Archive for January, 2005

January 31
the stable
posted by jim at 6:04 pm

well. I’ve been wanting to take pics of all the bikes for a while now and somebody on my favorite time-wasting I’m an internet geek webforum started a thread about bikes so I figured I would take those two opportunities to take pictures of the stable. excluded from these pictures are Elektra-the fuji road bike, Oscar-jen’s dumpster prize trek mtn bike, and Guiseppe-the mixte frame puch road bike that will become jen’s vintage italian roadbike.

Here are the others:

Trigger-the trusty centurion lemans fixed gear (the source of many a google searches to geekpunk)

Brutus -the singlespeed mountain / winter bike that was built out of a 2 dollar frame.

Red - the cannondale mountain bike that I picked up at the swap meet. This will be the C & O touring mobile this spring.

yeah yeah. too many bikes, but I can’t help it.

 
January 31
home maker moments with mike
posted by mike at 11:32 am

so today I had what could have easily been on a tv show about a stay at home mom/dad. So im trying to multi task, im feeding the boy lunch and moping the kitchen floor. Which I figured would work out , as that he is pretty capable of eating, although in a messy fashion, on his own. In fact its a VERY rare occasion when he will actually let me feed him… anyways, so im moping away, every so offten adding some peas and baby spagetti o’s to his bowl… only minutes later to realize im continually moping the same area. As im cleaning, he is subsequently throwing food down on the area where I just cleaned.

good times.

 
January 30
a couple demo songs
posted by mike at 8:27 am

so ive got 2 new south carey songs written so im gonna post some demo recordings w/ just me on guitar / harmonica / foot / midi keyboard drums. Kind of raw and crappy, but will refine the arrangements w/ jim maybe this week or the next… also if any one cares we are more than likely playing in philly this comming saturday w/ true if destroyed, amamture party, and rachel jacobs @ 529 south 49th street west philly

demosong

call waiting

 
January 26
blog lull broken
posted by jim at 10:27 am

so pretty much, there has kinda been a long lull in the blog. On our end, I guess it would probably be because jen and I have been hanging out in the hospital. Not mentioning anything about jen’s mom would be like ignoring the giant elephant in the room (which is not to say that jen’s mom was a giant elephant, she was quite small actually) but jen and I aren’t really big on the emotional outpouring. So, I guess thanks to everyone who has called and been supportive.

Now we are faced with the daunting task of cleaning out the house, wrapping up financial stuff, and selling the car and house. Doing all this stuff, we will be spending a lot more time in the philadelphia region so I am going to try to learn to appreciate the city more even though I hated it when I lived there.

I suspect that I will be climbing a lot at Alapocas, that I might eventually get out to Haycock as well.

The house is a treasure trove of curiousities, fine cookware and…crap. we will keep a running tab of strange items that turn up. So far the 2 most interesting finds are:

-an autographed hockey puck from the philadelphia flyers
-vintage boxing magazines dating back to 1931

This probably seems like and incredibly light post after going through what we (mostly jen) just went through, but luckily jen’s family and I both deal with grief the same way…inappropriate jokes that make other people uncomfortable (I’ll spare you).

So thank you, everyone that has been supportive.

 
January 26
birthday version 1.0
posted by mike at 7:28 am

so holden will be 1 year old in a month. Im trying to figure out what to do for his bday. I mean what do you do for a 1 year old’s bday. Its gotta be one of the top 5 bdays in your life… but what would a 1 year old enjoy for a party… I realize in reality its more of a party for us, and family… but still. Also seeing as our house is a wee 12 feet wide it tends not to be condusive for a large party until the summer when we can use the deck/back yard and such… Was thinking about a bowling party, but once again… that probably wouldnt be too fun for the birthday boy because he couldnt get down and crawl around too much. Cant go and do something in the park, because it will be cold as hell. He’s lolo /lola is doing a big 1 year fillipino party, but we wanted to do something ourselves w/ friends who might be scared off by a whole roast pig and the such…

so yah… any suggestions? In the mean time enjoy this pic of the boy dressed as a b-boy w/ his trusty dawg

 
January 26
an ode to jen
posted by mike at 6:49 am

This past weekend a friends mom died. Sadly I had only spent a brief time with her in the past, but knowing that she pumped out and help mold a truelly amaizing person, she had to be a pretty amaizing person herself. I have been kind of dreading writting about this on a couple levels. First I didnt want to make her feel uncomfortable about me writting this, but at the same time really wanting to let her know that were thinking about her and feeling for her. I honestly couldnt imagine having to go through this myself right now, and the fact that it seems as though she is getting through it pretty well speaks mounds for the type of person her mom helped create. So in short, if your up there … doing web pages.. know that were all thinking about you, and if you need anything… literaly anything.. let us know.

