Author: briancollapsing

sure, it’s obscene and disturbing; but sometimes it’s strangely poetic and cool:

“two agents have identified themselves each to each by choice of sex practices foiling alien microphones, fuck atomic secrets back and forth in code so complex only two physicists in the world pretend to understand it and each categorically denies the other.”

so i’m almost done with naked lunch, and finding it probably the best of the beat poet stuff i’ve read (which isn’t much, so this isn’t a big deal), and definitely quite a trip to read, but not especially rewarding altogether. one of those “glad i read, but wouldn’t read again” types. i hope i finish it tonight, i need to move on.

see, i’m having one of my periodic reading relapses, where after reading like a delighted madman for a month or more and tearing through a bunch of books, i suddenly fall into this slump (which i’m pretty sure is also related to the budding springtime) where all i want to do is sit and stare and listen to music, or play video games. basically not read much, is what i’m saying. so after 6 days of heavy tony hawk 3 usage i think i’m going to hit the lit pretty hard again, if i can (points to me for that rhymed phrase (easily amused)). gotta keep up the pace you know, so i can tackle more formidable foes in the near future.

in other news: a nice guy named arun came into the radio studio during my show last night and said, “are you brian longtin?” to which i admitted i was, and then he told me, “your show is amazing!” or something similarly flattering. he does a sunday afternoon show apparently, and told me he saw my name on some cd’s i had reviewed or something. so, he looked me up and started listening a couple weeks ago, and he told me i did a really good show. that was the first time i’ve ever had someone personally tell me i do a good job in college radio (friends who i told to listen don’t count toward that, although i appreciate them just as much).

so apparently, i rock.

yes, you’re damn right there’s more.

i saw a squirrel on the way back from class today, which for me is a big deal, living in the old concrete jungle. i decided, after seeing this squirrel, that although living in a city is wonderful and exciting and offers so much (not necessarily this city, but in general . . .), i don’t know if i can live in city limits for the rest of my life. it definitely works for me now, don’t get me wrong. but, say what you will about the suburbs, i like the idea of seeing more green than grey. of having squirrels and rabbits frolicking in my backyard like when i was a kid. it just seems more wholesome.

so anyway, now you know i love squirrels, lets get back to bears. what? bears? actually, yes. minus the bear, that is. they opened for piebald (who i’m pretty sure will be next week’s s.o.t.w., so stay tuned) at saturday’s show, and even though i’d never heard of them, i liked them a lot. we were a little afraid because they were playing n.e.r.d. right before their set over the p.a., and we feared we’d get some weird indie-hip-hop fusion wannabes, but instead we got a really musically interesting and intelligent sound. i already told you i bought a shirt with a cute little bear, but i didn’t have enough money for both that and their debut e.p., so i will have to pick that up later. i’ve heard most of it though and it’s really good, despite bizarre track titles — especially the first song, hey, wanna throw up? get me naked.

so there you have a new song of the week, and no regret at all that i sort of slacked and left blue sky goodbye up for nearly two weeks. they deserve the publicity (yes, i do laugh after i refer to this page as ‘publicity’).

i sent in an application to this internship program with the advertising club of los angeles sometime in early march. if you get picked, they place you with an agency or with a client company and you get a full-time paid summer internship. naturally, i’ve been checking my answering machine every time i get back to my room, because this is just what i wanted to do this summer. no little red blinking light for almost a month.

but last night i got an email from them, and i have an interview on saturday (?), at 9:40am (?!?). the time may be weird, but this is excellent. how nice would it be to have a decent-paying job in a selective program (oooh, just feel the resume beefing up), doing pretty much exactly what i see myself doing after graduation?

the answer is, “wonderful, brian. good for you.”

i thought it odd they contacted me via email though. is that standard now? i don’t do a lot of interviews, i’m not really sure. i always thought that first contact was generally made by phone in good professional etiquette — but this is the age of the internet. hell, why do i care at all, i have some proof that my resume doesn’t suck and that judging from it, it’s possible to garner someone’s interest. they could contact me via singing telegram and i should be happy that i’m getting a response at all.

wonderful, brian. good for you.

