July 2001 Archives
I got drunk on
Grolsch and painted my
site green. Yes, it's THAT good. What do you think?
I have recently plunged back into photography. Medium-format photography
has also captured my attention. I've been trolling
ebay and other sites for cheap medium format cameras.
My friend Dory sent me
this link. She designed and built that site. I am totally
in love with the square film format. Yum.
My birthday was Saturday the 29th. Happy birthday to me! I'm an old fart now.
I'm figuring out what I should buy myself for a present. I have been drooling
over medium format cameras and a Line6 POD (guitar amp-synth thing).
Natasha has been stimulating a lot of sexual/creative energies in me lately.
It's so cool having someone to share common interests with. Also on that
front, I'm settling into being non-single. I was happy before, and I'm
happy now. It's just different, and I like it.
Pondering what makes a website rock/suck, we unearthed an extremely obvious
and oft-overlooked bit of wisdom. Sites where the writer describes their
life as if seen through a security camera (ex: got up. took a shit.
went to a rock show. smoked pot. went to sleep.) are hella boring, require
virtually no talent, and are very common, while sites that create original
content, stimulate new thought, and express an individual's opinions are
engaging, compelling, addictive, worthy of the reader's time, and are
significantly more rare on the Internet. So I'm gonna make an honest effort
to keep this one's signal/noise ratio up.
Oh yeah, and that everybody loves bunny rabbits.
Also, there is a world of difference between sites where the designer has
graphic skills and sites
where the designer just has
brain damage.
I'm really sick of looking at rectangles. All these blogger kid's sites
look the same to me. Mad, mad rectanngles.
In musical news, I discovered Sleater Kinney. They rock. Download
"All hands on the bad one". It's delish. They did a cover of "Rock Lobster"
too. Gotta love that.
I bought a pair of
Teva RS Universal while in New York. I'm
contemplating having them surgically attached to my feet. They're SO comfy.
If only I still had long hair, I could have the whole Jesus-look going.
Ahh well. Jesus wasn't white anyway.
No, he really wasn't. And if he was, not many would have listened to him, most
likely.
I could really use a job about now. A job and a milkshake. But mostly a job.
Continue Reading…
Posted by Administrator on Jul 31, 2001
Prologue:
Some time ago I was messaged by a woman while downloading massive Superchunk
bootlegs from her. For about a year we chit-chatted on and off. The woman
was Julie. Julie lived in New York City. When I planned my trip home, Julie
offered me her couch if I came down for the Siren Festival. I accepted the
offer.
I woke up, and with a lump in my throat, took to the highway en-route to
New York City. I had never driven in the city before. It was a bit daunting.
Entering the city was a marvel in itself. On the drive in, for twenty minutes,
every fifteen seconds I was compelled to exclaim, "Holy shit, that's BIG!",
upon seeing a building, the city itself, a bridge, a highway, a billboard.
Despite insanely dangerous traffic, I arrived. I met
Julie at a street corner, she directed me to a parking lot, and we walked
to a bar where she was celebrating her going-to-Seattle party.
At the bar I inbibed a tasty beer or two, hammed it up with her friends,
basked in the supreme coolness of my surroundings, and tried my best to
catch my breath. We played with Julie's digital camera and small yellow
ducks. (pictures coming soon hopefully).
After that we headed back to Julie and her husband Paul's apartment with
half the crowd that was at the bar. We sat and talked and ate birthday cake,
(Oh yeah, it was Julie's birthday too!), and watched Spinal Tap on DVD.
I slept on one of those foam-mat type things like in gym class. It was
very comfortable. I laid up and read "Island" and occasionally took breaks
to watch the goings-on outside their window on the streets below.
I discovered that the whole "city that never sleeps" thing isin't true after
all. It just doesn't sleep AT NIGHT. ;-) Like me.
The next morning we went for egg sandwiches at a neighborhood convenience store
and ate them on benches in Central Park. We witnessed an entertaining spat between
a couple of homeless people, narrowly avoided being shit on by a pigeon,
watched and talked about dogs walking by, and sipped on our coffee.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we caught the F-train (subway) to Coney Island
for the rock show. We saw Enon, Peaches, Rainer Maria, Man or Astroman?,
and Superchunk. The last three were VERY good. During the Superchunk set,
Mac wished Julie a happy birthday. That was special. :) I was really surprised
that the crowd wasn't more mobile than it was. Everybody around me basically stood still, or may have bobbed their heads, while I appeared to be going into
an epileptic fit of pogo-ing and rock-show-induced physical excitement.
