music revival, day 14

the replacements - all for nothing and nothing for all

all for nothing

1. "Left of the Dial"
2. "Kiss Me on the Bus"
3. "Bastards of Young"
4. "Here Comes a Regular"
5. "Skyway"
6. "Alex Chilton"
7. "The Ledge"
8. "Can't Hardly Wait"
9. "I'll Be You"
10. "Achin' to Be"
11. "Talent Show"
12. "Anywhere's Better Than Here"
13. "Merry Go Round"
14. "Sadly Beautiful"
15. "Nobody"
16. "Someone Take the Wheel"

• favorite tracks: left of the dial, bastards of young, alex chilton, achin to be, anywhere's better than here
  
• comments: this dual album was given to me by a fellow dj at WRHO, dr. mike woost. he was the only professor i had for anthropology, and i took 2 of his classes and loved both of them. i digress. at some point he got involved in radio and either i had a show before or after him and i was playing the goo goo dolls and he said something to the effect that it reminded him of the replacements. i replied with, "who are the replacements?" next time we saw each other he had this 2 disc set in hand. i now wonder if i was supposed to give it back to him. i never asked. and i haven't seen him for years.
  
  this album took a bit of getting used to. it has a definite indie feel, not polished, not finished, not popular with anyone, including radio stations. the first 2 times through the disc i was not sure about it. by the third time i started to like it, and was taken back to all those people that didn't like 'popular' music, but liked other stuff i just couldn't get into. maybe i can, after all.
  
  'kiss me on the bus' reminded me of a high school band trip where it was late and we were all coming home on a school bus and some people were playing truth or dare. i tried to stay out of it but someone was dared to kiss me. i can't remember if we did or didn't, but i remember feeling weird about it. we got along OK though he was younger than me. *shrug* 'skyway' definitely had to be written about minneapolis, because there was just so much ringing true to it. then i looked and these guys are from there, so it makes perfect sense.
  

music revival, days 12-13

neil finn and friends - 7 worlds collide

1. anytime
2. take a walk
3. the climber
4. loose tongue
5. down on the corner
6. there is a light that never goes out
7. paper doll
8. turn and run
9. angels heap
10. edible flowers
11. stuff and nonsense
12. i see red
13. she will have her way
14. weather with you
15. paradise (wherever you are)
    
16. don't dream it's over

• favorite tracks: anytime, the climber, down on the corner, turn and run, stuff and nonsense, she will have her way, weather with you, don't dream it's over
  
• comments: 'take a walk' had a familiar voice singing, wasn't quite sure, but when i heard 'stuff and nonsense' i was certain - eddie vedder! had no idea he participated in this project. 'there is a light...' was certainly familiar, but upon listening closer it was a little bit morbid. and yet it's still kind of stuck in my head. 'turn and run' reminded me of hanging out with kevin f. in CA. 'i see red' was a HUGE change in pace on this album; a rock and roll song stuck in with a bunch of more melodic tunes...good but seemed a little out of place. 'don't dream it's over' - i had no idea this was by crowded house/neil finn. a little musical education for me!
  

switchfoot - the beautiful letdown

• favorite tracks: meant to live, this is your life, dare you to move, the beautiful letdown, gone, adding to the noise
  
• comments: i have been hesitant to listen to this one for awhile, because after reviewing the liner notes i realized a lot of the songs on this album are about God, jesus, etc. and i thought, "oh no, a christian rock band! how could i have picked this?" of course, the concept of christian rock bands had been lost on me until someone in CA pointed out that a song i liked talked about God or something, and i started thinking. but i am not sure these guys are a purely christian rock band. i am certain i heard meant to live on an alternative rock station, and for some reason i'm envisioning hearing it in iowa, but that might not be right, since it was released in 2003. must have heard it on the radio driving somewhere. anyway, after all my hesitations to listen to this album, turns out, it's really great. not too heavy, not too light. it was perfect for long day thursday / short day monday listening.
  

music revival, days 10-11

driving up and back to portland and a little time spent at work...

collective soul - collective soul

• favorite tracks: almost the whole album
  
• comments: i got this in the wake of their hints, allegations, and things left unsaid album; actually, i never got that one, i had just heard a few songs off it and liked them so figured i'd give this one a shot. a great driving cd, i listened to it often while driving back and forth to iowa in the summer of 2000. and for many other long distance driving adventures.
  

