The Show That Never Ends

Today's topic: Music, particularly music that gets stuck in my head. Like most people, songs tend to get wedged into my brain. So when this happens to me, I create a playlist of all the songs that fit that category. These are my Brain Drain playlists. I listen to them enough times and it's like the songs are drained out. They no longer hold that odd thrall over me.
I've been listening to a lot more new music. Well it's new to me. Either way, new music=new songs stuck in my head=new brain drain playlist.
Here are my three Brain Drain Playlists with notes on certain songs where necessary.

Brain Drain 1:
Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz
Yesterday Never Tomorrows- The Stills (I'm fairly certain I started liking these guys after hearing them at Coachella)
Title and Registration- Death Cab for Cutie
Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie (LOVE this song)
Get Your Hands Off My Woman- The Darkness (The hardest core song sung in falsetto ever)
Since U Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson (....It's a good pop song! I can't help it.)
Jetsetter- Morningwood (These guys are awesome live)
Let Go- Frou Frou
Soul Meets Body- Death Cab for Cutie
The House That Jack Built- Aretha Franklin (I got the car, I got the house, I got the rack but I aint got Jack... great song)
Rio- Duran Duran (One of the most incomprehensible set of lyrics, still a pop masterpiece)
You're the Best Around- Joe Esposito (ROFLMAO)
In Da Club (Benny Hill mashup)- 50 Cent (ditto)

Brain Drain 2:
Supernova- Liz Phair (When she decide to start sucking?)
Dance With Me- The Sounds (Also great live, also started my love affair with them at Coachella)
Hey Ya!- Outkast (One of the best pure pop songs in decades)
Bad Cartridge (E-Pro Mix)- Beck (Funny, the song is called E Pro on Guero.... so should it really be E-Pro the Bad Cartridge Mix??)
Orange Crush- R.E.M. (One of my all time favorite songs)
Take It All Away- Cake
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, pt. 1- The Flaming Lips (She's got to be strong to fight them so she's taking all her vitamins)
Pink Bullets- The Shins
Go to Sleep- Radiohead
Braggidocio- MC Frontalot (The Finest in Nerdcore HipHop)
Gigantic- The Pixies (My Big big love, heh)
New Slang- The Shins
Living In America- The Sounds
Do the Evolution- Pearl Jam (Great video for this one)

Brain Drain 3:
Human Behavior- Bjork (the main melody is in percussion, how often can you say that)
Beetlebum- Blur (They're more than just Song 2)
Helicopter- Bloc Party (Girl #3 turned me on to these guys. They're pretty good)
Prophecy- Remy Zero (Yeah...still digging this one)
Dry The Rain- The Beta Band (I need more of their albums)
I Better Be Quiet Now- Elliott Smith (So sad, the dude killed himself by stabbing himself in the chest... that's depression)
True Love Waits- Radiohead
Set the Fire to the Third Bar- Snow Patrol w/Martha Wainwright
Hoppipolla- Sigor Rus (Don't know what they're saying since it's in Icelandic but it's a great song)
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk- Rufus Wainwright (First appearance of siblings ((I think)) on a Brain Drain playlist where they are not on the same song or in the same band)
Analyse- Thom Yorke (Best song on his solo album)
The Middle- Jimmy Eat World (Someone I know from HS was in this video, she's a whore)
The Trickster- Radiohead (One of my favorite B-Sides)

Feel free to post your Brain Drain playlists in the comments. Hasta.

The Collapse of Thought

Weekend Wrapup:
Slept in on Saturday morning. The fuzziness of waking up eluded me for far longer than usual. By the time I rolled myself into alertness, the Tigers had essentially finished beating the snot out of the hated Jayhawks.

Saturday afternoon I went over to Steve's parents house and hung out for the rest of the day with Steve, Heather and Steve's little sister Anne. Anne's boyfriend Tim asked Anne to marry her. Very sweet and also good news. Tim's a great guy and Anne seems very happy with him.

