weekend weak end

You can work for yourself, but if you've got clients, and you're hungry, and you're not, like, in the top 100 of your field, able to rule your clients by ego and reputation, then you're not necessarily your own boss...

I ended up missing two birthday windings - well, technically, it was one wingding and one shindig - this weekend cuz I was putting in day and night hours at the office. I managed to clear some room earlier in the week to make RENT, but this week there were only so many hours to shuffle around. Nuts.

HbB to JP and RA~

Two weekends earlier, I missed connecting w my college roommate, Ross. He was in town from Maine to play a gig in Allston w his band, OGRE. It was short notice, but I told him I could work it out. He was gonna be rockin on Friday night, and the work I was busy on was to be buttoned up by the end of the day.

Just thinking of making plans probably jinxed me. I had to stay late as Joe and I hammered out some revisions/fixes to the project on the phone w the client. I did take a time-out after the call, but only to get some quick dinner-like eats to fuel the rest of my night at the office.

Fracktacular.

Can I lament my priorities?

What with the need to $urvive and all, work comes first in almost every situation. Of course, on a good summer weekend in New England, a beach volleyball day CAN trump work. Didn't hafta face that particular dilemma this time around.

Socializing, spending time with human beings, enjoying the company of my friends... that typically comes in after work...
...
... Okay, okay. The socializing thing will sometimes come in after those beach volleyball days, too. But, c'mon, you've gotta understand - a beach day in New England! Those are precious!

Okay, maybe my priorities ARE screwed up.

Bleah.

I remember telling Kristen sometime last year before she left Bostonia - I didn't get to spend all that much quality time with her, in the grand scheme of things, but when we talked, we really did talk - And in coming up with and uttering the words, I actually formed the thought for the first time, y'know? Figured out the fundamental of it... The words went something like...

I *know* it's naive and unrealistic, but part of me believes that the people I like will always be around. That there's always time.

Maybe that's my rule of social alchemy...

Not the best guiding principle if you want to Make Things Happen...

Some snapshots from my late night commutes home from work...

Red light in the rain...


Some girls go wild for the Cow Parade...


Hey, they're mooltiplyin! They're mooltiplyin!


Keep on keepin on~

Harvard... giggaty...

FAMILY GUY creator Seth MacFarlane (and friends) spoke at Harvard U.'s Class Day this week...


Not all that much to take to heart as far as "entering the real world" goes. He keeps it entertaining certainly, with a few thoughtful nuggets thrown in, including some commendable political jabs and references, a very honest (albeit, channelled) concession to SOUTH PARK's brain trust, and a great little roast of bad boy Colin F, heh. Probably the most amazing aspect of the address is not about the words at all, but the voices - hearing Peter, Stewie, and Quagmire coming out of Seth's head.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

wuzzon...

Last night I left the office after midnight. When I got to the red line platform at Park Street, I'd just missed a train going my way. So, I settled in about halfway down, at a spot that would get me onto the train in pole position for the escalator exit at Central, and cracked open my PASTORALIA, which I'm totally digging, with a solid absurd-as-everyday coolness and a frightfully high (sadly) reading-my-inner-thoughts factor. I almost sat at a bench, but in general, I feel like I'm cheating a bit if I sit when I could stand. There are always other commuters who need it more than I. Besides, Big Red takes up another spot if I put it next to me.

A pretty dainty girl in black sits in the bench. My reading slows a bit as I do my delusion thing. She looked at me. She's looking at me now. She wants me to sit down next to her. Probably because I'm harmless (which I'm not)...(Okay, I am)... And there are loud and wobbly fellas on the platform now, too. She wonders what I'm reading. She thinks Big Red is weird. Now maybe she doesn't want me to sit down, because what would I be carrying in that bag...? Now...

Some guy - who's not me - sits down next to her.

Minutes pass. This late at night, trains hit these few-and-far-between zones. I think I slide back into my reading. Then, I'm hearing them talking to each other. How did he DO that? She's got a soft little voice. He gets her to laugh a few times - tinkling bells. No $hit.

When I see her later, she reminds me of Tracey S., from journalism class in high school. Only, petiter.

I wonder if she's pissed at me for letting this happen.

But, she laughs some more.

I back step behind the column beside the bench to leave them be.

Backing up, timewise. Across the tracks, a woman has slumped down against the wall, tired, and wanting to sit (see?) she's made herself a spot on the ground. I'm a little concerned about her, but can't see my way to doing anything to help.

