I fought in a war

Friday band practise was incredible. We ran through the set and then dove into building Brandon's new one Tough Guy. This was made to do live. Brandon wrote the guitar part so it has a punk rock edge to it - but it gets tempered by the synth. We all added something to it. Rebekah does these nice harmonies to Brandon's vocals. Erin (our utility player) is absolutely, vicious for the chorus. I requested a cheerleader-esque clap, chant breakdown (shades of Toni Basil). The whole package is pretty much overwhelming. So even if people want to carrying on during the rest of the set they will not be able to ignore this one.

This week on the band front we have more practise and Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning) we're going to be making an appearance on KDHX's Deep Trance show. Shhhh. Don't tell them that we aren't trance.

Saturday - Anthony vs. the toilet round 3 (?) . . . 4 (?).

I'm starting to lose count. If you'll recall I fixed the leak in my toilet and considered it case closed until three days later is started to overflow. I went to tighten the toilet bolts and screwed it up again. The problem is that my soil pipe is lower than the floor so I had to rig it with more extensions than a ghetto salon That turned out to be a bad move. So anyway, I lost my patience and my mind and came within inches of calling out a plumber. Keeping in my that it was a Saturday night I was ready to blow my tax refund on an emergency weekend call out. But then I figured out a better way to rig it and so now it works again. I'm optimistic that this'll be the last time but who am I?

Casey and Robyn were supposed to come over but I cancelled because of the toilet. It's hard to entertain people when they have to drive down the road to use the facilities at McDonald's. After I got the toilet fixed, Rebekah and I went out to eat and then took in a movie - Jersey Girl. The ending was one cliche after another but it was more or less enjoyable.

Sunday - Went to the meeting. The brother was giving the, "God's View of Sex in Marraige" talk. He was pretty balanced and it was much better than I've heard in the past. We went to Home Depot to price cabinets to see if we couldn't come closer to finishing the kitchen. Casey and Robyn came by after their assembly. We took them out to eat Messican. It was good, clean, fun.

just some stuff that happened

We had band practise last night - Everything is sounding so full and loud and wonderful. We are tightening up and projecting a great big wall of pop. To quote Pizzicato Five, "Catchy, catchy, catchy, catchy."

We tried to learn two new songs:

a.) "Forgive/Forget" - This song is pure, unadulterated pop rock. A sweet garage version of Avril or Mandy. A great big piece of candy (or crack). We will end on this one and leave them wanting more.

b.) "Nuclear Winter" - On tape this is our most involved synth piece. I really like it and had hoped that we could work in into the set but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. It is just too complicated to pull off without resorting to prerecorded DAT pieces or bringing the laptop on stage - and that aint gonna happen. So this song was ex'd.

--

I also had one of those life altering revelations. Y'know where you are forced to chuck out the whole paradigm that defined you up to that point. It's kind of scary. For years you have this comfortable nest of your own ideology. This is who I am. This is what I believe. The nest is occasionally shaped and it grows and it changes as you get older. But sometimes the winds come and your nest is destroyed and you are left looking at the pieces and trying to figure out how, or if, it can go back together.

I'm reminded of the Japanese after they had lost World War II. It was an unthinkable thing that their divine emporer could fail them. Their sense of identity was crushed.

At first I felt kind of bothered but now I actually feel empowered. What do you do with the knowledge? Do you use it as an excuse or a stepping stone? I'm using it as an excuse to build a better nest.

Mr. Toughguy

Spinning . . . This weekend was a waste . . . a wash . . . My "blah" attitude from the previous week carried over into the weekend. Bummer.

Saturday I fought to redo the toilet in our house. It started leaking again. I cursed and I kicked and I bought wax rings and then tried some fancy gadget until eventually it dindn't leak. So the bathroom is safe. But for how long?

I did have enough time to go over to The Red Spoon coffee house in Alton, IL to see my cousin's band, Yorktown Heroes play a set. I've been meaning to get over and see them for a while. The music wasn't might cup of tea but they were spirited and listenable. The highlight of the night was a girl in an 80's prom-dress that was bore an uncanny resemblance to Molly Ringwald.

Sunday Brandon came over after the meeting. He's been sitting on what he feels is a hit song. I finally told him to come over so that we could figure it out because we need all the good songs we can get for the live show. It's call Mr. Toughguy and the chorus is, "Go . . . Mr. . . . Tough . . . Guy!". It looks ridiculous on paper but on tape it's pretty good.

