Everclear used to be one of my favorite bands. In my estimation, they haven’t made a solid album since So Much for the Afterglow. First three albums? Great. Last three albums – very erratic. Not that there weren’t some good songs (most of which were simply recycled versions of their past hits), but the albums as a whole were weak and compelled me to use the ‘next-track’ button more than I would like.
Then came the obligatory greatest hits album with throwaway ‘new’ tracks tacked on at the end. The band disintegrated, with only Art Alexakis remaining and a bunch of new guys recruited while Art tells us that Everclear’s always been pretty much just him. Sorry, but no. He may have written the songs in most cases, but the energy of the concerts did not just come from him. I’ve seen them probably six or seven times, and I’ve seen Art on his own (April 2004, in Cleveland). My first concert was Everclear headlining the SnoCore tour at SUNY Geneseo on March 7, 1999. Other acts included DJ Spooky (I yelled “You Suck!” at this guy, and then Wendy smacked me. I think now that she may admit I was right), Black Eyed Peas, and the very good but now defunct Soul Coughing (the first time – one of two – that I crowd-surfed).
I’m not sure any Everclear concert matched that first one. I saw them at Woodstock ’99, again in Rochester and Toronto, in Olean at St. Bonaventure, and then an awful free show in Buffalo in August last year with the new lineup. I bought a lot of Everclear stuff, listened to those first three albums over and over again, and was a pretty loyal fan. Art is obviously just cashing in on what’s left of the band’s name now, and it’s pretty sad.
My top Everclear songs, by album:
From World of Noise:
This album was nice and raw and just a little uncomfortable. I didn’t get into the band until I was 16 or 17 – 1998 or 99, so I obviously wasn’t around for this 1993 release, but I imagine it probably fit in well with what was going on at the time. As I look at some of the other developments in the band’s history, and Art’s habits, I tend to believe that Art was more about just making sure he was successful. He obviously took some chances with the country twang-rock of previous bands, most notably Colorfinger, but I think he chose to capitalize on the grunge movement and that just happened to be where he got lucky. Well, it worked for a while.
Fire Maple Song
Pennsylvania
Nervous and Weird
Sparkle
Loser Makes Good
From Sparkle and Fade:
This album is more produced than the debut, but still retains most of the rawness and edge of WoN. I can listen to this whole album on repeat, but the standout tracks are –
Heroin Girl
Summerland
Twistinside
Queen of the Air
From So Much for the Afterglow:
These tracks are a little more poppy, and this is the multi-platinum album. All the singles are solid, but I also like the low key White Men in Black Suits, Why I Don’t Believe in God, and especially the rocking California King.
Songs from an American Movie, Volume One: Learning How to Smile:
The sugar coating got worse with this album. Now That it’s Over sampled the legendary Bonham drums from Zep’s When the Levee Breaks, which initially annoyed me greatly, and then I just accepted that it was merely complimentary to the master. It’s a decent song. I like Thrift Store Chair and Otis Redding on this disc too, but the album is very weak in my view.
Volume Two: Good Time for a Bad Attitude:
I think Art tried to return to the harder edge of Sparkle and Fade and failed with this album. The guitars were big, but the production was bigger, and everything just sounds too clean for the raw sound he was looking for. I should note that a lot of these tracks held up well in concert though.
Babytalk has a great riff but sub-par lyrics.
Misery Whip has a great structure but some odd S&M lyrics.
Out of My Depth is pretty solid.
Overwhelmed is good, and
Song from an American Movie, Part Two is pretty decent.
Slow Motion Daydream:
This album came out while I was living in Fort Collins, and I didn’t buy it right away. When I did, I was disappointed. I’ve listened to it the least of any EC album, with the exception of the greatest hits (named 10 Years Gone – Ten Years Gone is also one of my favorite Zeppelin songs). It is just as overproduced as the previous album, and it is an obvious attempt to get back on track by copying things that worked for the band before.
New Blue Champion is kind of a rehash of Twistinside, just like Out of My Depth was.
Other tracks are definitely hit and miss, but mostly miss. I must say that Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom ranks up there with the most annoying crap they’ve ever put out. Competition might include the ‘symphonic’ Annabella’s Song (it was so great when they were just doing it acoustically way back in ’96) and the whiny Wonderful. Wonderful for me is just Pale Green Stars from the perspective of a pre-adolescent kid.
