We have an interviewee coming in 10 minutes and there has been talk of the margarita making kicking off then.  That would be fantastic for me, because I cannot make myself work.  I have been unable to work for more than about 5 minutes at a time today.  Any longer becomes dangerous.  I know I need to set up a filing system for my boss before he returns on Monday, and there’s a part of me that thinks I should set up a system for finding our marketing collateral.  These are all things on my to-do list.  My often ignored, frequently added to, rarely deleted to-do list.  At least today.  Because my brain is already on a beach in California, my friend.  I will be there next Thursday through Tuesday staying with the in-laws in Glendale, and doing I have no idea what, (I know we’re going to an English tea.  Tim’s mother has mentioned that 15 or 16 times.  We’re also going to the Hearst Mansion.  And I’m going to drive a big ‘ole Taurus.  And I plan to see lots of theatre and live music if possible, and hopefully see the LA branch of LGT), but I know it wil be far from here.  And it will have to involve swimming, and lots of lounging, because that’s what I want to do.   Lounge and read a trashy magazine like InStyle or Cosmo.  With some sort of exotic cocktail in my hand.  Or not so exotic, doesn’t matter to me.  Ah, that’s the life.  But in the meantime, I have 22.5 hours of work to get through.  Argh!  Must slough through.

I have decided to follow the advice of our President, W., and go it alone.  W. goes it alone in matters of world policy, so I will go it alone in keeping up the LGT blogs page.  Obviously, my cohorts have been sold into slavery rings and I am the only one left to get the day-to-day mental meanderings of LGT members into cyberspace for the world and posterity.

Ah, so this morning started out badly.  I went to the Travis County Tax Collector’s Office (that’s Ms Nelda Wells Spears, or Nelda for those of you on a first name basis), with my form signed by Tim and myself for the title transfer for my car.  (I now OWN my car and need the get the stinking bank’s name off the title!)  I’d called to make sure I got the right form and everything.  Well of course, I drive all the way over there, wait for my name to be called and it turns out we signed the wrong line!  There is a line that only has space for one signature, then one that has space for two signatures.  Since it’s a joint title, I signed that space.  Wrong!  We were supposed to somehow squeeze our signatures onto the one line.  So I have to go through all this trouble again!  I could have pummeled somebody on the way out from that office! 

Then I get to work and my day brightens a bit:  there’s a huge gift certificate to Vespaio from my boss to wish me Happy Admin Professionals Day!  So that makes up for the shitty morning, I ‘spose:) 

And because it was 10:45 by the time I got to contemplate coffee, I have decided today will be the day I quit completely.  I down to only about a quarter of a cup anyway, so it was probably all placebo effect at this point.  I’m frightened of a life without caffeine, particularly coffee, but Tim has assured me that, “it feels great to get the monkey off your back.  Even if it is a good-smelling, great tasting monkey.”  I’m sure he’s right.  I mean, I’ve kicked cigarettes, caffeine should be easy as pie, right?!

Mr. Bill and I auditioned together for a play last night.  We only read with each other, every single time.  I think the director is thinking of us as a package deal.  Like, “Get two LGT members for the price of one!”  Seriously, though, folks, keep your fingers crossed for us.  It’s always a blast to act onstage with Bill.  (Although you have to really control your giggle-fits!)

I’m not really blue, just not in the working mood.  Usually on Mondays I’m industrious and eager to work.  But today I seem more meandering, not really able to concentrate.  Although I’m not sleepy, which is surprising to me since I am in my 2nd week of trying to kick the caffeine habit.  I just had about a quarter of a cup of coffee this morning. 

This morning my boss made me take this Kolbe Index Personality test thingamajig.  It supposedly measures instinct-based actions, then encourages you to tell the whole world this is your MO (really, literally, it uses an MO) and that they’d better deal with it.  So basically it gives you free license to be an asshole.  My boss is handing his out to all his team members and making everyone take it so he knows how they relate to him.  My boss is NOT an asshole, for sure, but I just think this whole thing is rather funny.  This is who I am, now deal with it!  None of the questions on the test made any sense to me and none were questions I’d ever considered before, nor anything I consider important.  So I answered blindly and my MO is supposedly Theorist.  “My conative creativity is in originating concepts, innovating systems and initiating trends.”  I, of course, like to think this is me because who doesn’t want to be an innovator, but suspect it is not.  The downside to being a Theorist is that it does not gel very well with being a secretary.  And this has got me feeling a little rebellious and not feeling like working at all.  I’m sure that was not my boss’ intention, so I think it’s kind of funny. 

