winter

tonight is cold

today someone very important to me left on a journey. i learned that letting go is truly the hardest thing you can ever do. i still can’t do it. i miss her deeply.

and i’m not sure what to do right now.

things i do know:

there are some big changes coming up for me soon. some i can talk about here, most i can’t. patience for me, patience for you.

there is not enough time on this earth for not saying what you feel, and doing something about it.

nothing compares

i’ll return to this soon – i have a few projects in mind.

fly safely

service time is lonely….

* * * live it up, before you pass away * * *

shoesonpowerlines will be back shortly.

hiatus

Won’t be any posts for quite a few days, dealing with other things.

Enjoy that long weekend!

cat time!

From the Medieval Cattery.

I’m going to get a cat. One way or another.. like Blondie.

But you should never buy a cat, please adopt a cat. I’ll adopt a cat.

I’LL ADOPT A MILLION CATS!

Hummus Factory Mania v.2

Kapow!

That’s enough melancholy for a lifetime, thank you very much. Remember the “new” Smashing Pumpkins record? I don’t! It is probably somewhere in my room.

Just got back from the Hummus Factory for long overdue lunch with Lindsey. She is… wonderful.

A little more on my bike, if you are interested.

I’ll have to do a complete top-end rebuild on it, I’m guessing in a couple weeks. This will be daunting, but I don’t think it will be all together that tough. I just don’t want to mess something up since I’ll be working with the most important parts of the engine. After the top-end rebuild, I should have my speed back and the idle should be be smoothed out.

OR – I could use the opportunity to do a little tuning and make the bike ever faster. Like using these pistons from Bore-Tech.

Goodness gracious, wouldn’t these zippy pistons do well for my reliability and speed, especially if this particular motorcycle might be taking quite a long trip in the next few months? Like, up north? Hmmmmm.

Anyway! This weekend will go down in history. Tonight, I am going to a going-away party and I’d like to work on my bike a little. Time is tight.

half a world away

i played pool. i won three games, lost the rest.

my motorcycle’s right piston has crummy compression. i did tests and it looks like the piston rings are worn. this is a major project, and i worry about my motorcycle. it will be good. join me in the overhaul.

i enjoy my friends, my family.

this is nice

things aren’t nice.

but this is.

They are called “Tallulah” and they are pretty great. I heard them listening to an old episode of “This American Life,” which I am known to do.

They are a nice mix of female vocals and harmonies – “Untied” is nice, and so is “Bacon.”

I love bacon.

I’ll order this CD, and listen to it.

Listening party.

of one.

With bacon, on vanilla ice cream.

never too early

I bet quarters are the most desired of all coinage. 

I tried to catch up on sleep – oopsy daisy that didn’t happen! Worst sleep of my life last night! Remember when sleep was easy? I feel like my entire circadian rhythm is messed up.

I’ve had the song “U.S. Mustard Company” stuck in my head for 2 days now. I’ll listen to it on the way to work to get it out of there. Get everything out of there! Squeeze my head like a sponge, please.

I had a dream about my cat Oscar last night. Her eyes were milky and she didn’t have any of the white she had on her. It was weird and sad, but it was nice to be with my cat.

Last night at Whole Foods, I parked next to an identical 72 Honda CL350 Scrambler! Same color and everything! He had stock bars and stock mirrors though. I didn’t find the owner.

I hate the telephone.

I’m really bummed I didn’t get to listen to “A Charley Brown Christmas” more this past holiday season. I wish I would have spent more time with my family.

I am looking at Soy Milk, and it makes me want real milk. I’m going to drink real milk at work.

pinnacle, collapse, release, move on.

hello

it is only tuesday

Dave is visiting, its been pretty great!

we have been out, ruling

new robert pollard album coming soon!

the universe will take care of you

some items

while I am working on my iphone fiasco:

This giant lint shaver is great, because it includes a normal size personal lint shaver. So the GIANT lint shaver is for the whole family to enjoy. Why, you can shave lint off a family of four in no time.

