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I'm still listening to 5/6/93.... That Mike's Song > Ob-La-Do, Ob-LaDa Jam > Fast Bluegrass jam > Rocky Top was something else. I was playing my bass along to it and going off, going nuts I wasn't really playing Mike's bass lines, but I was playing something. It felt profound. Mostly, I concentrated on reading Kate’s PQE proposal but my fingers kept moving. Bass notes were sounded. They were primitive. thoughtless. Brilliant!
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:47 PM

 
Crumpled notes from the underground - obligatory self indulgence -

1) A while ago, I realized that Tom Waits' album Mule Variations consists entirely of brilliant thematic, rhythmic, and tonal variations of one song. Unfortunately, I can't exactly connect the spoken word piece "What is he building in there..." to "Get behind the Mule".

2) Boston's "The Other Side Cafe" may be the closest thing in town to Cleveland's Tommy's. It doesn't serve Falafel, or milkshakes, but is nonetheless startlingly similar. I feel better for having visited. Fruit Smoothies = good. Fruit Plates = excellent. Punk Rock Girl Waitress, with a tattered inviting Brandeis sweatshirt = excellent. Add to that an interesting selection of draft beers, a bathroom that is simultaneously unsettling and intriguing and you have excellence.

3) A restaurant supply store that is located in China Town will have optimized itself to supply Asian restaurants, not Irish pubs that are pulled from the streets of Brussels.

4) Misty May is an excellent porn star name, but Olympic beach volleyball is not as overly sexualized as my buddies at work claim/wish it is.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:50 PM

 
Every once in a while it's nice to slow things down and do nothing. That was the key lesson of my time in the Interstate 91 block party. The freedom and release that comes from completely surrendering to the moment is a palpable release. It certainly helps to have nothing planned, no schedule, and little pressure to succeed at finding transcendence.

Perhaps my decision to do nothing yesterday was motivated by the fact that I woke up and immediately googled hangover cures and the like. I won't write of the experience of nothingness as trite, or as some compromise of the weekend. Admittedly, it's nothing I expected would have happened - and I was quite miserable for at least half of the nothingness - but then the pains subsided and I was left looking at the first rays of dawn shining through some tropical storm related thunderstorm action. There was peace and joy. It was a Ben and Kate day in some bizarre, but significant sense.

We also investigated a new restaurant (once food seemed feasible) Buddha's delight II. It's vegetarian Asian cuisine which emphasizes bland substitute meats instead of developing flavorful alternatives. I was disappointed. Fortunately, we salvaged our eating experience by visiting Emack and Bolio's for ice cream that is infinitely superior to JP licks.

yem yem yem. coventry slideshow... yem.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:21 AM

 
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,268030,00.html

If the Iranians go so far as to pre-emptively strike against US forces, they will provide easy justification for the next step in the War on Terror. It would be interesting to see how such an attack would influence the election. Not that I'm asking for violence, but it provides an interesting hypothetical situation.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:43 PM

 

posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:51 PM

 

posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:29 PM

 
I suppose the moments have settled, and I can sit back and express some of my Coventry sentiments. I love the band Phish, and have deep respect for their decision to stop touring while they were still on top of their game. Unfortunately, my journey to their final show was heart wrenching, frustrating, and ultimately a failure. Yes, I met some interesting people while parked on I-91 in an infinite traffic jam. The forced nothingness of my existence in a nonmoving mass of traffic provided a deep and soothing relaxation. I finally feel cleansed of work related stresses. Hopefully this condition remains.

What is unfortunate is that “the announcement” was followed by incomplete and inaccurate instructions. The band’s official radio station informed us that we were being turned away. We were told that if we abandoned our cars, that they would be towed and that walkers would be refused entry to festival grounds. So Kate and I departed, saddened for the loss of the show but not wanting to risk losing the car or causing some public safety problem by disobeying the bands wishes.

Now it seems that some 6,000 people were able to park and walk into the venue – many from places more distant than where we were parked. Did they love the band more than we do ? Maybe Zzyzx, but I’m sure my compassion and interest can rival many of the walkers. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t a fan, because I didn’t want to cry with the band when they inevitably broke down. That was why I bought the ticket and came up to Coventry. I didn’t wait in traffic to hear Fluffhead. I couldn’t care less what they played – as long as they meant it and I could say good bye to a band that changed the way I thought about music, and helped polish my philosophy of life.

Kate and I would have walked, if we knew that the car would be safe, and if we knew that we’d be let in. We probably would have walked if the assurances weren’t given, if the activities weren’t expressly prohibited. But we’d had our run in with law enforcement that day (4:45 am wake up with the light – apparently the towns and villages that were supposed to welcome resting phans did not want them in an otherwise vacant parking lot).

