour comic challenge, and it looks like something i need to try. basically, you sit down for 24 hours straight and create a complete 24-page comic book in that time. the problem is, i don't know if i would be willing to do that sort of thing alone, and i don't know any other cartoonists in town who would also be willing to spend 24 hours with me in a creative frenzy.
i went to aaron's house tonight. we made burgers. we made fries. jake and i spent a lot of time doing the activity you see pictured to the left of this text, unless html doesn't work, in which case i don't know what i'll do.
sometimes i feel like a real deadbeat as far as drawing AABH is concerned. here i am, living it up, drinking the nectars of life, with nothing at all to do most of the time, and i still can't get comic pages done half the time. i feel ashamed. i can't pass it off by saying that i work too much. this is untrue: on Friday and Saturday i work a lot, and the rest of the week i sit around making farty noises on my arm. i'm trying to figure out if the problem is that i'm lazy or that i'm just not one of those people from whom art just pours. i have to MAKE myself do art. i have to practically TEAR my arm away from my mouth, where it is perfectly happy making farty noises all day, and make it pick up a pencil with its hand, and i have to force myself through the long, torturous process of creating comics. it causes me pain.
well, it's not THAT bad, but i get the feeling that art doesn't come as easily to me as it does to a lot of creators. music does come easily. i can't stop myself from doing music. maybe music is my true thing.
well, i'm leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday, so the question becomes: can i do today's AABH today, and can i also do Friday's AABH tomorrow? two comics in two days? maybe it will be good for me if i just make myself sit down and do it. i don't know if i can live with breaking my two pages-a-week streak. yeah. nose to the grindstone.
actually, i've been looking at Scott McCloud's 24-hour comic challenge, and it looks like something i need to try. basically, you sit down for 24 hours straight and create a complete 24-page comic book in that time. the problem is, i don't know if i would be willing to do that sort of thing alone, and i don't know any other cartoonists in town who would also be willing to spend 24 hours with me in a creative frenzy.
Monday, July 14, 2003
going to Moulton turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
update on my creative life: i haven't been getting pages of All About Black Holes done very punctually recently, because Chapter Two scares me to death. maybe i should have planned the story a little better. i've been thinking recently that the first half of this chapter is just irrelevant to the story at worst, and completely boring at best. i've been trying to spice it up with visuals, though, but i can't say that i enjoy do it as much as i would if i were confident about the material. i have much, much to learn about making comics. but i will continue as i planned it.
on the musical front, though, things couldn't be better. i've written three songs this week, none of them totally finished, but as finished as my songs ever get. the first one, "Cumulonimbus," is one of those "talk a lot and then sing the refrain" songs, like Alice's Restaurant. it features my new ukulele nicely, or rather it WILL if there's ever a finished version, which there probably won't be. another song is "In Case of Fire (Kiss Me)", an incredibly short and stupid love song, sort of inspired by TMBG, and very similar to another song i wrote in March called "Bicycle Seat." both of those songs are not going anywhere, but they have a little bit of dumb charm. the third and final song i just wrote today after work, and it's called "The Big I," which i'll probably change. i finally got one of those harmonica holders, and i've been trying to play guitar and harmonica at the same time, which perhaps i'll get better at if i do it enough.
people on the road were assholes assholes assholes today. i was riding my bike home, and i was riding on the sidewalk, which i believe the law says you can't do, but that law was in place before everyone owned cars that require the entire garage to park in. anyway, i got to the intersection of Bowery and Johnson (very close to where i'm going to live in a few weeks) and a guy driving a white Honda slows down at a stop sign, doesn't look for pedestrians or people riding bikes on the sidewalk because they're afraid of being run over by SUVs, and blows through right in front of me. i couldn't stop in time and i actually hit his car. there wasn't damage to the bike or to the car, so i just called him a son of a bitch and went on my way.
i want bikes and assholes to have their own lanes. the asshole lane would be sixty feet wide, so that assholes could perform whatever assholish maneuvers were necessary to transport themselves safely to their destination. "assholes, keep left," the sign would say, "asshole lane." the bike lane would be seperated from the asshole lane by a thirty foot median, as to avoid assholes being assholes to cyclists. there would be a bus lane, too, which the buses could share with carpools. i shall present my proposition to city council on the morrow.
