Sara (my beloved sis) brutally began waking me up around 1 or 1:30pm, and let me tell you: it was not a pleasant experience. After the previous day's walking, my body was sore and tired. After the previous 2 days with little sleep, I did not even want to consider waking up.

But, we were scheduled to meet some of Sara's friends at the train station, so I had little choice. We were also meeting Luigi for brunch a little bit later.

I got up & wearily dressed & prepared for the day. We left shortly thereafter and boarded the Metro bound for the train station. At the station (which is just huge) we met Laura & Margaret, and talked briefly with them before they got on their train to Deauville. Then, we took another Metro to le Marais.

Our destination in the Marais district was a particular cafe that is apparently a favorite of Paulo's, and we met up with Luigi at the intersection of the side street where the cafe was located. Apparently however, the cafe has closed and been replaced by an Italian restaurant.

So, the plans changed, we wandered le Marais for a short while, looking for a good place for brunch.

Now, Sara had described le Marais to me as the "gay jewish" section of Paris, and, while i really didn't notice any of the latter, the former were certainly present in abundance.

Eventually, we found a nice (but very crowded) restaurant where we could sit and have brunch. The brunch menu consisted of a basket of very good breads, 2 large salads with sliced ham, sliced smoked (practically raw) ham, sliced smoked salmon (again, practically raw), and three cheeses. Each salad was meant to be shared by two people. There were also scrambled eggs, which were brought out after the salad, and "unlimited hot drink"–meaning, basically any of the hot drinks on their menu, of which i chose cappuccino. The cappuccino was excellent, very smooth–not bitter or gritty (unlike most cappuccino's i've had in american coffee shops). The rest of the brunch was equally tasty.

At some point during the meal, Sara & Luigi started speaking Italian. It is a bit funny how i came all the way to Paris, but seemed to hear more English and Italian than French. Of course, that has more to do with Sara's friends than anything. And of course, my sister is apparently trying to add a fifth language to the collection of languages that she at least partially knows.

After brunch, we walked from our restaurant in le Marais, down to the Rue de Rivoli, and down the Rivoli to the Louvre. We entered the Louvre near it's center and walked into it's giant courtyard. From there, we walked roughly east through the middle of the courtyard, and into the Jardin des Tuileries. This garden was extraordinarily huge, and we walked slowly, enjoying the weather and surroundings.

About halfway through the garden, Luigi left us to go study or work on something, and Sara, Andrew, and I continued on. At the end of the garden, Sara suggested we go into a little shop so i could attempt to find some souvenirs for friends back home. The only thing of interest was a planting kit for Absinthe, but I know that at least the drink is illegal in the states, so i warily decided not to purchase it.

We stopped to sit so Sara could make a phone call, and enjoyed one of the best views of Paris i've seen so far–aside, perhaps, from the view from the central statue of the Louvre where you can see all the way through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Obelisque and up the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. After this brief pause, we left the garden and walked down to and along the Seine for a short bit before catching a bus towards home.

Of course, the bus was horribly crowded and only became more so as we went on, so we got off after a very short ride and finished the rest of the journey on foot.

Once home, and with a glass of Vin d'Alsace Tokay Pinot Gris in my hand, i felt like listening to a little Jazz, and put on a Louis Armstrong/Duke Ellington CD and began drawing the maps from yesterday's journeys. Sara has since given me my own personal map, so i'll just mark my routes on it from here on out.

After a couple hours, Paulo showed up and we all hung out & talked for a bit. We were supposed to be going to their friend Michael's house for a farewell dinner (for him, since he's returning to Germany tomorrow), but he was still at work, so we had to wait longer than we expected. Paulo requested music, and Sara (loving sister that she is) suggested I play the lucifigous prick demo for them. All the explanations were made regarding the recording quality and overzealous use of vocal effects, but they seemed to not hate it (much to my surprise, considering the estimation i'd made of their probable musical tastes). Paulo's eventual comment later at dinner (which echoes the comments of others) was "it was not as bad as i expected." tee hee. I think he was mainly referring to the fact that he was expecting a more loud, heavy, satanic metal sort of sound.

Eventually, Michael called back and said he was finished and that we should proceed to his place. Andrew bowed out (at this point, it was probably 10 or 10:30) since he has to wake up at 5 to meet his family at the airport.

So Paulo, Sara, and I set out for the 17th Arrondisment and Michael's place. We walked part of the way (after taking the Metro) on the Rue de Levis, but i can't remember if that was the street Michael lived on or if it was something else. Rue de Levis stuck out for the obvious reasons.

