I said, "No No No"

All right, a shotgun post, seeing as it's been two weeks since the last one:

1. I arrived in Nashville a week ago yesterday, and things have been pretty chill ever since. My interview at Big Loud Bucks went great, and I'm going to a writers' showcase Wednesday to meet the rest of the employees. I think that's a pretty good sign...
2. I have seen Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers since coming down, both of which were excellent, especially Die Hard. I also went to Ratatouille with my family the day before coming back, and it was great as well. Now it's on to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have a feeling my string of luck will continue.
3. Fireworks in Nashville are incredible, even from several miles away, and they capped a fun 4th that involved grilling, friends, and lots of hand and foot.
   
4. I will be heading back home on Friday the 13th for a bit more time with the fam before hopefully coming back down in early August to start a job or at least do some hardcore searching.
   
5. Ummm... that might be it for now. WAIT: Check out Sara Bareilles' CD "Little Voice" for only $6.99 on iTunes. It's great piano pop, a few too many songs about love on it, but still worth $7 for sure.

I'll post more later, I promise!

Am I becoming one of those people?

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

What a waste.

I went into today knowing that it would be a bit of an odd work day, with lots of small jobs and running around. I didn’t plan on it being what it became though.

We started at 8, and began the day by fixing a problem with someone’s kitchen laminate. This went fine, and we next headed over to discuss some flooring options with Sherry Solstad, which took about an hour, but was productive nonetheless. Next up was a trip south of Pillager to install a flight of steps. The carpet we put in was a brown berber, which actually had potential to look decent, had it not been squeezed between white berber and white tile; I can’t really explain how terrible a choice this was, you’ll just have to trust me. To give you an idea of how random this house was, there was a point in the basement where I could see six (yes, six) different types of flooring: an area of large white tile, small white tile, large blue and gray tile, white berber, a blue and purple plush carpet, and the new brown steps. Quite ridiculous.

At this point, dad went in to work at church, and my job was to go up to the carpet store and get the boxes of wood that we would need for tomorrow’s job. This is always easier said than done, as this store in particular is infamous for its disorganization, at least in installer circles. When I arrived at the store, it took a good 25 minutes for them to figure out which job I was supposed to be picking wood up for, as the one we had been told we were going to do was not the job they had planned for us to do… seriously, how do these people get anything done? After another 15 minutes spent loading the product and getting unneeded directions, I followed the store owner to the job site, where we were told the area wouldn’t be ready for flooring for at least another week. What?!? Another week? There was a substantial breakdown in communication somewhere along the line, which seems to happen quite often in this business.

After checking with several other options for work tomorrow, dad was unable to come up with anything. So, as of now, I have the day off. It’s weird, because the longer I work at this job the more I want to have steady work; my first summer of flooring I would long for days like tomorrow, even pray that the schedule would fall apart so I could have a day to do nothing. Now, I’m kind of disappointed, and even went so far as to suggest potential schedule changes to my dad to see if there was anything he hadn’t tried yet. When did I become that guy?

I think my day off will consist of a lot of reading, as I am 200 pages into “Order of the Phoenix” and it has sucked me in completely. There’s a good chance I will be able to lay out on the dock for a bit too, and I might be able to squeeze in one of the Die Hard movies, which I purchased this evening.

Other recent purchases:
Paramore’s “Riot” – quite good, it’s been growing on me since yesterday.

Family Guy Volume 4 – These boxed sets are starting to piss me off: I paid $20 (on sale from $35, mind you), and it only comes with 14 episodes! What happened to the 27 episode boxes of yore? I haven’t watched them yet, so they may be worth it, but we’ll see.

Seinfeld Season 7 – I caught on, and now wait for the next season to come out until I buy the previous one. This allowed me to get this one for $17. I haven’t watched any yet, but it’s Seinfeld; how can you go wrong?

Other things on the agenda tomorrow:
- Fill out a profile on Monster
- Submit my resume to Big Loud Bucks (I hate country, but it’s an industry job that fits me and I have a shot at…)
- NBA Finals Game 4 (I’m feeling a sweep, but I hope Cleveland can pull out at least one win)

11:38, warm, surprisingly, lasagna

An evening with Ms. Jones

Norah, my Norah.

My first experience at the Ryman Auditorium took place Thursday night with a show headlined by Norah Jones. The opener was M. Ward, an acoustic singer/songwriter type in the vein of Ryan Adams. He did a great job, I was extremely impressed. A very unique vocal quality, impressive acoustic skills, a great package all around. Here's a video of him performing on Letterman:



Next up was Norah, and she didn't disappoint. It was one of simplest shows I've ever seen, if not the simplest. There wasn't much for flash, just a great mood for great music. She played a nice mix from each album with a bit more emphasis on "Not Too Late", and she threw in a couple cover songs for good measure. Nothing spectacular, just solid music, and that's all I ask.