Oh, well, only 6 hours to go in the day, right?  Sigh… I hate Mondays.

I had a pair of really weird dreams last night.  In fact, I’ve been having weird dreams all week, but I don’t remember anything about the ones previous in the week.  I definitely remember last night’s though.  The first one was particularly odd because I had it after being asleep for only about an hour and a half, max.  I thought you had to be asleep for 4 hours before you had dream sleep.  But I had insomnia last night and I know I went to the bathroom at 11:37, and I laid awake for quite some time after that I’m sure, and I awoke from this dream at 1:17.  Weird. 

So in the dream, I’m at my Paternal Grandmother’s house (except of course it looks nothing like her real house did).  Everyone’s asleep except my brother, Tim and I.  Suddenly we hear a tornado coming.  I think I even see a vortex spinning, that image sticks in my mind.  So we start screaming, “Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, get up”.  My Mom wasn’t there, I guess.  What makes this even weirder?  My Grandpa’s been dead since the year before I was born, and my grandma has been dead 12 years.  So none of these people wake up, but I grab Roxie (I guess Lucy wasn’t there), and my brother, Tim and I head to the basement.  My brother is pushing me and I’m like, “stop pushing, we’re going to all fall down the stairs”.  And the stairs are covered in this green shag carpet and then the floor is covered in brown shag.  And there’s a huge christmas tree (so huge it looks like a real tree indoors) and the basement has windows out on to the backyard and there’s a swingset and this awful storm, and there are two tv’s on and sparks are shooting out of the electrical outlet.  And the wind is coming in and Christmas decorations are flying everywhere.  And i try to turn the tv off, but it won’t go off and there’s this very sad children’s christmas special (I think it’s Christmas Eve), on, and this little stuffed bear is getting all his fur blown off.  Very sad.  And then I woke up.   

Later, I had a dream that I was at my high school reunion, which was being held at my actual high school.  I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and hanging out with a guy from my high school and one of my current co-workers who was at my reunion for no particular reason.  Everyone looked exactly the same as they did in high school and it was like the intervening 10 years never happened.  Apparently I had not driven myself, and I had forgotten to bring tim, and i was trying to find a payphone (my high school had been completely remodeled) so I could call my mom to come pick me up so I could change clothes and get tim.  And i walked through the cafeteria and they were having a talent show (!) and Lara, a friend/theatre “rival” in high school was performing a monologue where she was portraying several different characters.  And they were all African-American characters from a movie that was geared towards African-American audiences (like Barbershop or something-I just knew this in my dream), which was really weird.  And she had mannequin heads, like beauty school students use, she had set up as the other characters and she would talk to them.  Most bizarre.  So I asked the band boosters where the pay phones were and they told me and then I woke up.  And I couldn’t go back to sleep. 

I invite anyone who is skilled at dream interpretation to give me a clue as to what these mean.  I figure the reunion is related to the fact that no one I give a flying flip about seeing has RSVP’d for my reunion.  The first one, I have no earthly idea.  Wait, I just looked at my calendar and I think Saturday will mark the 12th anniversary of my grandma’s death.  Perhaps my subconscious remembered that.  weird.

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Comments

AshMita

2005-04-18T16:51:25.000Z

I think your postings are the sole source of life for the diaries.  Way to keep the dream alive Julie!

Where is my entertainment?  I want more postings!

Oh and I don’t know what your dreams meant. 

But I do know that pregnant wenches such as myself have very, very odd dreams.  I mean very.  So keep that in mind!

