... hold on to your hats. i've been really enjoying this weird weather week a lot- cool summer days are kind of a beautiful thing- they are very scarce. it actually makes me a bit angry when people complain about them- i really don't understand what's to complain about- tons of sunshine and nice, cool air. it's not like it's below 60 degrees. enjoy it while you can- july and august aren't that far off, now and when the 90+ degree heat and humidity hit you'll be pining for these beautiful, cool summer days. our neighborhood does become very beautiful in the springtime- the streets are all lined with really tall, green trees and a fair amount of people do that amazing english-style landscaping in their front yards (although no one does this like the english i have to say- the portlanders are the closest i've seen). i like that stuff believe it or not. we drove down to a sort of no-neighborhood limbo last night to deliver a cd to hotti biscotti (a place people have recommended we play for a long old time) and driving through all of those strange neighborhoods near logan square really had me feeling pretty grateful about where we live- it's kind of a unique amalgam. for one thing it's got sketchy pockets to be sure, but for another it has an almost suburban vibe with the whole tree-lined streets and sidewalk gardens and whatnot, the yuppies are here but they certainly haven't taken over, there are gigantic ridiculous houses, but there are also run-down four-plus ones and some really sad looking buildings, and there is some ridiculous diversity going on in this neck of the woods. our neighbors are nigerian. there used to be an indian family living across from us. you mix that in with all of the loyola students, the scruffy artists and the other types i haven't mentioned and it's kind of nice because no one's in the majority here. it's almost like still being in portland in a way but it's not just 80% white and crawling with scruffy hipster-types.
today i'm chirpy because a few good things happened yesterday that really turned a crappy week around. this is strange because normally my weeks are either all-fantastic or completely crappy. last week was looking really crappy. i was supposed to have jury duty today, for instance. yesterday i was at work and having kind of a crappy time and will accidentally scheduled too many people- he went to the basement to do a bunch of cleaning and it didn't end up taking him very long so then he asked me if i wanted to go home and that's where the day completely turned around. i did walk about three miles with a heavy six-pack of hoegaarden in my bag trying to get stefanie a jenny lewis ticket (unsuccessfully, as it turns out), but then i got home and took a nap, played some guitar and then called the number on my jury summons (i was called as a standby juror) to see if i needed to show up tomorrow and it was a big negative! awesome! things like this happen so seldom i try to enjoy them more.
so i'm here at the coffee shop typing up my private thoughts in public. so there it goes...
i'm not sure what i'm going to do today... it's kind of a giant question mark. i'm not even sure if i have any work to do on the new album- a lot of my work is pretty much done, which is really odd and unexpected. last week we worked on the title track and it so far hasn't come out as well as i'd hoped. what's more it's a little longer than i'd hoped and 'narcoleptic' is also a tiny bit longer than i'd hoped as well. this is kind of a problem since i'm now trying to work within the confines of the vinyl format and i don't want it to be a double lp- therefore it has to be under 50 minutes long. i'm itching to get the 'dandelions' cd sent off in the mail. i'm beginning to think that i should just send off a copy of the reference disc and be done with it. i've got the pdf mostly filled out for cdman. i have to deposit all of my saved cash (about $550) into my bank account so i can pay my credit card bills and whatnot, which will be due while i'm gone because my paycheck is going to come up while i'm in kansas city- kind of a good thing since i (ideally) won't spend all of the money.
it's strange and a bit sad to me that the record is almost done. i realised that this might be the last time that i take one of these trips specifically to record with billy. it depends on what we do next, we might not use as much in the way of strings and if, by some miracle, we ever get the 16-track setup going then i'm not going to be able to record with billy- it's just not going to be portable anymore. i will still try to visit as often though. it's so cheap and easy and fun to go down to kansas city and i like being able to have it so easily accessible- it makes it so close by.
but it's a bit sad- i'm a bit bummed that it's almost over. most of my work is done- i don't know how that happened...
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