Today

Ok, so I haven't written for a while. I've been busy. I'm still getting adjusted to being a student. The states in which my desk, car, room and hygiene are in sufficiently reflect this process of adjustment. Also my addled brain.

Good things about today:
The weather is really nice.
I had a good conversation with a professor regarding a memo I am writing.
I will be eating free Chipotle for lunch.
It's veteran's day and I feel proud of my family's service.
I have some good tunes in my head.
I went to a show last night, but I'm not really that tired.
I got free doughnuts this morning. (yes, plural)
I'm caught up on my homework.
I didn't miss my train this morning.
I got free coffee this morning.
I've got some plans and they seem feasible and enjoyable.

I'm sure there's more. Anyhow, suffice to say, I'm doing well despite the mental stress and strain. Actually, if you'd like to know all about what I'm studying, we should hang out. I don't actually recommend this for your sake, but I think that Jen would like a reprieve from the onslaught of legal jargon and hypothetical situations I am constantly foisting upon her during our brief periods of free time.

Lastly, note some of the new albums I've posted pics of on the right. They're really good. Especially Deerhunter. If you haven't listened to them yet/recently, you're really missing out...

Here are my top 5 favorite recent songs that I can think of right now:
1. Where Do You Run- Vivian Girls
2. Teabag Party- King Khan & BBQ
3. Walking With Jesus- The Muslims
4. Version- Om
5. Nothing Ever Happened- Deerhunter

I'm kind of hungry now.

This was brought to my attention by my friend Jen. Not my wife Jen, but one of the many friends I have named Jennifer.

I looked up all of the items that I was not immediately familiar with just to be sure I had or had not eaten them. Some of these items I wish I had never tried, namely #s 33, 63 & 94. Some of these items I cannot wait to try, namely #s 43, 46, 59, 65, 83 & 97. Seriously, look up Lobster Thermidor on wikipedia. You will vomit and cry with excitement and hunger (respectively).

The Rules:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears, funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

BBBQ

I have now, more or less, successfully turned 29. In order to add to this success, Jen and I will be hosting a bbq at our house on Saturday, August 30th. Bring some beer and a camp/lawn/beach chair (if you're planning on sitting) and we'll see you around 3! Leave a comment if you need any further instructions/direction/information.

Legally Extreme!

Does this mean that I'll have to take PE in law school?

My moustache

Just like Darren, I too have grown a moustache! Check out the picture below, which I just took today!

salon 5

Do I make you hungry?

This weekend!

This will be going down at the Patterson residence around 3pm this Saturday. Bring snacks, drinks and camping chairs. We hope to see you there!

So Jen and I traveled publicly through LA today. We stopped at Philippe's for some sandwiches and beer, and we ended up at the Richard Riordan Memorial Library to watch a little band I like to call No Age play for free.

Alas, we didn't get into the show. Sad. Oh well. One of the more interesting aspects of the day was standing around a bunch of cheapskate hipsters (redundant or oxy-moron? I suppose it depends on what neighborhood they come from) while hoping that the security guards would flaunt the capacity laws and let us in. Lots of fun.

All this to say, we had an adventure in our enormous city today. It was fun, if slightly underwhelming. Good times.

Success!

In general that is. I'm not aware of any great successes occurring in the recent past, present or recent future in my corner of this universe, but I like the ring of the word nonetheless.

Right now I am in the middle of online traffic school. It's funny because it is chock full of grammatical errors. For example, if I attempt to prematurely skip from the reading to the test I get a warning that lets me know "You must learn this topic at least 4 minutes!". I laugh, then I go check out some other internet nonsense for a little while. It's fun. On average I miss 1/2 a question on each test. It's really pretty easy. Good times.

I just got back from parent conferences and they went pretty well. Not too much to report on that subject so I'll move on.

For those that I haven't been able to talk to in person (or on the phone I suppose), I have been denied acceptance to two law schools: UC Hastings and the University of Washington; I've been waitlisted (a term that is new to me, and will most likely come to be synonymous with rejection in the near future) at two law schools: Fordham University and Loyola Law School; I have been accepted at one law school: Chapman; I am still waiting on two law schools: USC and UCLA. I am mad at the last two schools not because they haven't accepted me but because they haven't had the decency to send me a prompt rejection. I'm not putting on some humble front, I'm just being realistic. I would like to have all of my responses in as soon as possible so I can make a decision. USC and UCLA are such ridiculous long shots that I'm suspecting them of making me wait because they're pissed that I waisted their time with my application.