Nothing like seeing a bat soaring towards you through your office to get your blood pumping.  Yes sirree.  I squealed like a small school girl being hacked to death and yelled obscenities sailors reserve for special occasions.  Last week when a bat went flying through our office, I laughed because it was safely on the other side of the office, separated by a door that could easily be shut in case of close encounters.  But this time it seemed to be heading straight for me, with no door for protection.  Jeez, I think my heart is still beating fast.  What a scare!  Luckily it crawled back into the ceiling where it will just continue to pump out the bat guano that makes our office smell like ass.  And the pest control people will come back out tomorrow and say they don’t see how it’s getting in. Yay.

russian bitches dividedness in action batholithic.  Yep, that’s a good subject.  I would name my band that if I had one.  Or maybe just “russian bitches”.  I have no idea what it means, and unlike the rest of the spam I get it is not graphic and disgusting.  It’s just weird.

So SXSW with a wristband is the only way to go!  What a whirlwind.  We had a great time and saw so many fantastic bands (and a few really, unbelievably shitty ones), in the span of 4 days.  I’ve got to get this all down before I forget what we saw.  So here’s Julie’s Official SXSW Wrap-up:

Wednesday:
Knife Party - Couldn’t stand to stay for the whole thing; two guys with phones attached to their heads wailing away on drums and a keyboard
University - About as bland as you could get, laughably bland & in their natural setting, the Hard Rock
We Are Scientists - Great band, enjoyed immensely.  Good harmony, amazing what they could do with just the standard guitar, bass, drums set-up.  Going on the wishlist, for sure
Asleep in the Sea - Insane pair who harmonize on silly ditties.  Got a little too silly at times, but if they could focus, would be really good.  enjoyed watching them anyway & got to rest my weary legs b/c it was at the hideout
Evil 9 - boring djs w/ 2 guys who were the “shout-outs”.  I sat during this one, but was amused by the clumsy attempts at dancing taking place in the audience
Dolour - More boring music, although their friends were really enjoying it.  And we enjoyed watching them.  When reading Spin Saturday, I recognized their friends in a picture about the United States of Electronica.  Turns out those weren’t mere friends, those were the next band!  Tried to get into Murder by Death at Sake, but they were doing the badge only thing
The Dears - Were billed as special guests at Friends.  We waited 30 minutes for them to take the stage and then left after a couple of songs because they seemed to be going nowhere

Thursday:
At Waterloo, Sean, Anna and myself caught (for free):
The Bravery - Loved this band!  Definitely one of my fave discoveries of the week.  I’ll be adding their album to my wishlist.  80’s electronic revival with their own sound.  Will fit nicely along with The Killers & Interpol in my cd collection
The Dears - Better today than last night, but still definitely not my cup of tea.  Too much meandering wailing on guitars for my taste.  Mr. Sean loved them, though. 
Regular SXSW:
World Leader Pretend - Yay!  Another fave.  This guys were just amazing, doing great things with timing and rhythm.  Unfortunately, they make just about the worst orgasm faces while playing.  It was really awful and difficult to get past.  But I bought their EP and will be buying their album when it comes out in May.  They were a group of nice young boys who obviously loved what they were doing.
9pm was a bust.  We couldn’t get into Ulrich Snauss b/c it was at the Blender Bar at the Ritz, where they apparently keep a line outside at all times just to look cool.  We went to O degrees to check out Fingathing, but they never came onstage.  Listened to pretty good Spanish dj with a Medterranian spin and watched freaky dancers, then gave up and headed over to
Vagenious - LA 80’s revival.  The lead singer had a keytar (keyboard that is played like a guitar), Cher hair, leopard print leggings and huge gold medallians.  I enjoyed it, but felt dirty and cheap afterwards
10pm was another shitty hour.  We couldn’t get into MIA at Elysium, so we wandered over to People in Planes at Co-op Bar.  They never took the stage either and we finally gave up about 10:35 and went on to Friends where we caught the last couple songs of
The Reputation - standard Joan Jett rip-off, then stayed for
Communique - More electronic dance revival.  I enjoyed them a lot, but I probably won’t be running out to buy the album or anything.  Poor things had the sound system cut out on them several times, tripping the circuit on the keyboards, but they gamely soldiered on.
Tried once again to get into the Blender Bar at the Ritz, but were stopped one person away from the door so they could start the “badges are better” bullshit.  Went on to
BC Camplight - a Ben Folds wannabe.  had a chick for harmonies that they only used for two songs.  They definitely need to use her more, she added a lot of interest to the band.  Also, a bat was in the place, and grazed the audience’s heads and freaked out the lead singer, who worked the bat into his song.  This was some fine entertainment