Why couldn’t we be given the true story, and invited to attend. Yes, the refund will be nice – but I would have been so happy to do a little extra work and be there. Why couldn’t they be straight with us, and let us make an informed decision.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:18 PM

 

08/11/04 Tweeter Center Boston, Mansfield, MA
Set I: The Divided Sky, Suzy Greenberg> Down With Disease> Prince Caspian> Scent of a Mule> Tears of a Clown> Scent of a Mule, Mexican Cousin
Set II: Run Like An Antelope> Also Sprach Zarathustra> Golgi Apparatus, Waves> Tweezer> HYHU> Terrapin, HYHU> Timber (Jerry the Mule)> Sample in a Jar
Encore: Bouncing Around the Room, Tweezer Reprise
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I'm quite groggy, with a mind racing full of memories, thoughts of Coventry, and fear of rain.  Last night's Great Woods show was one that just had to be seen.  Even though I spent much of Divided Sky parking, and racing towards our Seats, the show turned out to be an excellent and very positive experience.  I haven't seen a show where it looked like they 4 of them were having more fun than last night.  Between the Tears of a Clown with a guest vocalist from the audience (because no one in the band knew the words) and the banter surrounding Terrapin - there were a lot of moments to remember.

It took 1.5 hours to escape the lots.  I don't understand how the tweeter center could have designed such obnoxious parking areas and poorly planned the egress.  I've seen a lot of concerts in a lot of places, and none of them are comparable to the mismanaged and ill designed lots in Mansfield.  Oddly, though I don't remember much trouble escaping after my first show.  Did something change?


posted by Ben at (0) comments 3:58 PM

 
Set I: AC/DC Bag, Heavy Things, Punch You in the Eye, Wolfman's Brother, Theme from the Bottom, Birds of a Feather
Set II: Mike's Song> I am Hydrogen> Weekapaug Groove, Song I Heard The Ocean Sing> Piper, Makisupa Policeman, Dog Faced Boy, Friday, Harry Hood
Encore: Possum

This was a weird show for me. I got all dark and introspective (work stress) durring the first set. Some kids next to us were being really obnoxious (beating rhythms into the railing, etc). The birds jam was out and open. The second set contained the real highlights.... TTop notch mike's groove. Excelent Ocean>Piper and a raging hood....

Escaping the lots was difficult (and took almost an hour). It was all the tweeter's fault.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 12:44 AM

 

How can I grab control of my self and my situation?  I need to slow things down at work and get ownership of my own actions.  I need to ask questions. Fear of seeming silly must be offset so I can understand my bosses expectations and not stress over something that I may not be expected to immediately complete.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 12:27 PM

 
This week has been exhausting. I'm barely aware of the oncoming Phish, and not even terribly excited about it. Being able to function in a basic capacity is impressive enough. 3 12+ hour days in one week is too much. That creepy college perma-malaise is setting in. I'm exhausted like I was in the beginning of semesters my first couple years when I'd come back and almost think that I had mono. Hopefully I can rest this weekend, as there is no rest next week.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:46 AM

 
It's been a long and crazy day. I spent my morning rushing about getting ready to start the chromatography process that needed to be run last week. I got the data that indicated it was ok to run it, left the graph on my bosses desk with set points and a note that I'd be in the lab. The K-Prime needed to be fed buffer. My boss was hard to find for the next 1.5-02 hours, but I noticed that he left a notebook on top of my graph. I assumed that he'd seen it, and approved, but didn't feel that he needed to tell me and that he'd just gone to the luau. So I started it with my conservative set points and went to the Luau for some company sponsored fun. At the luau, the K-Prime comes up, I mention what I did, and received a bunch of okays and a mixed signal about my conservative estimates. My boss expected to start it tomorrow (this is after he was willing to run it blindly over the weekend with no evidence that the scale-up was successful... I recall some discussion about the need to take risks) Anyway, I headed back to work after the mixed signal and revised the fractionation program to allow a more liberal collection of dextran (maybe even risking contamination with the small particles). So, half of my product will be one way, and half the other. We'll see.

Reflecting on all of this, I think that my judgment clouds when I'm worried about not making a mistake, and trying to over compensate for pervious errors (even in scheduling). Hopefully all goes well.

posted by Ben at (0) comments 6:58 PM

 
Aftre a long hard day of work, it's nice to come home to a check engine light and a new game. Really, it's just the game that brightened my day.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:41 PM

 

The word from Steve Kings is that the car needs a new radiator and replacement transmission fluid.  They should cover the transmission service.  Hopefully they fix the leak as well, or else trouble will ensue.  The repair estimate seems like a favorable lease for 6 months to a year of automotive use.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:05 AM

 
Pray for the wagon of death. It may not rise again.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:16 PM