like antacid for your soul

music_is_life @ 2009-09-24T00:21:00

2009-09-24T05:21:57Z

If all goes well, I'll be drumming for a Pentagram cover band in no time!

music_is_life @ 2009-07-06T21:57:00

2009-07-07T03:01:51Z

Still having a freakout session every few weeks, but at least now they're of the "I am so overwhelmed by all the awesome things in my life that I have to do" variety, and not so much the "I hate myself and want to die" variety.

I guess I'm going to try to learn this. Daniel expects it will take me three months.

I should have this down in the relatively near future (mid August?):

And of course, this by Thanksgiving:

In a week or so I should be able to do 16ths at 150bpm on the kick for five minutes or so? That's like double what I started at so this is good.

capitalismo

2009-06-15T17:50:00Z

For some reason, in the past month there has been a real upswing in the number of people ordering our album. We had an order and three friend requests from the UK in one week, plus a promised order from the Bay Area, and today we got an order from Portugal. Golly. Hope our second release is as well received. Funny that two and a half orders is such a big deal, but I take what I can get.

Still can't play Jesus' Tod. Unfortunate.

music_is_life @ 2009-04-30T22:07:00

2009-05-01T03:09:36Z

I got a part-time job at a non-profit that gives me health care, paid time off, and a thousand bucks a month.

I will be practicing (drums) for four or more hours a day starting very soon.

I have not been drawing or cooking (or eating). But hey, what's new there.

My current contact info is posted in a friends-only entry. Feel free.

music_is_life @ 2009-03-20T15:11:00

2009-03-20T19:11:33Z

music_is_life @ 2009-02-14T17:02:00

2009-02-14T23:07:55Z

happy valentines day.

i moved to minneapolis and i don't have a computer.

or friends, really.

if you know anyone... please.

it's awfully lonely when you barely even talk with your housemates.

super bowl

2009-02-06T03:36:33Z

it was a lot more fun than it looks. i made vegan buffalo wings.

and this is a backwards truck we saw on the way to iowa city:

"we sold out in NO time."

2009-01-26T04:31:27Z

Good things about this year so far:

I've stopped drinking. I live with one of the best people I've ever met. I care more about my girl friendships than my guy friendships. I'm going to be an electrician.

And I'm moving to Minneapolis in two weeks (Par I will split gas costs in your favor, girl!) to start a new phase in my life.

First, move in. Then, find a temp agency that works for me until I can find a job that I really, really want. Start drawing, working out, and playing drums daily. Get myself together. THEN get to know people. Meet one new person a day. At least. Smile constantly. Write lyrics constantly.

At least:
An hour a day on drums. An hour a day working out. An hour a day reading something new. An hour a day studying electronics like it's my job. And ONLY an hour a day cooking and eating. I figure if I keep a regular schedule this is entirely possible.

mysterious lugubrious buzz drenched blackened crawl

2009-01-24T17:33:59Z

I'm sorry I keep doing this, but goddamn. Check out the highlights for the aQ new releases...

"Almost like a more lo-fi Skepticism, Light trudge along at tarpit tempos, the guitars not so much riffing as unfurling thick swirls of soft fuzz, the vocals howled and wailed, but way off in the distance, the drums strangely un-drumlike, more like pots and pans, a clattery, skeletal percussion, the whole thing held together by the warm dramatic keyboards, that sound like the Haunted Mansion soundtrack played at 16rpm, all smeared and blurred together into something only barely black metal, only barely doom, a thick lurching slow motion black doomdrone, evocative and cinematic, at once epic and sprawling, lo-fi and ultra personal." (excerpt)

music_is_life @ 2009-01-13T17:56:00

2009-01-13T23:57:10Z

I won a pair of Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide double-bass pedals on eBay.

Om Nom Nom Nom Nom.

music_is_life @ 2009-01-12T14:31:00

2009-01-12T20:31:47Z

I'm considering traveling.

music_is_life @ 2009-01-10T11:22:00

2009-01-10T17:23:25Z

now we're on the WFMU blog

music_is_life @ 2009-01-06T10:00:00

2009-01-06T16:01:03Z

I started using twitter to replace all this other online crap but I think it probably sucks. Give me time to decide.

music_is_life @ 2009-01-02T13:02:00

2009-01-02T18:29:53Z

I took care of a fish for a few months before it finally succumbed to some disease its former caretaker had allowed to thrived.

When I move to Minneapolis (at this point it seems nearly certain), I'll be living with someone who is allergic to anything with fur or hair that isn't human.

So thank goodness Minneapolis has a chicken adoption organization. I can't wait.

2008 in Lists and Pictures

2009-01-01T23:08:15Z

Best:

Ziplining across a cloud forested valley in Costa Rica

Ischigualasto, Argentina (no photo)

Played and recorded an album, played in Pigs for Miles

Got a coloring book published, and designed the philosophy department shirt.

Started my only Facebook tradition -- special time of year pictures

Worst of 2008:
1) Yeast infection from hell (there is nothing that compares)

Most in-between of 2008:
1) The breakup
2) Staying in Grinnell
3) Graduation

Other photos, as always, on Flickr

music_is_life @ 2008-12-20T18:28:00

2008-12-21T00:29:43Z

finally some human contact huh? i was starting to think i didn't exist.

Do I really have to do everything myself?

2008-12-20T07:38:03Z

i refuse to believe that there is no female equivalent to Hellhammer or John Longstreth.

GIMME A GIRL THAT CAN PLAY TRANSILVANIAN HUNGER, EVEN.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-19T19:59:00

2008-12-20T02:00:33Z

i'm excited for break, even though it's like not even a break now that i've graduated. but the APA conference will keep me sane and hopefully motivate me to start reading again. i mean, i've been reading the new yorker every week but otherwise the only books i ever open are cookbooks and running/hiking magazines.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-18T14:50:00

2008-12-18T20:54:48Z

lol he's younger than my brother.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-16T03:58:00

2008-12-16T09:59:41Z

Now and again I do something nice for people that I barely know. I hate it when people thank me for shit like that, because really it's a kind of payment for letting me hang out with them and laugh for awhile.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-14T16:56:00

2008-12-14T22:58:14Z

Daniel told me to go learn the drum part for Bernadette, so I tried. But then I cried and fell asleep.

I hate everyone and everything.

I'm sick of incompetent people, drunk people, and boring people.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-13T22:20:00

2008-12-14T04:22:02Z

Kiri Aho made this video for one of the songs off our album. It's 18 minutes long but really really great. Please watch it.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-12T00:42:00

2008-12-12T06:45:05Z

Saturday... Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company.

Wow, free and everything.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-08T13:50:00

2008-12-08T19:52:41Z

I figured out why I'm having a hard time being motivated, or at least I have a guess.

I eat (at most) 1000 good-for-me calories a day. Any other calories are just sugar, like cookies or sugar in my coffee or something. Then I go to the gym and lose probably 200 of the good-for-me calories.

I need to find a way to eat at least another 500 calories a day. Probably like 800. Frozen veggies? No dumpsters. More oatmeal and rice, probably.

music_is_life @ 2008-12-07T00:25:00

2008-12-07T06:26:27Z

I should stop drinking and I should go to bed right now. And I should commit myself to being single for at least a year. Maybe then I'd be happy.