for those of you keeping score at home (at home!), i didn't finish my paper before the do the right thing screening on monday night, when it was due (i made dinner instead, and mmm it was the right choice), or instead of going to theory tuesday morning, or before watching a run of a delicate balance and finishing teaching the choreo for "scuff and nonsense" that night, or even before a long-awaited buckbuck rehearsal on wednesday afternoon, but i did finish it (and scrambled for a so-so title) in time to leave town nearly on schedule with jonah at ~6:30, after working on it in spurts all those other times.

so i've been more relaxed at home than otherwise. even if being home always makes me sick and funky. i forgot my sheet music, which is a drag, and music lovers', which has gone way downhill since it moved, didn't have any of it in stock. on the other hand i finally got my glasses fixed. winkelsterns were here for txgiving dinner; the food was incredible as usual. saw school of rock, and went with jesse and josie to a contra, where i also danced with chuck's girlfriend before i met her and they all came over for trivial pursuit and leftover peanut noodles, and later talk about the imbroglio of being wanted. tonight we're going to the singing detective and maybe swing. dinner soon i think?

well if i remain passive
and you just want to cuddle
then we should be okay
and we won't get in a muddle

it's not the smartest, or most responsible, or something, thing to defer to your biological clock in these times of overobligatedness, but i also kind of felt like i've been depriving myself, shaving a few hours off each end, pretty consistently for two weeks or so, and from how tired i was yesterday afternoon maybe it was better just to give in to my body. there's an interesting conflict there, because i've got my head conditioned to be waking up early, so probably it's still doing that even when i could use more sleep. so maybe i'll decide not to care about my current crunch, wherein i have to write an 8-page paper (researched, a lot, but i still feel like i'm missing something), make dinner for my ed. class, and oh yeah do the ed. readings too before five today. the paper feels like the least important, which is mostly true - it won't matter if it's late, but i also have more work as soon as i done that.

not leaving for txgiving until thursday morning will actually be really helpful i think, though it's annoying that the libraries close wednesday afternoon. maybe i'll get to practice a lot, or at least clean my room. or, sleep, if i don't do that again until then?

when you wrap yourself in a highway strip
don't expect any warmth from it

so, um, i just won the turkey trot. my time was 20:26, which makes it unlikely that the course was 5K (also it felt short.) i think that's better than any of my times from high school, when i was actually training, and didn't win any 5Ks. and i wasn't even really pushing myself, except to kick it in at the end. well, there wasn't much competition - maybe fifteen runners? including jenny yim.

this wasn't the kind of turkey trot where you get a turkey for winning, it's the kind where you're supposed to give a turkey to enter. i tried to get a tofurkey, but martindale's was closed, and the co-op didn't even have real turkey, so i ended up donating money instead.

anyway, i had a great time running. impossibly beautiful weather for it too, (like early september, said dj this morning.) and it's been fun running to get ready for it too, testing out mixtapes and exploring the neighboring suburbanities. i should get more running socks. too bad it will get snowy soon.

nothing holds a roman candle to
the solemn warmth you feel inside of you

[5] okay, you guys really want to hear about why i was upset, now, almost three weeks ago? it feels silly to write about it now; it's pretty pedestrian, i don't care to try to remember the nuances. whatever. basically, it started with a girl, y'know. i thought it would be nice if we, and it seemed like she thought maybe, it was all very encouraging, but then suddenly it was the opposite, with no clear reason for the change. sorry i'm being all dumbly elliptical, but i'm not sure how much else i could say even if it seemed like a good idea to write about it here. nothing was ever explicit - in fact my abortive final gambit was specifically an attempt to circumvent the game. to be honest, i think she acted rather rudely.

anyway, that sucked a lot of course (i fluctuated between bummy and resigned for half a week), but mostly it was extremely confusing. and it (possibly in conjunction with other factors) delivered an upset that jolted me out of my general complacency of this fair-to-middling (i.e., not incredible, only mostly enjoyable - and until then all quiet on the r'ship front) semester, and brought back my latent uncertainty about, well, everything - future, self, interestingness, r'ships, the world. in that general way where it's hardest to pull yourself up because it's hard to know what to focus on. i'm taking the gothic art and arch seminar next semester; which is nice for some reasons. my mom thought i should talk about band history to work stuff through.

