:: I Killed Latin: The AA*LW Blog ::

:: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 ::

My posts have moved over to Xanga. Check it, kids....

http://www.xanga.com/Houch


:: Palmer 11:59 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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Well, I guess this is my bon voyage post. Suprisingly, I don't really have much to say. Except thanks. A lot of thanks. Thanks for coming. Thanks for playing. Thanks for playing for not a whole lot of money. Thanks for your kind words. Thanks for being my friends.

I'm really glad to be leaving Jackson for Nashville. I was getting kind of bogged down being home in Jackson for summer. However, that has really allowed me to realize how much I loved being a part of AA*LW and the rest of the all ages music scene. I've had some excrutiatingly fun times with all of you. I've gained a lot of new friendships that I feel blessed to have been given.

The past four Mondays have been an achingly enjoyable. I won't miss the 12 hours days I was pulling. I won't miss half of Hudson's equipment not working. I won't miss the business side of things. I'm just going to miss the community. I think we really have something special. The trips to IHOP and Waffle House never get old.

This sounds like I'm gone for good. That's laughable. My existence is pretty much just a screename/email address one, anywho. And I'll be going 'wi-fi' in Nashville. So, I'll still be here. (Actually, I may switch over to Xanga and make it a little more personal.) But keep your email info coming my way. I want to help spread the word about shows. The [aa-lw] Yahoo! Group will not be going anywhere.
:: Palmer 12:26 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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I watched a really good movie tonight.

Awakenings

It somehow managed to balance itself as both a "feel-good" movie, but also one that makes you question yourself, your actions, your inactions. Rarely, do the two meet for me. There's an amazing quote in there, but I can't find it online. Perhaps I'll type it out.

I find it weird how when watching a movie - like tonight - even during the beginnings where the theme of the movie isn't determined, somewhere in your unconscious a fitting song seeps in. The whole movie my mind was stuck on one of Chris Staples solo songs, "You Should Be Living." The lyrics to it couldn't be more fitting for the film.




:: Palmer 1:47 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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So, in keeping with the rest of the blogs, I read: I got a Radiohead ticket. Because I was mandated to attend driving school at 9 AM - the time when w.a.s.t.e. put the tickets on sale - I gave my credit card to Jimmy, and he was going to wake up and take care of it. I go to bed and wake up to a phone call at 5:30 AM. Jimmy is still awake. The tickets are already on sale. He inquires as to what type of seat I would like. I think he says, "tent or reserved." I have no idea what "tent" means, so I say reserved. Later, I realize he said "pit," not "tent." Pit is probably the closest. Oh well. I'm still going for my second rendezvous with Radiohead.

For nearly an hour today I was caught in the grips of reality television. It's amazing how addictive Blinddate is. Did you know that TNN is about to change its format again? It's going to be the first network for men. It's going to feature a cartoon called "Stripperella" with Pamela Anderson's voice as the star who is a "stripper by night, superhero by later that night." Soon, the New York Times will be replaced with MAXIM.

One of the requirements of the driving class I went today was to bring a pen and a notepad. I brought an old notebook from my University Studies class. I only had one note written during that entire class. It read: The girl who freaked when we talked about suppositories just used the word anal when describing a teacher. Welcome, freshmen. College = suppository talk.


:: Palmer 12:38 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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The already infamous local duo (Mason and Baskin) the Industrial Noise Band has already penned a "diss" song about me entitled "Palmer Houchins is a Thief." Because Northeast Jackson is absorbed in the spirit of the hip-hop and rap culture, I've got to lay down a response song and put it on a demo tape. So, here's what I am thinking at the moment: my direct response will be a song called "Baskin is a Burg-a-lur." INB also has a song called "Interstellar Steve" - my response "Intergalactic Estuary." Also included on my demo: "Holdin' Cauliflower."

So here's the skinny...

My band's name: Padington Bears All
Our demo tape: The Corduroy Remixes, Vol. 2
Track Listing:
"Holdin' Cauliflower"
"Intergalactic Estuary"
"Baskin is a Burg-a-lur"

Now, in retrospect, this seems like a bad idea. Perhaps I should have considered the fact that my instrument-playing capabilities are limited to the full knowledge of three chords on the guitar. However, I press on - because there ain't no 'team" in gangsta.


:: Palmer 2:18 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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So much to catch you all up on...

Not really, but I did venture to see the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. It was a trip. I really can't think of anything to say about it other than I'm glad I went. I really have a penchant for descriptive, capture-the-moment-in-time prose don't I?

Oh yeh, in case you didn't get the mailer I sent out today - (If you didn't get the aa-lw Yahoo! Groups email I sent out earlier today, please reply to this saying so...I'm worried it's not getting out for some reason) - the show on Saturday has been cancelled. Just a variety of reasons. Hopefully, we can make something up in the future because Fondren Corner is a really cool building.

Today, I finally got around to going to the doctor. When I left I felt like a prescription drug addict. I walked out of the place with four zip-lock bags of pills, plus some nasal spray. I have trouble remembering to turn the water off after a shower and closing doors when I leave the house, taking the right pill at the right time - the right number of times. I'm feeling something tragic here. On a side note, phlegm is one the better words in the English language both aesthetically and phonetically.

