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august twenty fifth, twenty ten i've come to the conclusion that facebok is both great and god awful. it's great at staying in touch with people you normally wouldn't (long lost family members and friends from school you haven't talked to in years). but it's god awful in anything that has to do with disrupting or maintaining closeness (family tiffs and any serious relationships). while it was a pretty cool site back in 2007, it's gotten a bit out of hand. i've thought about quitting facebook several times over the last year or so, because i think a lot of times it does more harm than good. it's weird when you have so many people on there as "friends" that you really wouldn't consider as such in present day to day life. but at the same time, there's people on there who are your family members that you like staying in contact with and people who you don't get to see or hear about as often as you'd like that you like staying in touch with. it's a very loud place. and i don't mean that as in volume level, i mean it as in millions of people broadcasting what they like and how they feel about every single mundane topic. some people use status updates as a rouse or a ploy to initiate conversation. other people like blabbering about their children all day. and a lot of people enjoy the constant attention. it's all kind of a giant mess. and it really shouldn't be anything else other than a giant mess because let's face it - facebook is essentially one big chat room, a discussion board, instant messaging, twitter, flickr, a class reunion, and a stalker's paradise all wrapped up into one being. i'd be done with it, but what usually ends up keeping me hooked is my music page (despite my lack of updating that page this year). with facebook, i'm able to reach an immediate audience anywhere from 50 to 200 people to broadcast my music to. and with an album in the works, i could probably make a decent chunk of change with sales relatively quickly through facebook. much more efficiently than if i were selling them at shows, to my small amount of immediate family and friends, or by word of mouth. facebook is one of those things you need to take a step away from sometimes and just ask yourself "is this actually bettering my life?". from a personal standpoint, i'd say it was fine 2 years ago, but now i'm not so sure. i'm still on the fence about pulling the plug (actually about pulling the plug on a lot of things right now: my iphone and my car, most specifically). at any rate, that's how this internet shit functions now. i'm sucked in. skynet. speaking of the album, i'm going to start working on it sometime within the next couple of weeks. i have about 11 or 12 songs ready and it's going to be a shit load of work... especially doing it all on my own: piano, bass, drumming, strings, guitar, singing, writing, recording, mixing, duplication process, copyright process, and album art. but i'm ready to tackle it. i'd love to have it finished by the end of the year in order to qualify for the 2011 sammys, but we'll see. i'm definitely NOT going to rush anything because i'd like to have one freaking album that has a good sound quality and that i'm extremely proud of - regardless of when it gets finished. is averaging one album every five years considered lazy?
august nineteenth, twenty ten
- camping and hiking in the catskills with stefan aaaaaaand go!
august seventh, twenty ten as most of you know, i'm fairly well-traversed in music (theory, appreciation, history, etc... etc...) and i don't often, or try not to let my knowledge make it seem like i have a huge ego on the subject or like i know more about it than anybody else just because i have a degree. my love for it is probably the same as someone who has no idea what the difference between a major and minor chord is. you don't need to know the differences in things like that to love music. it's not some snobby thing where you need to know all these different facts in order to appreciate it. but through all the decades and centuries that music has evolved and changed direction, and through all the different genres, styles, and artists, i have ONE favorite all-time-best moment in music. ever. ever ever ever. it's the transition between "i want you (she's so heavy)" and "here comes the sun" on abbey road by the beatles. yes, i know. i realize that picking the beatles as my favorite musical moment is totally chiche. honestly, i'm not even that obsessive of a beatles fan. best band ever? yes. some of the best songs ever written? sure as shit yes. but i don't actively listen to their music that often (sans for a handful of songs). and why not beethoven's 7th symphony as my favorite moment when you can clearly hear him starting to go deaf? or why not "rock around the clock" by bill haley and the comets as it ushered in rock and roll to mainstream america? or why not mozart's requiem that he wrote on his deathbed? or why not the gershwin solo in "philosophy" by ben folds five since i am a rabid and biased bf5 fan? in my opinion, perfect moments in their own right. but none of them have the same magnitude as this. really, in order to get the full-effect of this experience, you need to listen to the actual record. and i don't mean record as in listening from track 1 to track 17 (by all means you can do so, but the two songs is fine), i mean, actual vinyl record. listening to it on your itunes just doesn't have the same timing as it does on vinyl. you can listen digitally, but you need to press pause immediately after "i want you (she's so heavy)" and leave it paused for about 10-15 seconds. this