yes i stole that from the new 764-HERO album
it started friday i'd taken off work so i could drive to Austin for the Yo La Tengo show. We're so damn busy that even on this "comp" day they'd given me for working so much, i still had to come in and work. bah! after leaving work i stopped by one of the sushi places nearby for a quick lunch. a little bit of ika, they were out of anago so i settled for unagi, an amazing aspargus tuna handroll, some green tea and of course, a bit of tofu tempura. i step outside, shout a quick little SOY! SOY! SOY! soy makes you strong! strength crushes enemies! SOY! and i'm off. i play all the standard road trip albums, the charm of the highway strip, autobahn, this is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about, ABBA Gold. a few hours later i'm there. and the show is sold out. that'll teach me to show up without a ticket. i hang out with a friend who moved to austin a couple years ago. bars, expensive cigars, martinis and other assorted decadently bourgeois activities. the bar we're in has the best juke box ever. ring of fire right after freedom of choice! can you beat that.
Saturday:
i get back to Denton with just enough time to shower and drive to Dallas for the Yo La Tengo show at Trees, which i thankfully have a ticket for. the show, of course was brilliant, i could describe it in detail but all i really want to say, their live version of Blue Line Swinger is the most beautiful, most amazing thing i've ever heard. now, i'm really quite a fan of music, i've had music take me places before, but nothing has ever taken me for a ride like this. the performance was simply gut-wrenching. it quite literally made me weak in the knees to hear it. that song, an instrumental no less, instilled in me simultaneously a great dichotomy of so much pain and so much joy. i wanted to smile and burst into miserable tears. my heart aches, but it hurts so good.
Sunday:
homework! homework! homework!
drove to Forth Worth for the Modest Mouse show. before the show starts, i'm hanging around by myself. watching everybody else talk to each other, mingle, form social bonds. i feel lonely. three years ago, i'd go to the Argo, i'd know or at least be able to talk to nearly everyone there. i knew most everybody who worked there. i knew most everybody in the bands. now, i don't even recognize anybody. i wish i was more outgoing. i wish i could just go up and talk to them. get to know them, have somebody to take these road trips with. 600 miles is a long drive in a silent car. not that i have no friends at all, but well, when your girlfriend and your best friend are at odds and you end up losing both of them. your circle of influence shrinks drastically overnight. i believe junkpile said it best: Do you remember the first day of college or your first week in a new city, when you didn't know anyone and didn't know how to start knowing anyone? I have felt like that for years.
for a while now i've been the stand in the back/corner with my arms folded type. but what with me getting happy again recently i felt like being right up front with the crowd. i'd forgotten what it's like, to simple be wall to wall people, not even room to move your arms, so many individuals, jumping, swaying, moving together like one giant organism. i get scratched, kicked, bruised, knocked down, shoved around. so sweaty, exausted and wired. i feel alive. afterwards, an all night diner. i get home at 5am, into bed at 5:30, asleep at 5:45. alarm at 6:00, time for work! Yay!
Monday:
work was, well, work. no sense going into it. but after work, in my film class. there's this girl i already had a crush on, red hair, chucks, barrettes, and tonight, a t-shirt that said "i love math." sigh. it's a beautiful night out. i wish i lived farther from campus so i had further to walk. to make up for it i walk all the way downtown to check my mail. currently: tortoise on the stereo, sitting outside my apartment with a slurpee and my iBook. noding in the dark. not a bad past few days i suppose. and now, sleep, sweet sleep....