My new TV/VCR/DVD thingy is the shit.

The picture is just amazing, and it's so flat considering the size. It's an Emerson - has a very seamless design, as far as the vcr and dvd player are concerned. They just have little openings and controls under the tv's monitor portion, down by the tv's front speakers. It'll play Mp3s as well as CDs, so I can try to burn a mix CD with all my favorites on it and play it on the TV (which has a killer sound system. I played my Rilo Kiley CDs on it earlier and was amazed by the musical depth). Aus hooked up the new ps2 to it- right now Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the game, and it's really very spiffy on the big clear screen. While he was playing the electronics polka, he also picked up some adapter bar thingys for the kids so that they can press buttons to switch easily between their video game systems, dvds, and vcrs. Should make it easier for them instead of them having to unplug one thing and plug another in. The old ps2 went into the girls room - Steve's got PS1, N64 and Super Nintendo in his room. Though now that we've got an extra tv in the house, we may be hooking that up in the back room (like a library/rec-room area) and moving the Super Nintendo out there. We still love all the old SNES games, and would be fun to go back there and play them. Maybe even shove the old Sega and Atari out there- those're the only two systems we don't have hooked up right now. Gods, we're such a gamer family. In addition to all those in the kids rooms and the two we don't have hooked up, in here we have an X-Box, Gamecube, Ps2, PS with LCD screen... and then each person in the house (except Grandma!) has a gameboy advance SP. And then there's the couple of gameboy colors and the old gameboy pocket hanging out from the 'old days'. Heh.

Did some talking about poetry and life things tonight with Linda. Not anything in particular so much as just the nature of things, which is nice to think about sometimes.

Tomorrow is my mother's 75th birthday, and they're throwing a party for her down at the shore. I'm halfway between wanting to go and not wanting to go. If I stay home the house will be completely empty and I'll get some sweet precious writing time in... but if I go, I'll get to see my favorite Uncle Leon and my other relatives and get to hear amusing stories and get to watch people and that fuels more poems than anything. The watching. I can bring my camera and take pictures and make little memories that'll go into more fuel for the writing fires. I think that's what I'll wind up doing. Only bad is that I'll then have to drive over an hour to go pick up Aus from work after the party's over.

Whee! Got more birthday presents today- these from my mom and brother Joe. We passed a dvd sale and they were like "Do you want movies for your birthday?" so I said "sure!" and next thing you know I'm walking out with these:

( The movies! )

This works out very spiffy, because Aus is getting me a TV/VCR/DVD combo thingus as one of my presents. Sounds very spiffy- it's 27 inch screen, so it's not like it's tiny or anything either. Aus is also getting ne a new ps2 (because the old one is making me crazy), a tablet for the PC, an acoustic guitar, a big fuzzy d10, a stuffed Anubis, and a Rilo Kiley Execution of All Things single. He so rocks! And of course there's my very spiffy-licous Elected picture from Christina! And we're going to Medieval Times, and I've still got one brother to go on present giving, so whee! This is so my favorite time of the year.

Not surprisingly, I think I'm going to go watch a movie!

i am open-minded!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

You're pretty knowledgeable about music in general. You like indie music, sure, but that's only part of it.
You'll listen to any old shit as long as it sounds good to you. You're not snobby about music at all, you
just like what you like. How boring. Curiously, this makes you popular with the opposite sex.



Pick a band and answer only using that band's song titles:
Rilo Kiley..
1. Are you male or female? A Better Son/Daughter, Always
2. Describe yourself: Pictures of Success, Wires and Waves, Paint's Peeling
3. How do some people feel about you?: Spectacular Views, Asshole, With Arms Outstretched
4. How do you feel about yourself?:Go Ahead, It Just Is.
5. Describe your girlfriend/boyfriend/interest: My Slumbering Heart, Does He Love You?
6. Where would you rather be?: Capturing Moods, 85, Room 8
7. Describe what you want to be: More Adventurous, Somebody Else's Clothes, Emotional
8. Describe how you live: Absence of God, Bulletproof
9. Describe how you love: Rest of My Life, We'll Never Sleep (God knows we'll try)
10. Share a few words of wisdom: Don't Deconstruct, Salute My Shorts!

1. Know your dead poets. Nothing impresses a poetic chap faster than talking about how that silly Plath girl wound up with her head in an oven, or how that 'black dude from Harlem' contributed to the Renaissance most verily. If all else fails, quote the Raven and speak 'Nevermore' at random nevermore intervals in your nevermore conversations.

2. Flail. Poets really enjoy excessive body language, particularly when there is no bothersome content to get in the way of of your stunning visual antics. For bonus points, have unnatural relations with the floor and don't call it in the morning. Tell all your friends how it wasn't all that good anyhow, because she just kind of lied there all woodenly.

