Rants, ramblings, and the like

I often type in the dark. I'm not a fan of lights, which explains my often pasty complexion. But, hey, it takes a great amount of effort to avoid sunlight as well as I do. So if you see any major typos, it's because I'm too lazy to get up and turn on the lights in my room.

Sayville is a weird town. Those of you who are familiar with it will most likely agree. Don't get me wrong, I like Sayville. It's just that there are a lot of nutty people there. But I guess that''s true of most towns. Anywho, last night I was on a mission to get a cup of coffee with Magdalene and we stopped in Sayville. Choosing to not enter the greasy spoon (Sayville Modern Diner, for those who aren't familiar) we decided to leave town. Just before backing out of the parking spot, some nutcase in a pickup truck pulled up at a weird angle, got out of the vehicle, yelled, "What the fuck is wrong with people?," and threw a lit cigarette at her car. Glowing ash from the cigarette came in the window on my side. He then walked over to a bench and left his truck running. He wasn't even in a space. Mind you, there was an open space next to us. Choosing to not get stabbed, we locked the doors, rolled up the windows and drove away. What the fuck?!? Who does that?

I seriously hate the president. He's such a piece of shit. I was planning a huge rant about him, but it's pointless. We all know what kind of bullshit he has dumped on us -- and if you don't, you're just lying to yourself -- so why bother? Anyone who voted for him should be forced to wear a sign around his/her neck that reads, "I am a jackass!" Ok, I'm done.

Going to Gracer's record release show in Brooklyn tomorrow. Should be good times. Lot's of friends and friend's bands. Convenient parking. What else could one ask for?

I bought Orgazmo on DVD today for $12.99. I also picked up used copies of Brand New's "Deja Entendu" and Channel's "Open" EP, for $9.99 and $7.99 respectively. Not a bad day for purchases. Perhaps I will watch Orgazmo tonight.

Hmmm... I guess that's it. No recording took place this week, so I have nothing to update there.

Ok, I'm done. Later.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Jets to Brazil - Chinatown

Oh boy! Seriously, what's my problem?

Ok, so I am finally finding the time to blog. My apologies to the handful of people who may actually read my rants and ramblings. I have been away from my computer and/or utterly exhausted, so I have not been able to write in a while. But here we are again. Sunday night. Memorial day weekend.

Last weekend around this time I was in Franklin, Tennessee. My friends, Nicole & Keith, had tied the knot a few hours earlier and I was several drinks into a nice drunk. I had surely moved on to the white wine by this time. It was a multi-drink celebration that resulted in an overly intoxicated Sergei dancing. For those who know me, you understand that dancing is not something I do... Ever! But it was Nicole's wedding day and she is one of my best friends in the entire world. And on top of that, there weren't a lot of people tearing up the dance floor. Had my alcohol level been lower, I may have rethought this choice, but, hey, I did get to recreate the fight scene from Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video with Sean. Following the reception, we went back to the hotel bar for an after party. There I nursed a Cap'n & Diet for most of the night. Being so drunk, I forgot that I had finished my drink and began drinking straight rum our Scottish friend Andy kept pouring into my glass. Oh boy, did this mess me up. I only vaguely remember walking back to my hotel room with Sean & John to retrieve the beer that sat chilling in my sink for the after-after party. I do remember trying to unlock room 526, though I was in staying in room 530. And I remember constantly bumping into the walls. To make a long, drunken story a little shorter, I don't remember what time I left the after-after party in John & Joy's room, but it was late. Very, very late. The next day I woke up early to return my rental car. I still don't know how I came to possess a second room key. Perhaps it was John & Joy's, from when I went to let Sean into my room, so I could get back to the after-after party. Anywho, I, luckily, did not throw up that night or the next morning. And I made it back to Long Island in one hungover piece. Thanks to all my friends who were there for making it such a fantastic mini-vacation.

