heading straight into august – jam forever

yes, it is summertime.

i will maybe try to force myself to write more.

i just got really into a live version of ‘music fighter’ which was posted on youtube from the warp tour. they go at it with such intensity. Yuki is just so great, as they all are.. it really fires on all cylinders.

i was thinking today of how important Japanese music has been to me. It really did rescue me from a period of non-inspiration about my music or anybody elses. Before that, It was Robert Pollard, but time had passed since the fierce GBV inspired days and that was different anyway. I had gone through a big Japanese music phase before so I had a lot of music organized on cd and mp3. When I got my first iPod, I looked in my mp3 library and picked out the Japanese cd folder. Around that same time, Sara and I started listenting to a lot of Shonen Knife in the car. Sara got ‘Let’s Knife’ from me and we listened to Heavy Songs, Genki Shock and a bunch more. Then I started listening to my iPod and the rest is history.. I have not looked back. I have been crazy about finding the Japanese music that I really love. Somewhere in late 2006, I was on someone’s myspace page who had some Japanese youtube links. The link that I saw was to Judy and Mary Music Fighter. I had heard of Judy and Mary in passing, so I clicked the link. Yuki looked wild and it sounded cool, so I started clicking around.

Judy and Mary are my favorite band of all time.

Judy and Mary forever.

where ya been?

Sunday July 29
well, let’s start with the present. It’s a rainy Sunday in late July 07. I am on the back porch watching ‘Apocolypse Now’ redux version that Glenn from work loaned me. ‘Terminate with extreme predjudice’ hehe.. This morning I was up in Harbourton at the junkyard and I met a guy who can help me with my house. I stopped at Marazzos supermarket on the way home.. got some good stuff, yummy.

I just ate and watched the first battle scene of Apocolypse Now. How anyone can justify war is beyond me. We live in some fucked up times that’s for damn sure. Vietnam and now Iraq and everything before and in between. Crazy shit. Intense movie.

Well, I did not write for a few months. A lot has happened. I mean, it has really been non stop. I want to slow down now for the month of August and get caught up on some things around the house. It is now a bit later on Sunday, I took a nap and I went to Dunkin for a cup of coffee which now sits here with a blueberry muffin. Apocolypse Disc 2 is playing. The sun came out but it is heavy and humid. I am doing laundry but the washer is breaking down, I have to rinse twice to get the water out of it.

Saturday July 28th.
Yesterday.. I spent to morning just doing stuff around here. I got 3 cd’s in the mail. Two by Robert Pollard: ‘Silverfish Trivia’ and ‘Cricket’. One from Juliana Hatfield (with Frank Smith) Ep. Sara came over in the late afternoon with Genie and we went to get a salad and then made burgers on the grill. We watched some of ‘Only Yesterday’ by Miyazaki (in Japanese with English subtitles) and Sara was really liking it. But when we got back from getting the salad we watched tons of Judy and Mary and Yuki on youtube. Sara was really in the Yuki song ‘Hello Goodbye’ and ‘Lollipop’. Sara really wanted to see the Simpsons movie and so we went to the 9:40 showing at AMC. It was great, and Sara laughed big time. Of course, there were a lot of things that she really should not have seen. I don’t really mind much, I am sure that Genie does mind. In some ways I don’t blame her, I mean she has to keep a tight watch on Sara.

So, last night was great and Sara was really happy. As for the Simpsons movie.. it’s great.. what else would it be?

The day before was Friday, July 27 . I worked a 10 hour day to get 40 hours in for the week. Dave and I were playing around with installing CS3 at work. I also ordered 3 cd’s from cd japan. I ordered the new Shonen Knife (Fun, Fun, Fun). And the two latest Clammbon releases (The ‘Musical’ Cd and the ‘New Song’ Ep). From work, I called my pal Zak in NYC who runs an NYC Japanese music meetup group. He is a cool guy, it was the first time talking to him, before that we just emailed.. so it was good to hear a voice to go with the email.. I told him to order Judy and Mary ‘Warp’.. Sara and Genie came over later and I argued with Genie because she allowed Sara to come right in without knocking. We quickly got over the argument and we went to get Chinese food. We had not been to the Chinese place in at least a couple of months. We came back and ate and watched Simpsons clips on youtube, including compilations of Ralph Wiggum clips. hehe.

