Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 09:47 - General
So the morning of Thursday October 1 Galia and I caught a cab up to La Guardia and flew nonstop to Minneapolis. The ride was the bumpiest either of us had ever experienced, and the weather caused there to be only one operative runway at the MSP airport so we had to circle in the bumpiness above Eau Claire and we both felt pretty nauseated. When we finally did land we went and picked up our rental car and had the dude giving us our PT Cruiser talk our ears off for like 15 minutes for no reason while Galia had a smoke. Eventually we ditched that guy and got on the road. I was quite pleased to find that the car's stereo had an aux 1/8" jack so that I could swing by Best Buy and pick up a car charger for my iPhone and then we'd have good tunes on our road trips. We drove down to Oronoco but Galia was feeling a bit sick from the plane ride so we stopped at one of the few options along the way: a Country Kitchen. She was wowed by the huge portions and the unlimited refills and the grease. When we got to my parents' everyone was hungry and waiting for us to go out to eat at this new pizza place in town so we headed there: Galia and I, my mom and dad, and Chelsey and her beau. The food was good and afterward we headed back home and just hung out talking for a few hours with my parents until Galia's eyes started to close due to jetlag and lack of sleep so we hit the sack around 11 or so I think.Friday morning I went to get a physical exam but the doc basically just looked at me and said wtf you're fine and so he and I chatted about random crap that was bothering me like my elbow and my backne. On the way back I picked up the car charger and then found Galia still sleeping so I hung out for a while eating waffles. We then drove into Rochester the two of us and ended up in the Galleria of all places cuz I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. We bummed around there for a bit and then just took off and drove around on country dirt roads cuz duh that's way more interesting. We stopped home briefly and then continued up to Minneapolis to catch a Tortoise show. We found the venue easily courtesy of my iPhone and then I predicted that Minnesota drivers would stop and wait for us to cross in the middle of a busy street and I was right. We had our IDs checked at the venue which struck me as strange at first cuz it seems my ID has been getting checked far less in New York these days. We had a couple drinks and sat for the opening act Prefuse 73 which was just sort of lame I thought. The main act, though, was just amazing, and Galia really liked it too. I think with bands like that the live show really shows you how cool the music is in a way that's hard to get from just the instrumental recordings. They played a long set, finishing their three song encore with Salt The Skies (my favorite), and then we were off. I was supposed to meet up with my brother at this point but he didn't answer his phone and I was just so exhausted that I was already doubting how well I'd make it home. Galia passed out and I was left to fend for myself and was also sort of nodding off by the time we made it back at like 1:30 or something.
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( 3.2 / 26 )Sunday, October 25, 2009, 18:12 - General
On Sept 22, a Tuesday, Arthur, my officemate Alex, and I all had tickets to go see Pelican, Earth, and Sunn O))) at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene. Arthur and I were stuck in a huge line to get in so that people's IDs could be checked (one dude doing it, and further adds fuel to my European-minded hatred of the American alcohol puritanism) and thus walked in after Pelican had started. They've switched from old Sunn amps (I think cuz theirs broke and they couldn't find replacements, or maybe it's related to their tour van being stolen) to Marshall half stacks, but man was it way too loud. After being in the front surrounded by meatheads in a venue with seemingly no ventilation at all we climbed up to the seated mezzanine and sat for Earth, which while slightly cheesy was actually rather enjoyable. The drummer was always behind the beat which annoyed Arthur, but overall it was nice and slow post rock stuff (though I always think bands with a Rhodes player would be better off without said Rhodes player). When they finished Sunn O)) set up their 6 full stacks of loud and did a sound check and then turned on some Tibetan chant track on repeat and turned on these huge smoke machines which billowed out smoke until the entire place was chokingly filled. It was absurd, and is impossible to appreciate unless you were there, but this smoke and chant nonsense lasted at least 30 minutes. Arthur and I were rather tired and not so interested in seeing Sunn O))) anyway, so we just left before the smoke thing was over and they actually started playing. I later learned that Alex, who didn't know any of the bands at all, had showed up just when the smoke thing was starting and was thoroughly baffled and bewildered which is an amusing thing to picture. A G train ride, my first in a while (I think since I saw Tera Melos in May), and it was bed time.On Sept 29, also a Tuesday, Galia's Dutch friend from when she went to Montessori high school in Amsterdam spent the night up in my loft. She's spending 2 months or so in New York doing acting classes and needed somewhere to crash for one night before she could move into her sublet. She showed up in the evening, and then she, I, and my roommates all went out to Spuyten Duyvil for a couple drinks. I ended up getting far more intoxicated than I thought my four beers should have made me, but oh well, fun times.
