The office party...hella fun. And I can diffuse my grudge against the guy from 10 because he was cool also. Maybe the original chatter episode was an off-night. Trendvickster and Alafairnadia were my guests and we drank and ate to our heart's content, then wandered over to Low Bar where the excitement was spitting out a dumpling mere moments before I bit into it and got an unpleasant surprise. Damned food allergies.
Rest of the weekend has been chill and no further than the locals. I've been breaking out the bike and riding in the park. I've discovered that my fears of total flabby uselessness were mostly unfounded. I might be riding to work sooner than I figured.
I've been really into the "new to me" musics also. Last week, I finally got around to ripping some M3 promos (That should be my spring project: rip all these random CDs, so I can get rid of them.) and discovered some cool stuff. New Dabrye! Woo! Also been exploring the James T Cotton alias. Considering that I pretty much like all his output, it's funny that I haven't reached the Herren/obsessed with everything he does level yet. Give it time I suppose. Loving the Jimmy Edgar and Multiply Additions. Listening to Gnarls Barkley and it's just work background music minus about 3 songs. About to jump into Voom Voom and rediscovering K&D DJ Kicks. Lets just preemptively say that my spring playlist is glitch hop, techno, and downtempo stuff and call it a day.
To start off with an aside: Prefuse @ Summerstage on August 13th! Woo! Now, I feel even less regretful than I did yesterday (that is to say not very much) about totally skipping the May and June dates. I love summer in the city. Everyone swings by for free sooner or later!
Jamie Lidell show #4: ridiculously amazing. Alafairnadia and I made good on our promise and trudged the whole er, 7 or 8 blocks to Southpaw. Jimmy Edgar opened up his set kinda shakily.and we wandered around, coming face to face with Justin. He's my personal gauge of if where I am is gonna be good time or not. Ain't no party unless he's there, etc. I'm amused when people say that about me. I barely even go out anymore and free and/or cheap drinks are my standard of fun really. Anyhoo, we wandered back and the Edgar set picked up considerably. I'd never heard of him before, but now I'm a sorta fan. Yay for new music!
Jamie came on the stage and killed it. It was very techno heavy (but not as meandering and noodly as the Rothko show), but had straight up versions of things like my fave song "What's The Use?" and "Music Will Not Last" plus the Edgar/Lidell live collabo for "When I Come Back Around." "Game For Fools" and "Multiply" as the encore. And the encore was when things got interesting. He had to go the audience participation route. Too bad most of the audience was filled with utter fucking freaks. This one chick, who we'd been contemplating beating with a shoe for most of the show since she was running around screaming and vamping, was the first one to the mic and was all "Jamie, I want to rock your world!" Then came the guy who said: "I want to make romance in your body!" Er, what now? Not to mention the other clowns who decided to house the mic since they got confused and thought they were on Star Search. And all that before everyone got on stage and this "singer" decided to torture us with her painfully off key melodies before breaking into a rap. Chaos. And that was our cue to bounce.. David quipped when I was telling him the story that perhaps Jamie Lidell is the hipster Usher. Could be...
Amusingly enough, the one piece I forgot to mention about that party is what became the thing today. I work the floor above this company that's a big shop for music people of a certain ilk and am forever seeing these kids who work there in the elevator. Especially since there are only two and all. For the first week or two of work, there was this one kid I was seeing just about everytime I rode it and then one day riding my bus. And then there he was at the party! Curiosity killed the cat, etc, so I introduced myself to him saying we worked in the same building and stuff and he was all, "oh. yeah. I've seen you around" completely disinterested and intro'd me to some other guy who supposedly worked there too and disappeared. I was like "okay, dick, fuck you too" and didn't think anything else about it since I stopped seeing him after that as those things go. It'd be one thing if I was hitting on him (I wasn't), but a) I'd had a lot of $1 vodkas b) I was still the new girl around the office/building and I was just excited about running into someone I recognized from there c) I'd had some open bar stuff too before those $1 vodkas, so I was just being happy drunk friendly overall and him being kinda lame pissed me off that much more.
