how can someone so young sing words so sad?
i know that i was supposed to post a thing about my weekend on like...monday. i know. but i didn't do it, and i'm an asshole for it. the pictures are right here, behind a cut. i really like these because they're all fruitcake-y and blue and stuff, and. i don't know. from left to right, top to bottom, the pictures are of tio, the dishwasher at el azteca, bridget (in my room,) natalie at the great american diner, anthony getting ready to kick jill's glass viewing orb in her yard in trevose, and finally jill in anthony's front seat (picture credit to natalie for that one.)
during the rest of the week i just went about my business as usual, except that anthony, zach and i (collectively the rolans) have been practicing more this week than we have in a couple of months. the problem with this is that even though we have more than ten songs (roughly 13, 11 original,) the fact that we never practice and that most of the songs are extremely rough first-time-practiced shapes works against us. another problem is that i haven't been able to practice because my set is at anthony's, and he hasn't been able to have practice because his parents are insane. so, we have a lot of catching up to do. my footwork with the bass drum gets all sloppy and bad if i don't practice, and that's exactly what we're coping with right now. i'm pretty sure (90%) that once we polish up these songs that they will be awesome, though. i have noticed that the newer songs are not so much surf rock anymore, we're moving into some weird other territory that might necessitate the addition of a singer/guitarist and maybe a complete lineup. i don't know just yet.
anyway, as soon as i have mp3s of that i will let everyone know.
last night was christmas eve, and my computer exploded for a little bit. and it was lame. i spent an hour trying to fix it (to no avail,) and then after bridget stopped by for a little bit to say hi and stuff (i haven't really even seen her in like, a week and a half,) i went to bed. i was going to just stay awake and watch tv, but some big midnight mass was on and i didn't...i'm too lazy to watch that shit, i can't handle it even when it's just on television.
speaking of which, i don't know if they still do it, but for a really long time, our abc affiliate in philadelphia (ch. 6, wpvi) used to have a show called "THE MASS" that was broadcast live from their studios with a full altar and priest and shit like that. i guess the idea was that if you could stay at home and watch the mass on television and that'd count as going to church, and that's precisely what my great-grandmother (who i have to see today as part of our christmas festivities) did. any time we ("we" being a much younger my brother and i, think...ten and four, maybe 11 and five at oldest) were staying with her while our parents were out of town we would have to watch it, and it was actually pretty terrifying. i don't know if anybody still has network affiliates that broadcast actual programming of their own anymore, but in philadelphia it's nearly dead. there are a couple variety shows and news things, stuff like that, but for the longest time there were all sorts of amazing and completely insanely produced shows that were on our ABC (and sometimes CBS or NBC) affiliates. this was mostly due to the fact that philly doesn't have a public access channel, i think...anyway. i hated most of the shows, but even as a kid you can appreciate how ridiculous some of the shows were. "puerto rican panorama," for instance, was well-intentioned but had really gaudy graphics and music that almost played into stereotypes, the aforementioned mass program had equally awful graphics and was hosted by a priest who slurred his words as though he had taken a few too many shots of j.d. before the proceedings--not that i blame him, of course. there were also these really awesome kids' shows that i used to fucking love, chief halftown and captain noah. god. i want to cry thinking about it. anyway, uh.
what was i talking about? oh, right, it's christmas. so anyway, i told my mom that i didn't want to ask for anything for christmas, originally (i had wanted her to give a chunk of whatever she thought she'd spend on me to howard dean, since this christmas biz is ridiculous and homeboy needs to win his nomination,) and then i asked if i could just get some new pants or something and have that be that. but when she decliined and insisted that i buy records (me! had to insist to me that i be given FREE RECORDS) i broke and made up a little list. i actually was still trying to see if i could get her to give some or all of the money to dean, so i made my list really indie rock and obscure, with some semi-obscure things tossed in for good measure and one or two really obvious records. i think there were like 12 on my list, or something. she found EIGHT of them in a normal record store. i was pretty blown away. she also managed to (my mom has gone from being really bad at buying presents to REALLY good suddenly) get me a crazy record carrying box that's all metallic and this book that i've been wanting to read called how soon is never? that's about the smiths and their impact on some fictional guy. it was written by some spin magazine editor douchebag, but i hear it's all right so i'm going to give it a chance.
oh, and my little brother and my dad gave me a fucking hundred dollars in great american diner gift certificates. in the words of 50 cent, "we ballin', muthafucka."