well, that's that. now i'm going to [a] much-talked-of "'annual' 'black tie' 'event'," with a new haircut and a penguin for a boutonniere. more tomorrow if we're lucky, but i've gotta [run/read/write/cook/clean/choreograph/rehearse/practice] gaah this is the stressfulness time and it's palpably getting worse. oh, you know i don't really get stressed.

you got beef?
i got vegetables

dan bern : jerusalem
yo la tengo : how to make a baby elephant float
dm + jemini : the only one
parsley sound : ease yourself and glide

out hud : dad, there’s a little phrase called too much information
recloose : chiqwanga
slam revolution + bmg 44 : begguma

the russian futurists : precious metals
chomsky : 00:15:00
super furry animals : foxy music
clearlake : can’t feel a thing

james yorkston and the athletes : i know my love
fog : under an anvil tree

The Natural History - Beat Beat. Heartbeat.

Damn, I love rock & roll. And I love New York. Let me tell you about my weekend. On Friday, I got on stage with a couple of friends and played and sang some Spoon covers. Have you heard Spoon? They’re fantastic! Totally rock, but in a really original, kind of sparse and literate way. Well, the concert was a blast. I wore my rockstar shoes. We threw in a little "Kashmir" quote on "Fitted Shirt." Then, on Sunday, I went to New York City. I was there for several hours, to see the new Tony Kushner. The play was phenomenal, but what really made it worth the trip was just the few minutes walking around in the village, grabbing a falafel at Mamoun’s, even getting lost trying to find the Holland Tunnel (serves us right for trying to drive in Manhattan.) Anyway, great weekend.

I’ve been listening to Room on Fire like, nonstop. It didn’t grab me at first quite as much as the debut, and I’m still not sure it’s as good, certainly it retreads a lot of the same ground, but for now at least I can’t get enough. The way those cheeky little guitar parts intersect with the cheeky bass parts and vocal parts; the preposterous recording quality on the drums and vox. How do they manage to sound so alive and so apathetic at the same time? It’s so ridiculously New York. You know, from living in the city this summer, I didn’t get the sense that the hoohahed ‘rock’ scene is really a thing, which is too bad in a way, but in any case we’ve gotten some great records out of it here in the hinterlands. There’s this band Dopo Yume – maybe you saw them in Olde Club last year? – who have been kind of inexplicably overlooked so far; they sound a lot like the Strokes, but decidedly dancier, and with rather more <3, and their songs are just as catchy and maybe more consistently interesting. They’ll probably blow up sometime soon.

In the meantime, maybe you’d like to hear something about the Natural History? I’ve listened to this record maybe a dozen times this week, and I can tell you it’s pretty solid stuff. Guitar, bass, drums; frills not so much. Sounds like lots of bands, both new (like the ones I mentioned before) and old (like the ones the ones I mentioned before are supposed to sound like.) A lot of it sounds like itself, to be honest – sometimes a song will start and I’ll think it’s the one I just heard – but not in a bad way. It’s like New York, I guess; geez, can you stand those people that think New York is so great? That’s all they want to talk about, the subways and the streets, they think it’s so cool but who really cares?

Where was I? Oh – Beat Beat Heartbeat sounds real catchy while I’m listening to it, but I have to admit not much sticks with me when the record ends. So, buttons? Here’s what: just go to Olde Club on Friday, and check out the Natural History making their triumphant return to campus. You’ll dance and pump your fist and have a great time (remember, standing still isn’t cool anymore.) Who knows, maybe you’ll dig it so much you’ll buy the album, and if so you’ll probably have a blast reliving the show in your room for years to come. And as you leave the show, you’ll most likely be thinking "damn! I love New York, and I love rock and roll!"


