i was just reading over some of my past entries and realized i neede to clarify something: milton glaser does not wear a cowboy hat. it is a fedor, but to my uncultured eyes, it looks like a cowboy hat. sorry milton if you are reading this, though a cowboy hat would be pretty rockin. (he could be reading this. i found out that the heads of my program found this blog and have been reading it. they say it's cute. i guess that is good. )

an old post from another blog about why i love the weakerthans so much.
from feb. 16, 2001
please enjoy.

It’s a lovely Friday night in chicago and I’m sitting around waiting for a price quote. I’m so bored. Bored. Bored. I just want to get my quote and get the hell out of here. Need to stop by bluezeus and pick up my stationary samples that I designed. Have to enter them in a design contest. Then maybe I’ll go running and later I have to stop by whole foods to pick up robyn and jenny to go to the Sweep the Leg Johnny show. Blah. Blah. Blah. So to amuse myself while I wait, I’m going to try and recreate the blogger that I wrote last night since the blogger monster decide to eat it out of spite.

Here we go. Hope I can do this. It’s definitely not going to be as good as the one I wrote last night. Oh, well.

Saturday night, I went to see The Weakerthans at the Fireside Bowl. It was a completely sold out show. The line stretched around the building and down the block. I stood in line surrounded by packs of under-aged teenagers minus their coats bitching about being cold. I watched my breath crystalize in the air thinking about how I used to be that young, naïve and innocent. God, I hope Val, Jenny and Robyn get here soon so I don’t get stuck at the bar by myself while the show sells out and they can’t get in.

Jenny and Rachael pull up in a cab and cut in line with me. We sustain some piercing stares from the kids around us, but we ignore them.

We get inside and settle down at the bar. The venue area is packed with bright-eyed, punkers and vegans waiting for the show to begin. The bar is better. It’s good to be older at these shows. You get a seat. You drink. You get to talk and not go deaf as bands you don’t care about play. We sit around talking about jobs, boys, drums, music and things in general as we spiral into drunkness.

The second band takes their bows as I weave my way to the merch table looking for members of The Weakerthans. I need their persmission to shoot the band tonight. They, of course, comply. (what band wouldn’t? free fucking publicity!) I push my through the moist mass of bodies and walk across the stage. My usual shooting location is filled with a group of kids. I ask if they mind that I hang there and shoot the band. They don’t.

I talk to them for a while. It turns out they all go to school together and one of their friends, Peter, is a huge Weakerthans fan. They drove all the way from Ohio to quench his obsession and most of his friends have never heard the band. They're along for the ride. One of them lets me know that The Weakerthans have agreed to maybe let Peter play bass with them. I’ve heard these promises before from bands. I hope The Weakerthans keep their word.
The band takes the stage launching into their first song drowning the venue in their rock/punk/folk chord driven sound. Music pulses through the air leaving the crowd paralyzed in a wishful wonder while a few mouths move etching the lyrics. Good music is better than any drug. One of the reasons I like this band so much is the lyrics. I’ve grown out the teenager, idealistic ranting of the punk I grew up with. It no longer fits with my 26, jadded, wiser self. The Weakerthans express what I feel now. They speak of the bitter sweetness that comes in life after the shimmery newness wears off. It’s nice to have a band speak to me.

Half way through one of their songs, the lead singer stops and asks if a bass player from Ohio would like to get up and finish out the song. The kids around me grab their friend and push him up on stage. He stands dazed as someone hands him the bass. The singer then asks for a drummer. A kid bounds forward. Then he asks for two guitar players and a singer. A couple more kids swarm the stage and the make-shift band finishes off the song. Peter and the rest of the fill-in musicians leave the stage grinning. For them, it is one dream fulfilled.

I sit there watching the band finish their set smiling to myself. That night, The Weakerthans reminded me why I put up with dirty venues and mass mobs of sweaty teenagers to see shows. The simple fact that music touches the masses and the masses touch music back. The symbotic relationship created in those brief hours is one of the most powerful, fulfilling things in my life. During these moments, I return to that innocent, naïve sixteen-year-old seeing my first show. It makes me pure again.