Basically, I just can’t get excited about another Everclear album. It will probably be too mellow for my liking, and I kind of doubt that quote he has about being bluesy. I’m not expecting much.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Tammy Duckworth - Washington Post Article
I met this woman at a DNC fundraiser my first week on the job. She's a remarkable individual and should be a tough candidate to beat. As the article below notes, Durbin was instrumental in encouraging her to run for a Congressional seat.
After War Injury, an Iraq Vet Takes on Politics
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A01
CHICAGO, Feb. 18 The smiling candidate in rimless eyeglasses and a long woolen skirt maneuvers carefully among tables and chairs as she works a crowded Starbucks. She is taking small steps, and the reason for the slight awkwardness in her gait is not instantly clear.
Reaching to shake hands with a voter, she says: "You may have heard of me. I'm the Iraq war vet who's running. I was injured over there." Talking with another, she says: "I actually lost both my legs. I can walk because I got really good health care."
Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for Congress, cannot escape the catastrophic wounds she suffered as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq. And, for the purposes of her candidacy, she does not want to. For better or worse, her injuries are her signature, her motivator and, she hopes, her ticket into the consciousness of voters in the Illinois 6th District.
"I can't avoid the interest in the fact that I'm an injured female soldier," Duckworth, 37, says in an interview at her campaign headquarters in Lombard, west of Chicago. "Understand that I'm going to use this as a platform."
That is just what a pair of influential Illinois Democrats expected when they recruited her to seek the seat surrendered after 32 years by Republican stalwart Henry J. Hyde. Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Rep. Rahm Emanuel appealed to Duckworth when she was still recovering from her injuries, dissing the up-and-running campaign of fellow Democrat Christine Cegelis, who took 44 percent of the vote against Hyde in 2004.
Duckworth, who considers the Iraq war a mistake, is among about a dozen veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan running for federal office this year, at last count all but one of them Democrats. The party leadership is calculating that candidates who wore the uniform can offer a credible counterpoint on national security to Republicans who have dominated the debate from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill.
That's fine with Duckworth. She sees the race -- and pretty much everything else since Nov. 12, 2004, when an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade exploded at her feet -- as a second chance. "I know this sounds really corny, but I've just got to be more," Duckworth says. "I've got to be more than I was."
At the same time, Duckworth constantly wrestles with the reality of what she no longer is, the moves she can no longer make.
A self-described girlie girl whose favorite color is pink, she watches "America's Next Top Model" and laments not being able to wear feminine shoes. She has ordered special prosthetic "runway feet" that will allow for a two-inch heel.
Then there is the matter of her missing lap. One leg is only 2 1/2 inches long.
"I can't actually hold a soda between my knees in the car," she says. "It's really hard to use a laptop when you only have half a lap."
She half smiles as she says this, able to find wonderment in discovering the novelties of her new self. The smile builds into a laugh as she adds: "But there are positives. My feet don't get cold."
Duckworth still wears pink. She has a baseball jersey that reads, "Dude, where's my leg?"
The daughter of a retired Marine, Duckworth was born in Bangkok, where her father, Franklin Duckworth, did U.N. refugee work and married Lamai Sompornpairin, an ethnic Chinese. She spent much of her youth in Southeast Asia. She joined the ROTC while earning a master's degree in international affairs at George Washington University.
Moving to Illinois to pursue a doctorate, she signed up with the Illinois Army National Guard, asking to train as a Black Hawk pilot. This was partly because she hoped to taste combat, partly because she wanted to show she could match the men.
In her civilian life, she was a manager for Rotary International. As an Army captain, she rose to command 42 soldiers. She was about to transfer when the unit was called to duty in Iraq. She persuaded her superiors to reverse the move, saying, "There was no way I was going to let them go without me."
Of being a pilot, Duckworth says: "I love controlling this giant, fierce machine. I strap that bird on my back and I'm in charge of it and we just go, and it's just power."
On Nov. 12, 2004, after a stop in Baghdad's secure Green Zone for chocolate milkshakes, stir-fry and Christmas ornaments, Duckworth was right where she wanted to be, flying above the treetops at 130 mph.
Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg was at the controls when the grenade hit.
