Coffee + Sleep Deprivation

The need for escape feels overwhelming. This burning desire to transcend the confines of my physical being and mental capacity pervades every thought I have as I sit here and mindlessly type these numbers for this job that doesn't matter in a building that does nothing more than give the wrong people money and make them feel important. This is not my world. Not the one I claim to be my own. The one where I would dearly love to lay my head would be a much more open one--expanisve. it would strentch for days with infinite sky. Free of limitation and necessity. In such a place one could exist in peace and pursue the thoughts and activites that they knew were meant for them, the things they felt in their inner-being. It would certainly not be what someone else thought one was capable of, putting a cap on your mobility and creativity. I feel it's this way in the which the world grinds along that makes people dead inside, to be brow beaten by someone else's expectations, void of ideas to dream for themselves, to reach into the infinite possibilities waiting for anyone with enough desire and grit.

Perhaps it's the coffee and that makes my mind work overtime, racing with a million thoughts a minute, unable to control my words or my thoughts, let alone concentrate on this menial task before me. This environment can be stifiling and depressing at times, but one must just say, "This is not me. When I am elsewhere, they will still be here." A while ago the inner adventurer, dreamer was fully unlocked by the right mind and heart, and it's impossible to go back to accepting what life gives with only a faint hope of happiness once one has tasted the possibilities and lived life lean and wild, ready for anything this world threw at you, whether you knew you were ready for it or not.

If sheer imagination and mental power alone could shake the foundations of this earth, I feel as if they would right now, under the weight of racing fragments of fury and thought that bounce inside my skull. I see myself not as what greets me in the mirror, but in ideal, thoughts, and feelings--an existence of intesity riding the crest of large and lethal golden wave. Sometimes I'm at the top with a beautiful ocean view, wind in my hair and face, smiling and letting the experience wash over me, and other times I have been cast ashore by this wave, clammering in the sandy shore, violently swimming back out towards the waves, hoping to catch it again, not knowing how long I must paddle until I find it again. This is the time when arms tire and the mind weakens, but if I just remain fixed on those times when I was madly dancing atop the wave, strength returns to my arms and new determination fills the mind. It feels as if the next chance to catch the tide is fast approacing whether I am prepared or not. Is that it just a few miles out, or is that my mind playing tricks on me? Only time will reveal the truth and in the meantime I must continue on as if it is just a few knots away.

Trying to Level Off...

So I wanted to report when I had some good news, or things were at least stable. Doesn't seem like that's happening any time soon, so I'll just go ahead and give a quick update.

I'm living in an apartment with Chris, and it's an awesome apartment. I really like it. So that's a good thing.

I've had two jobs, but don't have them anymore for various reasons, which is upsetting. So now I'm looking for work again, which I completely deplore. So if anybody's got any job leads, please let me know.

Aside from job concerns, I've had trouble sleeping. I'm always exhausted and never sleep a good, consistent amount and it's really caused trouble. I just can't sleep. I guess I should look into getting some sleep-aid or something.

Ryan Adams played Houston on Thursday night and it was awesome. At times there were extended jams, and there was a lot of joking around between Ryan, the band, and the audience (though for the most part the crowd were assholes). He even played a couple of minutes of "Freebird" which was hilarious. It was a fantastic show, and if anybody gets the chance to see him, I highly recommend it. Sober Ryan puts on a great, consistent performance now.

Yesterday I went to a film meet-up where I was the only one there other than the person that organized it (well, aside from a crazy old lady carrying a little dog who stopped in for a while). But that was ok, she was a really awesome, driven person and we've committed to trying to pull together a short film by the end of the year, which is exciting. Besides, one incredibly driven, determined person is worth 5 people with a vague, "yeah, let's do something."

Last night I went on a blind date from that website crazyblindate.com, and that was pretty cool/interesting. I'm all up for trying new things and meeting new people. Afterwards I went and saw Man Man, who were simply incredible. The amount of energy they put into each and every show is astounding. It was so much fun and I danced my ass off, leaving the place wringing with sweat. But that's how a good concert should be.

It's finally getting slightly cooler (AKA not sweat-pouring heat), so I'm going to take advantage of it and go to the park. If it's a nice day where you are, try to enjoy it and have fun.

Maybe next time I'll have some better news and some pictures. Until then...

ACL Fest: Day 3

As a whole the day was better than Saturday, but nothing all weekend compared to the glory of Muse.

Yo La Tengo:

Not interesting enough to photo


The National:

The Alligator Boxers



Common:

I never told you to put down your hands...



Bloc Party:

Hella Rockin' Show


Regina Spektor:

She was glad to be there, astonished by the crowd




Wilco & My Morning Jacket:

Sounded ok, but not close enough to care

I'd rather get a good spot for...

The Decemberists:

La-duh-dah-da-dah, duh-da-da, duh-da-da-da-da-da-daaa..

