Woke up very early this morning to this terrible scraping sound. I did my best to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I started trying to figure out what the sound was… My first guess was it was some kids who tied our dumpster to their car and were trying to drag it around. But then the car sounds I heard didn’t jive with that theory, so I settled on a drunk person slamming repeatedly into the dumpster with their car. Hitting it, backing up, slamming into it again, each time moving the dumpster just a little bit.
Eventually, I was awake enough to look out the bedroom window. Imagine my disappointment when I saw it was just a snowplow. I prefer imagination.
Here is a list of the movies I saw this year. I saw just about as many movies in the theatre but far less on video as the past few years, which is somewhat counterintuitive given how long I was laid up with my leg. I think the reduced number of videos is a combination of my immobility while laid up with my leg combined with ’s last semester, where she was sequestered for 3 months straight, in which we didn’t watch anywhere near as many movies as we usually do.
I slacked way too long again, so this is going to cover alot of ground.. Sorry if it feels bullet-pointy.
Christmas, as always, was awesome. Dropped off at the airport very early on Friday, and after some shitty poker at Foxwoods, I rolled into Jersey in the late afternoon. Hung out Friday night with the Fam, Saturday we went to the Grandparents’ house to celebrate with them, but had to leave early because had to work until midnight. When we got back , , , and I buckled down for our traditional Christmas movies:
We all managed to stay up until Mom got home from work, and after some last minute wrapping we all retired to our beds. Everyone seemed to wake up around 9:30am or so, and we proceeded to open our gifts. A strange occurrence: We were tearing off wrapping paper when the doorbell rang. I stood up to look through the window, thinking “Who the hell would ring our bell on Christmas morning?” when I saw a mail truck! They were delivering mail on Christmas morning, which was also a sunday, one would presume that they were behind schedule, but I hope that fella got some good overtime pay for that shift. Amusingly enough, he was delivering a package for Larissa that contained gifts for me, so instead of wrapping it she just handed it to me and I ripped open the Amazon box. =)
Dad and my sisters all got different species of iPods, and I didn’t do too badly myself, not only scoring tons of great books and DVDs, but also a Blade CP Micro R/C Helicopter. I’ve operated R/C cars and was way into boats for awhile, but I’ve always wanted a Helicopter. Recently, my boss at Goodrich, Brian, got a Blade CP and all his talk about it re-lit that fire. It’s definitely going to be a long time before I’m comfortable flying it, but I’m already learning how to hover it and getting better at it every time I spin ’er up. I nicked a set of blades pretty quickly, but I knew going into this that there would be some sacrificial trips to the hobby store when learning to fly.
I chilled at home for a few days, tried to meet up with everyone but there’s never enough time, so I did what I could… I spent the bulk of my time with the Family and Chuck, but also found time to catch up with Johnny, , and Amy.. I hauled ass back to Boston Wednesday afternoon and and came over for some Burnout Revenge and Scotch. Thursday morning I picked up Corinna from the Airport and we just chilled out the rest of the day.
Today we met up with Audra at the Kendall and caught Wolf Creek, a movie that really wanted to be The Texas Chain Saw Massacre but didn’t quite make it. It wasn’t bad, imho, but could have been better. Tonight we watched The Big Lebowski (another Christmas gift) which I hadn’t seen in ages and Corinna had never seen!
pointed me towards this short documentary on a breakbeat that is the a huge part of the history of hiphop, jungle, and even modern glitch and IDM. If you are into hiphop or other sampled or electronic music you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Can I Get An Amen? is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drums beat in the history of recorded music, the Amen Break. It begins with the pop track Amen Brother by 60’s soul band The Winstons, and traces the transformation of their drum solo from its original context as part of a ‘B’ side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression. The work attempts to bring into scrutiny the techno-utopian notion that ‘information wants to be free’- it questions its effectiveness as a democratizing agent. This as well as other issues are foregrounded through a history of the Amen Break and its peculiar relationship to current copyright law.
and I bought a paper shredder last Sunday. I had always thought one would be a good idea, but never got around to getting one. She had been talking about getting one more and more and finally took the inititiave, which is good, because I would have probably put it off again and again. Anyway, when we got home it was late, and she wanted to get ready for bed, so I opened the box and set it up so we could try it out. After I set it up (a.k.a. plugged it in) I was compelled to take the instruction manual for the shredder, which I hadn’t even opened yet, and shred it. I thought this was hilarious, but I didn’t tell Corinna for a few days because I thought she’d think I was batshit crazy. I am.
Today is my last day of work before an 11 day break. This day is gonna crawl…
Avarice is the sphincter of the heart.
Gray hair is God’s graffiti.
Most religions do not make men better, only warier.
If I hadn’t started painting, I would have raised chickens.
Never lie when the truth is more profitable.
Money is always there, but the pockets change.