I Am So Bad At Blogging, pt. 2: The Month-Late Photoblog

Staycation, guys! Ugh, that term is about as overused these days as "recessionista," "tweet," and "Glen Beck Is A Terrorist." Okay, not that last one, but I'm trying my hardest. But anyway, D and I were ready for a little work ditching, as I had just finished doing a bunch of rich whiny people's taxes, and she had been working harder than anyone else in California, as per usual.
So a Friday was picked, work was ditched, and the mythical Catalina Island was the destination. D had never been there, and I went once when I was but a lad. The original plan was to lead off with an old person breakfast at the Carrow's by our house, but that was of course trumped by laziness. Mastodon's Leviathan was on the Subaru stereo. After barely (of course) making it to the ferry on time, we were off.

In the harbor, aboard the vessel.

My better half.

See what I mean?

Leaving the harbor.

Officially on the open sea.

Twas rather windy.

Though I was not fazed.

Remember this guy (and the people in front of him) for later.

South tip of the island.

And then it happened. The family in the picture above (in front of grey sweatshirt guy) decided to start throwing up, at the front of the boat- which was going pretty much top speed. You do the math. When my sunglasses started getting splashed, I thought it was the ocean. I was very mistaken. Grey sweatshirt guy, luckily for me (and unluckily for him) took the brunt of it, though my sweatshirt was out of commission for the rest of the trip. His may not have been salvageable. Poor guy. Also- the lady came to apologize to him, and the baby she was holding started throwing up again! I may not know too much about the seafaring life, but I do know you should avoid the highest point on the boat if you tend to get motion sick. 

We did make friends with the other thrown-up-upon people, and they took a picture of us, far away on the back of the boat.

Into Avalon Harbor.

My seafaring lass.

 Casino.

Friendly tourist pic.

We basically just did a bunch of hanging around, eating a bunch of food, and enjoying the weather.

And looking at fish via glass-bottom boat. Tourism!

Yes, that is a submarine.

At the end of the day, we walked down to this beach (it is a protected wildlife area) and just lazed around for a good while.

Rocky, but relaxing.

And Dawn almost fell in.

Back to reality. Or, at least Orange County.

 A patriotic afternoon voyage.

A bunch of dolphins started swimming in the boat wake after I took this picture, naturally.

Good Night & Good Luck, My Old Friend.

So, it finally happened. I lost one of my oldest and dearest friends this last weekend.


Yeah, I know... traumatic/dramatic. She required a princely sum to get running again, in addition to untold future investments- so I decided the do the economically smart thing and invest it in an otherwise more reliable vehicle:

And so now I join Maine residents and various other hippies as the proud owner of a Subaru. I am very proud of my absolutely pragmatic decision making.
Dawn played DJ on the way home (ipod connectivity!), and after the obligatory round of Hot Snakes, she made the best possible choice: 99 Problems- immediately easing my separation anxiety from the Red Dragon, at least temporarily. The first record you listen to in a certain situation is very important, I think. (Also noteworthy- the first song I heard on the car's radio was Q-Tip. I didn't even know he got played on Power 106 these days. Even so, a very good omen.)
So, I say a tearful goodbye to my friend of 12 years, and bid a bittersweet welcome to a new one.

Back To/In The Swing Of Things

As unfortunate as it is, I think everyone gets a little sick of vacation. I've successfully avoided doing very much work (about 3 days worth) in the last 3 weeks or so, and as much as I enjoyed being on a couch by the fire in Paso or on a ski lift in Big Bear, I am more than glad to be home.
Here's what I've been doing since I got back.
-Watching Mad Men (thanks Chase) on the new TV
-Playing Call of Duty: World At War (thanks Michael) on the new TV
-Recovering my sore muscles
-Reading The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain (thanks Tim)
-Listening to these: Roxy Music: s/t, Scott Walker: Scott, Paul McCartney: McCartney, Paul McCartney: Ram, Sonic Youth: Confusion Is Sex/Kill Yr Idols, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Murder Ballads, Explosions In The Sky: All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone (thanks Chase).
-Exploring the wonderful world of the Micro POG (thanks Dawn).

Probably The Final Blog Of The Year

Geez, 2008 was kind of a tough one, you guys. I mean, not really for me, just in general. Actually, 2008 was pretty alright- good even. On to the bullet points!

-Obligatory Christmas info: long vacation, too much food, great (cold) weather. Ranch catastrophes are commonplace this time of year, so we all had to take care of a dying goat- just another day in Paso. All the family was around pretty much the whole time, which is rare. With multiple people, however, comes disease- and I've spent Christmas eve until now as a congested, sore-throated mess.

