Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 14:37 - General
Last weekend Galia and I flew to Chicago to visit Liz and see one of my, and recently her, favorite bands - Steve Albini's Shellac. We'd been sort of hoping to set this up as a fly to Minnesota for my oral surgery then hit Chicago either on the way there or back kind of thing, but that didn't work out and then we couldn't peel ourselves away from the idea of going. Very bouge I know, but hey you only live once.The Thursday before we left, I went to the practice space with Arthur and Sal at 5 (we'd skipped practice the day before so I could work on research - we have some deadlines looming for publications) so we could set up mics and record drum tracks for 2 of our songs. We want to get a demo together so we can try and get a show or two before I leave for Amsterdam and Israel on May 11. Barring a few hitches (one of the overheads produced no sound e.g.) we got the drum tracks recorded at around 12:30. Arthur's recording some bass tracks, and I'll be recording guitar tracks this week. The idea isn't to have something super polished, but just to get something that sounds good enough and showcases over 15 minutes of our material for promoters to have a listen.
Friday morning I woke up at 7 to pack and catch the flight and was quite tired, as I'd not gotten much sleep the previous night either cuz we went out to the Lucky Dog again.
Random interjection: if you ever record an album, don't have a background sample of thunder, especially if you're a slow instrumental band. It's so cliche it's painful.
We packed and took a cab to La Guardia (so close) and landed early in Chicago around 11:30. We met Liz outside the building downtown where she works and dropped off our bags, had $35 worth of salad at Au Bon Pain, and then wandered around trying to make the most of what we knew would be the last bit of really nice weather (we'd be missing two days of 22C in New York to be in 4C + snow in Chicago). We walked over to Millennium Park and saw the jelly bean and some tight rope walkers who had me help them tie up their rope between a couple trees. Then lied down a bit, checked out the lake, wandered inside some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, over to the Sears Tower (I mean Willis Tower), then back to Liz's building and via the bus to her apartment in Lake View. We drank some and then went out to Vision at like 11 cuz ladies got in for free til 11:30. Vision is this big dance club downtown which used to have like 3 levels but the basement is now closed. The crowd was mostly black people, and while I didn't notice that until Galia pointed it out, she really liked it cuz there aren't many black people in Israel and so it felt exotic. (Forgive me if that isn't the state-of-the-art PC term.) We got our drink on, and then got our booty shakin' on. An African-American man of about 30 came up to me at some point and told me the following: "hey man, I been dancin' for a long time now, and I ain't never seen a white boy with rhythm like you got". I was very pleased and honored - until like a year ago me dancing on a dance floor would have been unthinkable.
We stayed only for like a couple hours before we all got tired and called it an evening. It was quite fun though. The following day we woke up to snow as expected, and waited til 11 for La Creperie to open and then had breakfast there which was great. We then wandered around Boys Town, stopped back at home after a coffee at Intelligentsia, and then took a cab over to Wicker Park to check out the "hipsterville" of Chicago. It didn't seem nearly as concentratedly hipster as Williamsburg, but we did stop in a couple stores including American Apparel. I model 3 hipster-style tight-legged $250 Swedish-made jeans at the first store for Liz and Galia which was pretty hilarious. I had to pretend with the salesman that I was actually interested, and he went on some absurd spiel about how the company that makes them "is interested in the uplifting of humanity and stuff like that". At American Apparel I tried on some tight pink pants. From there we walked north, stopped at a bar to recharge and grab a drink, and then we bought a 750ml bottle of Kettle One and some chips and hit a tiny house party at some friends of Liz's. They had a cute dog named Otis, and we got pretty tipsy before we had to rush out the door looking for a cab to go to the Shellac concert. Apparently they started right at 10pm and we barely made it to the front of the stage right in front of Albini when they started to play. The venue had a waitress taking drink orders from the crowd which was pretty cool so I bought myself a beer. Shellac was amazing and played the three songs we really wanted to hear. From there we walked to Liz's apartment and were there by 12 cuz we weren't interested in The Ex, the other band playing. The key Liz had given us didn't actually work so we were stranded outside, but luckily she'd decided to come home early too so we didn't have to wait long. They started watching An American Tail on demand but I fell asleep after like 3 minutes.