Milberg landed the chopper and mistook Duckworth for dead, she said, but helped haul her body, slippery with blood, to a second Black Hawk. Eight days later, she awoke from unconsciousness at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
For days, husband Bryan Bowlsbey had been at her bedside, repeating over and over: "You were injured. You are at Walter Reed. You are safe."
Unaware she was missing most of both legs, she asked why her feet hurt.
One person who had been to war, and had suffered for it, helped her see the future. He was former Army Lt. Robert J. Dole, wounded World War II vet and later Senate majority leader, who often visited Walter Reed without fanfare.
After a long conversation with him in early 2005, Duckworth understood that she had more to accomplish. She thought about the public service of veterans such as Dole, John F. Kennedy and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), and their Vietnam War-era brethren, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).
Her public career began shortly after Durbin invited wounded Illinois vets to attend last year's State of the Union address. Duckworth, promoted to major, soon was calling Durbin's office to get help for military families, which led to congressional testimony on military health care.
In March, Duckworth took her first steps on her first set of artificial legs. It took her two minutes to walk 12 feet. She felt exhausted, and elated.
It was summer when Durbin asked her to consider a fresh career. She realized the target was the Illinois 6th, whose boundary lay three miles from the home that friends and strangers remodeled to accommodate her.
She asked herself, "Did I want to do this to my private life?" Still weak, still learning to walk, still trying to strengthen a badly damaged arm that she almost lost, Duckworth chewed it over for two months with her husband, whom she describes as a true partner: "He annoys me. I annoy him. He chews gum with his mouth open. I leave my legs lying around on the floor."
With a boost from her new political friends, Duckworth formally announced her candidacy on Dec. 18 on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." In just two weeks, she raised $120,000, giving her more money than Cegelis or the third Democrat in the primary, evangelical Christian Lindy Scott.
Campaigning now under the tutelage of some of the most experienced Democratic strategists in Illinois, Duckworth stresses bread-and-butter issues. She speaks of the expanding reach of the alternative minimum tax and the rising cost of health care. She points out that she still has $70,000 in student loans and has fought through a health crisis.
Duckworth casts abortion and end-of-life decisions as private matters that should lie beyond the federal government's reach. If she wins the March 21 primary, she will face state Sen. Peter Roskam, a well-financed conservative Republican in a historically Republican district.
Whatever happens, she is confident she will be fine. "What the past year has done," she says, "is give me a fearlessness."
Duckworth is the first to say her campaign is about more than Iraq, but it is her opinions on the war that some questioners most want to hear. She tells them she supports the troops and believes the United States must persevere long enough to give Iraqis a chance.
But she believes the decision to invade was an error, and a badly executed error at that.
"I think it was a bad decision. I think we used bad intelligence. I think our priority should have been Afghanistan and capturing Osama bin Laden," Duckworth says. "Our troops do an incredible job every single day, but our policymakers have not lived up to the sacrifices that our troops make every day."
Asked whether she feels she lost her legs on an unworthy mission, she replies: "I was hurt in service for my country. I was proud to go. It was my duty as a soldier to go. And I would go tomorrow."
Duckworth has a recurring dream, often after watching news coverage of the war. She is back in Iraq, at the controls of her Black Hawk or doing desk duty in Balad. She has her legs. It took eight months for her dream personality to accept that the good health would evaporate at daybreak, but now she finds the sensation gratifying.
"In my dream, I usually know: 'Oh, I have legs. Cool. I'm going to run around.' "
That's how Duckworth feels about her second chance.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
After War Injury, an Iraq Vet Takes on Politics
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A01
CHICAGO, Feb. 18 The smiling candidate in rimless eyeglasses and a long woolen skirt maneuvers carefully among tables and chairs as she works a crowded Starbucks. She is taking small steps, and the reason for the slight awkwardness in her gait is not instantly clear.
Reaching to shake hands with a voter, she says: "You may have heard of me. I'm the Iraq war vet who's running. I was injured over there." Talking with another, she says: "I actually lost both my legs. I can walk because I got really good health care."
Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for Congress, cannot escape the catastrophic wounds she suffered as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq. And, for the purposes of her candidacy, she does not want to. For better or worse, her injuries are her signature, her motivator and, she hopes, her ticket into the consciousness of voters in the Illinois 6th District.