Fast forward to today when I'm coming out the building and dude's standing on the curb with some boxes. I wasn't going to say anything at all, but he's all like "hey!" I reply "hey" in a whatever tone and go about my business. Later on, I'm sitting at my desk and I spy this dude at the office door talking to one of my coworkers. And then he looks my way and waves. I kinda frown and look around all "is he waving at someone else?" and then wave back with a sorta puzzled expression when I establish that I'm the one. And then dude comes inside and walks over to me and starts shooting the shit like "hey! remember we met at that party? I wasn't sure if you recognized me earlier. I'm DJing the office party tomorrow" and on and on. And I reply kinda half frowning, hella confused. He blew me off and now he's acting like we're cool or something? See, this is why I've given up on guys for the time being. They're fucking bipolar. Plus that was embarrassing because I could see my coworkers all "hmm...who's this random?" And I'm dreading having to shoot the shit at the party. Utterly lame. Moral of this story: no point in being nice to the douches on 10.
Bobby O, I'm So Hot For You
Vitalic, Polkamatic
Womack & Womack, Teardrops
Gonzales, Take Me To Broadway
Hot Chip, Playboy
I need a new computer desperately. After too many years of service, my girl is about 3 months from the scrap heap. I'm trying not to get too heavily seduced by the iMac at work, especially now that the Mac action I remember well (a.k.a. the computer being a total fuckup) is beginning to rear its head. Laptop? Desktop? Mac mini? iMac? Decisions, decisions...
I'm getting back into that old habit of raging and working during the week and taking Friday as the day to go to bed at like 10pm and get a breather. It's weird getting up around 8:30am on a Saturday morning well rested, and also to see all these text messages and voicemails like "you out?" but the good night's sleep is amazing. I'm loving the new job, even if it's kicking my ass a bit. It's hard for me to be clueless and I'm working hard to soak up all the knowledge I can. Every frustration is a lesson at the end of the day. I still don't regret a thing though. It's so worth it.
Last week was a bizarro blast from the past type deal. Except for a silly little crush that I'm intent on not letting get anywhere, I'm detoxing from liking anyone and the inevitable crappy patterns that follow. I came to the conclusion that it's pretty much a waste of vital energy and I'd rather be hanging out with my friends or getting in shape to ride my bike to and from work or staring off into space than being as frustrated as I used to feel all the time. Life's too short yadda yadda.
Anyways, I was at a friend's party and saw that guy who had given me his card some months back. I'd been running into him for about a week straight and got like 0 recognition. So, I walked up to him and started shooting the shit and then he remembered and was sorta flirting with me just like he had before. So, the pessimist in me was right and the cards don't mean much. Weird. Over that, I was wandering around at the same party and came face to face with The DJ. He's looking like hell, must be on the sniff and water diet. Our common friend mocked him when he turned away and I mentally patted myself on the back for having all that just kinda stall from the start. Dodged a major bullet there. Last Friday was my inaugural "stay in and sleep," so I missed the "Farmer has taken up residency in the nabe" bombshell. It's one of those things that sorta amuses and irritates me at the same time. We saw him Saturday and he looked ridiculous and out of place. It's not really worth thinking much more about on my end. I'd probably hardly ever see him anyways. Out of sight, out of mind.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the spring and summer, especially now that I have two cents to rub together again. I was painfully broke for a good month and it's nice to let go of those "how am i going to make ends meet???" nightmares. I'm starting to get back into my swing of things. Looking forward to the Four Tet DJ Kicks. Catching Jamie Lidell Wednesday at Southpaw (hoping for more Bowery/m3esque and less Rothkoish). We're loving and hating Hot Chip at the same time. They're so fun on record, but total wastes of time in person. Though, I am giving them one more chance in the summer -- because it's a free show. They're playing South Street Seaport in August, if i recall correctly. Something random to leave you with: I've got almost the whole dance routine from the Sean Paul "Temperature" video memorized. Love it!