pause represents flipping over the record from side-a to side-b. and yes as crazy as it sounds, i'm telling you as a musician, that there IS music in silence. first, you start with "i want you (she's so heavy)". if you haven't heard this song, it's pretty much the darkest beatles song ever. it's about 7 or 8 minutes long with the first 4 minutes bouncing back and forth from this slow, jazzy, ultra-cool "i want you" vibe to this kind of dark, emotional, and passionate sequence with the beatles yelling out "she's so heavy"! over and over again. the two sections kind of play off each other with "she's so heavy" trying to inch its way in. in my opinion, it's the inevitable storm slowly approaching. the last 3 solid minutes of the song is the "she's so heavy" pattern over and over again with a repeated guitar riff during this very dark, instense music with crazy static and wind-like sounds thrown in. the beatles do a pretty excellent job of beating this dark anthem into your head repetitively. the actual guitar lick is in e minor (for those that don't know, it's a dark chord based off the lowest string on a guitar. you seriously can't go down any lower unless you deliberately tune it down on purpose). it's a storm. it's 3 minutes of the worst storm you've ever experienced with the constant beating of rain and thunder that just won't quit. just when you think it's going to go on for another minute or so, it just stops. the music just totally ends abruptly. as a first time listener, it's not uncommon to think "what the hell just happened?". i wouldn't even be surprised is the beatles knew that by doing this, they would get this kind of reaction out of the listener. it's the last song on side-a of the album making the listener get up from wherever they are and manually switch over the record to the other side (i figure a 10-15 second pause is about a correct allocation). this pause is literally that several seconds of silence you get right after a huge thunderstorm has just ended and moved onward. put the needle down on side-b to start "here comes the sun" and you're hit with an a major chord. essentially, hope. the sun. home. you can literally hear the clouds start to open up with george harrison's lone voice ringing in an absolutely perfect melody (and lyrics). the drums kick the rest of the band in after 20 seconds, and it ends up being, in my opinion, the most beautiful and uplifting beatles song ever. it's all right there in about a 10 minute span. objectively speaking, you get the best pop/rock band of all time, on arguably one of the best albums ever, precisely timed half-way through, their darkest song (representing pain/darkness/the storm) into their most beautiful song (representing hope/uplifting/the sun) and you really can't paint it any better musically or make it any more lyrically clear as an artist. it's amazing. when someone says... about anything... that you should love this (be it art, food, books, music, movies) it can sometimes tarnish your view of it and make you say, "it was good, but not that great". it's like your senses have been built up and are aware ahead of time so it doesn't have the same mind-blowing effect as it would if you came across it on your own. so my only hope is that you take this with a grain of salt and see for yourself. you may not agree. or you may. in my opinion, it's never gotten any better in music. it's perfect.
august fourth, twenty ten so if there's three traits about the lorenz men current and passed that have held true since the late 1800's, it's that we like having kids in our late 30's, 40's, and even at age 50, we like beer, and we don't enjoy retiring at an old age or having nothing to do. there were four traits: that we all were in the army, but my brother and i pretty much nixed that one. um, i hope.
august second, twenty ten it's nice that the painters had this gigantic side of a building (historic, mind you) to use as their blank canvas for this thing, but the canvas itself shouldn't even be there to begin with. it's only there because some genius thought it would be cool to knock down a building and put in a surface parking lot in its place (my guess is that this happened during the urban renewal process of constructing i-81 in the 1950's). and while the painting itself is a nice reflective representation of erie canal life in syracuse in the late 1800's, it's only broadcasting huge mistakes that the city made in the process: not only by filling in the erie canal which was located a half a block away from this spot, but this mural is going to remain here for the next couple decades because people will think it's pretty instead of recognizing the fact that there should be a building in its place - not an ill-functioning surface parking lot (which hypocritically, i'm guilty of parking in). the picture in the article doesn't even show the most ironic and humorously sad aspect about the whole thing: the fact that there's a drive-thru window directly below this thing. seriously, is there anything more retarded looking than seeing a couple of cars pulled up to a drive-thru underneath a 400-foot night time painting of a pre-automobile age canal scene that doesn't even exist anymore? it looks so out of place. and i feel weird even writing this because i love art, love the erie canal system, and love how it does actually beautify the city better than what was there before. but it basically puts a bandaid over a problem that runs much deeper than painting some nice colors on a blank building. all it does is existentially show what's been wrong with the entire city's situation for the last hundred or so years. SIGGGGHHHHHH.
