My annual performance review comes next week sometime, but I'm not worried.
I say 'sometime' because I've been putting in a lot of hours the past two weeks, helping coordinate a big fundraiser last weekend, and everyone is more or less spent and taking it easy for the next few days.
It's my first performance review, mostly because it's the first time I've been at a job for longer than one year without taking significant time off for things like school and studying abroad.
I'm not worried because yesterday my boss bought me a present and left it in my mailbox. It was a tie, not so much my style of tie as much as it is Initials, but it's still a nice tie, and it came with an awkwardly phrased thank-you note and a giftcard for $20 to a local pizza joint.
I'm not also not worried because I work at a ridiculously well-funded arts non-profit, and the fundraiser I helped orchestrate was a success. The accountant is still typing numbers into her calculator, but it's more a matter of figuring out how much of a success it was.
May's work schedule came a little late this month, because everyone was busy at the fundraiser and things got lost in the shuffle. A copy of my schedule was also in my mailbox, with the extended hours of someone ranked directly above me in the artsy-corporate hierarchy.
I'm all for putting my eggs in one basket normally, and this should be a happy-happy-joy-joy type of post, except for one thing.
I left work a little early on Monday for my great high school love: community theatre. I haven't been in a play since the summer between high school and college, when I decided that drama people are filled with, well, drama and I really don't have the patience for that kind of self-centered fuckery that comes with theatre people.
But it turns out, I'm a Leo, and a friend was able to convince me to try out. And the audition was a success, and this morning I checked my email and found I was offered a fairly substantial role.
Unfortunately, the hours of someone in the position directly above me in the artsy-corporate hierarchy interfere greatly with rehearsal time. Boo.
April 30, 2008
April 25, 2008
Suck it, monkeys, I'm going corporate!
Last night's 30 Rock was quite possibly the best halfhour on television in my life. The Amadeus parody, Will Arnett as a gay sexual predator, CorporateLiz's hair at the business lunch, "More business juice, please," the glimpse of Tracy's kids, it's all pure gold. I'm even embedding the full episode here using their crappy HULU site, that's how much I loved last night's episode. It more than made up for the worst Office episode.
April 23, 2008
Youtubed Answers
Answering the somewhat-blind items at the end of the previous post, in youtube form.
I met Laurie Anderson, who is number 86 on VH1's Greatest Women in Rock list for some reason only explained by their untenable defintion of "Rock n Roll". She did not mention that she and Lou Reed got married the day before I met her, which I think was rude. Who does she think she is, Beyonce? She stopped by my place of employment before her show, for which Initials and I already had tickets. I tend to prefer her 'story' concerts instead of her 'music' concerts, but it was still a neat show.
My favorite song from the concert:
Initials' birthday present, the New Pornographers concert, went over like gangbusters. We went out to a fancy-smancy dinner before the show, where we were underdressed but treated nicely by our lesbian server, and so we arrived late and our seats were closer to the back than the front, but still pretty good. The opening act, Okkervil River, were overly energetic and wholly unsatisfying, which is kind of their job as opening act. The New Pornographers, sans Neko Case, whipped though an impressively tight set that seemed to hit all of Initials favorite. Most of the audience ended up being cute guys in flannel plaid, a la the Jens Lekman concert we went to a few weeks ago. I really do need to get to the store to try that out.
The Least Annoying Okkervil River song:
Funny New Pornographers music video:
New Pornographers live:
The 7th Scariest Place in the United States is House on the Rock, which is often described as designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong. It's a maze of bad architecture, doll carousels, automated music boxes, giant seamonster battle dioramas, and racist piggy banks. It has the largest merry-go-round in the world. Some of you may have heard of it via Neil Gaiman novel. It's ridiculous but perfect if you're in the right mood for it.
Music Box Sampler
I met Laurie Anderson, who is number 86 on VH1's Greatest Women in Rock list for some reason only explained by their untenable defintion of "Rock n Roll". She did not mention that she and Lou Reed got married the day before I met her, which I think was rude. Who does she think she is, Beyonce? She stopped by my place of employment before her show, for which Initials and I already had tickets. I tend to prefer her 'story' concerts instead of her 'music' concerts, but it was still a neat show.
My favorite song from the concert:
Initials' birthday present, the New Pornographers concert, went over like gangbusters. We went out to a fancy-smancy dinner before the show, where we were underdressed but treated nicely by our lesbian server, and so we arrived late and our seats were closer to the back than the front, but still pretty good. The opening act, Okkervil River, were overly energetic and wholly unsatisfying, which is kind of their job as opening act. The New Pornographers, sans Neko Case, whipped though an impressively tight set that seemed to hit all of Initials favorite. Most of the audience ended up being cute guys in flannel plaid, a la the Jens Lekman concert we went to a few weeks ago. I really do need to get to the store to try that out.
The Least Annoying Okkervil River song:
Funny New Pornographers music video:
New Pornographers live:
The 7th Scariest Place in the United States is House on the Rock, which is often described as designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong. It's a maze of bad architecture, doll carousels, automated music boxes, giant seamonster battle dioramas, and racist piggy banks. It has the largest merry-go-round in the world. Some of you may have heard of it via Neil Gaiman novel. It's ridiculous but perfect if you're in the right mood for it.
