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Monthly Archives: May 2012

t.w.i.m.: 4/30-5/6

Full Albums:

  • Baroness, Blue Record1
  • Mastodon, The Hunter
  • Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, The Main Ingredient
  • Rage against the Machine, Rage against the Machine
  • Does it Offend You, Yeah?, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You2
Random Excellence:
  • The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Y Control”
  • Beastie Boys, “Bodhisattva Vow”3
  • Money Making Jam Boys, “Contract the World”
  • Nas, “Sly Fox”
  • Left Lane Cruiser, “Waynedale”

Songs of the Week:

  • Friendly Fires, “Blue Cassette”
  • Royksopp, “Vision One”
  • Miike Snow, “Silvia”
  • Kelly Clarkson, “Impossible”
  • Kasabian, “The Doberman”

Reviews:

1. I listened to this at work so I can’t tell you what the lyrics are about, but I assume it’s fairies, demons, and stuff. What I can tell you is these riffs are delicious. Nearly every song starts feeling like a trick: “What? Acoustic guitar on a metal album? Ugh, there’s no way this will turn out well.”  But then every song turns out okay. Every single time. Incredible riffage.

2. The title’s kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy, if they were warning you about how terrible this album was going to be. Not a single enjoyable song. Which is incredibly difficult for me to believe, considering how much I love their debut album.

3. You will be missed Nathanial Hörnblowér, but you will live on.

Comment:

I’ve had a week of serious ups and downs that kind of put me into a mild existential crisis in the last four hours or so.

At work I had days where my productivity was unparalleled, where I felt like I did everything right. At the same time, I was storing up a whole lot of frustration. I think it was Wednesday when I remembered my grandma, apparently, used to just vent all of her anger with someone at once in some terrifying anger storm that the targets frequently couldn’t understand because her ire covered everything between 5 minutes and 5 years. So I think I started chipping away at that frustration by actually talking. Stupid, right? All I needed to do was send another email. Of course, there aren’t any lingering problems (I know of), I was just being a dumbass and everything started sorting itself out with some communication.

I also saw a scary movie for the first time in years. Well, even that’s hard to say because The Cabin in the Woods isn’t really a scary movie as much as a smart movie about scary movies. It’s incredibly funny and insightful. There are so many reasons for me to not write anything else about it and just tell you to just go see it. It’s just a good movie, and liking a (mostly?) scary movie confuses me.

I even realized I don’t think I like drinking holidays anymore: your St. Patrick’s Days, Cinco De Mayos, etc. There are already enough drunk idiots stumbling around Manhattan without me. My greatest urge on Saturday wasn’t to do all the tequila shots I could find, but to take a nap. Sure, I had a (belated birthday) margarita or two, but my night ended at about 9. Hangovers are the worst and I have no reason to bury myself in them.

And then I looked back on my finances. My habits haven’t really changed, but somehow everything has changed. I’m paying less for everything in theory, but I think the hectic nature of moving and sharing a birthday week with both of my roommates placed me outside my comfort zone. A lot of things have changed for the better since moving: my gym schedule, my commute, my outlook. Yet, I still feel a weird pull, deep in some forgotten part of a murmuring ventricle, to be at home, just catching up on some project that I, and I alone, care about. Maybe I’ll wrap myself up in a book, magazine, TV show or comforting game; whatever it is, it’s nowhere near anyone.

Which is ridiculous because I have those stupid hangovers from  staying out too late to keep hanging out with my friends. Or maybe because I don’t like alternating water and tasty beverages? My theory seems slightly off and highly unfounded, but I can definitively say that the sum of it all was both supremely awesome and surprisingly uncomfortable.

So, even though the next three weeks are typically the craziest weeks of the entire year at work, I guess I’ll try to focus more on what’s better for that ventricle pang. I don’t want to be selfish, but I think I break if my heart does too, so I probably need to focus on some weird compromise where I get to be as social as draped in apartment.

I’m under the impression I’m way better at prioritizing tasks than friends and it’s finally starting to get the best of me.