We're scheduled for a radio show this Wednesday from 12:00am to 2:00am. I really want to do it because I know it'll help get people to come to the show but there is a huge sleep issue.

. . .

ignorance is bliss

i'm a victim of the information age

where I live

I did my taxes last night. What a mess! The US should just levy a set percentage on your income and ditch the maze of deductions and credits.

I just read this comforting thought about asthma and metropoliton areas. It's nice to know that I'm living in one of the worst areas for my condition. I really would like to move but I can't quit this job so more and more I live for the day I'll get fired.

This 19-year old male intern just pitched me because I wasn't wearing green. What is this? Grade school?

I impulse bought a new toothbrush. I'm giving it huge thumbs up. I've reduced the effort it takes to brush my teeth in the morning by half - - and my teeth have never looked better. Score.

Prejiduce

I really want to have acupuncture done on me. Not for any particular reason - just to try new things. Well there are dozens of people doing it in the area; but I want it done proper. I don't want some ex-hippy jabbing me with needles because he's into alterna-health. I don't want some balding chiropractor sticking me because it's the trendy thing to do.

Give it to me hardcore.

I want some old oriental man to stick me with needles. He should have a milky eye and give me a complimentary mogwai with each visit. He should liberally use words like chi while expounding the aphrodisiac qualities of ground rhino horn. After he turns me into a pin cushion he should yank some chicken guts out of me and call it diseased tissue.

Give it to me hardcore.

- -

We had practise last night. We developed Athens Circa '99 for our live show. It has taken on a groovy new life - dance floor anthem.

Electric Connection

It's time for more my long-winded weekend recap. We'll start up with Friday evening--

Mina is closing in on the conclusion of My Side of the Mountain so we planned to go to Borders and pick up her next bedtime chapter book. Each time we finish a book it becomes more and more difficult to find something suitable to read to her. We have already exhausted the Little House, Ramona Quimby, and Judy Moody series. So it's a lot of leafing through the bookshelfs and pulling out books based on the cover. But then you flip them over and they are summarised as:

"Janette is a thirteen year old going through a rough time. Her mother has just died of AIDS leaving her with her alcoholic, verbally abusive father. But one day she meets a homeless, heroine addict searching for his lost kitten. Janette knows her life is about the change . . . but for the better?"


or

"Paul and Lydia wake up one day and they are magically transported to the lost Kingdom of Baal ruled by the evil Sorcerer Lucifer. Together with their new friends an egnimatic troll named Beezlebub and faerie Ashtoreth they set out to free the kingdom from the evil spell put upon it."


Saturday my father came over and was helping me install a new electrical service in my house. Working with electricity scares me. My dad doesn't instill me with a lot of confidence. As he's hooking it up some high-voltage wire he says, "Now if I get caught up in this don't touch me. Get a pole and knock me loose." We got the new service up but our basement is a mess of hanging wires. Room by room I'm going to go through and sort it out and rewire as neccesary. The spring home improvement season has started in earnest.

Saturday night was Ben and Nicki's wedding. They had a pretty nice reception. The decorations were pretty sharp. Each table sported a glass bowl and a blood-red beta fish. Inevitably as the night progressed and the kegs were drained we would pair up the fish for fights. The highlight of the night was seeing some of the older ones in the congregation dancing to Ice Ice Baby - - classic. I'll dance without drinking. When I drink I get sociable. So I relish these occasions. I washed down two paxils with some dodgy macrobrewed beer and worked the room.

I talked to this kid who is working on starting Spanish congregations in the area. He was telling me there was a real need for brothers in the groups and congregations. Since the Mexicans are illegal immigrants they can't get privaleges in the congregation. So I briefly considered what he had to say. It may be my only shot at getting appointed.

I talked to Sam Grey who looks and talks just like Quintan Tarantino. He is basically the only one from St. Louis who missed getting disfellowshipped. He is a pretty cool guy.

During the night we (Rebekah and I) had noticed this girl's hair. It had some nice streaks and was styled nicely. So later on I thought it might be a nice idea to compliment her.

"Nice hair."

"Is that sarcasm?" She snaps back.

And then I went back into my shell - Recoil.