dave matthews band - crash

• favorite tracks: so much to say, too much, say goodbye, lie in our graves, tripping billies, proudest monkey
  
• comments: this album has more sexual allusions than many albums i know or like. this is not my favorite of dmb's albums, but it does have some fun tracks on it. i love the concept of being the 'proudest monkey'.
  

coldplay - a rush of blood to the head

• favorite tracks: whole album
  
• comments: i bought this album either before or at the same time as parachutes because several people in the rizzo lab were into it. once i got it, i was hooked. i often can't guess the names of the tracks from the lyrics, but i love these guys.
  

man vs. shed, roommates and the internet

a few things from last week:

a few weeks ago, my roommates and i spoke about getting firewood for the winter (since we don't turn on the heat to save money, we just use the wood stove while we're home).

scratch that.

*I* brought up that we should start looking for firewood. maybe look on craigslist. maybe look around for something cheap. maybe look for something free, though not crappy wood. everyone agreed and cheered, "yay! free firewood!"

a few weeks went by. i looked on craigslist and found a few places giving away free firewood. some even very close to home. i emailed the guys, since i knew i'd be working late and they're great about checking their email, and said, "hey, can someone go check this out?" no one did.

after a couple weeks, i realized i was going to have to spearhead this effort if we were going to get wood. so i got on craigslist and started really looking for free firewood. emailed several people. got in touch with one. we arranged a pickup. this was on a tuesday. my roommates were conveniently not home that night when i left. i went over there with my station wagon and filled the backseat and trunk, about 1.5 layers thick - some doug fir and maybe hemlock. not much, but hey, it was free.

on the drive home, i HAPPENED to see a sign that said "free firewood!" just down the street from our house. i couldn't believe it! so close! i pulled over and picked though it. this time it was a rotten birch that someone had cut down, probably last year and just had sitting there. it was quite dry and in the proper size logs. some were very light; i left those. the trouble with this location was that the wood was located on the side of the house where the street is a steep hill with a stop sign. no place to pull over. so i had to walk each armful of logs back to my car, around the yard. by now it was dark so it might have looked a little weird with a woman walking around carrying logs from someone's house and putting them into her car. i probably took 5 armloads of semi-rotten wood and then drove home.

jason was home when i got back, and he happily helped me unload it into the backyard.

the next day i heard back from a guy who was selling around a cord of firewood for $90. cherry. been cut and seasoning all summer. probably the best we were going to get, and most of it was split. after talking with the man, i realized it was going to be a do-it-yourself operation, as he wasn't going to be able to help me. this night, again, no one was home when i went to go get the wood.

i drove over, assessed the pile, and started loading. i filled my car, to the brim, backseat all the way to the trunk, floor to ceiling, full of wood. i got home. the roommates were now home, and were glad to help out with the unloading of wood, though dinnertime was approaching and they were getting ready to eat dinner (where was my dinner?). this time, 3 of the 4 of them helped, with one not wanting to get dirty or something, i guess.

i asked if anyone wanted to come help me load up with a second load. "we're about to eat dinner," they replied, so i dutifully went back and loaded my car, again, filled to the brim. i got back, and again 3 people came out and helped me unload. we even used a wheelbarrow and zach led us in a rousing round of "the wonders of mechanical invention" or something like that. by then i'd spent 3 hours loading and unloading and driving back and forth, and working all day. i was pretty tired. but as a group, we did share the first/only pepper the garden produced this year, after all the wood was unloaded.

the next day was thursday, and i decided i better go and get the rest of the wood. thankfully, my boss brought in his pickup so i could use that instead of my car. what i didn't know was that the pickup had a topper on it, so i couldn't just go load crazy, but i was bound by the constraints of the topper. went home to see if anyone wanted to help. people were surfing the internet / playing on their computers / watching youtube / making dinner / hanging out with each other, and that apparently made them *too* busy to help me out (are we detecting a pattern?)

i went back, and loaded the truck filled as full as i could. some of the pieces are extremely heavy, it turned out, so i had to have some strategy as to how to get them into the truck. the thing of it was, this wood was in a big pile, but it wasn't a place i could put the truck easily. so i had to sort the wood into smaller pieces, toss those over to the tailgate, then toss them into the truck, then crawl into the truck to stack them all neatly and as tightly as possible. this was a big procedure. i knew i couldn't just casually toss the bigger pieces, so i rolled them end over end, over to the truck, and ended up putting them in last in order to save my back.

