i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but–aside from all the hot girls in skimpy clothes–i really fucking hate summer. especially summer in the Ohio Valley where the humidty reaches claustrophobic levels. and especially when the AC in your house has decided to be lazy. factor in the fact that my AC in my car is also not working (and that i'm too broke & lazy & anti-spending-more-money-on-my-car to fix it), and you can understand why i feel this way.

there's something about waking up sweating, taking a shower and sweating when you get out, then sweating in the car on the way to work–where it takes about 45 minutes before your body cools down enough to stop sweating. then, at the end of the day–after your car's been sitting out in the hot sun all day under it's direct harsh radiation–you leave the comfortably cool confines of your workplace for your iron-smelting factory of a car, drive home sweating your ass off, then walk inside the house only to realize it's about 1 degree cooler than outside and just as fucking humid.

the something that i was talking about is this:
it sucks. i hate sweating when i'm not doing anything to deserve it. i don't mind a good healthy exercise sweat, i don't mind a good sexual escapade sweat. but i do mind a walking down the stairs, or sitting in front of the TV sweat. blah.

so, anyway, it's hot and i hate it.

our good friend Nate came down this weekend for the cookout that wasn't. so we decided to just hangout and drink friday, and we did a good job of it. as brian mentioned, i got quite quite drunk (as did most everyone else) having consumed a total of (i think) 5 moonbeams most of which were at least 50% whiskey. i'd have to guess that i probably drank about 15 shots worth of whiskey. not too shabby.

and yes, despite the fact that i actually went to bed drunk (which is extremely difficult for me to do), and that i only got in one cup of coffee before doing that, i still woke up with no hangover. i wasn't completely unaffected, but i didn't have a hangover. i had maybe a love-letter from a hangover, or a picture of a hang-over, but not the actual hangover itself. a hint of a hangover.

saturday saw us recovering, and Nathan and I played a *lot* of GTAIII. We went to ZA's about 11ish, and saw Green Formica Table play. I'd heard Paul playing some of their stuff the past week or so, so i had an inkling of what to expect, but they were so so much better than my expectations. They were really good. right up my alley. Take a heavy smattering of experimental Sonic Youth (loud, raucous sound-scapes) tossed with a mixture of esoteric japanese girl-group pop, and you're in the same Zip-code as these guys. The guitar playing was at turns phenomenal and "dreamy." and the drummer was amazing as she sang half the songs while keeping a solid inventive beat. needless to say, i was impressed, and if you're in the Louisville area, you need *need* to check these guys out.

after the show was mostly over (all of our other friends had left when the 2nd band was playing, and we left later on in their set when it became obvious that they weren't going to be able to break out of the formulaic punk music theme) Nate, Brax, and i walked down to the Backdoor so they could split a pitcher. Having drank too much on Friday, i'd declined alcoholic beverages all night, and continued this trend at the bar.

I ran into Geoff there, not having seen him since the day a couple weeks ago when he was laid off from work. It was good to see him again and see that he was doing well. We chatted and joked for a while about various things and generally just took some time to catch up and have a mutual support & reassurance party.

Since Brax & Nate are the only sports fans in our little cloister, they were busily yapping away about sports stuff, so it was just as well that i'd found someone else to hang out and talk to for a while. The rest of the evening, i just kind of hung out and did some people watching. Sipping on my plain coke.

After the bar–more GTAIII. After the GTAIII–the sleep. After the sleep–the call from my sis in France. After the call–you're caught up.

It's been a fun weekend. I've had to set aside my projects, but i'll be back into them hard-core this week.