Yo La Tengo - Today is the Day EP

I won’t take the time here to argue that YLT are our greatest working band, but man is it arguable. Suffice it to say that no lover of music should be without their two lengthily-titled masterpieces, and their other ten or so albums are fine, fine as well. Their latest full-length, this year’s "Summer Sun," was a suitably shimmering, sweetly downcast soundtrack to much of my Spring, a quiet gem even if several critics interpreted its simpler, mellower approach as evidence of career fatigue and impending mediocrity. As if to dispel any concern that they might be getting soft in their old age (please, they aren’t even twenty years old yet!), here comes the anti-"Sun", bursting out the gate with three noise-drenched slices of bashin’ pop – possibly the toothiest three-song stretch on a YLT release since "Painful." "Styles of the Times" bops as it burns while "Outsmartener" brings a bit of that trendy Eastern flavor. Having proved they’re still rocking with the best (and no doubt, these guys know how to drown the beautifullest melody you’ve heard with enough noise to make you keep on squinting,) the stalwart Hobokenites offer up a cover ("The Needle of Death" – Bert Jansch, anyone? well, it’s an interesting little tune, and Georgia sings) and an instrumental (charming and "Sun"ny) – both obligatory for any Yo La record. But for all this mean meat, what really makes this ep worth hearing are the tracks that lean most suspiciously towards filler: the bookending alternate versions of album cuts. The titular opener, which was among the more hummable moments of "Summer Sun," is recast here in the "Sugarcube" mold; trenchantly rockist, with thick passionate guitars and driving drums that can’t quite disturb Ira’s understated vocal, making for a beguiling mix of agitation and calm. Conversely, the disc closes with a reworking of "Cherry Chapstick" – best known as the solitary slab of straight-up rock that served as the beautiful dot of yang to point up the yin of the otherwise hushed (and brilliant) "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out." Here it’s slowed to a crawl and stripped down to an acoustic ballad, and it’s as gorgeous as ever. Taken together, these tunes demonstrate something of the consummate craftsmanship behind Yo La Tengo songs – even so dramatically recontextualized, their pure power as songs is undiminished. And if you needed convincing, let this EP demonstrate that Tengo’s talent hain’t gone anywhere either.

hello. it's been a while; i'm sorry. i know i won't be able to write about all that's happened in the last two weeks - i figure i'll let my readership, if i have one, let me know what they want to hear. vote by number!

1. i've been waking up at or around 7:30 every day this week, for various reasons, most of them good.
2. my parents were here last weekend, rocking the suburbs; i got full off samples whole foods, and again later on pie and conversation.
3. on monday four of us decided we'd do a set at rose tattoo - on friday we knocked out four spoon covers, and i haven't had so much fun in ages.
4. these guys came to the show, and i went to theirs.
5. well, the week before last, i was kind of depressed. and i did a lot of too much thinking.
6. i could of course write about music. for instance, about this one chord in the chorus of "cherry cherry." [phx reviews of merrit, russfuts, cex, chembros, b.o.b.r., atmosphere, nnb are still unblogged - do you care?]
7. i was in cities all weekend - saturday we toured penn because the giants had taken over psfs; later, an old favorite dependable meal with an old favorite dependable friend.
8. sunday was taken up by an advanture to new york with many pals to see josie and caroline, which resonated with current themes of laundry and pocket change. a lot of singing and driving and people with "p" names.
9. the social affairs committee ought to be called the social affairs discouragement committee (SAD?) don't pick this one, it's a snarky, somewhat tired, if overjustified diatribe. as we already know, SAC=SUC. (tho, a rare chance to see me get political, and maybe controversial.)

well, i'll write on something as long as someone responds by tomorrow. meanwhile i'll sleep so i can get up and (to remember):

class
retrieve drycleaned sweaters
print and hand in my needlessly delinquent ed.paper
e-mail about tap scheduling
edit tap music
get copies of music to tappies
talk to nick about micing the stage
rsvp for josh and carla's wedding weekend
figure out thanksgiving transport
(try to) bully sac
go to sac meeting after they don't respond
swing by the rok directors office hours
email complaints to phx editors
send last week's reviews to publicists
tearsheets to astralwerks, biz3
write more reviews (of what?) tnh, ylt
listen to c,oc streamed here?
mixtapery
go running
practice
figure out what to do with my new band
put in some storm windows?
tidy up the living room a bit more
clean the kitchen wall
find missing speakers and set them up
take apart my cd player and try to fix it (ha!) or get a new cd/dvd changer combo, for $30 on ebay
get a head start on the weeks' readings (arch, ed, anc)
finish oil stick dress painting
see ester!!
watch the rest of secretary with nicole
african
blog
catch up on e-mail
talk to my parents
not stay up forever…

fall in love to down on the street

there is a number of small things: (post?) synth-pop in little doses

Pieces of April soundtrack by Stephin Merrit
Let's Get Ready to Crumble by The Russian Futurists
Maryland Mansions by Cex