Friday night I went to see Krylls & Speed Speed Speed for Dan's B-Day show with Magdalene and Scott. We got in to the city early and walked around intending to stop for falafals, but after a decent walk we backtracked and went to another restaurant. I didn't catch the name, but it was quite tasty. Then it was off to the show which was at the Pussycat Lounge, which meant, of course, topless dancers. We went downstairs to the strip club section, only to find Maria and Mark already there. One stripper took an interest in Scott right away, and Magdalene passed her a dollar with her teeth. We then went back upstairs, where Krylls blew me away with their new singer. So much better than before. SpeedX3 played next. They had a couple of surprises in store. First, a cover of Soundgarden's "Face Pollution." Second, a Bravado reunion. That's right, all four original Bravado members, with the help of Josh from SpeedX3, played "Heart Attack." For those who did not come, you blew it. Way to go. hahaha. Anywho, we left the club at 1:45am, after watching one of Magdalene's friend's bands and I got home really, really late. But it was an amazing night. I wouldn't have changed a moment of it.

I wanted to go running tonight, but I can't find my earphones for my iPod. Damn! I need music when I run. Ugh!

I may go to Lou's place tonight for a party, but I'm feeling kind of tired. I don't know. We'll see what happens. I need a nap. I need to do laundry too. Hmmm.... The choices.

It's way too hot in my room. I need to buy an air conditioner. Or, at least, sculpt some clothing out of ice. This heat will surely melt me.

My life has been pretty good lately. I have been going out more, and feeling alive for the first time in a long time. It's nice. And now that my former professor has informed me that she would finally be sending out my much needed letter of recommendation, I am feeling less stressed. Not stress free, but I'm certainly not freaking out anymore.

Ok, I have ranted for too long. I'll try not to have such long breaks between blogs again.

Later on!

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Death Cab For Cutie - 20th Century Towers

One week later

It has been a week since my last blog, I know. I'm sorry. I have been busy. Sadly, I don't even have the time to blog right now. I have to be up for work at 7:30am. Another open to close shift tomorrow. Ugh! I will fill in all the details of the past week very soon. I have a bag of stories involving my trip to TN for Nicole & Keith's wedding. And, yes, there was a lot of alcohol involved in this one.

Ok, goodnight!

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Jawbreaker - Ache

Geetars, day 7.

Tonight's recording session went quite well. There were a few parts that I drove myself nuts trying to play perfectly, but in the end I got them. The guitar tones Sean found were exactly what we both had in mind for each part, and they were found quickly and with much ease. The Gretsch Nashville finally made its debut on the recording. There was an issue with one of the pickups causing the guitar to cut out, but some folded paper wedges cured the problem. It gave us some of the sweetest sounds we could have asked for. So, as always, here is the list of tracks worked on:

Bridge Lights - chorus/interludes & doubled 2nd verse (Nashville), 1st bridge section (Broadkaster)
Blueprints - verses, doubled choruses, bridge (Fender), clean section of 3rd chorus (Nashville)
The Chemist - verse intro leads & doubled choruses (Fender), clean section of bridge (Nashville)

So, yeah, I'm feeling quite accomplished. Sean and I reviewed the remaining parts I have to record still and realized my parts are almost complete. Soon Sean will begin tracking his parts. Oh this is a truly exciting time!

I watched Match Point last night. As a Woody Allen fan, I was surprised by this film. It's so far removed from his dry, witty style that one can easily forget that it is a Woody Allen film. In fact, it's not a comedy and he doesn't even appear in the picture. The story itself isn't anything that hasn't been done in film before, but it is a well made drama/thriller.

Less than a week until I leave for Tennessee. Hooray!

Ok, I'm done. Goodnight!

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Death Cab For Cutie - Scientist Studies

Who needs sleep anyway?

Last night was so much fun. We don't play shows too frequently, so it was fun to play with so many friend's bands. Slingshot Dakota amazing, Nakatomi Plaza was mind blowing, Villa Vina was insane, and Gracer was epic. Not sure how else to put it. It was great to see so many friends in one place.

I slept just shy of 3 hours last night. Surprisingly I'm not too tired. I was this morning, but I got over it. I was having too much fun to go to sleep. Who needs sleep anyway?

Next weekend I fly to Tennessee for Nicole & Keith's wedding. I can't wait. My first vacation and years and I'll get to share it with great friends. And I'll see one of my best friends tie the knot. Crazy!

I think I'll watch a movie.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Nakatomi Plaza - The Strikes

Hooray for completion!