Ok. It's time for lunch. Gotta go get my Kefc on.

and he's gonna cause trouble

ok, so in case you haven't noticed yet, the puffin is back, doing the 'blog thing again, and out of the gate, he's got a nice huge review of the new Sonic Youth album. it was only a matter of time, with the consistent badgering we (and others) were giving him to return, that he would do so. he's back now, so give him some linky-love, folks.

in other news, i'm still working on a design for my new musiced thing, and actually reaching a point that i'm fairly happy with. i've been rather frustrated by graphic design for years, always feeling that i was falling short of the type of stuff i'd like to be able to do. hopefully, i'm finally getting the hang of it. next design tasks–a new theme for bipolar, a redesign of coffeemonk.com (which hasn't been updated in… well, years. it'd be nice to come up with a new design for x:13 design proper, as well.

anyway, once the design for musiced is done, i'll start posting my reviews. in the meantime, anyone who wants to contribute to my musical education can of their most highly recommended albums. i can't guarantee that i'll buy & review everything (especially if the list ends up crazy long), money is, unfortunately, a factor. if you really want to get crazy and send me (legal) copies of your favorite albums, hell, i always accept bribes. ( for a mailing address.)

oh, and i'm fully moved into the new digs at work, bathing in natural light all day for the first time in a long time. i'm going to get the webcam set up again, so, once that's done you'll be able to catch some glimpses of me at work. (yeah, don't jump for joy all at once, folks.)

that's it for now. go visit puffin-a-go-go.

so, yes, this past week has been anti-social matt week. beginning with last Friday and the weekend i was lamenting in the last post.

as it turns out (i think i can finally write a little something about this), two *more* of my co-workers were laid off last Friday. this seriously threw me for a loop, considering that a month ago, when my boss (and two others) were laid off, we were told "well, that's the last of them for a while. don't worry about your jobs, we won't need to take such drastic measures again."

obviously, that wasn't quite right. so Friday was at least partly a result of that little tailspin i was in. and this week, the one guy in my "department" (such as it is) is on vacation. so, in a little cube world that once was home to five people, it's now been just me all week. sitting at my little desk, doing the work of 1.5 men (since i couldn't possibly pick up Geoff's full workload in addition to my own). it's been lonely. i've gone out to eat more than usual, just to have an excuse for some human interaction. unfortunately, i'm not the world's most entertaining conversationalist. i function, but only just.

next week, me and my remaining buddy move our stuff into an honest-to-god office, with windows (which our present space doesn't have). this is assuming he shows up on monday. i have no reason to think he won't, but i won't be surprised.

anyway enough of that depressing shit.

at some point this week, i was discussing music with nate, and he was, once again, trying to sell me on the whole ska thing. called it his "number two" favorite musical genre… after big band jazz. somewhere in there, we hit upon the idea that he should write up a list of albums he thinks i should check out, new artists i haven't given a fair shake to, or who i may have heard but don't own.

i have always freely admitted that my musical knowledge is not what i'd like it to be. there is so much out there, that i've pretty much just stuck with what i know. everyonce in a while, someone would introduce me to a new band, or i'd hear them listening to it enough that i'd get hooked. so now, i've got this list, and i've decided to make it a project. yet another of my infamous projects.

my plan, such as it is, is to buy an album from each of nate's recommended artists, live with it for a few days, then write up a review. i'm also planning to document this somewhere here on bipolar, and i'll probably use the reviews to up my monthly posting stats.

I managed to get out to Ear-X tuesday and picked up Al Greens' "Let's Stay Together," and Big Black's "The Hammer Party." i thought they were appropriately dissimilar selections.

I'm going to work on the master list page tonight, after (AFTER, damnit) i finally get off my ass and finish my passport paperwork. if i don't get my passport soon, i won't be able to make it to my sis's wedding in September. those of you who know about passports are probably already laughing. yeah, yeah. keep it up.

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.

well, with all this excitement here around ye olde bipolar, coupled with Nathan's constant whining about my lack of posts, i guess i better jump on this crazy train or be left forever behind.

of course, the big problem with having a weblog is having a consistent stream of interesting tidbits to post about, but since i don't have that in my life currently, i guess i'll just have to post about some really stupid shit until something better comes along or i get some groundbreaking idea that will shake the foundations of our society.

anyway, so, i've finally started playing the game i bought about a month ago, and i've been enjoying it. yet another game that promises to suck away what little life i currently live. yay!

today i finally started pulling together some packaging ideas for our demo (don't wanna go handing out unprofessional demo CDs, now, do we?), and as soon as i get something finalized i'll probably post some images for you all to see.

and since brian's off in rock-star land, i guess i should mention that i enjoyed the show on Friday, and, like Paul, i was happy for brian that he did well.

oh, and the June 4th show may be on again… right now it's tentative, but we're planning on having a show with us, Old Man (the puffin's band), and Telavet. we'll keep you posted.

that's it. that's all i've got. if i think of anything else, especially anything that might be interesting, i'll be sure to let you know.

well, the final tweaks have been made to the demo tracks, so i figured i'd post 'em here first.
we don't have a title for the demo disc, since it's, uh… a demo.

