Stories

I miss writing. Not in a serious way, or a compelling one. Just in a "man I used to really like doing that" sort of way. Kinda how I miss playing badminton. It's a vague and ill-defined itch in the back of my mind. Unlike badminton, though, I can do something about it without getting up off the couch. So let's get on with some stories.

Where I've Been (Sappy Life Update)

So I found a new job. I don't know if I mentioned it on here or not, and I'll be damned if I'll actually go back and read things I've written before. Always forward, never back. But, yeah, so I'm gainfully employed again after a 2 month hiatus. In the end, it worked out ideally - I moved out of a bad job situation and into a really great one in the same field, with very little downtime It's a better situation all around, and I'm actually on a real career path instead of just running in place like before. Combine that with the fact that I took some much needed time during the forced sabbatical to get my head on straight and my body back into shape, and everything seems to be in a really positive place. This sounds queer as hell, but I'm incredibly happy with my life right now. I know, shocking, right?

What I've Been Doing (Technology Whore)

So as a reward for finding a new and better paying job, I finally broke down and bought a new laptop. I know it's an extravagance in the extreme... but just wait for the rest of this post. I can defend it a little bit - my desktop computer has become this Frankenstein Monster of various cobbled-parts that don't even fit into its tower. Wires, cables, random boxes, and fans spill out of it like the remnants of an incendiary explosion gone wrong. And even in its make-shift upgraded state, it continues to run slower and slower. The laptop is sleek, pretty, runs twice as fast as the desktop, and I can do things like type on it while lying on the couch watching football and yelling at my roommate to bring me more turkey while he's up. (Not that I'm necessarily doing that right now, no sir).

But yeah, so if you think it's extravagant to go out and get a laptop right after a two month unemployment stint, you'll love this part - last week as a late birthday present to myself, I bought an iPhone. There's no defending that one - owning an iPhone is equivalent to the worst excesses of the Roman empire. I feel so much like Hedonism Bot from Futurama that it's uncanny ("I regret nothing!").

Seriously, though, it's awesome. Instant access to email, facebook, AIM, grouped texts, decent camera, a 32 gig iPod built in, you might as well just hook it to my veins. When you add in the google maps function so I never get lost anymore and the fact that I can play Katamari Damacy anywhere anytime now, I might as well have died and gone to gay-white-nerd heaven.

What I've Been Listening To (Music Snob Section)

November was a good month for concerts. I went to see Regina Spektor at Nokia as my real birthday present to myself and it was life-affirming as usual. I think it's so crazy how big she's gotten lately - I still remember when she was at the Gypsy Tea Room, and now she's filling up huge venues. But it was an awesome show - she played the best stuff off the new album Far, plus an amazing version of Ode to Divorce, a near show-stopping version of Silly Eye-Color Generalizations and ended the show with her country song Love You're a Whore (something that I've been dying to see in person). Basically, she continues to complete me in ways that are utterly undefinable. Or to put it in terms of Roommate Jim "I have never seen you look gayer than when you're smiling at a Regina Spektor concert." Which, while a hate crime, is technically accurate.

I also went to see Imogen Heap at the Granada approximately 4 days following the Regina concert and it was similarly awesome. It wasn't exactly polished - there were several extended technical delays and her voice (while always awesome) was obviously suffering from multi back-to-back concert nights. That said, there were some amazing bits - a truly awesome rendition of Bad Body Double, an unbelievably chilling version of The Moment I Said It, and a really unique and fun take on Just For Now. And as far as old school ambiance goes, you really can't beat the Granada. Even though the show was sold out, the crowd was super cool and really into the show. Bravo all around.

Short Stories That Make You Wonder (I'm Too Lazy for Proper Posts)

I got a new roommate. Roommate Frank has run off to greener pastures where there are dogs that he can play with, and floors that don't randomly shift their planes for their own amusement. In his stead we introduce Roommate Jim, who's already been heavily featured in stories around here, just not while co-habitating. It's a pretty sweet setup, in that we are basically the straight/gay versions of each other. It's all video games, sports, and minor drinking adventures all the time nowadays. He keeps me honest and less hermit-like than I would normally be in such times, so it's a good thing.

My birthday was aging, but super fun. I managed to go out three separate times (in true Birthday Week fashion) and never got overly drunk. Good conversation, good venues, and good drinks. Is it possible that I'm growing up and can actually celebrate in moderation? Let's just assume this is an aberration, not a sign of things to come. We'll see how Gingerbread Party goes next month as the real indicator.

Thanksgiving was short (low-man on the totem pole at the new office means working on the day after) but I still managed to partake in enough of my family's delicious meal in the 10 hours I was home that I will probably never be the same shape again. (Also contributing to that shape: the literal 10 pounds of leftovers that my mom gave to me on the way out the door. Seriously, I'm going to be a pear before the new year). I brought Roommate Jim back with me to the homestead, and I'm pretty sure that no parties were permanently scarred from the event, which is all I was hoping for, frankly. To quote a great man: No one got shot, no one got outed. I'll take it.