I'm finished with my paper. Well, I'm almost finished. I still need to write the works cited page and proofread for errors in form and structure, but I feel content enough to go to sleep. I started writing around 12:30pm and finished at 2:30am. Fourteen hours of writing and research, with periods of mental rest thrown in for the sake of sanity. Having this paper completed makes me feel a thousand times better. Were I to receive my final letter of recommendation tomorrow, I would feel two thousand times better. And if I receive an "A" in my class, I'll reach three thousand times better status. And that's the kind of status I want to reach. At least for now I'm 1/3 of the way there.

I ordered a new pair of Vans slip-ons tonight from the Vans site. I finally ordered the brown classic slip-ons I've been meaning to buy for a while now. After placing the order I realized I probably could have saved some money if I had gone to another service like Zappos, but I was also up to my eyeballs in paper writing, so my brain was not in logic mode. Que sirrah, sirrah! Or as Hey Mercedes once phrased it, "Que Shiraz." Mmmmm... Shiraz! I may drink some in celebration of my class ending. Not now, of course. It's 3am and i have more pre-submission paper work to complete in the morning. But I do have a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz-Cabernet in my possession. So perhaps later this week I will have a glass or four.

Ok, I'm housed. Goodnight.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Fugazi - Foreman's Dog

Pre-writing slacking

Tomorrow is the day I squeeze a 15-page paper out of my brain, through my fingertips, and onto my computer screen. Its going to be a loooooooong day. Tonight I will attempt some pre-writing research. If I'm lucky, I'll assemble enough quotes together to fill up the bulk of the paper. It's all about quotes. Of course, it's important to use quotes that support your thesis. I don't suggest throwing in quotes regarding the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus' "unicorn debacle" of the mid-to-late 1980's. Yeah, that would be ridiculous. Unless, of course, your paper were about said debacle. Sorry, I'm having a flashback to a conversation had at yesterday's video shoot. Those of you who may remember the "unicorn" know how ridiculous it was. I mean, it was a freakin' goat who was surgically altered. One horn was removed and the remaining horn was moved to the center of its head. Yeah, it was totally fucked up.

So, we practiced tonight. It went extremely well. We have been messing around with the arrangement of an older song. We're all quite excited about the final product. It still retains aspects of the original version, but, at the same time, it sounds like a new song. Some of you may love it. Some of you may not. But we're excited, so that's something, I guess.

A Time to Kill is a fantastic movie. The book was amazing as well. Yeah, I'm currently slacking.

Ok, I'm going to take a nap before beginning my research. If I don't, I'll never get anything accomplished.

Later.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Lifetime - 25 Cent Giraffes

The Pizza Song

For the first time in a long time (two years?) the Hilofilms crew reunited to shoot a video. Today's shoot was for The Bouncing Souls' "The Pizza Song." Sadly, I wasn't able to be there for the entire shoot, but I did make it down by 5:30pm, and was there until the end. It was great seeing everyone again. Some of my favorite memories are from Hilofilms shoots. The snow storm during Breaking Pangaea, the blackout during Rufio, drunkenness during both Coheed & Cambria shoots (the band was drunk, not the crew), etc. If I had a time machine, I would go back and do these shoots all over again, problems and all.

I'm still awfully exhausted from the past few days, but I'll survive. Minus the Bear was amazing as always on Friday. They played a new song which was quite fantastic.

I'm looking forward to practicing tomorrow night. I'm not looking forward to all the writing I have to do afterwards though. Luckily, I have Monday off from work this week, so I'll have all day to work on my paper. I have no choice. The paper is due on Tuesday. Ugh! But once it is submitted, the semester is over. I can't wait. I still don't have the third letter of recommendation though. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm going to have to hunt down my professor and see what is happening.

Oh, and speaking of practice, we have a show on Thursday, May 11th @ the Masonic Temple in Smithtown. Here's some info:

bands:

Gracer
Villa Vina
Nakatomi Plaza
With Every Idle Hour
Slingshot Dakota

Start time: 6pm
Doors: $8

Ok, I guess that's it for tonight. I'm housed and need some sleep.

Goodnight.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
American Football - Letters and Packages

Sorry for slacking

I've been bad about blogging these last few days. Sorry. I'm just so damn tired right now that I don't have the energy. I slept fewer than 4 hours last night, worked until 5pm, then drove to Brooklyn with Lou, Dawn, & Carrie to see Minus The Bear. Now I need to get some sleep, since I'm working the morning shift tomorrow, then driving back to Brooklyn for the end of the Bouncing Souls video shoot. I promise a more interesting, more indepth update soon.