Lucifigous Prick demo mp3 releases
1. Happy Place (mp3, 5.1MB, 5:22)
2. Saturn Turns (mp3, 2.8MB, 2:56) *new*
3. The Wrath of Orson (mp3, 10.8MB, 11:26)

the June 4th show is a no-go as the out of town band made other arrangements before our friend could get back in touch with them. but, there is a July 5th show on the books, and that may be our first show (if we don't get off our asses and set up another one before then.) needless to say, we're all getting psyched up for it.

'nother quick update, i'll try to write a post about the weekend a little later today.

Lucifigous Prick pre-demo mp3 releases
2. Happy Place (mp3, 5.1MB, 5:22)
1. The Wrath of Orson (mp3, 10.8MB, 11:26)

comments on these tracks are welcomed. enjoy!

ok. so, my car is fucked right now. apparently the clutch has pissed off the engine and now they're just not communicating. i think they're at the note-passing, or speaking through friends phase, but things aren't looking all rosy in oil & piston land.

anyway, i've got work to do, but i wanted to post an update real quick-like. first off, the assistance that you've given has been invaluable regarding exactly what the hell i should be doing with my time. we've got a winner so far, but i'd love to see some more votes to really drive the point home (yes, of course, i haven't done any work on any of these projects yet, but my computer's been being a bitch lately as well–seems like the things i own always have a bad habit of breaking down at the same times.) anyway, on to the vote:

votes   project
_1__ finish 2nd poetry book
____ finish & submit short story(/stories)
____ write new poems
_3__ write screenplay
_2__ continue working on novel
_1__ redesign coffeemonk.com
____ design separate myfavoritemartyr.com
____ today/tomorrow mixed 2 CD set
____ mixed cover songs CD
____ learn to play bass for Old Man
_1__ put together (personal) media server
_1__ design new bipolar theme
_1__ finish playing computer games i'm in the middle of
____ put unboxed comics in boxes

so, there's that. please feel free to comment on this post to cast your vote as to which project i should work on/attempt to complete first. those of you who have already voted from the first post, you can vote again. just 'cause i'm nice.

we had our band practice last night, got a little bit done, so it looks like our demo should be officially ready this coming sunday. we're crossing our fingers. once that's done and distributed, then you guys can all come and see us play (assuming we can convince any club owners to let us set up a show). but now, the moment at least two of you have been waiting for (which two, i'm not sure, but there's gotta be at least two of ya.)

the first (public) Lucifigous Prick pre-demo mp3 release
The Wrath of Orson (mp3, 10.8MB, 11:26)

enjoy. and feel free to let me know what you think.

so, brian caught me at the Rud on friday and mentioned that he was going to Michigan on saturday. somehow, i'm not sure how, he managed to convince me that i should tag along with him, to go up there and meet Hey Mercedes and some of the various other indie-rock icons that would be in attendance.

so, after the Rud & the Backdoor on friday–a night of debauchery to be sure–we both managed to drag ourselves out of our respective houses and get out of town about three hours later than we'd originally intended. but no matter, suffice it to say, brian drives fast. but aside from the momentary shock of blowing past a cop somewhere around Toledo, the drive was pleasantly uneventful.

the show was good. I enjoyed most of the music, but let me tell you, you put 4 or 500 sweating indie-rock kids in a huge room with limited ventilation, and the atmosphere gets oppressive at best. by the end of Hey Mercedes set (the first we were able to see), i was entirely ready to head back out into the cold Michigan night for a smoke and some elbow room.
the second band i saw was called "!!!" (which i think means "pretentious jam-band" in japanese). honestly, i enjoyed their music, and they seem to be very talented musicians, but basically all their songs just sounded like extended jams. perhaps there was structure there and i was just not in the mood for "party music", or perhaps the fact that the lead singer was pretty much a complete dick factors into my distaste. needless to say, i didn't stick around for the whole set.