Sunday we went to the meeting. Went to Quizno's - They've got a pepper bar. Went home and watched School of Rock. I'm not a Jack Black fan but the movie was fun.

. . .

Early Morning Madness

I've got my morning routine pretty much down these days. Wake up (the obvious step 1) and role out of bed before jumping in the shower. I will shower for however long it takes to wake up. Sometimes I find that I'm dazing in and out of sleep while standing in the shower. Sometimes I'll talk to myself. Awakened, I get out and fix (for lack of better term) my hair, shave, and then dash off to work usually forgetting something -- money, my wallet, my phone. At work I make coffee and check my e-mail. I'll delete approximately three e-mails offering penis or breast enlargement, five e-mails from my virus software saying they've blocked the Sven virus, and a couple e-mails so garbled in an effort to avoid the wrath of spam blocker that they can't be read. And then I drink my coffee. The first time each morning when I bring the cup up to my mouth and I inhale the aroma I'm reminded of Super Sugar Crisp cereal.

And sometimes in and around this early morning routine I'll have leaps of creativity which border on insanity. This morning in the shower I was considering the angels and what form they must take in their natural abode. I thought on it and then surmized that they should look like single-cell organisms. The single-cell angels would lack mitochondria and couldn't exist independent from a power source for long. This would create a clear succession of life from the beginning (angels) to the end (man). Each creation being a prototype for the next. It sounds like evolution but at each end of the chain you have very complex beings. - - So I'm not saying that this is true. I'm simply saying that sometimes in the morning I have some pretty crazy thoughts. How fitting that I should talk to myself!

--

Snack night was pretty good if a little too heavy on the desserts. That Indian-spiced chicken I brought was insanely hot; but the yogurt based dip cooled it enough to make it palatable. I was happy with it but it was exhaustive to make. Sometimes I think that Bon Apetit adds unnecessary steps to their recipes to make them seem more impressive.

I'm a Chick Magnet

Last night we had a productive practise. We learned two songs and practised the two that we learned last week bringing the total up to four. I'm pleased with the progress considering the coordination involved with all the instruments.

Tonight we are having "snack-night" at the Book Study as a send-off to the book we are finishing. (As a side note: Perhaps there would be better attendance if we renamed them "book club".) Of course I have to go overboard with snack night. I think because Rebekah and I don't entertain I don't have the opportunity to cook for anyone I seize these opportunities. So tonight I'm doing Indian-spiced chicken kebobs with cilantro chutney garnished with english cucumber, lime, and Boston bibb lettuce. If the food sucks at least the name is impressive. (Mental Note: Make name card to decorate dish.)

So I went shopping late last night for the ingredients to make the aforementioned dish. While in the produce section I was approached yet again by a *middle-aged foreign woman. She comes walking up to me with some sort of a weird squash and asking me what it was. To which I could only shrug and say, "I'm sorry." (Note to Single People: Hang out in a supermarket produce section.)

Seeing Bands

I go through phases. Sometimes I'm in an indie cinema phase and every weekend I'm driving to the Tivoli to check out the latest. I guess now I'm in a band phase and going out to see shows. And not because all my favorites happen to be touring or something. I find myself just going - to go - or something. This weekend I made two attempts to see Polarized Mind play. I had asked them to play with us on 4-10 and I was curious about their live show.

Attempt 1: Brandon and I drove all the way out to Festus, MO to a joint called the Local Scene. We got there and found that the show was cancelled as the club had been closed by the police earlier that evening. So I guess it wasn't a place we would want to be at anyway so perhaps it was good thing that it was shuttered. On the way back home we stopped by The Ground Floor to see if anything was going on.

We walked in and this band was just setting up. They looked really cool. They had all this vintage equipment and a tone of synthesizers on the stage. However, from the first notes of the first song Brandon and I had one thought, "Radiohead". This band didn't so much play the synthesizers as they used them to make noise while the lead singer crooned over a fractured guitar. It was like a bad radiohead cover band that played their own material.

Attempt 2: Mina was at the Grandparents so Rebekah and I drove out to Wentzville to try to see Polarized Mind at a venue called the "Midwest Music Pit". Before hand we stopped off at Seki to get dinner. While we were sitting there eating a couple walks in, the lady looks something like Nelle Carter says, "What is this? Chineese?" The little Japanese server says, "No, japanese". The lady huffs, "Ah na. I can't do that sh - -." and turns around and walks out.