today i eat dinner with my great-grandmother and great-aunt, and then i go visit my favorite family in the universe at sarawr's. christmas is turning out okay thus far...i hope it's at least close for everyone else. if not, please fax me a list of people you want dead, then come over here and we'll all watch "strangers with candy" and burn your enemies in effigy. yeah, i said it; effigy.
during the rest of the week i just went about my business as usual, except that anthony, zach and i (collectively the rolans) have been practicing more this week than we have in a couple of months. the problem with this is that even though we have more than ten songs (roughly 13, 11 original,) the fact that we never practice and that most of the songs are extremely rough first-time-practiced shapes works against us. another problem is that i haven't been able to practice because my set is at anthony's, and he hasn't been able to have practice because his parents are insane. so, we have a lot of catching up to do. my footwork with the bass drum gets all sloppy and bad if i don't practice, and that's exactly what we're coping with right now. i'm pretty sure (90%) that once we polish up these songs that they will be awesome, though. i have noticed that the newer songs are not so much surf rock anymore, we're moving into some weird other territory that might necessitate the addition of a singer/guitarist and maybe a complete lineup. i don't know just yet.
anyway, as soon as i have mp3s of that i will let everyone know.
last night was christmas eve, and my computer exploded for a little bit. and it was lame. i spent an hour trying to fix it (to no avail,) and then after bridget stopped by for a little bit to say hi and stuff (i haven't really even seen her in like, a week and a half,) i went to bed. i was going to just stay awake and watch tv, but some big midnight mass was on and i didn't...i'm too lazy to watch that shit, i can't handle it even when it's just on television.
speaking of which, i don't know if they still do it, but for a really long time, our abc affiliate in philadelphia (ch. 6, wpvi) used to have a show called "THE MASS" that was broadcast live from their studios with a full altar and priest and shit like that. i guess the idea was that if you could stay at home and watch the mass on television and that'd count as going to church, and that's precisely what my great-grandmother (who i have to see today as part of our christmas festivities) did. any time we ("we" being a much younger my brother and i, think...ten and four, maybe 11 and five at oldest) were staying with her while our parents were out of town we would have to watch it, and it was actually pretty terrifying. i don't know if anybody still has network affiliates that broadcast actual programming of their own anymore, but in philadelphia it's nearly dead. there are a couple variety shows and news things, stuff like that, but for the longest time there were all sorts of amazing and completely insanely produced shows that were on our ABC (and sometimes CBS or NBC) affiliates. this was mostly due to the fact that philly doesn't have a public access channel, i think...anyway. i hated most of the shows, but even as a kid you can appreciate how ridiculous some of the shows were. "puerto rican panorama," for instance, was well-intentioned but had really gaudy graphics and music that almost played into stereotypes, the aforementioned mass program had equally awful graphics and was hosted by a priest who slurred his words as though he had taken a few too many shots of j.d. before the proceedings--not that i blame him, of course. there were also these really awesome kids' shows that i used to fucking love, chief halftown and captain noah. god. i want to cry thinking about it. anyway, uh.
what was i talking about? oh, right, it's christmas. so anyway, i told my mom that i didn't want to ask for anything for christmas, originally (i had wanted her to give a chunk of whatever she thought she'd spend on me to howard dean, since this christmas biz is ridiculous and homeboy needs to win his nomination,) and then i asked if i could just get some new pants or something and have that be that. but when she decliined and insisted that i buy records (me! had to insist to me that i be given FREE RECORDS) i broke and made up a little list. i actually was still trying to see if i could get her to give some or all of the money to dean, so i made my list really indie rock and obscure, with some semi-obscure things tossed in for good measure and one or two really obvious records. i think there were like 12 on my list, or something. she found EIGHT of them in a normal record store. i was pretty blown away. she also managed to (my mom has gone from being really bad at buying presents to REALLY good suddenly) get me a crazy record carrying box that's all metallic and this book that i've been wanting to read called how soon is never? that's about the smiths and their impact on some fictional guy. it was written by some spin magazine editor douchebag, but i hear it's all right so i'm going to give it a chance.
oh, and my little brother and my dad gave me a fucking hundred dollars in great american diner gift certificates. in the words of 50 cent, "we ballin', muthafucka."
today i eat dinner with my great-grandmother and great-aunt, and then i go visit my favorite family in the universe at sarawr's. christmas is turning out okay thus far...i hope it's at least close for everyone else. if not, please fax me a list of people you want dead, then come over here and we'll all watch "strangers with candy" and burn your enemies in effigy. yeah, i said it; effigy.