In the morning we woke up and after lazing for a while went over to The Bagel, this Jewish diner which gives you unlimited free pickles, and had an awesome giant breakfast. We then finished the Disney movie before heading downtown and going to the top of the John Hancock as is my tradition since it's nice and free. It was pretty cloudy but spotty, and it made for cool effects as the clouds raced over the buildings. We then wandered all around the Drake Hotel, photographing various ballrooms and hallways which was really cool and random. We ended the weekend by watching this movie Liz likes called Flatliners which was nice but I wouldn't really recommend it - I mean, it has Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, a Baldwin, and Julia Roberts. The journey back home was pretty uneventful, and we were back a little before 1am.
The last couple days had Alex and I realize that we weren't going to hit the PACT deadline this Saturday, so we're thinking about maybe submitting to Supercomputing on April 5.
I was in Pittsburgh the previous weekend with Galia and Alex so that Alex and I could hit the day-long GPGPU workshop which took place as part of ASPLOS. The conference was pretty useful, and Pittsburgh was really cool for its size. Lots of stuff to do, cool neighborhoods and music and bars, and very beautiful geography.
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( 3.1 / 59 )Friday, February 19, 2010, 23:44 - General
So I've taken to headbutting people lightly, especially when donning my replacement blue hat which Galia bought for me. One example of this was while waiting in line for my popcorn at IFC last week (where I told the guy I wanted popcorn with a disgusting amount of butter on it, and he told me he'd give me so much that he'd have to charge me for a drink). A girl commented that I had great form.Another was today when Arthur and I were walking home from band practice we stopped into El Beit so he could get a coffee and I some grounds for the mornings. I headbutted him while we were waiting for his coffee, then again after he'd gotten it but I was still waiting for the grounds. I think I must have hit a nerve in his upper arm or something, as he dropped the coffee and it exploded everywhere. I offered to buy a replacement, and Arthur offered to clean up, but the friendly barista made him another on the house and told us not to worry about it.
Good times.
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( 2.9 / 477 )Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 16:39 - General
It's been 2 months now since I wrote. I guess I'll do a synopsis of far-way stuff the details of which I don't really remember, and then post again about more recent stuff.I went with Galia, her parents, brother Tomer, and brother's girlfriend to the far northwest corner of Italy for 5 days at the end of December. Galia and I had our own hotel room in this quite nice hotel and we went snowboarding together twice (my first times ever and I hardly fell - it was really fun). I was a bit baffled by the apparent need for snow chains on the tires of the rental cars when there was hardly any snow on the roads at all, but whatever, I guess non-Americans are just wussy. We also celebrated Tomer's birthday while we were there one of the nights, and Galia's parents got me this little keychain for Christmas with my name engraved in both Roman and Hebrew alphabets which was cute.
I stayed in Israel until the morning of January 25. Galia and I hung out almost 24/7, with only brief times apart when I was at this research seminar led by Prof. Shavit that I was attending at Tel Aviv University or when she had dance class. It was great. We bought ourselves a desk and a couple chairs so we could study in her room together, worked a lot on her PhD applications for the fall, she took the GRE, I gave a guest lecture at the seminar. The time went by too quickly of course.
My last week there she and I, after having joked about the subject off and on since the summer, decided that we want to get married. It was just between us for like 2 days until we told her family at Friday dinner and they were all shocked. Luckily her little brother Noam chimed in that "this is good, this is good" and helped her parents to process the news. After that, it had an existence of its own, and we've been planning it ever since. She'll arrive in New York on Monday evening, then we'll stay here together until May 11, spend 5 days in Amsterdam, and then we'll go on to Israel for the summer together. We're going to have a wedding ceremony there that her parents are more or less in charge of (neither of us wants a traditional large wedding, but they insist on it, so we just have to roll with it) but it won't be the legal thing. That will be in either August or September in my parents' backyard in Minnesota. Then we'll move in together in New York and live there at least until I graduate. I'm really excited, very in love, and very lucky.
Since I got back to New York I've been working really hard. Every day I study some Hebrew, play drums in our practice space for an hour, and spend around 10-12 hours in my office on research. We also have band practice 4 times a week these days and we're getting all the songs I've written down - about 50 or so minutes of material all told, though only 6 songs. It's instrumental math rock with some sludgy metally stuff and more complicated bass lines than I think are usually present (Arthur and I both have big egos) and I'm really proud of it. Arthur bought an 8-channel firewire breakout box and Sal has a bunch of microphones, so we're going to try and record a nice demo and get some gigs before I leave in May.