update on my creative life: i haven't been getting pages of All About Black Holes done very punctually recently, because Chapter Two scares me to death. maybe i should have planned the story a little better. i've been thinking recently that the first half of this chapter is just irrelevant to the story at worst, and completely boring at best. i've been trying to spice it up with visuals, though, but i can't say that i enjoy do it as much as i would if i were confident about the material. i have much, much to learn about making comics. but i will continue as i planned it.
on the musical front, though, things couldn't be better. i've written three songs this week, none of them totally finished, but as finished as my songs ever get. the first one, "Cumulonimbus," is one of those "talk a lot and then sing the refrain" songs, like Alice's Restaurant. it features my new ukulele nicely, or rather it WILL if there's ever a finished version, which there probably won't be. another song is "In Case of Fire (Kiss Me)", an incredibly short and stupid love song, sort of inspired by TMBG, and very similar to another song i wrote in March called "Bicycle Seat." both of those songs are not going anywhere, but they have a little bit of dumb charm. the third and final song i just wrote today after work, and it's called "The Big I," which i'll probably change. i finally got one of those harmonica holders, and i've been trying to play guitar and harmonica at the same time, which perhaps i'll get better at if i do it enough.
people on the road were assholes assholes assholes today. i was riding my bike home, and i was riding on the sidewalk, which i believe the law says you can't do, but that law was in place before everyone owned cars that require the entire garage to park in. anyway, i got to the intersection of Bowery and Johnson (very close to where i'm going to live in a few weeks) and a guy driving a white Honda slows down at a stop sign, doesn't look for pedestrians or people riding bikes on the sidewalk because they're afraid of being run over by SUVs, and blows through right in front of me. i couldn't stop in time and i actually hit his car. there wasn't damage to the bike or to the car, so i just called him a son of a bitch and went on my way.
i want bikes and assholes to have their own lanes. the asshole lane would be sixty feet wide, so that assholes could perform whatever assholish maneuvers were necessary to transport themselves safely to their destination. "assholes, keep left," the sign would say, "asshole lane." the bike lane would be seperated from the asshole lane by a thirty foot median, as to avoid assholes being assholes to cyclists. there would be a bus lane, too, which the buses could share with carpools. i shall present my proposition to city council on the morrow.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Sunday at Jazz Fest was really fun. we heard the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. that was one of those musical experiences where you just can't scream loud enough, you can't do anything short of having a heart attack to express your joy. i almost DID have a heart attack when they started playing "Superstitious"! they're coming back to Iowa City and playing at the Green Room a week from today, i hear.
right now i'm taking a little vacation from the hustle and bustle of Iowa City. i'm at my mom's house in Moulton, a small town of 600 near the Missouri border.
on the drive down here yesterday i saw the most amazing sunset. i was on the edge of a huge storm system, and the setting sun was illuminating everything and turning the entire sky purple and red. it was exhilerating. things were pretty scary after that, as i drove into the storm and things got really dark. the lighting was like a strobe light, and a few times i was convinced that i was driving towards one of those huge tornadoes whose base is a mile wide. it was just my wild imagination, though, of course. there was hail, too!
right now i'm taking a little vacation from the hustle and bustle of Iowa City. i'm at my mom's house in Moulton, a small town of 600 near the Missouri border.
on the drive down here yesterday i saw the most amazing sunset. i was on the edge of a huge storm system, and the setting sun was illuminating everything and turning the entire sky purple and red. it was exhilerating. things were pretty scary after that, as i drove into the storm and things got really dark. the lighting was like a strobe light, and a few times i was convinced that i was driving towards one of those huge tornadoes whose base is a mile wide. it was just my wild imagination, though, of course. there was hail, too!
