it’s thursday! that means i’m 7 and a half hours (and counting) away from a weekend. and if anyone asks me to work tomorrow, i have plans, okay?

for not going anywhere last night, or even really doing anything, my night seemed awfully eventful. not awful in a bad way though. first of all, in a “my new jimmy eat world cd came today” way. yeah, it was waiting in the mailbox like i knew it would be. rock and roll. so i excitedly popped it in an listened closely… and here begins my review. at first listen my impression was more or less “this isn’t nearly as good as clarity” (don’t worry it gets better). there didn’t seem to be any songs as beautiful as some of the great track on clarity like for me this is heaven or the last track, goodbye sky harbor, which i think is 13 minutes worth of a masterpiece. but even the first time through i had to say the title track is pretty rocking and some of the other songs had catchy melodies. this is obviously a more poppy cd then clarity was, and i for one try not to fault a band for going in new directions as long as they do a good job and don’t lose all of what made them good. so initially i was disappointed somewhat. but i came back after a bit and put it in again, this time listening less closely and not scrutinizing. i think i was writing emails or something at the same time. and for some reason that time i really liked it. a lot. this is what i decided at that point: clarity was outstanding. really amazing. so even though this cd doesn’t reach the same pinnacle, being a couple clicks down from that is still damn good. and this cd is pretty damn good, i say. a few of the tracks stand out as really strong and catchy, and maybe there are a few i could do without (get it faster just doesn’t do it for me), but that’s totally forgiveable from a band that’s as talented and passionate as this one. i’m still a fan and this cd is definitely going to get heavy rotation from me for the next few months. can’t wait to see them play here in a few weeks (they’re taking a rest from supporting blink 182 to play two show in pomona, ca…lucky me!) plus, as a final note, i noticed that ariel rechtshaid, lead singer from one of my favorite bands the hippos, did some guest vocals on “hear you me”, which is a really pretty song and gets more so the more times i listen. good for him!

so that’s that. oh, i also watched my roommate’s dvd of hackers with him, which was fun because angelina jolie wears the coolest clothes and has great hair and record-breaking amounts of makeup in that movie, and it’s about computers, but from the mid-nineties, so all her friends of jealous of her new laptop with a “28.8 kilobits per second modem!” lucky her. i also did some reading and had dominic burn me a copy of castor’s self titled first cd which is out of print but which you can download from emusic. so it’s not stealing, because castor still gets royalties. which they heartily deserve.

hey look at that, it’s still thursday and at posting only 6.7 hours left until the weekend. score. if i didn’t feel like i’d written plenty already, i’d write about what’s on tap for this weekend (trip?), but i should save something for later otherwise i’ll have a very dull afternoon.