i took the first load, got the 2 guys to help me unload, then of course, dinner was ready, so i left and reloaded and was able to perfectly fit all the rest of the wood into the second load (insuring i wouldn't have to go back again)(i was VERY proud of my packing/conceptualizing skills in this moment). for though this wood was in town, it was almost as far away as it could be, since i live in the northwest and it was in the southeast, and there is NO good or direct way to get there. i don't drive around town on a regular basis, so by now i was pretty tired of driving. this set took me 3.5 hours, and still i had not eaten dinner. the guys helped me unload the second load, and we called it a day. i had kind of hoped to cover up the wood in case it rained, but it was all sprawled out and unruly so i kind of covered it with the tarps from the loading. luckily it did keep the wood covered and it did rain. sigh.

one thing that bothers me about my current living situation is the fact that i live with 2 guys, who both have their girlfriends living in the house with us right now. it's not permanent; one girl just got a place this week after having moved into town from colorado a couple weeks ago, the other girl has been around all summer after returning from the peace corps in africa and will be leaving to go to grad school in a couple of weeks. the issue is, with all the other girls around to draw their attention, my roommates are useless. it's like i don't exist in the house at all. like a ghost just around to be spooky and translucent.

before the internet, jason or girls arrived, zach and i would actually talk after work. he'd shoot hoops in the living room and we'd debrief each other about our day's work and experiences. it was like having a real friend in the house. i enjoyed getting to know zach and learn a little about what his experience was like as a first year teacher.

jason moved in sometime in may, and he made it known that "because he was going to be a student, he was going to need internet at the house." this didn't make a ton of sense to me, since he could do internet stuff at school, but zach decided he didn't want to go to the library for internet anymore, so they got it installed. i stayed out of it. i like my home time to be my own, where i can do home things and not be distracted by the vacuum that is the computer / internet world. i don't think they get that quite yet.

right after that, serena moved back from africa, and now she and zach were hanging out all the time. which, i probably would too if my boyfriend had been in africa for 2 years. i started working really wacky crazy hours at work, and/or was away because of dance camps and visiting my parents, so this didn't bother me too much. others vacationed or went off to do field work, and it was like a real summer vacation.

then, about 3-4 weeks ago, claire moved here from colorado. she is perhaps one of the sweetest people i've ever met in my life. she's just so nice. i'm pretty sure at the same time, zach and serena had some people come over as well. it was a VERY full house for a little while there, and people actually had to use the shower with the curtain that attacks you. of course, they didn't put down a bathmat, nor did they take my towel off the curtain rod while showering, so i woke to find that my towel was soaked and there was water all over the floor of my bathroom. thanks, visitors!

anyway, since all these people were around, i thought for sure at some point i'd have some people to talk to after long days at work by myself. but no. they are busy either talking with each other or, get this, surfing the internet individually on their own laptops, while sitting in the same room. there are 4 people and 4 laptops going sometimes in the living room/dining room area. it's nuts. you don't even need to converse with people anymore. as long as you have the internet.

back to my original point about firewood. one thing the guys said to me very clearly and with a lot of excitement was that they LOVED splitting firewood and were very eager to do so for the exercise effect.

on tuesday of last week, about 5 days after the firewood unloading bonanza, not one piece of firewood had been split.

scratch that.

jason had split the rotten birch logs into pieces. none of the NEW CHERRY firewood had been split. i wanted it split so it could fit in the stove and also so it could dry out. i also wanted to stack it in the shed so that it could stay dry. winter is coming and i'm not blind to that fact. i think they are.

i realized i had to take matters into my own hands. on wednesday, i took the day off work and after i finished at the soup kitchen, i went home, did several loads of laundry, got my firewooding clothes on, and went outside to attempt to make some sense of the wood pile.

first thing was to get the dry wood that was in there, out, so that it could be burned first while the other stuff dried out more thoroughly. (jon made a good point later that maybe i should mix it up, have some old and some new mixed in so that if we needed it, we'd have some later. what a smart man.) i tossed all of last year's stuff out. started sorting through the pile of new stuff, seeing what was manageable and what was too big. tossed the reasonably sized stuff to the woodshed, bigger stuff was set up around the yard for ease of splitting. i figured if it was sitting there looking at them, they'd be more likely to split it, vs in a big pile which looks way too daunting. then i started stacking.

