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did i ever have a good weekend. dom was in town and we drank and ate and played cards a plenty. sure, i lost my 20 bucks and didn’t even finish in the upper half of the poker tournament saturday night. sure, i drank more cheap whisky than i needed to. but that’s part of the recipe for fun, now isn’t it? and technically any amount of cheap whisky is more than a person ‘needs’, so who’s counting?

so let’s focus on the positive. mike’s kegbot is fully functional and so is his custom card table (with red felt!), which are both awesome. now we can track our drinks via computer and lose our money in style. then i had some delicious and needed tito’s tacos — at washington pl & sepulveda for angeleans, and very worth the trip, trust me. as well as some, uhh, arby’s too. i know, i know. justin was so kind as to remind us the next day of the homer simpson quote: “i’m so hungry i could eat arby’s!”. and it’s true, but the trick is not to think about it, just pour the ar-bq sauce.

plus at the end of last week i got my hey mercedes mix cd’s in the mail. they’re great! i have to say this is one of the coolest things i’ve heard of a band doing for their fans. i’m impressed and incredibly pleased. can’t wait to see that braid show in july, either.

countdown to three day weekend: begin.

yep. that’s what one year at this here company gets old brian. i’ve been a functioning adult for a whole year now, and i have the bamboo to prove it. isn’t that a cute thing to find at your desk after a trip to the copy room? no, the back of the card that says ‘happy 1st anniversary’ did not say, ‘…you get a raise!’, i am sad to say. all i get so far is my first potted plant. let’s see if i can keep from killing it!

on a side note, when i said the streets album was a couple weeks away, i was obviously taking in bad information from somewhere. i swear i saw june 8th on this or that site, but i was totally wrong, because it is out and i already have it. mike was kind enough to grab a copy off the shelf for me during our last amoeba trip so i wouldn’t accidentally get in line without it. a true pal.

decent album, more on music soon if my weekend revels (dom’s in town from SF!) don’t keep me from the computer outright.

[now hearing this: the streets – a grand don’t come for free.]

friends and readers definitely know that i like to geek it up here and there. despite my sleek, attractive, ultra-hip exterior, there’s a nerdy teenager still inside me somewhere that’s never going to leave. this is the part of me that gets really really excited about video games, comic books, and star wars no matter what the ramifications on my image to women or the adult world.

it’s this part of me that is already looking forward to the next playstation mega-blockbuster coming this october 19th, grand theft auto: san andreas — which i had suspected was the next installment, only this time los angeles themed. but today i was reading an early report in a yet-to-be-released issue of game informer that contained this quote from the game’s head honcho…

“san andreas is not a city — it’s a state. probably the most interesting thing you need to think about for a second is that we’re not setting the game in a version of los angeles or san francisco or las vegas, but all three — with the countryside in between … each of these cities is relatively the size of vice city, and will be fully open to the player” … all in all, houser estimates that the entire game area is four to six times as large as the entirety of either of the previous entries in the series.

and here i am scooping my jaw up off my desk, because look at it this way: you know when you’re just dying to see a big movie you just know is going to be great? and you finally see it, and it’s spectacular, and for those two hours you’re sitting there tingling, just high on entertainment? yeah, i’m probably looking forward to a couple films this year that way too. maybe spider-man, maybe the new michael moore movie.

but with a video game that size, we’re talking maybe fifty, sixty hours of that feeling of purely perfect captivation. seriously, my geek-pleasure levels overload at the thought of something like this. i have to sit down and drink a glass of water.

essentially, this is a warning not to expect me to hang out with you october 20th because i will be stuck in front of my TV not unlike the guy from the ring, only much happier and not dead.

“…mars is the god of war, that’s why we have martians…”

i overheard someone say that while i was getting a bagel this morning at work. i think there’s a hole in his argument somewhere, but i focused on the cream cheese and managed to make it back to my desk without laughing at him.

i’m sick of not writing enough. i’m going to see how many days in a row i can write, even if it’s just one funny or interesting thing i heard or read that day. maybe if i can go a whole month of daily writing i’ll reward myself with some new cd’s.

not that i shouldn’t be indulging anyway. it’s been weeks since a record store trip and there’s a new piebald out yesterday i totally forgot to buy (will fix that tonight, don’t worry). just as exciting, a new streets album comes out in a couple weeks. you can stream it from that site and realize you should be excited too.

