Tuesday, February 26
and some days it's a good day to blog
or nights, as the case may be, since daytime blogging is against the new rules. even though, as nava points out, staying up late at night to blog may not be the best way to ensure daytime productivity either. well it was her idea in the first place, i'm just self-enforcing it.
you know, when i put up that 'hibernatin'' picture-post i wasn't actually intending it as the announcement of a blog hiatus, truly i wasn't. i'd just wanted to share an outtake from the macbook photo shoot i'd just done for the cover of a mixtape which i still haven't made, actually (but it's, if slowly, definitely still forthcoming - ben has even signed on as official collaborator/commentator/chaperone...now i've just got to get him the tracks as they stand, once i figure out what they are. but i did make another mix, wow ten days ago now, and here's some more from that photo shoot:
)
anyhow, i only realized after the fact how convenient and perfect that post was as the starting point for a blog-break, plus it turned out to be pretty easy to not blog for an(other) extended period. anyway, you guys haven't exactly been clamoring for my return. whatever.
these days, i've gotta say, are finally, possibly, probably my most fulfilling and filled-fullest days since my college days (when, o course, i blogged incessantly), that and there's so much internet writing i do as it is: it's my job now (!?), plus i've done a decent job of maintaining mincetapes. filled-fullest may not be exactly right; it's not exactly like i'm running all over the place doing a million things. indeed, most days i'm in my house for nearly the entire day if not all of it (i generally make a point to get outside and do something at least once a day, but it's usually only once, at least during the week.)
my life is extremely messy, as i told nava recently: my professional life is all messed up with my personal creative/artistic project life which is mixed up with my entertainment/gratification cultural consumption life, which all in turn blur into my social life and my domestic/quotidian homelife and my romantic life. there are rarely clear delineations of space, time and mental energy separating these various facets of my current existence, which i could see being somewhat dangerous and deleterious, but for now, at least, is proving to work out quite well. it doesn't necessarily feel sustainable, but it doesn't feel static either; it feels progressive and exciting and, well, alive. and fun.
today was a typical weekday of these days, so let me just tell you about that. having stayed up late watching the oscars, talking to my men in austin stango and gravity with some consternation over this sxsw wristband hoo-hah, putting yet another round of finalizing tweaks on my review of the lovely album tiger, my friend by psapp, and making minimal progress through the final chapter of david mitchell's awesome number9dream, i woke up towards the later end of acceptable: 10:40, though when i looked at my phone for some reason i first thought it was 01:40. hard to wake up too late since i never draw the blinds and the morning sun is keen here in my eastfacing thirdfloor bedrum, not to mention there's my daily alerting alarm that goes off at 7:48 every morning, after which my phone gives me the option to snooze or dismiss. it's awesome.
i worked cheerfully and efficiently at my writing-desk most of the day, posting the psapp piece and writing both a bio and an album review for the australian post-jazz group triosk, along the way developing/rediscovering/honing an active-listening review process (taking notes on individual songs as i listen once through the album, or enough of it to amass sufficient relevant material; a pretty obvious concept of course, but oddly not what i necessarily tend to do.) (all the while also constantly importing cds onto my computer via itunes and thence to drobo - it's a mammoth process i've commenced; hard to say but i may be a quarter done or even a little more. 49 days, 8 hours of music, so far.
i can only really judge my efficiency by feel and mood, since i can almost never generate as much written output as i'd think would be reasonable. but i'm learning to be okay with that. and trying to decide what to make of the recently-acquired information that i am, apparently, already one of the highest-paid freelancers at the esteemed web publication for which i write [because of 1) "the high quality of my writing" (thanks -ed!) and 2) the weak dollar (?)], and therefore i probably won't be able to get a raise anytime soon, if ever.
took a brunch break - pequa valley black cherry yogurt plus my homemade (gently burnt) granola for an appeteaser, then some home fries, kale+tomato+onion, and scrambled egg whites (plus one yolk - works much better that way) left over from when i made ice cream last week (fresh mint plus chocolate chunks - something unconventional about its mintiness, but not bad.) otherwise was pretty diligent, gchatting only briefly with martha (who'd just arrived in cairo), rebecca (in israel) and liza. still, i didn't find the time to write the handful of e-mails i'd listed as tasks for myself, save for one quickie about possibly djing for LaB tomorrow (unlikely), before showering (necessary), grabbing a muffin (carrot-apple-ginger-etc.; vegan - i made em for a potluck last week) and quickly dashing off (slightly frantically, though i wasn't actually late) to bike to my first book arts class at fleisher.
as of now, i have somewhere between two and five classes to attend each week, depending - two art classes (the aforementioned and letterpress printing at uarts), lindyblues (aka LaB aka swing, though i rarely go to the class part anymore, i just show up for the two hours of dancing, but it has, i'm somewhat sorry to say, eclipsed my loyal tuesday night loft yoga class as an underswerving weekly constant), and yoga as i see fit (ideally, loft tuesdays and saturdays - though last week i went thursday for the first time, it was all about scooping the contents of the ilia; there's also wake up west, which is sort of a nice contrast to strict iyengar, plus it's seductively much closer.) it's quite helpful - possibly crucial - to have structured evenings balancing my unstructured/self-structured daytimes. especially if i've gotten enough work done to feel satisfied, jumping on my bike and heading off (often just as my housemates arrive home) to wherever it is feels nearly as triumphantly liberating as going home from a 9-5. i guess.