-Don't buy things from Best Buy. I should've known, especially cause I read Consumerist damn near everyday. Collecting X-Mas money, gift cards and etc., Dawn and I decided to buy an LCD HDTV. I didn't want to order it because I didn't want to deal with delivery hassles (not being home, etc.) and I was sketched out by Circuit City's impending bankruptcy, so I cracked and went to Fucking Best Buy (as it shall henceforth be known). The one by my work didn't have the approprate models in stock, so I drove to Costa Mesa, where they did. After long considerations about which picture was better (Samsung vs. Sony), I went with the Sony, bought it, got it home, unboxed it, and immediatly re-boxed it. Because the screen was shattered. Awesome. Took it back less than an hour after I bought it, when the Fucking Best Buy "manager" told me this doesn't happen to tvs so they couldn't help me, becuase it was something I did. Wrong, asshole. After some, shall we say, stern words, said Fucking Best Buy "manager" dissapeared and someone brought me a new TV, whose box I promptly opened in the store to verify the lack of shattering on the tv screen. Fuckers.

-I was able to summarize my musical taste with one trip to Boo Boos. I Purchased records by 2 artists: Paul McCartney (McCartney and Ram) and Sonic Youth (Confusion Is Sex, and SYR 8 live with Merzbow). One end of the rock music spectrum to the other: oldtimey-folk-classicrock-avantgarde-postpunk-noise-improvisation. Awesome.

-New Years plans: Big Bear. I've probably spent more time in Big Bear over New Years than anywhere else othe than my Mom's house. It's my brother Tim's bday on the first, so we will do much celebrating up there. Should be good times.

-Wedding update: date is set, catering booked, invitations designed, (cup)cake(s) tasted, dress (apparently- not my department) picked out. Not too bad for only one month of being engaged.

Things That Have Happened (to me) Since The Last Time I Got Gas for $1.86

Yes, the threshold has been crossed. Gas at this particular gas station is actually below $1.86 at the time of this writing- it's 7-11, 17th St, Costa Mesa here. This is a memorable amount is because I was helping Dawn move into the old Costa Mesa apartment, and the day after driving a miserable, air conditioning-less, radio-less huge U-Haul truck from Paso to the Mesa in the middle of August (2003, pending verification), I couldn't help thinking how screwed I was getting by filling up the truck at the 7-11 down the street for $1.86/gal. Little did I know, right? Get ready for a big ass incomplete sentence, starting NOW!

Graduated college, Paso earthquake, layoff, move to So Cal, collect unemployment, blow savings, internship (Adam LaRue is the greatest), "Sweet" music industry job, overworked & underpaid in shitty Garden Grove (excellent freinds made, however), TiVo zombie initiation, getting a cat, early (forced) retirement from music tastemaking (Sierra and I broke Fall Out Boy. Really. Kinda. Yes, unfortunately all in a days work), Dawn graduates law school ass-kickingly, European Sojurn, The Lost Year (which I will not speak of other than saying unemployment, depression, temp jobs), going to the gym, getting my shit together, getting a "real" job, new laptop (!), de-vegitarianizing, expanding liquid horizions, joining/quitting a drummerless band, moving to Corona Del Mar, getting engaged.
So there we are, up to last week. Weirdness!

The Current "Stuff."

Records:
-Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountian (By Strategy)
-Mogwai [as usual]: The Hawk Is Howling & My Father My King
-The Beatles: The White Album
-Melvins: The Maggot [Dude, I like it! Sorry for calling you out in the past Buzz]
-The Andrew Oldham Orchestra: The Rolling Stones Songbook [The last song on here may sound very familiar to you. Research!]
-Mastodon: Blood Mountain
-Scott Walker: Scott 2
-To buy: new (International) Noise Conspiracy, new phono preamp

Other Music Stuff:
-Geeking out over Mastodon recording a new record: check this and this.
-Have a bunch of Boris records to go through that I "got" from my brother. He loves the sludge-metal, that's for sure.

Holiday Attack:
-Other than getting engaged (geez- obvs, Brian), Thanksgiving was memorable for these reasons: A)The worst heartburn of my life. B) Drinking alcohol before 9 am for several days in a row (see "A" above). C) Playing video games with parents/adult family (it was Wii, but still. My Mom thinks creating "Mii"s is the most hillarious thing ever).
-I started Christmas shopping earlier than ever this year. Congrats to myself for good planning/budgeting.
-XMas tree this weekend?

Wedding Attack:
-1 week into planning and shit's going pretty well. After some haggling over the date (and many, many congrats to Megan and Morgan), things are going nicely. Only 10 months to go!
-The first thing I did when I got home and plugged my music hard drive in was start playlisting. I AM UNSTOPPABLE, and possibly the best DJ ever.

And, In Other News...

-Dare I say, things are looking up for my birthday. It's weird having hope for the country. My inner ultra-negative cynic isn't totally going away though.

-On a related note, if this whole election clusterfuck turns out favorably, I'd really like to visit Washington DC. I've always wanted to go (to the Smithsonian, especially), but banished the idea from my mind about, oh, eight years ago.

-This is a pretty funny article- not only because the idea of the Chinese Democracy record is hilarious, but they put up a picture of Radiohead instead of that cornrowed, football jersey-wearing fatty. I think Axl thinks they are the same band anyway, so that may just be the picture the record company sent. It'll probably be taken down soon, and I dont know how to take a screenshot in (bleeeecccch) Windows. Check it quick!