My research is coming along pretty well. Our compiler as of today finally can launch JITed code onto the GPU. Now starts the phase of adding optimizations to make it actually perform well, but the basic grunt framework is in place which is really satisfying. I have a publication deadline for PACT in late March, and I'm supposedly trying to also finish my Swiss work by March 25 for OOPSLA but we'll see how that goes.
So yeah, life is good, though somewhat monotonous. I can't wait for Galia to get here.
Lewis, Brandy, and I went and saw a performance of the first three Bach Cello Suites on the 9th and then we walked over to IFC after a quick bite at Sacred Chow and saw this amazing movie. It's truly absurd - surreal Japanese horror from the 70s with lots of scantily clad young girls. Tonight Lewis and I are going to see Four Tet which should be fun. I'm trying to start a solo electronic music/live electric guitar project sort of like Ratatat but maybe more up-tempo, but I don't have a keyboard and I'm all of a sudden feeling broke with 2 weddings coming up. I'm thus trying to sell my Orange which is sad but hey I never use it anymore with the 2 Super Reverbs anyway. Also, if anyone knows of someone looking to take over my room in my flat (really an amazing apartment) for $1000/mo in Williamsburg, lemme know.
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( 2.9 / 27 )Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 14:45 - General
It appears I'm losing interest in updating my blog as religiously as I'd been for the past 4 or so years. I'm not giving up entirely, but I don't anticipate that fact changing any time soon. Life is great and I have no shortage of what I find interesting and fun stories to record and report, but I'm also quite busy. With that said, I'll do some catching up now.As I write this I'm sitting on Galia's "poof" on her balcony while she's at ballet class. It's been just over a year now since we re-met-up in Israel. Time sure flies - it's almost unimaginable being without her. I've been in Israel since Dec 11, us having arrive within a couple hours of each other due to having taken different flights here. But I'll back up...
When we left off it was mid-November and I was still battling jetlag (ya'effet in Hebrew as I've recently learned) after coming back to New York. That week on Friday Arthur and I, along with Nguyen and Xu Wei, went to Pianos (my first time there) to see El Ten Eleven. Their shows are always great and this was no exception, and I totally converted Nguyen to trusting my concert judgment after that one. The footwork is truly an art in itself. That Sunday Arthur, I, Nguyen, and another friend of Nguyen's went to the Mercury Lounge to see Cougar, the post-rock band featuring a guy I loosely know from undergrad named Todd on bass. The band was actually really cool, especially the drummer, and Todd was really nice and hung out with us some. This show just further cemented Nguyen's trust in my taste as well. Arthur and I noted that one of the 3 guitarists was using both a Pitch Factor and a Time Factor, the new $500 pedals from Evantide which he and I played around with at Main Drag. The Pitch Factor in particular is really tempting and I may get one.
The following Thursday I went up via Metro North to New Haven, CT, to have Thanksgiving with Liz's family and their family friends. It was really nice to see her and meet her parents, about whom I've heard so much over the years. I'd also never been to New Haven and it was pretty ok - reminded me of a much richer-centered Madison. The dinner was also pretty interesting, being at another family's house with 4 generations of that family represented. I was told repeatedly by an 80-ish year old woman that I saw the word "like" too much, and played with a 3- and 4-year old girl for a while and then went out with Liz to a couple bars. Some guy yelled "who you lookin' at" when I stared at him absently while walking out of the bar which was amusing - my blood boiled from the yelling, and then I felt rather embarrassed that I instinctively responded to such nonsense. I spent the night at Liz's parents' place (which is huge but I saw half the size of their old place) and then took the train back to NYC. Grand Central was pretty damn hectic on Thursday - apparently it's the busiest day for the station all year.
That whole time I was preparing for my DQE, the depth qualifying exam which is an oral exam consisting of two parts: presentation of background research which sets the stage for my own work; and my own work itself. I was stressing about it a bit before I gave a practice run the night before to Alex, Nguyen, Arthur, and Ya'ir, but that went so well that I just drank some whiskey that evening and went to bed late. I passed on Dec 1 and will be awarded a Master's by NYU for my efforts. Now I'm back on track re: the standard timeline for PhD students here which is cool. I have to give another such oral presentation on my Thesis Proposal in the spring but that should be fine.
After the exam I left and headed straight to Williamsburg to meet Arthur and Sal so we could move into our new music practice space on N. 14th. It's something I've dreamed about having for years and now I finally do: 9'x11' space (about 2.75m x 3.35m for my non-imperial friends) with 24-hour access in a factory which has been converted into around 40 such spaces. Sal and Arthur put in a ton of effort and now it's carpeted, somewhat soundproofed, and decked out with shelves running around the perimeter. We got to jam in there just once before I left the country, but I can't wait to come back. I have such a great setup and such great bandmates - we just need to practice.