after about an hour, jason got home / came outside and said, "what's going on out here?" i said, "well, i'm setting up logs that are too big so they can get split. or else, we can have a big pow wow." because it kind of looked like camp with a bunch of logs all around in a horseshoe shape. he seemed genuinely interested in helping out, so he got the wedge and sledgehammer and started splitting. it was fun to have 2 of us out there doing the work, vs just me. he lasted about an hour or less at this task, then went back inside to hang out with the girlfriend. maybe i would have done the same thing. but maybe my boyfriend would have come out to help with the firewood.

i continued tossing and sorting and stacking until it got dark. i went through the pile in the front yard and got it all piled up into pieces that need splitting and covered it with a tarp. i even put on my headlamp. i even smashed my face into the side of the roof of the shed, at which point i decided it was time to quit for the day. i had about 2 rows of wood under the shed, and i'd put some plastic along the back to keep rain water from getting in there since it's open. i was very proud of my efforts. i definitely feel a huge sense of accomplishment after moving wood around and getting it arranged like i want it. there's still more to do, but i had done what i could in the free time that i had. the internet can wait for winter in my opinion, when there's nothing left to do and we can sit around inside. in a way, it feels a little like that story about the grasshopper who just frolicked about and was having a grand old time in the summer, while the ants were busily storing food for the winter. my grasshoppers won't even realize what a service i've done them when it's cold and rainy and we have dry wood to keep us warm.

i went in to ice my face.

music revival, day 9

familiar felt right today. i wasn't visiting albums for the first time, but rather, i had a small collection of cds i'd put together for jon to listen to at some point. some were best for driving, some were picked because i knew he'd like them, some were oldies, some were new, some were just favorites for nostalgic reasons. here's what i ended up listening to today:

carbon leaf - indian summer

• favorite tracks: what about everything?, life less ordinary, grey sky eyes, one prairie outpost, let your troubles roll by
• comments: this album was recommended to me by frank, from my days back in california. it's just a great album for leisurely driving, with both ballady type stuff and more pop/indie rock sounds. i just love it.
  

counting crows - this desert life

• favorite tracks: hanging around, mrs potters lullaby, st robinson and his cadillac dream
  
• comments: this is an album from the end of college. i remember justin from the radio station was way into counting crows, and i remembered enjoying 'mr jones', and hearing 'a long december', but knew not much else about them. it was this album that caught my attention - most likely we got a promo at the station and i was a converted counting crows fan, right then and there.
  

dave matthews band - under the table and dreaming

• favorite tracks: best of what's around, what would you say, satellite, typical situation, dancing nancies, ants marching, jimi thing, warehouse
  
• comments: this album is a classic. it was one of the first 3 cds i ever bought in my life, and i'm SO glad that i did (others were blues traveler four and sheryl crow tuesday night music club). it's upbeat, it's catchy, he doesn't do too much of that angry/scary voice that turns me off of some of the band's other tracks...overall, one i could listen to any day and it would make the day better, instantly.
  

collective soul - dosage

• favorite tracks: tremble for my beloved, no more no less, dandy life, generate
  
• comments: almost all of the tracks on here are favorites of one sort or another. i went to see collective soul the year after my senior year of college, while i was still living in oneonta. kevin and i roadtripped to rochester with james h., and i'm pretty sure i must have slept the whole way home because i have no recollection of staying there overnight. anyway, the band was promoting this album at the time, and i can still see ed roland, front and center stage, moving his head back and forth in a rhythmic way to 'generate'. awesome.
  

creedence clearwater revival - chronicle

• favorite tracks: proud mary, bad moon rising, down on the corner, fortunate son, traveling band, looking out my back door, who'll stop the rain?, heard it through the grapevine
  
• comments: oldies / classic rock. i love it.
  

coldplay - parachutes

• favorite tracks: the whole album
  
• comments: i didn't know this album actually existed until their second album a rush of blood to the head came out and became wildly successful. i had heard the song 'yellow' before, but didn't know that it came from them, or from what album. once i went shopping for the second one, which happened to be while in was in california (among people who were listening to it often at work), i just bought this one at the same time. a wise decision! :)
  

first in, last out

last weekend was labor day. a long weekend. just what i needed.

