two.points.collapsing

time for a new song of the week.

i won’t be shy or ashamed. i like pop-punk music if it has something good to offer me. there are a lot of bands that sound an awful lot alike, and that i’m not a fan of. it also seems that whenever one band starts to achieve a moderate level of success, about 5 doppelganger bands rise up to try to get a piece of the action. that i don’t like either. however, i also don’t have a problem admitting that a fun, catchy brand of punk can really get into my brain sometimes and make me feel like rocking. maybe that makes me less indie, but hey, at least i get to check out a bunch of high school girls in baby tees at concerts. . . i jest.

so without embarrassment, i offer up what i think is a good heavy pop-punk band, finch, as song of the week. we saw them open for rx bandits in august, and i just now got around to checking out their stuff. maybe they don’t write the deepest or most poetic songs in the world, but i still think they’re fun to listen to (for now). so the song of the week is letters to you. be careful, it’s been in my head for days already.

i don’t know how i forgot to mention this yesterday, because you don’t see a guy get hit by a car every day, but guess what i saw on the way home from school yesterday?

actually, it went like this. i was walking toward jefferson (the street that borders the north edge of campus) homeward bound, and talking to my friend spencer whom i was walking with. i hear this crumple-thump type sound, and jerk my head over toward it’s source, just in time to see a guy roll down the side of a car’s hood on to the ground next to the car, on the side closer to us. his bike had hit the side, apparently, and was sliding down and leaning on the passenger’s side door now. spencer ran closer and i caught up a second later, to see if he was okay. but the guy just got up, grabbed his bike and walked dazedly the rest of the way across the street, where the car had driven ahead a little and pulled over to get out of traffic. it was pretty bizarre. the guy replied to spencer’s question with a shocked, “uhh, i guess so . . .” because as far as anyone could tell, he didn’t have a scratch on him. another bystander said something like, “dude, you’re made of fucking titanium!” which was sort of funny. everything seemed okay so we just kept walking home. it was really bizarre.

tonight i’m going to see serendipity because i’m a sucker for john cusack, and i just have to hope it’s not as bad as some people think. i’ll have to keep my fingers crossed. i haven’t seen a good, convincing, likeable romantic comedy (well, i mean as far as they can be convincing and likeable, like my two favorites, grosse pointe blank and reality bites) in a really long time. i’ll submit my opinion tomorrow.

so, shiner‘s going on tour again, but sadly not stopping in the southern california area again, much to my dismay. i still can’t hate them though, they’re just such a good band. sigh… maybe in december they’ll finally make it around this way. a boy can hope.

but instead, i’m going to try my little experiment again. when they played in chicago back in july or june or something, i made a public request that someone get me a shiner shirt at the show, which they would of course be repaid for in whatever manner they wished as soon as possible. i had a couple of responses which sadly just didn’t come through at the last minute. it was a nice thought though, and i’d like to see it work this time around, if possible. i know there are multiple regular readers of this page that are also the types who might be going to one of their shows in the next month or so. so here’s the deal: if you’re going to go to any stop of this tour, and would be willing to pick me up a shiner shirt (size medium, whichever design you think looks best) on my absolutely impeccable credit, please email me. i’m very good at getting people their money because i hate owing things. don’t be scared, be a helpful indie rock buddy. thanks to all potential replies.

so how was that show you went to last night brian? was the stereo any good? well let me tell you about it — yes, they were. a decent band called noise ratchet opened with some pretty good stuff, then this band rufio that i was pretty ambivalent toward. they were just fast pop-punk, sort of homegrown or something like that. nothing i’m really into. the stereo, despite the singer’s confession of not being in top vocal form after overexerting the night before, was a lot of fun. if you don’t know the music, it’s pretty poppy, straightforward rock and roll. lots of songs about heartache and so on. but it’s good clean fun to listen to and i for one had a blast. it was free and everything. i was singing along and having a good time, and after jaime (singer/songwriter/founding member) played one of the newer, mp3-only-so-far songs, he said “this one goes out to that guy right there because he knew the words to this song. you rock, man”. that guy was me. we also talked to him for a little bit after the show near the merchandise booth i was sadly too broke to buy from, and he was super friendly. he just talked and talked to us like we were his buddies already. very nice guy. so check them out if they’re coming near you for a good time and to support a really dedicated and amiable rock band. now i must hurry to class.

work and class, not much to speak of today. that is, so far. tonight the stereo is playing a free show on campus at the little coffee house venue place, and since i’ve never seen the stereo live and i like them a lot, i’m looking forward to that. for some reason it seems like the radio station here is very together this year and actually doing a good job of putting on events that interest me. the free part helps too. so that’s where i’ll be starting at 7:30, in case you were gonna come looking.

last night i was studying at my desk for my visual culture midterm and my roommate answers the door and says, “brian, you have a visitor” and a girl comes down the hall into the doorway of my bedroom. she looks sort of familiar, but i don’t know who she is. she says something about being in my finance class and asks if the exam is open book. i ask, what class she’s talking about again, because the finance midterm was last week. i thought she’d made a mistake. then she says fine arts so i understand it this time, and i say, oh, no, i don’t think the exam is open book. by the way, how did you know i lived here?