That evening Arthur and I went to see Russian Circles at Bowery. We were up front on the right (stage-left) so we could see the guitarist's fingerwork, but this time that meant that his amps were right in our faces and all we could really hear was the guitar. He also had some problems with his pedalboard during the first song which lasted around 10 minutes and sent him running to the van for a replacement Memory Man. Embarrassing, but the show was still great of course.
The next day, the 2nd, Galia arrived and I picked her up at JFK. She had trouble with customs cuz she'd taken advantage of a buy four get one free sale on cartons of cigarettes in Tel Aviv but that was apparently too much to be bringing into the U.S. but it turned out OK for her. This combined with a delay with her flight meant I missed the entire DB class that day but Dennis was OK with it. I sent her off to Think while I held office hours and had students sign up with me for their final project demos. While she was in New York (Dec 2-10), I spent at least a couple full days dealing with the demos and the requisite grading but we found time to go out enough. We also took Bolt Bus down to Philly Friday evening and back Saturday evening so that we could catch yet another Russian Circles show as she wanted to see them too. We stayed with my old Hot Topic friend Sean whom I hadn't seen since I moved away from Madison and who's finishing up his Master's at Drexel in Psych. He was very hospitable and came with us to the show and entertained us the following day while it was snowing and cold outside. When he took us by the Comcast building to see the wall of HD screens after eating brunch at a vegan restaurant which was delicious, we randomly caught a holiday special showing of this 3D video on the wall of screens and got to watch it with free 3D goggles in a sea of kids and grandparents. It was really cool - I enjoy such "very American" things way more now that I can share them with someone for whom they're not just banal.
Since I've been in Israel I've mostly just been working and helping Galia study for the GRE as she's applying to grad programs in New York for the fall. I attended a couple Shabat dinners at her parents' and uncles' as part of Chanukkah, we went out a couple times to the Silon, we've been spending days at The Streets - typical Tel Aviv fare. I must say I sure love sufgeniot, the traditional jelly donuts eaten during Chanukkah. I started attending this weekly seminar at Tel Aviv University on Thursdays at the invitation of Prof. Nir Shavit which is pretty nice. I'm looking into summer internship opportunities for me here. Tomorrow we fly to Northwest Italy - Valley D'Aosta, where Galia and I spent most of our Italy trip this summer - with her parents and her brother Tomer and his Aussie girlfriend Lisa where we'll stay until Dec 28. I'm here until late Jan and working on two paper submissions for January (though one is likely not to make it on time). Life is good. I sure wish I had time to work on my Hebrew though.
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( 3 / 395 )Thursday, November 19, 2009, 11:28 - General
I met Lewis at Earthmatters on Sunday evening on the 1st where I had maybe the most delicious veggie burger I've ever had in my life. We then walked over to Bowery, which was farther than we'd thought (we'd decided to leave our bikes behind) and got there just before Bellini was to start. We first positioned ourselves up front so I could see the guitarist, and were blown away by how damn loud it was. I'd never seen the amp or speaker brands the guitarist was using and still don't know what they were. After a few songs we moved to the back, and when they were starting their second to last song Nguyen arrived. I really enjoyed the show, but as Arthur pointed out such shows where you're there to see someone other than the headliner are often disappointing as you pay for a short set. We went downstairs and hung on the couches for a while as neither Lewis or Nguyen had been to Bowery before and then Lewis and I biked home together with Nguyen staying to check the other band out.On Tuesday the 3rd I met Lewis and Brandy over at the new Think Coffee on 4th and 12th and then walked with Lewis over to Curly's Vegetarian Diner. He'd never been, and thoroughly enjoyed the sloppy vegetarian fare (as did I). Brandy joined us after signing up for her pole dancing class, and we had a rather enjoyable meal. We then rode home together and parted ways at the Bedford L - I was to spend the next 12 days in Israel, and the day after I returned he was off to the Midwest for like 2 weeks.
