View Down the Mall

This picture was taken from around the base of the Washington Monument. You can see the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial in the background. 

Jefferson Memorial

 

Trouble with Picture Posting

Problem with Picasa. No more pictures right now.

Illinois-Connecticut

I met Jess in the Senate gallery during the first couple weeks at the internship. She goes to UConn and works in Dodd's office. Captain America (ha ha - sorry Aaron. Aaron is the guy from our office who looks like he walked off the set of a toothpaste commercial. I'm happy to report that my nickname for him has caught on pretty well) and I tried to match Brad's ability for recruiting interns from other offices to come out with us and do some post-work drinking. Our first target (and predictably - only - target) was Dodd's office. 

We'll Call Them Regulars

Jeohn, Laura, me, Brad. I would say we were the most regular attendees of Union Pub Wednesdays from the office. The routine? I would come in, blow five to twenty dollars on the crappy digital jukebox picking out mostly the same songs each week, and then up to thirty minutes later, I'd head over and join the crowd, secure with my chosen background music for the better part of the rest of the evening. Good times. The interns bonded remarkably quickly and had a lot of fun together. Anny is also gone now. She went to a few happy hours, but her classes didn't allow her to be a regular like us. 

Last Wednesday Happy Hour with Jeohn and Brad

...and the debut of a clean-cut Wyatt for the first time in three years. Union Pub was our regular Wednesday night Happy Hour hangout for the past five weeks or so. The beer's not great (Miller Lite at a buck-fifty/bottle) and the jukebox sucks (Doors Greatest Hits, a little Hendrix, and Pearl Jam Rearviewmirror are the best things on there. Notice the lack of Zeppelin?) but it's the best we could find.

Jeohn and Brad just got real jobs (ones that pay), so it made little sense to stick around at the internship. Jeohn's sticking around DC, which is cool, but Brad's back in Chi-town. 

Pre-Disaster

While we were playing catch, we noticed a lot of people walking their dogs. This was taken right before I stepped in some shit. 

Playing Catch in the Back Yard

Downey and I played some catch in the tiny courtyard behind our apartment complex. I hadn't played any baseball since around July of last year or so, with Oz, Turck and some others. I lost track of how many times I threw the ball over his head - poor guy. Fortunately it wasn't a really long walk for him. Check out those ghostly white legs. 

Driving Down the Road to the Sun

I like this picture. Downey took it from the backseat of my deer-impacted '97 Plymouth Breeze as the four residents of our apartment came back from a good meal and (for Downey and I) a Guinness. 

Staking Out Old Town Alexandria

This is a shot of us taking a walk around Old Town, looking for a place to eat (and drink). We ended up at Murphy's Irish Pub. 

Senator Durbin on Fox News Sunday

The Minority Whip was questioned about the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. He had some good responses. Check it out.

Back in Business

So I had a few computer problems, but Ben came through and solved them for me eventually. Consequently, I'll be uploading quite a few pictures for your perusal in just a bit.

Picture of Me with My Boss

On Thursday, we had an opportunity to have our picture taken with Senator Durbin after the Illinois Constituent Coffee. Our office interns had a group picture taken with Durbin and Obama, and then individual pictures with Durbin. This suit kind of looks a bit big for me here. 

Kirby Puckett

The great Minnesota Twin died today. He was a great player and a lot of fun to watch. I remember watching the 1991 World Series and his amazing catch at the center field wall and his home run to win Game Six in the eleventh inning. He will be missed.

Sick

I felt like shit today. I came very close to falling asleep during a meeting I was sitting in on today. Probably would have been embarrassing. Slightly.

Went to a wine and cheese Oscar party last night. It was a bit over my head, I think. I hadn't seen any of the Best Picture nominees, and I used to consider myself a movie person. Down here, I haven't even bothered to check out the location of the nearest theater.

Friday, we hosted a poker tournament here at our apartment. I should have some pictures up in a couple days from Downey's camera. I specifically asked that at least one picture of me with the chip lead be taken, just to immortalize the moment and let it be known that I had one semi-decent game in my life. Didn't last though, of course. I started betting stupidly or my luck ran out, or both. Oh well. Fun while it lasted. We headed to the bar afterward, came back, and then subjected my roommates to extended viewing of the (official) Led Zeppelin DVD, which they did a good job of at least pretending to enjoy.