On a more positive note regarding my jump back in to academia, Jen and I were wined and dined by Chapman Law a couple of weekends ago. The school put us up in the Double Tree hotel in Orange and treated us to dinner, drinks and a cruise around Newport Harbor. It was sort of strange to be treated like a tourist only a handful of miles from the house you grew up in, but we had a wonderful time. I talked to a few students and professors and I sat through a class and several presentations. While Chapman was not my first choice, a very strong case was made in their favor. I have many more details, but they would take far too long to type. I'm sure that I'll tell you about them sooner or later.

Another topic that I've gone on and on about to people I've conversed with in person over the last couple of months is the LA Marathon. In order to keep things brief, I will just say that I ran it under 5 hours and it was horrible and amazing at the same time. It was an unbelievable experience. I will do it again.

That's all for now. I will not wait until I have to repeat online traffic school to post again. Or will I? I hope that everyone is well. Success!

SXSW

I have just returned from one of the best and most strange and exciting and exhausting weekends of my life. I was at SXSW with my my very gracious pals in Bodies of Water. I will give a more in depth review and description in the near future, but right now I would rather be eating a burrito with Jen, since I haven't seen her in about a week. To hold you over till then, here's a list of the bands I saw play:

-Bodies of Water
-Bowerbirds
-J Mascis
-These New Puritans
-Peter Moren
-Times New Viking
-Phosphorescent
-Bon Iver
-Evangelicals
-Jens Lekman
-Black Mountain
-Le Loup
-Port O'Brien
-Antitem
-Atlas Sound
-Be Your Own Pet
-Thurston Moore
-N.E.R.D.
-F*** Buttons
-Delta Spirit
-Wooden Shjips
-Howlin' Rain
-Kevin Barnes
-Holy F***
-Yeasayer
-No Age
-Islands
-The Breeders
-Nadja
-Deadly Syndrome
-Eat Skull

I saw some bands twice. The vast majority of these shows were awesome and I was totally stoked to see them but there were a few that were seriously bad and made me want those moments of my life back. I'll leave you to guess which were which.

New Years Resolutions

So I should probably make some resolutions. In the past I have frowned on this tradition because it seemed to impart some magical power to the changing of a calendar page and it inevitably led to depressing amounts of disappointment at my inability to follow through with whatever it is I resolved to do or not do. In an effort to avoid being stubborn and lazy and instead be more disciplined and responsible, I hereby declare the following five items to be my resolutions for 2008.

1. Exercise everyday.
This means everyday as in at least a half hour of something exercise oriented everyday. Maybe more.

2. Clean up after myself.
My car, my desk, my floor, my face, my dishes, the list goes on and on and on.

3. Make plans in advance.
I want to do things that will actually be great instead of being surprised when moderately good things happen out of nowhere. This also includes saving money for good stuff instead of wasting it on junk.

4. Drink less beer and eat less junk.
This is how people get fat and out of shape. I don't want to be those.

5. Read a lot more.
This is limited to books. This does not include the internet, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, tracts, student work or random scraps of paper that I seem to accumulate, hoping to find something important within.

These may seem like nebulous resolutions, but I think that they are good and I will strive to see them through to, ummmm, errrr, completion? Do these have an end? We'll see.

The Ten Best Albums That Were Released Last Year (2007) That I Actually Listened To (With Commentary)

Here's what I would have recommended that you listen to if I had talked to you last year. Now that it's 2008, I would still recommend these albums to you because they are all that good. Therefore, having the perspective that can only result from the arrival of a new year, I present these albums. Listen to them. Just not here, sorry.



1. No Age - Weirdo Rippers
This album receives the negligibly coveted number one spot because it was by far the most captivating, fascinating, exhilarating collection of sounds that I enjoyed last year. Everything from the low-fi production and blink-of-an-eye track lengths to the blissed-out noisescapes and head-smashing drums created an aural environment that was at once meditative and hysterical. This album reflects the 90s not necessarily in inspiration or reference as much as in osmotic revelation. Punk-rock DIY footloosery so thickly covers each song, one is left guessing whether or not this duo has ever heard any of the important/serious/grandiose indie rock of this new century. This album is a must have for anyone ever.