The next day, as most Wednesdays, was packed with stuff to do. I had the research lunch and office hours and class, and got everything together for my trip. The next morning I got up at around 5:15 and took the J to JFK for my 9am flight to Tel Aviv via London. It just so happened to be Guy Fawkes' Day, so when we landed in London at around 20:00 local time I was treated to an overhead view of a city engulfed in flames and fireworks. My plane to Tel Aviv was the last one to leave Heathrow that night, and I landed in Tel Aviv at 5:20am Israeli time. Galia was there sleepily but excitedly waiting to pick me up, and we went through the procedure we've gone through many times before - paying for the parking, driving back to Tel Aviv, climbing into bed to nap away the jetlag. We slept til something like 11:30 which was reasonable, and jetlag didn't bother me too much in the coming days. That evening we went to her parents' place for Shabat dinner which was nice, and then we went just the two of us to the Silon on Ivn Gvirol for a nightcap or two.
My stay in Israel this time was pretty uneventful - we stayed in Tel Aviv / Ramat Aviv / Ramat HaSharon the whole time, except for a very brief little road trip my last day to some rural areas near Herzilliya before stopping at her parents' in Ramat HaSharon, and then going to the son of her parents' cook's wedding in that area as well. We spent quite a few days working together in the libraries of Tel Aviv University, and she finished a big paper on Nietzsche and Spinoza while I got a bunch of research done and worked on preparing for my DQE (after which I'll get a Master's from NYU). I ran into Prof. Nir Shavit one of those days in the humanities building's cafeteria, he being the prof with whom I'd met nearly a year before, and he invited me to attend his research seminar while I'll be there in Dec/Jan which is cool.
Other things I did included: having breakfast with Galia's (and now my) friend Hadar at a hipster cafe; going to another Shabat dinner at Galia's parents' the following Friday as well; spending a lot of time reading Nabokov's Pale Fire to Galia (that book is so amazing); meeting up with Nir, Orit, and Tal at the Armadillo and getting a ride back to Galia's in the Talmobile. The wedding to which I went my last night was quite interesting - very flashy and over the top, but not all that different from American weddings I've attended except for a slight difference in ceremony (the stomping on the glass, e.g. and obviously a Rabbi talking in Hebrew). I danced due to demand (though only after having around 4 drinks), and was told I dance well (I'm still trying to understand how this could be true). On Tuesday morning Galia and I got up at 5:30 so I could catch my 8:15 flight to JFK via Paris. It was quite hard for both of us to say goodbye, even though she'll be here now in less than two weeks. This whole always saying goodbye thing has to stop, but we've got it worked out now so that we'll be together from Dec 2 through late March at least and I'm very much looking forward to it.
Today I woke up at 4am and forced myself to lie in bed til 6, at which point I got up and made coffee and talked to Galia for like an hour. Yesterday I went to the practice space and found my '77 super reverb with a blown speaker so I'll have to have that reconed. Probably a good time for that to happen though since I should really be working my ass off in preparation for the DQE. There then was the usual research lunch, catching up on electronic stuff, talking to Galia on Skype, office hours, and class before heading home and curling up with my Nabokov biography and falling asleep at like 10. That guy is my hero.
Must. Concentrate.
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( 2.9 / 346 )Sunday, November 8, 2009, 07:37 - General
I arrived in Tel Aviv at 5:30am Friday morning to Galia waiting for me at the airport. I love it here.[ add comment ] | permalink |
( 3.2 / 57 )Sunday, November 1, 2009, 20:39 - General
Friday night when I got home from the office I was greeted by my neighbors' open door to their Halloween party. My new neighbors are pretty much super lame frat boys who listen to bad music and drink bad beer. I don't really care cuz I don't really know any of my neighbors anyway now that the Swedish girls are gone, other than the music sometimes (though they're on the opposite side of the apartment than my bedroom so it's not so bad usually). The music was pretty loud this time though, so I drowned them out for a couple hours with my guitar but that only served to egg them on. Thus I switched to blasting our stereo, first with Russian Circles, and then to the suggestion of Arthur when he got home, some "really annoying" stuff like Big Black and Ministry. This lasted til past 1 when Can got home and wanted to go to bed, so I ended up staying up til 2 reading this history of Nabokov's Russian life that Lewis bought me and then having my earplugs mostly do the trick. Now, I didn't complain to them or the management cuz I wanna be consistent with respect to the fact that I think the people who live in my building should be able to have loud parties on weekends, but a nasty note left on their door by some other neighbors apparently shows that not everyone feels as I do.Woke up sort of late Saturday, and luckily my budding sore throat had disappeared. I got an email from Galia about a discussion on free will and God which she'd had with her friend and wrote up a huge response to that and then made plans to discuss it with her when she got back from visiting her grandfather, and thus to kill time til then I biked over to the tin can and practiced drums for like 40 mins and guitar for like 1.5 hours. Then it was back and we talked on Skype for quite a while. It was a good talk, and for those who don't know, I'm tentatively supporting the position that free will is an illusion but one that, in the daily psychological context, we necessarily adopt and believe in order to function. However, underneath it all are just the deterministic laws of physics and thus free will is actually impossible. And yes, I still believe that morality is compatible with this thank you for asking. However, all of these positions are somewhat tentative as I haven't read enough or thought enough in depth about the matter to fully form a view, though I imagine that no matter what view that were it would have to be only tentative due to intellectual honesty.