But sometimes you want to shave lint from.. well.. personal areas. Thats what the BONUS personal lint shaver is for. You can use it, personally.

True or false? (Pink Panther is on the case)

iPhone dead?

So I was wondering why I was trying to call people, but it wasn’t working. I was calling people, and sticking it up to my face and nothing was coming out of the speaker. I would wait and wait but nothing would happen.

THEN, I would check the call log, and the number was being called one after another! It would call, let it ring, hang up, call back, etc. My parents said it was acting wacky. I wish I would have known before making other calls today.

Now, I can make calls on it, but only speakerphone.

Basically, its all messed up.

Like my life. Ha. Its like a metaphor.

I’m back on my old phone for now.

update:

I fixed it. The headphone jack was… jacked up. It was stuck, so it was thinking i was hanging up, redialing, etc. It was also disabling the speaker and stuff. It all makes sense now.

Wonders: Jeff London and the Deep Clean EP

I own a couple Jeff London records, “Harm’s Way” and “The Deep Clean EP.”

I first heard of Jeff London because he was my sociology teacher at Portland State University. I listened to some of his stuff and really liked the lyrics, and the very mellow folky music.

Back in the day, you could download an early EP called “The Deep Clean” of his stuff on the Hush Records website, and you donated however much you thought it was worth. I paid for the download because I enjoyed it so much. Later, I bought a “legit” burned copy from Jealous Butcher records that sounded much better.

London’s usual barebones feel is complemented by horns and other lush production, and it adds a lot of life to these songs. It starts off with “Bills to Pay” (originally from the album “Slowness” I believe), but it quickly picks up with two really poppy songs: “Magazine Life” and “Bottom Feeders.” These are reminiscent of early Belle and Sebastian records, which I was listening to a lot back then. And now.

Another great song is “Cynical Stance,” which really sums up some of my years dealing with people in Portland. All of the songs are great to sing along to. “Pity this isn’t even Seattle, or anywhere you want to make your art.” This song has the greatest hook.

Jeff used to be based out of Portland (and I think he even recorded some stuff in Eugene) but now he is in New York. I haven’t picked up his latest album yet, and I lost my “Col. Summers’ Park” album somewhere in time. Unfortunately, I can’t find anywhere where you can pick this album up anymore. The web has pretty much zero information on it, but luckily for you if you want to listen to it, let me know. I have a couple copies.

I had thrown this album on my iPhone a while ago, and today is the perfect day to rediscover it and listen to it, on repeat. I also recommend “Harm’s Way.”

“And if you want to leave, leave.”

Jeff London’s Hush Records Page

regrets

I’m pretty much the guy who doesn’t believe in regrets – at least they shouldn’t get thrown around lightly.

I’m on about an hour and a half of sleep, and I’m dwelling on the biggest regret of my life right now, which happened last night.The thing about regrets is, what can you do about them? Learn from them, yes. Fix them? Maybe? Change them? Not really.

I’m almost 28. I wonder when I’ll catch up to that number. 

Score to “Man With a Movie Camera”

“Man With a Movie Camera” is one of my favorite movies. The best release of it (in my opinion) is the KINO release that includes an amazing score by the Alloy Orchestra. KINO does the best releases of silent films, and a few of their amazing releases include the most complete version of “Metropolis” as well as “Man With a Movie Camera” and their short “early film” collections.

Even though the Alloy Orchestra release a lot of their scores, I’ve never been able to find the complete “Man With a Movie Camera” score on CD.

So I’m taking things into my own hands. I’ve ripped the DVD, and extracted the audio, and I’m now in the process of cutting it into tracks. I’m listening to the entire thing right now, and I can almost picture every scene that goes with it.

This is a fun project. Did you know I used to record and edit audio in college? It was fun, but video got a hold of me like mad. More on that later.

Dziga Vertov and Fritz Lang forever!