Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Five

Sunday was this blog's fifth birthday. Yay.

Not always certain why I still write on this blog, but it's fun. Something to do. Hope everybody else still kind of enjoys it too.
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Missouri / Iowa

Spent last weekend back in Missouri. It'd been over two years since I'd been back home. Thought it'd be weird, but it was all fun.

Kirksville looked pretty good for the most part. We went touring past some of the buildings damaged by last month's tornado. That was pretty insane.

I've seen plenty of buildings damaged by tornados before, but seeing it in Kirksville made it more surreal to me. The majority of the damage is in a really nice neighborhood too. Pretty sad stuff.

The wedding itself was great. It was very nicely put together. The most worrisome part of everything was the rain. It had rained everyday I was there, and another line of storms was coming through at wedding time. We kept checking Zane's Blackberry and trying to stay positive, even though everything pointed towards disaster. Outdoor wedding.

Two small things got cut from the ceremony (a reading, or blessing, or whatever) to try to move things along. As we went outside to start the line on the radar was right on top of Kirksville. There were quite a few rumbles of thunder, and maybe a sprinkle or two, but it stayed dry. Afterwards everybody rushed to their cars when it suddenly really began to pour. Good timing.

Anyways, what else?

I think we did about everything we set out to do on our own. Visited KTVO. Ate a ridiculously unhealthy meal at the Shitty.

Delicious.

Went to Columbia. While touring Mizzou we happened to notice a gate open at Faurot Field. Not sure if it was exactly the right thing to do, but what the hell...

Also ate waaaay too much hummus at the International Cafe and picked a new Cardinals hat while in Columbia.

We spent a whole day on a whirlwind tour of Iowa.

Eldon looked great. Saw the Gothic House.

Yeah, that house. My parents bought a lot about couple of blocks away. They're going to build a house for when they retire.

Also went to Fairfield.

It'd been a long time since I'd been to Fairfield. It was much nicer than I had remembered it. I'd always known it to be just another cookie-cutter Midwestern town, but it was much more well put together than I'd ever noticed.

The Maharishi have a lot to do with that.

Vedic City was great. I'd only kind of been there. Not really toured it very extensively. I loved it though.

The houses were mostly nice.

Everybody was smiling and waving, even though we were invading their little commune. They were all blissed out and shit. It was nice...
...it was really nice. Like the way I wish I could be. Just all happy and thoughtful and worry-free. Like they only think about how to live...
...it was great...
...maybe I could...
...ah, probably not.
Anyhoo. Been back in Richmond since Monday night. Jonathan and wife were in town this weekend. The state of Virginia declared yesterday a celebration for his grandfather. So that was pretty sweet. It's been nice lately.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Sunless Shuffle (Home Sick)

Home sick today [coughcoughsniffsniff] so I may as well do a little catching up. It's nice to have a moment in reality like this as I lose myself in a haze of Sims 3 and Left 4 Dead. It's all just so fun, I can't help it.

I did get up to go vote today. Big difference at the polls from November. Of course, this is just the Democratic primary for governor with a little sheriff's race sprinkled in. I went with Creigh Deeds. I don't like that he's pro-gun (lack of gun control is one of the biggest problems in Virginia), but I think he can beat Bob McDonnell. That's pretty much my only motivator.

Ah let's see, what else...

I'm going home here in two weeks for the bro's wedding. It'll be my first trip to Kirksville in over two years. It'll also be Molly's first trip. It's weird because I have like no friends left in KV. Everybody left after I did. It's going to be fun regardless.

There have been a ton of great music releases lately. Right now is like the eye of the storm (except for today's new Dirty Projectors album, but my pre-order hasn't arrived yet), so it's a perfect time for some...

Current track count: 12674

1. Tom Waits: "Coney Island Baby" (Blood Money)
(Not exactly summer music. Tom Waits always sounds best when it's freezing cold outside, or at least cloudy with no leaves on the trees. Still his sound is always welcome in my ears. Never noticed before how much this sounds like "Innocent When You Dream.")

2. Phosphorescent: "Pride" (Pride)
(Well that transition didn't work. I love this track, but it only counts with the prior track tacked on.)

3. John Vanderslice: "Forest Knolls" (Romanian Names)
(Good god, my iPod LOVES JV!!)

4. Johnny Cash: "Waiting For a Train" (Unearthed: Who's Gonna Cry)
(There's that Johnny Cash I was waiting for last time.)

5. Mark Eitzel: "Seeing Eye Dog" (The Invisible Man)
(The sythesized Eitzel album. Still sounds great, but it's weird to hear. I love Mark Eitzel. Quite possibly the most underrated songwriter alive.)

6. Jay Farrar: "Drain" (Sebastopol)
(That's a hell of a transition. Perfect. By the way, new Son Volt coming out in a month. Just thought I'd share for the few people that still care about Son Volt.)

7. Kevin Drew: "When It Begins" (Spirit If...)
(Another great transition. This is becoming a great playlist. So we have the slower acoustic center with a loud conclusion. Now we need something more exciting to keep it moving...)

8. Decemberists: "The Rake's Song" (The Hazards of Love)
(Yeah, I'd call that a success. Not my favorite Decemberists, but for the sake of this playlists it's works perfectly. Actually it might work better than in the original album.)

9. Half-Handed Cloud: "The Famine's Hard" (Thy is a Word & We Need Lamps)
(I'm laughing right now. Seriously, listen to the previous song and follow it up with this one. My iPod is on fire!!)

10. Johnny Cash: "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry" (Now, There Was a Song!)
(My iPod can read. I'm getting a little creeped out right now. In all seriousness, this song sounds best after dark. Not in the middle of the day.)

11. They Might Be Giants: "For Science" (Miscellaneous T)
(Fail.)

12. Beach Boys: "Wendy" (Endless Summer)
(I was looking for an appropriate closing track for this list. Beach Boys win! Seriously though, throw out the Phosphorescent and They Might Be Giants tracks and this playlist is great.)
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