Stephin Merritt hasn’t been seen much around these parts lately. Most folks who were freshmen when he last graced Olde Club with the Magnetic Fields graduated in June; their magnum opus 69 Love Songs, whose booklet features a photo of the band comatose in Parrish Parlors, is now four years old. Apart from an appealing record with the 80’s-inspired Future Bible Heroes project, the man I once described as the patron saint of Swarthmore indie rock has been mostly silent since then, his prominence in WSRN playlists dwindling gradually. But that’s about to change. A new MagFields album is due next Spring, and if we can take the short but tuneful Pieces of April soundtrack [27 minutes, 10 tracks] as an indication, it will have been worth the wait.

Presumably intended as both a stopgap for diehards and a lure for the Merritt-blind audiences of the sweet but mediocre film (see Ester’s review in last week’s Phoenix), I find it best to think of the disc as a generous single for its lead-off track. "All I Want To Know" easily ranks among Merritt’s best work, with its characteristically infectious, instantly hummable melody and wistfully wry self-deluding lyrics in the tradition of "I’m Lonely (and I Love It)." Most importantly, it just sounds beautiful; it’s instrumentally richer than anything he’s done before, with chiming, subtly, insistent celli, shimmering zither(?) interjections, and group harmonies underscoring a full, poignant lead vocal. This is the clear highlight, but the four other new songs are worthy, vintage Merritt as well, and share the newfound sonic fullness of the opener. The remainder of the album eschews the short, wordless score fragments of Merritt’s Eban and Charlie soundtrack for a handful of old tunes – three of the absolute best 69LS cuts and a pair from the lackluster Sixths record Hyacinths and Thistles – which make it a more cohesive "album" but less rewarding for the established fan. So, is it worth it for five new songs? Maybe wait and see how many of them end on the album.


In the mean time, Merritt followers would do well to check out the like-minded Russian Futurists, whose sophomore effort, Let’s Get Ready to Crumble [28 minutes, 10 tracks] sounds uncannily like early Magnetic Fields. These synth-drenched compositions, (made and recorded at home by one guy, Torontonian Matthew Adam Hart) combine an appealingly off-kilter melodic sensibility with playful, convoluted lyrical style in a way that increases the effectiveness of both. I could quote you some lines (like "I do pop/‘cause that’s what my heart goes/I don’t call it art, no sir/that denotes/that when I wrote it/I had other motives," from the showstopping title track), but they aren’t nearly as effective divorced from their disjunct, improbably infectious melody, not to mention the densely layered, weirdly funky lo-fi drum-machine & synth accompaniment. "Precious Metals" is impossibly cute dance-pop; "It’s Actually Going to Happen" mixes some harmonica in with the synths and sweetly anticipates a love that will work. Not every song is as effortlessly buoyant as these highlights, but in all it’s a remarkably solid and lovable little record.


But little. That’s okay – the album is so full of detail that it doesn’t up feeling short. On the other hand, pushing this under-thirty-minute "full-length" business a bit too far, we have IDM/hiphop/emo enfant terrible Cex, following up April’s ambitious (and mostly successful) double-set Being Ridden by trying to flog Maryland Mansions [25 minutes, 8 tracks] (oh, i just got that!) as a full-length LP. Cex, still only a year older than me, works ridiculously fast – I heard him rock most of these joints live in March, when he was apparently already tired of the Being Ridden material – so I can only assume he’s moved past the relatively non-illuminating phase documented here. It’s not that there’s a dearth of ideas; in fact the record strikes a nice balance between the cohesion of early "single-genre" efforts and the stylistic range of his last album. Cex continues to improve as a producer, offering up some truly compelling textural sculptures, which are noticeably darker than past work, but this time at least he doesn’t bring the songwriting skills to complete the picture. Lyrical tendencies toward nihilism and self-deprecation, split between confessional soul-searching mode and over-the-top parody (the chorus of the rappish, catchy "Stop Eating" proclaims: "food is disgusting/it’s what they make shit from") are fitting, given the industrial, almost gothic tone of the disc, but they don’t make for very compelling listening. Cex pours so much passion into everything he does that his records are always at least interesting, but (if this is really supposed to be a full-length) I’d just as soon have waited a few more months for something more fully developed. But then, I’m sure it won’t be long until his next.

