| Back on the Bike |
[Jan. 30th, 2009|01:38 pm] |
I am pleased. I got the all-clear from my orthopedist yesterday to 1) not come see him again and 2) start riding again. (He did tell me not to fall anymore, though.)
So now I have 6 weeks worth of slacking to make up for. When I broke me I was up to 60 or so miles a week normall, 80+ if I pushed, so hopefully I haven't lost out on too much of that. In a couple weeks I want to start getting serious about endurance training, but now I have some ground to make up just to get back into pre-training shape.
At least there's not so much ice on the street in the mornings anymore. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 16th, 2009|10:05 pm] |
I was going to do this, and then that bastard![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mrmunkeepants beat me to it. A year in review, since I did a pisspoor job of actually updating.
January - Followed my previous year's January Minneapolis vacation with a January Toronto vacation. Because I'm a weird dude. Had a good time and then got stranded in O'Hare Airport in Chicago overnight. Swell. I also played a gig at the Broadway Center right before Garrison Keillor, and got free tickets. So that was neat.
February - February 2 (yeah, we had a Groundhog's Day party) was the last time I got Too Drunk. It is no longer something that is in my plans. After that February was boring, unless I have forgotten something.
March - Gogol Bordello rocked socks. As they tend to do.
April - Got to see Marjane Satrapi speak and Ben Folds rock. Not a bad way to spend my time.
May - May was wicked frickin' awesome. Participated in my first ever 72 Hour Film Fest (which will be an annual thing for me, definitely) and went to Sasquatch to see REM, Flaming Lips, Mars Volta and a shitton of other bands.
June - Hosted a gathering of internet nuts (known in my world as a WEVA). People came from London, Tennessee, Chicago and California to hang out and see the Northwest. Highlights included Northwest Trek (Amy, the Englishwoman, had never seen a proper bear), EMP/SFM, day trip to Portland and a camping trip to Vancouver Island.
July - June and July I also spent working on a feature film called Eyes In The Dark as a Production Assistant (I was titled "Assistant Camera Operator", but it was a first-person film so I didn't actually hold the camera, and spent most of the time as set-bitch). It was occasionally greuling (more so for other people), but generally a good time and an interesting experience. Also I moved back in with Jake in this house after a year on my own.
August - Goodness! I like Goodness. I have seen them put on better shows, but it was solid and fun. Of course, the real show of the month was Bumbershoot. So many good bands, many of whom I'd never heard of. Man Man and Monotonix spring to mind.
September - TV On The Radio concert. Good as ever (p.s. have you heard their newest record, Dear Science? Holy crap it's good. Seriously. Best thing they've done by far).
October - Jake went to Turkey. I sat in anticipation, knowing that he would be returning with a fez for me. (It ultimately proved too small, despite being the largest fez he could find in the grand bazaar) I spent my time doing things like going to see The Mountain Goats (who are tied with TVotR for best record of the year, with Heretic Pride) and learning how to use my newly acquired sexy awesome Logic Studio recording software.
November - I don't think I really did anything in November. Maybe I'm wrong though.
December - I got a tune-up and some new parts on my bike, and promptly rode across an ice patch, snapping my left collarbone. Five days later I got on a plane for 10 hours, travelling to London. Met up with Liz there and headed up to a farm cottage outside Conwy, Wales for a few days alone (Conwy Castle is large and bitchin'). Then back to London for Christmas, pub-crawling, New Years, and mostly a lot of sitting because I had a broken frickin' collarbone. Oh well.
Mostly it was a year of music and a year of biking. I started playing with Mr. Fusion (my long-standing acoustic duo) again. We have some new material I'm really excited about, and now that I've got a good setup we've set about the task of refactoring and recording our 40+ song catalog. I've also been playing and gigging regularly with my dad and his friend Goodwin as Out Of Sight... Out Of Mind.
On the biking front... I've always enjoyed biking, but there was a while in there where I just never bothered. First I lost my wheels, then when I finally replaced them I was out of the groove. Well, I started riding to and from work, and that has grown and grown to the point where I am riding about 50 miles a week, at least. I basically stopped riding the bus entirely and travelled everywhere by bike. Obviously the bone-cracking incident put a damper on that, but hopefully I will be back on the bike by February and able to start seriously training. My goal this year is to do the Seattle To Portland, a 2-day, 204 mile trek from... do I really need to say it? Anyway, it's in July. Sometime before then I'll need to get a real road bike. My pseudo-mountain bike is fine as a commuter, but probably won't stand up to serious distance abuse.
Also in July is my return to Comic Con International for my b-day. I is excited. Hells yes. Beyond that, hopefully the year will be full of more writing, more recording, and possibly the starting of my own webcomic (provided I get better at drawing).
That is all. Happleh New Year!
