llcoolvad: (hair)
The last couple of days of vacation were pretty productive. I managed to finish weeding all the books. All my non-fiction is now organized and fits on the shelves I have, with no additional books in front of them, and with two shelves extra (Brian's stuff, and my puzzles and games). Very satisfying. I still have way too many books. I guess maybe every spring I'll do another weeding (as one does). I removed about 160 books; not entirely certain, but that's a close-enough number, bringing my two-time total to over 500 books out the door. Feels good.

I also cleaned up the downstairs completely and it looks pretty good now! We're planning on making some changes in the kitchen when we have some energy (ok, maybe that's just me), but for now things look good and work well. On Monday I didn't do a lot. A few chores for mom and for me. Read some. Napped some. Prepped a little to go back to work. I don't remember anything else remarkable...oh, wait! I remember, I was inspired by

Photobucket
Big Blue


my new CD palace (isn't it cute? I heart it), and started my music cataloging in earnest. I updated both my ipod and iphone, got through noting everything that's already on the 'pod in a spreadsheet, deleted duplicates, cleaned out orphans, basically got things in ship-shape. I need to finish cataloging the CDs, and then tackle the hard drive. But I have made a lot of progress, and feel confident that I have almost all of my music now sorted out and readily available for playing. Yet more progress.

My next project will be much easier. I need to get rid of some clothes. That doesn't need to take more than an evening after work, however. I need new stuff, and frankly until I get rid of old I have nowhere for new. Motivation! I have no emotional attachment to my clothes; I find it dead easy to just pile stuff in bags and bring 'em to goodwill, so this project should be very easy. Yay, easy!

This week back to work has been a little better. I've been calmer. I have weird physical symptoms this week, though. One of my ankles has swollen up a couple of times in the evening, which doesn't hurt or anything but is weird to see. My other leg has a really tight tendon or something that makes it very painful to get up. I have pretty much convinced myself that I need to go back to physical therapy. I am hugely grateful that my health insurance allows me 100 physical therapy visits per calendar year. I just wish the co-pays weren't $15. If I go three times per week that's $45, or $180 per month. I don't really want to have to afford it, but hey, it would be nice to be able to get out of a chair readily, right? And they can work on my back again. It still sucks. Man, I hate this getting old business.

So that's been the week. I started this morning, as I do every morning, by opening the shades for the cat so she can sunbathe all day. Today, however, the shade smacked the bedside lamp onto my bed, where the bulb shattered most spectacularly. Broken light bulb in my bed, on the chair, all over the floor! And I was running late to work, so I only had time for the barest cleanup. Had to spend this evening moving the bed, changing the sheets, sweeping everywhere, changing the pillowcases, etc. I have a rule: no glasses on the second floor. We use plastic cups, so if something gets knocked over the place where we're barefoot a lot (bathroom is on the second floor too) is still safe for our tender feet. Sigh. Not from marauding light bulbs, though! Tricky bastards.

Hopefully as I fling myself into my new sheets tonight I will not shred myself to death. Wish me luck!

late-vac

Apr. 30th, 2011 11:37 pm
llcoolvad: (hair)
Ah, only two days left, now. It's ok, it's been a good vacation. Of the staycation kind.

Yesterday I continued my book weeding, but I had to pause late afternoon to take Ria to the vet. She had been sneezing a lot for a couple of days, and I didn't want to go into the weekend without having someone look at her. It came on very suddenly, and as she's an indoor cat with no exposure to other cats I had no idea what it could be.

After a pretty thorough exam, my vet said that she probably is having a flare-up of feline herpes. Say what? I'd never even heard of feline herpes. Apparently it's common in ex-feral or shelter kitties (of which Ria is one). Much like other forms of herpes, once you get it there's no cure. In cats, it manifests as a respiratory illness. And because it's viral, there isn't much they can do for it. He told me to keep an eye on her discharge, and if it turns something other than clear she might have a secondary infection and she should go on antibiotics. But for now, I just listen to sad kitty sneezes. She's so annoyed by it; she gets so indignant every time she has a sneezing fit. It's making her super affectionate, too, which is so NOT Ria. Brian's away for the weekend and she spent last night cuddled up to me in bed. Very cute, and so sad! Sick kitties are sad kitties.

I brought her home, then headed over to Burlington to hit the local L.L. Bean. I was hoping to find some shoes, and I was hoping to get my bag (that I bought there about three years ago) fixed or replaced. Alas! I failed at both. Nothing in my size that I liked or that felt good on my feet, and the bag was discontinued. They were willing to give me a credit for it, but I can still use it and it's perfect for work, so no thanks. (The strap had a failure point, and I've basically carabiner-ed it together, but I was hoping their returns policy would help me get a new strap. No joy!)