Ok, by the way, I finished watching Apocolypse Now.. and now I am watching it again with the Francis Ford Copolla commentary track. It just started. He is talking about the beggining of the movie and the Doors song ‘The End’.

Thursday after work I went to Allens Camera shop in Levittown. I thought I had a problem with my D80, but it turned out to be an error on my part. Johnny came over for a bit when I got home. I was tired. I just lost my energy over the last four or five days. Today (Sunday) I am recharging somewhat. The heat and the amount of activity that I have been doing finally caught up to me last week. So, I will take it slower for a while. I need to keep moving however and I really should take a long walk today or do something to keep in shape.

Ok, it is now a bit later on Sunday.. I went and got some beer but I am not really drinking much.. just sipping on one beer for a while. I have not really been in the mood to drink beer for a long time. I was just in the basement, the washer is broken and it’s not working and it’s spilling water all over and urghh.. I guess I need a new one or something.

Monday through Wednesday this week was pretty much the same as usual. Working, eating well and got good exercise. This weekend I think I am eating too much junk however. I have a lot of ice cream in the fridge. I got the Austin City Limits concert from Guided By Voices from Nov 2004 (just came out). It’s a flash back to my life from about three years ago. The DVD is up and down but well worth having. Nate and Bob get blitzed of course, and nate takes a really bad fall in ‘Fair Touching’.. he falls flat on his face with the SG while trying to return to the stage from the audience. He trips on the stage and ‘blam’.. wow, .. after that he is all but useless for the last few songs. You can see how these guys could not go on like this forever.

Sun 22 A.B. CNJ, Here
Sat 21 Kasia CNJ
Fri 20 Night off.
Thu 19 Kristen/Brooks
Wed 18 Crystal
Tue 17
Mon 16
Sun 15 Jen
Sat 14 Sakari and Scott / food on grill
Sat / Sun duck cookout? I think this is the weekend when I got the grill going. So, we probably went shopping and got stuff to cook on the grill.
Wed 11 Car fixed at Peruzzi / Stephanie gave me a ride to get the car and we took some pictures on the way home by Cadwalder Park and some in Morrisville by the bank and then we got a pizza (it was really good.. half brocolli and half tomato.. no cheese). So, then we hung out and ate pizza. I took the whole day off, but I was not feeling super motivated.. I drove the car in early and had the full day off after getting a ride back from Peruzzi.

Wed 4th Of July
Sara Hollywood video / Sara Parade / I guess it was just an average fourth, we never really got much going.. but just being together is really important, so in that sense it was perfect.

Tue 3
Half day/ Johnny came over to help clean up the fourth of July / DaveW

Mon july 2
went to take pics in bucks county and the bridge / etc..

july 1 sunday / tired / met sara at the mall and went to justice / went to mr. china to eat / kohls / dropped dvd to joanna of her pictures.

————————————————–

JUNE

sat joanna robs junkyard

Fri Sara came over around 6:30 to 8:30 got chinese food, happy duck

thu dave w

wed

tue

mon

Sun

Sat -
Last day of the fair, met them there and i left early.  rained briefly.

Fri

Thu – family night at the fair, i did not get a wrist band, Sara did

Wed

Tue – Sara went to the fair with Genie and her mom.

Mon (late June) – Went to the fair, Sara went on the zipper for the first time. Ate carnival hot dogs and carnival fries. Sara liked the zipper, she did not seem to mind at all.. we had to find someone to go on with her, and we found a little boy whose mom was nice about letting them ride together.

it’s been awhile

yes, i did not write for a couple of months.. well, a lot happened.

everything is good.. i just did not write.

sara got a cell phone. last weekend was great and we saw the movie ‘surf’s up’.

i concentrate mostly on family and japanese music. last weekend was a lot of family time.

this week i am tired from work for some reason and i am not getting enough sleep.

a lot is happening and i am moving to a different blog.

my new blog style will be music, photo, technology.

my family stuff will be in my private archive.

it’s been great to blog here, but i this was more of my private blog to myself.

the sopranos ended last weekend.

it’s almost mid-june and the weather is still very nice, not too hot.

anyway.. i need to move on to a different blog at some point soon..

last week of may

Yes, its the last week of may 2007. I have not written in the blog in a few weeks. I had a lot of fun this month. I was outside a lot. There is a lot going on but I am not writing much in detail anymore (for a while). I have to work on projects and so I must manage my time in front of the computer.