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| Bruuuuuce |
[Nov. 18th, 2008|04:08 pm] |
So, My Name Is Bruce is opening at the Varsity in Seattle on December 12. It's running the whole week following, but after the 7 PM and 9:30 PM showings, The Chin himself will be doing Q&A.
I'm heading up for the 7PM show. Anybody else coming? You know you want to... |
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| Bumbershoot |
[Aug. 1st, 2008|08:53 am] |
Anyone I know going this year? |
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| two five on the two five |
[Jul. 24th, 2008|08:39 am] |
Hey kids... e-mailed some people, but there are more of you out here.
Turning 25 tomorrow. Getting some folk together at the Parkway Tavern in T-town at about 7 PM for quality chillaxin' time. And YOU are invited. That's right, YOU. Because YOU are special, and I value YOUR presence.
No really, I do. Even if I have rolled up all your existences into a single personal pronoun to make this easier to write.
Maybe Saturday I'll actually post a real post? Maybe... |
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| Random head status update: |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|07:04 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | hair | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  lightheaded | ] |
I know I don't update much, but at least I'm consistent when something drastic changes about my head situation, eh?:
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| Anybody like Marjane Satrapi? |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|11:26 am] |
When I bought two tickets to Harry Shearer last year, I also came away with two tickets to see Marjane Satrapi speak next week at the Moore. None of my usual concert-going chums have any idea who she is, so I thought I'd just throw this one open.
Satrapi is an Frenchish Iranian best known for creating the Persepolis comics, which were recently turned into a film. Anybody feel like going? It ends early enough that I don't even need a ride home, because I'll make it to the last bus back to T-town.
Show is Monday night at 7:30. Chances of pre-show sushi are, as always, high. |
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| Rock. Music. |
[Mar. 11th, 2008|03:44 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Superwise | ] |
Goodness!
Hells to the yeah, bitches.
My usual plan will be in effect... to buy two tickets so I can barter one for a ride. However, given that it's a Saturday night, and given that I know at least one person in Seattle who is a fan, this one is also open to barter for floor crashing space in Seattle, rather than an actual ride back to Tacoma.
You know you want to. |
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| Dreams |
[Feb. 18th, 2008|09:05 am] |
Don't have time to get into detail, but the short version is that Matt Frewer and Casper the Friendly Ghost were responsible for a series of rapes and murders at what I can only guess may have been the Olympics. Admittedly in the beginning of the dream it was a pair of kittens, but later on they became Casper, in the way that things change in dreams without you noticing.
Fortunately we chased Matt Frewer down on bikes (not easy to do... there were steep paths and he was surprisingly maneuverable) and stuffed him in a bag until we could convince the cops that he had done it. Casper escaped, unfortunately. Little bastard. |
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| Important News |
[Feb. 5th, 2008|09:40 pm] |
Not been posting much. Doing a lot of music stuff, and most of my writing energies have gone toward my other blog. But I return to LiveJournal with news that will darken the hearts of at least two readers here.
Though it is not the legendary Wilcoxson's, locally owned Wilcox Farms is shutting down their dairy operation come the end of March and sticking to their primary seller, the egg market. This means no more Wilcox chocolate milk, people. A sad day indeed. |
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| Book readin' update... |
[Jan. 25th, 2008|12:44 pm] |
Read Hero With A Thousand Faces. It's alright. Joseph Campbell's a smart guy, but clearly an academic pretending to be a writer, rather than an academic writer.
On the docket for this weekend are Neuromancer (William Gibson), Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) and Perdido Street Station (China Mieville). Should be fun. Haven't read a lot in the way of novels recently.
Also checked out Hesiod's Works & Days and Theogeny. Because I am just that kind of nerd. |
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| Okay, a serious one... |
[Jan. 13th, 2008|06:02 pm] |
My first attempt at recording a serious song:
http://www.izenman.com/media/letgo.mp3
I posted the lyrics to it back in August when I first wrote it. Up until yesterday morning it was just another one of my acoustic-guitar-and-singing tunes. But now the capacity for overdubs has clouded my mind, and over the course of the day it gained three more guitar tracks and some percussion.
Obviously it's a little rough... if I were aiming for perfection I would have done a few more takes of things. But I'm starting to get the hang of working in GarageBand. Also now I finally have my piano, which is good. I was originally going to add some keyboards, but I think the reverb on the various backup guitars takes care of texture. I do feel like it needs some bass. Unfortunately, with all the gear I've got, a bass is one thing that I do not. So I'll either cover the low end with something on the keys, or borrow a bass from someone at the band house, I guess.