july twenty eighth, twenty ten our official syracuse division watering hole sponsor looks like it will be rosie's on tipp hill - which has improved nicely from its dank, shithole-ness the last time i was there a few years back. kickball drink specials, flip cup, and an inordinate amount of free pitchers of beer paid for by waka seems like it's going to be a deadly friggin combination for monday nights. as for the technicalities, i've been designated team captain of the irish carmbombs. which basically means that i get to create kicking lineups, help organize fielding positions, and yell out kicking and defensive strategy (all the dorky stuff i enjoy doing anyway). my legs are still working and i can still kick and run, which is a little refreshing. our kind of makeshift team won our first scrimmage game. i was able to punch in the game winning run on a slow roller to first after deaking out the pitcher on the way to 1st base. still a lil trickster. really, the only downside is that softball might end up being monday nights too, so i'll have to stick with kickball unless i want to join an indoor league, which sounds lame. or join a more advanced league, which... might kill me.
july seventeenth, twenty ten it's been great to be back, but i'm at some kind of weird point in my life and it's funny that it has to be hitting me right now of all times. i've got what i need and am pretty much doing what i need to be doing, but it all fees kind of incomplete. maybe once i get a new job here and maybe start dating a little, it will settle me down a bit, but i don't know if i really have a clue as to what i'm supposed to be doing. i don't know if i really need to though. i'm still young. as i've learned the hard way, the only thing you can do is not worry about all that stuff. i was thinking about it a lot over the last several months, but like what's the point? things will eventually work out as long as i stop over-analyzing it all and just keep doing what i think i need to be doing (despite my crazy thoughts, i'm a big believer in karma, fate, destiny, and all that bullcrap). BUT, on my big things that i need to accomplish is a gf. and it's pretty crazy trying to find someone to fill that role here. i suppose it would help if i wasn't trying, necessarily. but 'cuse and really all of cny is a really rough place to meet the kind of girl i'm looking for. like the odds of me finding someone my age, who doesn't look like a train-wreck, who's a non-head-case, who enjoys downtown syracuse, who graduated from college, who would at least respect my decision to not own a car, who would put up with me hating the yankees, who likes the way i write, sing, and the whiney music i play, who would put up with me being a drunken mess on some weekends, who would rather eat at sakana-ya than at applebee's, and who doesn't play pointless head games is really slim. on top of that, throw in terrible guy-to-girl ratios for the area and the fact that most girls around here are already married and/or have kids, and it's so incredibly difficult. it's such a low pool of not just available, but totally normal, single girls. like if i were a big a-hole, i'd show a picture right now of the kind of girls who checked me out on a dating service i was on recently. it was a mess. an all-star cny mess. granted, dating services are mostly for the desperate, attention whores, and sleezebags, but it at least represents a fraction of what's around me right now. and i think that's why i was thinking about moving to new york so much when i was down there recently. i guess i still am thinking about it. and really for the reasons of just living life, a new experience, a chance at a good job, and meeting people. it's really hard for me to admit that i'm going to be spending the next x amount of year(s) of my life in syracuse. not because i don't like it here (i love it) but because i have a hard time admitting that this is it. i'm much more comfortable knowing that i'll be spending the last 20-30 years of my life here than i am of me starting the end of it right now and just telling myself "ok, time to get serious. i need to get a good job, buy a condo, and find someone to settle down with right now because i'm not going anywhere else after this". and it's been a weird thing to think about. i guess i'm still on the fence about a big move like that. especially doing it for those reasons. really, i was thinking about a move back in '08 and then a relationship came in, now it's over and i'm thinking about it again (and i JUST moved...). though 'cuse does have its huge advantages. just about everything is a "big fish - little pond" scenario. anything i do here has a bigger impact than if i were in nyc (music, blogging, volunteering, open mics, etc...) even things like going to the grocery store are a much less strenuous task than they are in a bigger city. those are the things that pretty much wore me down when i was in boston, so the last thing i would want to do is to make some kind of huge move, be unhappy, and then end up moving back here and being in the exact same position that i'm in now. guh. there it is. whatever it is, it's a strange time in this here life of mine. lovin' it, but strange time.