At Michael's, i got to give my first bissous (french cheek kisses, for lack of a better description) to a stranger (his landlady) who was having dinner with us. I also at this point got introduced to some french dining customs. At the french dinner table, it is not the food that gets passed around, but the diner's plates. Whoever is closest to a particular dish is placed in charge of serving it. I think i made a minor error in etiquette when i served the dish i was in charge of to myself first, though no one but my sister mentioned it (and she only mentioned it by whispering to me "you have to serve everyone else too").

The dinner was pleasant, the food was excellent, and everyone made an effort to speak primarily in english for my benefit. I think, however, that Marie (the landlady) doesn't speak english, so the english talk was occasionally translated for her just as the occasional french was for me. Of course, the German that my sister and Michael were bandying about wasn't translated for anyone, but i'll just chalk that up to my sister's language geekiness.

With dinner, we had an initial glass of champagne, then two different Bordeaux towards the end and with desert. After dessert there was coffee. After coffee, Michael 2 (there were two Michaels present, both were Marie's lodgers) and Paulo convinced Michael to play a little on the piano, which he happily did until the neighbors complained. After that, it was nearly time to catch the last Metro back home.

We walked back down Levis and left Paulo, who was going to catch a Taxi home, at the Metro station Villiers. We rode to the end of the line (Port Dauphine) which is less than 1 block from Sara & Andrew's apartment. Tomorrow will be my first day alone in the city, since everyone has to work. I think I have the Metro figured out at this point, for the most part, but I'm still apprehensive about having to interact with people without a designated voice. We'll see if I manage to get anything to eat tomorrow on my own…

—

and there's day two. boy, when i "document experiences" i really don't fuck around, do i? i know there's not a lot of "impression" and "observation" in these things, these tended to be mainly me trying to get the facts of the day down before i forgot them. they're a bit… broken up seeming, i guess, jumping from one event to the next, mentioning things but glossing over them at the same time. my plan was (and is) to write a final entry basically telling how i felt about the whole thing, along with some of my other observations.

also, if you're reading this Wednesday night/Thursday morning, i plan to get some pictures (which i left at work this evening) online and linked in to certain parts in these entries as well. Then, of course, i'll do a general gallery that i'll hopefully get online by the end of the week or mid next-week. 11 rolls of film. gonna have to sift a bit.

** updated ** i've got some photos in the mix now. enjoy.

ok gddamt. it's way past time for another post. only problem with that is, i'm not entirely sure what there is to write about.

i've been a little fucking social butterfly lately, or so it seems. it's weird after having gone a year or so where i barely left the house save for work. so, i've been out of the house quite a bit lately… hanging out.

i did manage to finally get home to princeton to visit the fam last weekend, and had an enjoyable visit there.

a couple old friends have resurfaced and that's where most of my time has been spent lately.

of course, work is keeping me busy, since i now have to be involved in nearly every single project that passes through our doors. no signs of slowing down there, either.

so, in the end, i've got to adjust. i'm going to have to start making more me time if i have any hope of accomplishing my many goals.

and, this is exactly what i did last night. i finally stole some time from my sleep schedule and built a gallery script for the lucifigous prick site. so, we've now got at least one collection of band photos up there. i'm planning on working up another batch tonight also.

i also have to get in touch with the guy that shot video for us at the show… i really wanna see how that turned out. it'll be weird to watch myself playing music, but weird in a fun way (i hope).

so, go check out the photos if you're so inclined. and if you're not so inclined, well, what the hell do i care?

yeah.

well, what a helluva week.

i feel like i've just been running around crazy the whole time, accomplishing very little besides running around crazy.

in preparation for the show, the band had our normal practice on Sunday night, an extra practice on Monday night, normal practice on Tuesday night, then, of course, the show on Wednesday.

right now i'm trying to remember what i did last night. i stayed late at work (since i was three hours late going in), had dinner, read a comic or two, wrote yesterday's post, uh… talked on the phone for some lengthy amount of time… and i guess that was it.

tonight… more of the same. except tonight is Friday. this means that tonight is drinky-drink & hangout night at the bar. i missed last week's session because i ended up falling asleep around 10:30pm and sleeping 'til 10:30am on Saturday. This week i'm going to actually go out.

now, since nothing else exciting has been going on this week, and certainly not since yesterday's post, i'll leave you with this little blogger's cliche–the search strings.

August's winners:

i'm getting my ass boyfriend back showing myself off to everybody
pee in my butt
child-birthing photos

(that last one's not all that strange, i suppose, but i had to include one that leads to one of my posts. yeah, you see where i'm going with that comment.)

well, i'm off to visit with Mr. Beam, y'all have a good weekend.

woohoo!

man, last night was fun. as paul already explained, the 25 cent rock'n'roll spectacularrrrr went really well.