"The Island"

"16 Military Wives"

Bob Dylan:
Croaking Legend and festival finish

ACL Fest: Day 2

To try to speed things up and try to live not so much in the past, I'll just post pictures from the other 2 days of ACL Fest. But rest assured it was a fantastic weekend my Gentle Viewers.

Augustana:
A Horrible Concoction of Saves The Day meets Goo Goo Dolls

Cold War Kids:
Better than expected; the song "St. John" is amazing

Andrew Bird:
Mesmerizing, and the best whistler in rock to boot!

Damien Rice:
Fuzzed-out delicateness

"Delicate"

Waiting...
And waiting for...

Muse:
Face-Melting Rock Supremacy

"Take A Bow"

ACL Fest: Day 1

So here we are, recapping a crazy weekend of music. I'll do my best to hit the highs and lows, but for some of it I will rely on pictures, b/c we know how the old saying goes.

I was going to get there around 12:30 so I could catch Jesse Malin, but that did not happen. I stayed up too late partying the night before and just couldn't get up at a decent hour. I finally got out there around 3:30 just in time for...

Blonde Redhead

Theirs is a music better set in a dark club with moody lighting to catchy all of the subtlety and atmospherics of their performance. But considering the circumstances, I think they did a great job, playing more upbeat songs for most part and kept my attention for their entire set, but this comes from a pretty big fan, not a casual fan who would have preferred to see String Cheese Incident or something. You could tell the heat was really getting to Kazu, she looked tired and had circles under her eyes. She definitely seems like she's not used to doing festival gigs in scorching heat, but she pulled through like a champ rotating between bass and keyboard, the latter which looked like a giant black rocking horse! Her and the rest of the band romped through old and new songs alike, including "In Particular," "Equus," "Falling Man," and "The Dress." It was a great way to start my festival day.

Then came a period of wandering and sampling the various offerings. First we went to check out M.I.A. which I've listened to a couple of times and really dig it. Like a more world beat oriented Lady Sovereign or something. Well, the beats were steady and it was a grooving set, but she and her sidekick were ridiculous to watch on stage one was dressed in semi-traditional African gear but we garish colors and M.I.A. herself was in a neon pink jumpsuit. They looked like Star Search '88 contests jumping around the stage in those get ups. So the silliness of it overwhelmed me and my friends so we decided to cut out early to check out LCD Soundsystem. So I've listened to these guys in passing, and all I remember was a repetitive beat and the guy saying, "Daft Punk is playing at my house, MY HOUSE!" He did that for the whole song. They aren't good enough for using the trick of the band who they evoked. Unfortunately the vague recollection I had of this band proved to be about all they did. Some large ridiculous man was on stage shouting, not even singing, about not being British, and then had a song that was almost 10 minutes long where the only words were, "yeah yeah yeah!" It was sort of annoying and I wish I had stayed at M.I.A. and learned to ignore the wardrobe and groove to that, not this drivel. It reminds of the way people talked highly of the Happy Mondays, but it was really just some fat bastard yelling and mumbling about nothing. But the migration wasn't for naught, because then right behind me began...

Queens of the Stone Age

It was either seeing these guys or Spoon, and unlike the unsubstantiated logic of the stooges at NPR, it was a no-brainer for me. Spoon are wonderful and their new album is fantastic, but they are very hit and miss in concert, while Queens of the Stone Age are sure thing, full of hard rocking and thrashing grooves.

It was a great set full of well known songs and crowd pleasures, but material from Rated R was strangely absent, which is a shame, because I would have loved to hear "Monster in the Parasol" or "Lost Art of Keeping a Secret." Fortunately their set was comprised in large of songs from still their best work Songs for the Deaf. Here's a list of songs they played: "Go With The Flow," "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire," "Song for the Dead," "In My Head," "Burn The Witch," "No One Knows," and new songs "Turnin' On The Screw," "Mexicola," "3's and 7's," and personal favorite "I Wanna Make It Wit Chu."

It was very satisfying to see them, as always. They always put on a great show, Josh Homme is generally in a great mood and encouraging everyone to "get laid," and you can dance around to it in a head banging sort of way. What's not to like?

Afterwards we made the trek across the park to stake out a good spot for the main event...

Björk

Something to keep in mind here: she's one of my absolute favorites, and as such has been near the top of my "Must-See In Concert" list. With completing my goals of seeing Page/Plant, Radiohead, Tool, and others of my favorites, she was about the only one left, other than Nick Cave and David Bowie. So even though expectations were high, I was just very excited at the thought of seeing her at all.

She entered the stage wearing a bright gold leotard and dress with her forehead painted in bright neon colors, followed by her women's brass section dressed in matching neon and face paint. Then came the guys doing electronics which looked less like instruments or even drum beat machines and more like something you'd find aboard a ship in Lost In Space. There were crazy volume bars that changed with the touch of their fingers or electric looking flat board where circular objects were moved around to produce certain tones. It was very surreal.