How can somebody NOT dance to Superchunk? I don't get it. Maybe it was because
it was hella hot. Who knows. And it WAS hella hot too.
My eyes were really bothering me and we were completely wiped out from the five
hours of sweltering heat and music, so we headed back to the apartment.
Julie wrote me out very good directions, I picked up my car at the lot,
and three hours later I was back in bad-old Albany.
Just outside of Albany I called Tim up. It ringed his phone, but he didn't
answer so I left a message. I invited him to Quintesence to dance to some
excellent techno/house music. Jennifer Haley was spinning, after all.
Quintesence was right next door to Valentines, so I thought I'd poke my head
in there first to see what was happening. I heard a band playing. I handed
the guy at the door a five dollar bill, and he handed me back a five dollar
bill. He thought I gave him a ten. Woohoo! Good thing too, because the
band there sucked ass. I would have hated to have spent ca$hola on that.
I went next door to "Q" and met up with Jennifer. We hammed it up about old
times and the future of the Albany scene, and painting. I danced my ass off,
and then THOROUGHLY exhausted headed to Tim's house in Schenectady. We
planned on my sleeping there that night. I took the wrong highway and ended
up near a rifle range near Rotterdam. I had studied marksmanship in
highschool. My instructer was Sgt. Dowgas. When I realized that I was close
to the range I felt compelled to drive down the country road to see it again.
When I awoke the next day my mother told me that Sgt. Dowgas had died a few
weeks ago. That was the first time I was back there in 6 years.
It turns out he just fell asleep somewhere.
I drove all the way home to my parent's house in Schaghticoke.
I fell asleep in the back seat of the Oldsmobile in their driveway.
I woke up in a pool of sweat, moved to a cot in the back yard,
and finished my beauty rest. When I awoke my mother told me that Sgt. Dowgas
had died a few weeks earlier. It's crazy coincidences like that that make
me suspect that there is more to the world than meets the eye.
I am crazy rested now. Yay.
A few days ago I agreed to go steady (and exclusively) with Natasha.
I'm all crazy and insecure and freaked out and I hate it. I don't trust
the world to behave consistently, I don't trust other people not to flake
out, and I don't trust myself. I get posessive and aggressive and angry.
After the painful romantic relationships that I have been in,
I guess that I learned how to be happy without being vulnerable. And now I'm
vulnerable again. The water-tight doors have been opened, and the stupid ugly
emotions are all a-swirl. I hate it.
On a related note, I am debating which way to go with this site. This site,
for me, has been an exposition of vulnerability. It has been a vehicle
by which to bring my innermost thoughts and emotions up to the surface, and
even more than that, to make them public. This leaves little to the imagnation,
which was the point, after all. For somebody to be able to spend some time
here, reading my thoughts, and get a pretty good idea about who I am.
Well apparently, people are more excited by mystery and superficial
cockyness. So I am considering removing large chunks of this site
that express my vulnerability. This includes most of my poetry, and
select other writings. So enjoy them while they last, because they
will be gone soon.
Continue Reading…
Posted by Administrator on Jul 21, 2001
Undaunted by the previous night's disappointment, I thought I'd give Albany
another run for the money. This time I picked Jillian's sports bar.
Jillians is a tri-level bar/arcade/pool hall/dance club nestled in the warm
bosom of downtown Albany. I never got a chance to go there when I lived here
so I thought I'd go this time. I had my first "white russian", met some girl Brandie ?Russel? from Hoosic Valley. We went to the same prom apparently. I shot some pool. While shooting pool I saw a guy who looked really familiar - so I approached him. It turns out he was none other than Chris Spiak! We went to
elementary school together, and then Highschool. This town is so small.
I gave him my number and the name of this site, so I better not say too many
bad things about him. ;) He has a degree in chemistry or biology or biochemistry or something. He's got his ducks in a line. I admire people who can
succeed in college. Way to go Chris!
The next day Tim slept over at my old pal Kenny MacDougal's house so I drove
all the way back to Schaghticoke to sleep. I slept in the back seat of the
Oldsmobile to avoid my dog/cat hair allergies. It was amazingly confortable. Lush leather seats. Good times!
During the night I was awoken by a nagging voice somewhere in my head saying,
"hey.. hey Evan.. you're going to suffocate", so I opened the car door.
The fresh air felt so nice. The next morning I awoke to the sun shining bright
and warm on my face and Trixie, the best cat in the world, pawing at my head.
