I seriously have been sitting here trying to write down some lists but I just can't bring myself to do it. It's 11:50 right now and I've got the NYE footage on, just cuz I always feel like I'm supposed to have it on. I'm not really paying all that much attention to it, but I feel required to see that ball drop. Maybe once that happens I can turn it off and focus on some lists. Of course by then it will kind of be too late, but that's sort of my M.O.
In the meantime, people bothered me again today. Surprise? I got a call from my mom saying my nephew was spending the night at her house. She wanted to see if I wanted to come over, and when I said yes, if I could pick up some pizzas on the way since I live practically next-door to a Pizza Hut. No problem. Put the order in online. Feeling like Mr. Organized. I show up at Pizza Hut and it is a little busy. A line of four groups waiting to put in or pick up orders. So, I get in line. I'm not going to get upset in this situation because I see the employees working as fast as they humanly can. Of course, that's not going to stop other people from complaining, which bothers me enough, but they didn't stop there. While I was there, the place got slammed. First of all, lots of people blatantly cutting in line, acting like they're just asking how long things are going to take, but then monopolizing the attention so they can place an order and then shout at the guy trying to take and send out orders while he's working. But one woman in particular, I've never wanted to see a trap door open up so much in a long time. She comes in later than most of the other people there but works her way up next to the register to say, "You know, you've got a lot of people waiting here!" Oh! Really?!? And then she stands there for 15 minutes, complaining the entire time to anybody who will listen to her. Then the guy behind the counter gets a chance to take her order, and she turns to the kids she came with and says, "What kind of pizza do you guys like?" You have got to be joking! You're standing here all this time bitching and you have no idea what you want to order?!? I had kept my cool all that time but now I was starting to get mad. Had nothing to do with any service issue, just this woman who had no regard for anybody else's time. So, happy new year. Go to hell! Not you, that woman, and all the other people I'll encounter in 2010.
Why do I watch this Times Square thing? I don't like New York, I don't like crowds, I don't like Carson Daly, I don't like parties, and I have no particular feelings for New Year's aside from enjoying another day off work. Let me turn this shit off, play some records, and make some lists.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
New 33 1/3
Picture for dazzling effect. I had forgotten what a great feeling it is to get a brand new 33 1/3 in the mail, for an album you've been waiting for, and shitting yourself for the chance to tear into it. I got the new book for Zaireeka in the mail on Christmas Eve and I tore through it in several down hours on Saturday. Nothing better than reading one of these on an album you know backwards and forwards, where any time the author brings up a specific passage you can bring it up in your brain. AND even more fun when it's on an album you have your own opinions about so you can find out where the author agrees with you or where he is a moron. I did have some misgivings about this one. It's written by a Pitchfork writer, and as I've just gone a year without Pitchfork and see no reason not to go another one, I felt a little uneasy about reading something from one of their ilk. Especially considering the site's original review of Zaireeka gave it a 0.0 without considering a second of music. And you can tell that this guy is of the Pitchfork variety. Like most other 33 1/3's it's split into sections, and the final and longest section is, of course, devoted to an anecdote from the author's life that minorly involves the album but that there's no reason anybody other than the author should care about instead of being devoted to analysis. But, he did do a pretty good job. If he was reading it to me from under an anvil, there's only a couple times I would have cut the string. I put the 33 1/3's into a few categories. Ones like If You're Feeling Sinister and Armed Forces that I could not be less interested in, ones like Court and Spark and Aqualung that I would read if I really needed something to read but are on albums that I'm only familiar with, ones like Horses and Loveless that are on albums I have some history with loving but not that I feel an urgent need to get in depth with, and ones like Aeroplane and Music From Big Pink that deal with albums I've obsessed over and jump at the chance to get any new nugget or opinion on. Zaireeka was definitely in that last category, just considering the obsession I had with that band and the feeling I've always had that the songs, regardless of the format, from that album were sorely sorely underrated. And because Adam and I probably hold some kind of world record for a proper Zaireeka playing in a space-to-people ratio kind of way. Like, 12,000 square feet per person? I'm not going to lie, there's a point in the book where he starts mentioning the message board I used to frequent as a source of Zaireeka party planning, and I half expected us to get a mention there, because you bet your ass I pimped those pictures on that board at the time. Fun read. I'll probably get the Gilded Palace of Sin sometime soon, as that should be a category 3 read for me. But really Mr. Marquee Moon needs to get off his duff and finish something so I can tear into another one.