She opened up with one of the most upbeat songs from her new album "Innocence" and it really started things off right, getting everyone jumping around feeling good. Why she didn't continue in a similar vein, I don't know. Instead she kept the set mostly atmospheric and languid, preferring to deliver slow-burning ballads and subdued versions of songs. There was the occasional upbeat song, and "Pluto" rocked really hard.

But regardless, it was hard to deny her pixie-like charming and soaring voice. One of the speakers even caught fire while she was backstage! She came back out and said, "Did you see that? Our speaker caught fire! But we don't care, we're going to play anyway." It was adorable.

So I did get to groove and jig around a little bit to her set, and was in awe the whole time, seeing one of the truly great musicians and performers of our generation. Thank you Björk, you've made this fan's dream come true.

Björk's set included:

Innocence
Hunter
Joga
Pagan Poetry
Hidden Place
Immature
5 Years
Cover Me
Anchor Song
I Miss You
Hyper Ballad
The Pleasure Is Mine
Army of Me
Pluto
Declare Independence

Björk - "Joga"


Björk - "Declare Independence"

Sorry for the Delay

Wow. It's been a really long time Gentle Viewers! Sorry about that, life has been busy and transitory. So I'll be brief and for the most part let the pictures do the talking, cuz y'know, pictures are worth lots of words and all that rot.

So, it feels like so long ago already, but yes, I left Seattle. After my job ended I enjoyed my last few days in Seattle, because the weather was nice and there was plenty to do. The best was the day I spent at the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. All in all Seattle had its low points, but it was all around a beneficial experience. It helped me to grow as a person and experience different lifestyles and environments. Plus, I became a coffee snob while I was there. Oh well, what can you do. Truth be told, I do miss the city a little. I hope to return to you someday Seattle.


So then I returned to Angleton for a seemingly extended stay, but first thing when I arrived my parents and I set off on a cruise around the Caribbean! I'll mostly just let the pictures do the talking.

Jamaica

Sunset Beach Resort, all-inclusive resort we spent the day at

The swim-up bar

Visited by "liquid sunshine"

Montego Bay: Harassment a-plenty!

Grand Cayman Island

Me and the peg-legged turtle ^_^

Near the shore

Tasty, with free internet!

Cock of the Bakery

Yo ho, and a bottle of rum

Blinded by the Light

Grand Cayman Snorkeling

View from the boat

Our snorkel boat, water view

A multi-colored reef, some fishies too

Lots o' little fishies, payin' me no mind

I love this little blue guy

Follow me to Sting Ray City

We're surrounded!

Many a tourist visited the lively rays


Give it a kiss for luck!

Cozumel

Monster of a cruise ship in Cozumel harbor

Entrance to the horse riding ranch/Mayan ruins

Bilingual info for all at the ranch

Bonita y Tranquilo

Surveying our steeds


Our guide and some posteriors

Ruinas Mayas

Gun boats under the banner

Just reflections of the sky

Around The Ship

Galveston Harbor from the ship. Hi Elissa!

Crazy multi-floored inside of the boat

Singing some Ryan Adams @ karaoke

P.I.M.P.

So after the cruise I hung out at my parents' house and spent plenty of time with my grandma. But after that I had to go to my job training...

Chicago

Downtown from an orb's perspective

The orb's looking at me!

Modern spitty arty

So then after that I journeyed to Austin to begin my camp summer, which is now over. 8 weeks. 8 weeks of non-stop tech camp, teach some good kids, some spoiled brats that I basically babysat. 8 weeks of poor living conditions in the dorm, and food so terrible in the cafeteria that I on so many occasions that I lost count I felt ill and bloated. Glad to be rid of that.

Hangin' around

On the positive, I did have some really good times, and make some great new friends, like Jake from Ohio, Weston from Colorado, and Hemanth from Corpus (but originally India!). We had some great times during the job, and some even better times going downtown, smoking, drinking, etc. Oh, and now that the summer is over, I can reveal that when we were making plans for drinking and kids were around we would call it Mario Kart. Such as, "I can't wait, as soon as I leave tonight, I'm going to Mario Kart until I pass out!" So it was funny to us, maybe not so much to you, but it made it fun feeling like we had a secret code.

Leading the chillens in "shout-outs!"

Omar the badass web dude/musician and one of my more "interesting" students

So now the summer camp is over, and now is a time to relax a little, catch up on my sleep, and my video gaming. But more importantly than that, it's time to find a job, and with that, a place to live. Big ups to my sis and Mark for helping me out this summer with a place to stay, and I don't want to stay too much longer and wear out my welcome. I want to get a place for myself. Right now Jake, Fabian, and I are wanting to get a place together, but they don't want to make the big move Austin without finding a job first. But they better hurry, because I don't want to be a couch bum for much longer! May the Gods of employment shine down upon them and help them achieve their goal of finding a job and being able to stay in Austin. You know me, I'll be around...

Whew! That's it! After a whole summer, months, and working on the one blog posting on and off for like 2 weeks, it's finally done. I promise it will be a lot less time until the next one.