Hurry Up Suzye

Just sittin' here, freshly off work, waiting for Suzye to finally return after her school field trip. Plans for this evening include a succulent Quality burrito, a six-er, and True Blood. Does it get any better than this?

To follow up on my last post I spoke with Albert again today. He brought in some memorabilia from his time in the service including pictures of the planes he flew, the other soldiers he flew with, and all sorts of documentation from that time including old drivers licenses, passports, and even a picture of him as a Hitler youth. Pretty surreal.

Hope to see you guys tomorrow at the Spadoni compound. Until then...

Oh, and on Sunday the first episode of the fourth season of The Venture Bros. airs, so if any fellow fans of the show out there want to share the experience let me know, cause I'm pretty stoked about it.

Flaming debris, cougars, grizzly bears and bulldozers oh my.

Damn it, why do I begin tasks such as these at altogether ridiculous hours of the night? I think this one has been building up in my head or something, like some sort of cranial coronary. The blockage just exploded. (WATCH OUT!) The problem is that I haven't posted in so long that I feel some sort of responsibility to make it some substantial or important post, thus becoming my triumphant return to internet blogdom. If your expecting this I hate to break it to you but you'll likely be disappointed, (Spoiler alert!) for this is just another story from a day much like any other...

Today began like many others, having had an enjoyable time hanging out with close friends and having the time of my life doing nothing in it of itself special or outstanding last night, suddenly it's the next day and time to go back to work - business as usual. But when I got there something happened that for one reason or another happens, usually to my detriment I might add, that makes absolutely no sense to me. Why do people you aren't that close to (or are complete strangers with) for no reason tell you their entire life story? This sort of thing usually occurs in some second hand store, dollar store, outlet, or similar semi-shady bargain establishment. But today it happened at the place of my employment with an interesting old man by the name of Albert.

Now Albert usually has some long drawn-out story that 90% of the time involves what his doctor has said about the effects of his arthritis this week, and what procedures they have in store for him. All spoken in the hardly intelligible accent of a foreign old man. But on this specific day he decided to disclose details of how he got all of that shrapnel in his hip that he constantly mutters about. He had in the past talked briefly about getting shot down in the war, but today he (like butter) was on a roll. He told me in detail about the entire experience, along with the subsequent seventy years of his life. Part of me does not feel right about spilling all the details for all to see, but if you see me sometime soon I'll give you the rundown in person. More important than the nitty-gritty specifics were the lessons I learned simply from listening to a man tell me exactly what made his life tick through the decisions he made over the course of his life. A long one I might add.

I should say that the only reason this little conversation between us came to an end is the same reason every single other conversation I've ever had with him has ended; someone else enters the scene and distracts him with a simple hello - something which completely derails the train of thought and the cycle begins again on another tangent, to another person.

Ahhhh.

It's the only word that seems appropriate following the long slog of moving all of my possessions, and a great deal of other stuff, out of my house. I never want to scrub anything ever again after Suzye, Ryan and I attacked with vigorous swipes and lightning-quick wrists, seemingly every surface of our former domicile. But all that's over now. Lately the much better side of moving has occupied my time-- unpacking and setting up a new "nest". As much as I'll miss the house in Oly, sometimes it feels good to start fresh anew in a different place. Wipe the slate clean so to speak, and write something totally new. Like taking all of the word magnets off the fridge and composing entirely new meaningless phrases.

Speaking of lightning-quick, I was nearly struck by lightning this last week. It was simultaneously terrifying and invigorating. We were half way through our hike through the Yellowstone gorge when the weather began to show it's dark side. Most-- actually everyone but us-- scrambled to their cars like rats attempting to evacuate a flooding subway or something. But we pressed on. And so, at the trail-head, it was Suzye, Lindsey, and I up front when suddenly the sky exploded. I saw a bolt come in to being less than a hundred yards directly in front of me! Nick was behind the three of us and described our reaction as simultaneously ducking and jumping. The air was electrically charged as my brain processed what had just taken place. The remainder of the hike through the rain and hail garnered more appreciation and respect from me than the others due to the weather. For some reason I've always enjoyed the weather when it shows it's darker side. I think the force and power of nature comes across better. Kind of like when in The Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf intimidates Bilbo.

It's a goddamn Samsquanch!

So I've been meaning to post for a while now, both in general as well as about the most triumphant time I had while at the Samsquanch festival. So here goes. As with all events I attend, the first order of business was to get work off. This time around it was surprisingly easier than normal, I was able to take care of all the arrangements including getting someone to teach my swim lessons, in a single morning. This may not seem, to an outsider, like something that should be that difficult, but I assure you that at my place of work it is an extremely difficult task. So we set off from Olympia, Suzye and I, behind schedule (as usual) to pick up Ashley in Tacoma. Once there we found a mountain of stuff that I had to fit on top of the already huge pile of stuff we had brought for ourselves. But I managed, using my profound tetris-like skills taught to me by the master of fitting shit in a trunk- my father. And so, after roasting green, we set off toward the gorge. We made it just in time to set up our tent in the dark and began to settle for our five day stay. After working the next day in the morning we got to see some behind-the-scenes action and I, for the first time, began to understand all of the work that goes into making an enormous three-day long festival. That night we became acquainted with all of the people we would be working with for the next several days and found them to be for the most part a pretty cool group of people.