july fourteenth, twenty ten
see what we have pictured here? just your average cliche white suburban wholesome family living in "anytown, usa". i have no issue with what these residents are actually saying (they're protesting the disposal of sewage and waste extracted from onondaga lake waste beds - one of the 100 solutions in cleaning up one of the most polluted lakes in the country). and my issue isn't with the waste, necessarily (all waste is bad - but let's not forget that mother nature will know exactly what to do with all of our stupid junk and mistakes long after we're gone). my gripe is: why is something like this coming under so much fire and yet something equaly as troubling, like the midland sewage treatment plant that was built in the inner city several years ago, can fly under the radar so easily? ready? ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM. ok, i said it. i'm done...
july twelfth, twenty ten
and i'm spent. you stay classy, king james.
july fourth, twenty ten i'm really a fan of mayor miner. right after she won, i was apprehensive that she'd be picking all these fights with people and organizations in syracuse (and sure enough, that's what she did), but honestly, syracuse needs a mayor like this. someone who isn't afraid to have the entire police force against them. there's way too many things in syracuse that need changing (policies, laws, and general ways of thinking that haven't evolved since the height of the city in the 1950's). she's trying to change these things and at the same time figure out ways to not only make the city money, but do so while making the city function properly in a weakening economy - all while not pissing off the general public. and more so, she has do this with no money whatsoever (i kid you not, this city has no money of its own - sure there are plenty of great developments going on right now downtown but it's all privately funded - the city can barely find the resources to mow the grass in the 10x10 foot park outside my apartment). it's an uphill battle for her whatever she does. and pretty much any new idea that she tosses out there (a commuter tax, or refurbishing schools instead of building new ones, or overhauling the police department, ect...) gets so much hatred and negativity thrown at it, that it's almost like she's talking on deaf ears whenever she tries to initiate something even remotely innovative, city-oriented, smart, or anything outside the box that's never been done before. i love it here, but most people in upstate new york are wayyyy too stubborn. they're stubborn in their own right. we like our space and big yards, we don't like government intervening in our individual lives but we want them to fix our big problems, we fear anything that changes the status-quo or anything that we're used to (and i use "we" rhetorically because i don't necessarily agree with all of these statements). and what "we" have to learn is that the old ways of doing things here haven't been working for the last few decades. what's a shame is she's actually the first politician that i've ever noticed around here (or anywhere) who is doing it all herself, doing it all to improve the city (not the county and not the suburbs), and she's not afraid at all about what kind of backlash there will be from it. if her term ended today, she would at least deserve credit for exposing what's really wrong with a lot of different aspects and levels of syracuse politics, government, and functionality (is that a word?). seriously, what politician drives around the city in her free time taking pictures on her cell phone of landlord's properties that are overgrown with trash and debris, and then forwards the pictures to the proper city departments? she seriously cares about what's going on. and i think it's awesome because there have been way too many people (both politicians and citizens) who don't care. there's way too much of a defeatist attitude about the area - and most specifically downtown. i really wish people could take more of an objective view with her. and not spout off a quick statement like "oh she hates the police!" or "she hates suburbanites!". she really gives a crap and is really just coming out swinging. at least she's doing something. cut her some slack. jack!
june thirtieth, twenty ten
chiefs/bisons, wing night nj style, nyc, nyc food, citi field, and ommegang are up next!
june ninth, twenty ten
I LOVE SUMMER.
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