Old Man had a great set to kick off the night, and everybody seemed to be digging it. It was good to finally get to see them onstage again, after walking in and out on them during practices at the house. besides, when they're playing in the house, i don't get to enjoy their sarcastically witty (or wittily sarcastic) stage banter.

Green Formica Table took the stage and proceeded to blow the doors off. i can't say enough about these guys. i just love 'em. Now, some people i know don't really like them because of some of the atonal chord/note structures and progressions, but i love it. love it love it. some of the stuff they were doing onstage was just making me giggle with glee.

then there was us–the prick, or, as the LEO misspelled it, Lucisigious Prick. "the band of many misspellings", as Paul so eloquently put it. i think leading up to the show (before we took the stage) i was more nervous this time than at our last show. in fact, by the time we started, i was literally just feeling weak and exhausted. it was all alright though, i didn't fall over or have my knee give out on me or anything like that. and, once we got started playing and got through the first song, i was perfectly at ease and enjoying myself. i had a blast. it was also great to get such a good reaction to our new songs (the only ones we've played publicly without first soliciting our friends' opinions).

all in all, it was a great night. good turnout, good audience participation, excellent performances from the bands, and everybody was having fun.

there was the whole thing with the bartender "threatening" to shut down the bar because they weren't making enough money, but the audience really came through when the call was made–"buy more drinks!"

i can't wait 'til next time.

well, i did get the car back. and it does now stop without making any noises. if anyone's ever wondered what the price of silence is, i can easily tell them that it's about $1,400.00. bleh.

hm. i think i'm going to do the unthinkable… follow up two really long and (arguably) interesting posts with a really short lame one.

in case anyone was wondering… those permalinks (the little "PL" in the author line following each post) are now working again. apparently, i did something when converting this site to PHP (yes, that long ago) that broke the permalinks. well, they're working again. so, grab some PL's and link your happy asses off.

er something.

speaking of PL's, (only, backwards) Lucifigous Prick (have i told you this already?) has another show lined up this coming week, with none other than the inimitable Old Man (featuring the illustrious puffin), and the irreplaceable Green Formica Table (who i've mentioned previously). go to http://www.lucifigousprick.com/ for more info on the show. flyers and the like will be up on the site as soon as i can grab a spare 15 minutes to whip together some downloadable versions of the designs.

again, i say bleh. it's been that kind of week.

so, i got home from work on friday, a bit unbalanced by the days events. paul and his new gal head out for dinner. brax and his … uh… amanda (status varies with barometric pressure, i think) also head out for dinner. despite the fact that i'm actually hungry for once on a friday evening, i decide that it's a good time to go upstairs, grab a copy of the book of poems i wrote for the ex on Valentines day many many moons ago, and sit down and relive days gone by. (this should give some indication of my state of mind) this is around 7:30-ish.

a few hours later, i'm waking up in the chair, completely dazed, drained of all energy, wanting only a cigarette & more sleep. and… that's exactly what i get.

i plop down ("throw myself upon" would be more accurate) on my bed, and proceed to sleep for the next 12 or so hours.

of course, i woke up around midnight, then again around 4:30am, but since i couldn't think of any reason to actually get up, i just went back to sleep.

9:30am i proceeded to Bobby E's (Bob Evans for those who aren't living in my skull) for some solitary breakfast and a review of my novel "in progress." (that last part is in quotes because i'm sure it's debatable that the small number of words added to my novel over the past two years could be called–even remotely–progress)

next, home, laundry, Star Trek:TNG DVD box set (disc 5–4 episodes), lunch/dinner with paul & j. brian "Jersey Boy" hall, email/quicken, more TNG DVD (disc 6–4 more episodes), and then now, this sentence, this word, this .

(i think someone's used that before, i'm not as clever as you think i'm not.)

anyway, oh, and there was some smoking of cigarettes and playing of galaga interspersed in the preceeding list as well. sprinkle liberally.

so now, i came up here to the computer for some purpose. oh yes! entering the rent-to-own information on the digital recorder and figuring out exactly how much i've (we've–the band) left to pay. and then maybe, if i can find the motivation, figuring out an easy way to get all those "recipe of the day" emails out of emails and into a file that can be easily imported into a recipe database program.

but upon arriving up here, at my computer, i glanced at my desktop (as i am wont to do when i'm trying to click on things to start programs) i noticed an image there that i'd forgotten. and that image prompted me to write this post. aren't you lucky.

