on monday my computer at work died. on tuesday it was fixed, and i made this nifty blue banner for zap mama that you'll see if you go to the luaka bop website and refresh a bunch of times.

that evening we had a party upstairs in adele's (was david's) apartment, featuring very intricate jello shots (most people had never had them, and we all had an amusing time trying to get them all out of the plastic cups), watermelon vodka, and buds, corn, taters, and "yabbies" (shipped in from new orleans). these were a major focus for attention, especially yale's enthusiastic demonstrations of how to eat them ("suck the head! squeeze and suck!"); we had a huge basin of them that never seemed to get any less full no matter how many people ate (later i found out it was refilled, but only once.) i was mostly able to find people to talk with (it was basically the entire history of luaka staff, plus other industry associates) and things to talk about. i don't know if it counts as networking, but i had a nice time anyway.

yesterday after work i went to an advance screening of young adam (no us release date yet), which as david warned us was not a feel-good movie. but quite good i think, with a few pretty disturbing parts. ewan macgregor has sex (i told rebecca: but it's depressing sex) with literally every woman in the movie, which becomes almost a source for humor later on whenever a new female character appears on the screen. the music is nice too. (or, instead.)

then i bopped over to st. marks, tho i hadn't really been planning a record trip i ended up with:

(1) new release that i had been expressly intending to buy that day
(1) new release that was mostly an impulse though i had figured i would want to own it sooner or later anyway
(1) used copy of an old album that i've been searching for for several years
(1) cheap used copy of an album that i had been considering buying online for more money as recently as the day before
(1) cheap used copy of a new release which i'd read one favorable review of and felt like gambling on (and so far i've been enjoying it so much that i haven't even opened the first two)

i didn't buy:
(1) cheap used copy of an album that i've read many positive reviews of and in retrospect would probably enjoy a lot, but seemed like it might be pretty similar to things i already have.
(1) cheap used copy of an album that is regarded as one of the best in a genre which i've long been trying to get into and learn more about, without much success.

for all of this i spent almost exactly my weekly pay. (and now i'm earning it by trying to figure out how to make domenico lancelotti change colors from grayscale to sepiatone, so, pretty good.)

oh yeah - after the st. marks i went downtown to see the mcgarrigles supposed to be outside but despite swell weather it was moved to stuyvesant high school, which is a trip in itself. their set was waay loose but certainly fun. sometimes they were joined by martha w., who i could probably develop a thing for. also, emmylou harris. went in search of dinner with john's amusing friends, and ended up at bubby's, where somebody (de niro? someone like that) eats breakfast every day.

also, on monday i saw spellbound.

soon i'm going to see spoon (one of my best live bands in one of my best venues.)

(this morning, this is what i was thinking: i wish i were a better person.)

especially people who care about strangers
who care about evil and social injustice
do you only care about the bleeding crowd?
how about a needing friend?