Anyway, after that I played guitar for another many hours while talking to Can after spending some time working on my Depth Qualifying Exam reading list and presentation. I have to give a big oral exam on Dec 1 which includes a presentation on around 15 papers which form the background context of my own research work, and then also present my own research itself, all of this to a committee consisting of my advisor and 2 other faculty members. I'm really not worried about it, I just have to make sure I'm fully prepared. After I pass this, I'll be awarded a Master's from NYU (which would be my first, as I still never wrote my UvA thesis). Around 9 I decided I needed to get out of the house and hit up this Wooden Shjips show at a new music venue quite near where I lived my first year in New York though a little more removed in the warehouse district (good for noise reasons). It was raining a tiny bit which almost scared me too much to venture out on my bike, but I braved it, and it was great as the rain was very very mild and it was warm. The venue itself was really cool with little rooms with couches in the main hall and a big rooftop for smoking and admiring the Kosciusko Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. I ended up being there alone for like 5 hours or so, seeing Religious Knives, Vivian Girls, and Crystal Stilts in addition to the headliners. The other bands were quite missable, though I sort of like RK and really didn't like the others. I just hate garage and this is a special variety called shitgaze. I consider the name apt. Anyway, I had a few gin and tonics, took a walk around the hood during a break, and was home by the second 1am. I'll definitely be going back there as it rocked. The place was also insanely crowded with people in costumes and some guy during the RK set offered me mushrooms from a baggie out of which he was eating them and then a "hit" from his beer. I declined both offers, but thanked him graciously.
Today I got up before 10 which in the past weeks is early, talked to Galia for an hour, and then rolled into the office. I mostly just worked on my DQE prep. Now I'm about to meet Lewis at Earthmatters for dinner and then he, I, and Nguyen are gonna see Bellini at Bowery.
I fly to Israel on Thursday morning!
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( 3.1 / 382 )Friday, October 30, 2009, 19:37 - General
Let's see, I think I'll write about more recent events as those are fresher and their details are more likely to be lost.Last Thursday I went to a CMJ concert headlined by Cinemechanica but I was there to see The Bronzed Chorus, a 2-piece post rock band from North Carolina. Lewis was thinking about joining me but couldn't make it til 10, and they went on more like at 8:45. Thus I saw them myself. They were a little sloppy but it was still cool, and they inspired me by having 2 Fender amps for stereo delay effects (cue the foreshadowing music). The main problem with them was just that they were way too loud for the space, and a few times it felt like I was going to fall over cuz I was dizzy from the mind-blowing loudness. I had a beer there and for some reason felt like lots of girls were checking out my butt while I stood there alone up front and I then let Lewis know that I was ready to roll and we met up at Burp Castle instead of the show. We had 3 beers there in the new outdoor terrace which we both think is a significant downgrade from the previous setup. On the bike ride back we were rather tipsy and sort of got into a race over the Williamsburg Bridge which I decidedly won, even after having to stop and check out some glass I'd run over. I then just went home while I believe he continued the revelry at some other venue.