On the first day of concert going we saw the rap/electronic duo Champagne Champagne. I was pleasantly surprised by their show. They sounded pretty good, and had a fresh sound. They pumped up the crowd pretty well also. Following the show, and for the rest of the weekend they were a fixture backstage. Nearly every time we were back there they could be seen hanging out. This brings me to another point about the weekend that was really cool; our ability to go behind the scenes at will. I have never felt so privileged at a gathering before. We were able to eat catered food that was almost always spectacular, as well as mingle among the artists. I felt like the kid in Almost Famous all weekend. Next we saw M. Ward, which was kind of low-key but good, followed by Devochka. We didn't see all of their set but they were good also. That night we saw the Decemberists and they were easily my favorite band of the day. They played mostly new stuff and it was incredible. Their female vocalist kicked ass and took names onstage, belting it out like she owned the place. Awesome. After their set we decided to go load up on grub before work that evening. BTW, I should have menshoned, we worked the night shift which meant 11 at night until 9 in the morning. Pretty grueling, but actually, aside from having to find a cool place to sleep during the day, it was ideal. We could see most of the bands we wanted to see during the day instead of being trapped at the mainstage, only able to see who played there. Anyway, we got in the grub tent, washed our hands and got in line. And thats when I had my first star-struck moment of the weekend. Right in front of me in line for grub was the lead singer of the Decembrists! I had to tell him "great set man!" even though I probably wasn't supposed to. He thanked me and we went on dishing up. It was a pretty cool experience. After eating some miraculous cesar salad and salmon, we headed back out to watch the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They were amazing as well and garnered more appreciation from me than I expected to give. Toward the end of their set we headed back to camp to get ready for our first all-night shift. We came back down and listened to Kings of Leon and as soon as they got offstage we set upon tearing their stuff down. I got put on backline crew which basically means I took care of various pieces of the drum risers and instruments. While onstage I found a guitar pick with the guys name on it, along with one of the drummers sticks. It felt kind of awkward keeping it in my back pocket throughout the out (term for packing up a bands stuff and getting it loaded onto their truck) but it was completely worth it. After getting them all loaded up, and after a short break, we started unloading all of Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction's stuff, which was an assload! I swear I've never seen so much shit in all my life. They filled up the stage with all of their rigging and lights. It was hard work but we got to see the sun rise over the gorge which was simply beautiful.

We worked until nine and went to sleep. After waking up in pools of our own sweat, we hung around camp for a while getting to know the people we were working with. We eventually made our way out to the festie. While we were walking down from our campsite, which was conveniently located adjacent to the venue, SQ brought it up that we should have puffed some before we left. I agreed, and we made our way to the comedy tent to listen to Zach Galificanakis, who I also saw backstage later in the day, sitting at the same picknick table as me. Anyway we sat down to listen to the guy and befriended some Canadians. One of them asked me for a cigarette and I told them that instead of giving them money, which they offered, I would accept a joke as payment. (Suzye said it would be good karma) Never have I witnessed good karma pay off so quickly! One of the drunk Canadians instantly found a nearly-full pack of cigarettes on the ground and inside was a joint. They gave us a couple smokes and shared the J with us. After that we went to the main stage to watch TV on the Radio. They kicked much ass, as expected, and sounded great. Following that we saw Of Montreal, which had some trippy visuals and a high energy set. Suzye had to see NIN due to some infatuation she had as a rebellious youth, and we again went back to camp in preparation for the evening's shift. We watched from backstage while Jane's Addiction played (bullshit) and the lead singer talked about his penis, everyone else's penis, and other manner of weird, twisted shit. We again worked until 9 in the morning and got dicked over by being fed what Ben coined "prison sandwiches". Other than that the night went off with only marginal complaints from the crew and no one got hurt.

I am getting tired of writing so I'll just sum up the rest quickly. Santigold was INCREDIBLE! Fleet Foxes ruled, and ben harper is not even worthy of capitilization. One of my favorite bands of the whole weekend was Explosions in the Sky. If you haven't head of them you should check them out! Do it now!

Oh, and BTW an event that will go down in youtube history took place in the copulating couple on the rocks during the Decemberists show. Hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=218tVFKwXt8

Peace,
Randall

I suggest you watch it fullscreen to get the full effect.

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

So fresh and so clean

Today was one of purification. Let's just say that the house's ass has been officially made grass. From my room to the pink (?) scum all over the tub, a new shower curtain, Zuke's cage, the living room, and even the massive pile of recycling in the laundry room, the dirtiness has been decimated. Feelin' good, feelin' grand, the vagina is no longer filled with sand.

Had the day off to accomplish all of this save for the lifeguard inservice I just got home from. We had to do a drill where we swim the length of the pool, retrieve a ten pound brick from the bottom, bring it to the surface and swim with it to where we started. We were timed and I won with a time of thirty-four seconds. I am told by my boss that I will get a prize. I wonder what It'll be. Probably a snickers or something. That's cool, I'll take a snickers.

Not much else going on in my life as of late, just passing the days until I am reunited with all of my friends along with the love of my life. I really mean what I said in my last entry about the sixteenth, if you guys don't show, you'd better have some excuse like "I went to the zoo and fell in with the lions and they tore all my limbs off, threw me into the gorilla cage where I was beaten with my severed limbs, tossed in with the crocks and torn into small pieces, and last but not least hurled into a whale aquarium where I was sifted through baleen and excreted as whale shit." It really has to be that good. So if you can't come you better start thinking of something.

Life; Highs and Lows

I got home from work this evening and and saw Jeremy standing motionless in the living room. When I asked what the hell he was doing he told me to listen. I did. I heard nothing. I proceeded to make some dinner and hang out and forgot about it. Presently I sit in the living room and there is an incessant scratching coming from the wall. Having ruled out the cats, being the obvious assumption, I conclude that it must be some mouse or other critter trapped between the wall. How this kind of thing happens I have no idea. What I do know is it is actually getting LOUDER! and more frequent. God help us all from going insane.

In better news, I just watched this video and it made me feel warm inside:

http://gizmodo.com/5231112/best-video-ive-seen-today-will-make-you-smile

I want all of you to stand by me on May 16th! No excuses will be accepted.