Steve can't drink for six/nine months. He's taking medication because he was exposed to TB at some point in his Navy tours of duty or what not. If he drinks, he risks giving himself chemically induced Hepatitis. Sucks to be Steve and for this weekend, sucked to be me. Can't very well go get drunk with your best friend if he can't drink without giving himself the hep now can we?

Went home around 11. Saw an email from Girl #3 arrived. She apologized for the delay but I didn't really care anymore anyway. Not about her. Still think she's pretty cool. I just don't care about all the scenery. Do I want a relationship? Do I not want one? Should I be happy when someone responds or calls back? Frankly, it's quite tedious and it wears me out. I'm happier just being me and let the chips fall where they may. I remember now that's the point.

Work today was odd. I got things done. I just didn't feel all there. Hours floated by. Ideas keep drifting through my head. Stories I need to write and I don't mean for work. When I imagine writing out the stories, they become cliche or pat. Sentimental or boring. Not as interesting as when they're just ideas. The confident part of myself tells me I need to write them.

My birthday is rapidly approaching and emotionally I'm closer to 7 than 27. Does anyone ever grow up? What does it mean to do so? How can we tell when we've crossed the line?

The Morning After

Thanksgiving is gone. Hope everyone had a good one. Had to work today. Boring....
Zombie project came back from the dead. Will try to kill it one more time on Monday.
Saw Borat after work. It was funny. The scene with his producer and him fighting .... whoa. That was pretty gross. But funny.
Feeling kind of lonely today. I want to see Steve and Heather since he's in town. Haven't heard from them though it's pissing me off a bit. I am being a bit selfish though. They do have a wedding to plan and all that. Either way, I'll try their cells tomorrow.
Sorry nothing interesting to say today. Think I'm going to play Final Fantasy VII and try to finish it.

The Song Remains the Same

Happy pre-Thanksgiving everyone. Today's post is more of a random collection of thoughts. (shut up those who say that's what this whole blog is all about)
*****
I had a great day at work today. I did about a million things. I felt like a superhero, jumping up out of my chair, running off to fix something, plopping back down, fixing more things... I felt useful, powerful.

Not that I don't normally feel useful. I just felt particularly useful today.
*****
Rachael I don't know was wondering about the "Women I'm Dating" naming conventions. It's not that I can't remember their names. I'm just trying to keep things mainly anonymous. Besides it's like changing names to protect the innocent. Or the guilty. Or the ambiguous.
*****
Still waiting to hear back from Girl#3. Should I have called her instead of emailed? She said last time I called her that email was working better since she was so busy. Whatever... tired of even thinking about it. If being a doofus and asking for a kiss instead of taking one was all it takes to get someone to lose interest, then she's not worth it. I need to be like Fonzie and be cool. Quit worrying about stupid crap.
*****
Girl #2 or MP or whatever is officially out of the picture. I talked to her on Tuesday. Turns out she found someone who is ready for a relationship now. That's good though. I knew I was never going to be interested in that with her. I told her I'd still like to hang out as friends. She was/is cool. I just didn't feel the same way about her.
*****
I told Marcia today at work that since MP is out I need to get a new pony for my stable. I was joking but I think it's a good idea. Seeing multiple people allows me to manage my feelings a bit better. I fixate too much. Or at least I have that tendency.

Delayed Reaction

God damnit I can't keep to my schedule for even one week. Anywho, consider this Monday's post.

I think I've been overreacting about Outlaw not eating. I talked to the ex about it. She has more experience with kitties than I do. She said she's probably just weirded out by me being gone for a weekend. She also suggested that perhaps Outlaw is stockpiling food in case I take off again. This idea amuses me greatly. I can just imagine what the thoughts in my insane cat's brain must be like.

The date on Saturday with Girl #3 went well. We went to a cool wine bar. It has a very date-ish atmosphere. Low lights, good music, good wine, partly indoors, partly outdoors. Date started at 7:30ish and we talked till almost 11.

