...no more college tries




shut up and count some sheep

scrapping the books, calling off the study session, leaving the library, and taking my self to the movies

Atonement, by Ian McEwan, was one of the novels I have read this semester for my contemporary literature class and I feel like going to see the film

what better way to procrastinate and simultaneously remember that I suck at relationships/love?

and it only costs me a few dollars

a few measly dollars






Friday night, i bought three donuts, a cup of coffee with cream, and a pack of smokes
drove around Raleigh
just drove
eating donuts, drinking coffee, driving, and not thinking
a mental vacation-- complete with sugar, caffeine, and nicotine
solo, of course

Thank you John Darnielle. Thank you for the music.

Bruce Wunner is on my shit list. He and his accomplices will answer. They will pay my dad, and they will know what they did to me. It is only a matter of time. This is my project for spring break. No beaches for me; only law books and legal documents.

Dreams, they are needed to fuel actions.

Someone go to work for me, wait on the tables, and bring me the cash. Please. I want to saturate my brain in the sunlight and read. It is a reoccurring theme-- me not wanting to work. It is not that I do not want to work, but simply that I rather be doing something else, like writing. Yet I want to go to SXSW and New York and Mexico. I need my wisdom teeth out and a Mac. So I work, and do my best to save. I do my best not to get upset. Forget about the mental restraints colored on me by the necessities of modern life. And find a song.

Curisve The Sunks

A sonnet I had to write for my poetry class

Routine Measures

At night, I will sit down in the shower
Tilt back and hold my feet up in the air
The soles awake from the water's power
Eyes closed, steaming away all care

Lights out, only a blur from the window
Wash, scrub, cleanse and melt the day down the drain
A bar of soap with no scent helps the skin grow
Condition the shell and deflect all pain

Try not to question why some people depart
Consider another option to try
Buy a vitamin to strengthen the heart
Plate it with metal to protect from a lie

A non corrosive alloy works the best
Still able to sit in the shower and rest

Quote of the day. Taken from Looking Backward 2000-1887, a Utopian fiction by Edward Bellamy, written in 1887.

It appears to me, Miss Leete, that if we could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained, and ceased to strive for further improvements.

If he only knew.

Riddle of the day:

What walks on four legs through the internet, two legs through television, and three legs through radio?

Thank you Mr. Bob Lefsetz for sending ANOTHER email about the music industry and thus delaying my trip to the library and my start of the monstrous load of school work I have accumulated.

In his email, The Death Of Cool?, Lefsetz says that the Vampire Weekend show on Letterman was "awful." And denounces their album as just internet hype. He also declares to be satisfied with himself for not falling into the whirlpool of hype,

"Vampire Weekend's album might be better than their live show. But last night on Letterman, I just saw more white boys playing thin rock. I laughed to myself, wondering why everybody was wasting so much time on this evanescent act. I switched the channel." -Lefsetz

Alright. I am taking the backside view of all this.

There is a simple reason why influences like Lefsetz, bloggers (mind you I do not include myself in this podge; I just write about my miscelleanous life), and other crtics don't like this album--- and why I DO like the album. I ignore buzz, I don't lurch on the claims of other publications, and I don't rely on a performance at a major network television channel to decide whether or not I like a band.

I caught a few songs from Vampire Weekend during CMJ. In the cramped basement of the Cake Shop on the lower east side, these guys packed the people and pumped the pop. I stored this moment in my memory and then waited for the album to drop. When their self titled debut came into the WKNC studio I listened and was quite pleased. It is indie pop-rock at its most colorful moment. They are four college grads that have written songs about being young and having fun. And that is exactly what the sound of the album is.

[Visual Moment] It is late spring time, and the temperatures are pushing into summer. The sun is warm yet not blistering. On a simple wooden stage, only three feet off the ground, is Vampire Weekend. In front of them dances an audience- barefoot and skipping, hopping, bouncing on the grass. There is lemonade, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and not a care in the world--- just music. [Smile]

Vampire Weekend's debut is a simple optimistic glimpse of what it is to be young and searching for fun.

I come back to a main point I have declared in the past. It is about the music, and music is about emotion. It is about finding a connection to the songs. The voices in the industry are always trying to catch that latest, say it first, and set the standards--- and it is killing the music. I understand the marketing and A&R aspects of the industry. I know how the voices of opinion can kill or create a band, and sometimes I wish I could bundle all of the mess up and wrap it in duck tape. Toss it in the trash can. You are not going to get the gist of a band by watching them on Letterman. [Not to mention that Letterman was a terrible choice. Conan's audience is much more receptive to alternative music. Duh.]

As far as being cool is concerned. There is no emotion in being cool. I gave up on being cool. I do what I do because I love music, and experiencing live music. Try it. It is working well for me.

So, Vampire Weekend, if you want to come down to Raleigh in April or May and play an outdoor show, let me know. We will make it a grand ole' time and give Lefsetz something to absorb.

Cue "Walcott" by Vampire Weekend and let the school work begin.