Friday I gave into temptation and called up a guy who was advertising an early 1968 Fender Super Reverb on Craigslist for $1100. This is one of the older silverfaces which still had the blackface circuit (though of course they're still not as "desirable" as a pre-CBS one). I called up Sal to see whether he'd be down to give me a hand with his van with picking it up and that was a go so we went over to the West Village. I was able to pull out $1000 in cash from the ATM in one shot which was surprising and then we went to the oldish (50?) dude's place and I beat on the amp but it was tip top so I was sold. We then drove over to the practice space and I set that and the pedals up in stereo and we jammed for a while, and then we brought my Orange back home so I can use it as my practice amp until I sell it, though it will be sad to part with it. I'd much rather have a real practice studio and a nice Fender guitar than the Orange however. Anyway, I took Sal out to eat at Fabiane's in payment and it was nice though we noticed that they serve foie gras by which we were both instinctively repulsed. This caused me to look up the production of foie gras and I found that outside of France there are some producers which simply kill the geese or ducks at the time of year just before migration would occur and thus when their livers would naturally be at their fattiest (though French producers claim that this produces clearly inferior meat). I only hope that Fabiane's uses such meat and not the traditional stuff. Anyway, after that I went home and played guitar for another hour or so before Sal called me up again and had me come over to the bar where he used to clean to hang with him and his friend who owns it. We headed over there and hung for a while, mostly being entertained by her adorable new puppy that she'd just gotten that day. After this it was decided that we'd go to the gallery opening of the dick chicken exhibition at 3rd Ward (the one at Lorimer and Metropolitan). For those not in the know, dick chicken is some dude who's been tagging Williamsburg and various other areas of New York with said moniker but also this cartoon drawing of a chicken with a penis for a head. It's pretty much all over the place, and everyone seems to know about it and have an opinion about it, and lately there have been some imitators (Pussy Ham: said phrase with a ham and a vagina in the middle of the ham and blood seeping out; Taint Turkey: a turkey stick figure with a line to its taint and the word taint written there; etc.). I was curious to "meet the man behind the cock", and the exhibition flyer suggested I'd have the chance to do. Sal was really against going, calling it the Britney Spears of street art, but in the end neither of us had anything better to do so we went. Outside the place we ran into a friend of Sal's (of course, he knows everyone) who apparently is friends with dick chicken himself and had helped set up the show. We chatted with dude for a while and then went in to find a super packed little gallery with tons of people. I immediately realized that Sal was right, and the art itself was just like advertisements for dick chicken pizza or dick chicken mcnugglets, and so I sort of was kicking myself for having gone. We didn't even meet the man behind the cock. I did however make my way back to the open bar and luckily, it turns out, they were out of cups. What they did have was a bunch of lemon vodka and some empty 1/3 litre sparkling water bottles, so the guy just filled one of those with like 6 shots for me and gave me that free of charge. With this in tow we just left and went across the street to Kellog's Diner and got dinner and I drank my "water" with my omelet and fries. After this I was quite jolly and we continued the party over at Barcade where I had another 2 beers and we played a bunch of video games, all the while Sal wanting to get on Dig Dug but these dudes were hogging it for well over an hour and a half. When we eventually got on it he showed me this trick you can do to get the game to lock up and not advance to the next level, the only way out being rebooting the machine. We thus sat back and watched the hogs' frustration and then walked up to Bedford before parting ways. At home were Shlomit and her cousin Talie waiting for me as they'd come down to New York with some others on a road trip to see the Leonard Cohen concert. I chatted with them for a while before hitting the hay.
Saturday morning I slept in quite late and then brought Talie over to meet Shlomit at the Roebling Tea Room for brunch. We sat in the back corner and had our cheesy eggs and discussed the tension between research and teaching in academia and then they went off on their own while I went home and relaxed. I was quite tired from the night before and resolved not to drink anything alcoholic that day. I ended up chilling at home, talking to Galia for a while, playing some guitar, etc. Around 7:30 I got a text from Shlomit asking to meet up at Union Sq. and so I braved the pouring rain with an umbrella and waterproof shoes and left the house. I actually really enjoyed the rain and the amazing warmth of the evening, just not so much the wetness of my pants after many blocks of walking. We had dinner with Talie as well at the Vietnamese place to which I went with Galia and her friends a few weeks ago on University and 13th. From there it was Grey Dog's and then a wander through the East Village with the beer bars I'd had in mind vetoed due to a lack of seating and then us ending up at Beauty Bar for a drink. I stayed true to my resolve while Shlomit and Talie each had something. Talie really liked the place while Shlomit and I were very skeptical (I mean, we'd been there before, but I'm pretty convinced now that the place sucks - both the crowd and the music). After the drink it was home and to bed.
Sunday morning Shlomit left really early but Talie stayed in New York for another few days. She went off to a museum or maybe Chelsea while I went into the office cuz I felt sort of guilty about skipping Friday to buy the amp and stuff. I can't remember much of the day other than the working. Alex was in the office too so we had some productive coding going on. That evening I think was the one when I came home to Can having consumed a whole bottle of port and then he and Talie keeping me up for a while before he got her to go to Bagelsmith with him at like 1 in the morning.