Friday-
Went to the KEXP showcase during the day with Seanna and Tim stopping by a couple of times.  No one really that great, although I liked the Rosebuds.  For the sake of posterity, we saw:  Rosebuds, Crooked Fingers, Jesse Sykes and Phil Wandescher,  The Long Winters, The Radar Bros, and part of Matthew Caws.  I think.  More noteworthy for the $1 beers than anything else 
SXSW Proper:
Aqualung - Yawn.  Wannabe Coldplay without drums or anything interesting
The Shout Out Louds - Uncanny happy-Cure imitation.  I enjoyed, but it rotted my teeth.
Bloc Party - Enjoyed them, got me dancing.  Might consider buying their album
Kasabian - Steaming pile o’ bat dung.  Absolutely none of what makes them good recorded was used live.  Nothing electronic whatsoever, although that’s all their recorded music is.  Lead singer thought he was Liam Gallagher from Oasis, English bloakes behind me kept saying, “They’re f-ing brilliant, man.” and the English bloak to my left decided to stand on a large piece of rock, block the view of the people behind him and therefore get into a fight with the guy behind him.  That’s when we left.  I hate Kasabian, the horse they rode in on, and their fans.
Went over to see Sunshine, but they had cancelled.  Paid $2 for a frozen water that I couldn’t drink.  Headed over to Exodus to see The Bravery.  Waited in line, we were near the begining, but then the whole badge bullshit started again and the badge line stretched around the corner.  we gave up and headed on to:
Phosphorescent - Happy music I was desperately in need of.  Restored my faith in man and music.  8 folks, horns, keyboards, singing, harmonies.  Like the Polyphonic Spree and Ben Fold’s love child.  They rocked!
Centromatic - Did not rock.  We stayed for 2 songs and then left.

Saturday
Ah, now THIS was the night to write home about.  All the stars aligned and we saw some fantastic music.
Timonium - boring, but had some great drumming.  WE were only there because we wanted to make sure we got into the Blendar Bar at the Ritz for the next band.  Saw some Real Worlders flailing around drunk, as well as the camera man who recorded their actions.  They got nowhere near the band.
+/- (pronounced Plus or Minus) tHE BEST BAND OF SXSW!  These guys were fantastic!  Complicated rhythms, beautiful vocals, Rocked out!  The crowd was in a frenzy!  I bought their cd, everyone needs to check it out.
Say Hi to Your Mom - fantastic pop, I was in heaven.  What Conner Oberst could be if he grew up.  Beautiful music in an audience full of music lovers. 
33hz - Brought the funk!  4 white guys from new york who made me shake my booty like it hadn’t been shaked before.  fantastic dance music.  Your body cannot stand still while listening to this funk!
Couldn’t get into Pecan Street Ale House for Maximo Park, and boy am I glad because we got to see:
CLARA BELL - the best rap since the Beastie Boys, and they are from JAPAN!  These guys had the pop n’ lock dance moves down too.  The whole audience was going crazy.  They were hilarious, and great and energizing all at once.  Definitely one of my faves of the festival.
The Shells - Had to go represent for my boy Mike.  Not their best show, I think the keyboardist might have had one too many before going on stage, but I enjoyed it nontheless.  Kept me dancing and a great end to a great festival!

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Comments

Camplight fan

2005-04-03T01:04:59.000Z

Please tell me you’re not a music critic…please. Anyone who could confuse BC with Ben Folds, simply because they play piano, is an idiot…musically. BC obviously draws  from Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach. Anyone who’s been keeping up on things would know that in 5 years everyone will be saying that BF couldn’t carry BC’s Jock. Open your ears.

josh

2005-04-29T18:59:01.000Z

Gee.  Where do I start?  I was at the Hard Rock Cafe for the ASCAP showcase as well.  University was not bland, unless you think Blur or Bowie is bland.  They completely rocked.  We are Scientists weren’t great.  Just another band taking advantage of the angular-rock Strokes fad.