I got my price quote. I’m going home. Time to eat a dinner of broccoli and a vegan corn dog and then head off to another show. God, I hope it is as good as The Weakerthans show.

once again i turn to blogger when it is late. it is 12:40am to be exact. or something like that. i set my watch ahead by fifteen or twenty minutes, but i really don't have a clue which one it is. i think i like the suspence or it just keeps me from being super late to everything in my life.

another week of graduate school has rolled on by and i think back and wonder what did i do this week. i know that i filled my time with bazillions of things, but i never remember what they are. okay. i'll see if i can do this. i think i have an earlly form of alzehimers or something. if i do, do i get to be a senior citzen when i become thirty? that would be pretty rockin. free coffee and low cost admittance to art museums and disneyland. and all the Depends i can muster.

enough of my chatter. let's get down to what you came for: me and NY and what the hell i do here. yep. sure. rock.

monday: did a bookbinding workshop. it was cool. we learned the kettle stitch. i sat by lauren and mark who were highly entertaining. mark was loopy with hunger so lauren and i feed him crackers and helped him make his book. (mark is a little bookmaking impared, but we still love him.) i am sure i did other stuff on this day, but i can't remember.

tuesday: we all presented our box projects. most people liked mine. they thought it was well thought out and interesting. got some good advice. now i just need to make it happen. scary. i spend a ton of time last week getting supplies to build the instruments. as of yesterday, i got everything i need. poser tools here i come!!!! (for those of you who need a small fresher on what the hell i am talking about, i am making a guitar, drums and thumb piano out of cigar boxes and wine crates. then i am going play/record them with my friend steve and make a small cd. finally, i will package the entire thing in a cigar box. volia!)

wednesday: presented the magazine that i came up with. milton didn't like it,bt i don't think he understood it. i did a cooking/enteratining magazine that was like readymade. had the same design style and attitude. don't know of any cooking magazines like that. a handful of people came up after calss and told me that they thought milton was wrong and that my idea would work. that was nice.

thursday: david rees came to speak. sooooo fucking funny!!!!! i loved him!!! go buy his books!! he is the guy that does my new fighting technique is unstoppable and get your war on. check out www.mnftiu.cc. thursday night, stefan was not there, but my lovely matius was there. (sagmeisters assistant) he was great. super truthful about liking something, but he was good at refining ideas and making them stronger.

friday:presented our websites. mine was a personal site for myself to showcase my work. it was cute, strange, pink and had lots of bunnies on it. oh, and a terrible photo of me from when i was 10. worked more at night and then went out for drinks.

saturday: worked most of the day on my book that was due on monday. went to a show at night. it was for the weakerthans. (one of my favorite bands. also the band that i redesigned the cd for my cd class.) i found one of the band member and gave him the redesiged cd. he total love it. he kept telling me how beautiful it was and how he couldn't believe how much time i had spent on it. the show was amazing. it was at CBGB which was rad just by itself. i called val on the first weakerthans song and left her a message telling her that through the greatness of technology she was now with me in NY at a weakerthans show at CBGBs. (val turned me on to the weakerthans. she was my show buddy. we always went to their shows together.)

sunday:more work. met up with jeff t. and we went to go find cigar boxes. got four free boxes (saved $16!!) cuz the saleslady makes drums out of her cigar boxes too. she gave her card and wanted to hear and see the final product. then we went and got beers and burgers. spent the rest of the evening finishing up my book.

monday (today): finished up book. worked in the library. worked on the magazing that is due on wednesday.

good stuff this past week: getting care packages from friends. lisa sent sweaters and good music. (can't stop listening to the paybacks or JET.) and josh sent me candy, cheese, a candle, a winter hat, music and a rooster pictures. oh, and his love. it got warm here. i could not wear a coat! wooo!! wandering around NY with jeff. totally amusing and sweet. reading my new fighting technique is unstoppable out loud with natalie on wednesday. (we were a bit tipsy.) working with steve on the box project. just as excitetd about it as me.

now. sleep. must get up early tomorrow to shoot pictures of lauren.