jon and i attended northwest passage dance camp, held near mt hood. the weather was just about perfect for camping, and the music and dancing were very high level and quite fun. and at the same time, it was a very different crowd than what i'm used to at contra camp. of course, this one had a very distinct mix of contra and english country dance, which was definitely part of the reason for the difference. i enjoyed spending time with the people, but it was by no means thrilling or really life changing unlike other camps where i've gone and felt like i never wanted to leave because i was having so much fun. though, i was given a dress to wear by someone who makes/alters dresses and, well, the dress was a hit. people were impressed and said things like, "wow" and "you look adorable" and "you really do look fantastic". so, a little confidence boost for me, despite the fact that i was unsure if i actually breathed the whole night, as the seams on the dress were rigid and somewhat tight. at one point i said, "how did people ever wear corsets?!"

on my way home tuesday morning - well, i say home, but i really mean on my way back to work - i was listening to the radio (since both my books on cd were a little too heavy for light, leisurely morning listening) and one of the first songs that came on was dave matthews band "satellite". i knew then that i was going to have a good music day, if nothing else. and i did (you can read about it in this post.)

but what this post is really about is being the first in and last out of work.

(for reference, the terms "first in, last out" and "last in, first out" come from labels my dad puts on the boxes christmas decorations. we keep them in the attic, which is long and narrow, and you can't get to all the boxes at once. they go into storage in a straight line. some boxes of decorations are for the house, which can go up before ones for the tree, and the last box out is the stockings since we only use them for christmas day. that's the one for which this post is named.)

at least 2 days a week, i get to work around 8am. since it's summer, there are very few people that are at work at that hour, and forget about students. the bike parking rack is nearly empty, and the same 7 bikes that are there every night when i leave are still there in the morning. i suspect 6 of them are abandoned due to the spiderwebs accumulating on them. i digress. i get to work and there's no one here, not even cars in the parking lot.

i go about my business of setting up my experiment for the day. some days it's getting the samples out of the oven to cool, getting ice for the coolers, cutting parafilm strips, cleaning out the hood, getting the nitration solution and samples from the downstairs lab and bringing them upstairs. sometimes it's getting the samples out of the dessicator and adding acetone. then the procedure begins. and then i have to wait for 4 hours while the reaction happens. or else i have to vortex the samples in 45 minute intervals until it's time to centrifuge them.

in this time i go about other tasks, like washing dishes and getting filters and things ready for the afternoon. i fill flasks with rinse water, separate filter papers, other lab type chores. sometimes i see some people, and sometimes i walk in the stairwell where i can see that there are a lot more cars in the parking lot by 10am. i then eat lunch, usually between 12-1. then, after 1pm, make a run to chem stores to pick up ~20lb of dry ice and bring it back to the lab. or, once the samples are done centrifuging, i bring them to the hood and allow them to evaporate, which takes about an hour. and then i get to do the most fun part of my job which is precipitate the samples, which sometimes works better than others.

by 130 i'm filtering samples. some are very, very slow. the hours creep by. i've done one filtration on 16 samples and it's taken between 3-4 hours.

on precipitation days, some samples do not need filtering. these are great samples and i praise them highly. thank you chemistry gods that made the reaction work so well. the ones that do need filtering usually take anywhere from 1-2 hours EACH to filter. this process is HIGHLY boring, and in the end, not very satisfying.

by now it's 5pm and i take a little walk around the building. it's so quiet. i look out into the parking lot. not many cars out there, but it's not empty. many people have already gone home for dinner. second filtration sometimes goes a little faster, and then it's 730-8pm.

i stop at some point and have some dinner. i think about things like how i wish i could make time to go to the gym on these days. or how some people are home right now. as i walk back to the lab, i look outside again and realize that everyone has gone home, leave a few straggling grad students who are on the computers in the lab or someone who stayed home with the kids and came in late to work on a few things.

my last filtration usually goes the fastest, and sometimes i'm done by 930 or 10. of course, it's usually later because i have to take breaks between each filtration set because my back is usually very sore. i have to stretch, sit down, or just get off my feet. so the first set goes from 130-430, take a break till 530, next set goes till 830, take a break till 9, next set goes till 1030 or 11, then i scrape the samples into tubes and put the tubes into the dessicator with the dry ice.

