Able to Revive Zombified Blogs in a Single Post

Frankly, I've been MIA for the last few weeks. Life has been insane, so much going on in every facet, I'm not quite sure where to start. So, about all I can do is offer a sightseeing tour of my state of mind. Your tour guide, Jenny (which she can only be called when offering tours of her psyche and not ever in real life), is wearing a perfectly tied stewardess scarf and lovely white skirt suit which belies the madness she is about to reveal...

The train leaves from track 20, making all local stops... Woodside, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, change at Jamaica for...

Shea Stadium/Madison Square Garden: Well, the Rangers (LOVE the montage) are done for. Alas. It was a surprisingly good season, so I suppose I should be happy we did that, but I just wish the magic had lasted a bit longer. The Mets, on the other hand, are keeping me quite happy these days, though they're very hard to follow from DC. Julio Franco's on FIRE!

Music City, USA: There's not a whole lot going on here. I haven't heard anything new/exciting in quite a while, though I do like the new Pearl Jam single. I'm going through a Liz Phair resurgence, listening to Whip-Smart a lot lately. I know it's not her most critically acclaimed album, but I love it, highly recommend it. Right now, I'm really feeling Support System. AND I'm playlist happy since I'm getting one of those Bose things for my iPod in honor of my trip to...

Old Town: I'm turning 28 in like 11 days. I have no idea how this happened. I don't want much... cough, ScrubsDVD, cough... just good times with good friends. I'm having a little party to celebrate, and if you're reading this, you're probably invited, so get your arse to DC!

Random: What is up with the insane bird that chirps outside my window at 3 a.m.? How is it not asleep?

Work: Is utter madness. And I had a review recently, and though this may come as a shock to some of my dear readers, I'm too nice. If anyone has any tips for being firm, but keeping a smile on your face, I'd appreciate it.

Outrage: This (go to the site and watch the animated version) is hysterically funny to me, though I know nothing about the game or what the hell the guy's yelling about. A co-worker told me it makes him want to scream "MINUS 50 DKPS" everytime someone cuts him off in traffic, and I kind of agree. Though I will add that it makes me want to scream "IT'S NOT EVEN FUCKING REMOTELY IMAGINABLE!!" when I think about the state of our nation. I can't even link anything to "state of our nation" because there's just too much shit to be angry about right now. Argh.

Do-Gooderville: I'm organizing a charity gala! Hurrah! And I have an actual, real committee to do my Community Service stuff for W&L. I feel all adult.

The Castle: I've had fun storming it. Not sure I found exactly what I'm looking for, definitely found a good bit of alcohol, actual meals, things which can be smoked, and an appreciation for lifestyle firms. In the process, I feel I've gone through so much self-examination of the way that I handle myself in certain situations, that regardless of what happens, I'll be a better person for it.

Ronkonkoma: Last stop, no passengers. This train is going to the yard.

Commemorating the Day

I would like to make it known, with great fanfare and heraldry, to the loyal readership of this blog that the following phrase appeared in The New York Times - the nation's paper of record - this very morning:

"The Mets have the best record in baseball"

Don't get it twisted.

Yeah, I know... I suck.

So, I've been busy lately. Sorry 'bout that, dear readers. There's just too much for me to explain it all. Awesome weekend with Ellen, Darren and (I'm very grudgingly admitting this) J around. There was beer, Five Guys, more beer, more beer, some mozzarella sticks, more beer, dancing, late night at my place, the Humpty Dance at My Brother's Place, Sunday afternoon on the rooftop terrace at Old Glory, good times all around.

This week? Madness at work, mejor stress out for no good reason, but tomorrow I get to go to the Mets game with CNN dude, and hit Cactus Cantina, and that makes life ever so muchly much better. Then I get to go rock the Island with the fam. It's all good.

That's all I got. Outtie like five g's.

Sweet relief...