The next morning I went to pick Galia up at JFK. She'd spent the previous night at the Paris airport, and had some mild adventures there including being taken into the bowels of the place by an airport worker for a smoke break. Also when she arrived she'd forgotten her passport on the plane and had a rather arduous time convincing the airline staff to let her back on the plane to retrieve it but in the end she was the last one to come out into the waiting area. We went outside, she had a smoke or two, and we took the J back to my place and lazed around together for a couple hours until I had to head to school for office hours and class. I came back to her asleep in my bed (not an unpleasant thing to come home to I must say). We had some wine and went out to this maze / concert at Death By Audio which was surprisingly cool actually, with this weird band which was sort of a cross between soul and experimental punk. We stayed there for maybe an hour and a half, then stayed up rather late in my room even though we had to get up early the next day in order to...
... fly to the Midwest. Stay tuned for part II...
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( 3 / 280 )Sunday, October 25, 2009, 18:03 - General
So it's been over a month since my last real post. Lots and lots to catch up on, and it's nearly impossible I'll remember even most things I deem blog-worthy, but here goes. I guess I'll start with a list of things, sort of like a table of contents, and then dive into the text-making.* Galia came to visit, first one day in NYC, then 6 days in the MIdwest (Oronoco, Minneapolis, and Madison), then another 9 days in NYC. Was awesome, though obviously too short.
* Shlomit and her friend Efrat were here during Galia's final week, with Shlomit staying another couple days after the other two left.
* Shlomit and her cousin came down Friday to go to Leonard Cohen and now her cousin's crashing with me for another couple days.
* I went to an art exhibition with the theme "Dick Chicken: come meet the man behind the cock".
* I went to a huge warehouse/art space party with Galia, Shlomit, Efrat, and Morann and it was quite cool.
* I, along with Arthur and Sal, put down money on a lease for a real, soundproofed, 24-hour access music practice room being built in a 1-floor old factory on N. 14th and Berry next to Gutter. Should be done in like 3-5 weeks.
* I bought two vintage Fender Super Reverb 4x10 amps, sold my pedalboard and my Digitech Whammy, and am now rocking stereo loops and stereo delay. My Orange has become "just the practice amp".
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( 3.1 / 301 )Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 17:21 - General
Man, what an awesome autumn for new music: Russian Circles, Pelican, Om, Do Make Say Think, The Mercury Program all have new albums coming out.[ add comment ] | permalink |
( 3 / 307 )Monday, September 21, 2009, 19:15 - General
Last Monday my Macbook Air did arrive at the office while I was out to lunch, and I spent the afternoon happily setting that up. I met with Dennis and Alex for the first time in the late afternoon and then went home to play with the Mac. Even now after a week I'm still not very used to it, and I'm pretty disappointed with the NFS performance between my music server and iTunes, but the thing is so light and sexy it's awesome.Tuesday I attended a meeting which explained the changes NYU made to grad student pay structures, and this involves TAships being paid positions above and beyond the standard stipend of in our cases $12.5K/semester. This totally changes the way things work, in that before RAships were awesome cuz you were paid the same and just didn't have to TA, whereas now the TAships carry around 50% more pay than you'd otherwise get. I happen to be a TA this semester, and with my plans to keep up my transatlantic jetsetting this is obviously welcome news. In the afternoon I went to the Apple store in Soho and bought an iPhone. It was a pretty crazy place - it was huge, with tons of toys for people to play with and tons of very well groomed people waiting in line for Apple tech. Like a hipness factory or something. I played with that a bit, but soon found out that I couldn't sync it via Linux. I then worked until I met Sarah, my ex-breakdancing partner, at some bar in the Village which ended up too loud for our purposes so we went back to Vol de Nuit which happened to be where we first met with Caitlin and Shlomit etc. While I was waiting for her outside the first bar I noticed an internet cafe with its sign (saying internet cafe) in 5 languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hebrew. A rather strange choice of languages to represent. We ended up drinking 4 Belgian beers and got rather tipsy, waxing about her love of Apple and having a good time. Biking tipsy is always fun.