usually during my down time, if i'm not stretching or doing dishes, i do some email, catch up with people, do my alumni emails or other dance p.r. things, and usually have a snack. i knew things were getting dire when i went to my emergency food bag yesterday and found that it was down to 1 handful of roasted salted almonds, 2 handfuls of dried cranberries, 3 packets of instant oatmeal, and 1 can of amy's low sodium chunky tomato bisque soup. i mean, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly isn't anything i find to be 'thrilling'.

many nights i don't leave until 12am. sometimes later. and when i go back out to the bike rack, i see that the parking lot is empty, except for the state vehicles that are there all the time. and i realize all the bikes from this morning are still there. no one has come to claim them. i tell them, "good night" and head for home.

music revival, day 8

as the week winds down, i've got another long day of lab work ahead of me, so i figured i'd listen to some tunes to get back into my music revival.


queen - classic queen

• favorite known tracks: bohemian rhapsody, under pressure
  
• surprise favorite unknown tracks: a kind of magic, hammer to fall, stone cold crazy, radio ga ga, slightly mad, i want it all, tie your mother down, the miracle, one vision
• comments: i found this one while putting some other cds away, and realized i'd never listened to the cd; just put it away without a second thought. i knew i liked bohemian rhapsody, and even though EVERYONE always says, "under pressure! that's by david bowie!" they would be surprised to find out that the MUSIC is by queen and it was queen's first joint venture in music with alternate artists. i was quite surprised by how much i disliked this album the first 2 times i listened to it, but by the third/fourth/fifth time, i found myself quite enjoying it. the first 2 times i thought it was too hard rock, too ballady, and too wimpy and thin sounding. however, today i had quite a different outlook on the album (the first 2 times through were on tuesday afternoon after already being kind of tired from a long day that just kept getting longer). 'hammer to fall' i'm sure relates to the cold war and the soviet union, 'stone cold crazy' is apparently done by other heavy metal artists and is, in my opinion, better during the times when there are lyrics. 'radio ga ga' reminds me a bit of dire straits, 'money for nothing' though i don't know why. 'slightly mad' brought up memories of dr. demento 'they're coming to take me away'. certainly the most poignant song for me of the album is 'i want it all' - it hits home so much for me the current generation - 'i want it all, and i want it NOW!' i'm pretty sure that's what they were getting at, though maybe it has been like that for all time. and 'tie your mother down' reminds me of billy joel's 'only the good die young' - come on out and hang out with us already! it'll be fun! and, at the end, the track 'who wants to live forever?' has a sequence in it that reminds me of led zeppelin's 'live and let die' if that's even the name of that tune, which it probably isn't. i heard the phrase, and kept waiting for the finish, but, well, this was queen's song...

i was very impressed with this album, even with it's greatest hits type status, and in the shadow of it's predecessor killer queen hogging the spotlight with the big hits, it still delivered. thursday was delightful with this album in my lab coat. :)

musical interlude / musical respite

this week i took a little vacation from listening to music at work. probably because i had such a rotten day of music with steve's 2008 pop vol. 2 and kelly clarkson's my december. i'd reserved several books on cd at the library and had the opportunity to listen to one while driving to portland last weekend. i was so entertained and excited about this book; if it had been in hard copy, it would have been one of those books you stay up all night reading because it's so good.

the sex lives of cannibals by j. maarten troost is a story about a guy who feels sort of lost in the world, until his girlfriend gets a job on a small island in the south pacific and they move there. their lives are turned upside down, though, they did not move there with such grandiose notions of modern living. and they were open to the experience and adventure. and got just that. the book wasn't really about sex lives, or about cannibals - i suspect the author just used that to get your attention; the book was recommended to me, i didn't even pick it out myself - but about their experiences on this tiny, tiny remote island. what they ate, who they met, the music (la macarena was the main song being played over and over and over, and loudly), the heat, the sweltering heat, the drought and lack of fresh water, the bugs, the people, the culture, the ocean, and most of all, poop. i suppose if he'd named the book something about poop, no one would have wanted to read it.

his style of writing is the kind that i like to read. i would gladly read another. i hope to!