Killer Scene There, Man - New QotSA Review
Most of the album is pretty much the crunchy, hed-banging, snappy good time you're used to from the boys. Yet a couple parts are strange bizarro hybrids - Josh croons eerily Neil Youngish on "I Never Came", and the track "Broken Box" has an undeniable old Squeeze flavor from out of the blue. In fact the latter half of the album is, in general, 'downpaced' from the top half. I guess this is the "Lullabies" part. I dunno.
All i know is that i LOVE the whole damn thing, schizophrenic or not. And of course, as always, the lyrics frikkkkkkin ROK overall...
Got no good plans, but a good idea
Let's put this town in my rearview mirror
Yeah, i got enemies, but they don't know
They won't get no glory on that side of the hole
Were are united, by drifting alone
This is the army of none, got no flag, got no home
Just witches & scabs, an awful mess, i confess...
Let's do it again.(from "You Got A Killer Scene There, Man")
I can't say that i like it better than Songs for the Deaf. But SftD holds a special place in my heart (in fact i think i want SftD played at my wedding/funeral... along with David Bowie's Scary Monsters), so therez not much that i could love better. But i can say that i love Lullabies as much as SftD, but in a strange, new & different way.
Law of Mission Statements
Somehow it seems i got sucked into some of that fluffy branding/marketing work that was lying around my virtual firm undone... and i ended up in the realm of brand identity and mission statement construction. This is the sort of job that can actually give management consultants a bad name. You know that whatever statement you come up with, everyone in the group (including you) will hate it for some reason or another, but somehow, as a result, it will actually pretty much embody the true aspirations of the company. And soon, with time and communication (repitition) - people will forget why they hated it, and grow attached to it. Because people hate change. Period.
Though it sounds simple, the root of fluffy branding/marketing work is actually a festering pit of complex communications, feedback loops and editing revisions to gain an impossible consensus. Expect no less than 15+ drafts.
Somewhere here in this zen state of copy editing, i remembered back to 1994 when i was first getting into change management and communication planning ... i remember creating a couple personal mission statements... Sadly, the computer that these files were on (a pawnshop mac classic with an external scsi drive named "crypticus mythicus") died long ago. I remember a couple of them though:
- If it's not gonna be a party, i ain't going.
- As much as we can, as fast as we can, and as many times as possible.
- Piss me off and i will drop you like a blighted spud.
- You're lucky if i even show up.
- I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut.
Dyslexic Phishing Scam
Found the following in my email today (amsterdam-based IP in the header):
To: PwyllzJust warning lla ouy pepleo out there -- the intarwbe si a dngerous plcea.
From: Barclays" <bfiovgtnkk@yahoo.com>
Subject: Barclays Emial Veritacif
Daer Baalcrys Mrebme,
Thsi emlia was setn by the Barclays serevr to veyfir yruo eiaml aserdds. You msut cotelpme thsi procsse by clicknig on the likn belwo and entenirg in the samll wiwodn yruo Barclasy Membesrhip nbmuer, pedocssa and memorelba wodr. Thsi is dnoe for yuor protecoitn - becsuae soem of our mesrebm no lonegr heva accsse to thier eliam aerddsses and we mtsu vfirey it. To veryfi yruo eiaml addsers and acsecs yruo bakn anuocct , ccilk on the likn bwole:
http://EVIL-LOOKING-LINK-buttonclickything
Dangerous in Mixed Company
Sometimes i do wonder just what my teammates might think of me... It'd been a long day - three offsite meetings in a row, in different parts of the city. When i returned to the client site, I went immediately to the team room, to check in with my team and see if they needed anything from me since i had had a voicemail about some fire drill related to an ad hoc client request. Only one of my teammates (who is aligned on another client) was there - he confirmed that the other two were, indeed, in a last minute client meeting.
I paced around for a bit, and found myself rifling through some research papers and such we keep lying around in disarray. The remaining teammate looked at me and asked, "So, how did your meetings go?"
Pwyllz: "Oh, they went very well... why?"
Teammate: "Because you seem kinda ansy..."
Pwyllz (reflecting momentarily): "Ooooh, yeah, i guess i am actually doing the pee-pee dance... I've had four cups of coffee and no break since 9 am... Be right back...."
No shame, i tell you. No shame.
Adios Austin
All-in-all itz been a groovy trip. Highlights:
- Bought an iPod Shuffle. Now i am cool.
- Snuck into SXSWi for about an hour and got my geek envy on.
- Went out to dinner with my former therapist who diagnosed me as workaholic.
- So i did only 1/3 of all the work i promised i would do over my vacation.
- Tore up town in my Mazda THREE rental car blasting Rammstein Reise Reise* at top volume.
- Got all of Season 1 of Deadwood from the RRPF and watched nearly half of it.
- Can't stop saying "cocksucker" now.
- Met and hugged on many friends and family that i been missing.
- Remembered just how much i love them and austin.
Live from the Deuce
I am practically inclined to rent out this piece of austin myself. Of course, thatz b/c i know the "aging curmudgeon" is the RRPF, who i could live with irregardless.