i can't recall if i mentioned the minor quest i went on when attempting to create the LP show flyer i did, but nevertheless–i went on a minor quest. i was looking for book jacket scans from old 30's & 40's pulp detective/horror novels. in that search i found this little gem. all you heshers should enjoy this.

i think i may have to use that face for our next flyer.

ok. so i'm a liar. most of you should have me figured out by now though, if i say that i'll post again tomorrow, it almost always means you won't hear from me for a week. i thought that was accepted practice around here… guess i'll have to re-read the employee handbook.

so, anyway, let's step back in time to a week and four days ago. for most of the time leading up to our first show, i wasn't nervous at all. occasionally i'd have a bout, but generally i was butterfly-free. on friday, brax & i were just chilling about the house, me being on vacation and him being off of work, and it pretty much hit us both at the same time. we'd just got done watching some TNG season 3 episodes from my swanky DVD box set, and then all of a sudden about four hours before the show, we're both getting nervous. we made our now-standard jokes about how funny it would be if we all called in to the bar and told them we'd all come down with some stomach bug or something, calling in sick for our first show.

we finally got our shit together and went over to jim's house, grabbed a little beer and whiskey (to calm the nerves) and waited for our of & underage transports to arrive. Paul was first to get there and we hung out for a few minutes before the girls showed up. two of the girls are brax's former co-workers, and they're both incredibly cute, barely underage, and unfortunately attached (not to each other). when they showed up–right on time–they'd also brought along another friend of theirs who also fit all of the above criteria (not sure about the attached part, since i couldn't work up the gumption to broach that particular question). everybody pitched in and loaded our stuff into the back of the truck, then we all left for the bar.

we arrived, met one of the guys from another band, and he pointed out where we needed to bring our stuff in. the sound guy showed up as we were preparing to unload, so we went ahead and started loading onto the stage. amazingly enough, at this point, i wasn't nervous at all. er, well, maybe a little. we got all our shit set up, the waitress brought us some drinks, we did our sound check, played portions of a couple songs, then went out into the "crowd" to talk to all our friends (the only people who were there other than the other bands). we tried to stall for a while, but at about 15 minutes after 10 (when we were supposed to start) we pretty much had to go on or get lynched. all told, i think we had 15 – 20 people there–mostly our friends, as i said–to watch us on our first outing. it was what i would consider a good turnout. amazingly enough, once we started the sound-check, pretty much all the nervousness went away, and we were down to "bidness."

now, we're all too well aware that most of our friends aren't into the kind of music that we play, so it really meant a lot to us for them to come. the support of friends is a powerful and very much appreciated thing.

we took the stage pretty much without saying a word, and started up our first song. of course, Jim was borrowing a bass amp from dave (red taled hawk), and when he played the first note (not having had a dedicated bass amp in any of our practices) it freaked him out to the point where he nearly lost the bassline. he did manage to get hold of himself, and we continued on. i'd have to say we did a pretty damn good job for our first time playing out like that, and considering the "PA system" such as it was, was crap. once we got to the louder parts in our later songs, we pretty much couldn't hear a damn thing from the monitors. i got totally off track in the first song, by a little more than a measure, but we just kept playing like it didn't matter. i think it happened in another song too, and again we just kept going.

one of the things i was the most afraid of was that we'd have a minor problem like that, and we'd just stop in the middle and have to restart the song. thankfully that didn't happen.

of course, now that we've had our first show, we've all been lazy bastards and haven't called around anywhere to set up another one. gotta work on that.
but this one went well, our friends were there, they enjoyed seeing us doing our thing, and we're anxious to get out again.

well now. i am officially back from Vacation (though i never technically went anywhere). sitting here at work, struggling to find things to keep me busy, and since i am currently not being very successful at that endeavor i figured i'd take my lack of success to other ventures–like this weblog.

i hesitate to say that my vacation was "shitty." it really wasn't. but it also wasn't "exciting" either. basically i took a week off from work, sat around the house, stayed up way too late at night (usually 'til dawn) and slept too late in the mornings (usually 'til 3 or 4). i had the grandiose plans for a week of relentless productivity wherin i'd finish several chapters of my novel, whip my 2nd poetry book into a publishable state, make more copies of the LP demos and send them out to all those labels that are just waiting for a band that sounds like us, and probably some other things as well–as i discovered them. what actually happened was that, a few days before i "went" on vacation, a co-worker "let me borrow a copy" of Grand Theft Auto III for the PC. needless to say, despite the fact that i'm not much of a gamer, i quickly became addicted to the game and proceeded to waste almost every second of my vacation playing it. stupid stupid stupid.