Everything is fine. Sara is great. I feel good. The weather has been great. Today is the first really hot day. It feels like summer, not spring today.

Music coming in all the time. This month so far I have received some Hikki (Deep River, Bohemian Summer DVD), Lolita No. 18 (Fubo Love NY), Akiko (Love is Here).. and more.. I also have some things on the way (Glay, Nanese, J.A.M Warp).

I am really looking forward to “Warp” by J.A.M. It is the only one I do not have yet.

More later.. It is REALLY nice out right now. out.

first day of may

Today was May 1st. I am on vacation and it was a nice relaxing day. I moved the computer to the back room today to be near the outdoors and it is perfect. Today was great. I need to catch up my blog. I am not going to go into a lot of detail because I need to move on to other projects.

Yesterday was Monday. I was off. It was nice weather and I stayed close to home.

Friday I met Sara and Genie after work at the mall, we walked around and I bought some things for Sara. Saturday I saw Sara here at home. Sunday I did not see Sara, I just did work around here.

Monday thru Friday last week I was working and it rained a few days. It slowly turned into the nice spring weather.

mastering with the macbook

Last night Johnny came over after work. We got the macbook working as a mastering machine and it seemed to work well. We got audio to record into the ‘mac’ side of the macbook onto a program called ‘Audacity’.
We got the windows side to work using adobe audition and it worked well. It took a while to get it all set up but it seems to work well. We finished up at around 8pm and I went to the library and then to get milk at 7-11.
I talked to Sara for a long time from the library to the store to home. She is happy and her retainer is working out ok for her. She seems happy and is not complaining about it. She deserves a good reward for handling it so well.
I have been listening to a lot of Akiko Yano. At the moment the CD ‘Oui Oui’ is playing in my headphones. I find great inspiration in her work.

duck at the watershed

Yesterday (Monday April 23) was a pretty good day. At work I had a different assignment and I got to work up in a radar shelter. It was high off the ground and It was a nice day to be up on the big platform.
After work, it was really really nice out! I got home and opened up the back room and it was great. I started doing a lot of stuff around the house. I was downloading videos from youtube also (Yuki, Clammbon, Hikki, Akiko, etc..).
I called Johnny and he came over at about 7pm or so. We hung out and played some pinball and we tried to get the stereo mix into the macbook. I tried garageband and also audition (on the windows side of the macbook). After trying for about a half hour I gave up. I need to do some research on it which I am doing today.
I am not sure if garageband can do what I need it to do but if not there seems to be some freeware that may work perfectly. We also started setting up drum mics. The drums are in the main room and I am close to having the studio functioning nicely for the time being. Major updates for all my stuff are in order but I can’t afford it right away.
I talked to Sara and she was getting things for her field trip. She is going today to the Watershed in Hopewell. Generally, the weather is great and that really makes a huge difference in attitude. I have some much good energy. Getting outside and moving around and feeling the fresh air makes a big, big difference.

return of the claw

I am sitting at Panera. It’s been a while since I have been here. I had a bear claw. The claw did not stand a chance. It was mighty good. It is Sunday morning/early afternoon at 12:20pm. I am going to blog on the last couple of days. Metheny-like jazz fusion plays above me, but I tune it in and out of my mind.

First of all. The weather. It is spring in a big way and it feels great. The weather finally broke and it broke in a big way.  It was cold, rainy and cloudy until two days ago. Friday the 20th it was really nice, and then yesterday it was flat out warm spring. Temps soared into the 70′s and it was t-shirt time. Today is even nicer, temps will soar.. outdoor time. Full spring in bloom. Just when it felt like it would never get here, it just came suddenly and it is very welcome!