Wednesday morning we went to practice in the storage locker and it was awesome. Sal is really good, and it's just so fun to play again. I then had group lunch, worked, and went to the class I'm TAing (Advanced Database Systems) before going home to play with my new toys.
Thursday evening I biked over to Bushwick to a gallery opening to which I was invited by Matt. I was there for around an hour before he showed up, and my iPhone wasn't able to pick up phone service after I'd upgraded the firmware so I couldn't really tell what the deal was. I was able to get data so I chatted a bit with Galia as she was still up after having gone out, and eventually Matt came and it was cool. There was free booze, and the paintings were actually pretty cool (lots of urban decay and dead deer in them). Julie came too, along with her new boyfriend and Matt's new girlfriend. The boyfriend plays jazz guitar so we talked quite a bit about music. The five of us picked up a guy Joel and went to this place Roberta's in the hood which is a quite cool pizza place with a backyard beer garden. We weren't allowed to order food in the outdoor area for some reason and indoors was full, so we just got drinks for a while before going to a falafel joint rather buzzed and then heading home. Good times.
Friday I went to practice in the morning again, then went home and talked with Galia for a while, and reflashed the firmware on my phone to fix it. I also reinstalled iTunes to try and get rid of its memory of my huge server-based library as it kept rescanning it annoyingly, but that caused iTunes to erase the contents of my phone so I'm again syncing music to it - still even now. Whatever. That evening I went to Julie's apartment to a Rosh Hashanah dinner party. I accidentally ate something non-vegetarian for the first time to my knowledge in a while - rice cooked in chicken stock - but I didn't get overly upset about it. The party was fine, pretty low-key, drank a bunch of wine, talked some philosophy etc. New Yorkers are conversationally ruthless and I'd forgotten, so I had to crank up the wit a notch but after that it was all good.
Saturday morning was again band practice, with Sal and I getting there around 9 and Arthur coming closer to 10. We again played for a number of hours and it was again awesome, this time having the oscillating fan out in the hall to keep the power from cutting out. Things are starting to come together, but the songs are pretty complicated to it won't be an overnight thing. That afternoon after practice we all went over to this practice space being built out of an old factory on north 14th next to Gutter and it was so cool. The rooms are only framed as of yet, so we won't be able to move in until early-mid November, but man it's gonna rule - 9x11 room to ourselves, 24hr access, like 40 other bands all around us. Think nonstop loud ass party. We signed the lease and paid the deposit and I can't wait. I kept playing around with my Apple stuff and then at 8 Nguyen came by to drop off my drill and saw (he took the subway with them, walked 12 blocks, and then had to walk up 5 flights of stairs cuz the elevator is broken) and then we went out to eat at Lodge before heading over to Gutter to drink a few and bowl a couple games. We both sucked it up really badly, and toward the end of the second game Sal and his friend Andy came by and we all hung out for a while in the bar area.
Sunday morning I talked with Galia and then had brunch with Dafna at Fabiane's which she loved. We then meandered along Bedford, me showing her El Beit and the bookstore on the corner of 5th. I did laundry, annoyingly finding the spin cycle broken and thus having to pay for 3 dryer cycles instead of 1 to get my clothes dry, restrung my acoustic guitar for the first time since buying it like a year ago (I'd restrung my Les Paul and it sounded awesome so I was inspired), and then Ian, Joscha, and Tim came over at 7 for some beer and Settlers. I won the first rather handily, and then Tim left and Joscha won the second. I blame it on very favorable die rolls but whatever. Good times.