3. Be critical of everything! You could stop at the poetry itself, but why miss out on the exciting opportunity to give your most valuable and esteemed opinions on the educational background, orientation, or appearance of your fellow poets. They'll love you for it! Complain about the venue too- why should they miss out on the fun? Surely your seat is too hard or your coffee too cold.

4. Stalk your fellow poets! Write creepy tribute poems about their stuffed animal obsession, email them and ask where they've been if you haven't seen them in more than two days, find out their cell numbers and call them three times daily. Link them to your favorite inspirational porn and serial killer sites.

5. Poets love to brag! Talk about that time you hung out with Ginseberg 'back in the day', even if you're only twenty-five. They'll never see through your clever boasting. At every opportunity, tell anyone who will listen about each and every one of your achievements. The same story you've told a hundred times before is just as exciting on time 101.

6. IF you are particularly popular amongst the poetic set, they will give you an endearing nickname like The Creepy Guy, Stalkin' Steve, or Academic Ass. Continue to display the same intriguing behavior that earned you the nickname to begin with- wouldn't want to disappoint your adoring fans. No nickname? No problem! Just find two completely ridiculous word and shove them together, and you've got your new stage name. Leaky Faucet! Sticky Table! Or, if you need an ego boost, why not just call yourself The Grand Master of Everything Poetic? If it's your stage name, it must be true!

7. Dress poetically. Get yourself one of those little berets and never take it off. Ever. Dress all in black and stop bathing.

8. Live the poetic lifestyle! Embrace your inner drunk, try every drug you can, have long crying jags into your espresso at two am while sobbing "I am a worthless hack. I'll never put pen to paper again!" Remember life is a cesspool of darkness and despair, so try to kill yourself on a regular basis. Never actually succeed though- that would deprive the world of your brilliant poetry. Above all remember- real poets NEVER SMILE.

9. Never leave your house! Ever. Have your meals sent up through the window in a basket while you write about the life you don't have. If you must go out, find yourself a road and DO NOT TAKE IT. Or maybe just a pond in the woods. Okay, you could go on the road, but then you'd have to be a beat poet, and you haven't bought that beret yet, have you?

10. Real poets
is not
be needing that English
shizzle or grammar


or

word


structure.

11. Everyone would love to hear about your child's bowel movements, your dog's vomit, or that thing growing on your genitalia. Why not Slam it?

And above all, remember that a sense of humor and strong individual expression (sometimes through sarcasm) will take you far. Or just get you jumped in the parking lot. Either way, it's a learning experience and you can always write a poem about it later.


---One of my rare humor piece

I wear my time strapped down tight
minutes manacled to my wrist
the band a battlefield where seconds
tick
tick
tick
restless soldiers marching on
ever only onward

I want to call a retreat
gather them to me
recalling the lazy summer days
when eternity could be won
and lost in games of marbles
where a firefly's flickering light could burn
with the brilliance of a billion stars
as we opened up our tiny hands and let heaven
swallow up the tiny moment

I remember an hour that stood firm
refused to pass
stoically stood a general keeping watch
on a hilltop every muscle every bone every last
of ten tiny fingers and toes held in tensory suspension
no movement or breath dared disturb
with gesture deed or word the sixty second vigil
and then for just a brief weakness
eyelids fluttered shut and time
came barreling
exploding into calenders turned pages crumpled carelessly
as years and years and decades passed

Yes, now I wear mortality
bound to my wrist
a collection of turns and twists and sighs
of dreams gained and battles wisely lost
fought often without cause

And eternity is found in the spaces squeezed between
the moments where we remember
our conventions are man-made

where my wrist
is not watched
when we forget to
look down

Wow, it looks like it's really going to start raining something fierce here and there's thunder and such. This probably means I shouldn't go to writer's group considering the hour drive, but I want to give out invitations to everyone there and this is the last time I'll see them all before the party, I think, so I pretty much have to go today. Not to mention, I have to return Renee's story, and I did the assignment. Yep, here comes the rain... it's really pouring out there. This should be a fun trip.

Lookie what acaciablack won for me for my birthday! She so rocks!



Description:
This is an auction for a black and white 8x10 promotional photograph and biography for The Elected, sent out by the record company. These are incredibly hard to find, incredibly collectible items that are sent only to people in the industry. Don’t miss your chance to own this. These are suitable for framing. All shots are in mint condition unless otherwise stated, or have very slight indentations which should press out fine- this has three or four small dimples on it, but it still shows beautifully.

This is an original photograph, on photo-grade stock, not a copy or downloaded whatever. This is the real deal!

These make great gifts for the music fan in your life, or very cool addition to your collection, as they’re not available in stores. They are very rare and collectible!