Goodnight.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Minus the Bear - Fine + Two Pts.

Geetars, day 6.

Since we have mainly been recording on weeknights following work, meaning start times of 10:30 or 11pm, we don't often get a lot of tracking complete. But the sounds we are finding are quite fantastic. Since we are experimenting with different guitars and different tones, it takes a little extra time between different songs, or sections of songs. Tonight turned out better than expected. I've been nervous about recording the verses for "Fixtures," but somehow I nailed it. We tested the Broadkaster first, but the sound was too muddy, hiding the subtleties of the part. So we switched to the Fender, which, surprisingly, worked well. After one minor error, I laid down the parts in one shot. No punches needed. We also worked on "The Color Courses Red." Here's tonight's list (all were clean tracks):

The Color Courses Red - both verses ('67 Super Chet), middle section of bridge ('74 Broadkaster)
Fixtures - All verses & pre-choruses (Fender)

Today turned out to be a fantastic day. I survived my oral presentation. It came out much better than I had anticipated. And as it turns out, I didn't have to read the novel listed on the syllabus for this week. In fact, I don't have to read it at all, since today was the last day of actual class. This worked out perfectly, since I didn't read it. Our professor let us leave early, so I was able to get some extra time in at work. It has been slow lately, so I'm trying to get as a many sales in as possible. I want to make sure I have enough money on hand for when my brother and I buy my mom the fridge for Mother's day. I also have to make sure he still wants to split the cost. Worse case scenario, I'll buy it myself. My credit card is clear, so I won't feel bad charging it if need be.

I have so much energy right now. The 24oz coffee from 711 may have contributed a little. I'm going to have to convince myself that sleep is necessary, or I may never sleep tonight. I'll need sleep this week if I'm going to write this 15-page paper. Luckily, I have an idea of what I'd like to write about.

Nicole & Keith's wedding is only a few weeks away. I can't wait. My first trip to TN. Woohoo! Oh sweet vacation! How I need thee.

I sold shoes to a midget tonight. That put me in a good mood. I was helping a customer with a pair of Van's slip-ons, and mentioned that we had full length mirrors, in case she didn't want to use the small, foot mirror, saying, "The other mirrors are kind of small, and we don't get too many midgets in here." A moment later, a midget walked in. Talk about perfect timing. He wanted Diesels. I was sold out of his size (he wore size 7), so I recommended the women's version. The men's & women's versions are identical, but the women's version is on sale for $30 less. The only time I felt awkward was when I tried to get him to buy socks, saying, "We also have short, little black socks on sale, which you can hide in the shoes." The "short, little" reference was to the socks being ankle socks. But I still thought he may have assumed I was referring to his height. Anywho, he was a midget and it made my night. I just wanted to set a coffee cup on his little head.

Ok, well, I guess that's all.

Goodnight!

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Rory Allen Phillips - Hope

It's getting close

The semester is almost over. I have my oral presentation, finally, in a few hours. I'm still not excited. I'm glad to get it overwith, but not to actually carry out my report. Not excited at all.

Unlike Saturday, which dragged at work, today went by quickly. It was quite slow, but the time passed at a rapid pace. At least until the last hour and a half. 8pm to 9:30pm dragged. But it ended. Hooray for that!

Hmmm... I guess I have nothing to report. Ok, I'm going to attempt sleep. I have much work to do before class.

Goodnight.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Death Cab For Cutie - Talking Like Turnstiles

Well, I didn't puke

Ugh! Too much diner food. I almost threw up after walking outside. But I survived, luckily.

We practiced tonight for the first time in a few weeks. It felt good, and sounded quite fantastic despite the time between practices. We even started working on a new version of one of our older songs. If we're lucky, we'll be able to work it out for the May 11th show. If not, perhaps the show on June 9th. We even jammed on a new idea. It kind of just happened, but it was pretty sweet. I hope we remember it for next practice. I miss practicing every week.

I have bee multi-tasking my way through several conversations using a few different conversational tools. AIM, myspace messages, and text messages, all at the same time. I must have a lot to say tonight.

Overall, today was a good day. And I was in a much, much better mood. I think there was really something in the air yesterday. Today I woke up feeling fine. Well, better not to question it.

Ok, I'm extremely tired.

Goodnight!

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Fire When Ready - They Call Her Echo