apparently she had stopped by briefly one night when our door was open to admire our living room lighting (we have a disco ball and some other chill stuff going on for kicking back), and remembered that i lived there, and that i was the same person in her class, and even knew my name as i found out later (i introduced myself and found out her name while she was here, but my roommate said she asked for me by name when he answered the door). so i’m left wondering in this situation. should i be flattered or afraid? i said hi to her in class today — i hope that wasn’t a dangerous move.

it just seems strange because afterwards i recalled vaguely the night i semi-met her and a couple of her friends when they stopped in, but would never have recognized her or remembered her name without this current reminder of that night. so i wonder how often this happens, where i’m on the forgetful end of an introduction or situation, and there’s someone out there that definitely knows my name and maybe more, someone i’m totally unaware of. i’m positive there’s a substantial number in the other direction, people i remember but don’t know who i am, because i feel somewhat forgettable in most situations. one would assume though that it works both ways and there have to be all these mysterious people out there who know what i’m up to, that i don’t have a clue about. i wonder if any of them are watching right now?… haha.

oh, also, before i forget: the unrivaled quote of the day, from my classmate steve during our short break during marketing today. spencer brought up the movie in the company of men and said something about a deaf girl, and steve says, “was her name helen?” followed shortly after by, “i think helen keller is an urban legend. seriously, how can you be deaf and blind?”

yes, he was kidding, but yes, it was still hilarious.

hey there everybody! want to hear a bunch of the same songs you’ve heard before in your own cd player, only lower quality and over the internet? well if you say so. it’s radio show night so in about half an hour head over to kscr (link at left) and you can do just that. mmm hmm.

also, i’ve just found collapsing friend #11. i (heart) slatch. nice to be part of a growing family.

i’m still reading about a boy, even though it’s only about 300 pages of very easy reading. not because i’ve been too busy or because i’m a slow reader, and especially not because it’s dull. it’s because i’ve been reading it in doses of only about 10 or 15 pages because it’s so good, i don’t want it to stop. i’m savoring it. honestly, i haven’t been this affected emotionally by a story in a while. i’ve enjoyed other books more, but as far as being moved by characters and their thoughts and actions on a printed page, this one is really getting to me in a wonderful way. i highly recommend this book to anyone, whether you liked high fidelity or not. this isn’t much like that book, although i loved that too. but the writing is very human, and very honest, and very good. so this is me recommending it to you.

a quotation from this week’s reading for my asian religions class from laozi’s daodejing (the way of virtue):

Weapons are inauspicious instruments, not the instruments of a cultivated person.

But if given no choice, the cultivated person will use them.

Peace and quiet are the highest ideals;

A military victory is not a thing of beauty.

To beautify victory is to delight in the slaughter of human beings.

One who delights in the slaughter of human beings will not realize his ambitions in this world.

for the first maybe 45 minutes (out of two and a quarter) of mulholland drive, i thought maybe we were going to get a linear storyline that just happened to be a little bit out there and weird. that was the wrong thing to hope from david lynch, because at one specific point, everything in the movie went ass crazy. not one of the four of us could even begin to decode the fragments of a story that were thrown at us in seemingly random order without any solid connecting points. so it was pretty much, in the end, what i was expecting. if you don’t like that sort of thing, the weird for weird’s sake kind of storytelling, this movie will naturally frustrate you. but although i can’t say i loved the movie, i loved seeing the movie. it gives you something to talk about for a while, and it makes you at least try to think about what’s going on. let’s just say i’d rather see more movies like that being put out that are just too fragmented but at least stylistic, then a whole crop of movies like the fast and the furious or joyride. call me crazy, but i prefer things that are over my head to things that are obviously and embarrasingly targeted to those with no apparent desire to use their brain unless they have to.

you’ve heard of six flags doing “fright fest” around halloween right? well last night we went to something sort of like that. i’ve never been to fright fest, so i can’t compare. the place we went was knott’s berry farm (a man starts out making really good fruit preserves, selling them by the roadside. they catch on, he starts a company. that company eventually spawns . . . and amusement park? i didn’t quite see the jump either, and yet it happened — hence the berry farm), only transformed by night into knott’s SCARY farm. i know, it’s terrifying.

it was fun though. besides not getting to ride many rides because the line was long, i enjoyed it. there was fog everywhere and people in really impressive costumes/makeup jumping out from all over the place. there were temporary mazes set up that were like mini-haunted houses, and they were pretty good at making you (well, me, really) jump out of your boots. in one called the alien attack, there was a black room with little green flecks all over the walls, lit only by blacklight. but there were, after closer inspection, also people dressed in all black with green flecks standing against those walls, who came at you from all directions as you walked through. it was so weird, you couldn’t see them at all at first glance. that was the time i have to admit to actually being scared into darting out of the room. good times. i also got to ride my favorite amusement park ride, the good old sit in a chair, get pulled straight up a pole (this one was the highest i’ve ever been on — really intense), and then just get dropped and fall really fast. rollercoasters are fun, but the whole giant drop, free fall, tower of terror, whatever you may call it is always my favorite.

tonight the plan is to go see the newest bizarre spectacle from twin peaks/lost highway/blue velvet director david lynch, mulholland drive, and get some in-n-out. i don’t even think i’ll really like the movie, but they’re just so weird, historically, i can’t allow myself to miss it. it’ll be fun to talk about how insanely screwed up it is afterward and try to decode whatever sort of “story” is nestled in with the madness. if you’ve ever seen lost highway you know what i mean. and hey, at least we get tasty burgers either way.