This capped off a pretty cool 24 hours. Wednesday night I helped Kurt and Tyler shoot a music video for Lindsey Jones. I got there at 9 PM and left a little after 3. I slept until 9, then went to an interview at the O'Charley's corporate headquarters. It lasted about an hour, and they said they'll get back to me by midweek next week on any positions they have available.

I then went to campus, where I completed my second to last full day of class. Soooo weird.

Today was my last day at Gotee; they took me out to lunch to Chili's. Kind of weird to think that I won't be back there to work unless someone there leaves or gets fired. Here's hoping, I guess... wait, that's terrible.

And tonight was my last Friday night during the normal class schedule. How did I spend it? Watching a movie with Jon and packing up some of my crap for moving. Everyone else was doing homework and working and going to LAN parties and everything else. When did this happen? I mean, I guess I can forgive it, being the week before finals and all, but still.

Tomorrow is packed. I'm getting up early to watch part of the Country Music Marathon. I know a couple people running in it, and it's a lot of fun to watch anyway. Next up is my last day at Reverb(!), which lasts from 10-3. I need to write a paper on Elvis' death during that time too, the last paper I will write for a class at Belmont. Sad... wait, no it's not. Tomorrow night is Best of the Best, followed hopefully by something fun, but most likely by me sitting in my room watching The Godfather or something.

Oh, what a crazy life I lead.

Nothing left but time

How can it be that I feel like I've been doing homework for the past week and yet I look at what I've accomplished and it isn't anything substantial. I wrote the most pointless paper of my collegiate career, a 5 page reflection on my internship experience this semester. The guidelines were incredibly vague, and I had to go back through twice in order to add enough fluff to make it onto the fifth page. I know I repeated myself probably three times in the paper (something I never do), and the structure was completely disjointed and sporadic. However, if Anita O'Dell actually reads these reflections, she is stupider than I give her credit for.

I am now down to one paper, two article summaries, two small presentations, and three tests. I will be completely done with everything on May 4th, giving me a day to get the rest of my stuff packed up before heading to Dallas.

Wow, with so much happening you'd think I'd have something new to say, but anything I write would be just a rehash of past postings on here. So, instead, I'm going to post a couple of great videos involving music that I've been shown recently on YouTube. Enjoy!







And finally, something amazing:

I heart days like this

Today's goodness, in my mind, began last night when we received an e-mail saying we got the house! We're all set to move in on May 7, we're signing a lease on the 1st, and our current landlord is willing to work with us on an extension on our current lease for the extra week and a half.

Then I went to work, then to Kurt and Tyler's to watch Lost, which had a great episode. The night was capped off by a group meeting for strategic management that was quite productive.

Now, to today. I woke up and went running, then worked on the final edits for the group strategic paper. Final totals were 36 pages, 7780 words, 41,179 characters. My part took probably 6-7 hours of work, and it was worth it; the paper turned out quite well in my opinion.

Next was the e-mail I've been waiting weeks to get: we made it into the top 10 (actually 11) videos in the piracy contest! They'll announce the winners in Dallas on May 6, so at least I won't have to wait all weekend to find out how we did. Also, one of the more ridiculous things I've heard of late, Gonas told me tonight that a teacher at Belmont has connections with the school that won the international SIFE competition last year, a team from China. He's been talking with them about taking the script I wrote for the video, translating it into Chinese, and recording their own version! Seriously?

My strategic management group presented at 12:30 today, and everything went quite well. We were right on track for time, and most everyone did an adequate job with their part of the presentation. We really knocked it out of the park on the question and answer portion. It felt really good.

The rest of my classes were simple as usual, and then at 5 we had a SIFE presentation to a bunch of business executives in the community. I didn't have to actually present so much as show up and look pretty, but they did a great job with the presentation, and I think everyone was quite impressed with our efforts.

And now, it's Reverb time.

My schedule for the next couple weeks becomes much freer. The focus next week is on finishing up my convo credits (three to go, plus turn in the form for two credits of community service). I also get to see Norah Jones at the Ryman Thursday night (FOR FREE) which should be amazing.

Life rocks right now. So many things getting checked off my to do list, I hardly know what's left to do. Oh yeah, get a job. That's right.

Another winter day has come and gone away

I am home!

