two.points.collapsing

why don’t you come home, i cannot remember why you left, and i’d rather be happy than right this time

it seems to me that there are some cds that i cannot fully appreciate until i listen to them on headphones. i’m almost never without music playing on my stereo here in my room when i’m on the trusty laptop, or if i’m reading or just chilling. but for some reason certain songs don’t really slap me in the face with their greatness until they’re channeled through headphones. maybe it’s because i’m forced to listen more closely with everything drowned out, maybe it’s because it’s easier to hear the words. something about it just provides a unique music experience, i think. in the same vein, there are things i don’t like nearly as much through headphones, but that’s another story.

which brings me to my point: the new dismemberment plan cd, change. i’ve had it for a couple weeks now and it’s been in heavy rotation. it’s really good and i knew that from first listen. the songs have a groove to them which takes hold and the head nodding is irresistable. although it’s not always as fun and frantic as emergency & i, which i really loved, at the same time i think that almost makes it more approachable. not to say that was necessary or that it makes this cd better or worse. i do think though that it’s something less likely to scare off people that are afraid of — well, a change. i was reminded by this cd of some of the more recent and better work of the flaming lips, in it’s oddball use of guitars and peculiar sounds to make a beautiful whole.

to bring things full circle though: i had refrained from listening to this cd at work because it seemed too laid back to listen to while doing an already dull job. i decided against this verdict and listened to it this morning — twice through — via headphones, and it propelled me into not just liking and enjoying but absolutely adoring this cd. whereas before i appreciated it for its funky rhythms and fun sound, now i finally picked up on the brilliant songwriting and more subtle musical touches that must have passed me by on the casual listen, and which make this cd really amazing. the whole rest of the day, naturally, i’ve been fighting to keep the songs from taking over my mind. especially the personal highlights like the middle of “the face of the earth” and the chorus of “following through”. it’s all fantastic though, really. the line at the top from “coming home” (the title of my absolute favorite song of all time, but by another band) also got to me. so now i know what i’ll be listening to even more obsessively for the next few days. or weeks.

thanks for indulging me in my review-writing practice, or whatever this was. nothing much personal to share so i’m gonna go . . . well, you can probably guess.

it’s time to go to bed, but since i won’t get to blog until late tomorrow, here’s a quick note for the morning crowd.

check out aereogramme and slow reader. the first is a band i heard at the radio station that is really good (thank you music director brigette for pointing me to this band, driving me home from the station tonight, and for being so damn cute on top of it all), and the second is the impossibles in disguise as a soft sad emo band, but still making very enjoyable and listenable music. at least in my opinion.

the song color cast on the latter site is really doing it for me tonight, so i thought i’d share.

something to think about: isn’t it strange that a sad moment shared with a friend can be the best part of your day? maybe you don’t have to feel ‘happy’ to fell ‘good’ necessarily, all the time.

good night.

sitting here in computer class . . . i like this class not only because it’s more fun and interesting than my other classes, but i can sit here and read and write weblog stuff during the lecture. i can do it without losing track of what’s going on too, so it’s a nice side project to help me get through the three action-packed hours of this one class. right now, we’re talking about making a pong game in macromedia director. watch out world, i’m taking these skills into the job market in just over a year and a half — prepare for some fierce competition!

potential employer: “well, there are about a hundred other people applying for this exciting as well as very lucrative and satisfying position . . . what makes you stand apart from them?”

brian: “did you by chance pop in the cd i included with my resume? it has a pong game that i built in director. as well as some other cheesy examples that i certainly know my way around a computer.”

potential employter (putting in cd, playing game): “wow! this is neat!” (mumbles, trailing off, absorbed in game . . .)

brian: “i’ll take that as a ‘you’re hired’. see you next week in my 32nd floor corner office with reclining, spinning leather deskchair!”

note: some credit is due to new topography, whose fictional conversations always make me laugh out loud.

i guess i just can’t shut up tonight.

i had no idea that the co-singer-guitarist of one of my favorite bands, rory from the impossibles, has his own blog. how interesting.

now i will read one more thing compulsively twice a day.

hot new look over at kind of like sonar. did you guys (if you read this) design that yourself?

it’s nice. very sexy.

something else i should mention/endorse: i just finished barrel fever by david sedaris, and it was a lot of fun. if nothing else, borrow a copy from your friend, or just go to the bookstore and sit down and read the last story in this book, “santaland diaries”. it’s completely hysterical. the book as a whole is very good and i respect david sedaris a lot, so you should really buy the whole thing, but that one particularly cracked me up. it’s about his stint working as an elf around christmastime helping the santa at macy’s in new york. some really funny stuff.

now i’ve picked up a “best of” collection from the sex/advice column savage love, which is pretty entertaining even if it’s not necessarily literature. the guy is good at being abrasive and clever while still giving pretty appropriate advice though. and there are some pretty weird things that he gets asked questions about . . . i’ll let you find out for yourself. if you want a sample of the column, it also runs in its normal weekly form on the onion (in the “av club” section) among other places.

oh, heavens. we just got back from the most adorable movie of the year. it’s a french film called amelie, which was a huge success in france and released just this weekend here in the united states. totally blew that silly old serendipity (which i liked also) out of the water as far as fateful quirky romance goes. i saw the trailer a while ago and couldn’t wait to see it; and i wasn’t disappointed. it was so magical and sweet and just made me happy. plus, i fell in love with the title character from the very first shot of her. they couldn’t have cast her more perfectly, because the shots of her expressive and darling face were probably more endearing than any of the dialogue. she was unbearably and painfully cute and pretty.

the movie made me all warm inside, and was very romantic and touching, so if this is what you like in a film, don’t mind reading subtitles, and happen to be somewhere that’s showing it, i would say don’t miss it.

the rest of my saturday wouldn’t make a good story though so i’ll leave it at that and maybe have more to tell tomorrow.

it’s nice to rearrange things every now and then to keep from getting tired of how things look. don’t be scared. i just wanted all the other grand weblog friends of mine to get better, higher-on-the-page type visibility. my reasons are also selfish; these links aren’t just for show. i use them all frequently and don’t want to scroll down so far to get to them. being the efficiency expert i am, i made it so there are more links closer to the top. i’m brilliant, i know.

and the biggest nerd you’ll ever see, too. i’m sorry.

this morning i stepped out onto my balcony for a few minutes, as is my custom, to have a glass of water and get a feel for the day, watching a few people here and there walk off to class.

parked (where it shouldn’t be) in the driveway leading into the parking garage beneath our building, almost directly below me, is a blue car that’s been there since last night. however, since last night, somehow two presumably raw hot dogs (sans bun) have shown up on the roof of this car. so there it sits, a blue car with two randomly tossed hot dogs on top, and there i stand, imagining how such a thing would come to be.

what a world of wonders we live in, no?

two quotes of the day (from thursday night):

shannon (talking about a doofus guy that might be interested in her): “he’s like play doh. but not even hot pink play doh which is fun and exciting. he’s like the white play doh. no one wants to play with the white play doh.”

and . . .

dustin (walks in wearing the tiara he won from this weekend’s costume contest, which he’s been doing occasionally all week)

brian (laughing): i’m sorry dustin, but i’ll never be used to you wearing that tiara.

dustin WELL YOU’D BETTER!

i realize the second one isn’t quite as funny if you weren’t there, but use your imagination.