Why not follow that up with a limited edition ice cream review? This one is really short because I've only had a couple spoons worth so far. It's Ben & Jerry's Hanah Teter's Maple Blondie. "Maple ice cream with blonde brownie chunks and a maple caramel swirl." Now, my sweet tooth is my downfall. It's gotten to the point where I have very little tolerance for salty snacks, I need the sweetness. So far, this stuff is too sweet for me. The blondie chunks are good, but the overwhelming taste for has been like eating frozen maple syrup. Which it pretty much is, it says so right there in the title. For some reason I couldn't put that together before I bought it.
I've been thinking about making some lists lately. Year-end lists. Decade lists. Probably not a lot of “best of [insert piece of time]” because there just haven't been enough albums in the last couple years that I loved, or even enjoyed. The lists I'm thinking of would be a lot more like “things I didn't know I would like at the beginning of the year,” “top five shifts of genre enjoyment,” “top five songs or albums I've come across in the past decade that put me in a very particular space and time from the past decade,” “top five albums I had high hopes for that failed me miserably upon their release.” Things like that. Just not feeling very motivated to make them though. If I was working much these last two weeks of 2009, probably a better chance I would have some sitting time to work on those. But as I'm on an almost two-week sabbatical with limited work-related interruption, there's other things I'm using the time for. Initially it was shoveling snow. Now it's napping and watching movies.
Why not follow that up with a limited edition ice cream review? This one is really short because I've only had a couple spoons worth so far. It's Ben & Jerry's Hanah Teter's Maple Blondie. "Maple ice cream with blonde brownie chunks and a maple caramel swirl." Now, my sweet tooth is my downfall. It's gotten to the point where I have very little tolerance for salty snacks, I need the sweetness. So far, this stuff is too sweet for me. The blondie chunks are good, but the overwhelming taste for has been like eating frozen maple syrup. Which it pretty much is, it says so right there in the title. For some reason I couldn't put that together before I bought it.
I've been thinking about making some lists lately. Year-end lists. Decade lists. Probably not a lot of “best of [insert piece of time]” because there just haven't been enough albums in the last couple years that I loved, or even enjoyed. The lists I'm thinking of would be a lot more like “things I didn't know I would like at the beginning of the year,” “top five shifts of genre enjoyment,” “top five songs or albums I've come across in the past decade that put me in a very particular space and time from the past decade,” “top five albums I had high hopes for that failed me miserably upon their release.” Things like that. Just not feeling very motivated to make them though. If I was working much these last two weeks of 2009, probably a better chance I would have some sitting time to work on those. But as I'm on an almost two-week sabbatical with limited work-related interruption, there's other things I'm using the time for. Initially it was shoveling snow. Now it's napping and watching movies.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Thank You Population of Williamsburg...
For reminding me why this site has the name that it does, and why I generally can't be around people. Two run-ins I wanted to chronicle.
At the Messiah performance, the music was gorgeous, the audience was hilarious. Bruton Parish does not have pews like most people are used to. They're really deep. Unless you're above average height, I would say you're not going to see much going on in the front of the church unless it's elevated. Which most of it's not. The chorus and musicians may have been a step or two above the level of the audience. So, you're not seeing much, but it really shouldn't matter. I thought we were there to hear the room fill up with some overwhelming music. What it became for me was laughing at people craning their necks or even standing up to see when a new soloist started, as if Alice Cooper had just come out and was about to do the guillotine. Then there's the Hallelujah Chorus. Being Mr. Has-A-Problem-With-Everything, I'm already not a big fan of standing during it. I know it's a tradition, but I think it's a really cheap piece of audience participation that takes away from the music a little bit. Especially when you hear people around you whispering, "It's almost time to stand," like it's their chance to be the star. But what was totally unforgivable, and I never saw it coming, was when people started singing along with it. Those half-hearted voices you'd hear at semi-indie concerts from the people who just want you to know that they know all the words. During the Hallelujah Chorus. This trend has gone too far.
More later at the IHOP. There was pretty much nobody there when I got there, which of course I was delighted with. (Except that it highlighted the reason I've waited so long in the first place to get holiday pancakes. Sitting by yourself in a pancake house while you're waiting for your food to come out is uncomfortable. I thought for sure they'd have a local coupon book I could read, but no dice.) But of course after a while a gaggle of college students, if 4 makes a gaggle, comes in and of course they get seated in the booth right next to mine. I swear I tried not to pay attention to them, but eventually they started talking about how their neighbors were such assholes because they got the cops called on them when they were having a party. And they went on to talk about the situation, with them of course being the pure victims, saying everything I bristled at having flashbacks from the time we were living next to Kevin to the apartment I lived in under college students here in Fredericksburg and beyond. He would have never understood why I did it, but I think I would have been totally justified in pouring the rest of my carafe down the back of his shirt and walking out on the bill while he pulled skin off his back.
