Ironic Twist
seeking irony, because sarcasm clashes with my outfit
Friday, June 03, 2005 :::
Yesterday I put in my two-week notice at Team America. Unlike somepeople, I’m not going to be doing any exciting traveling or furthering my education. I’m just taking another job. Not an ideal job, but it should hold me until I figure out what my ideal job is and when/if/where I want to go to grad school. Shouldn’t I have figured these things out by now? I feel like I should have. I’m deciding between three paths right now. Two involve leaving the D.C. area, at least for a few years. One involves taking the GRE, and that involves math, so it’s the least viable of my options. So in the meantime, I’m going to keep doing the not-ideal-job thing. Hopefully my next employer will make me less stressed and hateful than Team America. I have a good feeling about it, though, whatever that’s worth.
This afternoon I’m flying up to the Boston area, which means I get to hang out with my BFF (for those of you who are not teenage girls, that stands for Best Friend Forever) and finally meet her boyfriend. But the actual reason for the trip is the wedding of my oldest friend, JG. We’ve known each other since we were little kids in Old Country, and now she’s getting married (here). Except for KS, who eloped, she’s the first of my close friends to get married. And no, that doesn’t make me feel old or want to get married, thanks for asking. If I ever decide to get married, I’m taking the KS route.
Tonight Ms. Rhinestone and I are going to see Ad Frank, Les Sans Culottes and Ziaf (an Edith Piaf tribute band) at TT the Bear’s. Tomorrow is shopping time and the rehearsal dinner. Sunday afternoon is the wedding. And Monday I fly back to the District. Ta da!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005 :::
I forgot to mention something from the weekend. When I was at Taint, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt with "DROP IT LIKE ITS HOT" printed on it. I did a double take and, yep, no apostrophe. I made DCSOB look at the shirt to join me in my disappointment with both the T-shirt’s manufacturer and wearer.
I was reminded of this incident just now when I took a quick break from work to walk over to El Mall and buy a hostess present for this weekend. One of the stores had a T-shirt with “THATS HOT” printed on it. You know, like Paris Hilton’s famous line. Only, ummm, with a missing apostrophe.
Do T-shirt companies not have copy editors?
I just did a quick search for the "THATS HOT" T-shirt, and it looks like there's another grammar atrocity on the back of these things.
* A Hot Hot Heat/Blue Van/Robbers on High Street contest – one winner will receive a digital tour camera (Olympus) with photos from all three bands, and five runners up will receive signed albums/posters from each of the bands.
* From TVT Records, one winner will receive 10 pairs of Chuck Taylors from TSAR.
Update: It's a slow day, and I keep discovering new contests.
* From Jimmy Eat World, enter to win a $500 Ben Sherman wardrobe and an autographed tour poster. Five runners-up get a Nixon watch and autographed tour merchandise.
* The Filter site has tons of contests. You can win clothes, iPods, CDs, etc.
P.S. If anyone who found out about the Converse contest through this blog wins those 10 pairs of shoes, I totally get a pair, right? Size 6.5. I like the pink ones they have on the contest site.
Good times at the Black Cat Saturday night. I might not remember any of The Peels' songs a few months from now, but I was entertained by their performance even if none of the songs jumped out at me on first listen. Great female singer, solid garage-punk sound, catchy songs. Check out “Only Son” (MP3) and “Gold Chains” (MP3).
I thought that Autolux were even better at the Black Cat than they were at the 9:30 Club a few months ago when they opened for Secret Machines. Their sound is really intense, even if it makes me a bit sleepy because it meanders and roams and broods and that sort of music tends to make me sleepy no matter how powerful it is. Download “Here Comes Everybody” here. Also, Gordon is in looooove.
Next up were The Raveonettes, of course. I adore The Raveonettes. Their sound doesn’t appeal to everyone, I realize, but it sure does to me. I very much like the direction of the new album, because I love ‘50s and ‘60s girl groups. Their live material was divided between their B minor EP, B major album and Pretty In Black. The Raveonettes are a band whose sound is significantly different live than it is recorded, but each is great in its own way. Of the new songs, “Sleepwalking” and “Love In a Trashcan” sounded particularly great live. Especially “Sleepwalking.” Damn, that song is so good. I listened to it a few more times over the weekend. “My Boyfriend’s Back” sounded really good too, but not that different from the recording. I was wondering how they would pull off “Ode to L.A.” on the road, since Ronnie Spector’s guest vocals pretty much make the song. MT and I were both hoping that they’d surprise us by revealing a real, live Ronnie Spector, but that didn’t happen. A girl can dream, though. Instead, Sharin Foo (beautiful as always) sang along with the recorded vocals, which didn’t sound as good at the club as they did coming out of my little white earbuds. I was surprised that they didn’t save “That Great Love Sound” for the encore. The evening was slightly tainted by drunk flailing dancers – if you’re wearing a backpack, take it off or tone down the dancing, because you might not feel it, but you’re hitting everyone around you, you bastard. Also, you might think you’re sexy, but if you bend over and stick your bony ass in my face one more time, you will be elbowed in the kidneys, hard. Geez.
Sunday night I met up with Michael, SNH and DCSOB at Taint for some dancing, and ran into Chrisafer and others. I ended up dancing pretty much every minute I was there because they kept playing hit after hit after hit. Yeah, “Mr. Brightside” and “Take Me Out” are like the most overplayed song at indie rock dance nights, but they’re still irresistible. Part of the draw of this weekend’s Taint was a live performance from D.C. performance art slash synth-punk band duo Hott Beat. I checked out their site and listened to some MP3s (“Hott Beat Down” and “Mall Song”), and decided that it sounded as promising as fairly amateurish performance-based synth-rock can sound. Unfortunately their live performance was so unpolished that it was just too difficult to enjoy. Sure, at first it was “WTF” entertaining, and I like a girl wrapped in “danger” tape as much as the next person, but the singer spent too much time talking to the audience while working through technical difficulties than actually performing. They were on stage for about a half hour, and performed only three or four songs. Lesson learned over the weekend: queer-friendly hipster performance art is not my thing.
Yesterday was really relaxing – shopping for a wedding present (mission accomplished), looking for a dress for the wedding but buying a non-wedding skirt instead, watching crappy movies and cleaning my disaster of an apartment. I don’t think I have anything lined up for the week, except for getting ready for my trip to Boston, which is a nice change.
01/05: Taint and Bliss present INFAMY, 9:30 Club
01/10: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, 9:30 Club
01/19: Benjy Ferree, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, Greenland, Black Cat 01/24: Hej Hej, Cafe Saint-Ex