"I can't avoid the interest in the fact that I'm an injured female soldier," Duckworth, 37, says in an interview at her campaign headquarters in Lombard, west of Chicago. "Understand that I'm going to use this as a platform."
That is just what a pair of influential Illinois Democrats expected when they recruited her to seek the seat surrendered after 32 years by Republican stalwart Henry J. Hyde. Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Rep. Rahm Emanuel appealed to Duckworth when she was still recovering from her injuries, dissing the up-and-running campaign of fellow Democrat Christine Cegelis, who took 44 percent of the vote against Hyde in 2004.
Duckworth, who considers the Iraq war a mistake, is among about a dozen veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan running for federal office this year, at last count all but one of them Democrats. The party leadership is calculating that candidates who wore the uniform can offer a credible counterpoint on national security to Republicans who have dominated the debate from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill.
That's fine with Duckworth. She sees the race -- and pretty much everything else since Nov. 12, 2004, when an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade exploded at her feet -- as a second chance. "I know this sounds really corny, but I've just got to be more," Duckworth says. "I've got to be more than I was."
At the same time, Duckworth constantly wrestles with the reality of what she no longer is, the moves she can no longer make.
A self-described girlie girl whose favorite color is pink, she watches "America's Next Top Model" and laments not being able to wear feminine shoes. She has ordered special prosthetic "runway feet" that will allow for a two-inch heel.
Then there is the matter of her missing lap. One leg is only 2 1/2 inches long.
"I can't actually hold a soda between my knees in the car," she says. "It's really hard to use a laptop when you only have half a lap."
She half smiles as she says this, able to find wonderment in discovering the novelties of her new self. The smile builds into a laugh as she adds: "But there are positives. My feet don't get cold."
Duckworth still wears pink. She has a baseball jersey that reads, "Dude, where's my leg?"
The daughter of a retired Marine, Duckworth was born in Bangkok, where her father, Franklin Duckworth, did U.N. refugee work and married Lamai Sompornpairin, an ethnic Chinese. She spent much of her youth in Southeast Asia. She joined the ROTC while earning a master's degree in international affairs at George Washington University.
Moving to Illinois to pursue a doctorate, she signed up with the Illinois Army National Guard, asking to train as a Black Hawk pilot. This was partly because she hoped to taste combat, partly because she wanted to show she could match the men.
In her civilian life, she was a manager for Rotary International. As an Army captain, she rose to command 42 soldiers. She was about to transfer when the unit was called to duty in Iraq. She persuaded her superiors to reverse the move, saying, "There was no way I was going to let them go without me."
Of being a pilot, Duckworth says: "I love controlling this giant, fierce machine. I strap that bird on my back and I'm in charge of it and we just go, and it's just power."
On Nov. 12, 2004, after a stop in Baghdad's secure Green Zone for chocolate milkshakes, stir-fry and Christmas ornaments, Duckworth was right where she wanted to be, flying above the treetops at 130 mph.
Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg was at the controls when the grenade hit.
Milberg landed the chopper and mistook Duckworth for dead, she said, but helped haul her body, slippery with blood, to a second Black Hawk. Eight days later, she awoke from unconsciousness at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
For days, husband Bryan Bowlsbey had been at her bedside, repeating over and over: "You were injured. You are at Walter Reed. You are safe."
Unaware she was missing most of both legs, she asked why her feet hurt.
One person who had been to war, and had suffered for it, helped her see the future. He was former Army Lt. Robert J. Dole, wounded World War II vet and later Senate majority leader, who often visited Walter Reed without fanfare.
After a long conversation with him in early 2005, Duckworth understood that she had more to accomplish. She thought about the public service of veterans such as Dole, John F. Kennedy and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), and their Vietnam War-era brethren, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).
Her public career began shortly after Durbin invited wounded Illinois vets to attend last year's State of the Union address. Duckworth, promoted to major, soon was calling Durbin's office to get help for military families, which led to congressional testimony on military health care.
In March, Duckworth took her first steps on her first set of artificial legs. It took her two minutes to walk 12 feet. She felt exhausted, and elated.
It was summer when Durbin asked her to consider a fresh career. She realized the target was the Illinois 6th, whose boundary lay three miles from the home that friends and strangers remodeled to accommodate her.
