Montana! Billings Edition

Sooo.... we only had roughly 100000 people to see in Billings, give or take. And that wasn't even everyone we COULD have seen. People not directly related to us got the short end, unfortunately. We should have planned better to spend one more day there, but with Tyson's vacation time, it just didn't work out that way.

Monday, our windblown and sweaty selves arrived at my grandma's house. Amanda (sister-in-law Amanda, not longtime friend Amanda, for those of you not familiar w/ either) was already there with baby Shiloh.



I'm an aunt! For some reason, this is a huge thing to wrap my mind around. Aw, but look at her... 3 months old.

The two of them stayed long enough for lunch and then went back to Amanda's grandma's house.



Jack was NOT a fan of there being another baby around. He didn't throw a fit or anything, but he did not want to touch her. And when I picked her up? He got this look like, "I can't BELIEVE you would do this to me, Mama!"

So it's a good thing he will be our youngest.

Grace, on the other hand, find Shiloh quite interesting. She held her a bit and talked to her, and Shiloh was fine with it.

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I got the BBQ chicken sandwich, which was absolutely massive. I couldn't finish it. Tyson had a chicken fried steak that was about the size of his head. It was all very good, but man, show up hungry.

Tuesday...
We went over to Tyson's grandpa's house. Surprisingly, no one else was around. Usually there's a crowd of other family and about half a dozen dogs. We chatted for a bit, then took him out to lunch at Perkin's.

We had a little bit of time in between his house and when we were due over at Tyson's other grandparents' house, so we did a little shopping. Stuck our head into Ernie November, and I was immediately depressed by the music selection. Seems like they mostly sell hippie tapestries and crap now, and the selection is about a third of what it was when I was last there in 2000.

Still, I picked up used CDs from The Cure (Wish and the singles album from 1985-ish), Badly Drawn Boy, and Suede... All for the grand total of $19. Wish was skipping on the drive home, but I don't know yet if it was because of our old CD player getting cranky or if it was a problem with the disc.

We also went into a used bookstore on the edge of downtown. Bought The Prestige (liked the movie), Watchmen (because for some reason, we didn't already have it), two X-Men comics and Green Eggs and Ham for Grace. All for $20! And all financed with birthday money from my mom. Thanks, mom!

Dinner over at the grandparents' house was good. (Aside from the pork roast -- which thankfully no one noticed I wasn't eating.) Tyson's aunt and uncle and 3 out of the 4 cousins were there, and the youngest two (around 15 and 18, I think?) took it upon themselves to entertain Grace and Jack, so they did a lot of running around outside. Was nice not to have to worry about what they were getting into.

Unfortunately, we were just missing Tyson's other aunt and uncle, as well as his dad, who were coming into Billings the next day. Tyson's grandmother's 80th birthday party was yesterday, and we found out about it only after we made our plans. However, we've talked to Tyson's dad, and he and (his more-or-less at this point wife) Judy will be visiting sometime next week. I think they were headed this direction anyway, and once they heard they would be missing us in Billings, they wanted to work something out. I've never met him, but I can say it's quite funny hearing his voice over the phone because it just sounds like Tyson's voice with 20 or so years on top of it.

Weds...
After breakfast, we started home. Ohhhh it's a long drive with no air conditioning. Still, I'd say the whole trip was a success. Saw a whole bunch of people, my stomach behaved and we had no car trouble (*knock wood*).

And with that... I really need to clean my house!

Montana! Great Falls Edition.

We managed not to completely melt on the drive over, and made it to my mom's house around dinnertime on Friday night. Ate sandwiches and whatnot, let the kids run around in the yard and stayed up way too late, only to have Jack wake up at 4 am. We brought him into bed with us and juuuuust when he stopped kicking and squirming and fell asleep, Grace was awake. And we heard:

thump-thump-thump-thump-stomp-stomp-jump-thump
back and forth, back and forth. Laps around the house at 5 am. Completely unfamiliar with the concept that even though we may be in the basement and out of your sight, we can still hear you above our heads, kid! So, not a lot of sleep that night. And not a lot of sleep the night before, since Jack decided to be wide awake from 3 am until 7 am. I think the packing and then the sleeping in the unfamiliar environment was putting him off because the following night, he slept fine.

Saturday!

Tyson went out that morning to peruse antique shops for cameras and came home with two really cool ones for the grand total of $26. If you're friends with him on FB/ol'Twitter, I'm sure you've heard all about them. One of them's medium format, so he bought a roll of film at the new Public Drug. So sad that the old one burnt up! I hope they refurbish the sign!

We let the kids look around Amazing Toys.... and I'm just now realizing that I think we left the bday presents my mom bought for Jack at her house.... and I stuck my head into Planet Earth. Bought a notebook with an owl on the cover. It's quite nice. Always need notebooks. My brain does not need to be entirely dumped on here.

As much as it may seem like I do already...

We ate dinner at a new Cajun/BBQ place called Goode's. Oh my god, the brisket. THE BRISKET. So good. I was completely stuffed and still wanted another plate of it. Seriously, if any of you go to GF, this place is on 15th St. and 6th Ave. No. You will not be sorry you went.

But the more interesting part of dinner: I got up to go to the bathroom, and who did I run into waiting for a table? John and Laurie from the Center Stage days. They have a seven year old daughter now, Ivy, and one of John's older daughters, Amity, was with them.