Singles 93-03 by The Chemical Brothers
(Astralwerks, 2003)

Though in recent years they have occupied a sort of limbo – no longer the household names they were in their late-90s commercial heyday, and generally considered unhip simplistic has-beens by underground music fans despite their continued development as artists – the Chemical Brothers are undeniably among the most significant artists in electronic music. The big beat sound they essentially originated, spawning such imitators as the Crystal Method, the Propellerheads, and Fatboy Slim (who named his debut Better Living Through Chemistry in winking acknowledgement of his debt) was the first genre to really spark an interest in electronica among American audiences. So there’s no question the Chems are deserving of a career retrospective, and
although many consider them primarily album artists, at least in comparison to the song-oriented nature of most electronic dance music (consider the clever transitions that unify their arguable peak, 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole), the fact that so much of their success has come through blockbusting, anthemic singles makes the singles-comp format appropriate.

Oddly, Singles 93-03 is not a complete collection of the Brothers’ singles from this period: at least one of the single releases from each of their four albums is absent (including genuine second-tier hits like as "Elektrobank" and "It Began in Afrika"), as are non-album singles such as the aptly-titled "Loops of Fury." (Also, one of the two new songs hasn’t been released as a single – but I’ll get to that later.) Despite the omission of their excellent collaborations with Beth Orton, and the absence of their more abstract, experimental album cuts, the compilation’s chronological sequence allows it to serve well as a Chemicals history lesson. Three well-chosen tracks from Exit Planet Dust are plenty sufficient to represent that groundbreaking but in retrospect somewhat repetitive debut, presenting the big beat formula (guitars, sirens, and massive, massive bombastic breaks) at its purest. What’s truly remarkable is how this stuff can be so funky and so dumbly straight at the same time. The (too few!) inclusions from Dig Your Own Hole find the Brothers perfecting this formula - their signature hit "Block Rockin’ Beats," though sadly divorced from its wall-of-noise intro, still features one of the most indelible basslines of all time – and moving beyond it to fully embrace their psychedelic proclivities - the heady, swirling, "Private Psychedelic Reel" is the Chems at their most majestic, even if at nine unedited minutes it made a better album closer than a compilation midpoint. Finally, one of the Chembros’ trademark innovations - the use of rock vocalists - makes its first appearance on this disc with a Hole track: Oasis’ Noel Gallagher’s belting on the towering, propulsive "Setting Sun."

As the hyberbolically laudatory liner notes suggest, that song is effectively an updating of the Beatles’ "Tomorrow Never Knows" a tune that greatly informs the Chemicals’ aesthetic. "Let Forever Be," from Surrender (whose title is also a reference to the Beatles song), with Gallagher reprising his role as a makeshift Lennon, takes the same concept even further, with magnificent, pop-perfect results. The other selections from that record are more questionable – I’ve never been a big fan of the electro-epic "Out of Control," and while the campy, mercurial house of "Hey Boy Hey Girl" is fun enough, I would have gladly sacrificed both for the blippy, addictive lead single "Music: Response" or more importantly the shimmering, transcendental "Sunshine Underground," which many fans consider their finest effort.

Last year’s Come With Us only gets two selections here – the heavenly filtered-trance of "Star Guitar," and the rather embarrassing "The Test" – overlooking the slamming first three cuts and the quirkier tracks, like "My Elastic Eye," which form the real meat of the album.