She asked herself, "Did I want to do this to my private life?" Still weak, still learning to walk, still trying to strengthen a badly damaged arm that she almost lost, Duckworth chewed it over for two months with her husband, whom she describes as a true partner: "He annoys me. I annoy him. He chews gum with his mouth open. I leave my legs lying around on the floor."
With a boost from her new political friends, Duckworth formally announced her candidacy on Dec. 18 on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." In just two weeks, she raised $120,000, giving her more money than Cegelis or the third Democrat in the primary, evangelical Christian Lindy Scott.
Campaigning now under the tutelage of some of the most experienced Democratic strategists in Illinois, Duckworth stresses bread-and-butter issues. She speaks of the expanding reach of the alternative minimum tax and the rising cost of health care. She points out that she still has $70,000 in student loans and has fought through a health crisis.
Duckworth casts abortion and end-of-life decisions as private matters that should lie beyond the federal government's reach. If she wins the March 21 primary, she will face state Sen. Peter Roskam, a well-financed conservative Republican in a historically Republican district.
Whatever happens, she is confident she will be fine. "What the past year has done," she says, "is give me a fearlessness."
Duckworth is the first to say her campaign is about more than Iraq, but it is her opinions on the war that some questioners most want to hear. She tells them she supports the troops and believes the United States must persevere long enough to give Iraqis a chance.
But she believes the decision to invade was an error, and a badly executed error at that.
"I think it was a bad decision. I think we used bad intelligence. I think our priority should have been Afghanistan and capturing Osama bin Laden," Duckworth says. "Our troops do an incredible job every single day, but our policymakers have not lived up to the sacrifices that our troops make every day."
Asked whether she feels she lost her legs on an unworthy mission, she replies: "I was hurt in service for my country. I was proud to go. It was my duty as a soldier to go. And I would go tomorrow."
Duckworth has a recurring dream, often after watching news coverage of the war. She is back in Iraq, at the controls of her Black Hawk or doing desk duty in Balad. She has her legs. It took eight months for her dream personality to accept that the good health would evaporate at daybreak, but now she finds the sensation gratifying.
"In my dream, I usually know: 'Oh, I have legs. Cool. I'm going to run around.' "
That's how Duckworth feels about her second chance.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Encounter on a Subway Platform
As well as I could ascertain (the guy was somewhat difficult to understand), the conversation went like this:
Cross-eyed guy: Yo, man - you actin'.
Me: I'm sorry, what?
Cross-eyed guy: ...like dat acta.
Me: Excuse me?
Cross-eyed guy: You know, man - that actor!
Me: I'm afraid not. What actor?
Cross-eyed guy: No man - you look like an actor - look like you fuck somebody up, man [demonstrates throwing a punch]
Me: Oh, right....yeah.
Cross-eyed guy: Yeah, man - you should be a actor - def'nitely.
Me: Oh - yeah, cool. Thanks.
Yep.
Cross-eyed guy: Yo, man - you actin'.
Me: I'm sorry, what?
Cross-eyed guy: ...like dat acta.
Me: Excuse me?
Cross-eyed guy: You know, man - that actor!
Me: I'm afraid not. What actor?
Cross-eyed guy: No man - you look like an actor - look like you fuck somebody up, man [demonstrates throwing a punch]
Me: Oh, right....yeah.
Cross-eyed guy: Yeah, man - you should be a actor - def'nitely.
Me: Oh - yeah, cool. Thanks.
Yep.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Meandering
I'm not even sure I should be posting right now. I drank a tad too much last night and I actually feel like I can sense the missing brain cells. Summary: I feel dumber.
I don't think I am, though. Just as soon as this slight haze clears, I'll be okay.
The internship is going okay so far. The hours are killing me slowly however. I wake up at 7am Monday-Wednesday in order to catch the 8am shuttle to the metro. This is fine when I'm going to the Dirksen Senate Office Building, but when I go to the Capitol, I'm about five minutes later than I should be. On Thursdays, the senators alternate hosting duties for the Illinois constituent coffee, and I have to be there by 8:20 or so. That means everything is bumped up by an hour and I'm up at 6am. Anyone who knows me well also knows that after my freshman year in college, I never took a class that started before 10am and tried to keep 11 as the goal. I'm a night person and seldom go to bed before midnight. It's been rough on me - this real-world stuff....