now, i did manage to get a few things done despite the new techno-crack. i created and made copies of some handbills for the LP site, took the remaining copies of the show flyer & handbills to different places around town, we had a 4th of July cookout complete with illegal Indiana fireworks and a near disaster that involved a largish bottle rocket (not a tiny firecracker sized bottle rocket) falling over on it's side and shooting directly into the garage where we were all "taking cover." of course, not everyone noticed the fallen rocket, and not everyone got out of the way. it hit my friend directly in the abdomen, caught her shirt on fire (or smolder, really) and singed her "favorite shorts" and her skin in the process. she was alright–no permanent damage done–but she was a little burned, bruised, and understandably shaken.

the band practiced several times over the course of the week, including at the cookout. then finally, Friday rolled around and it was time for the Prick's big 1st show. all i'm going to say right now, is that it went well, and we are grateful to all of our friends that showed up to give us support. i'm going to save the rest of the story for tomorrow. i've really got to find something to do, lest i begin to fear for my continued employment. also, hopefully, in a few days (as i think i've said before) we'll have some pictures from the show that i can hopefully include in a post.

I've actually been managing to stay somewhat consistently productive lately, not like the lethargy of days and months past. I've been writing a bit, designed a couple flyers for the upcoming Lucifigous Prick show (see below), and last night updated the LP website itself. not to mention that i've made a few posts in the space of a week…

anyway, i think i'm starting to reach the point where i'm realizing that i'm only busy if i'm actually accomplishing something–making headway. i can frown and fret about how little time i have to do all the things i want, but if i let that stop me from doing *anything* then it's even worse. perhaps, if i can keep this activity on the build for a while, i might get to the point where i'll start getting out of the house more, have some adventures, meet some girls. 'cause we know that's what it's really all about.

today i'm dealing with some crazy crick in my neck. i'm in horrible pain. can barely move my head. it really really sucks.
neck pain is one of my two least favorite forms of pain. abdominal pain (the sudden sharp severe gas pain) is number one. neck pain is number two. at least right now it is. i hate it hate it hate it.

but enough about that, here are those flyers:

(click for printable .pdf versions)

if you're in Louisville on July 5th, be sure to come out to the Rud by 10:00 PM to see us very nervously play our first gig. if you'd like to hear what we sound like before you decide to come out (always a wise decision) download & listen to our demo tracks.

oh, and lest i forget, our friend neil was kind enough to come to our practice on Sunday and take an ass-load of photos of us playing and hanging out, so hopefully we'll have some good pics up on the site within the next week. assuming there are any pictures we're willing to let the public see…

well, not much has been happening, i'd have to say. busy at work, busy at home. i finally managed to finish entering about 3 months worth of comics into OmniComics (that's about a 2 ft. high stack.) got them all entered, bagged & boarded, and now sorted into their appropriate boxes.

and wednesday night i cleaned my room. doesn't sound like much, but if you consider that i hadn't vacuumed the carpet since i moved in… over a year ago… you might understand why it's a "big deal."

of course, our cats are constantly in heat, rolling around, and shedding like crazy since it's summer, so my nice black sheets & comforter are already caked in cat hair. good thing i never have to worry about entertaining female guests. har.

today has been a bit on the depressing side… i took my car into the shop yesterday (saturday, today being sunday of course) expecting to have about $275 worth of work done. got a call earlier today from the place and they informed me of all the other things that are wrong with the car and how they "need" to be fixed immediately. so, now the total for the repairs will be closer to the $700 mark, and i've realized that i've made a huge mistake.

doesn't sound like much, but if you consider that i've had a pretty good run of luck most of my life (big decisions wise, anyway–never having made a "really bad" one, or at least not many)… you might realize why it's a "big deal."

i decided a while back (you all remember the ongoing "new car" debate, right? right?… anyone?) that i would not get a new car, would, in fact, fix my Tercel run it for another year until i can save up some scratch for a downpayment, and everything'll be hunky dory. i knew going into that decision that there was some work to be done… brake pads, axle replacement, possible engine trouble to overcome… well, now out of the gate i've spent yet another $800 on the damn car. (just spent $800 three months ago-ish getting the clutch replaced)… so now i'm $1500 additional dollars into the car since the beginning of the year. i realized today that this decision was a mistake, and thinking about the consequences of making this mistake has gotten me a bit depressed. i don't like making mistakes. little mistakes, maybe, but not life-impacting mistakes. i don't like it one bit.

couldn't get ahold of Jim tonight to get a ride to band-practice, and brax had errands to run and work to do Tuesday night, so we've effectively just missed a week of practice four weeks before our first show… bleh.

bleh. bleh. bleh.

time for bed.