Hi. Haven't checked in a while. Nothing to write about. I've been working a lot and going out sometimes. It's not a bad routine I have set up for myself but I'm often tired a lot though. Old age has set in.
Christ's birthday is coming up and I haven't really started any shopping. I can't wait for this shit to be over.
Been listening to a lot of soul and funk and wishing I was black. It would take millions in plastic surgery to make me black.
[ posted by emmanuel at 12/11/2004 09:37:36 PM ] [ link ] [ 1 responses ]
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Private matters will be kept private
Hence the rushed nature of this post.
I'm getting tired very easily these days and everything around is as well. Not sure how to rationalize or make sense of it. Sticking to the regiment I have started can only do good.
Halloween is coming up and I don't have a costume! I have a party to go to but nothing to dress up as. Fuck it. Maybe I'll show up as The Invisible Man.
R.I.P.
Rodney Dangerfield
John Peel
Who's next?
[ posted by emmanuel at 10/27/2004 01:16:54 AM ] [ link ] [ 2 responses ]
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Look for me in the obituaries
Hey, just checking in. I am still alive despite my low level presence around these parts. Sorry friends, I've been busy.
Let's see..where to start? Oh, some may find this hard to believe but I've started working out. I'm in my second week and so far its just been bitch work but I really like it and I will continue with it. Well, I kind of have to since i paid $150 for 3 months at this private gym 5 minutes from my house. As some of you may know, I am your stereotypical awkwardly skinny indie kid. The mere thought of me lifting weights will send some of you to the floor laughing but bear with me. I have not taken steroids (yet) and am only doing this to get rid of unecessary fat and just generally tone up. Damn, I feel like such a tool even typing an explanation out like that but whatever. Give me a couple months and you'll see me starting fights for no reason and bench-pressing cars in no time.
Things with the band have been going great as of recently. We are in the midst of a serious creative peak and are churning out songs for a new set at a good rate. Usually it takes a good month or two to even write a one minute song but we've all been experimenting with various "enhancers" and are coming up with stellar results. We now have a 15 minute song. No joking, dude. Look for Clancy Six on the cover of Guitar World in a couple months. Just don't steal our "licks".
I also started a new "band" with my partner in crime, Shawna. Well its not actually a band but she has these amazing vocal melodies/lyrics that she's been working on and she has asked me to help her with them. It is an honor and a privilege to get to work with a talented girl like her. It will be fun trying to act like I know what the hell I'm doing when we get together to work on these songs. Maybe she won't read this and will not be the wiser??
I've also been entertaining thoughts of acquiring a pair of turntables and having my hand at this little thing called "being a DJ". Not really certain on how it will pan out but hey, I got a pretty substantial record collection from which I can spin from. "Spin" is the technical term for playing records just in case you didn't know. Ahem. This might be a pipe dream for now but if I get into serious Party Mode and decide to roll with this then you better watch out. No fucking party will be safe when I'm blasting NECROPHAGIST and old school disco at loud party volumes and things are getting fucking wack on the dance floor. DJ GYRO BREATH!! in the 2004.
[ posted by emmanuel at 09/24/2004 12:07:10 AM ] [ link ] [ 4 responses ]
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Low rent kind of dude
Hi. Sorry for not checking in very often. Things are kind of busy around here and I've been running around with not much time to update. I regret even having another journal like this but sometimes I can't shake the feeling that I may need to write things down once in a while since I don't communicate much else to anyone anyway. Half hearted attempts at posting my thoughts and feelings in such a public forum always make me feel a bit uneasy but I can only assume that by you reading this its just a nice way to kill time, right?
I just got back from band practice and it was something that we hadn't even done in months. Shit was kind of beat though. Got there and our entire room is covered with water. Not flooded but enough to where you could definitely slip and bust your head open. Our room carpet is entirely soaked and stinks. Guitar bags and amps wet. I can only think of electrocution as we're trying to play our set while standing in water. Maybe Barney will look exactly like the electro-shocked Angus Young on the cover of AC/DC's "Powerage" album. To complicate matters further, one of my bass guitar's tuning pegs is not working and is bent out of shape and my cord is also busted thus rendering my precense at this moment in time useless. Luckily, Denny has a spare bass in his car and things are good. I don't even know why I put myself through this anymore. I think the reason is without music I probably would've picked up a shotgun a long time and started taking people out. Whoa, chill out dude?