Did more book sorting and weeding last night. Today I wanted to go to IKEA. I had all my CDs in various places in the house, and the main storage thing I had for it was really rickety and frankly way too small. Even after I'd weeded out hundreds of CDs last fall, I still have almost 700. IKEA's Benno in blue to the rescue. Patrick and I drove down, got some Swedish meatballs in the cafe, then wandered around a bit. I bought a plant, some plant pots, four Bennos, and a basket. Patrick bought nothing, but did all my heavy lifting for me. Brought them upstairs, even! I spent the afternoon assembling them and filling them with my CDs, and finally every CD I own is in one place! Very nice. And I am digging the blue. Very cheerful. I will take some pix tomorrow when there is light.

My knees are death right now, so as much as I'd like to spend a few more hours and wrap up the book project I think it needs to wait until morning. I'm going to pound some more 'profen and crawl into bed with sick kitty and kindle. Dexter is distracting!

Socialist

Apr. 13th, 2011 12:44 am
llcoolvad: (hair)
I was a little more social this weekend than I usually am. Friday night after work Brian, Patrick and I headed up the Manchester NH to go see Jenn's husband's band. It's a country band, which isn't really my thing, but I like her husband and I've already seen them twice before, so it's sorta fun. Getting so I know the songs, even. The venue was kinda like a hotel conference hall; they'd jazzed it up (countried it up, I guess!) to be a little more country-friendly, and practically everyone had on tight jeans and big hats, but it still felt like tomorrow morning it would host the wedding of Trisha and Bobby (it's the second wedding for Trisha, and Bobby's third, so they don't want to spend TOO much).

It was supposed to be inside a restaurant, but to order food you had to select from a limited menu and do it from the bar. We were all starving, but that seemed complicated. Thankfully the band went on first, so we split right after. Watching the line dancing was making me feel a little queasy, anyway. We hit the restaurant on the other side of the building and noshed on prime rib egg rolls and some other stuff. Was good.

The next day, Saturday, Patrick and I went to see "The Woman in Black" at Quannapowitt Players. Normally he can only manage to drag me to plays when he's either in them, writing them, or dating someone in them. This time was none of the above, and yet it was still fun. It didn't have the amazingly hot Russian guy from The Bear, but hey. Not every actor is an amazingly hot Russian guy. Damn it.

Sunday was supposed to be some kind of Star Wars musical something, but Brian didn't feel well so we bagged out on that.

Monday night I hung out with Stephen and Val, ending with our watching possibly the worst baseball game I've ever seen. 16-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays? Seriously? Ugh!

And now I will need a month or two to recover. We introverts need battery-recharging time. Whew!

Kiss Off!!

Feb. 11th, 2009 05:31 pm
llcoolvad: (cold)
I've returned to playing a lot of Sudoku, lately. I have a desktop version that I can blow up to a huge size, and it's easy to play while watching TV. I also have a small version for my iPhone that I play whenever I have a minute or five to spare.

I also have wicked mental lexilalia, right? Words totally stick in my head, and they rattle around there endlessly. And, if you play Sudoku, you know it's a whole lot of "1...1...1" and "5...5...5" as you try to figure out the missing numbers. I also have bad problems with earworms.

So naturally I have created the perfect storm for one song to live in my head for the last three weeks. Nonstop.

"i take one one one cause you left me and
two two two for my family and
three three three for my heartache and
four four four for my headaches and
five five five for my lonely and
six six six for my sorrow and
seven seven for no tomorrow and
eight eight i forget what eight was for and
nine nine nine for the lost gods
ten ten ten ten for everything everything everything"


Gordon, get the hell out of my head!!
llcoolvad: (Default)
Stuff floating around in my head:

On the chores side of my brain: How awesome is the hand scanner thing at Stop & Shop? Since I started using canvas bags, I've been increasingly annoyed at the baggers. They try to toss in plastic bags at every turn. Things need to be separated from other things! Ice cream needs to be kept isolated from everything else! Soap needs to be sanitized for my protection! Cat food needs to be safely placed all together in one plastic bag, just because! But with the scan-as-you-shop thingie, I can bag my own stuff straight off the shelf! No hidden plastic! Organized the way I want it. And I can check the price right then. And keep track of how much I'm spending, and review what I've already bought. I love love love it. After I finish, I just go to the self-checkout, scan my scanner, and then pay and leave. The clerk didn't even look at anything. No putting stuff into the cart, then taking stuff OUT of the cart, then putting stuff BACK INTO the cart, then taking it BACK OUT OF the cart to go in my car. So fast, so convenient, I don't know if I can go back to the old way now!

