asimplechord

a) Does the new album in March mean BRMC might be at SXSW? PLEASE YES. Although, really, empires and Butch Walker are enough inducement already.

b) :( Our friend W will not be able to make it to HTx for the marathon this weekend after all. Spouse's work travel/child care/not able to get a standby seat on the company shuttle issues. Sad, because we haven't seen him since the marathon last year.

c) My ankle is still so sore. I don't know what I did to it - it didn't pull while I was running, but I woke up one morning a few weeks ago and it was so sore it hurt to walk. I've been icing it for ~20 minutes a night, but it's still swollen half the time, and this morning I skipped the gym because it hurt just to walk down the stairs when I got up. Tonight, no excuses. I'll just have to use the elliptical instead of a treadmill to lessen impact.

d) We're supposed to stay with friends in midtown tomorrow night and then (I will) bicycle over to Allen/Montrose for brunch to cheer the marathoners (including A, who's running the half-marathon) on as they go by, but if it's really going to rain, I'm not sure I want to add biking in the rain (least favorite) + sore ankle together. Perhaps I will be a sofa slug instead. Least supportive spouse ever, that is me.

e) Finished Lori Armstrong's Merciless. On one hand, I appreciate that Mercy is a flawed human being who makes no excuses for her drinking and other behavior. But I really do not understand how the character and the author are going to reconcile her actions with her relationship with the law (in the form of her lover, the county sheriff).

f) One more gulp of coffee, then into lab I go.

Yesterday's free show for the Big Dance: perfect weather and good company, and other than the fact that a huge TV monitor blocked our view of Spencer Smith, Panic! At The Disco's set was ridiculously awesome. Seriously, they seem really delighted to be performing again. I can't wait for their summer tour. (For a more complete review, see shutyourface's entry. And eckerlilas posted pics, but under f-lock. ♥)

Two fandom-y things:

1. Why hasn't someone in GK fandom written fic centered around Brad Colbert's license loss, with him hitching a ride with someone (Mike?) to base every day, and then having someone (Ray, Nate, whoever rocks your world) pick him up each evening?

2. This pic deserves Ivy League grad student fic, y/n?



(via thesameband)




Ugh. Feeling sort of hungover and blah, and still cranky about the "GA" tickets that were the only choice for tickets in the Chris Cornell presale. It wouldn't've been a big deal if the venue set up the floor as they usually do. But the entire floor where the pit usually is was seated reserve, the upper level by the FOH was seated reserve, and the balcony was seated reserve as usual, leaving the area by the door, by the merch booth, and up underneath the overhang behind the seated reserve (where the sound is actually really shitty) as the only GA. Fuck you, Live Nation and House of Blues. Fuck you.

Really not feeling the drive to Austin for the PWTs.

1. I thought more than once about extending my visit to NYC when I got the NDP notice and then the pre-sale code for the Discos' show at the Bowery, but I seriously cannot spend that time off without consequences - the day and a half I'm taking are being made up by working MLK Jr Day and the thirteen hours I spent in lab on Tuesday. (As an aside, J is going to be in town that weekend too. Cling-time! :D :D :D)

2. New post-doc arrived. SO TIRED OF ANSWERING QUESTIONS. It would be okay if it were just her, but I have literally spent hours the last three days showing other people how to do things. It's not like I have, you know, shit of my own to do.

3. I keep thinking about writing something, anything, but by the time I get home from work, I can't be bothered to think straight.

4. Almost through S2 of The West Wing. It's funny in a sad way how a decade after these episodes aired, NONE of the issues they confront have altered significantly. (And I still love CJ like burning.) [ETA: The more I watch, the less I care for Bartlet. To me he comes off as a predictable, pompous ass who relies on a bottomless well of useless trivia, his own opinion, and the bible more than anything else.]

5. Rise Against's new album comes out the same week as GD's Awesome As Fuck? Good music week. Actually, I think that's the week of SXSW, so it'll be a FABULOUS music week. :D :D :D (Also, did I ever flail here about Another Station; Another Mile? My heart eyes over them, I can't even explain.)

6. I was earwormed today by Wisdom, Justice, and Love. First when Tavis Smiley & Amy Goodman got into it on Democracy Now this morning (and wasn't that a total lovefest?) and then when my iPod kept cycling through A Thousand Suns. [There was a thought somewhere about violent political rhetoric and the long war and the political assassinations of the 60s, but I'm too tired to connect the dots now.]

7. A reminder from J had me all excited: the new Mercy Gunderson novel is out! And Amazon said that my copy had been delivered. But there is no package on my doorstep, in my mailbox, or in my neighbor's house. The USPS is not being particularly helpful at the moment, but I suppose that's because it's after hours. *sigh* I guess I'll keep slogging through Aftermath and Learning To Eat Soup With A Knife in the meantime.