She's gorgeous. She's funny. She has interesting things to say. She's intelligent. Oh and she's a giant nerd. We commiserated over the death of Chewbacca in one of the extended universe Star Wars books. She just had finished Vector Prime so the loss was fresh for her.

Apparently, I'm the first "good" guy she's gone out with in a long time. She said she has a long history of dating losers. Guitar players, drummers, pitchers, interesting but generally jerk-like individuals.

Maybe I'm too good of a guy. Example: end of the date essentially. We're standing in a parking lot, again, talking still. I know I want to kiss her. I've been looking for the right moment or whatever. Kept not finding it. So I put on my "lame guy" hat and asked her if it would be ok if I kissed her.....
.....
Not my smoothest of moves. Anywho, yeah she said it was ok but she giggled and said, "You really are a nice guy." ugh... It's true but I don't want her thinking that. I want her feeling something a bit more visceral. Simple kiss, not much to it. We both knew we were going separate ways at the end of the night so that didn't surprise me. As we walked to her car, she joked I need to get some mojo. Ack! See! It is a problem...maybe problem is too strong a word.

We did talk about seeing each other again soon. She even suggested a place. So maybe I'm overreacting. The problem is I obviously really like her. The more I like someone the more I overanalyze every thought every feeling every action. Besides, I'm trying not to go crazy over someone again so soon/ever.

I'll try to be a bit more smooth next time though. Maybe not rely so much on my Bruce Lee of Dating style... you know.. the game of no game. (Bruce Lee's fighting style is the style of no style..get it?.. ::sigh::)

Sad kitty

Ok.. I'm a day late on this but I have a good excuse. My computer was really loud and I was worried something was wrong with it. I switched it off last night and switched over to worrying about Outlaw.

Since I have returned from Mexico, Outlaw has hardly eaten anything. She's had maybe a little more than a half bowl of food since Sunday. It makes me think something is wrong with her health.
The odd thing is she is still going both #1 and #2 in the litter box. Where the heck is she getting the fuel for #2 if she's not eating??

I decided to monitor more closely how much she is eating this weekend. If she is still barely touching her food, I'll take her to the vet on Monday.

Oh and date#2 with girl#3 tonight. Here's hoping I don't screw it up.

The Trickster

Almost forgot my new posting schedule. Whew.. that was a close one.

Been talking to the ex lately. It's not weird.... well not most of the time. I want to be friends with her. I just don't want to devolve into talking to her all the time. That would be bad.
We talked about friendly type of topics like her brother shooting himself in the leg and the very high rental prices in the Bay Area. Then I overreached. I mentioned my struggle with making date plans for this weekend. She wigged out completely. Said she didn't want to cry at work. Whoa...

The whole breakup was her idea to begin with. Why's she crying about me dating someone else? Either way, I don't feel the same way about her regardless. I'm 100% positive I would never get back together with her, even if she threw herself at me. I just wouldn't be able to trust her feelings again.

She eventually chilled and conversation returned to normal. Again, would like to be friends. Can't imagine us not being friends. Constant chatting would be bad though for all parties.

On happier news, I'm dating another girl. Some of my fellow co-workers like to tease me about this whole dating thing. That's ok by me. It is a bit bewildering. I have a lot of lost time to make up with dating. I didn't do a lot in high school and even less in college. Right now it's fun so I'll roll with it.

New girl is pretty cool. She's cute. She's funny. I feel completely comfortable around her, good for a first date. Her taste in music is exemplary. She asked me what my favorite Radiohead song was: Let Down. I volleyed the question back to her. Talk Show Host.
Whoa.. a B-side. She really does like Radiohead. soooo hot. She could have had me right then. But you know... she could have had me before that too, I'm just making a point.

Gave me her number, she's cool with something this weekend. I said let's try this cool wine bar I went to before with my friend Jenny and her husband. Stay tuned for further details.


Oh and I just like the Radiohead B- Side The Trickster. Doesn't really have much to do with the content of this post. Athankya.

