you're better off without him, don't call him, he's breaking your heart.

check out this column i did for buzznet: (click the picture to see the actual column)


so this weekend was pretty crazy:
friday we went to nicole's parents house. we didn't get there until about 7 oclock once we got there we immidiately left to go to a rummage sale, which was pretty sweet. got this awesome owl lamp and a bunch of old camers. when we came back we went to her grandparents house and her great grand father gave us even more old camers, it was pretty sweet. that night we were up till 3 am working on our painting. there was an idea to get a few canvases and gesso them up and then put white tape on them and then paint around it and in the end draw pictures on it. the idea didn't work out as we had planned.... however it came out pretty cool. anyway friday night all we got done was the gesso because we were using old canvases and they kept showing through... so we had to put like 2 or 3 coats on.

saturday we woke up at like 7 am to drive the hour and a half back down to philly to look at apartments. the first appointment was at 930. we met the guy and he showed us 2 apartments, a 2 bedroom and a 3 bedroom.. both pretty crummy and in a mediocre area. we figured this was how the day was par for the course. we got out of there pretty quick and had time for a bit to eat, so we went to a place called sabrinas where we had some delicious tou scramble. then we went to another place where this crazy ukranian lady showed us around. we walked in and had no idea that the place was going to be completely torn up for "renovation". but when we looked around, we figured it might be a pretty nice place when it was done and asked for an application and of course asked if there was a fee for the application. she replied by saying "no, we are not native americans" we didn't understand so we just sort of brushed it off. then we asked about the area, seeing how crime was and all and she told us that "renovations are taking place so and the prices are going up so the native americans are unable to live here any longer." still didn't understand until we went to the next place (another piece of crap under renovation that smelled like a flea market) and a black man showed up asking to talk to the owner. she was a real jerk to him and told him that he was not the owner and he needed to get out and then finally they resolved the whole thing... but after seeing the exchange i realized that she thought 'african americans' were the same as 'native americans' and was a raging racist. so quickly got out of there, because we didn't have time for any of that in our busy schedule. we left and went to fishtown for our next appointment. we saw an apartment that was completely incredible with a spiral staircase, hardwood floors, stainless steel.. but it was in a poor neighborhood and the people wanted us to rent that day... but we have to wait until december or january. next we went to another place in fishtown.... almost as nice, but unforunately no spiral staircase haha. it was awesome and right around the corner was like grocery stores and awesome shops... this place was completely perfect, but yet again... needed imidiate renters and we couldn't fit that. these people must have asked us 1000 questions about ourselves and this 50 year old guy had apparently 'heard of valencia' haha. anyway we went down to another place.... this strangest place ever. the grosses dirty walls in the world, random ugly furniture still there, gross kitchen and batroom... but very cheap and all in all it could have been pretty awesome if the walls were painted and it was nice and fixed up... but no luck really. next place was the best one yet. in a great area, roof deck, 2 floors, backyard, brand new hardwood floors and everything, good area... but yet again... needed renters that day. best part about that place was it was owned by christopher walken.

anyway after our unsuccessful apartment hunt, we went back to nicole's apartment and had dinner and gathered up the rest of my stuff to move out of there for good. then we went to see the darjeeling limitied. now.. i love wes anderson movies as most people do, but this one was kind of dragging. although i think it might have been better than the life aquatic. the movie was defintiely entertaining and definitely had the wes anderson style script writing and great sets, costumes, acting, script.... but there were a few flaws i thought. there were 3 or 4 spots where i thought the movie could have ended, i felt it dragged a little bit. there were also a few things taht just didn't need to be there like the ipod dock that he kept playing music on and these suitcases that kept reoccurring and just dragging the film on. all in all.. i enjoyed the movie, just have to give it a proper critique haha, can't just say it was great when it wasn't all in all the best wes anderson movie. anyway, i will probably see it again, i always like the way these movies make you feel, but really it just made me want to watch rushmore or bottle rocket, since i haven't seen them in so long.

that night we went back to wills and hung out, but eventually made our way back to nicole's parents and worked on our painting a bit more. we got kinda crazy with the tape and did lots of splashing and dabbing and lots of other crazy things to the painting, made it look old and worn (we think) ha...

the next morning we woke up and kept at it with the painting... but many other things had to be done, like studying for nicole, eating dinner with the grandparents and so on. so not so much time for painting or recreational things... but we somehow got it done. we depicted a scene at a 'bear farm who's principal source of income is from a newspaper company that they send out through smoke signals' on the painting. it came out kind of cool, i drew a few bears, there was a housoe, some crazy branchless trees, lots of smoke. then we painted some colors and added some textures. although still not done, it's definitely coming together and i like it... her'e s a photo of our progress so far. my favorite part are the bears on the bottom right and the newspaper.

also keep in mind this was my first time every painting anything besides like 5th grade art class, i haven't had an art class since then... which was probalby 9 or 10 years ago, and i wasn't very good then haha. we just thought we'd give it a shot, and hopefully we could make something cool to hang our new apartment whenever that may be.

anyway sunday night we parted ways and i met up with george at the ataris show in doylestown. it was absolutely insane to see the ataris in such a small venue. i couldn't believe it. there was like 100 people there to see them and it just brought me back to like 10th grade (even though in 10th grade they were selling out 1000 cap rooms in philly). another thing that brought me back was seeing old friends there... a guy who was 2 years ahead of me in high school named matt gifford who i used to go to shows with and hang out with was there. ace from the prize fight was there. soupy was there.... etc. etc. but anyway, back to the ataris, they played almost every song i wanted to hear from 'my hotel year' to '1.15.96' to 'your boyfriend sucks' and even attempted 'angry nerd rock' until he forgot the song and was cut of for noise violation. i would like to have heard 'i won't spend another night alone' in place of 'boys of summer', but the crowd reaction and insanity during 'san dimas high school football rules' made up for it. the whole thing was just great. it felt like i was watching them as a local band again, they checked their own guitars and mics... fixed the pa themselves when it wasn't working. when i fight broke out they stopped and yelled at the kids and came back in to play the rest of the song by everyone playing it wrong and had to do it twice. they all had silly clothes on and the guitar and bass players mostly faced the drummer the whole time. it really was like they were a local band again and it was amazing. i couldn't believe my eyes haha. kris roe didn't even play guitar until the acoustic parts, it was crazy as a daisy. anyway.... just made me realize why shows were so much fun back in high school and why i love playing music. and although, i never want to end up like them... i admire them for their integrity and what they're doing and keeping at it and still having fun playing music.

well in any event.... the whole weekend was pretty fun and now i have a sore throat, probably from getting lack of sleeping, but we'll pretend it was from singing so loud at the ataris show when the pa went out. this was probalby a bunch of incoherent ramblings, but i figured i'd get it all out before i forgot all the details of this weekend's hilarity. tonight is some busy stuff too... got a meeting, perhaps hanging out with hit the light's (since they're in town) and them lots of work to do tonight (like 400 comments that i didn't do all weekend, lots of recording and editing for alex's song, and even some good old fashioned knitting of all our shirts for the next tour!)

brndn