Friday I left work and went right to the Quakerbridge mall to meet Sara and Genie. At 2pm Friday Sara got her dental brace. I was surprised at what it looked like. It was not what I expected. it is a large metal plate/gizmo thing in the roof of her mouth. It does not come out. At first they said it would come out during school hours but now it seems like a permanent fixture. Sara handled it well. It must feel very funny for her in her mouth. It seems like it would bother her. She was happy when I met her at the store and Genie had to take care of some things so I took Sara out into the mall. She was happy that she got to shop. The first stop was the dollar store and Sara got a few pieces of jewelry and a ring and a Sponge Bob balloon. It was cute. She still loves ole’ Spongey. Then we got a hello kitty necklace at Claires and a “Blue” patch from Fosters at Hot Topic. At first Sara did not want to go into Hot Topic but I told her ‘trust me’. She liked it.  We had to find soft food for Sara so we went to Red Moon pizza. Sara got baked ziti and we got slices. When the food stuck to the top of Sara’s brace she got upset. She also bit her cheek while trying to chew on the side. The melted cheese really got stuck to her and she started to cry a little. She said ‘I am having a really bad day’ and she was really upset. I tried to patiently explain to her that sometimes life can bring these inconveniences and that she was handling it well and that it was temporary and it would feel better once she got a bit more used to it. She calmed down and we went to get ‘cold stone’ ice cream and she got really happy. We were listening to J.A.M and eating ice cream in the car and it was nice. Sara was laughing and happy until I said goodnight about a half hour later and she drove away.

The next day I was worried about Sara but when I finally talked to Genie she said that Sara was happy and that she had a good night. ‘She is downstairs making muffins’ Genie told me. It was a busy day around the house. With doors and windows open it ws a great time to get all kinds of suff done aroudn the house so i did. I was very busy all day with music playing and me doing all sorts of cool stuff around the house. I decided to take over the whole house so I told Tom that I will not be renting him the room on the weekend. He was not too pleased about it. It was good for him. It will be nice to have the entire space to setup the way I need to use it. The studio will be in full swing and I can work on some music and really play and write more. Plus, I want to use the kitchen upstairs. I will be hanging upstairs again! I like it, it brings back memories. I lived up there for so long before.

So last night Genie and Sara came over and Sara was great! She was in a great mood, she never complained once about her brace. She played pinball and we went to the Chinese place. She got wonton soup and we also got lo mein and cho fun so she tried a little bit of that on side. We watched two Simpsons episodes while we ate. We went to shop rite also and we got cream sickles and ice cream sandwhiches for dessert. We had our ice cream and watched ‘Bart Star’ from episode three. Sara and all of us were very, very happy. I felt great. We also watched a little bit the of the Utada United DVD and Sara watched intently. She drove away a very happy duck. She never complained one single time about the brace. I told her in the van before she left that she was handling it better than anyone and that she would be rewarded. She is amazing.

After she was upset on Friday I had a lump of worry in my throat all day Saturday while wondering how she was doing and now I feel fine because I think she will handle this brace OK.

Sara has some ‘songs’ that she wants to record. So I showed her the space where the board is setup she told Genie: ‘I saw where I am going to record my songs and I saw where the flower guy sleeps’.

setting up the studio

Sunday Johnny stopped by and helped me moved my stuff upstairs. I moved the studio stuff back into the old studio room upstairs. It is comfortable up there and it should be getting warm next week so I can work up there.
It was raining very hard all day Sunday. John and I also played pinball and astroids. It was a good hang. We went to dunkin doughnuts and each got breakfast sandwiches for lunch. Yummy, indeed.
In the news there is a lot happening. Imus got fired for saying ‘Nappy headed ho’s’. A Chinese college student opened fire in Virgina at V-tech and killed 30 people. The weather is a big issue this year. Our weather has been all over the place.
It stayed warm an extra month, now it is staying cold for an extra month.
sunday Sara called me and said she wanted a fish. Genie did not want to get it because she had taxes to finish. But Sara cried and we felt bad. She said ‘I am always at home when my friends are playing and I have no brothers and sisters’ while she was crying. Boy, that did hurt, hearing her say that.