Saturday, I headed to Paul and Tia's place for some White Russians and some other more experimental drinks while listening to PJ and Pink Floyd. We had some intellectually stimulating discussions, looked at some photo albums of our friends, and even watched some very interesting video of the Big Sur Six. Good times. Sunday, Paul made me the first omelette of my life. Previous egg-sperience (only time I'll ever use that - I swear) was scrambled only. Good stuff.

Sunday was aimless driving followed by the Oscar party.

Today was crap. I've drank about thirty ounces of orange juice and took my first vitamins in about three weeks. I might even get to bed before 11:30.

That's it for now.

Malaise

I've been feeling pretty anti-social lately. I didn't go out on Saturday. I didn't go to the party at one of the program participant's apartments on Tuesday for Mardi Gras, and I didn't go out tonight for our regular Wednesday night happy hour for the interns in our office at Union Pub. I'm in one of those 'what's the freakin' point?!' phases. I'm kind of back to how I was feeling the first week down here, which is fairly negative toward the internship....not really the internship I guess, but the town and the idea that I'm not really cut out for this sort of thing. What I mean by that is the the whole insincerity thing and how pervasive it is. I can barely deal with it, let alone put it into practice long enough to 'network' effectively. There's a big difference between utilizing connections made with genuine friends and associations formed simply because people think they might be able to get something out of the other person at some point, and there's a lot more of the latter going on around here. And that sounds stupid, because of course this isn't just a DC thing - it's everywhere. It just seems a bit closer to the surface to me now.

All that isn't to say that I haven't met some cool people down here. I like my roommates. I got fairly lucky. There are no hip-hop fans among the three of them. Classic rock and jazz seem to be the main choices, which is cool. So there are no conflicts over what we listen to as a group when we're playing cards or chilling and drinking. To someone like me, to whom what's playing - even in the background - is a huge deal, this is key. I've probably blown close to $50 just on jukebox selections in the five weeks I've been down here. To most people, that would merely sound like pure stupidity, but to me, it was worth it, because I'm in such a better mood when music that I enjoy is playing. Other people can tune it out, but I have a very hard time with that.

I also really like the people in my office. Some of them are leaving quite soon, in mid-March if not before, and that's going to be a big drag on the last five or six weeks of the time down here. We've developed a pretty good working rapport and those of us that go out for the Wednesday happy hour routine have a good relationship outside of work. I would say that we've bonded pretty well as a group. Not bad for a few weeks' worth of time anyway.

I have to be up a little after 6am tomorrow to be at the constituent coffee.

I'm back and forth on the prospect of staying down here for a job. Often, I just feel stupid, incompetent, or unqualified for my unpaid position. This happens when I have to escort visitors to the other side of the Capitol and I get lost. Normally, when you're at a place for a few weeks, you tend to develop a kind of map in your own mind and can fall back on alternate routes. I don't even know my way around my own apartment complex, and I have to write down directions just to get to Ben's place when he's 10 minutes away. I feel like I mastered things a lot faster in Fort Collins, but I think that was due to the fact that we were always looking at the map when we were looking at apartments for two weeks. I also feel like an idiot when I'm told to answer the phones at the main desk. I can barely negotiate a transfer of a call, and I continually forget to even ask who is calling. Yesterday, Paul, Tia, and Tia's dad came for a tour of the Capitol and it was really embarrassing. Even though I've accompanied about four or five other tours, I couldn't get through this one without stumbling through a majority of it. I lost track of the number of times I trailed off with 'ya know' or 'or whatever...' It was pretty bad, although they refused to admit it.

Other times, I feel like I do a pretty good job with things that are assigned to me, but then I realize that they're not exactly challenging and that dozens of other people could do them (and will probably get hired to do them other places way before I would). I'm talking about researching issues and compiling data or drafting letters to people for the senator or staff.

I'm done with my complaint rant for now. There might be more tomorrow though.

That's a Big Smile...For a Loser

Not the chip stacks. There was a repeat of this turn of events the following day. 

Not a Good Poker Player

...which is something I already knew. 

Friday Night Pregame

 

Everclear, or Something Like It

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.