As for the now-obligatory two new songs, both are promising collaborations (with Canadian rapper K-OS and the globetrotting Flaming Lips, respectively), and but neither really goes anywhere – "Get Yourself High" can’t compare with earlier hip-hop guest tracks like the banging b-side "Not Another Drugstore" with Justin Warfield; while "The Golden Path" cuts itself off just as Wayne Coyne’s high lonely mantra starts to build towards that trademark Chemicals delirious trancelike repetition. They may be enough to make this disc worth picking up for hardcore fans, but they take up disc space that could have been much better utilized in the interest of providing a complete and balanced overview of the Chemical Brothers’ best work.


Still Looking Good to Me by The Band of Blacky Ranchette
(Thrill Jockey, 2003)

Still Looking Good to Me is a curious artifact. Just take the name of the artist, for starters. What does that mean? What is Blacky Ranchette? If Howe Gelb is something of an indie-country Stephin Merrit, a prolific and pedigreed songwriter juggling an impressive number of projects and aliases, this "Band" is his version of The 6ths, an opportunity for some of the nicest names in underground country and strummy rock to join him on some (highly) original tunes. Present and accounted for are pals M. Ward, Neko Case and Richard Buckner (who turn in a gawgeous duet on "Getting it Made"), Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Kurt Wagner of Lambchop, members of Calexico, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall, Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, etc., and most excitingly Jojo Richman’s drummer, Tommy Larkins. But don’t expect any straight-up all-star by-the-numbers rootsy melancholica. I told you, this is curious stuff. The tunes are swell and swinging, and everybody’s singing like a charm, but you never know when the writer’s gonna veer off and get lost along the way, or just take a breather for some dusty noodling, or a Danish bandoneon solo, or a chat with a Tennessee state trooper. Blacky Ranchette just likes to keep things loose. Lytle joins Gelb for a rendition of "Working on the Railroad," like you remember it but with a few shifted rhythmic emphases, and strumming on an old dobro? Case (best known for her work with the New Pornographers) offers her sirenic voice as one of the strongest sonic elements on the album, along with the occasional thick’n’sweet pedal steel, just keeping those fragmented C&W signifiers coming - lyrics about trains and rusty axes, aborted one-two boogies, $30 boots. I love me some of that sad, pretty, twangy stuff, but by comparison with this it all starts to seem kind of similar and well, unimaginative. This here is y’allt country with a short attention span. Not in a jarring way, but enough to keep you guessing. Chan sings: "My hoo ha/she knows where/to put that certain chill in the air." Curiouser and curiouser.

how could anyone not have had a good today? and look it's going to be warm and sunny tomorrow too! will have to be mostly inside rather than on the beach throwing leaves like today, but i don't mind. schönberg got a lot of love today (more than the strokes.) here's funny.

something tells me something's giving way
to a time where you and i live in an
endless autumn and we're glowing
like jack-o-lanterns just from knowing:
it's actually going to happen

there's another weekend gone. and it's november. (though feeling damn like summer, at least during the day, and inside.) well, it was another good one, and long - saturday felt damn like sunday (i was almost tempted to wear the pants but fortunately i have a new pair of lightweight plaid comfy "lounging pants.")

two big harvesty dinner parties, both including squash, apples, soup, salad, cider, in different combinations, and a pumpkin dessert - yesterday i made everything except lillie made the salad; tonight liza and cynthia cooked but i made the salad (waldorf!) i think theirs easily bested mine, especially the bread pudding (well worth the forty blocks i walked for it), but both were excellent for the company.

two movies too (none of them our innaugural netflix pix), which i don't feel like making parallel at the moment. invasion of the body snatchers is justifiably a classic (especially in comparison to the tripe it came from outerspace i saw last week); pieces of april doesn't come close, although it did give ester and me a lot to discuss (even if we were more interested in talking about one of the previewed movies in the trailers.) but then, i guess being ripe for analysis doesn't make it worthwhile. (and the new merrittunes were unimpressive.)

no thanks to public safety, we had an excellent tap rehearsal in the hallway this morning. i'm slowly beginning to figure out something about how to run rehearsals, maybe. anyway, though we're moving a little more slowly than i plan for, it feels like we accomplish a lot every time. today i was suddenly inspired to have us do some (rather highly) structured improvisation, and we ended up working toward that for most of the time. i'm looking forward to it more and more (except for this sad news, which i haven't thought about yet.)