let's see… then we saw a band whose name i can't remember, but it was two or three fat guys (one of whom unfortunately removed his shirt halfway through the performance) and a normal guy. They played some hard-rocking punk music and were really pretty good.

final band we watched was coalesce (see brian's pics, linked in his post.) who put on a good show. my tastes generally don't lean that far towards hardcore punk, or vocalists who scream more than sing, but they really tore it up onstage and i enjoyed it.

after the show we made the rounds again and hooked up with the Mercedes and Coalesce boys, headed out to the hotel, grabbed ourselves a room, and hung out with a bunch of people i'd never met before in my life. i pretty much felt like an outsider the whole night, but Sean helped make us feel welcome when we went out to grab some late night dinner at a place called Coney Island.

After that we were pretty much beat from our long day on the road and at a show (after a night of too-much drinking), and called it a night.
The next day's drive was again, thankfully uneventful and we made it home only about 45 minutes later than we'd intended (after stopping for an hour lunch at Denny's).

exciting stuff, eh?

yeah, i know.

anyway, in other news, there's not much other news.

the prick's demo is almost ready for public consumption, so hopefully, if i can remember to take some damned CD-Rs with me to practice tomorrow, i'll be able to upload at least one track for you to enjoy and comment on.

that's it. i'm out.

i seem to have returned to a semi-regular practice of actually turning on my webcam, turning on the chat client, and maybe… if you're all really lucky (or not, depending on your point-of-view) of posting to ye olde bipolar.

had a fairly fun weekend (except for the Sunday that wasn't) hanging out and being social. paul and i chilled most of Friday night watching various incarnations of Trek until it was time to go get our drink on. we did the normal friday thing at the bar, meeting up with neil and BRIAN and SCOTT and their friend chris. we did have quite a bit of fun, as usual, looking at pretty girls, screwing up our courage, and… completely ignoring them. woo-hoo!
at the end of the eve, BRIAN and SCOTT and neil came over to the house so i could play that "jive" delta airlines sound clip for SCOTT, and so we could all laugh our asses off for a while. i think at this point, i was on coffee, but neil & paul were still drinking. by the end of the night, we nearly had to bury poor neil.

saturday was a lazy day, woke up and got some "kefk" (that's KFC to you phonics impaired people), and did some more chillin at the house. we (that is, my roommates and i) briefly toyed with the idea of going out for a fun night of bowling, but instead opted for a somewhat-less-fun-but-still-enjoyable evening out at the rud watching two bands we'd never heard of, looking at pretty girls, screwing up our courage, and… (you guessed it) completely ignoring them. well, except for Rachel, but she doesn't really count since we already know her and she's just really friendly anyway.

i stayed up way too late Sat. night/Sun. morn doing god knows what tinkering around on the computer, ended up slinking off to bed about 6:30 or 7 AM, and ended up sleeping until the sun was down again. boy what a waste of a perfectly good day. but nevertheless, two hours after i woke up, we had our normal 8:00pm sunday band practice, and though it got off to a slow start, we did make some progress, making the day not end up a total waste.

today at lunch i finally broke down and bought a turkish coffee set (sort of) from a Russian grocery near a place my work crew frequents, so hopefully, once i get off my ass and down to the "real" grocery store to buy some sugar (note to self: add sugar to grocery list, you moron.), which we've not had since we moved in back in May of last year…. well, then i'll be able to have some real turkish coffee, just the way Arslan used to make. now if i could only make Baklava and kebabs (A.K.A. gyros), i'd be set (and fat) for life. I do have a recipe for Sarma, which i hope to break out here sometime soon… perhaps that'll be turkish coffee & sugar night as well.

oh, anyway, i've got shit i want to do tonight, and at this point, i think i'm using this blog as a crutch to avoid "work." hep me jeebus. i thank i just self-revelated.

g'night.