The actual driving was around 15 hours, which is making good time. I think the biggest help there was not having to wait in line at the one toll in Illinois. I did stop at my sister Sarah's boyfriend's house to have dinner with them and watch the Office Christmas special, which was hilarious as usual.

I slept until 9:30 or so this morning, and worked for my dad for 5 1/2 hours this afternoon. Abby had a basketball game tonight in Little Falls, which they won 58-39, and she played very well. I was proud.

Grades are in.
Kudos: I got an A in Investments! I thought this was a possibility, but it never really hit me that I could get that until it happened. I'd actually had a dream where I scrolled down to my grades and saw a C+, and that was freaking me out. But, thankfully, not all dreams come true.
Catastrophes: An A fricking minus in Intel Prop? What's up with that? Thanks for ruining my chances at a 3.95 Moser.

Tomorrow I will be working again, getting the oil changed in my car, and buying a coat at Steve and Barry's because I forget mine, along with all of my hanging clothes, in Nashville. Smooth, I know.

I listened to 8 hours of Christmas music on the road yesterday. It almost reached the point where I was sick of it. Not quite, but almost.

I was going to post about the Golden Globe nominees, but my sister needs the computer, so that will happen at a later date!

Is it Friday? Really?

It definitely does not feel like Friday. Much more of a Saturday feel, if anything.

My finals so far have been pretty predictable. The only possible exception is that my Intellectual Properties final was a bit more technical and specific than I anticipated, hence it was a bit harder than anticipated. I'm not worried though, so you shouldn't either.

Last night was a lot of fun, I went to Brown's Diner with Ben, Kendra, Wade, and Julie before my final and had a decent cheeseburger and good conversation. Then the IP final. Finally, Dave and Julie Hunt had college students over to hang out and have a study break, so Ryan and I went over a bit before 9 and we were the first ones there for the first bit. Somehow the topic of "Die Hard" came up, and I was forced to admit that I had never seen any of them. This just could not stand for Dave, so I saw Die Hard for the first time last night, and it was so much fun to sit there and read subtitles as more and more people came and the room got louder and louder, and laughing at the ridiculous dialog and crazy explosions and everything about it. Overall, a great time, I'm glad I went.

Today was... good. Yeah, I think that's the right word. I woke up around 9 and watched an episode of Alias from season 4 (I am now on disc 4). It has become much better and more interesting as the season has progressed. Then I got to talk to Italian Jess briefly before she headed off on another crazy Euro adventure or something like that. It was at this point that a decision needed to be made: I could work on my investments paper, which needed to happen at some point, or I could watch Die Hard 2: Die Harder, which Dave was kind enough to loan me last night (along with Die Hard With Avengeance). Obviously, I chose Die Hard. The second one was almost as entertaining as the first, the only thing missing was the great European accents.

I had a meeting with Sara at Gotee at 1, which went really well. We talked about their Grammy noms from yesterday (they had two as a label), and what worked for my schedule next semester. Then she said, "So when was the last time we gave you new music?" I mentioned Sonshine, and she started throwing CDs at me. When all was said and done, I walked away with 8 new albums, most of which should be excellent. I have been telling myself for months that I should get the House of Heroes album "Say No More," and it's bomb. Period. I was listening to it as I worked on my investments paper tonight. (I am done with 2 of 4 sections, and over half the work is done I think!)

Tomorrow will be great, with Reverb and writing in the morning and early afternoon, followed by cleaning the house and getting ready for the party at 7 tomorrow night that will be awesome. If you're around, come on over to Christmas at the Beech, it'll be loads of fun. And there'll be food. FREE food. And Home Alone. Can you pass on that? I doubt it.

Homeward bound

The past few days have been odd. And good.

Saturday, after Reverb, I went to Susan's to watch Ohio State beat up on Michigan (I kind of hope they have a rematch for the national championship and Michigan wins). We also ate a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. It was absolutely delicious, and we watched A Christmas Story afterwards, which I was reminded has one of the lamest endings in cinematic history. Still good overall, but it falls flat at the end. It should really just end with the duck having its head chopped off. That would be perfect.

Sunday was a typical Sunday. I had one of my worst Fantasy weeks ever, and yet still beat Doug by some miracle. That keeps me in second place behind Tyler, who I need to lose at some point because there is no way I can catch him in points. And Donovan McNabb had to go and get hurt, so I will rely on the newly-acquired Philip Rivers to guide my team to victory.

Community group on Sunday night was a good time too. That group is so different from my group last year, it's practically night and day. Yet both are good. This one has definitely grown on me as time has passed.