Of course, this works its way into a scenario w the dainty girl, before the guy. In it, I get her attention, point out the woman across the way, and ask if, when the train finally comes, do you think maybe you could go thru the train and see if she's allright. I saw her arrive -maybe you did, too?- and she looked pretty beat. I'd do it, but, y'know, I'm a boy. I figure it'll be less of an intrusion...?

Geez, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

And to make it really work, really real, when the train arrives, I'd step onto a car one car ahead of the one that dainty and beat girl get on.

I'm a real clod, tho. When the train DID arrive, I got on the train, looked around a little bit, just figured, w the sound of the train and the crowd (it was a long wait), the woman on the other side would be roused...

When we left, I spotted her thru the windows, still sitting on the platform concrete. Passed out? Damn.

And... I thought about it for a While as I tried to read again...

Maybe she was waiting for friends...

Frack.

Dainty got out at Central, just ahead of me. She said some pleasant goodbye to the guy. The escalator wasn't running, so we were diverted to the stairs. I got caught behind a big slow guy w a big bag and let her beat me up to the ground on the left. When she got out, she turned sharp right, back towards the Middle East.

I kept on walking...

Oh! Backing up again. I didn't realize it until Kendall, I think, but sitting across from me on the train, I'm pretty certain, was J-'s stylish gorgeous tough-girl friend, whom I met and promptly ran away from at her bbq last year (almost exactly a year ago, according to iPhoto).

She was at Park Street with a friend. They came down to the platform high on energy, but seemed to lose it all during the wait. I was mostly into PASTORALIA, and hit a moment that made me really really sad (and just a page before I was laughing), so I wasn't looking up or around, but I thought I caught something in her posture that said she didn't want me to recognize her.

Which could've just been, simply, end of a long night-ness...

And what would I have said anyhow?

Was she going to R-'s shindig?

...

Keep on keepin on~

more CRAZY happy...

Meet Gnarls Vader...


The song is just frickin beautiful. On top of the music, the lyrics (which I hafta admit, I haven't completely sussed out), and the mystical vocals, these guys know how to put on a show! Or three, even!

I want to believe that the lyrics would be perfect for expressing Mannequin Skywalker's post Episode 3 state.

Yeah, I want to believe a lot of things.

May the Force be with Jessie for pointing me to this crazy eMpTyVee non-crapiness.

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. Didn't you just KNOW that Chewie would be the drummer? =)

John Hodgman on the World Cup...

It's like the Olympics, *plus* the World Series, *plus* the birth of your first child, all multiplied by x...

...where x equals AWESOME.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

a summer RENTal...

Observation. I'm seeing more and more of my soda can tops with schmootz in the little metal-pressed rim, y'know? Ick.


Went to see RENT at the Schubert Theater in Boston tonight. I'd never seen it before, but thought I'd heard most of its music here and there. Turns out the only song I really knew was "Seasons of Love," which the movie trailer nearly killed for me. The live performance of it tonight saved it.


Very enjoyable, and maybe a little extra poignant in my mind, given recent media/news buzz regarding "AIDS at 25." My favorite lingering bits of the show are "Viva La Vie Boheme" (or however that's spelled), the twisty subplot involving the contract on the dog, "Tango Maureen," Roger's song about his song, "I'll Cover You," both times, and the multimedia/film finale. Oh, also, the lyrical fun in "America At The End Of The Millenium" - I think it's "I don't own emotions, I rent" - I really enjoy. Oh, also also, Maureen's overly performance-artsy performance piece which has gotta be entitled something like "Cow... Over The Moon" was much appreciated.

I love how, within performances, actors portray acting, and artists radiate... umm... arting. How to explain it...? It's like... the second derivative of the craft. Like doing the impression of something, y'know? It FEELS like when I experience MONTY PYTHONers doing American accents, y'know? You can hear what they hear in what we'd consider accentless speech... "Schopenhauer has an 'S' in it."

I think it's something of a loss that the Cow Parade route doesn't go by the Schubert Theater.

A bit of fun fun crazy talk that hit me during the second half - I would LOVE to see the cast of BSG do "Seasons of Love" as the opener to next season's premiere. Or maybe included as a dream sequence inserted in the black of Balthar's bowed head during the one year flash forward. How crazy perfect would that be? C'mon. Can't you just see the cast of that show being born to dance?

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes... (centons? =)
How do you measure, measure a year?~

=)

Glen got the Tuesday 24 crew together for RENT tonight in honor of Miss Rachel's birthday, which actually came earlier this week. I cobbled together a little digital silliness as a present for her. You might be able to figure out her birthday from the gifty...

Heh.

Keep on keepin on~