new links to left. thank you and hello to collapsing friends #17 (who i should have linked long ago but i am stupid) and #18 (who i may share a roof with next year if i’m lucky (or curs-ed, you decide)).
Author: briancollapsing
today the weather in los angeles was just absolutely perfect. you know those days where when you step outside after class, work, whatever, you just breath in deep and can actually feel how nice the day is on the surface of your skin somehow? today was just like that. plus i got my pictures developed (highlights of which i’ll share when i can make a date with my roommate’s scanner — including the ice of boston evidence which isn’t what i hoped but will still suffice). tomorrow i’m going to try to get my pocket watch fixed because i dropped it on the floor of kate’s living room over break and now it’s retarded (literally, as in it’s running but not at the correct speed). but you don’t want to hear about these things, i bet you’ve been wondering ever since yesterday how the rest of my spring break was. perhaps now i will tell you.
wednesday i had the unfortunate position of having to wake up kate at 6am to send me off on my way to boston, which was utterly wrong but at the same time necessary. the plane i ended up taking to pittsburgh only had 11 rows or something — it was tiny and i’d never been on a plane small enough where you have to walk outdoors and up a little staircase to get on before. it’s really not a big deal though, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t still.
when i landed in boston my darling friend emily met me at the baggage claim in all her cuteness and i gave her a big hug because she’s great. we went to her dorm room where i would spend the next two nights sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag (which i stowed in my suitcase along with a week’s worth of clothes, because i am possibly the best packer in the world) using my sweatshirt as a pillow. not the example of comfort, but worth it for the spring break fun we had over the next couple days visiting things like quincy market, the prudential building (highest in boston, i believe, although i didn’t go to the top) near which we saw amelie again and i bought a refrigerator magnet to commemorate the adventure, which has a lobster on it and says “boston: lobster xing” and looks like a roadsign. it’s so funny!
we also went to harvard square where you should NOT go if you’re looking for a diner to have dinner in. they don’t have any. if you’re looking for a whole lot of girls though, you should visit the boston university campus. it’s 70% female and it shows. holy femininity, there were a lot of girls in their student building (where you get lunch. i don’t know what you call it). friday i was handed off to my radical friend matt at MIT after a walk across the bridge over the river. it’s so cool that they live so close together they don’t even have to take the T (which is what they call the subway in boston). that night we went to a cool place called le marche (which is french for the market) for dinner where you walk around and buy your food from places that are set up to look like street shops in gay paris, i guess. then they stamp a card and you pay for it all when you leave. it was so corny and gimmicky that i loved it to death. then we went to the improv asylum and i had a corona which i didn’t like because beer is gross but we also saw an improv show that i really liked because comedy is funny. they did this skit about high school kids and this one guy that didn’t make the varsity football team kept saying to the coach things like “you gotta put me on the V, coach”, and otherwise referring to the varsity team as “the V”, which cracked me up.
saturday night was the dismemberment plan show. sweet merciful crap was that a spectacular show. the plan headlined and played what had to be an 1 hour, 45 minute set. it was insane. as i said before, i got up on stage for ice of boston, and that was fun as hell. i took a picture of myself with travis on the way offstage and he made fun of me. yeah, i’m a dork, what of it. but luckily that meant i got to be up front for the rest of the show. like during one song where he started going nuts and screaming into his mic while playing the keyboard with the base of the mic stand. or when they wrapped up with their usual jam song but this time extended it to at least 15 solid minutes of insanity, which included ben from death cab playing drums along with the regular drummer, and travis carrying the opening guy cex on his back while cex sang random shit into a microphone, after which they wrestled and tackled eachother and went crazy or something. it was a total riot. i was very disappointed i had run out of film before then though — blast. but, they played almost every song i could have wanted them to play (our chanting “gyroscope” before the encore did not get heard, apparently, but i can’t really complain) and we could not stop telling eachother for hours afterward how amazing that show was; luckily i have some photos and a ten dollar t-shirt to remember it by. boy am i glad i went to boston.
so i saw myself off sunday morning after a goodbye to matt and adam (another pal who had come up from brown university in providence for the show) and spent many hours in planes. now i’m back here and i have a radio show to do soon. no more spring break fun for me.
i like snmnmnm. i’m listening to the spring break song of the week right now and feeling sad that i have to start class again in forty minutes. but let’s not talk about school sucking, or the trouble i’m having arranging housing for the fall, or how i spent part of this morning sewing up a hole in my pocket that caused me to lose probably the fifth pen in the past month. let’s talk about some spring break highlights.
did you know i got to go to toronto? that’s in canada. i went to another country for the second time in my life last weekend. that alone was fun. did you read that onion article a couple weeks ago about the guy who went to canada and it really “broadened his horizons” and showed him about diversity in the world and all that? well i’m not that stupid, but it’s still novel that i went to canada. i walked around the city with kate and did other things with her too like ride streetcars. and eat yummy vegetarian sushi. and drink everfresh brand fruit punch, which i found was very good. we got dinner at red lobster and i ordered crab legs, which was really stupid i realized, because you get this plate full of red things and it’s basically like eating the legs of a giant red spider. it’s really not very appetizing. sadly, there were no trips to tim horton’s for donuts, especially because i really like donuts.