anyway, first meeting of book arts was a lot of fun. we made paste papers, i.e. decorative papers with wheatpaste, to be used as covers or maybe watermarks later on in the course - our instructor described it as "basically like fingerpainting - hopefully a little more sophisticated." lots of fun toys to play around with making designs. i managed to rescue my papers from total ugliness most of the time, and theoretically cutting them down for actual binding use will complete the transition to actual beauty. something. anyway, i'm psyched for the class, seems like it'll be action-packed, somewhat unlike (strangely) my letterprinting class - i'm liking the vibe of the students more, in any event. we got out early so i looked at some of the nifty stuffin the memorial gallery, then i walked on phone as i talked home for a bit before biking back up the hills (coming home uphill means that you can at least get there fast on the way down, which is a preferable situation if you ask me.)
there was sort of a flurry of good news throughout the evening which has made me especially buoyant: first, i heard back from bubblehouse (a boba/asian-fusion joint-cum-bar/nightspot in ucity, where i'd eaten lunch and dropped off a demo disc the other day) saying that they want me to dj there. then the biggest breaking story, which is kind of too complex to fully explain, but the upshot being that matthew and i (thanks to matthew) and bobby and nava (thanks to bobby) came out on top in the random drawing and so now we all have wristbands for sxsw, which is just a really nice relief, not to have to worry any more about whether/where we'll be able to get them. now we've got a fantastic foursome, and we are set to tear austin up. finally i just got the glimmer that it might just be possible to change my plane ticket slightly to accomodate more stuff in my life better.
we'll see tomorrow maybe. and i'll write those e-mails and make those phone calls, and go to some yoga class or other, and maybe the next day i'll see there will be blood, since my dad (primarily) has finally convinced me that i should. and then i'll go to the airport to visit my brother and rebecca. and meanwhile i'll submit the review of adrian klumpes (triosk's pianist) that i've been sporadically drafting all day (i wrote and submitted a bio for him this evening), and the rest of the leaf discs i've been sitting on for a little minute, as well as the new jim white (out next week! guess i'll be in the new releases section for the first time.)
but for now (4:15 am. hmph. but that's bloggin' forya.) i'll sleep. yip!
you know, when i put up that 'hibernatin'' picture-post i wasn't actually intending it as the announcement of a blog hiatus, truly i wasn't. i'd just wanted to share an outtake from the macbook photo shoot i'd just done for the cover of a mixtape which i still haven't made, actually (but it's, if slowly, definitely still forthcoming - ben has even signed on as official collaborator/commentator/chaperone...now i've just got to get him the tracks as they stand, once i figure out what they are. but i did make another mix, wow ten days ago now, and here's some more from that photo shoot:
anyhow, i only realized after the fact how convenient and perfect that post was as the starting point for a blog-break, plus it turned out to be pretty easy to not blog for an(other) extended period. anyway, you guys haven't exactly been clamoring for my return. whatever.
these days, i've gotta say, are finally, possibly, probably my most fulfilling and filled-fullest days since my college days (when, o course, i blogged incessantly), that and there's so much internet writing i do as it is: it's my job now (!?), plus i've done a decent job of maintaining mincetapes. filled-fullest may not be exactly right; it's not exactly like i'm running all over the place doing a million things. indeed, most days i'm in my house for nearly the entire day if not all of it (i generally make a point to get outside and do something at least once a day, but it's usually only once, at least during the week.)
my life is extremely messy, as i told nava recently: my professional life is all messed up with my personal creative/artistic project life which is mixed up with my entertainment/gratification cultural consumption life, which all in turn blur into my social life and my domestic/quotidian homelife and my romantic life. there are rarely clear delineations of space, time and mental energy separating these various facets of my current existence, which i could see being somewhat dangerous and deleterious, but for now, at least, is proving to work out quite well. it doesn't necessarily feel sustainable, but it doesn't feel static either; it feels progressive and exciting and, well, alive. and fun.
today was a typical weekday of these days, so let me just tell you about that. having stayed up late watching the oscars, talking to my men in austin stango and gravity with some consternation over this sxsw wristband hoo-hah, putting yet another round of finalizing tweaks on my review of the lovely album tiger, my friend by psapp, and making minimal progress through the final chapter of david mitchell's awesome number9dream, i woke up towards the later end of acceptable: 10:40, though when i looked at my phone for some reason i first thought it was 01:40. hard to wake up too late since i never draw the blinds and the morning sun is keen here in my eastfacing thirdfloor bedrum, not to mention there's my daily alerting alarm that goes off at 7:48 every morning, after which my phone gives me the option to snooze or dismiss. it's awesome.