8. Fuck yes! (PLEASE, BILL WHITE, RUN FOR HER SEAT.)

9. 30Jan shows of American Idiot are/will be sold out b/c it's BJA as St. Jimmy and it's most likely Michael Esper's last show, y/n?

10. Fanta orange soda + Dripping Springs vodka = A+ supper choice

My sleep schedule is totally messed up. Sleeping 5 am to 9am is not going to be very useful for work purposes this week.

A list of all gift suggestions, holiday card requirements, and baking has been achieved. Now I just have to work on crossing items off said list.

In the meantime, the drabble/ficlet prompt post will remain open, because I excel at justifying procrastination as inspiration and stimulation.

Thus far:

untitled bandom drabble, empires, 100 words, for junebug_waltz
deadly drunken tree fairy, SPN, 115 words, for koshweasley
flip flop smiles, GK, Walt/Brad in the college AU, 189 words, for pjvilar
touch/sight/speech, GK, Brad/Nate, 333 words, for idrilka
paying it forward, American Idiot, vaguely Will/Tunny, 497 words, for pjvilar
it follows, GK, Brad/Nate, 126 words, for lickingbeads

♥

ETA b/c I'm pretty much sitting at my laptop with heart-eyes:

:D Discos' livestream from Germany. I have missed their stupid faces and bad stage banter.

:D A Dean/Castiel fanvid to Matchbox 20's Push.

1. I feel like I've lost my porn-fu. Ugh, it took me FOREVER to write some comment-fic porn, and I can't tell if it's because it's a pairing I've never written before or if I'm getting stuck on mechanics and description. (Please note that I have not written any more of my exchange fic. My brain's squarely focused on things that have no deadline and/or are complete crack. Like the porn that would go with item #12 of the girl!Brad not!fic.)

2. Last night's show at Fitzgerald's was stellar. I appreciate Amanda Palmer's solo work, but her + Brian Viglione = so fucking much more energy. It's not multiplicative or additive, it's exponential. They were on stage for 2.5 incredible hours. Coin-Operated Boy, Gravity, the Jeep Song, Missed Me, all that stuff, with the bonus of a performance of War Pigs as the finale. ***That's not video of last night - I didn't have my camera, and no-one's uploaded it, that I can find.

Every time AFP's internet hubbub annoys me and I tell myself I'm not going to bother with her or DD again, I remember how fantastic the live shows are, and remain willing to pay the venue's entry fee.

(Girl In A Coma opened. Ungh, Nina Diaz. Your VOICE. Especially on the cover of For What It's Worth.)

3. Totally unrelated to music or fiction. Sort of. Nir Rosen debated Max Boot on Fareed Zakaria's GPS this morning. It was painful to watch, because clearly neither could or would concede any ground, and if you believe the thinkers at CFR, well, I guess I have to ask if you've drunk the Kool-Aid. But on a purely visual level, I was interested in the contrast between them: Boot in his suit and shorn hair seated at an angle to Rosen, who was wearing jeans and a casual shirt and jacket, if I recall correctly, and a pair of Chucks.

This entry was originally posted at http://favoritemistake.dreamwidth.org/8626.html.

I was going to post the other night, but I got distracted.

Friday night! Aaron and I went to see Tyrone Wells, and who should be there but shutyourface, who was up front to see Tony Lucca! I didn't even know Tony Lucca was one of the openers until we got there. (Once again, we arrived when the show was supposed to be starting, and the opening act was already near the end of their set. I didn't know them, so it wasn't a big deal, but that does not give me a positive impression of the venue. Two thumbs way down, House of Blues.)

TYRONE WELLS. I don't know what to say other than he's a tall, bald, white dude (named Tyrone) who beatboxes AND yodels in the same set.

Yeah.

Most amusing moment: TW started the intro to Remain, and Aaron asked if he just said the name of the song was Romaine.

Me: Yes, he's going to sing to us about his love for lettuce. He's a big big fan of Caesar salads. :D

For the rest of the weekend I:

- watched most of S2 of The Wire (oh, Ziggy)

- cleaned out my closet & boxed things for Goodwill

- vacuumed and dusted the house (*sigh* Why can't the cats learn to vacuum? Or, you know, NOT SHED.)