I started writing music reviews for this nice online zine called Indie Workshop. Its good to be back to writing again as I've missed getting crappy cds in the mail and totally wailing on them. Check it out at www.indieworkshop.com. Just go under the "more reviews" section and scan for my name. I think I have 4 up so far. Being a rock critic is fun. The funny thing is that Ian, the dude who runs it, told me I could get into shows for free and to let him know if I would be interested in doing a review or interviewing bands. A couple weeks ago I went down to Baltimore to check out Sunn O))) and Comets On Fire and asked Ian if I could do something with Comets. He got in touch with their label (Sub Pop) and said that I was good to go with an interview with the band and that I was to be on their guest list. I get to the club and explain to the doorman that I"m on the guest list and tell him my name only to find that my name is not on the list. In a last ditch effort I ask to see Comets' guest list and the first name I spot I tell them that its the dude I write for and that someone somewhere made a mistake. I forget the guy's name I used but I think it might've been Ron Jaborski or some weird shit like that. Well, as I'm watching the opening band, I feel a tap on my shoulder and a bouncer is telling me that I need to come to the door and "have a talk". Apparantly, the man whose identity I decided to use in a false manner has shown up! Boy, did I feel like a tool box. Luckily, I wasn't kicked out and was made to pay admission. I was so mad over this that I didn't interview Comets On Fire because if a label as big as Sub Pop can't get one person's name on a list to promote their band then why should I give a shit? Though I did buy their new album and it fucking destroys, might I add. Not really sure what the lesson is here but if you want to try to get into shows for free pretend you know someone on the guest list and see if it works. In my case, it doesn't.
Speaking of fake identities, this past month I have been mistaken for a record store employee while shopping at Spaceboy in Philly and just this past week as an employee at the Gap. The Gap was a weird one because I was wearing flip flops and a busted up black t-shirt with bleach stains. I'm not really into this stuff when it happens and for some reason it's happening more than it needs to. If you're going to mistake me for someone else at least have it be cool. Maybe a stranger you met at a party and had a nice conversation with. That weird guy at the bar that was staring at you blankly after his fourth Jack and Coke and making you feel uncomfortable. Not a goddamn record store employee even though I would kill to work as one.
With all that said, see you in about another month or so as I think I have gotten out all that was needed to be said. With things going the way they are you might be seeing more of this nonsense but don't hold your breath. See you at the Olympics.
[ posted by emmanuel at 08/13/2004 12:25:13 AM ] [ link ] [ 2 responses ]
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Now is the summer of our discontent.
To say the summer has been beating my skinny ass down day after day would be a total understatement. This has been and will always be my least favorite time of year. Dreams of nuclear winter and wearing cute Gap sweaters year round have been forgotten about years ago and all I'm left with is this uncontrollable urge to punch anyone in the face who I overhear talk about their "awesome" time at the beach or whatever activities young adults my age partake in a beach/aquatic setting. Yes, I know I'm overreacting but these are the things I constantly think about in my spare time.
Working with teenagers who have just graduated high school and are seeking their first post-graduation thrills by rushing to Senior Week (sp?) and getting annihilated doesn't help either but their actions are to commended. I graduated many moons ago and my time was spent, well I can't really remember how my time was spent. I remember working, hating life, playing in a band, and oh yea, cursing that it was summer. Some things never change but you can't blame me for at least being consistent.