Something that's been driving me nuts for months now: does the Burger King look like Val Kilmer or what? Am I the only one who sees that?
You know what turns me on? Modern technology. On the bus ride home tonight, I was chilling watching the Navy Yard and Vanderbilt go by, listening to As The World Turns. Yes, listening to an mp3 of the previous day's episodes. They fucking podcast soap operas! Is that a riot or what? Complete with a voiceover describing wordless action and the "previously on.." and "next on..." scenes. And they update the new ones on the day of. It's awesome.
I've been watching an excessive amount of videos lately. And pretty much only reminding myself how much I hate Keyshia Cole. That heifer ruined a video starring Tyrese with her bleating! I f'love Tyrese. I'll watch him in just about anything..sooner or later. 2 Fast 2 Furious...needed more Tyrese...half-naked.
I've loved him a loooong time, since he was singing in Tommy commercials and had facial piercings. Remember when he was all edgy and playing the baddie in the "My Way" video? I do. As if someone would give up Tyrese for Usher! Not in this world. Why don't I meet more Tyresesque guys? Oh yeah, cause I spend too much time with corny hipsters or acid freaks. No self respecting sex symbol would slum it like that. Ah well. Sucks to be me I suppose.
I'm considering selling my bass guitar. I've owned it about 6 years, hardly ever look at it, hardly ever think about it, definitely don't play it. It's like a reminder of failed endeavors. A logical solution would be to learn how to play it for once and for all, but that costs money and that's something I don't have to spend on random shit at the moment. (I'd like to take a moment out to send a bad thought or 10 to Farmer who greatly screwed up the April projected budget. Asshat.)
I'm more than a little bit scattered at the moment. As I'm known to do, when one aspect shapes up, I have to go work on something else. We're reconfiguring the music/social life. All we like listening to at the moment is techno, techno, techno, old soul, techno, techno, dub, tech-house remixes, and more techno. Detect a pattern? That's what I gathered as fresh fun for my ears from Miami more or less. We're planning a Sunday evening excursion to dance dance dance at Love and we're slightly amused that we won't have to feel bad since the party is over by midnight and all. Though if we're thoroughly wasted by then, that plus won't be so major. We need more dancing in our life. We also like boys who like techno, especially when they pretend like they don't know anything about it (despite collections of it).
It suddenly dawned on me that I like too many weirdos. Where did this love for crunchy artsy cornballs come from? I mean, when dude's dancing made me cringe so much that I had to immediately get him out of my line of vision, that's a problem. Some things are just too big to get over. Someone who isn't trying to go out and doesn't know what to do with himself when he is, just isn't for me. The Wes indoctrination has made me a little more accepting than I ought to be. I'm fine with opposites attracting, but I think we were from different planets. Fresh blood, post haste.
It's spring! Minus the weird patches of snow we've been having. I, being allergic to like nature and shit (which makes living two blocks from the Botanic Garden and park kinda...funny), have been wheezing and coughing and throat clearing my way around town while loving the parka to hoodie transition. I've discovered that working in Brooklyn really has cut down on the amount of times I go to Manhattan now. Why go to the city if you don't have to?
My most uncomfortable moment of the week: "So, how about you? Are you seeing someone?" "Yes. No. I don't think so. Uhh...I'm not actively looking or actively not looking. I'm just trying not to think about it. Uhh...how about that weather?"
The weeks have been a blur really. Work is great! I'm really happy. The houseguest situation didn't work out so well (color me surprised!). I'm on a Bobby Womack and Gonzales kick. I need new sneakers. I have yet to really get started on my spring fun. I can't wait to ride my bike to work and have a 15 minute commute. All those hills down in dumbo are kicking my ass. In the good way. I think I'm a lot quicker to smile nowadays. I don't really have any complaints. And I'm totally going to try to do something more often around here. How hard is up for debate.