May 2009
18 posts
I Drank Beer In the Daytime
Went to Gowanus Yacht Club in the afternoon with Matt, because where the hell else do I need to be? Drank some pitchers of Duff out in the sun with the odors of the fresh surf of the Gowanus wafting over us.
I Hit Up A Huge Vinyl Sale
This guy in Carroll Gardens is pulling out of a record store and opening his own and is selling off records to raise the cash for it. Had thousands of them out on Union St yesterday. It was so overwhelming all I walked away with was two Talking Heads albums.
I Saw My High School Jazz Band at Lincoln Center
The jazz band of my alma mater, Eau Claire Memorial High School (go Abes!), played at Lincoln Center yesterday in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington contest. They send out Ellington scores to 57,643 schools or something like that, and you record your band playing three of them and send it back, and the top 15 bands get to come to New York. I got to play there in 2002 and it was...
I Went to Dark Was The Night
OK, this was kinda awesome.
If you haven’t listened to the new Red Hot compilation Dark Was The Night yet, do it. I don’t care if you’re in the library. Download it. The money goes to AIDS (anti-AIDS, not pro). It’s really good. Really good.
Anyway, they had a concert at Radio City Music Hall with some of the artists on the record: Dirty Projectors, the National,...
I Bought New Records
Today’s vinyl acquisitions:
Beggar’s Banquet
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Changes (also Bowie)
Purple Rain
I Bought New Speakers
And successfully hooked them up after figuring out binding posts. Currently listening to Sonny Rollins on vinyl through them.
I Saw Of Montreal
Went with my classmate A.J., Ivan from the Rosebuds, and my friend Dan. Janelle Monae opened. She rocked hard. Of Montreal did too. Many more costume changes and elaborate skits than last time I saw them, which was for free in 2005 at Union South in college (the shitty union that’s no longer there). It was loud. It was awesome.
I Got Pulled Up On Stage
I went to the Bell House to see my friends in Megafaun play (www.myspace.com/megafaun). They are three men with amazing beards:
They were playing with the Rosebuds (www.myspace.com/therosebuds). It turned out my friend Dan was playing with the Rosebuds, which turned out to be good because I was supposed to meet my cousin Sam at the show and he was a no show (damn you Sam!) so I watched...
Things I Did While I Wasn't Studying As Hard As...
Things I did during the semester:
Well, not much. Drank some good beer. Drank a lot more bad beer. Bought a bike. Almost died riding it to school the first day when I inadvertently ended up on the top level of the Manhattan Bridge (the expressway).
Went to Costa Rica. That was the big thing. Backpacked through the rainforest (“the most biologically intense place on earth”...
December 2008
35 posts
The End of an Era?
So, I created this blog mainly in response to Caroline’s excellent Ways I Avoided Studying for Finals blog. It was a way to taunt my classmates and gave me something to do because I didn’t have anything going on. It ended up being more fun than I thought though, and now that finals are over I’ll be sad to see it go. Entries like “I ran” or “I went to...
I Crushed a Dream
My friend Annie in response to my Chinatown post where I revealed what I bought my sister Annie for Christmas:
Ann: words cannot describe the crushing disappointment I went through when I realized you weren’t getting me knock-off perfume for christmas me: ah, sorry
too many annies in my life
though if you really thought it was you, you shouldn’t have read the rest of the post per...
I Got Older
Most people have no trouble finding similarities between me and Brad Pitt, Christina Aguilera, Keith Richards, Steven Spielberg, and Ty Cobb, but here’s one you might not have been aware of: we all have the same birthday. It’s today. Woo.
I Had a Ginger Yum-Yum
Matt and I have been daring each other to get one of these ever since we started going to Botanica on Houston St. It’s one of their specialty drinks they have advertised on the mirror behind the bar. Matt bought me one last night. It’s rosemary-infused Skyy vodka, minced ginger, and ginger beer. I wish it were garnished with sushi. It was actually kind of good, but I was happy to...
I Went to Film Forum
I saw Wendy and Lucy. Really good. Pretty sad. Don’t ever try to drive to Alaska in an ‘88 Accord. It made me miss my dog. Suzy died right after the Super Bowl two years ago. Like me, she couldn’t stand the sight of the Rex Grossman-led Bears in the Super Bowl.
I Did Not See Oasis
A.J. tried to pawn off his extra Oasis ticket on me. I didn’t go for two reasons:
1) For $70 I could see 4 shows I actually want to see and buy a beer.
2) It’s not 1997.
I believe my first trip to Madison Square Garden will probably be for graduation, where I will be wearing Paul Ward’s Patrick Ewing jersey under my robe.
Paul’s AIM screenname is pdubbs33dmb which...
I Went to the Met
Really going through all the museums this week. Went there by myself. Was pretty tired all day so I was only there for three hours, but checked out the medieval, European, and 19th/20th century European collections. Pretty solid way to spend a day not studying.
I Went to Chinatown
[Annie don’t read this post even though you pretty much know what you’re getting for Christmas]
My sister wanted perfume for Christmas. So I went to Canal Street. I found a new bargaining technique: don’t bring cash. The guy wanted $35 for the perfume my sister wanted. I offered $20. The offered me the knock-off brand for $20 (as if I was supposed to believe they both...
I'm Huge in Philadelphia
I seem to be more popular with those not in law school:
Bracha: your blog is fantastic. fan-tastic. put that on your status update!
I Rocked Out With A.J.
First we had tea. Then we rocked. Well, we played his Yamaha steel-string with some serious cracks in the neck and intonation issues and his Stratocaster sans amp. But we rocked out as hard as you can with that setup. A.J.’s solo version of the Ronnettes’ “Be My Baby” will knock your socks off. If I were Brian Wilson, I’d totally spend a year in bed listening to...