South of the Border

First, some house cleaning:
To make sure I keep a regular updating schedule, I will now update on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I need to make sure there is an incentive for me to keep writing. That's all.

Ok on to Mexico:
My parents know someone who owns a house in Rocky Point. My extended family all went out there for a long weekend. I took Friday off and spent Thursday night with my parents so we could leave early in the morning. Four hours later, I was on a beach in Mexico, drinking beer.
Most of my younger cousins were there. This means babysitting for Head. I took each of the kids kayaking. We played frisbee and bocci.
Because there's only so much time you can spend on the beach and because I'm insane, I brought my PS2 and Guitar Hero 1 & 2. I played it so much my thumbs are still sore from the effort. The fast songs are just brutal on my strumming thumb.
I got about 200 pages through the newest Pynchon book. It's good so far but it's slow going. Kind of like Dostoevsky in that there's a lot of characters and a lot of plot lines and they all swoop and dive around each other.
I really wanted to sleep out on the back porch as I could hear the waves crash onto the shore and the cool breeze come off the horizon. Instead I had to watch the kids in the guest house. Boo.
Either way, it was a very relaxing time. We pulled back into Phoenix at 3 p.m. and I got back home a half hour or so later.

Perchance to Muse

Last week, Rachael was telling me how much she liked the band Muse. I had heard a bit of them and had thought they sounded a fair bit like Radiohead. Granted I had only heard two or three Muse songs but I thought it was enough. There's no doubt their lead singer is trying for a Thom Yorke vibe.

Rachael told me she thought Radiohead sucked. ::gasp:: Yeah I was shocked too blogience. It turns out she had only heard Creep. Not exactly a song representative of Radiohead's greatness. So I told her I'll burn her some Radiohead if she burns me some Muse. This deal works out great for yours truly because I just wanted some Muse. I had already decided I would probably like them. Rachael on the other hand could be getting two CDs she doesn't even like. Honestly though, what are the chances that would happen?

I've listened to most of one album and I've moved to the newer one. My thoughts so far:
They are very Radioheadesque. I think they need a better producer sometimes though. The snare is too loud and intrusive and they don't take advantage of volume and tone contrast enough. Their singer sounds great but on the first album I was listening to there was some annoying use of distorted voice. His voice is so clear and cutting, why ruin it with distortion? Especially since it would provide a great contrast to the thrashing guitars, at least on the song I'm thinking of here
They do have their own identity. They're not just a cheap Radiohead clone. Muse has a strain of metal band in them on some tunes. Sometimes to great effect, other times not as much. At times they've got an almost hiphop/triphop? kick underneath. It's like only 10% of the songs but it's noticeable and kind of cool.

I also got a bonus Interpol CD I need to listen to as well. Sweet. Ok.... that's all I have for now.

Situation resolved

I've reached an understanding with MP now. Went out Saturday night, a dinner and movie date. I told her since it has been a relatively short period of time since I was in a relationship, I'm not looking for another one now. She asked when that might be. I honestly told her I have no idea. She seemed ok with it. Or at least she understood it. And since the date continued as planned without any problems, I'll assume we're all good.
Backtracking a bit, I finally got the work crew to go out together. We had a good time Friday night. We started with drinks at Mi Amigos and had some very funny conversations. Finished there around...7:30 or 8. Then Diana suggested we all go to this place called Padre's that she frequents.
Everyone but Amanda (boo Amanda, you would have had fun) went. More drinks. More fun. Diana is quite the dancer. The rest of us stayed glued to our butts and watched her do her thing. It was cool. Around 10:30, we called it a night. Marcia had to undo her braids and get her new hair installed. The rest of us.. well I dunno about everyone else. I just went home and crashed.
And Mizzou lost. Again. Fricking chokers. They played a good second half but the first half was horrible. And the playcalling... abysmal.
Ok time to hit the morning shower, get ready for work, pick up my new glasses and acutally go to work.
Go to wvrk...go to wvrk... hehe