 
January 20
more people
posted by mike at 11:01 am

who get the chance to be on national broadcasted tv as fluf, should take the oppurtunity to turn the tables… like john stewart or…

this fine lady from vanity fair

 
January 20
we kissed a shot of kentucky straight
posted by missy at 8:43 am

The first time I went to Toronto was in 1994. We (Audra, Ryan and I) went up for Spider fest in July of that year. It was the first time to Canada for all 3 of us. We had prepared for the trip by watching Strange Brew the night before and were really amazed at all the beer and donut stores in close proximity once we actually got there. On the way up I let Ryan drive and we burned out when leaving all the tollbooths on the way and listened to Jawbreaker late into the night while trying to navigate our rented car to a small town outside of Toronto with bad directions and not very much signage to guide us. We got there just in time to see Pittsburgh bands. It was an excellent trip all around and it seems so long ago…I guess it actually was. I turned 24, Audra and Ryan were still inching slowly towards dating (now they’re married), we didn’t get turned away at the border when Ryan spilled the beans about our contraband oranges, we got eaten alive by mosquitos and we came back feeling so dirty and gross that I would have paid $50 just for a shower.

I went to Toronto again this past weekend, and the city was just as lovely as I remember it being. I went up with my friend Jeff this time and we stayed with his friend Andy, his wife and their dog with the incredibly human eyes. They were great hosts and excellent people. We left on Friday night and got in at about 12:30. We had a beer and crashed. Saturday was really cold and not that conducive to a whole lot of wandering, so we hung out, had lunch at Juice for Life , took the dog for a walk, and hung out some more. Andy’s band was playing in Hamilton so we loaded up on sugary snacks and headed down there. We went record shopping and had some Indian food then headed to the show. I finally got to see the Endless Blockade and it was well worth the trip for them, they were excellent. Sunday we headed back to Pittsburgh in the snow. We took Rt 420 off of the QEW and went to Niagara Falls. We weren’t sure if we were going to actually stop or just drive by, but since neither of us had ever been there, we stopped. The trees, rocks and fences were covered in a snow and ice mixture that just made it one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It was worth the long walk from the free parking lot in snow and cold to see them. It took us considerably longer to get back to Pittsburgh overall thanks to a bunch of snow and really bad visibility, but it was well worth it.

That was my weekend in Toronto/Canada 2005 style. We didn’t burn out at any toll booths but we did listen to Jawbreaker some, we made it past the border even though they asked a really tough question (”How are you friends?” How the hell do you answer that?!?), I met great people, spent time with one of my best friends, heard some awesome bands, ate good food, drank some bad beer and after 2 days of not showering I wasn’t caked in dirt (probably because I wasn’t sleeping in it).

 
January 20
dc … im sorry
posted by mike at 8:27 am

so when me and jim play shows offten he gets on me for talking too much, often it irratates me, but offten he has a good point. Alot of times when I talk before I play a song, I do so because I feel like I have to and not that I want to. He says that when I talk when I really feel empassioned to talk , I can say some decent things, but when I talk for the sake of talking I just sounded like a irratated man on record. Anywho.. thats kind of what this post will be… I feel the need to get this post down, even though there are really more imporant things on my mind… but that is for another time.

This monring on the drive in I did my standard hour and a half npr listen. Today im sure holden got scared about me w/ the ammount of screaming I was doing at the radio. The concept of this innaguration just pisses me off on so many different levels. If it were so damn cold out, and holden being but 10 almost 11 months old thus ill suited for the elements, I would have taken off work and get pushed into my “designated protesting area” and make as loud a ruckus as I could (even though no one will listen). Ive come to grips with the fact that our country is full of idiots who have decided they would like one of their own as our leader… I guess what gets to me w/ all of this… is how it effects dc locally and how its emblamatic for the administrations games.

First off when the dc goverment asked the federal gov for some funds for security and other things the feds told them “take it our of your homeland security funds”. Excuse me… this isn’t the city of dc’s party, its yours… and you should be paying for the party favors. So dc has to pay out of pockets for police , security, fucking band stands , clean up etc… out of a budgets of homeland security money… which is low to begin with… especially for a city which is target #1 or #2 for such a thing which would involve the need for homeland security money. To me this shows 1) a lack of interest for the closest local goverment to the feds… thus if they dont care about their neighbor next door what does that show for their neighbors elsewhere 2) Shows that homeland security is just a slogan and means nothing… if your essentially tellling a government to use it as “petty cash” 3) Another example of not looking down the road to consequences, and how it effects other “real” people.

Then there is the 40 million dollar price tag. Imagine if the feds took that 40 million dollars, and oh I dont know fund their no child left behind initiative? A million dollars alone to a struggeling school district can do mounds… they could have given a hell of a life to 40 struggeling school districts, instead of a pretty party and an excuse for a parade. That 1 million dollars to dc, would be a god sent to the school district and their children.

Then there is hearing this morning that the theme is “freedom on the march”. While the marching its self is controlled, and stripped of freedom by only allowing protetstors in designated areas, and reserving the bandstands for sanctioned guests. Its a hard sell to the world, that your fighting for freedom when your controlling the medium its sent on.

I know I shouldnt be supprise, I know I should be used to being disapointed / upset by now… but its frustrating. In the words of fugazi, “americas is just a word, but I use it” … heres to hopping this isnt just another step in removing any meaning from said word.

 
January 17
save the wire
posted by mike at 5:06 am

so i honestly think the wire is one of the best dramas ever put on tv. It takes the novel format and puts it to pictures like nothing else. But as most great art… it doesnt have the mass apeal to keep it going aka money

so hbo is thinking of not renewing it…

please go sign the petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/wire4th/\

see the save page
http://facsrv.cti.depaul.edu/~amorris/wire/

take the hbo survey
http://www.hbosurveys.com/surveys/wire04.htm