the stale past

around mid-morning today i became suddenly nostalgic for college. it took me the better part of a minute to figure out why. i finally realized that i was smelling the muted beer-y puke fragrance that was so much a part of everyday life earlier this decade. though the source was unclear the effect was immediate. and i can’t help but feel sad that, although i could recreate the smell, i could never recreate the absolute freedom and happiness of that era. a spontaneous game of beirut this weekend is the only thing that will ease this pain.

views on views on vacation

do you have to be a driven workaholic for people to silently bless your vacation? i will never understand those who value drive and ambition in others over the qualities of happiness and fun. people are obsessed with the theory of “earning” things. i appreciate the need for people to work for something if that process instills values and a grounded attitude. but if an appreciation already exists i see no benefit to it. i think people can deal with balance in their own personal lives, such as the fact that frequent vacations make them less special and therefore possibly less fun. this is not something that should have outsiders' noses turned up or down.

our love to admire

interpol’s our love to admire is immediately gratifying. before you get all purist on me you should note that turn on the bright lights was my favorite interpol album. i revel in the rawness of tracks lick “stella was a diver” and my favorite interpol track of all time, “obstacle 1”. but the new album has a much fuller sound, with keys, strings, and multiple textural layers. and i like it. from the dream-like “wrecking ball” to the more traditional chilly breeze of “rest my chemistry”, this album expands upon previous signatures while keeping the same middle name.

i know i should love daniel best. but guitar is actually my least favorite element of the band (not that i don’t like it). but pauls vocals stick to the ceiling and turn your face heavenward while the bass’ octave-jumps make your eyes flutter. and the percussion on “who do you think?” (via slave to the details) makes me want to make out while tapping my boot against the wall.

division theory

the difference between some and none is the greatest gap there is. it is more blatant than happiness and sadness, more of a contrast than together and alone. this huge chasm of nothing can taunt those on either end. some float across with ease while others wring their hands in futility. and no other border has such a membrane dividing it as this. it is like the surface tension of water where you can feel the forces groan just before you break through. oh how many lie in misery on one side or another waiting for the world’s biggest bridge to be built.

today's playlist

white stripes fields the takeover uk camera obscura menomena modena vox justice mstrkrft rinse repeat

if you say all the names fast enough you can actually ride the sonic wave.

commit to memory

the frightening thing about committing to something is not the fact that you can’t go back. it’s that if you do go back it will be different. so it is really about change. change is good as a universal equalizer but i still fear it with what is left of my consciousness. it is like the genie that could end up giving you happiness but statistically won’t. because you wished for x-ray vision and then gave yourself cancer by looking in the mirror or something. this is why i try to speak using the vaguest possible language, and thusly avoid frivolous commitment and butterfly wings of death.

lost

my wedding occurs in less than two weeks. i am happily in between jobs, which is another way of saying that i have parlayed a signing bonus and severance package into considerable compensation this month for no professional effort. if you're concerned that i may be losing sight of reality, these are reasons.

thoughts about sunday television

i watched some info-mercials today. they reminded me of being in love. it’s really not that strange. i find familiarity in the act of overacting.

always something there to remind her

this is slightly disturbing:

Girls who enjoy a good early relationship with their father are more likely to choose boyfriends and husbands who look like them, new research suggests.

the only conclusion one can come to is that women want to sleep with their fathers. ok, maybe they want their dads as younger men, kind of like a reverse back to the future scenario except marty sleeps with lorraine. and instead of playing “johnny b. goode”, he sings “together forever” by rick astley. even for that bizarro world, though, this behavior is sick, sick, sick. i wish i had a delorean.

what tim said about friday

i went out on friday night, for the purposes of seeing electrelane, the blow, and rebecca (not a band but equally fun to see). we caught a drink at finnegan’s wake and then headed to the warhol museum for the show. i’d never been to the theater room on the first floor, so i didn’t know exactly where the bands would be playing. the room was small but intimate, with some seating and a little standing room around the edges. we arrived in the middle of tender forever’s set. i had never heard her before, but she is a lot like the blow, being a mostly-one-person show. she was refreshing and the kind of slightly-crazy that makes you smile. plus, she covered justin timberlake. after getting a few drinks at the cash bar we re-entered the theater for the blow’s great set. she played around eleven songs but it was basically a continuous monologue of which the songs were only one part. she played my two favorite songs, “hey boy” and “what tom said about girls”. like most of her music, the songs are smart and stripped down. the british band electrelane was last, playing more traditional guitar-drum-bass-piano arragements. they were very good, with many tempo changes, long lnstrumental parts, and some fancy guitar work at times. they sound like they were influenced by sonic youth and stereolab equally, and although i don’t understand some of their songs, the ones i like are quite good.

bustle

i’m sick of bustle. summer is when i want to be laziest, but i’m always distracted by things. it’s enough to make me wish it were winter for one hour. then i would go outside and spin around until i was dizzy, fall flat on my back and listen to nothing. as i felt the cold rising up from my back through my organs, i would start to sing a few bars of matt pond pa’s “summer” and close my eyes.

crime without chance of punishment

i am not against crime, but i do believe that people should be required to put forth significant effort while performing it. more than that, a level of increased resources should be required to escape the action repercussion-free. maybe there is a dostoevsky-esque sound to this request, but it only seems right.

unfortunately, using national headlines to identify a suspected criminal as "having a goatee" goes against much of this. i mean, at least tell me what kind of car he drives. make him steal a new one, cut off a leg, maybe learn german. but if happiness can be found in a razor blade that does not involve slicing through blood-carrying vessels...it may be time for a career move.

entertaining

explaining the game of baseball to a european is like having a conversation with a blender running. only random words sink in over the din. but when you see the recognition light up their eyes on a double play or homerun, the resulting daiquiri of understanding is well worth it. it was in this manner i spent last night, explaining baseball to my native-french-speaking vice president as the pirates decided to lose once again. i feel validated that he claims to have enjoyed the experience even though he grew up, of course, watching football matches and pastry contests and other non-hand-eye coordination sports in france. he suggested i spend some time in europe to become a better rounded person and i think that is good advice. i’m just not sure i have the right look for that continent. i’d need to look bored slightly more often and get some new sunglasses, i think.

stop time later

is it wrong for me to sub-divide an hour? a day? i never know when to make the switch, when to identify something as occurring at the unit level. the thing is, i like to single out positive events, when applicable. and because these events may occur over varying periods of time, it seems likely that i would leave the dividing option variable in an effort to manage each individual circumstance. while i may allow an enjoyable week-long vacation to define a season, i would also like the option of pinpointing the second sip of the third mint julep experienced on a june evening as the pinnacle of all the sips i had taken that night. i know, i know, it's all a little crazy. perhaps i will return to the common usage of "hours", "minutes", and other such sub-categories of timekeeping. but i will do so with the knowledge that things won't be quite as happy around here.

wrongness

last night in bed i was listening to the basement jaxx and making bed-angels. a lyric got me thinking about the phrase “two wrongs don’t make a right”. in general i couldn’t find a counterexample. wikipedia gives a nice explanation:

This fallacy is often committed by children. An example:
Parent: Jim, why did you pull your sister's hair? Don't you know that's wrong?
Jim: I know, but she pinched me first.
To this, the parent may respond with the adage, "two wrongs don't make a right". However, note that if the hair-pulling was in self defense or as a deterrent, to prevent more pinching, then some people may argue that it is more justifiable than if it were done purely out of retaliation.

the last sentence about self-defensive hair pulling really rings true. there are a lot of mean people out there. i think we should “kill them dead with kindness”. that’s not wrong, is it?