So we got to the Midwest Music Pit which is so bleedingly hoosier that it was unbearable. I'm talking twelve year olds in tube tops smoking cigarettes, trashy. Band member's mothers flashing devil signs and moshing, trashy. The first two bands were very metal. All their songs went something like, "RAR, roar, rar, rar, roar, $#%#! You!"

Finally Polarized Mind came on and the place cleared out leaving ten or so people left. I enjoyed their show

Food Addiction

I've been thinking about addiction again. Specifically food addiction. I think it is most common addiction and plagues most people. However, it is rarely seen as addiction - "You have to eat right?"

A person in good health can go from 30 to 40 days before they begin to starve. However, let's not talk about the limits. Let's reduce it to 1 week. A reasonably healthy person can go one week without eating. The question is, "Can you?"

Most people I know can't go a few hours without eating something. I'm reminded of cigarette smokers who count down the seconds until they can light up again. Junkies waiting for a score.

But are you addicted?

If you do go a few days without eating you'll have withdrawal and feel the need to eat. This will become very strong. But here is the odd thing. A person will feel as if they are starving but in their minds they will turn up their nose as the thought of eating broccoli or cauliflower. No you want to eat cookies, a burger and fries, pizza - comfort foods.

But I'm so "hungry", I'm "starving"!

I think about those old cartoons where a person gets so hungry they eat a shoe. It's played for comedy but it contains a kernel of truth. If you are literally starving you'll eat anything. If it gets bad enough you might eat leather.

What most people associate as hunger is actually withdrawal cravings. True hunger feels similar to thirst. You feel it in the throat not the stomach. Very few of us have actually felt that.

I ask, "are you hungry or addicted?" Am I?

Productivity

And somewhere in between I managed to write a new 6a2 song.

And somewhere in between I took a lunch. McDonald's is phasing out the "super-size" so I got one for one last time. I usually don't even "go large" but I just had to get a big huge killer (literally) order of fries while I still could.

And then I went to the meeting. It's funny how our book is already outdated. It talks about the cry of "peace and security" as a definite future event while a newer magazine (February? March?) says that it could've already happened. Also they had that question about how you knew the prophecy recorded in Timothy regarding the "time of the end" applies to our day. Well I went off on it. I must of answered it three times and basically ranted about road rage, school shootings, corporate criminals, and arrogant, opinionated people on radio talk shows.

P.S. I just found out Rebekah's brother is getting to tour Japan in late March. First Christina Aguilera and now this! I'm officially jealous of somebody I never in my life thought I'd be envious of.

Cramped, but not in my own tender affection

Last night was 6a2's first big practise and it went well enough. The first portion of the night was spent trying to arrange equipment and get everything hooked up. It's a complicated setup: Two guitars, bass, drum machine, organ, two keyboards, and four vocal mics.

Brandon's sister, Erin came by to help out. She'll be playing with us and filling in the gaps with guitar, keys, and vocals. She worked out quite well. Her and Brandon have the real challenge. Whereas, Rebekah and I stay on bass and guitar, respectively, they bounce around from guitar to organ to synth.

By the time we got everything arranged we ended up only practising two songs (over and over again) - but by the end of the night we had them down. I hope the next few weeks of practise go as smoothly. Past experience tells me that we should get better and tighter.

Leap-Year

I had a pretty full weekend. Saturday we went out in field service in the morning. Then after that we went over to the U-City Loop to go thrift store shopping. We didn't find anything suitable so we walked down to Vintage Vinyl. Apartment 26 was giving a spirited in-store performance. Afterward we did some more shopping.

Sunday our meeting was packed. There is nothing like warm weather to bring in the masses. Alicia happened to come to the meeting with her new baby.

As is my yearly custom I watched the Oscars without as much enthusiasm as in years past. In fact I wasn't really familiar with the nominees. I was delightfully surprised when Mitch and Mickey from Mighty Wind came out and performed, "A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow" which was nominated for Best Song. I love it!

Lord of the Rings swept it all which will mean that in the coming years there will be no shortage of feeble Conan-esque fantasy flicks in the theatres.

Oh yeah, one more thing, Scarlett Johannson is really beautiful.