Finally, FINALLY it can be said... the Rangers have made the playoffs! YES!!!!! I don't think I can adequately express my joy via blog, but it's such a good feeling. From the NY Times:

"No matter who the Rangers brought in to play with Brian Leetch (Pat LaFontaine in 1997-98, Petr Nedved in 1998-99, Theo Fleury in 1999-2000, Messier for an encore in 2000-1, Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure in 2001-2, Bobby Holik and Alexei Kovalev in 2002-3, and Jagr in 2004); no matter how high their record payrolls soared (to over $90 million in 2003-4), the Rangers season inevitably ended on the final day of the regular season.

Until last night."

It's about flippin' time. Man I love hockey...

M-E-T-S... Mets, Mets, METS!

They're one and oh-so-good. Hooray opening day!!! David Wright has a home run, Billy Wagner has a save, Paul LoDuca's got a little luck, Nady's batting a thousand... we're all set.

Shriek of the Week, Vol. 13

Yeah, I know, it's Saturday, but I felt the urge to shriek and I didn't want to deny it lest it pass. Since the debacle of the sold-out Monkeys show, I've signed up for the 9:30 Club's e-mail list so that I don't miss any more fab not-quite-pre-sales, and this week, I noticed a Citizen Cope show on the schedule. Which kind of got me bouncing along to Son's Gonna Rise in my head for the last few days. He played NYC right in the middle of all my moving drama, so I didn't get to go see him up there and I've been kinda bummed about it since, so I'm thrilled he's coming back to DC (which might be his hometown, kinda hard to tell...).

He's another 'FUV find, but not nearly as folky/country/old-balding-white-guy-music as other WFUV favorites. There's a whole lot of funk in Cope's songs and a very different sound than that of my shrieks so far, iTunes actually had him classified as blues when I loaded the CD into my library, but it's a nice blend of several genres. It's all very dark and feels like a smoky club, there's the storytelling of country on Pablo Picasso, the danceability of hip-hop on Son's Gonna Rise and the soul clap of Bullet and a Target, and Sideways just kind of makes me want to cry.

His real name is Clarence Greenwood (very blues name, dontcha think?) and his current album is called "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings." His first, self-titled album has just been re-released, but I haven't picked it up yet - a casualty of my lenten vow not to use any plastic. So we're sticking to TCGR today.

I keep coming back to Pablo Picasso, it's just compelling, so we'll start there. It's the tale of a guy who's clearly a bit insane, possibly homeless, and in love with a 40-foot-tall painting of a celebrity. He feels she understands him, and attempts to defend her from the world. As such, it's a weird song, but it's infused with so much genuine emotion that it's kind of hard to take - I didn't like it at first because I didn't want this guy to be insane, I wanted him to get it so badly - it's almost a train wreck, you can't let it go. You just have to hear it, an excerpt isn't going to do it. On the album, he blends the song into the next track, My Way Home:

"Sometimes I miss a step
I stumble here and there
I'm findin' my way home
If I'm lost then I'll admit
Sometimes I plain forget
I'm findin' my way home
You can try and stand in my way
You can say what you're gonna say
But I'm findin' my way home."

The two together are an expression of individuality rarely found on the radio. There's a whole lot of introspective music out there, but Citizen Cope seems to be more mirror than navel-gazer. The whole album is a study in personalities and motivation, coming together in Fame (no, not that one), which reinforces the album's message that the internal stuff is so much more important than the external roles we play and idolize:

"Got the this is your land man
This is my land man
Got the blood on the tracks man
Got the guilty man
Got the innocent man
Got the buffalo soldier
The dreadlock Rastaman
Seen the stars looking in her eyes
So many times I've tried
Talked to a man who caught the
rainbow's end he found
that the pot of gold resided within."

He's heading up to NY after his DC show, playing Town Hall. If you're not down for dealing with a study in insanity to start off, go for Bullet and a Target or Son's Gonna Rise. Or the one song I've heard from the first album that got my attention in the first place, If There's Love.