On the entertainment side: I've got four current TV faves. In at number one, "Lost" is so damned good this season it's almost painful! Seriously, finally the plot is interesting and weird and fun. Also enjoying "New Amsterdam," even though every time I read the name I hum Elvis Costello to myself. The lead actor, Nikolaj Coster Waldau, is hot, kind of quirky, and his mild Danish accent is disturbing in a smoldering kind of way. It's a completely silly plot, but it's still fun. [I'd pay good money to know why every immortal ends up fighting crime, though. Is there NOTHING ELSE TO DO with all that time? Seriously?] Also, how damned good is "Breaking Bad"? God, I never realized how nuanced an actor Malcolm in the Middle's Dad was before this show; not that Malcolm ever gave him much to do other than run around in his undies. But in this? Awesome. It's seriously a one-man show. And, finally, "Dexter" on network is still compelling, even without the cuss words. Michael C. Hall is just crazy-good.

I'm also really sad that Jeff Healey died. While my musical tastes normally run to the somewhat alterna, I really dug his voice. And he was so 80s cute, back in the 80s. All that mullet! Anyway, I've vaguely followed his career over the years and liked his jazz stuff. And now he's dead at 41 from the same cancer that took his eyes when he was a toddler. That's just tragic.

And I've been a little bit into Amy Winehouse this week (I know, I know, but damn, the woman can really belt out a tune!). I'd never put "Rehab" and "that chick that popped out of nowhere last year and everyone talks about all the time because she's a mess" together before, seriously. Had no idea what she sounded like. I hope she manages to pull herself together. She seems like she's on a flameout trajectory, though.

And, FINALLY, baseball's almost back! 25 days to go. I know they're playing now, but I just can't get excited about spring training. Part of the fun for me is the race, and if the games don't count, it's not baseball!

OK, brain empty now. Back to work!
llcoolvad: (cold)
Today should have been a gorgeous mood-lifting day. It was warm enough to walk around in shirt sleeves (I did), and all the snow is finally gone from the ground. Alas, it was also pelting rain for part of the day, and gloomily overcast for the rest of the day. I was sitting in the parking lot of the supermarket, about to go in and buy stuff, when I just couldn't take one more second. I went over to the local Newbury Comics, picked up the Vampire Weekend album, and suddenly the day was better! Felt like the sun came out.

I've seen a few reviews of their album, all positive, but it was only today when I was cruising around on the B&N review site that I heard any of their music.

A-Punk




Mansard Roof




Yay! Sunshine!

Neat!

Jan. 29th, 2008 03:11 pm
llcoolvad: (cold)
How have I missed seeing Greg Pattillo before now? He's amazing! This is the first video I saw, but they're all pretty impressive.

I started playing flute in fifth grade, and of course being a child of the 70s I listened to Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson did stuff like this when he played — not beatboxing, but growling and singing and spitting out notes and stuff. This guy takes it to a whole other level. If I could have done this when I was playing, I would never have given it up!

eMpTy Vee!

Jan. 28th, 2008 10:21 pm
llcoolvad: (cold)
Wow. Wil Wheaton linked to a major trip down cheesy memory lane today: Someone ripped a VHS tape of three hours of MTV from 1983, which was EXACTLY when I was obsessed with it, and posted it on Google Video (in two parts — Part One, and Part Two). I spent a bit of time tonight with it on in the background. I was such a teenager then! Bad music blather within! )
llcoolvad: (Default)
I get mad pretty quickly, but I usually get over it fairly quickly too. Often all it takes is a meal. Today it took a song on my car radio, "Is There a Ghost" by Band of Horses. It's got exactly three lines of lyrics, repeated over and over:

I could sleep
I could sleeeeeeeep,
I could sleep
I could sleeeeeeeep,
When I lived alone...
Is there a ghost in my house?
When I lived alone...
Is there a ghost in my house?
I could sleep...

Makes it easy to sing along! I wonder if someone bet him that he couldn't write a song with just 14 words. The video's really cute, too.

Their MySpace page has a couple more songs, and they've got a bunch of clips on YouTube. Turns out I already know and like "The Funeral" (it reminds me somehow of Jeff Buckley) and just this minute started liking "No One's Gonna Love You" (warning, live noodling). And hey, they're at Paradise in Boston on Wednesday!

That never happens to me! I always notice a band two days after they played in my back yard. I probably won't go, but it's nice to know at least I have the option.
llcoolvad: (Default)
So a coworker asked me earlier today if I knew someone who wanted a to buy a ticket to the Police at Fenway for "face value $246." That's not a typo. Two hundred and forty six United States dollars!

Um?

When the FUCK did concert tickets get to be so damned expensive? I've been to a few concerts in my day. I'm not living in a bubble, either.. I just can't imagine who is spending this money!  I started thinking that if Elvis Aaron Presley himself crawled out of his grave, was suddenly young and hot again, and decided to go on tour, even for that I wouldn't pay $246! Not for ZOMBIE ELVIS!! So really unlikely that I would shell it out for the elderly Police.