Monday I again went to the office and feverishly worked. Alex and I are trying to connect our two programming components in what Dennis calls the Union Pacific. We ended up not getting that done before our meeting with Dennis that evening, but we'd worked hard to get there so it was cool. When I got home I found an empty house around 8:30 so I turned on my amp only to have Talie come back after not to much longer. After a little subtle coaxing I decided to go out with her, after having bragged to a very tipsy Galia not much before about how I'd not drunk any alcohol for 3 whole days. She and I met Can in the elevator and he decided to join. The three of us first went to Foodswings, the vegan fast food place, where they had dinner and I had a rootbeer float with vegan ice cream. We then went to Spuyten Duyvil. We got the usual window seats and then Talie asked me how one picks people up in a bar. I thought about it and said all you need is some "in" to start talking to them, so an obvious tactic is to go with a group and stand next to another group of people with attractive members of the obvious sex. I then resolved to demonstrate how one talks to said members and chatted it up with the bartender a few times. It was rather amusing. Can left after the second drink but Talie and I stayed for a third, which as I had warned her previously in the evening caused me to start going off about how amazingly awesome my girlfriend is. I advertised some Zvoov on the chalkboard in the bathroom and we rolled home.
Tuesday was another office day. I know I didn't make it home until something like 9, at which point I played like 2 hours of guitar. Lately I've decided to try and play for at least 1 hour every single day if not more. Consistency is very important to my improvement on the instrument I've noticed.
Wednesday I talked to Galia for quite a while in the morning and then went to the research lunch with Dennis's group. From there I went back to the office and drew up some slides presenting mistakes that were made a lot on the homework I'd corrected for the Advanced Database Systems class I'm TAing. Next office hours, next class and said presentation (which Dennis says he liked), then more office hours, then home for more guitar playing.
Thursday morning I decided to head into the music practice space for my practicing, thinking that I could just work late and that the space closes at 6 so practicing there isn't an option. Well, this turned into me playing guitar for like 3 hours and drums for like 1.5 hours. The new setup is so amazing, I just can't wait til we have the real practice space and thus I can practice in the evenings. While I was drumming, mostly listening along on my iPhone to Nirvana and Tool and trying to replicate what was going on, a dude who works at the storage place and was cleaning the floors walked by and wanted to watch. I got sort of uncomfortable cuz, well, I'm not a drummer (even though he seemed to think it sounded good, it most definitely did not) so I switched back to guitar and showed him each of the pedals and so forth. He was very interested in the mechanics of how each part worked and I like explaining things so it was fun. By the time I got to the office it was almost 5, and then I just talked to Galia for an hour before getting to work. Sleepiness got the best of me early and I got into bed by 11 to read some of this history book on Nabokov that Lewis bought me and I was dozing off by 12, but then I had trouble actually falling asleep and woke up today at past 10.
I've been sleeping really late for the last week or so and I'm not sure why. I'm sort of considering quitting caffeine, maybe due to reading on his blog that Josiah had done the same recently with alcohol and cigarettes. I've had this weird feeling of anxiety deep in my stomach ever since I left Switzerland and I can't really tell why, but I imagine being hopped up on caffeine can't help. Today I again started the day with a full litre of coffee however and then talked to Galia on video skype (which is really an amazing resource I must say) for something like 2 hours before she had to roll to Shabat dinner. I then biked into the office, running into Dennis in the hallway and then also stopping by the NYU library to pick up a couple books on current philosophical thought on the idea that logical contradictions might not necessarily be fatal to arguments - i.e. that there are multiple classes of contradictions, some of which might be ok. It's a topic in which Galia and I are both interested so I'll bring them along to Israel. Speaking of which, I'll be headed there in less than a week, staying for 12 days this time, and I'm rather excited about that.
This weekend I've got a couple shows in mind: Wooden Shjips Saturday in some new space in Greenpoint near where I lived my first year here; and Bellini Sunday night at Bowery Ballroom. I also learned that this guy Todd who played a few times at parties in my basement in Madison is in this post rock band Cougar, one of whose albums I've had for a while now, and he'll be playing a show at Mercury Lounge after I get back in late November. I also just installed the new Kubuntu which was so far painless. I'm pretty happy to have last.fm scrobbling working again on Amarok.
I came across this quote of Vonnegut which I quite liked while reading Mother Night (which was great, as all Vonnegut is): "Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."
Ok, I'm gonna try and work a little now.
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