This guy seriously needs his ass kicked Jersey-style for talking shit like this about Blake. Here's someone that's obviously never listened to the wonder that is The Elected. I know, opinions are like assholes everyone has one... but this guy is just uncalled for ignorant.

http://washingtoncanard.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to May 22 if you want to see it in its original 'glory' with links and all that, but this is the text for it.

Saturday, May 22, 2004

NEW RILO KILEY!

Breaking news as of sometime before I heard about it: the new album, "More Adventurous", comes out in late July. The Rilo Kiley website has been updated to reflect the change, but details seem to be yet elusive. Live versions of some new tracks are available here -- they be "Absence of God," "I Never" and "It Just Is." A bit slow, I'll say, but I do appreciate the harmonica on "Absence."

According to Blog, Rilo Kiley is "everyone's new favorite band." I'm not sure that's true -- right now the indie band finally getting the recognition it deserves is Modest Mouse -- but if it is, then I'd like to think I had a hand in that (i.e. pressing copies of their last album on anyone who would listen). Also: If my relentless promotion of everything Modest Mouse over the years helped eventually push them to the Billboard Top 20, could my recent Rilo Kiley-peddling catapult them to the top of the charts? Wait, don't answer that.

P.S. Having listened to a number of these live tracks, I have to ask: WTF are they thinking with their live play of "Spectacular Views"? It's a great choice of a set closer, but that's the end of their great choices w/r/t this song. The live version deprives it of its two key ingredients: 1) Jenny Lewis' voice, and 2) it's rawkingness. For whatever mistaken reason, she steps back from the mic to let Elliott Smith wannabe Blake Sennett bring down the song with his tepid vocals. And while an acoustic version of the song might be a nice departure on occasion, this seems to be the standard live version. Weak! This is Lewis' song, and it's best played loud. If she won't kick Sennett out of the band (not a bad idea, unless he writes more than I'm aware of) she at least should not surrender the vocal duties to him just when concertgoers want something really kick-ass before heading out to their cars.

The remodeling around my house is driving me a little bit crazy. It's weird to see your refrigerator in your living room, and there's so many appliances strewn about that it's hard to get anywhere or find anything. Right now they're putting the floor in.

I made the invites for our birthday party at Medieval Times. If you're in NJ, or are going to be in NJ, or can get to NJ... let me know and I'll send you an invite! It's on June 13th, at 4:30 pm. I can't wait- should be tons of fun!

I don't know what I feel like working on. Maybe I'll do the relaxing thing and just read this book for a while. It's a good book- I Love You Like a Tomato

One August, I loved this broken boy who
would never notice me
loved him because he wore his sorrow externally
flowing through his blue-veined hands
pulsing like a palpable thing

I wanted to
catch in his throat
drip from his eyes
twitch in his fingers
pour new blood into him
like a transfusion of joy.

On a muggy day,
while my skin smoldered
I tempted him
lured him to the river
offered cool relief

he drew up his knees
by the river bank
ducked his head to
whisper breathless exhalations
about how as a child
he had dreamed only one
dream reoccurring

dreamed that he drowned
three feet deep while mezmorized
by sunshine reflecting
from the drain
at the bottom of the pool

whispered how the air was always
stale and tasted
of chlorine and chemical tests
how his lungs were
still clogged still cluttered
still filled to bursting
with waterlogged breaths
that could never be expelled

And as I dove in to drift towards
the opposite shore
I considered calling back
how he'd never swim
if he didn't let go
how he'd never live
if he didn't stop holding his
breath

but I realized
he hadn't been speaking to me
he hadn't been looking at me
that his eyes only opened internally
and the distance
between us was miles, years and ages
and my voice never could carry
quite so far.

So today I wound up -finally- redoing the index page for http://www.labarc.com . Go lookie! Yes, it's redone. Whee! Also put a placeholder in http://www.labarc.com/Sennett/

The house is very quiet this weekend- most of the relations are out and about for memorial day things. Me, as the non holiday celebrant, I'm just relaxing now having had a most productive day.

Tomorrow I'm really going to try to at least write one new piece before Eleven East. Don't know why I've been so not in the mood since finishing the chapbook. Maybe burnout? It's not writer's block because I have ideas a plenty, I just haven't the inclination to write them.

Oh, and just as mysteriously as they went away... my userpics returned. Huh.

LJ has randomly eaten some of my icons. I noticed this last night, but I was too tired/lazy to do anything about it at the time. So I got up this morning thinking it might be better, and discovered that it had eaten several more. So now I've got to re-upload a lot of icons. Joy. Thank you, LJ. This makes me so glad I've paid you for both my journal and the glory of having 50 icons for you to randomly eat.