2. Deerhunter - Cryptograms/Flourescent Grey
These two releases are presented here as one because that is how they were packaged on vinyl. This album is amazing. I probably listened to this more than any other album. Every listen revealed new layers to these dense songs depending on my mood or the environment I was listening in. The driving bass lines, a vocal loop, a cymbal roll or just the subtle way the sound has shifted from ambient guitar drone to full-speed freak-out would keep me playing this album over and over. Mind blowing. Don't even ask, just buy it.



3. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
I was very opposed to this album when I first heard it but I have since come around on it. Each song seemed a little off. A sample here and a chorus there all bugged me. My solution was to listen to it on repeat during our northwestern trip this summer. Actually, this was really Jen's solution seeing as she's a huge fan and totally dug the album. All this to say, I came to love it. Jens' melodies and arrangements soar with a tongue in cheek confidence. It's like that Sufjan dude only I don't feel guilty for not thinking hard enough about each line and Jens totally goes for the karaoke-god crooner vocals. There is something so sickeningly sweet about his songs that keeps me coming back, just like a whole thing of candybeans. This record is a whole things of candybeans.



4. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
This album blends the bizarro world of all those Animal Collective dudes with the bizarro world of all those Beach Boys dudes. If you've already read this assessment elsewhere, sorry but it's true. What other people won't tell you, however, is this album is way better than the new Animal Collective album. Seriously better. The thick gauzy layers of lush harmonies will coat your insides (through your ear holes, of course) with warm, delicious goodness. Play it soft or loud, it will elevate your soul.



5. Magik Markers - Boss
Maybe I lose some scene points for listing this "straight" Magik Markers record instead of just complaining about how they used to be cool, but I don't care. This record is a definite departure from their numerous earlier recordings, but so what. This record demonstrates that in addition to destroying your brain with noise, Elisa and Pete can also write great songs. These songs (with a couple of exceptions) definitely reflect the past in their emotions, themes and instrumentation but they focus these elements in a way that makes them more identifiable and gives them a greater impact. That this album was produced by Lee Ranaldo and released on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label should come as no surprise to those who hear it. Some may hear echoes of Chan Marshall, but I think she's too busy competing with Feist for the hearts of the NPR crowd to come up with something this good.



6. White Stripes - Icky Thump
Is this the best White Stripes album? Who knows. I love this album. It's a White Stripes album and therefore it's going to be at least 75% awesome. This is probably more than 75%, but I don't really keep track any more. This album is great and you've probably already made up your mind on it. My vote is "yes". That's all.



7. Om - Pilgrimage
This is not an album for the faint of heart. Although the first track can gently put a baby to sleep (hahahaha, sleep?! get it?!), the epiphany of the second track will wake up said baby like a nuclear bomb. Totally heavy without always being heavy. Om continue their journey onward and upward through the clouds and the gates of riffland with this brief collection of songs. That this was produced by Steve Albini is enough reason to buy it. That it will completely blow your mind just makes it that much more necessary.



8. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Another album that I didn't like upon first listen but have grown to enjoy more and more. The absence of the frantic rhythm and panicky vocals bummed me out, but the richness of the sound and the lyrical themes of loss and worry clued me in to the direction of the record. I don't like this one as much as their previous album, and these songs did not work as well live as the older ones, but I definitely enjoyed this album throughout the year. This was one of those albums that began to creep into repeat status the longer I owned it.



9. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
I love Sonic Youth. Lots of people know this. This album probably benefits from some of that nepotism, but it is still great. Thurston strips the sound down to acoustic guitar, violin and a bass/drums rhythm section and in doing so creates a record that is cohesive and complete. Where one worries that there is no rock, J Mascis pops up and shreds your face off. Mellow and awesome with a little glimpse into the maturing of a noise rock pioneer.



10. Liars - Liars
I have the other Liars albums and I will probably continue to buy each one that is released. Why? Because no two are similar. This album has Liars as the fractured and misinformed rock band doing their damnedest to make rock n' roll with broken instruments, a Tandy 286 laptop and the studio intern running the boards. How does it sound? Awesome. Totally wrong as in completely rad.