Monday and Tuesday – quiet.
Wednesday – quiet – watched ‘The Departed’.
Thursday – Johnny came over and we set up the studio upstairs (part 2). I got the monitors working and the mic inputs going. Everything is more or less set up. I just need to mike the drums again and I am fully setup for everything including drums. I will probably be working in the studio this weekend. I am going to start using the kitchen upstairs also. It will be good to get exercise on the stairs because I will be going up and down a lot.

Watched some of ‘Farce of the Penquins’ last night. It had some funny moments.

the bunny came

The Bunny came. It is the next day and I am still so happy that I want to cry with joy.
Sara was great yesterday. She had a happy Easter. I woke up around 9am and I was calling Sara all morning but they did not answer. Finally I got a hold of Genie at around 1pm.
She said that Sara was happy. Then I talked to Sara and she said she was waiting for me to come so she could go outside and collect her eggs. The night before she told me that the Easter bunny brought ‘Eggs’. The way she said ‘Eggs’ in a whisper was really cute.
I asked her what was in the eggs, ‘Money’ she whispered again. So I asked Sara if the bunny came and she got excited ‘The bunny came! The bunny came!’. I gave Tom Peterson a ride to the train station and he gave me some flowers to give to Sara and Genie. After that I arrived at Sara’s house at around 4:30pm.
Sara was all ready to go outside and collect her eggs so we did. It was really cold outside (it is cold again today also). So we did not spend much time outside but Sara went around the whole yard picking up her eggs and I was taking pictures. It was great and she was happy. She used her ‘Hello Kitty’ basket to pick up the eggs.
When we got inside she was anxious to count all the change that was in her eggs. She counted around $15. Not bad for some plastic eggs. She was happy with everything. I was very, very happy. There is nothing like being with Sara on the holidays. It is the greatest feeling in the world.
So we hung out and ate some candy and we were watching ‘Robots’ in the background but not really watching. Then it was dinner time and the food was really good. Chicken, potatoes, blueberry muffins, some Mexican stuff and the brown rice, plus more. It was a feast and I ate a lot. We had ‘peeps’ at the table so we were playing with them (biting the heads off, etc..). Sara ate two peeps but she said that she only eats them on Easter. I am glad about that, they are all sugar. Eventually after dinner we played with some of her Xbox games (Star Wars, Cars). It was fun. I wanted her to try her new Star Wars Xbox game but she did not want to try it. We spent time on the steps saying goodnight and I went home and did some computer stuff and wash before crashing.

It was a perfect day with Sara as usual. I love her so much. I am so happy that I can’t express it. I just keep thinking of her all day and how lucky I am to have Sara and Genie. Today they are supposed to come over after work. I am leaving work soon. Out.

Monday night (4/9). Sara came over after work and we hung out for a while. She was wearing earings and sunglasses when she came. We basically just hung out for a couple of hours but it was really nice.
She played on the computer for a while and then we went to grab a pizza at Nino’s. When we went for the pizza, I asked Sara if she wanted to hear Kirsty and she said ‘yeah’. So we listened to a few songs from Titanic days in the car while we drove around the back neighborhood behind Nino’s and Ewing High.

It was a bit cold but the sun was shining very brightly. So it was nice to be driving around. Sara was singing loudly at times and that made me happy. I was in a good mood. I was happy to be with Sara. When we got home we watched some Simpsons but Sara wanted to watch ‘Hoodwinked’ instead, so we watched about half of that before she had to leave.
I like ‘Hoodwinked’, it’s pretty funny. At one point we got Sara to cuddle with us on the couch while watching the movie. It seems strange to me sometimes that she will grow up and we won’t be able to cuddle like that anymore. It breaks my heart to think like that, but it’s a natural feeling. I was trying to take pictures of Sara but she was not in the mood.
The trees are not really blooming yet except for the white/red blossoms. Those trees bloom first, weeks before the others. I will keep an eye out for the blooming trees now and I also need to find some cherry blossoms (Sakura).

Right now it’s Wednesday night and I am at home. ‘Man of the Year’ is on in the background as I catch up on computer stuff. Working with slideshow pro. Thinking of the best way to get the studio updated also.