Today talked with Shlomit for a while, went to the office, had lunch with Y-Lan which was nice, and then programmed some before meeting with Dennis. It's almost 8 and I'm debating whether I can stay focused enough to be productive or whether I should just head home. I think the latter.
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( 2.9 / 280 )Monday, September 14, 2009, 11:10 - General
I swung by Dafna's new apartment which is 2 blocks from mine and it's amazing - $900/mo for a huge bedroom and living room (she's sharing with some guy too) and she even has a private balcony overlooking a nice little garden. We ate at the Roebling Tea Room of course, and I had the baked cheddar eggs of course, and we then had a coffee and cookies at Oslo. Was very nice and it's great to be back. Unfortunately she's moving back to Israel for good on Oct 31, so we have to make the most of the proximity.I spent the day really lazily, Arthur and I stopping buy Main Drag but not really doing anything cuz it was so packed in there, and eventually capping it off by ordering a pizza and watching Europa (Lars von Trier) with Arthur. I think I liked it - very surreal - but I fell asleep cuz of the jetlag and getting up so early.
Yesterday Arthur and I walked over to the practice room which took us through the Hassidic neighborhood which ended up being a slight distraction cuz I was trying to sound out all the Yiddish signs. I did determine that they use one of the letters Hebrew uses for the T sound for the S sound instead. We needed an extension cord and didn't see a hardware store along the way so we had to walk like 15 mins each way at least to get to one but then we were all biz, plugging in and practicing for like 3 hours. I think we'll have things solid within a month. We did experience a minor nuisance in that the outlet Sal and I wired is on a circuit which is cut by a motion sensor so someone has to stand in the hallway and move around or the amps die. I think we'll get an oscillating fan in there to help us out. The space is only temporary, but the romance of playing in such a place is quite appealing.
After that I went home, took an hour nap, and then went and filled my bike tires (luckily they stayed full). I then went to El Beit and read a research paper and then a bunch of the Philosophical Investigations for like 3 hours. Lewis swung by, but by then I was pretty much ready to go. I biked over to Europa in the hopes of getting Om tickets without having to pay a Ticketweb fee but they said they no longer have a box office. The evening was whittled away at home with more reading and early slumber.
This morning I made some cut off jeans, figured out that what was wrong with my laptop was likely a bad memory stick and removed it, talked to Galia for an hour, and biked into the office for the first time which was great. Now I'm hungry and just anxiously awaiting my Macbook Air to arrive via Fedex...
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( 3 / 294 )Saturday, September 12, 2009, 10:47 - General
Yesterday Arthur, Sal, and I were planning on going to look at a practice space at Halsey, but Sal called me up around 2 and said he both didn't really like the idea of such a long commute and that he'd talked with the guy at his storage place about renting a 10x10 storage room in which to practice for $200 a month which is about a 20 minute walk south of my place. It's a month to month lease and we only pay like $28 for September so we figured why not try it for now. There's supposedly a place nearly finished (move-in in November) at N 14th where we can get a private 9x10 soundproofed 24-hour access room for $375 so we're hoping we can jump on that later. The only main problem with the storage room is that it closes at 6 on weekdays and 3 on weekends, so we'll have to practice in the mornings for the most part.One Sal and I set it up and moved the gear in there, we drove over to Home Depot cuz there isn't an outlet near the storage room. The guy told us we could wire one up ourselves as there are electric boxes all around for powering the lights so we just needed to get supplies (Sal was in charge of wiring as I've never done any before). The Home Depot experience brought back bad memories of building (but also good ones too) and we went back and he spliced the outlet on. The box was quite full of wires and while he was jamming everything in there something shorted and sparks flew and the hall's lights went out. It was really funny and would have looked quite sketchy to anyone walking by - two dudes with tools splicing wires in the dark. We just finished cramming it in, screwed it shut, and went and asked the guy at the front desk where the circuit breaker was. He was quite nonchalant about it and told us it was on the floor below ours so we went there and ran all over the place in these little warehouse hallways looking for it for maybe 5 mins before we found it. We tripped it, went back, and the lights were on so we were good to go. We moved his drums into the room and checked the outlet with an electric razor (it worked - as demonstrated by Sal using it somewhere I'll not mention) and then we had to roll cuz the place was closing even though we really wanted to check it out and jam. He dropped me off at home and I killed time until Lewis came over in the evening and we had some beers and watched Breaking The Waves (I'd still not seen the end). It was very sad, but I still say Dancer in the Dark was way more intense. I was too exhausted to go out with him and Brandy when he left at 12:30, so I passed out.
