Josh Writes a Blog

Category: Uncategorized

  • my extended lunch break

    Today I had an errand to run.  This errand was to deposit my paycheck, which I received two days earlier but couldn’t deposit until today[1. If you really want to know, I was sick from Sunday until Tuesday, I got my check on Monday, couldn’t deposit it then, then took off of work on Tuesday and rested and ran a few errands.  So there.].  At my work we get a half-hour lunch break, but we can take an hour lunch if we need to (considering we don’t get paid for lunches, they don’t seem to mind if you take a little extra time).  Since I don’t have a car, errands for me take two to three times as long to finish than people with a car.  So I knew I’d need to take an hour lunch.

    Since I had so little time to finish my task (involving taking buses and perambulating in a spirited manner), I figured I’d stop in at a Quizno’s by the bus stop to grab a chicken carbonara sub before I left.  This entry, by the way, is entirely going to be about Quizno’s. (more…)

  • musicfest northwest, 9/11, the decemberists, pioneer courthouse square

    That is a long title.

    So I didn’t get a pass to MFNW this year.  I know that’s become a sort of big thing that I write about on this blog[1. I actually have a draft saved of my last day at MFNW last year, which I will probably never post.  Sorry about that.], but I was relatively broke and I only wanted to buy a VIP pass, considering how awesome it was to have a VIP pass last year.  But I couldn’t afford it and then they sold out of them so blah blah whatever.

    But by various circumstances, I was lucky enough to snag my friend Lisa’s second ticket to the Decemberists show in Pioneer Square tonight, and in a word, it was excellent!  The show, not the ticket.  The ticket was quite average looking.

    The lineup was Weinland, Blue Giant, Laura Veirs, and The D’s.  These are all bands that are local, and all great.  So let’s just start from the start, shall we? (more…)

  • some more words on weezer

    The change began after Maladroit.  Maladroit was the album practically picked by the fans.  Weezer demoed all the songs on their website, and fans said which ones they enjoyed and which they didn’t, and Rivers (sort of) made an album from that.  And they even asked the fans to name the album, and they (the band) picked Maladroit.  Which sounds fitting, since critics and old school fans alike tend to believe that Weezer’s career post-Pink is a bit maladroit.

    But when you look at the direction of Weezer — or really, Rivers’ — songcrafting, rather than his songwriting (which, let’s be honest, is pretty crap lately), the whole spectrum has changed.  Weezer went from an emo-indie rock quartet to a bloated mainstream power-rock-pop explosion, except instead of writing the type of songs a typical rock band would write, Rivers writes songs about going to the mall.  So, his images are a bit more positive than they used to be.  He’s a happy guy, what can you do? (more…)

  • a few words on the new weezer album

    I’m not the type of person who writes reviews about albums.  I’m not the kind of guy who finds a ton of meaning in particular albums.  I do, however, find myself attached to particular albums because those albums are just really good.  In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of those albums; it’s not like I attribute some long-lost symbolism to the album, or its Anne Frank and strange twin imagery.  It’s not like I first listened to it in an opium den with my closest friends, and let its melodies and Mangum’s voice break new ground in my cerebellum.  I just like it.  It sounds good, it sounds put together.

    Such is the case with Weezer’s first two albums.  The Blue Album is an anthem to nerds everywhere.  That’s just it.  Lots of people around my age love that album, but some of us identify with it.  Pinkerton is even more of that kind of vibe, an anthem of frustrated and sometimes unrequited love.  It’s a theme that a lot of people, men and women, identify with.  It’s why most people prefer Pinkerton to Blue. (more…)

  • how my mind works

    so i’m at work and i write the name “dennis” but it looks like “donnis,” and suddenly this whole dialogue pops into my head. enjoy.

    2: what is this name?
    1: who?
    2: this. it looks like … donnis.
    1: seriously? i know my e looks kind of like an o, but donnis? you think that says donnis?
    2: well, that’s what it looks like.
    1: who has the name donnis?
    2: i don’t know! people have all kinds of weird names these days.
    1: cal, i think, when trying to decipher handwriting regarding people’s names, i think it’s important to *not* start with the abstract.
    2: what do you mean?
    1: how many people have the name dennis?
    2: i don’t know.
    1: i’ll tell you: a lot. and how many people have the name donnis?
    2: … not that many?
    1: none. no one has the name donnis.
    2: i’m sure someone has the name donnis.
    1: no, no one does.
    2: [thinks] what about that greek guy? the guy who was really handsome.
    1: what?
    2: you know, that guy. they kept calling him “a donnis.” people were like, “hey, there goes a donnis.”
    [beat]
    1: you mean adonis?
    2: yeah! a donnis. you think they were referencing just one donnis, or was donnis his last name? and he–
    1: i hate you.
    2: –didn’t like his first name or something.
    1: did you hear me?
    2: yes.
    1: i hate you.
    [long pause]
    2: what?
    1: a-d-o-n-i-s. adonis. one name. greek god. or something. i don’t know. that [points to name] is dennis. not a dennis. just dennis.
    [beat]
    2: maybe donnis is the male version of donna.
    1: why are you continuing this?!
    2: because i don’t like it when you act this way.
    1: what way?
    2: all condescending because i can conceive of a world wherein a person with the name “donnis” exists.
    1: i’m not — i don’t — i don’t think that. the name “donnis” could very conceivably exist in this world. i just don’t think it’s a common name. people generally don’t name their children “donnis.” right?
    2: right.
    1: okay.
    2: but you can still admit that “donnis” may be a male version of “donna.”
    1: i don’t think that’s a thing that people do, but okay.
    2: what do you mean?
    1: i don’t think people use male versions of female names.
    2: someone must.
    1: plus i think “donna” is a female version of “don.”
    2: oh. really?
    1: yeah. i guess.
    [beat]
    2: okay, what is this?
    1: what?
    2: “gany.”
    1: gary! gary! i’m sorry my handwriting is shit!