Sunday, July 06, 2003
wowzers. friday was fun: we had dinner at the Owls' house. then we all went downtown for the United Jazz Ensemble, the Alumni Band (AKA "Improv Your Sax Life") and OftEnsemble, MOST of which we heard. but later we went down to City Park to see the fireworks. that was amazing. we were very close to where they were shooting them and so we had an absolutely terrifying experience. the grand finale was incredible! i couldn't see or hear anything around me for a good sixty seconds. after that i seem to remember going to Panchero's, where we met up with Dan and Megan and we all had a conversation that kind of ruined the rest of the evening for me.
on Saturdays the Cambus service is just one route, Hawkeye Interdorm, for two driving shifts. i drive both of them, and so every Saturday i AM Cambus. it's actually sort of fun, and there isn't too much traffic or passengers, so things are nice and relaxed. but i stupidly forgot my radio today.
after work i went downtown again to see Charlie Hunter and his quintet. impressive. i'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's a rather famous guitarist. anyway, he plays an eight-string guitar, so basically he plays the bass line on the two bottom strings while playing guitar stuff on the top six strings, instead of just playing a real guitar and hiring a bassist. it was very, very impressive to see, and it kept me very entertained. but i don't know. in order to do both rhythm and bass at the same time, it seemed like he had to oversimplify both elements. but i'm not in a critical mood anymore, so i'll just say that i really enjoyed hearing him. and, WOW, the last piece, before the encore, employed the drummer doing the most awesome beatboxing i've ever heard... he just about stole the show.
after the performance, the lot of us went to Whitey's for ice cream. we were having a debate on the subject: if we were the Ninja Turtles, who would be who? i think i would be Raphael, not just because i'm cool but rude ("gimme a break!") but because i tend to be a loner, sort of a dark and scary fellow. anyway, we ended up renting the Ninja Turtles movie (the first one of course). i thought it would be one of those movies from your childhood that you decide to watch again just for nostalgia's sake and it turns out that it was a really bad movie (like Short Circuit for instance), but i was pleasantly surprised by its quality! well, with that i'm off.
on Saturdays the Cambus service is just one route, Hawkeye Interdorm, for two driving shifts. i drive both of them, and so every Saturday i AM Cambus. it's actually sort of fun, and there isn't too much traffic or passengers, so things are nice and relaxed. but i stupidly forgot my radio today.
after work i went downtown again to see Charlie Hunter and his quintet. impressive. i'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's a rather famous guitarist. anyway, he plays an eight-string guitar, so basically he plays the bass line on the two bottom strings while playing guitar stuff on the top six strings, instead of just playing a real guitar and hiring a bassist. it was very, very impressive to see, and it kept me very entertained. but i don't know. in order to do both rhythm and bass at the same time, it seemed like he had to oversimplify both elements. but i'm not in a critical mood anymore, so i'll just say that i really enjoyed hearing him. and, WOW, the last piece, before the encore, employed the drummer doing the most awesome beatboxing i've ever heard... he just about stole the show.
after the performance, the lot of us went to Whitey's for ice cream. we were having a debate on the subject: if we were the Ninja Turtles, who would be who? i think i would be Raphael, not just because i'm cool but rude ("gimme a break!") but because i tend to be a loner, sort of a dark and scary fellow. anyway, we ended up renting the Ninja Turtles movie (the first one of course). i thought it would be one of those movies from your childhood that you decide to watch again just for nostalgia's sake and it turns out that it was a really bad movie (like Short Circuit for instance), but i was pleasantly surprised by its quality! well, with that i'm off.
Friday, July 04, 2003
i went to Coralville this evening to view the free Blood Sweat and Tears concert made possible by the city of Coralville and 100.7 the Fox. the concert was great (though it didn't rock me mind as much as Dr. John at the IC Arts Fest); they played the four BS+T songs that i could name, those being And When I Die, Hi De Ho, Spinning Wheel and You Make Me So Very Happy, plus a plethora of other great ones.
But right now I'm in a somewhat sour mood, and I have my reasons. Though it's probably just my classic habit of overanalyzing an event and coming to the conclusion that everybody hates me.
also, i somehow hurt my back while lifting a cooler full of beverages in the Hy-Vee parking lot. good lord, i don't feel well.
but i talked to megan and dan, who followed me home, and megan has it figured out that we're going to Adventureland, Des Moines' amusement park, on Wednesday Jul. 23, which is terrific because that way i don't have to sign off work. i hope she's not driving, or that her interstate driving is better than it was two years ago, or that we don't take the interstate, or that Adventureland moves to Iowa City in the next two and a half weeks.
tomorrow's going to be TRES fun. and in two weeks from today, we're leaving for Wisconsin!
