Side 3 Track 6

Here and Now.

Michelle Softich recently asked, "I got to thinking about your 'Jackson Pollack' creation at your previous apartment, and I am curious as to whether or not you had to, let's say, 'retouch' the paint in your old place?"

Here's pics...

The answer is YES. When I originally painted this mess I used some type of paint that was odor-riffic and kept me high on the fumes for about a month. And it now has several coats of some green-ish beige paint over it. Well at least it did when I moved out 2 years ago.
My current apartment has found me using actual framed pictures to adorn the walls. There is something to be said for conventional forms of decoration. Mostly a lack of airborne toxins.

Here's a review of what's been up with me lately.

On June 16th I'll be moving to a new apartment that is 7 minutes away from work. Since my current commute has me in the car for 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day, this is a vast improvement. It will also save me lots of $$$ on gas.

My job is terrific! (Really) I spend all day doing spreadsheets and bookkeeping and pouring over P&L reports and General Ledger reports and using my 4 color pen and 5 different highlighters and 3 different types of white-out and feeling more important than is actually the case. I used to want to be a rock star, but it's hard when you look like this...



Not really. This picture is about 10 years old and I'm much fatter now.

Here are some pictures from a couple months ago.




These last two also have my buddy Kelly in them. You'll see other pictures of her throughout this blog. She's my best friend and I love her because she's pretty and is willing to be seen in public with me (though she lives 1300 miles away). That's all it takes to be my best friend. (Of course, I am a dork that spends 8 to 10 hours a day doing spreadsheets and then goes home to spend countless more hours in front of the computer. Ahh, yes indeed friends, I am livin' the dream. Unfortunately it's not my own.)

Aside from work and being a full-time dork I still go to Florida every March for our "Family Gathering and Spring Training Baseball Uber Weekend Mass Hysteria Glee Club Picnic and Stamp Collectors Trading Post". Um... no. Just the first part.

Uh, still a Cardinals fan. Still a Colts fan. Still an F1 fan.
Matt sends me a DVD of each race and then we spend hours on the phone talking about it. He's a dork too.

Lastly, I spent inordinate amounts of time making compilation CD's. A couple of bands that I've recently become enamored with are...
The Fratelli's
The Apples In Stereo
Elliot Smith
Of Montreal
Combustible Edison
The Shins
Apollo Sunshine
Peter Bjorn And John
And a big HELL YEAH to the cover of "My Generation" by,
The Zimmers

It's seems odd to me that likable, melodic, pop songs are now "Underground" and mainstream music is dull as dishwater. I understand that "emo" is the big thing now (I first learned about "emo" 10 years ago from my friend Kyl3 M. Beach [that's really how he spells it] and back then I quickly figured out it was an excruciatingly limiting musical form and predicted it to be a fad that would never amount to much. I was wrong.) but the songs that supposedly "Rock" are still lackluster. To find music that has a spark of energy and life to it, you really have to do a little digging.

Lastly, I am still a big fan of ELO and have been constantly listening to the 30th anniversary reissue of "Out Of The Blue". The 1977 album that is now "Cool" but got me beat up for liking it back in the day. Yeah, well, who's cool now? Oh, yeah, still not me. (Dammit!)


Okay, that's the end of the blog entry for this year. Obviously that contradicts what "Blogging" is about, but what are you gunna do about it, sue me?

All Hail Brak!



(once a dork, always a dork)

Phil