I could use this space to complain about the Seahawks. But whatever. If we had to lose, I don't mind it being to Green Bay, especially this year. |
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| Anybody need anything recorded? |
[Jan. 12th, 2008|09:06 pm] |
I've been planning for a while to get back into recording some of my acoustic stuff onto Jake's computer, but our schedules never seem to work out, and as I was going to be writing and recording a whole bunch (hopefully), there was really only one solution: get some gear and record on my own damn computer. So last Sunday I bought an M-Audio FireWire 410 interface for my computer, plus a Shure SM-57 microphone. Yesterday I finally got one of my power strips from the band house, and today I got some of my electric gear (guitar and keyboard).
Wrote (if you can call it that) and laid down this sucker last night, and I've got to say the sound quality is pretty good. For a free program that came with my computer, Garage Band is proving quite flexible, and while it won't be absolute professional quality stuff, just having a chance to lay down tracks so that I can write more parts to go with them (something I've been wanting to do to a number of my songs for quite a while) will be a great help.
No doubt I shall be posting tunes as I record them for your perusal, and possibly a picture of this mess o' cables and gear once I get it all placed properly. |
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| Taking a cue... |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|08:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | books | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs | ] |
I'm not going to do what some people are doing and say "I will read 50 books this year". I do have a whole lot of books, though, that I own and have not read. Also, I have a library card. But I've spent a lot of time re-reading the same old stuff. Good stuff, admittedly, but it's about time I started in on them. Many are part of my real project for the year, which is to make a start on a book I've been meaning to write. I talked a bit about it at the beginning of last year, but it sort of fell off for a while. However, after a wonderfully inspiring conversation with Liz, I've found a newer, more feasible direction for it and am slowly starting research. So... books I'm planning on reading in the coming months:
Hero With 1000 Faces - Joseph Campbell (already in progress)
Masks Of God - Joseph Campbell (actually a four book set)
War and The Iliad - a pair of essays comparing WWII and Iliadic warfare
The entirety of Bullfinch's Mythology
Rereading the epics (Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and Beowulf)
finish A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson
finish A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
Don Quixote - Cervantes (I've sort of read it, but it was in high school, and I skipped some bits)
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Firebrand - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Candide - Voltaire
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
The entire body of Greek tragedy and comedy by Aristophanes, Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides
Fragile Things
I will attempt Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, though if it sucks I will stop.
The Once And Future King
And that's just the ones I can think of looking around my desk. I'll probably also make my way through the rest of the Jasper Fforde catalog (I have still only read Eyre Affair), re-read Lord of the Rings (because I didn't do that in 2007), anything I can get my hands on related to Arthurian legend, and hopefully most of the Vonnegut catalog, just for the hell of it. Plus finishing my study of Digital Signal Processing For Scientists And Engineers, Linear Algebra & Its Applications, and the MySQL 5.0 Certification Study Guide.
On a semi-related note... does anybody here know anything about mythology/heroic literature traditions in Asia? All my current avenues of research involve Western traditions, and I want to take a look at some more distinct cultures, but I don't even really know where to start. |
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| Improv Thingum... |
[Dec. 21st, 2007|08:08 am] |
Anybody else think this sounds cool?
You are cordially invited to kick off a new year of improvisation with
Wing-It Productions with the opening night gala for the new production
Shades of Gray!
Shades of Gray is a new unscripted show inspired by the art of Frank
Miller, creator of Sin City. Come hear the stories of a slew of femme
fatales, anti-heroes, and flat out evil bastards living in a city
darkened by the shadow of corruption.
Join us on Thursday, January 3rd for the opening night gala of this
new show, featuring some of the finest improvisers Seattle has to
offer: Eli Boer, Jeannine Clarke, Gabe Denning, John Faga, Adina
Gillett, Jana Healy, Stephani Thompson, Elicia Wickstead and Doug
Willot. Featuring art by Sean Buckley and music by Chris Lundgren.
Shades of Gray Opening Night Gala
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Doors open at 7:30, show starts at 8:00pm
The Historic University Theater
5510 University Way NE
Seattle, Washington
Tickets are $10 at the door or online at www.wingitpresents.com
Please note that this show is intended for mature audiences and may
contain language and situations inappropriate for smaller children.
Wing-It Productions are responsible for Jet City Improv, one of the better known improv comedy shows in Seattle. Sounds like something I'd go see, especially if other people were going as well. |
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| Grad School Stuff |
[Nov. 20th, 2007|07:21 pm] |
Finally got my official GRE scores, and the count is:
Verbal: 690
Quantitative: 800
Analytical Writing: 5.5
(first two are out of 800 like the SAT, writing is two essays on a 1-6 scale, averaged, meaning I got a 5 and a 6)
I'm fairy pleased. I honestly think I probably could have gotten a bit better on the verbal, but it's still 96th percentile, so I'll take it. Besides, it's not all that significant when trying to get into engineering schools, I would expect.
Now I just need to write a statement of purpose and get these apps out the door. |
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