But right now I'm in a somewhat sour mood, and I have my reasons. Though it's probably just my classic habit of overanalyzing an event and coming to the conclusion that everybody hates me.
also, i somehow hurt my back while lifting a cooler full of beverages in the Hy-Vee parking lot. good lord, i don't feel well.
but i talked to megan and dan, who followed me home, and megan has it figured out that we're going to Adventureland, Des Moines' amusement park, on Wednesday Jul. 23, which is terrific because that way i don't have to sign off work. i hope she's not driving, or that her interstate driving is better than it was two years ago, or that we don't take the interstate, or that Adventureland moves to Iowa City in the next two and a half weeks.
tomorrow's going to be TRES fun. and in two weeks from today, we're leaving for Wisconsin!
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
i am wearing a University of Iowa FedEx Orange Bowl 2003 baseball cap, and i am wearing it BACKWARDS. i must look like quite the preppie. i'm doing it, though, to keep the hair out of my eyes.
well, today the guys and i viewed the Cowboy Bebop movie. incredible animation, is about all i can say. incredible. maybe i should finish watching the series.
and then we went to good old Village Inn.
and then we went to good old Village Inn.
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
yesterday Christer and i had a long discussion in the grocery store about tabernacular infundibula and how they differ from infundibular tabernacles. there was a tabernacle near where i lived in Albuquerque which could definitely be considered infundibular, which i guess would make it an infundibular tabernacle rather than a tabernacular infundibulum, but the latter has a sort of rhythmic symmetry which is very appealing. i mean, say it out loud: tabernacular infundibulum. i live for that sort of thing.
i refuse to believe it's July. refuse refuse refuse. no. it is June. shit.
well, whatever month it is, i had a really really good time last night. we went camping at Jay's new place in Tiffin, and it was HIGH CLASS. lots of people were there: me, jake, jesse, andrea, megan, dan, danny, megan's roommate ashley, jay of course, chris and chris. i entertained the masses on guitar. i shan't go into detail about the events of the evening, but it was pretty fun.
as the night wound down, we went and looked at celestial objects through my telescope, under exquisitely dark Tiffin skies. we saw Mars, Albireo, M13, M27, M57, the Andromeda galaxy, and the double cluster in Perseus. i probably would have been able to find more objects, had i sobriety and my glasses.
after that, everybody went to bed except for Christer and Jake and i. we heard a cow moo, and so we decided to respond by mooing in three part harmony. we experimented with harmony for a while, and we were actually sort of composing and singing weird chords, out there in Jay's front yard, until dawn's first light. that was pretty weird. and then i slurked into the tent and went to sleep, and was awakened four hours later by danny's damn cell phone alarm. it's a shame everyone had to be back in town early in the morning.
well, i'm no longer in denial about this. it's July. but i'm feeling pretty good about it. this is the start of what is going to be an absolutely thrilling month.
well, whatever month it is, i had a really really good time last night. we went camping at Jay's new place in Tiffin, and it was HIGH CLASS. lots of people were there: me, jake, jesse, andrea, megan, dan, danny, megan's roommate ashley, jay of course, chris and chris. i entertained the masses on guitar. i shan't go into detail about the events of the evening, but it was pretty fun.
as the night wound down, we went and looked at celestial objects through my telescope, under exquisitely dark Tiffin skies. we saw Mars, Albireo, M13, M27, M57, the Andromeda galaxy, and the double cluster in Perseus. i probably would have been able to find more objects, had i sobriety and my glasses.
after that, everybody went to bed except for Christer and Jake and i. we heard a cow moo, and so we decided to respond by mooing in three part harmony. we experimented with harmony for a while, and we were actually sort of composing and singing weird chords, out there in Jay's front yard, until dawn's first light. that was pretty weird. and then i slurked into the tent and went to sleep, and was awakened four hours later by danny's damn cell phone alarm. it's a shame everyone had to be back in town early in the morning.
well, i'm no longer in denial about this. it's July. but i'm feeling pretty good about it. this is the start of what is going to be an absolutely thrilling month.