After years of looking for the right dentist, I have finally found him in the form of Dr. Danny Cox on Manchaca.  I’ve switched dentists 3 times in the last two years due to insurance changes and I switched again because the one I saw last July couldn’t get me in until June for a cleaning.  This after her office wouldn’t make appointments 6 months in advance and wouldn’t send out reminder cards for cleanings.  But Dr. Cox has a really cool young guy hygentist who listens to NPR and rants about the war and the environment and fun liberal stuff like that and Dr. Cox seems very nice as well.  AND when I called yesterday they were able to get me in today at 8am.  I am so happy that I have finally found somebody who may be able to live up to the legacy of Dr. Kirk and Dr. Graf from Spring, Texas.  Whoo-hoo!

And i found the sunglasses I thought I’d lost a month ago under my seat this morning.  Yay!

I just got the email invitation to my 10 year High school reunion.  I knew this was coming, after all, I graduated in 95 and it’s 2005, hello, but it still felt really weird to finally get the invite.  It’s in August, of course at the same time as an LGT show, but that shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s supposed to be “fun, casual, and affordable so they expect a really big turnout.”  I hope so.  I’ve heard horror stories of $40/head dinners and such and I don’t want to go broke to catch up with a few people I haven’t seen in years.  But I plan to go.  I enjoyed my high school years, I wasn’t homecoming queen, but I wasn’t shoved in a locker or anything, so I think it’ll be fun to see how folks turned out.  Unfortunately, most of my close friends were either a year ahead or a year behind me, so I won’t be seeing them, but I had some good friends in my class.  I just hope it returns some writing fodder.  Too bad Slapdash will most likely be before my reunion and not after.

That headline from Friday was annoying, I just had to change it.  I couldn’t stand staring at it every time I came to the site. 

I was sick all weekend and I watched a LOT of television.  And a few movies.  And finished reading Dry by Augusten Burroughs.  I learned a few things of absolutely no importance during my weekend of forced television watching:

1. Pomeranian puppies are all black and wet when they are born.  Their mom eats the afterbirth, which is actually not as gross to watch as it sounds.  Pomeranian puppies are black and tan by eight weeks old and look like teddy bears.  They are very adorable.

2. The Designers on Trading Spaces DO NOT work well together when they are all forced to execute a design together.  No sir.  Although it makes for great entertainment.  And Frank should not be allowed to wear dresses.  Seriously, it’s wrong.

3. Manhattan is a really boring Woody Allen movie.  And I apologize to whoever of you it was that recommended it, but it was boring.  And didn’t really have an ending.  I liked seeing Meryl Streep when she was young though.  She was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

4. The Sky Captain of Tomorrow is pretty good.  A little long, but good.  Nice special effects, nice explosions, Jude Law, etc. Subpar script, but then, you expected that.

5. The Cat’s Meow is also a pretty entertaining movie.  If you happen to catch it on tv for free, you should watch it.  It’s got the head vampire from The Lost Boys in it and that irrepressible Kirsten Dunst being irrepressible.  And some great costumes.  And Eddie Izzard playing Charlie Chaplin and looking and acting absolutely nothing like Eddie Izzard.  And Patsy from AbFab being Fabulous.  And some great costumes.  And the guy from the Princess Bride and Robin Hood Men in Tights.  And Jennifer Tilly being obnoxious.  Hmm, maybe it’s even worth a couple of bucks, now that I think about it.

6) Alcoholism is gross (I learned that from Dry).  Really, quite disgusting.  Don’t do it.

7) The hottest thing these days is something called “Baby Einstein”.  Apparently their tape called “Baby Monet” teaches your child to love nature.  Although in the commercials, all they showed was the child, inside, watching a tv and playing with plastic leaves.  The child also pawed at a frame containing mounted butterflies.  All to a voice over of parents saying, “Little Cameron loves nature because of Baby Monet”.  Possibly this is nature for the Boy in the Bubble. 

I think that’s all I learned.  Or at least all I remember learning.  I feel like I left a few of my brain cells on the couch, really I do.