i think i eat up entertainment almost compulsively. every minute not occupied by work, or social obligation, or eating, or say, making out (and there’s always time for that!) — or in other words any minute of downtime — i have to be working through my many backlogs of entertainment options. netflix queue, video games to play, books to read, all that. there’s so much out there and i’m only gonna be around for so long, how can i not feel pressure to fit it all in? (wow, that sounds a lot darker than i meant it to).
anyway, a side effect of that compulsion is that the more i see/hear/read/watch/play, the more desensitized i get. what for most of america seems like a really rad movie, like, say, avatar, to a zealot like myself falls so much farther down the scale even if i can enjoy and appreciate it for what it is. by the same token, the things that get me really excited — the cool, groundbreaking, out-of-the-box stuff like synecdoche, ny or oldboy — a lot of the population would probably find impenetrable, boring, super-weird or just confusing. same thing with music. so much of what i hear i think, ‘that is garbage, how can people love that?’ essentially, i worry sometimes that i’m so far immersed into entertainment that i’m distancing myself from normal people’s experience of it. and then i worry that it’s making me a worse critic, a worse writer, possibly a worse person, and that ’snob’ isn’t just a playful jab but a justified condemnation.
but then i hear something like yeasayer’s ‘O.N.E.‘ and think, ‘holy shit, this is just pure and simple goodness. anyone who doesn’t like this really is wrong. i don’t like it because it meets some lofty standards of rigorous intellectual examination. i like it because it feels good on a totally non-critical level that demands a proper turning of the volume knob toward radical.
then i feel better and get back to writing about how what you think is awesome is actually kind of stupid and what you think is crappy is actually really great, and i can go on with my day.
partially because i wanted to post again in this new format as i work out the kinks, partially because i didn’t want to leave it unrecorded, let me tell you what i did two weekends ago.
through work, one of our vendor companies invited us out to a sunday afternoon scavenger hunt, so a handful of coworkers and i showed up around noon outside the LA public library. but this wasn’t your old-fashioned ‘find as many obscure items on this list as you can’ scavenger hunt. this was a well-orchestrated adventure chase more in the style of the amazing race, with cryptic clues that led to each next step of the game. to get through as many steps (and earn as many points) as possible, we had to crack codes, solve riddles, figure out hidden messages with disappearing ink or blacklights, talk to undercover agents milling around like regular people, all while running like crazy people around a roughly 10-block radius up and down the streets and many, many stairs of downtown. what i was tempted to skip because it sounded lame and was taking up my sunday turned out to be the most fun i’ve had in ages.
of course, the vendor in question also paid for the bar tab afterward, which didn’t hurt, but that part can’t help you. what could is that the company they hired to put on this game, ravenchase, also does public events or can be hired for your own private games. just saying, anyone planning corporate events or themed parties might want to look this up. also, anyone who hears about an event from these guys or any other public scavenger hunt game and thinks it all sounds cheesy may be right, but just accept the cheese and go with it, because it’s a blast.
side note: jessica, who is a huge fan of amazing race, was so jealous she couldn’t come that i had to promise to go to a future public race after gushing about the experience once i returned.
other side note: did i mention my team won and we got $100 each, AND a trophy for our office? seriously, if you’re doing one of these and want a pro on your team, you know who to call. just saying.
as you can see, things are different-looking here now. i know, i don’t love it either. but good old blogger, the service, decided they don’t need people like me anymore. people who use the blogger web interface and drain cyber-resources, then send all their files to their own server that google doesn’t control.
so i had to install my own software (wordpress, which is nicer anyway) on my own server, and if this page is ugly right now that’s because it will take some adjusting and tweaking to get right again since i’m no coding expert. also, since i haven’t been spending much time on this blog lately, it’s not a high priority at the moment. also, by the time i figured out what the hell i was doing getting all the posts over (at least i’ve got all the text safe and sound!), it got to be late and i got to be sleepy. maybe tomorrow it’ll all be better.
life is very full these days, even when it isn’t. i’ve been working harder and more often lately, which has been stimulating, which i like. i say bring it on. i’ll only get better if i am challenged, after all.
but in non-work terms, it’s been about the overload of goodies in the wake of christmas and a birthday. my pile of books waiting to be read is the tallest it’s been in ages, which is exciting, but comes with a feeling of pressure. not only do i love reading books, i love buying books, and i can’t do that again until i polish off this stack. another challenge i take pretty seriously.