Music Box Sampler
April 20, 2008
A Song for You
I know, I'm a bad blogger.
Instead of updating you on the past week or so, I'm just going to upload some new songs onto my muxtape.
The theme is songs with real people mentioned in the title. (Note: "Real people" are defined by the existence of a wikipedia page detailing their life and accomplishments.)
And yes, there is one song that is written for a minor character from LOTR, and the last song on the mix is the geekiest song of all time (just try to prove me wrong). It's Initials' birthday, and he's a geek, so it's ok. A glasses-wearing, Dungeons and Dragons-playing, Laurell K Hamilton-reading, geek. But I've come to terms with it.
Enjoy, everybody.
Oh, and I did do things, and will continue to do things that would make good blogposts, in case you were wondering. I met one of VH1's Greatest Women of Rock n Roll. Tonight we're going to see Canada's favorite Independent Music group . And tomorrow, we're going one of Time Magazine's 10 Scariest Places in the United States. Should prove to be good times.
Instead of updating you on the past week or so, I'm just going to upload some new songs onto my muxtape.
The theme is songs with real people mentioned in the title. (Note: "Real people" are defined by the existence of a wikipedia page detailing their life and accomplishments.)
And yes, there is one song that is written for a minor character from LOTR, and the last song on the mix is the geekiest song of all time (just try to prove me wrong). It's Initials' birthday, and he's a geek, so it's ok. A glasses-wearing, Dungeons and Dragons-playing, Laurell K Hamilton-reading, geek. But I've come to terms with it.
Enjoy, everybody.
Oh, and I did do things, and will continue to do things that would make good blogposts, in case you were wondering. I met one of VH1's Greatest Women of Rock n Roll. Tonight we're going to see Canada's favorite Independent Music group . And tomorrow, we're going one of Time Magazine's 10 Scariest Places in the United States. Should prove to be good times.
April 10, 2008
Cover Me
Have I mentioned lately that I love Covers? I imagine it's related to my love of iconoclasm. I don't mean iconoclasm in the sense of censorship in the Byzantine empire, but instead in terms of ridiculing and reconfiguring pop culture icons into something new. It's why I enjoy Pop Art and bastardpop and such.
I made you guys a muxtape full of covers, if you're interested in streaming the twelve covers that I've been enjoying lately. I was thinking about making this into a contest to see who could identify the original artists, but then I realized that these are all ridiculously easy, or ridiculously easy to google.
Let me know if you guys like the whole muxtape thing. I enjoy making mix cds but don't enjoy running out of bandwidth every other day, so hopefully this will work out for everyone.
I made you guys a muxtape full of covers, if you're interested in streaming the twelve covers that I've been enjoying lately. I was thinking about making this into a contest to see who could identify the original artists, but then I realized that these are all ridiculously easy, or ridiculously easy to google.
Let me know if you guys like the whole muxtape thing. I enjoy making mix cds but don't enjoy running out of bandwidth every other day, so hopefully this will work out for everyone.
April 7, 2008
Boning at Bach
So I was eye-fucking this guy at the Goldberg Variations concert we went to yesterday. He looked kind of like one of the Joshes, but I'm not really sure which Josh is which. He didn't look exactly the same; he was a little older, maybe late twenties, had a slightly rounder face and a hairline which kind of receded on the sides but kept the bulk on the top and middle.
Initials didn't mind, even though he was sitting next to me and I was not being subtle about it, since he was noticing the Josh look-a-like's date, who was attractive in a dark-haired politician-type with glasses sort of way. His guy was wearing a red and white checkered shirt which looked pink from a distance, while the guy I had a mutual checking-out thing going on with was wearing a green shirt and a blazer.
The four of us were, by far, the only bone-able people at the concert. I guess 250 year old Bach concerts played on refurbished period harpsichords don't draw in the cuties like the Jens Lekman concert. We four were the only people under the age of 40, and of 10 who were under the age of 60. It was a sea of short cropped white haired ladies and balding pear-shaped men wearing suspenders, purple dresses and ugly broaches and inadvertent gas.
The couple and I were bored out of our minds. I'm a fan of the Gould recordings, but I can only listen to one song, maybe two, on a harpsichord while still being polite. I did my best, which was better than the cute couple, who stretched, yawned, fiddled with their fingers, twisted their necks, cracked their backs, and tapped their feet arrhythmically. Occasionally, my guy would look over, and we'd make eye contact, and then he'd get suddenly distracted by his program. Initials' never made eye contact with his guy, but I saw them whispering in a 'don't look now but...' sort of way.
During intermission they stayed in their seats in the middle of the row, and so while Initials and I had every intention of 'accidentally' bumping into them in the lobby and making small talk and maybe exchanging some phone numbers, maybe ditching the second half of the program, but it didn't happen. It would have been too awkward meandering down the row of old people to introduce ourselves.
They were church benches. They were uncomfortable as fuck. My guy would still crane his neck to glance at us while we stood in the back and waited for the second half of the program to start. I probably would have cut out during intermission if it were up to me, but Initials is the son of two music teachers, and his sister is a music history teacher, and so we stayed. I'm surprised the cute couple didn't leave, but they stayed put.