- hung out with mercurybard & eckerlilas & her bbs

- did a wee bit of lab work

- watched UC's Conversations With History video of Nate Fick. I need to not have watched it, tbqh. B/c him saying that he believed that US foreign policy was generally a force for good? Uh. Um, okay, if you ignore manifest destiny, and essentially occupying and dethroning a monarch in order to aid US corporations like Dole/United Fruit, etc., among other things, I suppose you could see it that way. I was amused by minutes 21-23, when he discusses methods of dealing with mortality & danger in-theater. Who can he possibly know who uses the "superman" vs. "dead man walking" method, hm? ;)

- tried to read Lone Survivor, which is an autobiographical narrative of the loss of Seal Team Ten in Afghanistan, but I had to put it down. a) The general tenor of the author's descriptions, including calling their mission "God-given" when it was no such thing - it was mandated by the Shrub (about whom the author writes in glowing terms), not any deity - makes my blood pressure sky-rocket. b) It's told in a way that reads like a casual conversation, with a limited vocabulary and scope, and that's pretty disappointing after the last few military-related books I've read.

I also tried to read The White Queen, which is a fictional account of Elizabeth Woodville's life. She seems like she could've been really interesting, right? Wife of Thomas Grey, widowed, then wife of Edward IV, mother of the two murdered princes. But it's told in the first person. Yeah, no. Not working for me.



What else did I have to say?

:(( PStump's showcase looks like it'll be wicked difficult to get into. But. EMPIRES! They have a show that night. (Also, you should go buy BANG if you haven't already.)

Monday... was Monday. I found a water spot on the ceiling in the foyer, which I hope doesn't mean the roof needs to be replaced. But it's nearly 15 years old, so it probably does. There's also a growing mud-puddle in the side yard, right where the main pipe brings water to the house from the street, and I'm afraid *that* means the pipe needs to be excavated and replaced as well. Awesome. Just when we were thinking that our tax-return could be used to replace the living room furniture we've had for a decade, another necessity appears to suck it away.

But today is Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be a better day, right? RIGHT? :D?

I just sat through two hours of meetings. Time to get some lab work done before the next meeting.

<3

Dear PWentz,

Can you fanboy Mark Hoppus any harder? "Mark understands songwriting on a completely different level"? Um, okay, I'll take your word for it. I'm curious to hear the single from the Alice in Wonderland, in any case.

Carry on!




Also, Butch Walker, you are making me sad, because I don't think I can afford a spur-of-the-moment trip to Chicago this weekend, even for you and Gold Motel. D:

~ I feel like crap. The tickle in my throat that started on Sunday afternoon has turned into congestion that's moving into my lungs. Awesome. ACL will be fun. At least we have a hotel room, rather than sleeping on cold, wet ground this time, right?

~ The wedding in Ithaca was pretty, but I knew no one except for the bride. AWKWARD. I am reminded that I miss seasons, particularly autumn, which is my favorite.

~ I'm trying to get my lab meeting presentation and the poster for the AACR meeting done by Thursday. And do everything else in lab that I'd planned. I have been a wee bit busy.

~ This week I wished for the first time ever that we lived in LA. Srsly, Butch Walker. Come back to Stubb's soon, please.

~ I never talked about the Houston date for the blink-182 show, did I? We had seats, so there was no need to be at the venue at the buttcrack of dawn. Three of us (me, eckerlilas, and shutyourface) did the FOB M&G, and as we were lining up to follow Dre, some woman asked if we'd signed up with T-Mobile. We almost declined, b/c we thought it was for another FOB M&G, but it was for a seat upgrade or blink-182 M&G. So we filled in the little slips of paper, and lo and behold, shortly after the doors opened, I got a call from some dude with a LA area code telling me and a companion (vic_ramsey) to come to the T-Mobile booth for the M&G. (I'd've asked playfullips too, if we were allowed another companion, but they only allowed one each.)

So. FOB AND blink-182 M&G at the same show. Now I've got all their scribbles on (one of) my copy(ies) of Where The Wild Things Are. Thanks, Andy, for signing it "fuck Maurice".

We missed Asher Roth (no biggie, IMO) and the first couple of songs of AAR's set, but we made it back in time to fill our ears and eyes with glittery!Tyson. For FOB and blink-182? I don't really LIKE having seats rather than pit, but this show was amazing, even from seats. Patrick Stump was on, all over the place. And Travis Barker's rotating, levitating drum kit will never not be cool.

I didn't know that sunn_doyouknow was going to be there, but she found us as we wandered back out to the parking lot. Fangirl commune, if only for a few moments.

*sigh*

~ What else? Um. Them Crooked Vultures are at Stubb's Thursday night. I am very excited.

Urgh. I am off to work after going back to work for an hour after the never-ending, oh-my-god-will-they-just-hurry-up What-Happens-In-Vegas-is-fucking-slow show last night, but I have to say that the internets did not disappoint in keeping us up to date about the Blink/FOB/Panic show in Milwaukee.

( he had the time of his life )

( I approve of New Guy )


*grumpy face*

There is not enough coffee in the world right now.

In lieu of a wake, I'm going to watch the Discos' DVDs tonight. Any Houston-area fans are welcome, if you can handle my messy house, complete with cat-hair tumbleweeds and stacks of unread books and CDs piled everywhere.