luckily my reading time has increased as i finally caved to the digital age and decided to digitize our full music collection. for years i’d been romanticizing the act of actually putting a cd into a music player, not wanting to let that go. but naturally any new purchases were digitizing for iphone-loading purposes, which led to only ever clicking on itunes instead of grabbing a cd, because hey, that’s so much easier, which meant never listening to the other 80% of what we own. finally, i conceded, which meant hours of popping in discs and hitting import, and lots and lots of reading, five minutes at a time while the disc drive spun. finally, a few days ago, it’s done, and now i can put our entire 30 days or so worth of music on shuffle, and just soak it all in. amazing how many fun songs i hadn’t heard in years out of pure laziness.
then there was this just-finished three day weekend, which was surprisingly not full at all in terms of professional or social obligations. it being valentine’s and all, we made plans for a few date-type activities (bazaar for dinner friday, mortified sunday night). on top of that, we tried to hit up the LA street food fest saturday, but took a pass on seeing the epic line, opting to stroll down to cole’s instead. the rest of the time, there was movie-watching, olympic-watching, eating, lounging, drinking, laughing. essentially, three and a half days straight of nothing but each other.
and to me, that’s how you know you have a good valentine. anyone can plan a nice date for a few hours. woo them with fancy drinks and gourmet plates and dressing up and all that. that’s rookie stuff. we spent a whole weekend, an extended one even, together from dress-up to dress-down, tapas to french dips, stage show to IMAX (we also saw avatar), metro bus to couch, and had a great time the whole way through. in fact, it seems this happens at least once a month, where monday morning comes and we realize ‘hey, we hung out, just the two of us, all weekend’, without giving it a second thought. because we have a great time that way. of course we love our friends, but if nothing else, we have each other, and that’s wonderful. now that’s a valentine.
so, i sure had a birthday alright.
i’m 29 now and feel basically the same, except for the fact that i know i must be getting older because i have the resources and ability to coordinate epic weekends like the one we just had. that photo captures the best part of it for me: hours of lounging in the sun in the pool or hot tub, beer in hand (make that an endless stream of beers, really), surrounded by friends. it was glorious.
i’m pretty lucky to be able to do things like this and have a slew of great people show up to enjoy a day like this with me, some even flying in from out of town. if i were as successful in all other aspects of my life as i’ve been in making and maintaining a long list of good friends, i’d be rich and famous enough to buy a place like this for myself and not just rent it for the weekend.
a special note, because my brother requested it and other generous souls may be curious, my stuff to read list is freshly updated on the week before my birthday.
just in case, you know, you happen to be in a comic book store or clicking around amazon this weekend and feeling generous. i mean, i GUESS you could donate to the disaster in haiti, but will any of those people ever give you a hug or high five in return? i’m guessing no.
back to work, slacker!
yes, i’ve been on vacation for 18 days prior to this (jealous?), and now i am not. the good news is that i was off for so long i started to feel kinda restless and lazy and am actually kind of glad to be back at work. isn’t that weird? but honestly i think that’s exactly what i needed. as per usual, around the end of the year i was feeling a little burnt out and unenthusiastic, and now i’m happy to be putting my brain to work at something other than winning at xbox games.
more importantly we are planning a fun birthday weekend which is also coming up very very soon. i’ll be 29, which is almost 30, so we are doing something a little more grown up this year as opposed to having a dance party at a bar. yes, we’re organizing a chill little palm springs pool-lounging weekend. i’m feeling relaxed and rejuvenated already, or rather i would be if i hadn’t spent the last week trying to find and secure a suitable rental house, and wrangle the friends who are coming along. as of today though all the pieces are falling into place, and it looks like it’ll be a lovely time in a lovely little spot.
otherwise you’ll be happy to know that my extra week of extended vacation was spent not doing much, as is suitable to a stay-cation type situation. i did get brunch with jessica one day (they had RED VELVET pancakes! actually, not as great as you’d think), we did go out to the movies and trivia and whatnot, but mostly stayed home watching tv, reading books, and internet-browsing related to the above trip. i did spend a formidable amount of time writing for our under culture best-of list, and that should be up soon too. generally the routine of running errands, writing, reading and lounging was hugely enjoyable and i only wish i had a job that stuck closer to that formula. perhaps i should become someone’s editor. or a professional correspondent. do those exist?