Music Review Monday - Spektor, Jonas, et al

Been in a music buying frenzy lately, and thought I'd do a public service announcement on what to buy and what to ignore. Because I definitely know what I'm talking about when it comes to music. (Please note: I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I do like to type a lot.)

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Far, Regina Spektor - I cannot give an unbiased review of this album. It includes the songs "One More Time With Feeling" (my old favorite Regina song) and "Dance Anthem of the 80's" (the song that I heard live back in '06 which started my terrifying fan obsession), so I have no objectivity.

That said, even attempting to pretend impartiality, I think it's a very, very good album. It opens brilliantly with the catchy songs "The Calculation" and "Eet" (which I think are the two standout songs on the record). It get you hooked before you know it and the album slides on with a nice pace, alternating the slower, deeper songs with the more upbeat ones, making a nice layering effect to the thematic idea of the album. The only thing I find out of place is "The Wallet," which is a great song and one of my favorite things she sings live, but it feels jarringly trifling at the end of such a strong album.

As with Begin to Hope, I think the same unfair criticism will be leveled at Far - it's more commercially viable (read: mainstream), more produced, resulting in less original flavor Regina. I agree with the viability and the production, but if anything, this album has more personality Begin to Hope and a couple of the songs rival what we saw on Soviet Kitch. Undoubtedly there are more mainstream things here: "Laughing With" is generic enough for radio play, I sincerely believe "Eet" will end up as the "Better" of this album, and "The Calculation" and "Dance Anthem" both scream commercial to me.

But right at the same time you've got "Folding Chair," which is the quintessential Regina quirk song (there are dolphin noises involved), and "Blue Lips", which is insanely lyrically dense. Basically, I can never figure out what people are on about, but I assume it's cool hate on the popular and say you knew them when, and it was so much better, and lalala. Whatever, it's good stuff.

(Note: As much as I prefer buying music from Amazon over iTunes, get it off iTunes if possible, since the bonus tracks are amazing. While it's short, "Riot Gear" is my favorite song on the whole album.)

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Lines, Vines, and Trying Times, The Jonas Brothers - I don't even know what to say to this album. It's so varied - the theme is obviously the Trying Times part of the title - but musically it's all over the map; you've got country, rock, pop, even a little rap. Despite many of the songs not being my cup of musical tea ("What Did I Do To Your Heart" sounds like a 90's Shania Twain reject, and "Don't Charge Me For The Crime" is gangsta-rap-ultra-lite) I think it's a good album, but it's nothing that you need to go out of your way to hear.

I was shocked how much I liked their last album - it was slickly produced and unbelievably catchy without being too Disney Teen Bop, or only a little bit so (plus some of the songs were just plain good). This album continues that theme in some ways for the better - this is a more mature sounding and better produced album in almost every regard, and it actually has some real-world playable music on it (as long as you never reveal that to anyone that it is the Jonas Brothers who are singing).

Some of it is a little juvenile, though: after listening to "Fly With Me", I sincerely wonder if they've forgotten that Peter Pan sort of doesn't have a happy ending (which seemingly negates the message of the song). And while I enjoy a good Taylor Swift smackdown as much as the next person, I really could have done without the eternally lame "Much Better" ("I'm done with superstars/and all the tears on her guitar, I'm not bitter") Uh, yeah, good luck with that.

On the whole, it's around 6.5 out of 10. Maybe more, depending on how long this "Paranoid" single remains lodged in my brain (seriously, it's really good).

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Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future, The Bird and The Bee - Such a nice album. I've become sort of an electro-pop glutton lately (Bitter:Sweet, Animal Collective, Lykke Li, Imogen Heap...) so I like to think that I'm starting to be able to tell the difference between something that's just catchy and something that's genuinely good, as electronica goes. This is a really great mixture of the two - standout catchy tunes like "My Love" and "Polite Dance Party," and then some songs that some measure of real interest hiding in them like "Meteor" and "Love Letter to Japan."

Not world-breaking, but a delight nonetheless.

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Beautiful Lie, Ed Harcourt - Get your music snob on. UK release from 2006 that got a US distribution in 2008 to little recognition. This album and Matt Alber's Hide Nothing are my go-to joys for obscure but amazing male singer/songwriters this year. To steal a line, this album is hauntingly beautiful. Goes a little too far on a couple of tracks, particularly "You Only Call Me When You're Drunk" which starts brilliant but then keeps spiraling upwards to a messy and terrible crash, but mostly it's a stunning achievement and kind of makes my heart hurt at times.

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Transmitter Failure, Jenny Owen Youngs -Another one of those biased reviews. Her last album, Batten the Hatches, is my favorite thing that came out of 2007 and I have an irrational love for the way she writes her songs. There's a cynical but reasoned edge to almost every song on that album that really speaks to me.