yes, there IS more. i know, it was an exciting week.
for example, we went to a pinback show which i really liked. i bought one of their cds which i also liked because it turns out a lot of the stuff they play at concerts is on their cds. lucky me. we saw a beatiful mind which i think should be called “a beautiful girl named jennifer connely”, and have the focus shifted to whatever character it is that she played, because she’s unbelievably gorgeous. and she was in the rocketeer, which i really like. anyway, that was a good movie even with it’s original title. i don’t know if it’s oscar-caliber though in my opinion. i sure think it was way better than that crappy gladiator movie that won last year though. and that russel guy was way better in this movie than that stupid gladiator movie too because he did this cool thing where he showed more than just his one standard emotion (gruff macho guy) for the whole film, making it better than gladiator already. plus it had jennifer connely who is great looking.
did you know that the cn tower in toronto has the highest public observation deck in the world, at something around 150 storeys? i do now, because i went up in it. they have a part with a glass floor too. now that’s fun. for some reason everyone’s first instinct is to jump on it though. i watched for a good few minutes — i’d say at least 80% of the people that went on it, the first thing they did was jump on it. kate even did it. i don’t get that. is everyone really hoping that maybe when they do it, that’ll be the final stress that cracks the glass and sends you falling to your ultimate demise? (albeit many seconds later since you started so high off the ground). people are weird.
toronto is also weird because they have rickshaws. not with little asian guys in big hats pulling bamboo carts though; normal guys in windbreakers pulling what’s basically a cross between a wheelbarrow and a park bench, i guess. i really wanted to ride one and/or get a picture of one (or of me in one, dare i hope), but i didn’t get to. now i have to go back to toronto someday. or somewhere else where they have rickshaws maybe.
i also bought a book at 40% off at a place that claimed to be the world’s biggest bookstore (that was the name of the store anyway). and a refrigerator magnet to commemorate the adventure.
eventually i got on a plane and went to boston, but i’ll give you those spring break highlights later or maybe tomorrow, because spring break is over and i have to go to class now.
alright. back in LA and in one piece. very tired, very hungry, and very much relieved of a lot of spring break money. exceptionally fun and absolutely worth it though. i might come on again later tonight to write more if i re-energize, but i just had to share this with you as soon as i got the chance. if i have any luck in the world, the photos will turn out, but it still won’t adequately capture the moment (although at least it will provide some evidence).
last night’s death and dismemberment show (while i was still in boston, at a club called the middle east) is now in close running for most amazing show i’ve ever seen. this time the plan was the grand finale and holy shit were they rocking.
and oh yeah.
i danced on stage.
with the dismemberment plan.
to the ice of boston.
while i was in the city of boston.
fuck yeah.
begin downhill portion of life.
hey friends . . .
toronto was smashing and i made it there and away again without a hitch. perhaps i’ll fill in more details later. really i just wanted to check in and let you know i’m alive and well and hanging out with one of the coolest girls i know in the world in boston now (my friend emily); that this is the coldest and rainiest spring break i’ve ever had and i love every second of it; that i wish i had time to record more of my thoughts this week (because i’m in such a great mood and having a super time so far — today was just fantastic as were the days before); and that i miss my computer. i’m not afraid to admit it. blogging is a good way to keep my thoughts straight and as it is i’m just awash with things. it’s not bad, it’s just very vacationey.
i’ll be back to LA on sunday and perhaps then will have more fun stories and other such things to share. no time for reading up on any of you just now so i hope you’re all doing alright too. happy trails.
ps–death and dismemberment:boston on saturday night. will round two be as good as round one?
pps–check out the bonus spring break song of the week by snmnmnm. sure it’s goofy and cheesy, but it’s also rip-roarin’ fun.
i’d better check in here before it’s too late.
see, my plane leaves for the magical land of toronto, canada (by way of charlotte, north carolina for some reason) at an unseemly 8:30am tomorrow. this, in turn, means that the shuttle service pickup time — since it’s an international flight — is an ungodly 4:25am; and furthermore, if i don’t wish to spend 9 or 20 or however many hours of travel enjoying my own day-old layer of film, i had better get up at 4 in the morning to shower up. jesus h. and this is supposed to be a vacation.
the real problem is that i can’t really sleep on planes. that may very well be altered this trip though out of my body’s utter rejection at waking up and being active at 4:30 in the morning. staying up til then i can handle sometimes. getting up then is the dumbest thing ever.
but, i will at least get to read a lot, listen to music, and eventually end up chillin’ with dearest kate, which i am anticipating with lots of jittery excitement. (this is where we all go, “spring breeeeeaaaaak! woooooooo!”)
if i don’t get back on for a few days, or even at all until next weekend, just picture me galavanting about the country with a big smile on my face, arm in arm with good friends, and try not to hold it against me. sometimes wacky adventures just don’t factor blogging time into the equation.