new year’s!
but of course christmas before that. quick trip home this year since jessica couldn’t join me and i didn’t want to leave her behind for too long (aww, we’re so attached to each other aren’t we?). but even though it was short it was packed with goodness. christmas with the family including lots of nice gifts — my pile of books and dvds has grown and now i’ve got a few games i can’t wait to play, and that’s not all! — plenty of good food, and all the relatives. that part’s always fun because it’s so nice to spend a day with all the folks i don’t get to see enough.
then the rest of the weekend was spent mostly at home on the couch. i plowed through some reading, watched the last USC game of the season (woo, take that emerald nut bowl!), and checked off my three must-have meals for every trip back to chicagoland: deep dish stuffed pizza, white castle burgers, and an italian beef sandwhich. mmm, indulgent.
also, i saw avatar with my dad. lots of talk around this movie and i haven’t decided if i’m going to write a full review on under culture or not, but i will say this: i was expecting not to like it that much and just be wowed by the visuals, and i enjoyed it much more than just on that level. despite how silly the ads may make it look with all the cavorting blue people and walking robots and such, it’s definitely worth the trip. i may even go back in a few weeks to see it on full IMAX instead of just regular-size digital 3D like i did the first time.
now we’re about to head off to a night of drinking and dancing with friends for new years eve at club bootie. i suppose some resolution-type things are in order as per custom on the blog here, but that can wait until after the night of partying.
so i’ve noticed the past couple years that during the weeks between thanksgiving and christmas a sort of apathy sets in toward work. i fight it as best as i can — i’m not one to shirk responsibility or do things half-assed — but there’s a general dragging feeling. i compare it to the last semester of college when senioritis sets in. you can see the finish line and motivating yourself to get things done is just that much more difficult. yesterday on twitter i dubbed this phenomenon ‘holiday-monia’.
the funny thing is, there’s not an equal freedom on the other side once you’re in your professional life. once we all take off on our holiday breaks, only a couple weeks of vacation, all the same problems and projects are going to be here waiting not that many days later. if anything we should be more motivated to get shit done and start the year fresh without having to worry about things. but ever day that passes and brings us closer, it’s harder and harder to get anyone to do something. the prevailing attitude is, ‘it can wait until after break’.
if only there were a grown-up version of santa with mad business-world skills, who instead of bringing us adults a pile of presents, could drop into our offices and finish all our strategic positioning, or production schedules, or proofreading, or research presentations, and leave them on our desks tied up in a nice bow, ready to go when we come back after new years. that’s something i’d like to believe in.
we live in a weird time now, where whenever we see or hear something incredible, even in a singular experience like a live event, there is an expectation that someone was there to capture that and put it on the internet. even if we weren’t personally equipped or fast enough to capture it ourselves, the assumption is that someone was, and if we do enough google searches, we’ll be able to track down proof of that amazing moment and relive it as often we want, or show the evidence to everyone that missed it of how enviable our experience was.
i can think of several times where this held true, and i was able to share moments of incredible live music shows. for example, the encore of daft punk’s alive tour where they lit up like tron figures. i was able to find a totally decent recording of the whole show shortly after the decemberists played at the hollywood bowl accompanied by the LA philharmonic (which is still floating around if you try hard). the mountain goats tour where john got sick and had the whole audience sing ‘no children’ for him instead was one of those magical moments you want to revisit every once in a while to remember that people are inherently good (even if by proxy, as this was recorded in san fran and not LA). the internet is amazing for this reason.
but then every once in a while, you turn to the internet to prove those cool moments really happened, and it lets you down. it took me weeks to find a clip of a colin meloy solo b-side i’d heard at a live show, and i started to wonder if my memory was even right about loving this song so much (though i did find it eventually). there are cover songs or funny moments or removing of clothes (ah, kaki king) that are only around in memory form, which isn’t bad, but a lot harder to effectively convey to someone else who missed it.
which is why i’m so excited that even though their album isn’t coming out until next year, and the one particular new song i loved from their recent live show was nowhere to be found for a fairly long time, frightened rabbit stopped by the bbc to record a couple of their new songs. the one i particularly enjoyed was called ‘nothing like you‘, and prefixmag.com provided the mp3, and now i can happily throw it on repeat and wait anxiously for the album to arrive. [contented sigh]… thanks, internet.