-That is all.

Locale

Here's some lists I made based on where I grew up and where I live now.

5 Best things about growing up in Paso:
1. The splendid isolation of Hall Manor
2. Living far out of town forced me to nerd out (books, computers, guitars), and initiated a renaissance when I got the drivers licsense.
3. Oldest friends
4. Highschool shenanigans and/or hijinks.
5. Punk rock and skateboarding

Best things about living in Orange County:
1. Best beaches in America
2. Weather
3. Entertainment (including proximity to LA/SD)
4. Cleanliness
5. Employment

Best things about Corona Del Mar specifically:
1. Awesome shit in walking distance
2. Hearing the waves, sea lions and foghorns in the morning
3. The smoothest paved streets I've yet to experience=skateboard pleasure
4. Trees, grass
5. Thai Del Mar

Worst things about Paso:
1. People: white trash, lake rats, motocross bros, general brew-ha action, druggie ass meth burnouts, people from highschool I don't want to see at the movie theater over the holidays
2. Christian Conservative assholes
3. Heat. And Cold.
4.  The wine "industry"
5. Isolation

Worst things about Orange County
1. Christian Conservative assholes
2. People: white trash, lake rats, motocross bros, general brew-ha action, scene kids
3. Wealth and sense of entitlement
4. Weather
5. Music scene

Best restaurants in SLO County
1. Cafe Roma
2. Thai Classic
3. The new Italian place across from Boo Boo's
4. Tio Albertos
5. Big Sky Cafe

Best restaurants in my immediate area:
1. Thai Del Mar
2. Giorgio La Trattoria
3. El Matador (tied with) Great Mex
4. Native Foods
5. Bandera has fabulous pork loin

Worst towns in Orange County:
1. Laguna Hills/Aliso Viejo/Mission Viejo/Lake Forest faceless, culture-free staletropolis
2. Huntington Beach broverload/hoverload
3. Garden Grove, shit covered in shit, baked on asphalt
4. Fountain Valley, like above, but literally smelling of shit.
5. Fullerton should probably be reclassified as part of Riverside, but must remain free of too much scorn because Fender (and G&L) originated there.

Recent Happenings

Not too much, really.

-My Wolverine-like healing factor. After finishing some (eventually fantastic) Steak Au Poive in the oven, I grabbed the handle of my trusty All-Clad 10" fry pan, only to absolutely sizzle the palm of my left hand with the most painful burn I've ever experienced.After several hours of palming a cold beer bottle (the shape contours nicely to the palm, of course), and some neosporin the pain subsided, and the blisters were gone in less than two days. Under a week later, there is almost no evidence of the event. Such an injury would have healed on our old X-Man freind in mere moments, but I like to think I'm somewhere in between Wolvie and an average dude.

-iPhone firmware v2.0. As if enough hasn't already been written on the internet about this... I'll keep it short. The iTunes servers crashing at about 8 am friday moring left me phoneless until about 1 pm. But jesus, it was definately worth it. The apps already available are great, and they're only going to get great-er. If someone doesn't write a Pro-Tools/Logic wireless controller app and a Kaoss Pad/theremin emulator, I'm gonna have to learn to code it myself.

-The Dark Night. I've successfully avoided seeing all previews for the movie, except the one I couldn't avoid before (I think) Indian Jones ATKOTCS. I think I may be on to something here.

-Paul's Boutique. My current musical obsession- especially Looking Down The Barrel of a Gun. One hell of a jam, and pretty fuckin' gangster too. A whole album of miniature masterpeices.

-EBow. Finally got one, and it's super sweet. It seems to overdrive my pickups more than I remember the ones I've played in the past have. Maybe that's just because I'm doing it right now. The one problem is that it can't do chords, but that's what cello/violin bows are for.

-Freedom Guitar San Diego. What guitar shops are closed on Saturdays? Re-fuckin-diculous. Our Fender Showman finding mission was cut tragically short. At least we got to go to the zoo... Oh, wait.

-San Diego Zoo. Yes, I've confirmed my hunch that zoos are a major bum-out. Most of the animals looked really depressed- especially the lions, bears (Sun and Grizzly) and the elephants, which I found quite disheartening since San Diego is considerered to be quite an advanced establishment. I'd hate to see the zoos that aren't so generally well thought of. The gorillas seemed pretty impervious to the sweaty masses behind the glass, which was very cool. There was also a particularly active (and impressive) mountain lion- it chased after one small kid that ran by and totally stared down some other kid that was making growling noises at it. Had the majestic beast not been in a cage, the first kid would have been quite an afternoon snack. Awesome. They should let one zoo patron be devoured by a wild animal every year or so to keep everyone's respect level up. I think the San Francisco Zoo has already implemented this program.

-Fireworks from the porch. One of the many benefits of the new pad.

-Oh, and I almost forgot: The God Delusion. Can't put it down. My only critisicm is that I'm afraid I'll like it so much I'll finish it very quickly. Read it. Now.