So I'm up at 7 most days and not out of work until after 6pm, which means I'm not home until about 7:30pm after the metro and the shuttle ride back. After that, I'm pretty much spent, which means that I don't really feel like throwing a lot of effort into cooking or exercising or working on the stuff I'm supposed to do for class. This laziness does not translate into nutritious lowfat meals, which means that combined with the lack of real exercise and weekend beer/pizza, I'm not in very good shape. Something has to change there, or I'll be popping out of my button-down shirts and visiting a tailor to alter my suits.
It bugs me a little that I can't really talk about work here, but I suppose most of it would be boring anyway. That doesn't mean that I'm going to entirely stop talking politics on the blog. Just because I work for a senator doesn't mean (or at least it shouldn't...) that I don't have opinions of my own. I do truly admire the guy. I've had the opportunity to listen to him speak in a quite a few different setting now, and I'm always impressed.
I was supposed to go on a White House tour yesterday, but I underestimated the time it would take me to get there on the metro, and I missed it. The trains run much less frequently during 'off-peak' hours, and there were large time-lags when I had to change lines. I stepped out of the Federal Triangle metro station at 11:55 with only five minutes to walk three/four blocks, and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't heartbroken though. The only thing I was upset about was that I was finally in DC with time to spend visiting monuments, memorials, and museums and I hadn't brought my camera. The White House tours are quite strict about what can and cannot be brought in, and cameras are on the 'cannot' list, as are lots of other things, including the slightly less obvius, like pens/pencils.
Undeterred, I set out for the Washington Monument and decided that I would just come back with a camera if/when any friends come to visit and we do the tourist thing. I've been down here almost a full month and hadn't seen anything except the Capitol Building - where I work - and the Supreme Court structure, which is adjacent to where our classes are held.
I circled the Washington Monument and then backtracked to the Jefferson Memorial. I'm a pretty big fan of Thomas. Seems like he was quite a guy. I think I would like to read more about him. So if anyone's got any Jefferson biography recommendations, please share...
Anyway, the Jefferson Memorial is pretty cool. There's a lower level with lots of information in bite-sized pieces. From there, I walked to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietna Veterans Memorial. All were impressive in their own distinctive ways, but nothing can really compete with the sheer number of names confronting you at the Vietnam site. It's a little staggering when you look up at a wall ten feet high and it's covered with names of men who were killed for no good reason. The placement is a little different than I had expected. It really fits in with everything else around it much better than I had envisioned.
Then it was on to the Lincoln Memorial. There were more people there than anywhere else I went that day. The Gettysburg Address is carved in one wall and his second inaugural address is on another. After hanging out with ol' Abe for a while, I started walking slightly northeast with no real destination in mind. I eventually settled down at a table in Starbucks warming my hands around a cup of coffee before heading out again for an aimless walk which took me past the White House and finally to the Metro Center station.
On the train home, I had the poor luck to overhear one of, if not the dumbest and most inane conversation of my young, sweet life. This is not verbatim, but it's damn close.
Woman 1: Oh my god - now there's someone who needs a little makeup. I know she's going for that 'pure' look, but my god, she's like so pale. I wanna be like, 'listen honey - you need to throw a little blush on and some eyeshadow, because you look like a vampire.
Woman 2: Oh my god, I know! What is her problem? Can she not see herself in the mirror? What about [I don't remember what name she said, so we'll use....Hildegard]? Now she could really use a manicure. Have you seen her nails? They're horrible. I wanted to be like, 'okay honey...'
And so it continued like that for minutes on end. I have even less of a stomach for it now that I see it written down. The worst part is that they moved on from the improper underuse of cosmetics to discussing the problems they have with their jobs. Their occupations? They're both teachers. Either elementary or middle school - that wasn't really clear, but the point is that these are the kind of people educating our kids.
After all of that, I expected to turn around and find two slim, attractive, but obviously empty-headed girls. Instead, I caughted their reflection in the glass barrier ahead of me. They were large, heavily made-up girls in their mid-20s, and all I could think was that it might be a good idea if they spent a little more time exercising instead of preparing their faces each day.
I don't think I am, though. Just as soon as this slight haze clears, I'll be okay.