My levels of obnoxiousness definitely go up this time of year. I've been finding it harder and harder to keep my mouth shut when the opportunity to verbally insult someone comes up. I've been doing good though but who knows how long it may last. A lot of people's mental wiring gets kinda screwy in the winter due to lack of sunlight (I'm guessing on that one) but being in the complete opposite spectrum of that phenomenon puts me in the minority and really no one I can relate to. Its not like we're talking about seasonal depression or anything here but having repeated day dreams of physically assaulting people in Jeeps blasting the latest Dave Matthews or Jason Mraz song can't be healthy right? I"m guessing that one day I'll be in the middle of 2 cars blasting two of my personal "I'm not really into this song and if you are you are a complete asshole who needs to be destroyed" songs and things might get ugly. Do they have the internet in jail?
Alas, I have been combating summer's sadistic stranglehold by attending a lot of good rock shows, playing a few here and there, and hanging out with people I genuinely care about. All of these definitely make the time go faster and the summer more enjoyable. Before you know it, I'll once again be the boy wearing the cute Gap sweaters and you can hug and tickle me all you want because it'll be winter time and we'll be by the fireplace, snuggling and giggling while 30,000 feet of snow is being dropped on us. People will be rushing to the store for milk and eggs and getting into horrific snow related accidents but we'll be blasting the first four Black Sabbath albums (at the same time mind you) and enjoying our hot tea mixed with whiskey. Can you picture it? I sure can!
[ posted by emmanuel at 07/06/2004 12:07:55 AM ] [ link ] [ 13 responses ]
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No Sympathy For The Devil
Marriage can be tricky. I've seen them flourish and give hope to the rest of us that yes, you can find a person who you can be with forever but I've also seen them take people down spirals of regret and misery, cursing the day they met their "significant other". But who am I to say? I'm the eternal bachelor, the lonely interloper looking in from the outside of the relative easiness of being single and care-free. With that being said, this past weekend I witnessed the marriage of a close friend to the woman he loves and has loved for the past four and a half years and to say it was a totally grandoise experience would be understating the facts.
My friend Tracy, who got married, I've known for about five years now and have been playing music with him for the past three or so. Many a road trip we've spent together where we've seen each other in some of the most humiliating positions guys our age can get themselves into. When he announced his marriage to us we where all in disbelief. Tracy getting married? This meant he was actually maturing and moving up in the ladder of life while the rest of just hovered in the no-man's land of blowing our paychecks on records and booze. We were all happy just the same though. The girl he was going to be marrying, Florence, is awesome and the two could not have been more compatible together.
Fast forward to this past Saturday and I'm in upstate New York, in my tuxedo (dashingly handsome I might add), surrounded by family and friends and witnessing the actual ceremony going down. The whole thing took about five minutes since Flo and Tracy are really just about ditching the whole pomp and circumstance surrouding these things and going on to more of the important parts of the wedding: the open bar and all the food you can stuff your face with. I actually had to hold back a couple tears during the ceremony as it was almost ending. Yea, I'm a sucker for this shit and I can't help it sometimes. The ceremony drew to a close and we did our business with walking down the aisle with our bridesmaids and then proceeded to rock some much needed champagne in our private room and got down to business.
The details start to get blurry after the 5 hour open bar routine but we did end up back at our hotel room in fine form and lived to tell about it. After we surveyed the damage amongst ourselves we concluded that after all the time spent getting to NY, the cost of tuxedos and various other expenses that it was all totally worth it. Seeing some of your best friends get married is truely a unique experience.
I was asking myself a lot of questions during the whole thing as well. Will my wedding be this cool? I mean, Tracy and Flo's wedding song was Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love". Can you fucking beat that? I highly doubt it. Cake was cut to the Stone's "Wild Horses" and watching Tracy dance like a monkey during "The Safety Dance" will go down as one of the funniest things I've seen in this lifetime.
After all was said and done, on the drive home I sort of came to the conclusion that true love maybe does find people and in some mystical way brings them together. That cosmic forces were plotting people lives to where they would intersect, meet, and multiply fruitfuly as we are thought to be designed to do. Trying to shake off the numerious Jack and Cokes I had the night before, I sort of came to the conclusion that love is bullshit but I'm glad that my friends had found it.
[ posted by emmanuel at 06/22/2004 12:58:23 AM ] [ link ] [ 20 responses ]
