July 3, 2006
day 3

i remember back when i first started playing drums how much listening to music changed. all of the different drum sounds stood out in a way that i'd never noticed before, and it was kind of startling, maybe?

over the last two weeks i've experienced the same thing again, but this time with synthesizers and all of the fancy effects that make modern music. i can hear the reverbs and flanges and synth pads that were always there, but are now new again.

i wonder how this changes music. does it cheapen it, because i know that this sound is this plus this with this, or is it enriched, because these different effects mean something more specific, that can't be fully appreciated casually?

separately i've been going through 4 box sets of woody allen movies, and something curious has happened 3 or 4 times. i'll watch one movie, and think it was pretty good, and either later that day or the next, i'd watch another, and would be blown away at how much better the second one was.

i'm looking forward to seeing the boston fireworks tomorrow (for only the 3rd time in the 7 years i've lived here). i hope my friend phik is ready for adventures! SEXY ADVENTURES?

July 17, 2006
on the future of dreams

this morning the recent future of dreams became clear to me.

when someone figures out how to reliably control what you dream about, the first step will be some machine that you'll be able to buy (for a lot of money) so that you can control your dreams. during the second phase, companies will sprout up that will give you these machines for free, and in fact actually pay you to dream about whatever their clients want to advertise to you, in your sleep.

of course the next step is for them to get rid of the middle man, and just advertise to your dreams on their own. while this won't be a fun time for us, those couple of weeks when we can control our dreams seem pretty nice.

July 23, 2006
the end of an era?

for the past six and a half years, many movie ads have been placed on the montly ticket sales level of the harvard square T stop stairs. i have also gone to many movies in that time. however, i've never gone to a movie advertised in this location.

well that streak is going to end because they have snakes on a plane ads up now.

yesterday i went on a tour at the boston globe. did you know that modern soy inks are odorless, and that they put that newspaper ink smell in it artificially?

July 23, 2006
wiki wha?

i spent all day reading wikihow.com:

July 29, 2006
oof

weather.gov's hot icon does not mess around:

since the jsb show in nyc was canceled, i got to see bloc party in boston last night. i guess one advantage of going to a show by yourself is that you can sometimes get 18th row seats the day of the show.

it was a short set compared to radiohead or a full jsb show, but they played most of their album, a couple b sides, and a couple tracks from their upcoming album. the sound was really muddy and maybe not loud enough.

they had flourescent patch cables which did look pretty cool, though.

July 30, 2006
running from reality

i forgot to charge my ipod when i got back from the show friday night, and it ran out of batteries on the T yesterday. i left the earbuds in (otherwise sometimes people talk to you), but i could still overhear a couple and their, i have no idea, 8 year-old daughter?

anyway the woman got a phone call, and it was i guess from their other kid who just broke up with their boyfriend, or they just got dumped, or whatever. after the call she told the daughter about it, and she looked quite upset. she wondered who would play basketball with her now. then she asked why, and was told that he had been talking to some other girl.

"WELL SCREW HIM!" she yelled, to the dismay of her parents.

i tried not to laugh too much.

i picked up islands' album; they weren't so bad when they opened for metric in... april? i really like this time of year, when you can hear the cicadas and just eat ice cream all day. of course i'm all out of ice cream, so i had to make due with some pickles. when they ran out i turned on the relish.