yep, an almost complete weekend (i even got to do my art, though not music sadly.) so why am i feeling slightly unsatisfied and like an idiot right now? there's a reason (no, it's not work), but, whatever, i'm sure it will work itself out soon enough. it really doesn't feel as late as it is. oh, now it does.

since then it's been a book you read in reverse
so you understand less as the pages turn

whoo! that was one of the best halloweens. good parties, good costumes. it's worth chronological.

started early like a friday (the end of daylight savings makes getting up to take a train at 7 more bearable) at shhs where they are not allowed to wear costumes. isn't that ridiculous? i saw a bunch of kids with striped socks, and stephanie had a witch dress, but very few actual costumes. the kids were much more enthusiastic and involved than they have been, probably buzzing holiday energy. in my 'real' class, our learning from las vegas discussion was predictably mediocre (i did about a third of the talking,) but whatever, it's the freakin' weekend.

i did some domesticity, then met rebecca in the shop to start getting serious about costumery. i borrowed several things, of which i ended up using a green unitard (i'm not entirely sure that it wasn't one of the ones made infamous by kim a.), some yellow biker shorts, long shiny green gloves and some excellent shiny olive green fabric for a cape. went out into the world with herr von bisno for further ingredients, and although i didn't find anything, it was fun to poke around in the mall finding wifebeaters and earrings for adam to be eminem, and a sheet for angela to be a ghost. meanwhile, rebecca was failing to find any candy corn at genuardi's. but we figured we'd have our party anyway.

and so, the flat got cleaner than it's been since we've lived here (!) my room straightened and swept and posters and lights hung; the living room finally in a nice arrangement, complete with working albeit kinda tinny speakers, integration of the porch, and oramel ("she's not a peacock, she's more of an emblem.") at the other end, we removed the recycling, hung more lights, mulled cider, and bowled snax. and had dinner. and amazing, we were even ready well before start time. an almost entirely nostress endeavor, and it continued that way too.

what a turnout!! we had hef flanked by bunnies, two sexy greek philosophers, herself in high school, corduroy chaplin, the french blob, a flapper, a semi-scandalous tie rack, a bonafide swat cheerleader and entourage, a chicago murderess, a truly terrifying s&m duo, consciousness-raising girl! with alice cooper, em as mentioned, a wood nymph and her surprise cousin, a princess, a whole host of harry potter characters, best of which was the heir of slytherin (i thought there were two hermiones, but i guess one was actually part of the buffy bunch), a trio of beatle girls (rita, pam, lucy w/ one real diamond), d. versace, some russian grammar weirdness, a bunch of in-jokes and bad puns, and even more things that i can't remember or didn't comprehend at the time. rebecca and i spent much of the party assembling our own outfits (our hosting obligations were mostly to help other folks find costume pieces among our stuff, and mix the occasional drink.) she was characteristically amazing as clockwork alex, a very inventive and detailed costume. as for me, i started with the unitard, shorts, gloves and cape as mentioned, added sparkly eyelashes and blue corkscrewed pipecleaner antennae to the big green fauxkleys i got on 14th street (a la sager last year - in fact they were the selfsame pipecleaners), gelled my hair with a pair of molded, upsticking pigtail bumps, spiritgummed an olive beetle insignia to my chest (designed by one of the bunnies who doubles as a "budding entymologist"), and finally painted my face and neck with some swirlies and dividing lines. i was a bug superhero, and impressively i was never really called on to explain it beyond that; to delineate my superpowers or anything. in fact, most people got "bug superhero" without being told. basically, the costumes at our party were almost uniformly excellent.

the 'official' halloween party was no slouch either. we headed over with the remaining guests around 11:30, through the lovely evening into the broiling basement. i couldn't see very much through my sunglasses (so i danced a lot with them just above or below the bridge of my nose), which kind of made it a more holistic sensory experience. for some reason i really enjoyed the music. i got to dance with an old friend for "c'mon eileen." at some point i collapsed next to zoe, with my stomach a little upset (too much whiskey'n'lemonade?), and stopped enjoying the party as actively, but it was still nice. walked home legal, and fell asleep with playthroughs, blue lights, and my big clean room.

if you want me for your girl
all you have to do is see
that you're not the boy for me