It Was Third Eye Blind
Was forced to look up who did “Jumper” (referenced below) when Brenton suggested it might be by the New Radicals. The only song either of us know by them is that “You Only Get What You Give” song, which is the one Brenton thought I was referring to. After giving it a listen it could conceivably be trying to talk someone out of suicide, and Ukie835 claims it had that...
I Ran.
Outside. In the rain. On December 15th. Wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It was mid-60s here today and below zero back home. Don’t want to head back for Christmas. Hope everyone got out of the library to enjoy it today.
Battery on my MP3 player died less than halfway into the run. The rest of it felt so low-tech.
I Went to the Guggenheim
Probably saw this coming if you read the last post.
I know we all know what it looks like but I think I need a picture to break things up:
I was meeting my friend Alena there. She has to go back to Germany next month, so she needs to get in all the New York stuff she hasn’t done yet. I took the 6 uptown from Broadway/Lafayette, and it took about an hour to get there because the...
I Thought I Saw a Jumper
I was on my way to the Guggenheim, and stopped to change trains at Broadway/Lafayette, where you have to go out of the station and walk a block to switch to the uptown 6. Right by the subway station about a block north of Houston off of Lafayette, there was a guy standing in the window in the top floor of the building threatening to jump. There was a hook and ladder truck with the bucket up next...
Blog Feedback So Far:
Sarah: i hate you
Katie: i kind of hate you right now.
Caroline: The next day, my “friend” Joe, who happened to finish his finals 10 days ahead of everyone else, started his own blog: Things I did While You Were Studying for Finals, which is about all the cool fun things he’s been up to, like going to Bon Iver concerts and holiday parties. Yeah, kind of a dick move, right?
Nathan: nice...
I Had What I At First Thought Was a Random Run-In...
After last night’s Bon Iver show, I went to Barrette on Vanderbilt Ave. Barrette has good music and $3 tallboys of Bud (shitty beer, but you take what you can get). It’s also the closest thing to a strip club I’ve ever been to because they have burlesque dancers, but I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be more campy than sexy. I came in wearing my Wisconsin stocking cap,...
I Went to the Brooklyn Museum
I’m embarrassed I’ve lived so close to a great museum this long and haven’t gone, and it was only $4 for students. Saw lots of good and diverse stuff. Correctly identified a Bierstadt (remember the art dealer exercise?) and Rodin’s Burghers of Calais before reading the placards, making me feel cultured. Also nailed a Picasso, but you have to be pretty dense not to get...
I Went to a Bon Iver Show (again)
This time they were at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Two things happened that made me feel much hipper than I am:
1) Outside the Music Hall you’re forced to wait amongst the insufferably hip of Williamsburg. I think they have to cut their jeans off their legs when they go to bed, and I don’t know how they wipe the disaffected looks off their faces; maybe Pitchfork froze them that...
I Met My Sister's Trumpet Teacher
This is an addendum to the first Bon Iver post: It’s funny how even New York the world can be a small place. After the show, I met this guy in the lobby and learned he’s a musician and went to college in Eau Claire (my hometown). We started talking about the top jazz band from last year at my high school, and he said two of the trumpet players were his students. I asked who, and he...
I Went to the Bon Iver Concert
This is my friend Justin:
Justin and I went to high school together and worked at summer camp together. We also were briefly in an acoustic thrash band called Five Dollar Machete. Two winters ago Justin went up to his parents’ cabin and recorded For Emma, Forever Ago. Since then, he’s really taken off. Now all the Williamsburg hipsters are into him and people have heard of Eau...
I Went to a Super-Swanky Holiday Party
The firm I’m working at next summer had a fancy-ass holiday party at this place:
I think that party goes to show spending a ton of money on a party doesn’t guarantee it’ll be fun. There was plenty of free booze and great food, but everyone was wearing suits and making the same awkward small talk. There was only one other student there who will be there next summer and I...
I Saved the New York City Water Supply From What...
Or anyway, I did some work for my environmental law clinic. That class is officially over but there was one question we didn’t resolve so I kept working on it a little more. It was pretty close to studying really; I don’t know if it merits mention on this blog.
The lawyer I work with at NRDC is best friends with a woman who directed/produced American Movie, which was one of my...
I Learned to Play "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the...
I’d had this song stuck in my head since my family rented I’m Not There over Thanksgiving break. I thought the movie was really good, and I definitely hadn’t not been listening to Dylan, but it sent me back into overdrive. My cousins grew up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and lived for a while in the house Judy Garland grew up in. Just a few miles from them was Hibbing, which is...
I Went to Union Hall
Back in high school there was this transfer student from Germany who didn’t really get along with her transfer family so she ended up moving in with my friend Emily. Anyway, we all ended up hanging out with Alena for that year and she was a pretty integral part of our group. She moved to New York a few months ago for this film internship, and I’d been too busy to hang out with her,...
I Hung Up Some Pictures
This summer I put some pictures on my wall but then had to rearrange my room and ended up blocking them with this thing that sits on top of my desk so I couldn’t see them. Now that I’ve got all the free time in the world, I finally put them on a visible portion of my wall.
I also tried to buy a picture frame for this photo of the terrace at my college. I bought it at this poster...
I Put Up Window Curtains
My Grandma made me these curtain/window topper things a long time ago but I never had time to put them up. I bought a curtain rod today and drilled some holes and hung it up. I think she made it a little long for my window, but it looks OK anyway. Thanks Grandma.