The new album is a little more driving and a little happier, but the edge is still definitely in place. Her uptempo stuff is just brilliant, with "Last Person" and "Clean Break" as my standout favorites. I'm less in love with a couple of the fragile songs ("Here is a Heart" is a little too cloying and "Nighty Night," while catchy, is off-putting to me), but that's just because I compare them to things like "Woodcut" or "Voice on Tape" from the last album and see missed potential. Make no mistake, it's a wonderful album, maybe my favorite of the whole year so far.

Oh Hey, I Have a Blog. Perhaps I'd Like To Write in It

My writing skills are pretty rusty these days. You'd think that writing would be like bicycle riding or falling off a horse - something that you never forget how to do and is fun for the whole family. But instead it's more like calculus or shooting a high powered rifle - the skill rapidly deteriorates without constant practice and it's only fun for people with severe personality disorders.

But in any case, let's see if we can't bang out a few stories here to kill time between bouts of job hunting.

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So I've become one of those technology worshippers again. I had been doing ridiculously well for years - my last major purchase was a widescreen LCD monitor ages ago, and even that was on sale. I hadn't done a computer purchase, or any large scale electronics buy since changing apartments almost two years ago. I mean, yes, technically in the interim I bought a ridiculous new car that was financially crippling in a way that electronics only dream of being, but that's different. I need to be able to drive around places. Preferably in high luxury with an unreliable but prestigious brand name.

Wait, where was I? Who knows, but the urge finally overwhelmed me and I broke down and picked up a new TV to replace my 5 year old, 1,000 pound monstrosity that had been my constant CRT companion since 3 months before college graduation. In its stead, I have installed something even more outlandish - one of those widescreen plasma behemoths, in a diagonal screen size that I refuse to even mention, except to say that it's more viewing real estate than one should probably expect in an IMAX theatre.

You'd think that such a financially destructive move would leave me sobbing and gasping for air the second the credit card statement came in, complete with the wailing and gnashing of teeth, ending with an artful but well coordinated fall onto a fainting couch. But instead, several things have conspired to make this one of the best purchases I've ever made and quite possibly the only one that I've never once had a recriminating thought about.

1. I got a spectacular deal: I obsessively tracked online and newspaper deals for months, never pulling the trigger but constantly on high alert. You can ask anyone who was around me for the months of December to March - I would not shut up about pricing points and the benefits of plasma vs. LCD. It was like living around a Best Buy Associate gone mad. And to top it off, every 20 minutes I would do a scan of the deal sites for those quick fire-sale internet site deals . I never seemed to find any good TV ones, but I did manage to make several completely insane purchases at super low costs. A small sample of which includes: 10 pairs of designer sunglasses for $8.99, two cute shorty-short Penguin swimsuits (retail value $123) for $19.98 total, and two free decks of collectible trading cards (because I'm 12).
   
   Then finally I stumbled upon a super deal for a TV 4 inches larger than my target size, for less than $100 above my allowable budget. I snapped that thing up so fast that the keyboard practically smoked. I was pretty impressed with myself at the time (usually a purchase that large would require hours of agonizing and rationalization) for making the decision so quickly, but now I just worry that my impulse control is going downhill.
   
   
2. No sales tax on the internet, and they shipped, delivered, and helped me get thing into my living room FOR FREE. Which were the parts I was most worried about to be sure. Because my new car has only one disadvantage to the Truck of Malfunction, and that would be that it can't carry large-scale electronics. Plus I am a 150lb weakling in the worst way, and there are several stairs involved in reaching my apartment. Like, more than 8 of them. So seriously, free delivery and installation was just like Christmas, except the fat man involved was wearing a weight belt and driving a moving van, instead of a red suit and a sleigh. I did end up giving him a cookie, though.
   
   
3. I was able to sell the old giant TV to offset some of the cost: Roommate Frank got his network going and he managed to arrange the liquidation of my old monolith, which I firmly had expected to be a sunk cost. So really, it was like I got 20% off the sales price right there. Roommate Frank is awesome. (Also it was good to see my old TV friend go to a nice home. With room for him to run around and other TVs to play with, I assume.)
   
   
4. HD TV is the best thing in the world: No really. I can't really explain it, but everything is better in HD. I am less offended by bad sitcoms when viewed in widescreen and sharp definition. I am less incensed at terrible Mavs games when I can see the sweat on Dirk's face so clearly. Watching How It's Made on the new TV comes so close to fulfilling my dream of working in an assembly factory that I can basically pretend I'm right there in the warehouse.
   

And I'll stop there, but you get the drift. Not for a single second have I regretted my wild bout of spending, a feeling which is both joyous and terrifying at once: This is totally how shopping addictions get started, isn't it? First the deal hunting, then the buying of useless but cheap things (what do I need 10 pairs of sunglasses for?), then the large purchase that brings nothing but joy. It's a slippery euphoric slope.

We'll see how it goes, but I think I have it under control.

In unrelated news, has anyone got a line on a good Blu-ray player?