i take off for toronto on saturday morning. i should not, should NOT, have to take an anthropology quiz friday morning. that’s stupid. classes that expect you to do anything really constructive when you’re an oliver stone film away from spring break (i.e. a few hours) are just wrong. “backwud”, as it were, as in facing the damn incorrect direction here. so i will not study for this, i will not even prepare in any way for this. if i do not know the answer to a question, i will write a short comical story about a monkey who has involved himself in some sort of mischief. everything will all work out.
thus is the luxury of pass/fail classes of which i only get one in four years, sadly. and the extra sad part was that i still did leagues better than a lot of people on the midterm a couple weeks ago. eh, i’m just a sharp guy.
blogger has a warning that at midnight it’s gonna be down for hours. that’s a long time. so i best be posting this a’fore it’s too late.
but before that, a quick plea: if you read this and you want to hang out tomorrow night, please contact me. my plane doesn’t leave til saturday morning, but all my roommates will be gone by late afternoon tomorrow and i’ll be all alone all night and i’m afraid of the dark when i’m by myself.
a ride to the airport on saturday so i don’t have to pay the shuttle service would also be welcome. as would free pony rides.
goodnight.
did you get the song of the week yet? you should, it’s really good.
i remember thinking a few things last night that i want to put down somewhere. one was that i wish i had a reading-speed dial which i could turn up or down at will. at first, looking at the anthropology reading i have to do before friday, i just wished that i could speed-read. but then i thought about it, and i don’t really want to read everything really quickly. sometimes i like to take my time and read something nice and slow and savor it, enjoy it. plus if i read too quickly, i might run out of good books too quickly and have to wait around for new things to come out, or spend all this effort looking for things to read, as opposed to feeling like there’s a wealth of things out there right now i can’t wait to get a chance to read. so i need a dial where i can turn up the speed for drudgerous things like anthropology articles and turn it down for delicious novels and the like. that would be ideal.
the other thing i was wondering came to me listening to my operation ivy cd, which after years and years, and after putting most of my ska affectations behind me, i still appreciate quite a bit. i guess it’s sort of outside of the ‘ska’ thing enough to endure despite the association for some.
anyway, what i was thinking when i heard the chorus to “knowledge”, where tim keeps yelling “all i know is that i don’t know…all i know is that i don’t know nothing” (taking his presumed intended meaning and ignoring the double negative of course), was did he have in his mind, or even possibly any prior or possibly subconscious awareness of the famous socratic quotation of, “One thing only I know and that is that I know nothing,” when he wrote that song? i mean, was he a philosopher-punk (as opposed to a philosopher-king, i guess?), having achieved his own enlightenment on the streets, or did he actually stomp around in his boots and his hoodie flipping through volumes of classical greek philosophy. these are the things i wonder about.
“take this under advisement, jerkweed!” . . .
yeah, that’s right. i finished die hard tonight (well, except the last 20 or so minutes. i’ve had a really short attention span all week since studying so much on sunday. what can you do). i’m pretty sure that’s the best use of the word jerkweed in any film, ever. i dare you to prove me wrong.
i also dare you to listen to the song of the week without getting the sound and rhythm of this chorus stuck in your mind like the face of that one girl you always wished had loved you back. it haunts you at strange moments, i’m telling you. walking home after a hard day. trying to read. i was taking a test today and it just kept coming back no matter how i tried not to think about it. i think it’s just something about william wilson’s peculiar voice and those sad echoing guitars that make aveo something i’m really drawn to, and bridge to the northern lights like that face i just can’t keep out. i like it though.
if you like it too, there are more on their site for you to try.
can i set blogger to not switch over to the next day until 3 or 4am, so when i write things late at night (i.e. after midnight), i don’t feel the need to draw attention to the fact that i’m describing events of what is technically the previous day but as far as i’m concerned was just earlier today? that seems like something i should be able to do.
yeah, today (tuesday) turned out okay. i finished another neat book, i readied a special package for its intercontinental flight, and i watched half of die hard. that movie just kills me. how can there be so many cheesy/priceless one-liners in a single film? it’s amazing! i mean, the friendly black cop actually says, “my car is getting turned into swiss cheese out here!” . . . and means it! i love it.
but back to the literature, i have to find a new book to read now, because my stack of books-in-waiting is down to the one i’m about to start and no more, which is trouble, because i hate having nothing to read. especially since i’m about to embark on spring break, during which i’m sure i’ll finish at least one book in the many hours of aiport and flight time on the way to see kate and some other friends in far off cities.
hey, that’s right, i’m going to see kate and my other friends in a matter of days! now that’s some good news. let’s get out of this place. go somewhere colder, somewhere new, and somewhere i can spend time with dear friends i see far too infrequently. or never, as the case may be (but we’ll not dwell — the emphasis is on how much i’m looking forward to saturday and how soon saturday will be today).
yes, today (tuesday) was such a good day i deserved to buy myself 30 dollars worth of cd’s. i mean, i need something fresh to spin in the player while i’m grumbly and groggy on the plane to maintain good spirits, don’t i? i think i deserve it. and i want to be smiling when i get off the plane so i don’t scare off my hosts. so it’s really for the best.