That made me stroll down memory lane, and as we know any kind of stroll in my world involves a list, so I present the concerts/plays/lectures/sporting events/other events I have seen, sorted by type of thing. Of course these are only the ones I have stubs for in my wee ticket stub box. I'll probably add to this as I think of other shows. To be truly anal, I'll need dates etc.


See? Saw the young hot Police: $16.00, 1983. Somehow we are to believe that, in addition to grey roots and subtly disguised crow's feet, somehow they've added about $10 of concert value for EVERY PASSING YEAR?!  Feh. I'm thinking no.

(The missing include: Andres Segovia with my parents, probably 1980? Several symphony performances, too. I know I've seen a few more Laurie Anderson shows, several more Richard Thompson shows, Crash Test Dummies, October Project, November Project, back to October Project, Mary Fahl, a ton more shows while I was at UMass, etc. Probably even stuff I've seen in the last few years. For example, I saw Elvis Costello for free in 2004 and I simply can't remember the circumstances! Someone had comp tickets, but WHO? Was it Jenn? I think maybe.)

And yes, I can't remember who I saw many shows with. I can't even remember yesterday, so no real surprise there. Hence the lists! If you remember that I saw a show/performance/whatever with you and you're not listed here, I'd appreciate being reminded. This means you, especially, Patrick, Stephen, Val, Dan, Suzanne!  I forget you all equally, so don't feel bad! :-)

Shows I wish I could have gone to (but never will): XTC. Kate Bush. The Clash. 
Best show I ever attended: Elvis Costello and the Singing Song Wheel, Orpheum Theatre, 10/86
Biggest hero I got to see: Carl Sagan

What are yours?
llcoolvad: (cold)
I have just hit my Christmas songs saturation level. I made a smart playlist of any tunes in my collection that I'd identified as Christmas, and it turns out I have 636 Christmas songs. Which I've had playing for two days. I guess all that streamripping from Shoutcast a couple years ago really paid off. Although I just hit Dolly Parton singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" after hearing the Carpenters singing "Do You Hear What I Hear" and realized that I just couldn't take. One. More. Song.

Note to self: Must edit that playlist! Gaaaah! I have lots of GOOD Christmas stuff, honest.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, and now back to normal life.

New music?

Nov. 6th, 2006 04:59 pm
llcoolvad: (Default)
In the late fall my thoughts turn to new music. No idea why, might be a leftover from when I ran a music store and we'd start getting pummeled with promo stuff in preparation for the Xmas shopping season. Might be because bands used to tour a lot during college semesters. Might be no reason other than new albums seem to come out more in the fall.

Anyway, I went out today and bought two new CDs (The Decemberists and Guster, if you are interested) and wandered around the store hoping for inspiration. As little as four years ago I couldn't really go to a music store without spending $100 and coming home with 8 or 9 CDs. Now I can't figure out what I'd like. I've been trolling streaming radio sites (like Radio Paradise) and figured out some songs here and there, but I'm very album-oriented, not so much track-oriented. I don't read Rolling Stone anymore, and I let my Entertainment Weekly subscription lapse. I am woefully out of touch with new stuff.

So who do I buy — any suggestions? What's making you intensely happy right now for music? I need to fall in love with an album.

Kate Bush!

Nov. 8th, 2005 04:44 pm
llcoolvad: (Default)
New Kate Bush CD released today! Yow! I had no idea. I used to follow new releases religiously (I habit I got into when I was working music retail), but lately less has been appealing to me. I got some stuff off of iTunes a couple of days ago (couldn't resist that damned "Doorbell" song by The White Stripes), but I've been in a music funk. Instead of buying my usual 40-50 or so CDs a year, I'm probably down to 10.

But Kate -- I was hugely disappointed with (read: HATED) The Red Shoes, and not particularly fond of The Sensual World, but her first five albums are still always on my 'Pod. I might be willing to give this one a chance. Yay! Kate!
llcoolvad: (Default)

Richard The Last
Originally uploaded by Laurie Lee.
Three years ago I climbed into my trusty Honda with my friend Dan and headed for the big city to catch my favorite performer, Richard Thompson, in a fairly unique show. Called "1,000 Years of Popular Music," the show was a collection of cover songs from the last thousand years, and was quite great.

He's got the CD of the show available (he's his own label now, after a 30 year career with various labels), and I was listening to it today and felt compelled to put up some pictures from the show. Tomorrow I will probably post pictures from the same day around the City.

Plug: If you like great guitars, interesting vocals and amazing, dark, gloomy lyrics, Richard's your guy. I've never seen a bad show of his, and I've seen him a lot! /Plug
llcoolvad: (Default)
I scored 79.227% (Hardcore Music Nerd) on the following test. How'd you do?

http://www.couplandesque.net/culture/musicnerd.htm

I am proud!

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