friday morning i got up and called aaa Texas towing, and they came by and picked up my car and towed it to the new place. the guy there seemed professional and knowledgeable, so let’s hope they’re competent.
friday night was the geek gathering at coffee groundz. i once again got to play dj. which is basically me picking songs off my ipod one by one. i’m not sure if anyone cares, but it keeps me somewhat entertained. i’d like it if i could actually dj (i.e., cross-fade via two sources, loop, etc.), but i don’t have the skills. or the equipment.
saturday i went with the potts to the art car parade. i found jay and dwight where they were announcing, but they were busy so i didn’t interrupt. it’s sometimes weird being in that huge of a crowd who pretty much all live in the same city and realizing i don’t really know any of them. it reminds me of how few people i actually know.
afterward, jack dropped sue and the kids off with me at my house and he took off for some work. the kids played around while sue tried to help me dig up a smallish tree and its roots. its root system was big and going under the corner of the house and concrete walkway. we got it about 3/4 free, but that 1/4 kept it from budging. i broke my new tie-down strap trying to pull the tree/roots with my pickup. later i drove them all back to their house, and i hung out there until late. when i left, i borrowed my chainsaw from them.
today i got up and went to work on the tree again. the chainsaw was better, but wasn’t working that well. i decided to go buy a new chain and some chain lube. the new chain helped a lot. but it was still stubborn. i left and went and ate with the potts, then came back and worked on the tree some more. i finally got the big root torn/pulled out. unfortunately, some of it goes under the concrete for the walkway, so i think it will grow back. but maybe not. i thought about buying some root killer stuff, but i had pulled up some lillies or some kind of bulb plant that was right next to the tree, so i wanted to try and get them replanted before they died. (of course, they might die anyway, but i tried to give them a fighting chance.) you might be surprised to learn i don’t have to do much of anything physical for my job, nor do i ever exercise. so my hands and body don’t seem too excited about the physical labor involved in pulling up a tree.
this past tuesday evening i watched the vanished empire (2008). it’s set in russia in the 1970’s, and follows a high school kid dealing with friends, relationships, and “rebellion” by going against his family’s intellectual heritage. instead he sells his family’s books at second hand stores, buys contraband american rock albums on the black market, drinks, chases women, gets in fights, etc. difficulties ensue and he has to come to terms with his choices and his path in life. it was a pretty good movie.
this evening i watched 12 (2007), which is a modern russian reworking of 12 angry men. it deals with a chechen teen accused of murdering his russian step-father with a knife. the jurors are from various backgrounds with various baggage/perspectives. the film intermixes the jurors deliberating with scenes from the chechen kid’s past. the characters are kind of quirky, the acting a bit odd at times, and there are some weird bits of symbolism and such — but in the end i thought the movie finished off really well and i think it’s worth a view.
even though i’m still waiting on some things i’ve ordered, i’m going to go ahead and list the stuff i’ve already received:
- adult. – suck the air 7″ clear vinyl 378/2000 (ersatz audio)
- the dead milkmen – bucky fellini (restless / fever)
- the dead milkmen – chaos rules: live at the trocadero (restless)
- devo – e-z listening disc (ryko)
- the knife – hannah med h soundtrack (rabid / cooperative / v2)
- kraftwerk – the catalogue (klingklang)
- lowfish – frozen & broken (noise factory)
- memory systems – ad placement for the collective unconscious (form)
- miss kittin – radio caroline vol. 1 (mental groove / emperor norton)
- miss kittin – a bugged out mix by miss kittin (system / resist)
- various – electrecord cd 2000 (k7 / electrecord)
i’m close to having all of the adult. stuff now. just a few more vinyl, although the few left are mostly pretty scarce. i’m not sure how i never got bucky fellini, since i really liked the dead milkmen. but i never had. i picked up the live album on a whim since the guy selling bucky fellini had the other for sale too. the “musak” devo album put out by ryko in1987 is kind of hard to find, and usually sells for $25 or so. i scored one at about $9 so i was pretty happy. and it’s in great shape! the knife cd is a soundtrack album they did for a movie. a movie i can’t find on netflix. the kraftwerk bit is an album-sized box set containing 8 of their albums (it’s missing the first three they ever did), all remastered. new artwork, 12×12 booklets for each album all in a hard slipcase, etc. i used a 40% off coupon from border’s so i got it at a pretty reasonable price. the rest on the list above are i guess all considered part of the “electroclash” scene of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. although miss kittin is also a dj, and her two albums are dj mixes she did (a bugged out mix containing two sets/cds).