  • the little things

    You ever have one of those days where you’re sitting at work, doing some mindless, repetitive job that a monkey could literally do, if there weren’t monkey labor laws, and it just hits you — this sucks.  This all sucks.  You wake up at 7am or earlier every weekday so that you can come to this shit job so you can work for eight hours a day, working next to people a 19th century psychoanalyst might politely call “mongoloids,” and then you’re out of work and all you can think to do is buy beer and pizza and watch ridiculous reality TV until, well, you don’t know, because you fell asleep at some point and now it’s dark outside and you’re not sure what day it is anymore.  Then you get up off the sofa using broad physical motions usually seen on a K’nex set in a 7th grade physics class, take a piss or a shit or both, and then shuffle to bed, it being maybe 9:30pm, you being maybe a less than stellar version of humanity. (more…)

  • A Dull And Witless Boy: (rant?)

    A Dull And Witless Boy: (rant?)

    So this thought requires a few more characters than 140, so I’m taking to the blog. I would invite you, gentle reader, casual listener, enthusiast, to for a moment lend me a sympathetic ear.

    To be frank: it bums me out from time to time that you just cannot play a new unrecorded song at a show…

    This is a great question, too great to be answered using Tumblr’s piddling 140 character response system, and also because it seems that, rather than actually responding to Colin’s query, people are just saying “You’re right Colin, I love you and your music, etc etc,” which, while seemingly a positive response to the band/singer-songwriter, doesn’t really, you know, answer or debate his question.  So I will respond with my knowledge of bootlegs.

    Specifically, I will address two separate instances where fan interaction of a band’s new works has altered the end product of the band’s material.  Sorta. (more…)

  • one of my favorite points in a burgeoning relationship is the first time you really smell them.  maybe they’re wearing perfume, maybe the slightest hint of vanilla or lavender, and maybe you’ve spent a night out at dinner and dancing at some ridiculous club downtown. at the end of the night you’re sweaty and laughing, self-conscious about sweat spots on your clothes, she’s lightly draped her arm over your arm to steady herself as she adjusts her heel, and you catch that first lazy scent of whatever she’s wearing; maybe it’s just her, maybe she just smells good.  (maybe it’s pheromones.)

    and maybe you’re in the car driving back to drop her off at her apartment, and there’s that awkward goodbye where you’re not quite sure if you should give her a kiss, and maybe you don’t, and then you’re in the bathroom brushing your teeth, staring at your imperfections in the mirror and imagining the perfect scenario for how that date should’ve ended: she, draped on your arm, adjusting her heel, finds out it’s broken. she holds the heel in her hand, showing you, and says, “i’ll just take them off,” and you say, “and walk barefoot on the street?  i don’t think so,” and before she can contest you’ve swept her up in your arms, taking her to your car, and there as the windows start to fog up with your residual body heat from intense tangoing, you kiss, soft and naive, learning each other’s lips.  and then you drive her home.

    and as you’re dreaming this, lying in your bed, struggling to find the perfect sleeping position, you catch the faintest hint of her scent again, a thin tendril of vanilla or lavender curling around your nose, begging you to remember.  and it smells like it’s coming from your pillow.

    the next morning you wake up feeling more alive than ever.

  • a dream

    I had a dream last night that I was in my childhood home in Nampa, it was nighttime, my parents were sitting watching TV in the living room (mom was crocheting of course), and I was in the kitchen looking out the window as the house on the corner was swallowed into the earth, like the earth just cracked open and swallowed it up.  I shouted to my parents but they seemed disinterested in the whole thing.  There were news helicopters in the sky and spotlights circling the plot of land where the house stood.  And as I was watching the ensuing chaos outside the house next to it also was swallowed up.  And then the next house, and the next, until the entire block was gone.  There was a moment where I was just staring at an empty land where these people used to live, and that’s when I woke up.

    Normally I don’t try to find symbolism in dreams, but if that one didn’t scream “You Can’t Go Back,” I don’t know what will.

  • mfnw 9/18: day three

    Boy, I really let this fall by the wayside, didn’t I?  Long time readers will find no surprise in that.

    Friday night started late again; Paul and I were determined to get some sleep before we headed out to a very long night of music.  I ended up taking a two hour nap, but Paul wasn’t as fortunate (this totally makes us sound gay, like we were sleeping in the same bed or something.  We weren’t, but if it makes you feel better to imagine that we were, that’s fine.), so I was nice and refreshed and he was still a little bleh.  We found ourselves getting food instead of seeing the 8pm bands (we hadn’t heard of any of them).  Food was sushi.  A quick tangent[1. They’re never quick, are they?] about sushi: I love it.  I grew up hating seafood.  I still do, really.  In landlocked states, fish is smelly and disgusting, having been frozen for some time.  Once you get over the cascades, it generally tastes better.  I can eat salmon, because there is fresh salmon in Idaho, but other than that, get it away from me.  Lobsters, shrimp, etc?  No way, dudes.  I don’t want to eat ocean bugs. (more…)