She managed to squeeze her way into the car through the narrow space that
I had opened the car door. I gave her MUCH LOVE and rolled out of "bed".
It was definitely one of my more pleasant awakenings. :) Go see the "Beware"
pic for a not-so-pleasant awakening. hehe.
I spent most of the day at home with the 'rents. My mother is caring for a
baby bird that she rescued from the clutches of Trixie probably. I dug up
some worms in the back yard for the thing. I then bathed, changed, and
headed out to Borders to pick up some reading material. I have read
a TON this vacation, but mostly newspapers. I bought Aldous Huxley's "Island".
I hear it's his best book. We shall see. I haven't even finished reading
"Brave New World" yet.
I called Tim up and invited him out drinking at the Lark Tavern with me.
I really haven't spent much time with Tim since being home.. he has to work
so much and all. Hopefully Nate's girlfriend will hook him up with a $13/hr
internship position with the state. He's got crazy fresh graphics skills,
and he's getting paid less than entry-level positions pay. That makes me
mad. Well anyway, recently Tim has started drinking. One step further down
the path of hedonism. Aww yeah. We drank Spaten Dark, Killian's Red,
St Pauli's Girl, and Michelob Honey Lager. Tim likes to stick with what he
knows. I like to try things that I've never tried before. We both like
cute girls and light beer. ...and sometimes, that's enough.
We went 1-1 shooting pool. I scratched like a flea-bitten dog. Then we
stumbled down Lark Street in a drunken haze to the Chinese restaurant there.
Tim was so good to buy me dinner, as I bought his beer. We reminisced
over fried rice and General Tso chicken. MMmmm. On the way out a woman
walked in. She looked very familiar. I asked if her name was Jennifer.
"yes..?"
"Jennifer Haley?"
"yes"
"ahh, you used to spin at the Launchpad! You're the best DJ I've ever seen"
"thanks :)"
So basically, I gushed all over her and then she invited me to a show
Saturday night at "Quintesence", which is near Valentines, she said.
I finally get to hear some good house music! Woowoo! Here is the background
information for those of you reading who aren't acquainted with the 1998
Troy NY techno scene. The Launchpad was a legendary club located in the
old "Stanleys" building on 3rd Street in downtown Troy. It was only
in existence for a short while, but had an incredibly huge effect over
my life. The night that I met Wendi we went dancing there. Between the dimly
lit atmosphere, the couches, and the sweaty dancing bodies, I mustered the
courage to make the moves on her. Three years later I followed her to Austin.
Anyway, back to Jennifer. I don't know if it was her raw spinning talent,
or her taste in records, but this girl made music like nobody's business!
I could dance all night to it without getting bored. Now getting TIRED,
that's another story. Austin doesn't have the likes of her. Austin loves
Trance. Bah. Trance can eat my ass. Austin needs a Jennifer Haley.
In a nutshell, Jennifer Haley is my techno superhero. Bumping into her at
a Chinese restaurant two years after last seeing her REALLY MADE MY DAY.
Woowoo! I'm sure you're all really as excited as I am about this whole
Miss Haley thing, so I'll end with this. Saturday is July 21. I am going
to see Superchunk at the Siren Festival on Coney Island during the day,
then driving back up to Albany to catch Jennifer spinning at night. Oh,
and I plan on meeting the 'chunk too!. So I'm set to personally meet my
two favorite musical artists from their respective genres on the SAME DAY.
I think that I may pee my pants!
;-)
Continue Reading…
Posted by Administrator on Jul 17, 2001
I just flew in from Austin, and boy are my arms tired!
I got to the airport right on time,
checked exactly zero bags, and boarded the plane. I sat next to the nicest Indian lady
with the cutest little Indian boy. Indian like India, not the pow-wow kind.
His name was pronounced "Dan-Yan". More like "Don Juan" than "Daniel". He was nine
months old. We made faces at each other. It was too cute.
There was about an hour layover in Atlanta so I picked up a New York Times to read on the
plane. I thought that it might pacify my growing anticipation of being in NY again.
It didn't. What it did do was stir up a whole lot of political consciousness that I didn't
know that I had. I read articles on campaign-finance-reform, a proposed missile-defense
base in Alaska, bison-grazing vs wheat-growing in the nation's grasslands, and others.
It got me real stirred up. I started to realize just how much goes on that I have
absolutely no idea about. It was very upsetting... so I decided that I will start writing
political and world news factoids and editorials on this site. I think that people should
be much more aware of what is going on, and secondly, I think that they should care.