This morning I woke up at 7 - still haven't reset the bioclock apparently. Off to brunch with Dafna (who now lives like 2 blocks away) in a bit. I also tried to remove the window air conditioner from my window which my sublettor had left and of course it felt 6 stories to its death. Luckily only it and no people died. Man I'm sure smart sometimes...
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( 2.9 / 304 )Friday, September 11, 2009, 11:16 - General
My week in Israel was great. I feel totally at home there now and know the city quite well, so I don't feel much need to travel around or whatever any more and we just stayed in Tel Aviv the whole time. I landed at midnight, Galia picked me up, and we had a couple drinks at the Peacock after that. Throughout the week I hung out with her and Shlomit and Nirski at the Silon, went to Shlomit's goodbye party in Jaffa (she's spending the semester in Toronto), had dinner with Galia's parents at a restaurant on the port, went to a concert by some 2-piece Israeli band of an attractive girl on a Gibson and a bald dude on drums (pretty straight up, but a cool venue), etc. It was great and hot and too short, but Galia will be here in like 2.5 weeks.I got back into New York on Tuesday night, touching down at JFK around 6:30pm and making it back to my apartment at a bit before 9. I made a rather absurd error (fadicha in Hebrew) when in my happiness to finally see my bags on the carousel I forgot my laptop bag on the ground and made my way through customs and out into the hall. Luckily I remembered it, and asked a very nice staff woman to go back in and get it for me which she did. In the end all it cost me was like 5 minutes, but it could have been far worse. Can welcomed me home and we talked a bit before I passed out around 11, having been awake and traveling for around 25 hours straight.
Wednesday I got up at 8, so I'm pretty much back on normal hours even though I'm pretty sleepy during the days. I went into Manhattan with Arthur so we could attend Dennis's research lunch and then swung by the bank to deposit my 1030 CHF into my account (they gave me a 0.9 exchange rate... man), got a brownie at Think, hung in my office for a while, and then went to Dennis's class for which I probably will be the TA this semester. From there I went home, played guitar on my amp for the first time (which was great), and then walked over to Lewis's to get schooled in Puerto Rico by both him and Brandy. I was really tired but forced myself to do it anyway.
The next day I got up at 10:30 which was welcome, Skyped with Galia for a while, then unpacked all my crap and organized it. At around 4 Sal came over and we caught up and then had dinner at Bliss before he drove me into Manhattan (which cost me lots of time compared with the subway, but was nice cuz we got to hang). He started working part time as a mover for some extra cash and had a job. He, Arthur, and I are going to look at at least 1 music practice space tonight at the Halsey L stop (and maybe some in the neighborhood too) and I'm pumped. After that I took the subway up to Columbia where I was taking Arthur to the Do Make Say Think concert for his birthday which is on Monday. The opening act was one of the guys from Do Make Say Think doing some random stuff with spoken word clips which was sort of boring, but the DMST set was great. I really love those guys, and fell in love with Danelectro guitars a bit, but it was perhaps not the best thing to see when you're super tired from jetlag. We rode the subway home and I hit the sack.
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