Scared of the Youth, Scared of What's Next!

As I sit here in the quiet house in San Jose all by myself with rain slightly pouring outside and spring training baseball on TV...it's kind of a bitter sweet feeling knowing that my last 'real' spring break is almost over...part of me feels like I should wait till Spring Break is over to write about it but eh.

I started my break off by seeing Mike Huguenor play a solo set at the Blank Club in San Jose. Mike plays in couple amazing bands such as Shinobu, Hard Girls and Classics of Love. He recently started a graduate program at Chicago so it had been a while since I saw him. After the show I got a chance to talk about what he is researching and look forward to talking to him again in future about his studies.

I also got to see Fake Problems open up for Say Anything. They had a 30 minute set which included six songs. Also got a chance to see the new guitarist.

The day later, I went up to Berkeley to see Yulia and Hard Girls play at 924 Gilman Street...Hard Girls played 'Masters of the Universe'...they never play that song.

I spent the rest of my break camping at Julia Pfiffer Burns State Park. Our campsite was right by the ocean which was awesome. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I love the ocean, there is noting else in this world that is more soothing that just sitting and staring at the ocean. 

There is something about dangling off cliffs and looking down to a fifty feet drop into rocks and ocean. It's scary but also in a way a direct pure connection with the ocean. 

hmm that is all for now I guess....56 days till Graduation. 

Jack of All Trades.

Everything works in circles. Like sometimes you're doing something and a year later or in my case four years later, you're back at the same point. So currently I'm on circle one, and someday or in my case come august, I'll probably do circle two.

Two weeks ago, I went to Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco to see Cloud Nothings. I really enjoy their new album so it was cool to see those songs live..I had a weird feeling when I found out that the leader singer was younger than me..I guess I'm getting old.

 A whiskey bottle dating from 1870-1910...the other side of the bottle is completely cracked.

A shotgun shell. Dating from 1860-1900.

One of the cool things about studying Archaeology at a university level is that you get to work and do research on cool artifacts.  Currently I'm working on artifacts that were found in an excavated site at Mono Mills in California.

Spring Break is coming up so maybe I'll write more later. Midterms and Papers are keeping me busy at the moment.

"Music should sound like escape, not rent" -Tim Barry

Letters From Fresno, CA

This past weekend I went up to San Francisco with my friend Sim to see Archers of Loaf play as part of the Noise Pop 20th Anniversary Festival. Funny how things work, last year when they were doing the whole reunion tour I really wanted to see them but couldn't find anyone to go with. This year, knowing they were playing I didn't get tickets until Sim called me asking if I wanted to go. If he hadn't called, I probably wouldn't have gone.

The show was a killer, I hope I get to see then again but if this was their last time in SF I'm glad I got to sight of em.

After the show, Sim and I went to a bar to meet up with his friends since it was one of their birthday. It was my first time legally drinking in the city and first time going to a bar in the city so I was pretty excited to see what was up. He forgot to mention that the friends we would be meeting up would be four girls from the UK. A wonderful pleasant surprise for me. Overall, it was a really fun night.

My housemate and I burn wood in our backyards when it's cold and we are bored. It's a very unsafe habit.

Also I made a mix for a friend of mine titled 'Letter From Fresno, CA'
You can stream it on 8tracks here: http://8tracks.com/prufrock23/letter-from-fresno-ca

Rescue

I'm not sure if I believe in perfection anymore. Though I can honestly say that the closest thing I've ever come to having a perfect moment was when I was watching Explosions in the Sky outdoors during sunset at FYF Fest in 2011.

Speaking of sunsets, I consider myself to be very lucky to be living in California where the weather is really great and the sunsets are quite beautiful. Even though sometimes, you have stand on top of a car to take a truly beautiful picture.

About a week ago, I went to Oak Hill Memorial Park with three friends of mine. We were collecting data for our Gravestone Seriation Project. We ended up collecting data from about 200 gravestones, this was the only one I took a picture of. 

Uncorrected Proofs.

Here is a list. If I were to encounter my confused 16 year old self, I would give him this stack of records. It's not a greatest or essential list. (Not even the best album by some of the artists.) It's a list about establishing an attitude towards music that would have been useful; I wish these albums had been the bulk of my music listening when I was a teenage. (Only a few of them were.) I wish this had been my starting point.

1.   Siamese Dreams, Smashing Pumpkins
2.   Horses, Patti Smith
3.   Tennessee, Lucero
4.   Transformer, Lou Reed
5.   Icky Mettle, Archers of Loaf
6.   Left and Leaving, The Weakerthans
7.   Gold, Ryan Adams
8.   Being There, Wilco
9.   The Greatest, Cat Power
10. Let It Be, The Replacements
11. Vitalogy, Pearl Jam
12. Chelsea Girl, Nico
13. Lonsesome Crowded West, Modest Mouse
14. The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits
15. Disintengration, The Cure
16. Different Class, Pulp
17. London Calling, The Clash
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Out of Time, R.E.M,
20. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, A Tribe Called Quest 

Help Rademacher

Want to do a good deed for 2012? Then help out one of my favorite bands reach SXSW. Rademacher are from Fresno, CA and are currently working on their second full length. If you have been around me, then you know how much I love their debut album 'Stunts.'

You can listen to them here
You can help them out here.

Seriously, please contribute. Your ears will be thank you. 

Little Motel.

San Jose is beautiful. 

It's about growing up low class in a working class setting. It is about wanting to get out of place for so long, not only a space on a map, but a space in your head- and then coming to an understanding that those years were somehow still some of the best of your life...and that space is home. 

Matthew Teardrop

Matthew Teardrop (frontman of Manhattan Murder Mystery) has a wonderful acoustic EP out for Pay What You Want I highly suggest you check it out and at least give it a try.