meltdown is coming...

i feel like there's going to be a total balls-out kind of meltdown at work. my boss has been getting on my nerves like nobody's business lately. this is kind of a recurring problem- my bosses tend to put me under a microscope and scrutinize every teeny little action i do. in this case i don't think it's appropriate since i know what i'm doing at this job. he basically wants everyone to do everything exactly the way that he does rather than for people to do things the way that they're comfortable doing them. he wants no variation. really he should just go down the block and apply for a job at starbuck's because that's the place for that kind of thing. my impression is that anyone who comes into our coffee shop who doesn't want any variation of any kind of anything that they would just go to starbuck's instead since it's right there. the very fact that they come to our shop to me means that they like the way things are done. so there's all of this tension around the place and at this point it's all coming from him and centered around him. i tried to think of anyone else who works there who i have a problem with and i came up empty-handed. except for him. he's a nice guy outside of work, but when he's there he's so fucking tightly wound and rigid that it's just enough to drive anyone crazy.
that said i think it's going to be a nice weekend. i don't have anything to do. pretty much at all. there are a few things i might record, but at this point i am waiting on other things to come together before i can go forward with pretty much anything i'm working on. stefanie has drum tracks to record, there are strings to record, we have a few vocal tracks that we need to do together, etc. i have a handful of things i could do (maybe) and a bunch of sheet music to write out. i'm probably going to go pick up my paycheck, go to permanent records and buy the new psychic ills record, get home and start editing some vinyl conversions. i finally found this cdr that had two neil young albums on it that i burned a cd from a really long time ago that i thought had been lost. i found them after i finished burning a cd from a bunch of 'chinese blue' demos. i have 22 demoed tracks loaded into the ipod and i have probably about 13 more songs that have been at least started. the goal of 50 is edging ever closer. i think the original concept might have to be a bit compromised- i don't think that i'll be able to fit 15 songs on each lp. the songs are all too long- they've become all stretched out and i don't have enough short songs to balance them out. that was a bit ambitious anyway, especially for me.
i just finally started getting into the silver apples. they are very interesting. quite advanced for their day. i can really see why they continue to be so obscure. it's another group that i see as being a possible parallel for shalloboi.
i need to start looking for schools to contact to start booking the tour. i found our atlas (or what's left of it), so i need to attempt to plan a decent route. i am guessing that the tour might be about 10 days. i would like it very much if we ended up playing every night. some days i would like to play two shows- college show in the afternoon and then a club or house show at night.
i think i inadvertently have pissed a few people off through email. i think i sound terse through it or something when i'm trying to be brief and not ramble on too much. one of those people is the guy that books for the empty bottle. i actually emailed him saying i wasn't offended or sarcastic in my email. i don't want to piss that guy off- he's the nicest person i've ever dealt with who books shows. he is always really helpful. i am trying to nail down a venue for that strings show. trying to find one that will be the right fit. so far it's probably still too early to tell. i don't know what's happened to elastic- it used to be so easy to get people to give me the time of day there and now that's just not the case. i couldn't booked a couple of shows there a few years ago, but we weren't quite ready for that and i was still a bit too careful to try and book shows for people there. now that i'm more confident and know people to play shows with and have a concept that would be perfect for us to book our own show i can't get them to respond to my emails at all. elastic would be the perfect place to do the strings show too- i feel like it's the perfect size for us and the cost isn't real risky at this point (i'm very confident we could get enough people there between us and nick to make the cost of using the space back) and their sound system would be perfect for what we are going to do.
i am beginning to feel like i am the great ignored person. or i guess i should say that i am more and more aware of being the great ignored person. sometimes i don't feel as ignored. not right now. it's kind of a pain in the ass and very frustrating with how happy i am with our music right now. but what can we do? there's only so much we can do on our own.
next week i have to make the consignment rounds. that's always fun.
i also bought a crystal stilts lp, and i just bought a grizzly bear double lp with one of my paypal vouchers. i have to redeem my rewards points from all of the fucking debt i've accrued with that damned paypal card. in the future i might try to rack up points by saving money to buy something big on ebay and then using the credit card to pay for it and paying it off immediately.
the great festival of pain involving tons of show tickets that need to be purchased is nearly finished. i would like to go see the appleseed cast at the bottom lounge in a few weeks. i really like them and it would be nice to finally see them play. it's on a friday night and i have to open on saturday mornings. the bottom lounge is kind of far away too. juana molina is playing nearby in a little under two weeks too- and it would be fun to go see her play. i bet that one will fall by the wayside. it's $20 or something like that. i wanted to try to get andrew bird tickets but that second night at the opera house has sold out as well. it's just as well, though- that would've put quite a dent in the wallet. i made an odyssey on tuesday afternoon and went to the metro and bought my primal scream ticket with something called 'cash' and was able to avoid something called 'service fees.' it was quite a concept. in the ad it said the tickets were $27.50 and i got one for $27.50. i remember going to see dinosaur jr. at the metro 11 years ago and paying $13 at the door to get in. oh, how the times change.
i think i'm going to sign off now. what a useless entry.