Yesterday was kind of pointless. I went running in the morning but my ankles started hurting quite a bit halfway through, so I walked the second half. I should maybe get some actual running shoes. Showdown was Showdown, as always. Then Reverb struck, followed by a session of watching the Office at the Gazebo, which was supposed to turn into Nerts at some point but never did.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving break is destined to be a weird day for school. I had three of my four classes canceled, so I attempted to sleep in until 10, which apparently will never happen again. I did make it to 9 though, so I guess I can live with that. The rest of my morning consisted of hanging out at the house until class at 12:30, which was followed by more hanging out at the house until 3, when I went to take Ben to the airport. Then, Reverb. Apparently no one worked today, but I figured I was going to do nothing at home, I might as well get paid to do nothing. I even finished my last quiz for Principles of Management, so I guess you could say I was productive.

Now I sit in my living room, after eating Tony's pizza for dinner, and I'm kind of bored/slightly contented. Jon got the Beatles' new Love album, which I had streamed off their website and am pretty fond of. A nice new take on their stuff, although some may see it as an abomination. That's their opinion, I guess.

Tomorrow I will leave my house around 7 and arrive in Minneapolis at approximately 12:30. That should put me in Brainerd at 3:30 or so. Should be great to be home.

Two academic notes:
1. I have to brag on my little sister, who rocked it up and got a 30 on the ACT! She's pretty good at stuff.

2. I changed my schedule for next semester. I dropped Legal Issues in the Music Industry, which means that I don't have to be in class on Tues/Thurs until 12:30. I will now be taking Music Supervision in Film and TV Mondays from 5:30-8:15. This class is at a much better time and seems a billion times more interesting. I just hope it doesn't end up sucking. We'll find out come January, I guess!

It's like looking into the face of God and seeing him smiling back at you, saying, "You are my most wondrous creation."

Sunday night, Ben and I went to the greatest show on Earth: Mute Math.

They were playing at City Hall, and the show started at 8, so we got there at 8 in order to minimize the down time. They surprised us with not 2 but 3 openers, so we were stuck listening to some crap band for a half hour that included a DJ that wore a koala mask and stroked fake birds during the set. Never did catch their name.

Next up was Jonezetta, who did a fine job with their dance/pop/rock, which we decided was The Killers meets Brandtson. The final warm-up was The Whigs, who were pretty disappointing overall.

But none of that really mattered once Mute Math took the stage. Musically, they were just as spectacular as last spring. Production-wise, though, they took it to another level. They had three banks of 10 sets of florescent bulbs that blinked during specific songs, they had strobes in the back, and a massive bare bulb that hung from the back of the stage. It was dang good. In the encore, Paul weant around and smashed the florescent bulbs with mallets, and it was so rock and roll it was great. That's pretty impressive when a techno/arena rock band can be rock and roll.

And then Monday happened. And by happened, I mean just kind of hung there. I got up early (6:45) to register for classes. After 20 minutes of fiddling with BIC and Classfinder, I was able to get in the classes I need, which means I have the following schedule this spring, all on Tuesday and Thursday:

9:30-10:45 - Legal Issues in the Music Business
12:30-1:45 - Strategic Management
2:00- 3:15 - Record Company Operations
3:30- 4:45 - Artist Management

And that's all she wrote. I will now be able to intern with, most likely, Showdown on Monday and Gotee on Wednesday and Friday. It's gonna be dang sweet, I can hardly stand it.

I was unable to go back to sleep after registering, so I went running, which I've been doing MWF for a couple weeks now. The difference this time is it was cold. Not Minnesota cold, by any means, but in the 30s nonetheless. I made it through the three miles in record time, mostly because I was cold and wanted to get inside but also cuz I was just numb.

Showdown was Showdown as usual, and I took a quick nap before my Reverb shift last night. Once home, I made my first ever attempt at meatballs. They turned out ok, but nothing to write home about. I need to add more salt, use a little more oatmeal, and I would love to try them in a crockpot sometime. That means, however, that I need a crockpot. Maybe I should add that to my Christmas list.

Did you know you can buy/sell e-mail adresses on eBay?

I go home a week from tomorrow, which is extremely weird to think about but will also be extremely fun, so I'm excited. I also have a secret plan I am hatching for Thursday night that may be the most ridiculous/lucrative thing I've ever done. I'm trying my hardest not to get my hopes up about this, but it has all the potential in the world to be amazing. I guess we'll find out by Friday!

'Twas the best of times

Things in Nashville today are quite amazing. I'm not just referring to the fact that it is 5 PM and my desktop weather guide still says 74 degrees either.

