T-minus

Two days until:
-Classes begin and I can finally get started on my last year and subsequently finish it. I had senioritis in high school. This is more like a Massive Patience Deficiency.
-I hear back from Stan at the Campus Sub Shop regarding a job. The Eugene job market is more depressing than the Greek Recruitment barbecue that invaded the quad as I was reading. (TURN DOWN THE FITTY CENT. I'M LISTENING TO MIRAH AND I REFUSE TO CRANK HER.)
-I find out just how much more change I'll need to drop on books. Final year students aren't supposed to have huge booklists. That's the law.

Five days until:
-I hit up Vermont.

Round about ninety days until:
-My paternal clan converges on Arizona (and Mexico?) for holiday frolicking.

Two hundred and sixty-six days until:
-Commencement and the beginning of life as a college graduate.

Northwest Tour 2006!

Last night: McMenamin's brewskis with Lolly, complete with serendipitous meeting of other ex-UO English kids (all you have to do in this town is read a thick book to start up a chat -- why don't I live in Portland NOW?) Oh, and a kick-ass concert. I hadn't seen or heard much about the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players; all I knew was that Michelle Trachtenberg wasn't involved and I was generally ambivalent as a result. Talk about showmanship! Mister Trachtenberg was Hilarious, with Dan Bern on speed sort of lyrics. Nice nice nice.
Next up: VIVA VOCE. They don't fuck around. I think they were my favorite act of the night, between Kevin's simultaneous harmonica playing and drumming and Anita's gorgeous voice and quietly engaging stage presence. They kicked it off with some older stuff, too, which always wins me over. I very nearly shed a tear at "The Lucky Ones."
Set up for the third group was quick, since it was just one man. Stephen Malkmus. If any one person can hold 400-500 people at the Crystal Ballroom in check, it's that man. He struggled with it at first, but a few Pavement cuts and a few SM and the Js cuts later, everyone was sedated and singing.
The kicker: The Silver Jews. I decidedly don't like David Berman's stage persona, like he could take or leave the show and the audience and be totally happy with studio banding it up. But it's the Silver Jews. He was wearing a two-piece suit! And the bassist, whose name escapes me, was completely adorable. It seemed like she was trying to actually have some friendly banter with the audience instead of scampering on and off stage like the Berman.

Anyway, I'm in Portland until Tuesday, when Nelly and I make like trees and get outta here to Seatlle. Spokane after, I'm thinking the 14th. AND BEYOND! If anyone out there is in Seattle 12th-14th, call or email me. We should totally hang out.

Finally, the new blog won't replace this one, but it will likely take up more of my bloggin' energy for a while. And since I unwittingly joined blogger beta testing, I can't comment on blogger old skool blogs for now. Still reading, just...thwarted and anonymous.

away!

Comments are fixed. Or at least they should be.

Heading out to Portland and Washingtonian points beyond tomorrow. Looking forward to a sweet, sweet concert and Lolly among the many other treats that PDX affords. To say nothing of long-lost Seattle friends and my first-ever jive through Spokane. And it will be a jive.

In other news, I'm probably phasing out this whine factory in favor of something new. Considering making it a gang blog, so let me know if you'd be interested in the occasional pinch-hit.

Radio show is on an unexpected but not unwarranted hiatus. Final set list to be posted retroactively, if I can work that.

Our Lady of the Airwaves/08.29 set list

Your public service announcement for the day: If you're going to buy some new music in the next however long, do yourself a favor and get the new M. Ward (if you want acoustic lovely), Ratatat (for sheer sweetness), or Peaches, who needs no plug. The new Hot Chip is pretty sweet too. That's all, kids.

ratatat - loud pipes
new pornos - graceland
viva voce - the devil himself

the velvet teen - false profits
tender forever - then if i'm weird I want to share
the flaming lips - the yeah yeah yeah song

silver jews - sometimes a pony gets depressed
mommy and daddy - street cleaner demeanor
every day - rogue wave

rjd2 - good times roll pt. 2
edith piaf - padam padam
hello stranger - take it to the maxx

the mountain goats - cobra tattoo
stephen malkmus and the jicks - it kills
the thermals - returning to the fold

peaches - downtown
AC Newman - the town halo
sufjan stevens - chicago (adut contemporary easy listening version)

prefuse 73 w/four tet's kieran hebden - creating cyclical headaches
the futureheads - fallout
bonnie "prince" billy - cursed sleep

the hylozoists - la fin du monde
mew - special
jenny wilson - summertime, the roughest time

gravity and henry - march 4th
hot chip - over and over
dj copy - love is my nation (remix of the kingdom)

sonic youth - do you believe in rapture?
m. ward - post war
the black keys - your touch

Bad news round-up

Rest in peace, Susan Butcher (1954-2006). A dog musher par excellence, she dominated the sport during my formative years and secured her place in my personal hall of heroes from the get-go. She moved to Alaska from Boston when she was younger than I am now, looking for space and found national notoriety. Plus, the woman climbed McKinley. I've never met her, but Susan Butcher stands as the qunitessence of everything I love and miss about Alaska. She, like the place itself, had a tenacity that won't leave me.

My bike was stolen the other night, on a meaner, more petty note. Not terribly surprising, given Eugene's ginormous bike theft rate, but inconvenient and the capstone on an already pretty crummy day. That makes two bikes, two thefts. Something tells me that this one, my child and teenhood bike I might add, will not come back (incomplete or otherwise); it's a decent to middling mountain bike with easy-off seat and wheels, recently and lovingly tuned up by a pro and myself respectively. Just when I'm starting to get into bike care and maintenance, too.

Missing my girl in Vermont constantly.

AND I have a yeast infection. I know, I know. Cry y'all a river.

In food news, I made banana bread, but it turned out more like a coffee cake. Meh.

Why didn't anyone TELL me about this?

I must own this book. And I'll read it, too. See if I don't.