At the Messiah performance, the music was gorgeous, the audience was hilarious. Bruton Parish does not have pews like most people are used to. They're really deep. Unless you're above average height, I would say you're not going to see much going on in the front of the church unless it's elevated. Which most of it's not. The chorus and musicians may have been a step or two above the level of the audience. So, you're not seeing much, but it really shouldn't matter. I thought we were there to hear the room fill up with some overwhelming music. What it became for me was laughing at people craning their necks or even standing up to see when a new soloist started, as if Alice Cooper had just come out and was about to do the guillotine. Then there's the Hallelujah Chorus. Being Mr. Has-A-Problem-With-Everything, I'm already not a big fan of standing during it. I know it's a tradition, but I think it's a really cheap piece of audience participation that takes away from the music a little bit. Especially when you hear people around you whispering, "It's almost time to stand," like it's their chance to be the star. But what was totally unforgivable, and I never saw it coming, was when people started singing along with it. Those half-hearted voices you'd hear at semi-indie concerts from the people who just want you to know that they know all the words. During the Hallelujah Chorus. This trend has gone too far.
More later at the IHOP. There was pretty much nobody there when I got there, which of course I was delighted with. (Except that it highlighted the reason I've waited so long in the first place to get holiday pancakes. Sitting by yourself in a pancake house while you're waiting for your food to come out is uncomfortable. I thought for sure they'd have a local coupon book I could read, but no dice.) But of course after a while a gaggle of college students, if 4 makes a gaggle, comes in and of course they get seated in the booth right next to mine. I swear I tried not to pay attention to them, but eventually they started talking about how their neighbors were such assholes because they got the cops called on them when they were having a party. And they went on to talk about the situation, with them of course being the pure victims, saying everything I bristled at having flashbacks from the time we were living next to Kevin to the apartment I lived in under college students here in Fredericksburg and beyond. He would have never understood why I did it, but I think I would have been totally justified in pouring the rest of my carafe down the back of his shirt and walking out on the bill while he pulled skin off his back.
Interrupting Williamsburg talk for a Ltd. Edition report
I've been meaning to post on this and while I was typing about sandwiches finally remembered. Weekend after Thanksgiving I had a run-in with the Wawa Gobbler. Let me see: turkey, gravy, stuffing, provolone, cranberry sauce, on a sub roll. You wouldn't think it would work but it does. I couldn't wrap my head around how gravy and cranberry sauce could go on one sandwich without making you wretch, but it did the opposite. My mom had gotten this amazing turkey from Wegman's on Thanksgiving and I wanted some more of it. So I went to the prepared foods area to see if I could get just a few slices. And I could. FOR ABOUT $15 A POUND! Ridiculous. So I guess I kind of revolted and got the cheapest imaginable version of Thanksgiving dinner I could think of. So, that's the end of that.
Thank God that wasn't there when I had less than no money...
Went back to Williamsburg this weekend for the first time since Adam and Christy's wedding. Man there's a lot of shit there now. I guess the colonial area is pretty much the same except for the parking garage, but pretty much everywhere else blew me away at how much has been done.
So, half of the reason I wanted to go down to Williamsburg this weekend was to see the Messiah performance at Bruton. The other half became that, the more I thought about Williamsburg, the more I started craving a sandwich from Padow's. Well, come to find out, Padow's is gone, which sent me out on a search for a sandwich. Cuz I wuz hongry. So I decided to trek down Richmond Rd. toward Lightfoot to see what I might find. First thing I noticed was the dilapidated gas/service station across from Staples was now a Walgreen's. I love Walgreens! They have the best snacks! So, my mind being sufficiently warped by the site of the Walgreen's, I go past New Hope Rd. which used to just be a carpet between our house and Dunkin' Donuts. First thing I saw was that Chanello's was right next to IHOP now. I said, "Oh wow. I think I would have liked that," though I don't really have much memory of Chanello's. Then my mind kind of went into overfuckingdrive. Drive past the hotel next to IHOP and all of a sudden there's this giant shopping center looking thing that isn't really populated yet but looks like it would have been my worst nightmare. So I drive through, there's a Firehouse Subs, a Plaza Azteca, and a Five Guys there now, right next to our house, with presumably many more things to fill up those spaces. Are you fucking kidding me?!? I managed to make myself the size of three people with a 1-minute bike ride to KFC and Dunkin' Donuts. And a car that would occasionally get me to a lot of pizza. Or Wendy's. And a lot of Subway Station. And Padow's. This is suddenly not seeming so amazing to have those places right next to me, I think I found the food I was after. But still! Can you imagine what I would have done to myself if there was a Five Guys like 30 seconds away? I would have smelled like peanut oil french fries every minute of every day for 3 years. I was kind of embarrassed when the people at Padow's learned my name because I went there so much, same with the guy at Subway Station, and even more so when the people at KFC knew what I was going to order because I went there so often. (It's fucking KFC! Do you know how many people probably went in and out of there in a day? If I saw that many different people every day I don't think I could remember what ONE was going to order unless he was there way too much. I was there way too much.) So yeah, right next to our house. If Five Guys had been there when we lived there, I probably would not have made it out alive.