I remembered last night as I was reading before bed that I had an appointment with Tina Dishman, resident expert on all things graduation requirement related in the music business department, at 9 this morning. I knew going into the meeting that there was the potential, if everything went my way, that I could come out of this meeting only needing 14 credits this spring. Lo and behold, Belmont did not screw me over, and I will be taking 4 3-credit classes and a 2-credit internship this spring. That is approx. 4 credits fewer than any semester I've had since fall of freshman year, and by far my lightest schedule ever.

It will be very easy to fit these classes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, possibly all in a row even. That allows me to intern at Gotee (which is a for-sure thing now) two days a week and spend a day at Showdown helping with publishing. That place is connected to so many places in the industry, and they're really nice and the work has kind of grown on me, so I figure why not right?

My regular class schedule today consisted of a test in Mgmt Comm, which was rather easy, followed by lectures and discussions in Intl Business and Investments. I skipped Business Ethics for the first time this afternoon, and I feel no remorse whatsoever. I also found out last night that I convinced my ethics prof that one of his test questions was wrong, giving me an extra 2 points on my last test and keeping my hopes of an A in that class alive. That's really the only grade I'm mildly worried about, besides my grade from Gonas, and that will essentially come down to the 15-20 page final paper he's having us write. Should be a grand time.

My mom told me yesterday that they're dropping the price on our house (it's still for sale, in case you've forgotten), and the new price is so low that if someone doesn't buy it they're an idiot. That means that I may be doing some packing when I go home for Thanksgiving, and there's a better chance at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been listening to Christmas music since September (although when do I really stop during the year?), and it just can't be topped. Even on a sunny day like today when I wore shorts and was feeling quite warm in a long-sleeve button up, I can still listen to my "Best of Christmas" playlist on iTunes and not feel stupid. Good times.

And now tonight I get to watch "The Office." I'm not sure what's going to happen though, this episode is called "Branch Closing." So unless a miracle happens, I have a feeling we're gonna see some major changes in the next few weeks. The best aspect of this whole turn of events is that it makes the chances of a Pam/Jim reunion infinitely better in the near future. Guess we'll wait and see!

And a side note: I like the fact that "Lost" isn't going to just show reruns mixed in with new episodes, but three months is far too long to wait for new episodes, even if the ending of this last one wasn't spectacular, as much as they tried to make it a cliff-hanger.

Behold My Heart

Its another Saturday evening at the Beech House. Being filled with three college students and one recent college grad, you'd think that everyone would be going crazy, off to parties, and in a general state of excitement and adventure, right? Not so much. It's 9:30, and as I write this all three of my housemates are in various stages of getting ready for bed. I, being at least one year younger than all of them and of a stubborn will, am being as defiant in the face of fatigue as possible. I am in my room, but the door is open, and I am listening to a rather enchanting album, Paul McCartney's "Ecce Cor Meum" (Behold My Heart), a classical-style disc with five lengthy tracks that is very serene, relaxing, and well done. Apparently Sir Paul has done several classical works, some even award-winning at that.

My journey to get this disc begins in July, when I enrolled in Investment Portfolio Management as an exploratory endeavor. Once in the class in August, Dr. Gonas told us that we needed to have access to the Wall Street Journal every day, and since I didn't want to have to go online through the Belmont library every day, I bought the 15-week subscription. I do a spotty job of actually the newspaper now, however, so it was by sheer coincidence that I ended up looking in the "My Journal" section in late September, where they included an article on said disc and McCartney's classical work. I made a mental note to find that someday, and today happened to be that day.

I worked at Reverb from 10-3 (again, a few customers, no sales). Around 1, Ryan called asking if I wanted to go to an electronics liquidation sale downtown at Municipal Auditorium, and I thought that sounded like a great idea, so we piled six of us into my Taurus and drove through Nashville until we found a parking space, which ended up about 3 blocks from the auditorium. We walk around the entire auditorium trying to find this sale and only seeing throngs of pre-pubescent cheerleaders wearing too much make-up and traveling in packs. Eventually we find the entrance and discover that there's a $7 entrance fee, and since none of us had cash or wanted to pay, I suggested we go to Tower Records, which is closing soon and is having a huge clearance sale to get rid of inventory. We wandered around the store for 45 minutes and I found nothing that was at a price that made it a must-buy, so I was ready to leave. Then, as Tim was buying his stuff, I remembered "Ecce", and so I went on a whim to the composer section. Lo and behold, it was there!

And that is the story of how I came to own Paul McCartney's new album. Quite exciting if you ask me.