reminiscenseseses

it's the 16th of february, right on the brink of it. i'm feeling a lot better about berlin than i was before. i mean, i was always ok with it, but we've come to a better understanding, the city and i. it's going well. i mean, we're not too serious now, but we have options.

i was thinking, before i started this, about why someone would have a blog, and more specifically, why someone would choose one thing to write in it instead of another. i sort of subconsciously decided, i guess, to only write really positive experiences. i think that was a good move, because now that i'm here, hanging out away from my friends, the place i've come to call home and all that, i look back on this and realize that it wasn't all just a construction of my nostalgic memory. i wrote these things pretty much in the moment, within a few hours of them happening, for the most part. so now, months on, i can prove to myself that DC was actually a great place that did great things for me, a place where i met great folks and had great times. i feel like sometimes it's easy to glorify a time and space, but it's always useful to have empirical evidence to proove what was realy going on. and for this, i'm glad i recorded some of it.

i'll say even now, as we speak, things are going ok all over. i still talk to sara pretty much everyday, and i'm also getting to know this new city and the new people around me. i'm confident, and she's expressed her confidence as well, that everything's going to work out nicely. that may be more of a macro view than we would like, but it's good to know that both of us know that, i think. and also i've been fortunate enough to meet some allstar dudes (well, at least one), who i'll be able to keep up with back in DC.

i've also been thinking of ways to, you know, HIT HARD. ever since i graduated high school i've been obsessed with putting together big productions. right now i've been thinking about: starting a salon in my new apartment/ living arrangement, starting a zine at AU, attempting to document and archive a list of every show that has ever played AU ever, playing a show at wonderland with the federal reserve people, trying to insinuate myself into the federal reserve collective, putting a proper band together (drums, guitar and bass and maybe something else), starting a theatre troupe, and writing a play.

so we'll see. i've got some ideas. but i'd be happy if i do two of those things. maybe three. i need help though, that's for sure. ANY TAKERS?

ok. that's it it's late.

-chris

OK LISTEN I'M IN GERMANY

been here for about two weeks. 's ok.

moving

Saturday night was great, but we forgot to watch the meteor shower.

I had a show at Politics & Prose in DC. I was pretty happy with it. A girl by the name of Asha played first, then me, then Kelly Reidy, who is always in top form. Her songs never fail to jab just the right nerve, you know? "XYZ/IJK" is like that, about being part of only a specific time and space (4-dimensions. the physics gets lost on me but the sentiment is universal).

at one point ian svenonius from nation of ulysses and weird war came in, looking confused and lost, and watched part of kelly's set. i don't think any of my friends there ever listened to nation of ulysses, but i was impressed. he was DJing at this pizza place next door.

we went over to Laura's after the show and everyone was positively manic. So good. there were no more than 12 of us there, just sitting around the living room bullshitting. ryan, holly and jeff and i played scrabble, but i couldn't concentrate very well and ended up losing pretty miserably. holly spelled a 95-point word. pretty sick. sara and i kept exchanging happy and doting looks from across the room. hm. such a fulfilling and satisfying feeling, having someone like sara. for all the insecurity i harbor, that girl makes me so happy.

at one point i was tickled to the point of collapse as an entire couch full of girls attacked me. the boys were outside smoking and talking philosophy (suckers). when we walked back to school and i raced jeff down nebraska. he's got longer legs, so he pulled ahead, but i got him on distance.

now i'm in hazelton, pennsylvania, alone in laura's house. when she gets back from her doctor's appointment, we'll hit the town i suppose. maybe i'll buy some jeans.

one warring faction

i tell the story about how i went to a show one time in high school, and the only thing i remember about the show-- not the band i went to see, who i went with, or anyhting-- the only thing i remember is this shitty opening band. they played like emo post punk keyboard stuff, i think. anyway, they were all jamming out, the music stops, and the singer yells, RELATIONSHIPS LIKE SPACESHIPS, and the music cuts back in. i remember standing there, not really thinking one way or the other, but after that line, i couldn't take it. i had to get out. that line didn't make any damned sense. but now. now, i mean, he might be right.