(come back later for new (and 6 days late) song of the week)

three words to describe the coalesce show last night: sweet merciful crap. simpsons fans will know appropriate inflection.

the only drawback, which at least made for a bit of a spectacle, was the crazy anaheim hardcore kids doing this weird dance that involved spinning and flailing their fists out at arms length in the middle of a big circle, with the finale of doing some sort of roundhouse kick into the crowd that formed the edge of this circle. i was unlucky enough, in trying to get close to the stage, to end up forming part of the front edge of this circle. lucky enough, however, to not get kicked in the head during this little ritual that sure seemed to be directed at getting your foot as high in the air as possible and hurting someone. oddly, because i have been taking this anthropology class and learning about apes, this whole thing reminded me a whole lot of video clips i’ve seen of chimpanzees ‘displaying’, i.e. putting on an intimidation display as a means to establish dominance and status in social groups. maybe i should have videotaped it and gave it to my teacher for extra credit.

i have to say it was a really stupid thing to see people doing, though. do kids in other cities do this at coalesce shows, or are orange county kids just retarded? (mental note: i hope that question brings a lot of search engine results up for this page for “orange county retarded kids” . . . right, i am a loser).

but the show — oh man. it was pretty choice to see “what happens on the road . . .” being played right in front of me. i just hope they don’t break up again too soon.

i learned some things tonight. i learned that this band i’d never heard of called “minus the bear” plays pretty good songs. or at least they do in person — i still have to check into their recorded material to see if it holds up. i did buy a shirt with a cute little bear on it though for only ten bucks, because i thought the cute little bear would get me women. i’ll have to test that out soon.

i also learned that piebald is a lot of fun to see play rock music. i would say if you like rock music and they come to your town, you should probably spend the 11 dollars i spent to see them play. they seem really nice and were very grateful for a crowd that was so happy to hear them play. they said some sappy stuff, like “i just had one of those moments where i realized there’s no place i’d rather be,” from the singer, but you know he was smiling and having a good time and really meant it, so it was okay. i liked them.

oh, and afterwards at in-n-out, i learned that april is child abuse prevention month. you know, i’m pretty sure they’ll give a month to anyone these days. black history month, that makes sense to me. we should really set aside time to pay special attention to a culture we’ve pushed aside in the past. i don’t really actively participate, but i agree with instating it. i don’t know about setting aside a whole month to prevent child abuse though. is it that rampant a problem? are other similar problems getting their own month too? i mean, i think there should be a drunk driving prevention month because that’s totally wrong too. maybe that’s next month, i really wouldn’t know. i forgot to buy whatever calendar would have told me that this month was child prevention month, much less what the other months might be.

but seriously folks, don’t beat your children, during this month particularly. don’t beat anyone else’s children either, actually. and let them win at checkers because they will feel good about themselves.

there, now i’ve done my part for the cause. happy april.

if at some point in the future i decide to sift through past weeks’ weblog entries for nostalgia’s sake, or maybe to get a better sense of the outstanding progress i’ve made in my writing skills (such as the use of self-inflating hyperbole), i will probably end up reading this week’s sparse entries and thinking, “god, that must have been a pretty boring week”.

and i don’t know if that’s necessarily true — just because nothing remarkable happens, do i fall immediately into the boring bin? i don’t think so. i think you can just have a plain old week spent playing video games and going to class and doing homework and be perfectly alright with yourself. excitement all the time wouldn’t be that exciting anyway, after a while.

but some excitement is certainly a plus. such as two concerts this weekend (piebald and coalesce, tomorrow and sunday. fuckin’ rock, man), the nearing of the end of the semester, the nearing of our sealing a deal on a house for 9 next year (yes, 9 college seniors in one house, and it will surely be the best year of my young life), and the list goes on, even. for example, my favorite girl in the world is coming back from a semester abroad in less than three weeks now, and that will surely be something of pivotal importance in the next year or more as well — at least, it will be if things go as i’m hoping . . .