But here's what really bowled me over. Remember how hard it was to see a goddam movie in Williamsburg? Kimball or bust most times. Or that one small theater that I can't remember where it is now because I probably went there three times in the dark. I know I saw The Scorpion King there. Anyway, now there is also a movie theater right there. Right. There. Tell me we wouldn't have gone broke. And then I got back to the Travelodge and they actually had a brochure about the movie theater because it's a Movie Tavern where you EAT DINNER WHILE YOU WATCH THE MOVIE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? And you might expect them to be showing second or third run family fare for the family to go out to. Nope. First run movies. It was mostly on the younger side, Twilight, Princess on the Frog, that kind of stuff. But also Blind Side, Invictus. They'll be showing Avatar when it comes out. MAN! How many times would we have driven to Video Update if we had to drive past a Movie/Dinner Theater to get there? Probably not as many. But good lord I would be so much more in debt than I am now.
But I still hadn't found anything I wanted to eat. (You think I wasn't tempted to stop at the Taco Bell on Richmond Rd. just because I was driving past at a time when the Cheesy Gordita Crunch happened to be back for a limited run just for nostalgia's sake? It crossed my mind.) I decided to turn around and go back down Monticello and see what was out Ukrop's way now and perhaps what had become of this New Town that was just on the rise when I was last there. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think when we went there for your wedding (yeah, I know nobody else is reading this so it's pretty much just going to become an email to Adam) the movie theater was pretty much the only thing that was open and there were a few other buildings around but looking uninhabited at the time. I don't remember it being real busy. And now it's pretty much the size of Fredericksburg! Maybe bigger. I mean, I know Fredericksburg isn't the biggest city in the country, but it is a CITY! Not a shopping center! I just kind of drove in where the movie theater was and almost plowed over some people down the main concourse by going the wrong way down a one way street. I thought for a second about getting out and walking around to see what was there but I just said FORGET IT! I don't want to deal with this. So I drove further down Monticello and saw just how far New Town went. Ridiculous. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, noticed another pretty big shopping center between 199 and the Ukrop's shopping center that I'm pretty sure was not there before. Didn't even set tire in that one. Didn't care! Too much to try to take in. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, only thing I really noticed out there was that they had a Cold Stone now. I'm guessing I would have liked that.
Still hadn't eaten. I don't know how I could have eaten with my mouth gaping like that. Anyway, I still really just wanted a sandwich, so I drove past the Subway Station (too many memories) and decided to go get one at The Cheese Shop. At which point I remembered why I rarely went to The Cheese Shop. A little over ten bucks for what amounted to a small turkey sandwich and a root beer. The turkey was good, the bread was good, the roasted tomatoes were the highlight of the sandwich, and they forgot my mustard. Ten bucks?!?
So, that's not even to mention any of the stuff that's been built on campus. Unreal. Then that night I also got a call from my dad and was telling him about all the changes that had been made, and he informs me that they also had a Best Buy now. I was like, you mean the one in Newport News? No! Williamsburg. Wow. That might have been handy.