so i have to be in berlin on january 3rd, meaning i'll have to get on a plane on january 2nd. which is so fucking lame. i get back the 20th of december, so i'll have a monster 12 days to do everything i have to do. i wanted to tie up so many loose ends: i booked a sweet teeth show for january 6th in austin, i wanted to go see sara if we could work it out, i wanted to go see gareth (my roommate who's in chile till december). i wonder why no one ever visits, but i guess i rarely visit anyone, so i figured i'd take this oppurtunity, pre study abroad, to build some relationship capital i could use later on to lure friends to where i hang my hat. but, um, no longer feasible.

and honestly that's all i can think about. not about how rad it's going to be, or about where i'm going to go and what i want to see, or anything else-- just about how lame it is i have precious little time to dick around in texas.

i met joe hickerson today. he recorded one of the first ever versions of "kum ba ya." like, one of the very first ever. also, found out JOHN FAHEY went to american university! john fucking fahey. imagine that.

FALL

I sat on this bench
And watched some Mexican painters
fool around with some tall ladder.
All dressed in white and talking fast,
they were trying to get the job done before dark

It was getting cooler, like
Fall was just pulling up the drive,
Almost ready to turn out the headlights,
Come in and stay a while.

He’d leave soon enough,
But he’s always welcome company, you know?

We sit in the parlor playing cards.

“The sun looked like God was trying to punch through it today.”
“Yeah, I saw that.”

He’s always glum.
But he’s someone you can never see fault in, sometimes.

“Is Summer here?”
“No you just missed her.”
“Oh.”
“Winter’s coming later.”
“I heard. But I actually should be going.”

Friends are the people you can always trust to never hesitate to leave.

if you don't mind my dog's head

also, go to www.lomaxarchive.com. sign up for a log in and stuff, it's free, and it'll open you up to the wonderful world of all alan lomax's shit. it's so good. there are photos, recordings, lists of all the field recording trips he took. so many great things.

did you know that burl ives cooperated with the joe mccarthy hearings? outing folks like pete seeger as commies? i mean, it was true, but still and all it's like ives ratted him out so he could continue appearing on kids morning TV shows and christmas specials.

anyway, i played the guy's guitar last tuesday. one of em anyway. it's just hanging out under a table in the folklife center of the library of congress. it's pretty cool. classical. like daren's old WWII greek beast.

i love the library of congress.

waiting on a subway line!

i was thinking about the john legend song "ordinary people" yesterday. i heard it while i was giving blood. but i'll get to that later. but the song, right, it's so wierd! i must have heard that song about 50 times. no joke. i mean i think i heard it in TDR last year about 40 times.

anyway, so the song, you've heard it. it was everywhere last year. a pop r&b sensation, right? but it's so unlike every other overproduced radio hit-- there's no danceable beat, no swoopy harmonies or anything. just a guy and a piano.

i used to not like the song. the words just kind of got to me. they seemed way to literal and, i guess, ordinary. i don't know. seemed like something out of a nicolas sparks novel? "though love sometimes hurts/ i still put you first." and then the phrase "we're just ordinary people" always irked me-- it's honesty was a little too much. i found myself kind of feeling icky after hearing it, you know?

but as i was sitting there, getting drained of a pint of blood, i realized how unlikely a hit the song was. how many songs do you hear on the radio that are just a guy and a piano? it's at once a reaction against the overwrought production of most radio hits, embracing simplicity and honesty in songwriting rather than posturing and booty shaking, and a continuation of the same genre, somehow appealing to the same audience as other pop standbys.

of course, my knowledge of r&b goes about skin deep.

anyway, you know when you give blood, and they fill up the bag, and then they fill up about 6 test tubes for, you know, testing. the nurse, through a series of clamping and cutting or something, somehow diverts the blood to a different tube, and into this contraption that snaps onto the test tubes (lots of tubes, sorry). the nurse snaps the test tubes onto the contraption, opening the flow of blood, and it shoots into the test tube! a fine stream of speeding blood, right before your eyes. it's unreal, like seeing a wild animal roaming the streets. normally that animal's trapped inside your veins, but now you see it running wild, filling up a little tube.

wild.