Last night was fun though- after wizardofaus got off of work, acaciablack met us for dinner at Rudfuckers Fudruckers where we had some tasty hamburgers. They'd fixed the froggy race game, so we had a lot of fun smacking amphibians into oblivion. Also played some of the other games, and got some stickers from the sticker machine to add to my writing journal which is already heavily bestickered. They were having a car show outside in the parking lot, so we walked around a while and looked at the cars before leaving. Decided that on Sunday, we need to work out the details for our trip to Medieval Times.

Aus's vacation starts June 8th. Things I want to do this vacation:
Go up to North Jersey to see hai_kah_uhk and shaharazad and do the open mic thing
Go to Philly and see pickled babies at the Muter Museum
Medieval Times

I don't have any plans for today yet. Other than, of course, putting my icons back to rights. I really should write some new material for tomorrow- I haven't done shit poeticly since getting the book together.

Yes, like the big geek I am, I have noticed that today is fifteen days from my birthday. So I started off today by listening to 07 September 2003.

I was riding around with my worst friend.
It was the seventh of September; the day that I surrendered.
Now fifteen more 'til my birthday.
And he was talking about a girl that he had just met.
what was her name? I can't remember.
Oh, but man she was a mover.
You should have seen the way she danced.
Oh baby, please don't leave me here
with these awful people, I fear may help me
become a man I will regret.
And they say when you finally lose your love,
it's gone but you never forget.
Well, my cup it runneth over with dyin' dreams and losing bets

And if every man's an island and you just don't look back,
oh, the stories they say we'll tell.
Well, I tell too many stories, so I guess it's just as well.
Oh, keep that bad news to yourself, yeah save it for somebody else.
Yeah, baby, I do believe I'll never see your face again.
Oh baby, I got something to tell you.
These awful people don't know me as well as you do.
I'll save my good side for you.
And on the last night of summer I got you alone
we talked until dawn and then I walked you home.
And I said baby, there's someone out there for you
and maybe he's saved his best side for you.

I followed my brother down the highway today, just to get a free lunch. How lame is that? Well, considering our kitchen's being remodeled and it's damn hard to get to the food right now and I'm too sick to make the effort, it was worth it. We had Chinese in my favorite little Chinese place, then I took off and visited Aus at work before coming back here.

The only useful thing I did today was transcribe the words to Does He Love You, a new Rilo Kiley song from their More Adventurous album that's coming out this summer. Man, is it a powerful song- both lyrically and instrumentally.

( Does he love you? )

Bah... feel sick today. Caught the family cold, and my throat is all scratchy. Spent a lot of time napping.

C	Courageous
H	Humorous
A	Ambivalent
R	Rounded
I	Industrious
S	Strange
M	Mushy
A	Ambitious

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

So today Aus and I went out and saw Troy. Spiffy movie, really. Different from the Homer version of what occurred in some places, but hey. Still very cool. Also went to the bookstore - picked up the issue of Vanity Fair that Rilo Kiley's in, the Zombie Survival Guide ('cause you never know when the zombie-filled apocalypse is coming), and a nifty book called Fossils: Evidence of Vanished Worlds that was only three bucks. The clerk was talking to us about zombie kill methods, heh heh. That was fun.

We also ate at the Old Country Buffet before the movie. Yummy =) So good day, though I'm pretty tired now.

Okay. that new LJ mood theme editor is really fucked up.

I'm having a hard time getting most of my moods to show up. So for now, some of them work, some of them don't and it's hit or miss. I'm going to see if Aus can do something about it when he comes home.

Ry's helped me with my mood theme... so hopefully, it'll show up soon. Hopefully

Me icon. I took a lot of pictures- will make a couple more (better ones) when I've got time on the big computer. I've got practically no graphics programs on this one, so this is the best I could do right now.

THIS WAY UP ?

Charisma has fragile contents which may break!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Feeling a little bummed- the Wal-mart event turned out to be just another one of those "here's a paper hat, now go buy stuff" commercialist crapfest instead of an actual fun-and-games thing like the poster advertised. Did wind up getting Monty Python's Meaning of Life (the two disc special edition, ooh) while I was there though. Kids wound up spending their allowance on one of those slip-and-slide sort of things so they're all outside risking bodily injury and sliding head first down a piece of wet plastic. I used to love those things when I was a kid.

I think I'm going to go watch movies for a while and come back online later. I do have a bunch of stuff I could be working on, but I don't feel very much in the mood to work on anything at the moment.

I spent about fifteen minutes today photographing myself. I don't know why, the camera was just sitting here and I wanted to see if you can take a decent self-portrait. It's rather difficult. Then the kids came along and tried it, and took some pictures of me. Don't know if I'll post up any of them. Most are silly. Maybe I'll make a couple into icons, like the one where I'm looking all evil. That's a fun look!