Homeward Bound
Car coming in 5 hours to take me to EWR, so i am finally packing. Here itz frikikn snowing and where i am going itz planning on being 80 degrees. I just can't mentally grasp what thatz going to feel like, right now. Where the hell are my short sleeve shirts? At the bottom of the laundry pile where clothes from last August sit until they're needed again (which in NYC means 2-3 more months). Well, good thing i know people with washers and dryers in atowne... I have perfected the art of packing dirty laundry with clean clothes. If you need pointers, let me know.
Somehow it always turns out that i end up in atowne during sxsw. Of course, that rankles me somewhat. It was my least favorite event the entire time i lived there. Feels weird to be going back there during the same influx of tourists that i despised... The sxsw interactive convention participants don't count - that convention ends before sxsw begins, really, and they're geeks, so they have minor negative impact on the austin i know. Itz the film and music festival eeedgits who turn all the bars into 600-dolla-visa-band-only crapholes of obscure craptasticness you'd never even pay a 5 dolla cover for in real life... In my entire 15 yrs in austin i never once paid to see a sxsw band. Once i got into a show on a guest list b/c i knew the band, but mostly i partied elsewhere, where the real fun was. So really, i don't even kno what itz about. Sxsw has always just been the time you stay away from downtown to me...
And this time, no different - lotz of plans with friends and family. And some rumors of a late-birthday house-party celebration thingy nxt wknd for moi that i will be hippin the in-crowd to. We're old people now so that probably means beers at shaun-o's and pirate dvd's in french with no english subtitles. Hurlement les terriers!!
Carrot, Stick, Rope and Cold Hard Cash
Trying to stay motivated here. I have reviewed my past performance and it appears that i do not respond to authority unless sex or money (or both) are involved.
Lullabies to Paralyze
Had occasion today to go to one of the client's facilities in Westchester. Lovely day in the woody suburbish area. With spring nearing there are the obligatory flocks of Canadian Canada* Geese dotting the landscape. They look something like this:
... and they have this weird way of standing on one leg, and like, totally hiding their other leg to the point where you wonder whether or not they might, in fact, be one-legged, and somehow gimped, crippled geeses... but let me warn you - itz a ruse. Those mofo's can take off from a full-stop and accelerate zero-to-ninety-mph straight atcha with their gnarly goosebeaks in full attack mode, aimed atcher ankles and buttocks.
Swallow and chew, eat you alive...
All of us food, that hasn't died.
Yeeeeah.... I'm Gonna Have to Go Ahead and Ask You to.. uh.. Work Through the Weekend...
Every week on Friday, my teammates and I take turns starting the draft of the project status sheet, and we pass it around until it is done. This week was my week...
From: pwylla
Sent:
Friday, March 04, 2005 2:48 PM
To: Team
Subject: TPS Report Cover
Sheet
Status draft enclosed...
So, guys, i have a confession... see... i've never really understood how you all were using the red text on the interim status drafts before. i know i should have said something before now, but i didnt want to seem like a freak and hoped that i would figure it out on my own sooner or later. and i tried. i really really tried. but well, i just never got it....
... all that is just to say, that - whether there was a method to your red text madness previously, it wasn't apparent, and that in today's draft there is definitely no method, as i just pretty much used it arbitrarily for contrast wherever the hell i felt like it.
enjoy.
Spatastic
The veeej dropt by today and witnessed my head stuffiness. He has proposed that i use a guest pass for his high end spa-gym tomorrow to sauna myself into detoxicity. I am so down with that. Psyched. Born to hula.
Gently Used
I've been going thru craigslist looking for cars to buy mom when i am down in austin in a couple weeks. Her current car scares her (and me), and thatz no way to live. After my first big identity crisis in 1994, i had gotten that tercel for 600 bux... it had been in a major wreck and never after behaved like a normal car. It required the strangest of sacrifices and attention. I had to park on hills with a certain slope (so as to clutch start it), itz alignment was beyond recovery and so driving it at speeds past 45 mph meant wrestling it actively into a straight bearing.... other cars avoided us, because we looked like we had nothing to lose. And Sam-i almost didn't date me b/c of that car... but eventually he decided that anyone unafraid to be seen in such a monstrosity must be sure of themselves in some way, so... still he made me park it well away from his classic bmw and rather nice house... of course, i want something better for momma.
I think mom probably needs a truck - the roads to her house eat up cars... maybe a volvo could take it, but certainly not any of those japanese imports... so i am (in the 3K range) setting up viewing and test drive appts for when i am down there for sturdy, gently used truckish autos with a/c and no major engine freakishness.
Oughta be fun.
Caveat Emptor
My sinuses are killing me. Or it may actually be my brain swelling. At least, from the way it feels sometimes, i suspect itz possible that my brain is trying to run out my nose or crawl out my ears, anyway. And my eyes feel like they're gonna pop out of my head.
This has been going on for about a week now. By mistake i spent a wad of money on Aleve when i meant to get Ibuprofin, last week. These two are NOT the same. Aleve (Naproxen) works great for PMS/MS type crampage, but evidently not so much for swelling and/or auto-cannibalistic brain action.
Sometimes Ibuprofin can help with this type thing. But i already spent my monthly OTC drug allowance on Aleve... which wouldnt be so bad a thing if all i was dealing with right now was monthly pain without this other Wrath-of-Khan-brain-eating-ear-worm thing i got going on. Just wouldn't want anyone else making the same mistake.... purchasing naproxen in a situation like this.
Now i guess i'll go and drill a hole to let the demons out.