So, half of the reason I wanted to go down to Williamsburg this weekend was to see the Messiah performance at Bruton. The other half became that, the more I thought about Williamsburg, the more I started craving a sandwich from Padow's. Well, come to find out, Padow's is gone, which sent me out on a search for a sandwich. Cuz I wuz hongry. So I decided to trek down Richmond Rd. toward Lightfoot to see what I might find. First thing I noticed was the dilapidated gas/service station across from Staples was now a Walgreen's. I love Walgreens! They have the best snacks! So, my mind being sufficiently warped by the site of the Walgreen's, I go past New Hope Rd. which used to just be a carpet between our house and Dunkin' Donuts. First thing I saw was that Chanello's was right next to IHOP now. I said, "Oh wow. I think I would have liked that," though I don't really have much memory of Chanello's. Then my mind kind of went into overfuckingdrive. Drive past the hotel next to IHOP and all of a sudden there's this giant shopping center looking thing that isn't really populated yet but looks like it would have been my worst nightmare. So I drive through, there's a Firehouse Subs, a Plaza Azteca, and a Five Guys there now, right next to our house, with presumably many more things to fill up those spaces. Are you fucking kidding me?!? I managed to make myself the size of three people with a 1-minute bike ride to KFC and Dunkin' Donuts. And a car that would occasionally get me to a lot of pizza. Or Wendy's. And a lot of Subway Station. And Padow's. This is suddenly not seeming so amazing to have those places right next to me, I think I found the food I was after. But still! Can you imagine what I would have done to myself if there was a Five Guys like 30 seconds away? I would have smelled like peanut oil french fries every minute of every day for 3 years. I was kind of embarrassed when the people at Padow's learned my name because I went there so much, same with the guy at Subway Station, and even more so when the people at KFC knew what I was going to order because I went there so often. (It's fucking KFC! Do you know how many people probably went in and out of there in a day? If I saw that many different people every day I don't think I could remember what ONE was going to order unless he was there way too much. I was there way too much.) So yeah, right next to our house. If Five Guys had been there when we lived there, I probably would not have made it out alive.
But here's what really bowled me over. Remember how hard it was to see a goddam movie in Williamsburg? Kimball or bust most times. Or that one small theater that I can't remember where it is now because I probably went there three times in the dark. I know I saw The Scorpion King there. Anyway, now there is also a movie theater right there. Right. There. Tell me we wouldn't have gone broke. And then I got back to the Travelodge and they actually had a brochure about the movie theater because it's a Movie Tavern where you EAT DINNER WHILE YOU WATCH THE MOVIE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? And you might expect them to be showing second or third run family fare for the family to go out to. Nope. First run movies. It was mostly on the younger side, Twilight, Princess on the Frog, that kind of stuff. But also Blind Side, Invictus. They'll be showing Avatar when it comes out. MAN! How many times would we have driven to Video Update if we had to drive past a Movie/Dinner Theater to get there? Probably not as many. But good lord I would be so much more in debt than I am now.
But I still hadn't found anything I wanted to eat. (You think I wasn't tempted to stop at the Taco Bell on Richmond Rd. just because I was driving past at a time when the Cheesy Gordita Crunch happened to be back for a limited run just for nostalgia's sake? It crossed my mind.) I decided to turn around and go back down Monticello and see what was out Ukrop's way now and perhaps what had become of this New Town that was just on the rise when I was last there. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think when we went there for your wedding (yeah, I know nobody else is reading this so it's pretty much just going to become an email to Adam) the movie theater was pretty much the only thing that was open and there were a few other buildings around but looking uninhabited at the time. I don't remember it being real busy. And now it's pretty much the size of Fredericksburg! Maybe bigger. I mean, I know Fredericksburg isn't the biggest city in the country, but it is a CITY! Not a shopping center! I just kind of drove in where the movie theater was and almost plowed over some people down the main concourse by going the wrong way down a one way street. I thought for a second about getting out and walking around to see what was there but I just said FORGET IT! I don't want to deal with this. So I drove further down Monticello and saw just how far New Town went. Ridiculous. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, noticed another pretty big shopping center between 199 and the Ukrop's shopping center that I'm pretty sure was not there before. Didn't even set tire in that one. Didn't care! Too much to try to take in. Kept driving toward Ukrop's, only thing I really noticed out there was that they had a Cold Stone now. I'm guessing I would have liked that.
Still hadn't eaten. I don't know how I could have eaten with my mouth gaping like that. Anyway, I still really just wanted a sandwich, so I drove past the Subway Station (too many memories) and decided to go get one at The Cheese Shop. At which point I remembered why I rarely went to The Cheese Shop. A little over ten bucks for what amounted to a small turkey sandwich and a root beer. The turkey was good, the bread was good, the roasted tomatoes were the highlight of the sandwich, and they forgot my mustard. Ten bucks?!?
So, that's not even to mention any of the stuff that's been built on campus. Unreal. Then that night I also got a call from my dad and was telling him about all the changes that had been made, and he informs me that they also had a Best Buy now. I was like, you mean the one in Newport News? No! Williamsburg. Wow. That might have been handy.
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