Wow, I just saw this article in the Times about teen nude recreation. I'm not sure that is a good thing. I quote from the article:

"It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing," said Michelle Jones, 15, a camper from Texas.

What the hell? I have a hard time seeing nudity as being anything other than sexual - natural, perhaps. But naturally sexual.

Tonight I dined at Cock of the Walk - it's been a while. I used to go there on my birthday every year. There's so much I could say about that place. A four-volume series is probably all that would suffice. After that I had intentions of going to Buffalo Wild Wings and beating Wilson Hood merciless at the trivia game, but when it was so crowded that you couldn't get into the parking lot, we decided to cancel that engagement.

Well, I leave for Nashville in a week. Speaking of, my Mom brought home this really uncool shirt from the GAP. It was like their pathetic attempt at a vintage shirt. It's a ringer (only on the neck though) that has the outline of a guitar with the lettering N-A-S-H-V-I-L-L-E inside of that outline. It's really not cool. But I couldn't say no for some reason. I just smiled and said thanks.

Potential Band Name of the Day: Keelboatmen

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Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959
2001 By Jason Trachtenburg

Mountain trip to Japan
Going to see the mountains
On a mountain trip to Japan
He is so well rounded
And he'd like to see the world
before it ever started
Getting off this plane
Before we both departed
On a mountain trip to Japan, 1959

Classic cars on a mountain slope
Going to do some driving to the railroad tracks
You better get back
People are arriving
So we'll set these colorful chairs up to allow for seating
"Melangie Lake Chalet" is what you're reading
on a mountain trip to Japan, 1959

Take a plane to the ocean
Take a plane into the sea
On a trip to Japan, 1953

We like death, yes we do
Going to see the graveyard
And the hanging too, it could've been you
If the foot was on the other shoe
'cause raising cocker spaniels is rewarding
better get on board
this boat will soon be boarding
on a mountain trip to Japan, 1959

Death will come in a matter of time
They're being backed up by the military line
With a bag on his head
He will soon be dead
It must have been for something he said
'Cause public execution can be so degrading
Better get it over with
'Cause the ladies are waiting
On a Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959
Raising cocker spaniel puppies is outrageous
Better check for kennel cough
Cause I hear it's contagious
On a mountain trip to old Japan 1959.

:: Palmer 1:09 AM [+] :: Discuss |
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Let me clarify for a second. My aforementioned Josh Kelley dream was scary because I'm not a fan of his music at all. In fact, I gave the free press copy of his CD away - to my mom actually. She loves it. We had a big conversation about the chart-topping potential of his single "Amazing."


:: Palmer 6:16 PM [+] :: Discuss |
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After recovering from my quasi-illness yesterday, I traveled to Barnes & Noble to read some. The mocha frappucino their is superb - I almost went to the Art of Coffee place on State St. because they have Seattle Drip bean (is bean a cool word for coffee? If it isn't, I retract that word usage...) Anyway, I ended up at the super-evil-mega-chain because they have more magazines laying around to read - although the other mega-chain (Borders) has more. So, I found the new DIW - or newest, rather - it had some cool articles in it. I ended up purchasing it because it only costs three bucks. Speaking of magazine prices, I started looking at the current Atlantic Monthly. It had a report in it by this guy named Jared Diamond who wrote this amazing (not so much the content, just the fact that is was written) book I read this year called Guns, Germs and Steel. He had written an article on how civilization was going to end soon due to environmental circumstances. Then, I noticed these poems they had at the front. One was the lyrics of a 'propaganda rap' that the American government played on Iraqi radio right after the US invaded. It near the lose-control-of-your-bowels humor level. They also had these poems that someone had spliced together using only phrases Donald Rumsfeld had used in press conferences on a certain day. Like February 12 would be the title of one - and it only used phrases he had used that day - clever. I really need to find those online somewhere. Harkening back to our magazine price discussion, the Atlantic Monthly cost six bucks - otherwise I would have purchased it.

Later, I was reading in Eyes Wide Open. There were two really good passages, so much so that I put brackets around them...

Here's one from the author...

The stories of Daniel and Paul give us an idea of how Christians today might think and act as a minority culture existing within a dominant mainstream one. This is a compelling reason why Christians should advocate greater pluralism in the popular arts, for there is a narrow range of perspectives available in the mass entertainment media, which is driven primarily by a need for greater profits.

I thought that was fitting considering the big debate that is going on now over FCC deregulation (Hint: it would be a bad thing...)

Here's another quote from a media analyst named George Gerbner...

For the first time in human history, the stories are told not by parents, not by the school, not by the church, not by the community or tribe and in some cases not even by the native country but by a relatively small and shrinking group of global conglomerates with something to sell.

I was watching television on one of those major conglomerates today. NBC's coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Let me just say that I find watching golf on television incredibly peaceful and relaxing - so long as I don't get caught up on thinking what a huge undertaking it would be for a TV company to produce a golf event. I'm actually about to watch the end of it now. It struck me while watching it that golfer's name would constitute some great band names.

For one, I think "Billy Mayfair" would a great name for a rock'n'roll group front man. Perhaps that group could be called Jasper Parnevik's Tiger.
:: Palmer 6:14 PM [+] :: Discuss |
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