[now hearing this: air america on the web. when they gonna set up another LA station? i want that shit in my car, you lazy liberals!]

overall i’d say our baseball trip was a lot of fun. we sat in the first row behind the right field fence, the hot dogs were delicious, and everyone had a good time. sure, the cubs played pretty badly and could not pull it together, but the dodgers are doing pretty well this year so maybe the best team won. these things happen.

but some stadium advice to anyone who may not know, in the form of a quick story. we get through the ticket gates and head straight for the vendor because the game doesn’t start for 20 minutes. don’t see the beer prices so i ask the woman which direction the beer stand is. and she laughs at me.

really? she asks. oh, this is the ‘family section’. there is no beer in the family section. and they won’t let you out into the other part of the park with your tickets, so you’re just out of luck, sorry. (more laughter). hey, at least i saved you guys 50 bucks at 7 dollars a beer, huh? (more laughter).

i turn to my friends with a ‘did you hear that?’ face and they all just shake their heads at me in unison.

so my advice to the dodgers: i bought tickets to your game via a website, a veritable fountain of information available right in front of me throughout the entire process. when i clicked on the outfield for my seating choice, which was definitely labeled ‘right pavillion’ and NOT marked ‘family seating’ in any way, there should have been a message in HUGE RED LETTERS saying NO ALCOHOL IS SERVED IN THE PAVILLION SECTION AT DODGER STADIUM. i honestly felt duped.

oh, also, i wasn’t thrilled about the guy behind me calling sammy sosa a ‘fag’ either, but that isn’t your fault i guess.

good night anyway though, if you can believe it. summer has arrived.

i’m going to a cubs game tonight!

i haven’t been to a major league baseball game since i was in elementary school. when they went on strike way back then, i gave up on baseball. maybe tonight things will kick back in and i’ll learn to love again after all those years. even though it’ll be at dodger stadium instead of the windy city, i imagine a hot dog and a beer will still be just the ticket to get summer going in my head.

watch me just over the right field fence, baseball fans…

don’t like this not posting phase i’m going through. how will i ever become a famous writer if i can’t even write a few paragraphs a day of website drivel? but let’s not give up hope.

weekend was fabulous. drinking in the OC with spencer friday night (worth noting: any bar with over a hundred beers on tap is a fine, fine establishment), then some drinking and poker saturday night with the fellas. guess who won everything on the table at the end of the night? that’s right, yours truly is the master gambler walking home with 8 heavy dollars profit weighing down his wallet. can’t wait for the poker tournament in a few weeks.

and all that after an early screening of napoleon dynamite and a pulse-pounding tennis showdown versus my girlfriend. how do i have so much fun in such a short span of time? well it’s not easy, let me tell you. but you have to take this saturday thing seriously. it only happens once a week.

apparently if you go to the ND website you can register to go to more free screenings they’re having in the next month prior to launch, like i did, and even get free shirts, like i did as well. i wanted the ‘vote for pedro’ one. the movie was good, check it out if you can; i’ll write an actual review in a day or two.

oh, and sunday i watched my copy of the animation show on dvd, and was very pleased. there were a few omissions from the theatre version i would have been happier having, but the addition of adam elliot’s “cousin, uncle, brother” pieces were a fair tradeoff (he’s the winner of this year’s academy award for animated short harvey krumpet — these are his earlier pieces). i have to say: those are three terrific, dark, very funny claymation films. well done, mr. elliot.

also: ate french toast. yum.

top ten best things about my trip to coachella 2004:

10. our hotel room.

i think i had gone far too long in this life without having slept in a car. it was also good to verify that my ride makes a very decent mobile motel if necessary. just ask gino, or my leg. we were perfectly comfortable sleeping off our drunkenness here until 5:30 am when in the dawn glow a lady on an ATV told us we had 3 minutes to leave the coachella parking lot or we get a ticket — no overnighters allowed. we relocated to a movie theatre parking lot and slept 3 more hours, then went to denny’s to start day 2.

9. …and you will know us by the trail of dead.

i had a picture of them but it’s not very good. they play a massive rock show, even though i was embarrassed that i didn’t know they had two drummers until that day. i thought they just had one really good one.