The second half started, and the pianst started making more mistakes. According to Initials who can apparently tell about these things, his right pinky got lazy. I don't know. Even the old people were starting to yawn and daze off a bit. It was a matinee, so at that point they were probably mad at missing the early bird specials.
I stopped paying as much attention in the second half to our cute boys, and started daydreaming. What's worse, is that I started daydreaming about meeting up with them and then blogging about it. I'm a loser.
The concert finally ended, and there was a standing ovation. Not because he deserved it, but because it's a small city and it's culture and everything gets a standing ovation, it seems.
The couple booked it as the applause died down. They weren't quite running, but they were taller than they looked while sitting, and they were making full use of their long strides. Zoom zoom. I told Initials that we HAD to book it. I didn't daydream about the blog post I was going to write for nothing, about how much information I would give you guys, how coy to play it, depending on what happened. I mean, Initials and I have had three threesomes since the last I mentioned it, but I haven't blogged about it yet because I'm a gentleman.
They split to the left as they left the building and the path diverged, and we were parked down to the right. Goddamnit.
As they made their way, the guy in the green shirt turned around and blew a kiss at us, and then wrapped his arm around his boyfriend's shoulder, and then they slowly disappeared while walking down the hill.
It ended like a bad movie, with them walking off into the sunset and Initials and me staring after them. It was all buildup with no release. How rude.
Initials didn't mind, even though he was sitting next to me and I was not being subtle about it, since he was noticing the Josh look-a-like's date, who was attractive in a dark-haired politician-type with glasses sort of way. His guy was wearing a red and white checkered shirt which looked pink from a distance, while the guy I had a mutual checking-out thing going on with was wearing a green shirt and a blazer.
The four of us were, by far, the only bone-able people at the concert. I guess 250 year old Bach concerts played on refurbished period harpsichords don't draw in the cuties like the Jens Lekman concert. We four were the only people under the age of 40, and of 10 who were under the age of 60. It was a sea of short cropped white haired ladies and balding pear-shaped men wearing suspenders, purple dresses and ugly broaches and inadvertent gas.
The couple and I were bored out of our minds. I'm a fan of the Gould recordings, but I can only listen to one song, maybe two, on a harpsichord while still being polite. I did my best, which was better than the cute couple, who stretched, yawned, fiddled with their fingers, twisted their necks, cracked their backs, and tapped their feet arrhythmically. Occasionally, my guy would look over, and we'd make eye contact, and then he'd get suddenly distracted by his program. Initials' never made eye contact with his guy, but I saw them whispering in a 'don't look now but...' sort of way.
During intermission they stayed in their seats in the middle of the row, and so while Initials and I had every intention of 'accidentally' bumping into them in the lobby and making small talk and maybe exchanging some phone numbers, maybe ditching the second half of the program, but it didn't happen. It would have been too awkward meandering down the row of old people to introduce ourselves.
They were church benches. They were uncomfortable as fuck. My guy would still crane his neck to glance at us while we stood in the back and waited for the second half of the program to start. I probably would have cut out during intermission if it were up to me, but Initials is the son of two music teachers, and his sister is a music history teacher, and so we stayed. I'm surprised the cute couple didn't leave, but they stayed put.
The second half started, and the pianst started making more mistakes. According to Initials who can apparently tell about these things, his right pinky got lazy. I don't know. Even the old people were starting to yawn and daze off a bit. It was a matinee, so at that point they were probably mad at missing the early bird specials.
I stopped paying as much attention in the second half to our cute boys, and started daydreaming. What's worse, is that I started daydreaming about meeting up with them and then blogging about it. I'm a loser.
The concert finally ended, and there was a standing ovation. Not because he deserved it, but because it's a small city and it's culture and everything gets a standing ovation, it seems.
The couple booked it as the applause died down. They weren't quite running, but they were taller than they looked while sitting, and they were making full use of their long strides. Zoom zoom. I told Initials that we HAD to book it. I didn't daydream about the blog post I was going to write for nothing, about how much information I would give you guys, how coy to play it, depending on what happened. I mean, Initials and I have had three threesomes since the last I mentioned it, but I haven't blogged about it yet because I'm a gentleman.
They split to the left as they left the building and the path diverged, and we were parked down to the right. Goddamnit.
As they made their way, the guy in the green shirt turned around and blew a kiss at us, and then wrapped his arm around his boyfriend's shoulder, and then they slowly disappeared while walking down the hill.
It ended like a bad movie, with them walking off into the sunset and Initials and me staring after them. It was all buildup with no release. How rude.
April 2, 2008
Reading is Painful
In order to get kids to read these days, you practically have to tie them up and place the books directly in front of them. Or at least in front of their junk, so that this blog maintains a modicum of work-safety.
How Long Has This Been Going On by Ethan Mordden
Clear by Nicola Barker
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
The Faculty of Useless Knowledge by Yury Dombrovsky
How Long Has This Been Going On by Ethan Mordden
Clear by Nicola Barker
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
The Faculty of Useless Knowledge by Yury Dombrovsky
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