The internship is going okay so far. The hours are killing me slowly however. I wake up at 7am Monday-Wednesday in order to catch the 8am shuttle to the metro. This is fine when I'm going to the Dirksen Senate Office Building, but when I go to the Capitol, I'm about five minutes later than I should be. On Thursdays, the senators alternate hosting duties for the Illinois constituent coffee, and I have to be there by 8:20 or so. That means everything is bumped up by an hour and I'm up at 6am. Anyone who knows me well also knows that after my freshman year in college, I never took a class that started before 10am and tried to keep 11 as the goal. I'm a night person and seldom go to bed before midnight. It's been rough on me - this real-world stuff....
So I'm up at 7 most days and not out of work until after 6pm, which means I'm not home until about 7:30pm after the metro and the shuttle ride back. After that, I'm pretty much spent, which means that I don't really feel like throwing a lot of effort into cooking or exercising or working on the stuff I'm supposed to do for class. This laziness does not translate into nutritious lowfat meals, which means that combined with the lack of real exercise and weekend beer/pizza, I'm not in very good shape. Something has to change there, or I'll be popping out of my button-down shirts and visiting a tailor to alter my suits.
It bugs me a little that I can't really talk about work here, but I suppose most of it would be boring anyway. That doesn't mean that I'm going to entirely stop talking politics on the blog. Just because I work for a senator doesn't mean (or at least it shouldn't...) that I don't have opinions of my own. I do truly admire the guy. I've had the opportunity to listen to him speak in a quite a few different setting now, and I'm always impressed.
I was supposed to go on a White House tour yesterday, but I underestimated the time it would take me to get there on the metro, and I missed it. The trains run much less frequently during 'off-peak' hours, and there were large time-lags when I had to change lines. I stepped out of the Federal Triangle metro station at 11:55 with only five minutes to walk three/four blocks, and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't heartbroken though. The only thing I was upset about was that I was finally in DC with time to spend visiting monuments, memorials, and museums and I hadn't brought my camera. The White House tours are quite strict about what can and cannot be brought in, and cameras are on the 'cannot' list, as are lots of other things, including the slightly less obvius, like pens/pencils.
Undeterred, I set out for the Washington Monument and decided that I would just come back with a camera if/when any friends come to visit and we do the tourist thing. I've been down here almost a full month and hadn't seen anything except the Capitol Building - where I work - and the Supreme Court structure, which is adjacent to where our classes are held.
I circled the Washington Monument and then backtracked to the Jefferson Memorial. I'm a pretty big fan of Thomas. Seems like he was quite a guy. I think I would like to read more about him. So if anyone's got any Jefferson biography recommendations, please share...
Anyway, the Jefferson Memorial is pretty cool. There's a lower level with lots of information in bite-sized pieces. From there, I walked to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietna Veterans Memorial. All were impressive in their own distinctive ways, but nothing can really compete with the sheer number of names confronting you at the Vietnam site. It's a little staggering when you look up at a wall ten feet high and it's covered with names of men who were killed for no good reason. The placement is a little different than I had expected. It really fits in with everything else around it much better than I had envisioned.
Then it was on to the Lincoln Memorial. There were more people there than anywhere else I went that day. The Gettysburg Address is carved in one wall and his second inaugural address is on another. After hanging out with ol' Abe for a while, I started walking slightly northeast with no real destination in mind. I eventually settled down at a table in Starbucks warming my hands around a cup of coffee before heading out again for an aimless walk which took me past the White House and finally to the Metro Center station.
On the train home, I had the poor luck to overhear one of, if not the dumbest and most inane conversation of my young, sweet life. This is not verbatim, but it's damn close.
Woman 1: Oh my god - now there's someone who needs a little makeup. I know she's going for that 'pure' look, but my god, she's like so pale. I wanna be like, 'listen honey - you need to throw a little blush on and some eyeshadow, because you look like a vampire.
Woman 2: Oh my god, I know! What is her problem? Can she not see herself in the mirror? What about [I don't remember what name she said, so we'll use....Hildegard]? Now she could really use a manicure. Have you seen her nails? They're horrible. I wanted to be like, 'okay honey...'
And so it continued like that for minutes on end. I have even less of a stomach for it now that I see it written down. The worst part is that they moved on from the improper underuse of cosmetics to discussing the problems they have with their jobs. Their occupations? They're both teachers. Either elementary or middle school - that wasn't really clear, but the point is that these are the kind of people educating our kids.