So stay tuned for that... here is a quickie: Who is the leader of the Russian Federation? (the answer is at the bottom of the page. If you didn't know it - I didn't before yesterday - then you should be upset. Every educated american should know that.)
I met Tim at the Albany airport. I gave him a big hug, then walked out the sliding glass doors
into fresh Albany air. Mmmmmm. I was emaciated from the long-ass plane ride, so we swung over
to an old favorite hangout: Western Avenue Dennys. We ate and talked and talked and ate and ran
into Mike from LaSalle (my highschool), and some friends of Tim's. Albany really doesn't change.
The same sheep run with the same herds, and the same wolves run with the same packs. And they all
eat at Dennys.
We crashed at Tim's place and the next day he dropped me off at home (in Schaghticoke).
My mom gushed all over me, and my dad showed his love in his own way, and I met all the animals,
and I started sneezing. After talking to them and catching up on life news my head turned into
a giant ball of mucus from all the dog and cat hair around. So boogied on out. The car
wasn't much better. The hair was EVERYWHERE, and sneeze I did.
I made the rounds, driving here and there, revisiting sacred places, and not-so-sacred places..
just dusting off the memories. I ate at the Famous Lunch in downtown Troy... my grandparents
used to bring me there when I was young. The last time I was in NY I brought Soy there.
We ate hot dogs and rice pudding. It was cold and snowy. We sat and talked. The taste and
texture of the food brought the memories back strong and lucid. I missed her. We should
really keep in touch better.
After that dream-sequence ended I meandered back to Dennys for a cup of coffee. I sat and sipped
and read Wired. Justin, Doug, and a friend of theirs were sitting in the corner. They're
buddies of mine that I met through Rich. They all do software development. We shot the shit,
caught up, swapped numbers, etc. It was good. I love it when I run into people that I know.
That is what I missed about Austin for so long. That is starting to change, thank goodness.
I went back to Tim's, did his dishes, watched him flirt with some internet girlie, then
crashed on his futon. The next day I finally met Rachel. We ate at the Brandywine diner,
which is just down the block from Tim's pad. She then proceeded to show me around the finer parts
of Schenectady (OK, finer PART). I picked up a "Metroland" newspaper, which is an Albany-version of the Chronicle.
It's about one-third the size, and it's full of full-page ads.
The car began making my eyes puff up almost as badly as my parent's house did,
so I headed home to clean the car.
When I got home there was a huge truck in the driveway. As I pulled in a little Indian girl
scampered into the house. An old friend of the family was inside, Billy Arsenalt. His son was
there too. The little girl was Billy's other son's step-child. She was as sharp as a tack.
She was nine years old. She asked me to tie her jump-rope into a cowboy lasso. In my best
Texas accent, "I was happy to oblige...". I vacuumed the car out and windexed the windows and
cleaned the leather seats. It no longer reeks of dog-ass.
Good. I'm gonna be practically living in it for the next two weeks.
I was dressed kindof nicely, so I thought I'd go dancing. I went to this one club that I saw
advertised in the Metroland, "Sneaky Pete's". It was supposed to be the hottest club around.
It turned out to be pitiful. Austin just eats it's lunch. An old, fat, balding man spun
far-too-repetitious trance beats. The guys looked like they popped out of a cookie-cutter.
The girls were homely or aloof. The scene was SO SO dead. I danced a bit, worked up a sweat,
thought alcohol might help the situation, discovered that it still sucked buzzed, and left.
A 21yo birthday-girl puked on her shoes in front of the place. Mmmm good times.
Then I stayed up all night writing this, because I love you all far much more than I love my health.
I hope you can appreciate that.
Bitch.
;-)
Answer: President Vladimir Putin
Continue Reading…
Posted by Administrator on Jul 12, 2001
After much effort, the page has arrived at it's current incarnation.
I will diddle it a little more in the coming weeks, but for now, this is it!
So I hope you like it.
In related news, I have decided on a
tattoo.
What do you think?
It astounds me that anybody in Texas can manage to get a license.
I spent mucho time dicking around today making phone calls and driving all
over hell's green acre to only get one small step closer to getting
a TX license. Sigh.
I leave for NY tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to see my family.
It has been far far too long. I get on a plane tomorrow. And a bunch of hours
later I'm in NY. Mahvelous.
You know it's bad when ya need to take vacations from your vacations. ;)
Back to packin'! woohoo.
Continue Reading…
Posted by Administrator on Jul 09, 2001