8. thom yorke dancing

their whole set sounded impeccable actually, but i had never seen them before and had no idea the spastic joy that takes over that little guy’s body during the breakdowns on some of their songs. fantastic set. pretty cool they played ‘creep’ in the encore too.

7. being vip’s.

with the right colored bracelet you got access to a beer tent area with couches and bar stools and no lines instead of a beer tent area with a few picnic tables and not enough shade. also: vip port-o-potties. found them adequate, considering.

6. this guy.

can you even say anything? i mean, those really ARE butterfly wings, and that really IS a bowtie. you don’t need to say anything.

5. leaving the rave tent to go see belle and sebastian.

i really like 2manydj’s, but they were having sound problems, and gino wanted to see b&s, and when you take hundreds of dancing people in weather that’s already over 100 degrees and put their sweaty bodies into an enclosed tent in the desert, you get pretty much the closest thing to a jacuzzi without water. it seriously made the outside feel air conditioned in comparison. i heard they tore it up after we left though, which is a shame.

4. being close enough to the pixies to take this picture.

i was never even seriously into them, but i haven’t been able to stop singing their songs to myself since saturday night. they played just like they’d been doing this all those years in between; sounded just as good as the cds my friend burned for me a few years ago and said, ‘dude, you should listen to the pixies’. now it finally makes sense.

3. the afterparty

through work connections part of our perks were also going to a spin-hosted party. round after round of top-shelf drinks and jager shots, all complimentary. we saw marisa from the O.C. and neve cambell there too, although they sure didn’t look like they’d been at coachella all day. not only was it in a really nice rose garden with cool dj’s, but since we didn’t know anybody, we randomly decided to stand in a line we weren’t sure went anywhere. we asked the people in front of us and they didn’t know either. turns out it was for FREE SNEAKERS. i’m not kidding! we tried on shoes and they’re sending us free pairs in the mail. unbelievable.

2. the flaming lips.

words simply do not suffice. they put so much effort into their presentation they only got to play 5 songs, but the whole experience was just amazing. wayne walked out over the audience before the set in a huge inflated hamster ball, for starters. it was spectacular. then the whole place was raging and smiling and dancing along with the people in bunny costumes on stage in front of the huge projector screen while batting enormous balloons around and singing along to the music . . . i haven’t had a concert experience that euphoric in years. definitely the musical highlight of the weekend.

1. remembering intermittently that IT WAS ALL FREE.

every time we thought about that we couldn’t help but get really really excited. i think it cost maybe 30 bucks apiece for the whole weekend on water and some food. and we even got free shoes out of the deal — how can you beat that?

christ, i haven’t been this busy in ages. go go go all day at work, then come home and hang out all night with my special lady. it’s all been great, actually — time flies when you’re busy at the office, and it’s so good to catch up on girlfriend time after being gone all weekend. but i think this coming weekend i’m going to have to make a specific point to spend plenty of time reading and lounging and doing nothing basically. balance myself out a bit.

and since i’ve been go go going non stop i haven’t had enough free minutes to write about how amazing coachella was; also because i wanted to include some pictures i took, which are on my laptop at home, so i’ll have to do that later.

additional note: we watched x-men 2 on DVD last night at my place, and during some big effects sequence meghan looked up from my lap and said, ‘wow, your sound system is amazing.’ take notice ladies — i equate this feeling to a guy telling his girl she looks like she’s lost weight.

modest mouse – good news for people who love bad news – 4 stars

i was never really convinced about modest mouse, i’m guessing because i never had the spare cash to pick up moon and antarctica. i only had their first album, which had given me the opinion that they could write a dynamite song — ‘dramamine’, anyone? golden! — but weren’t so great on their other stuff.

good news has me corrected. most of this album is solid if not great, shows the creativity in lyrics and sound that make them so noteworthy in the ocean of indie music, and stands up just fine under start-to-finish listens. although i have to admit i almost always skip ‘dance hall’ because it just seems like they could have left it off without hurting the rest of the album. but i adore the single ‘float on’, and have lately been obsessed with singing along to ocean breathes salty loudly while driving to and from work. makes it a good pay day song.

definitely a recommended buy. why can’t they be playing at coachella too? which just reminds me how badly i want to finish this day, have a few drinks tonight, and prepare to ROCK MY FACE OFF. see ya monday, suckas!