After all of that, I expected to turn around and find two slim, attractive, but obviously empty-headed girls. Instead, I caughted their reflection in the glass barrier ahead of me. They were large, heavily made-up girls in their mid-20s, and all I could think was that it might be a good idea if they spent a little more time exercising instead of preparing their faces each day.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Cheney Shoots Friend
...."Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together. “This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I’ve been peppered pretty well myself,” said Armstrong." I just happened to catch this on the news while waiting for my laundry. The best part was when they flashed a file photo of Cheney on the screen and he had a big grin on his face.
Update: I just had the pleasure of watching the DC local news. The lead story was what you might have expected, but the best part was the graphic they showed over the anchor's right shoulder. It simply read, "Cheney Shoots Friend." The file photo was initially just Cheney with a fishing pole, but even as I yelled at the screen for them to find a picture of the guy with a gun, the photo changed to a nice one of Cheney taking aim, all decked out in blaze orange. Nice.
Wegman Lighting Up
As a general rule, we don't smoke inside the apartment, but this night the standards were a bit relaxed.
Altered Perspective
Downey took this upside down for some reason. If you compare the time stamps, you can see this took a while to smoke.
Have A Cigar
Again, this is blurry, but it's the best I have. It was nice and warm last weekend, so we were out on the balcony enjoying our cigars.
Downey on the Balcony
We went to a tobacconist after happy hour last Friday. This picture's blurry, but the red-eye in the other one I took is a little scary.
My Roommate and I in the Alexandria Apt.
This is David and I, posing with "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," Shlitz Beer. Brian and Mike (from here on, they'll probably be referred to as Downey and Wegman) and I bought this as a joke. It was not consumed very rapidly.
The Brewing Process
Paul and Clayt in the process of bottling the home brew (reusing Sam Adams bottles, as you can see). Clayt bought those awesome sweatpants that day so he would be unconstrained playing basketball. Obviously, he was unstoppable.
I missed out on sampling the brew two nights ago. I opted to go to a lame party in the apartment complex instead... I'm pretty lazy about going places here because I don't know where anything is.
Tia, Paul, Clayt, Jessica
This was taken at Paul & Tia's very nice apartment in Maryland a couple weeks ago. Paul and Clayt may or may not have been on MulletsGalore.com at the time this was taken.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Update
Yeah, so I haven't been able to post. I only have computer access at work for the most part, and I can check my email but it looks bad if I'm using my work time to reply to people or to post things on my blog. Slightly unprofessional. So my link to everyone has been with my lovely new cell phone, which I found out lacks the ability to download ringtones. My dreams of reaching for my phone while Kashmir plays? Dashed.
Anyway - there's a lot to say, but not very much time to say it. Ben has been generous enough to offer his laptop for a while, but thus far we haven't met up to make the exchange. We did meet up to go to a very odd party on W Street in Southwest DC though. I've also had time to hang out with Paul, Tia, Clayt, and his wife Jessica.
Today for the Super Bowl, I think I'm just going to stick around the apartment and we're going to eat a lot.
The internship is going well, although as I thought, networking is the be-all and end-all to the experience....who you know, not what you know, et cetera. We'll see how things work out. There is a slight chance I could wind up with at least some kind of job down here at the end of the internship - probably in the low to mid-20K range. The big perk would be the possibility of getting some loans paid off. We'll see what happens. I'd like to type more, but I'm hogging my roommate's computer, so that's all for now.
Anyway - there's a lot to say, but not very much time to say it. Ben has been generous enough to offer his laptop for a while, but thus far we haven't met up to make the exchange. We did meet up to go to a very odd party on W Street in Southwest DC though. I've also had time to hang out with Paul, Tia, Clayt, and his wife Jessica.
Today for the Super Bowl, I think I'm just going to stick around the apartment and we're going to eat a lot.
The internship is going well, although as I thought, networking is the be-all and end-all to the experience....who you know, not what you know, et cetera. We'll see how things work out. There is a slight chance I could wind up with at least some kind of job down here at the end of the internship - probably in the low to mid-20K range. The big perk would be the possibility of getting some loans paid off. We'll see what happens. I'd like to type more, but I'm hogging my roommate's computer, so that's all for now.
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