and if not, well, she’ll still be back, and she’s still great fun. plus she has a car, so she can drive me to amoeba.

oh, another thing (i’m making up for not posting all week here, be patient): i have just seen the third best video of all time, as far as i’m concerned. if you want to know what the first two are, check the archives from last summer (search for words like “hell” and “coffee”), but if you want to see the third, simply utilize your favorite music-videotron and select “frontier psychiatrist” by the avalanches. i’m not saying it’s a new video, just that i saw it for the first time tonight. you see my roommate, who spent the fall in australia, came back bearing the avalanches; and that song kicked my ass already, but seeing the video makes it even more fun. i mean, there’s a monkey playing the drums. and that’s not the half of it.

speaking of monkeys (this is the last thing, i swear), i watched a video in anthropology today with a monkey that drove a golf cart. i swear, he got up, figured out that pressing the pedal made it go, and drove off into the forest. he was a test subject, so he was in a forest near a lab, and had ridden on the golf cart before but never driven it. but i’m telling you right now, you haven’t laughed until you see a monkey drive a golf cart. it’s just that simple.

and so i bid you goodnight.

you know, i’ve never done a phone interview before; but i get to a week from monday. first sign of hope for the summer.

of course, it’s still unpaid — drat.

the thing is, if i got one good job for 2 or 3 days a week that didn’t pay, i’d feel a lot better about working some random job the other 4 days a week to pay for rent and food. if i only got the random one for the summer though, my resume wouldn’t be much advanced by a line that goes something like, “summer 2002 – managed to fend off hunger and homelessness by working as a cashier at local bookstore.” i’m going for something a little more professional than that.

still no summer job, still no house for the fall. this is getting old real fast, let me assure you.

and two midterms this week, presentations and big projects coming due in the next few…

that’s why i don’t have much to say so far. but i do get to go see piebald on saturday, and then coalesce on sunday. sweet, sweet coalesce. i’m glad i have something to look forward to the near future (and something else a million times better in the not-so-distant future, but we’ll talk about that later).

friends visiting from out of state and being as great as you remember them being, as well as bringing new friends just as great; now that’s a good time (i.e., friday night). finally finishing final fantasy X after trying for a week to defeat the big bad final villain is not quite as fulfilling (i.e., saturday night). you might even say it’s an awfully dorky way to spend a saturday night. hopefully taking the bus to amoeba to buy music and grabbing in-n-out (yes, the unstoppable combo once again) puts me back in the not-lame column though. although i have to say in the retelling none of those things come off as very interesting.

guess i can’t be a master storyteller every day of my life — it’d be too exhausting.

this might be a fun mental picture though: sitting at the bus stop outside of amoeba, a homeless white guy with a piece of carpet padding wrapped around himself for warmth (i assume) shambles toward us. he took a swig from a bottle of liquor before approaching, then tucked it away and asked for change from us and the family of three also waiting at the bus stop after buying some music of their own. josh gave him seven cents, the man gave him maybe 35 cents or something. the bum then said, “yeah, i’ve lived in LA for 25 years. grew up in south central, man…” then he sort of teetered, stood just off the curb looking around at us and the cars passing, then he started rapping. that’s right, rapping. wish i could place exactly what it was, but i cannot. could have been a freestyle, who will ever know. definitely included a lot of swearing though. then he took another swallow of liquor, and halfway through crossing the street called into one of the cars waiting at the stoplight, “hey there loveable thing . . .” on his way to jack-in-the-box.

i like that: “loveable thing”. see, you do learn your most valuable lessons outside the classroom.

good song of the week this week. mm hmm.

hey mjarc, you’re not the only one who can’t read the wire.

we have a meeting in a couple hours with another property manager. it’s exciting to think we may actually have a place to live for next year. in the “contracts are about to be signed and we can stop worrying” sense. but we’re not there yet so we will play it cool and not start buying curtains.

also: viewing of wet hot american summer at my apartment tonight with old friends and new. ice cream sundaes and root beer floats provided. mmm, creamy.