i worked cheerfully and efficiently at my writing-desk most of the day, posting the psapp piece and writing both a bio and an album review for the australian post-jazz group triosk, along the way developing/rediscovering/honing an active-listening review process (taking notes on individual songs as i listen once through the album, or enough of it to amass sufficient relevant material; a pretty obvious concept of course, but oddly not what i necessarily tend to do.) (all the while also constantly importing cds onto my computer via itunes and thence to drobo - it's a mammoth process i've commenced; hard to say but i may be a quarter done or even a little more. 49 days, 8 hours of music, so far.
i can only really judge my efficiency by feel and mood, since i can almost never generate as much written output as i'd think would be reasonable. but i'm learning to be okay with that. and trying to decide what to make of the recently-acquired information that i am, apparently, already one of the highest-paid freelancers at the esteemed web publication for which i write [because of 1) "the high quality of my writing" (thanks -ed!) and 2) the weak dollar (?)], and therefore i probably won't be able to get a raise anytime soon, if ever.
took a brunch break - pequa valley black cherry yogurt plus my homemade (gently burnt) granola for an appeteaser, then some home fries, kale+tomato+onion, and scrambled egg whites (plus one yolk - works much better that way) left over from when i made ice cream last week (fresh mint plus chocolate chunks - something unconventional about its mintiness, but not bad.) otherwise was pretty diligent, gchatting only briefly with martha (who'd just arrived in cairo), rebecca (in israel) and liza. still, i didn't find the time to write the handful of e-mails i'd listed as tasks for myself, save for one quickie about possibly djing for LaB tomorrow (unlikely), before showering (necessary), grabbing a muffin (carrot-apple-ginger-etc.; vegan - i made em for a potluck last week) and quickly dashing off (slightly frantically, though i wasn't actually late) to bike to my first book arts class at fleisher.
as of now, i have somewhere between two and five classes to attend each week, depending - two art classes (the aforementioned and letterpress printing at uarts), lindyblues (aka LaB aka swing, though i rarely go to the class part anymore, i just show up for the two hours of dancing, but it has, i'm somewhat sorry to say, eclipsed my loyal tuesday night loft yoga class as an underswerving weekly constant), and yoga as i see fit (ideally, loft tuesdays and saturdays - though last week i went thursday for the first time, it was all about scooping the contents of the ilia; there's also wake up west, which is sort of a nice contrast to strict iyengar, plus it's seductively much closer.) it's quite helpful - possibly crucial - to have structured evenings balancing my unstructured/self-structured daytimes. especially if i've gotten enough work done to feel satisfied, jumping on my bike and heading off (often just as my housemates arrive home) to wherever it is feels nearly as triumphantly liberating as going home from a 9-5. i guess.
anyway, first meeting of book arts was a lot of fun. we made paste papers, i.e. decorative papers with wheatpaste, to be used as covers or maybe watermarks later on in the course - our instructor described it as "basically like fingerpainting - hopefully a little more sophisticated." lots of fun toys to play around with making designs. i managed to rescue my papers from total ugliness most of the time, and theoretically cutting them down for actual binding use will complete the transition to actual beauty. something. anyway, i'm psyched for the class, seems like it'll be action-packed, somewhat unlike (strangely) my letterprinting class - i'm liking the vibe of the students more, in any event. we got out early so i looked at some of the nifty stuffin the memorial gallery, then i walked on phone as i talked home for a bit before biking back up the hills (coming home uphill means that you can at least get there fast on the way down, which is a preferable situation if you ask me.)
there was sort of a flurry of good news throughout the evening which has made me especially buoyant: first, i heard back from bubblehouse (a boba/asian-fusion joint-cum-bar/nightspot in ucity, where i'd eaten lunch and dropped off a demo disc the other day) saying that they want me to dj there. then the biggest breaking story, which is kind of too complex to fully explain, but the upshot being that matthew and i (thanks to matthew) and bobby and nava (thanks to bobby) came out on top in the random drawing and so now we all have wristbands for sxsw, which is just a really nice relief, not to have to worry any more about whether/where we'll be able to get them. now we've got a fantastic foursome, and we are set to tear austin up. finally i just got the glimmer that it might just be possible to change my plane ticket slightly to accomodate more stuff in my life better.
we'll see tomorrow maybe. and i'll write those e-mails and make those phone calls, and go to some yoga class or other, and maybe the next day i'll see there will be blood, since my dad (primarily) has finally convinced me that i should. and then i'll go to the airport to visit my brother and rebecca. and meanwhile i'll submit the review of adrian klumpes (triosk's pianist) that i've been sporadically drafting all day (i wrote and submitted a bio for him this evening), and the rest of the leaf discs i've been sitting on for a little minute, as well as the new jim white (out next week! guess i'll be in the new releases section for the first time.)
but for now (4:15 am. hmph. but that's bloggin' forya.) i'll sleep. yip!
Labels: alerting alarm, good news, messy life, wheatpaste, wristbands