I said, "It's probably not immediately obvious, but uh, if you picture me with blonde hair and subtract the glasses, we were in plays together."

I have to say things like that a lot when I see people from the past.

Thankfully they all remembered me or I might have very nearly died from embarrassment. It's been a little over 10 years since I last saw them, so of course, I don't expect everyone's memories to be like mine. John and Laurie still live in CA, so running into them was really unexpected, but great nonetheless.

That food though -- Seriously, I'm practically having dreams about it. Tyson had something with crawfish and shrimp, and my mom had the jambalaya. (Yes, I'm hearing Zack Braff say it on Scrubs right now too... JAMBALAYA!) All of it, just perfect.

That night!
We left the munchkins with my mom, and Tyson played sober chauffeur for the evening. We picked up Amy and her friend Shonda from Amy's parents' house, then drove across town to pick up Heather where she was house sitting, all before heading to the Sip n Dip.

Tyson's memory of all the funny things said is probably better than mine, especially a week later, but we had quite the time. Heather yelling "I WANT A PINA COLADA!" and then later talking in a fake Scouser accent: "'ELLO! I'M FROM LIVERPOOL! I'M FROM ACROSS THE POND!"

We also saw my former neighbor Steve, and Heather and I startled him by yelling his name across the room. It's probably my favorite way to greet Steve. He always looks so overwhelmed.

Gina Geise's bachlorette party rolled through briefly, and while I'm 95% certain she wouldn't remember me, I did get a chance to talk to Theresa and Maureen. Maureen greatly embarrassed herself by not remembering Amy, when not five minutes before, Amy said, "People always remember Mark! And I get, 'Oh! You're Mark's twin! How is Mark? Tell him hello!'"

Maureen, later to me: "Oh my god, I am such a jerk. She probably hates me!"

For the record, I have never thought of Amy as "Mark's twin." In fact, I forget half the time that they are twins, and tend to think of him only as "one of Amy's brothers."

We went down to Tracy's after that, with someone Shaunda knew that we saw at the bar, and ended the evening with the requisite consumption of greasy breakfast food. And best of all, I didn't even wake up hungover. All was well and good.



Faythe, Karla, Jenn etc. --- You all missed a very good time. Though for whatever reason, Piano Pat was not playing. Maybe she only plays on Fridays now? I don't know, but that was really the only disappointing portion of the evening.

The next day... My birthday...

Met Melanie and Heather for lunch at Giant Springs. The kids ran around a lot, and we ate in a nice shady spot, so it was great. We didn't go down by the water, but with Jack being so squirrelly, it's probably for the best.

Dinner was at Rikki's, which is always very, very good. And instead of regular birthday cake, we had angel food cake with fruit, and my mom bought some soy ice cream. Well played...

A few photos from the trip can be found on my flickr page.

More about the second leg of our trip in a moment...

Crosspost x1000

Before I talk about our trip, I thought I'd mention that Issue #7 of SPOKE(a)N(e) Magazine is now up and awaiting your loving gaze.

Because I like to pretend I'm an authority on stuff, my column this month offers some guidelines on what makes a good band name. See if you can spot the fake poster in the photo illustration. There's a clue, if you look at the Fake Band Names post below this month's supplementary material on GLL. (I have too much time on my hands, apparently.)

And over on Glorified Love Letters, I offer up a few of my favorite band names and talk about 5 songs that made me say, "I have to hear a song called that."

Ease on down, ease on down the road...

Walked my ass off on Friday. In the 90 degree weather (but with a breeze), we started with the exhibit at the Saranac building on W. Main and Division-ish and walked allll the way down to the MAC in Browne's Addition. Two people I'd recently met, Brooke and Crystal, joined the four of us for the Art Walk, and we ran into a few other people we knew along the way. Normally, we wouldn't have bothered going all the way down to the MAC, but Gabe Brown had a show there. He's bothered to write the magazine an email saying that he liked that we cover First Friday, and Brooke and Crystal were also familiar with his work. Otherwise, we might have seen more things in the actual downtown area. Still, we hit up three other spots on the way, and had a good time.

After the MAC, we said goodbye to Brooke and Crystal, then walked up to Empyrean. We had a beverage, soaked in the air conditioning and Grace ate a muffin. And from there, I walked all the way back to more or less Browne's Addition to meet everyone at The Swamp celebrating Faythe's birthday.

I'm not sure how many miles that might have been total, but I was definitely glad to see free bottled water at The Swamp. Especially since I arrived late enough to have to pay a cover. We stayed there for a little while before moving on to The Lamp over on S. Perry (by car, thank god). Overall, a good time. There's a funny picture of one of my beverages on my flickr page. So rarely do I have several social things to do in one day. You'd think I had... a life or something. ;)

Of course, I nearly negated all this walking by the amount of BBQ chips I ate the next day. So. Not the Point. I called Tyson at work on the 4th and told him to bring home whatever he wanted for dinner, that I didn't much feel like cooking. He brought home stuff for burgers with avocados and sauteed onions and cooked. Yes, I think I'll keep him....

Our 7th anniversary is on Tuesday (7/7, as it happens), I should mention. That's like 5 celebrity marriages combined, ha.

I imagine if I'm online on the day, which I very well could be since he'll be at work, I might get a little mushier. Fair warning.

Now this week I have to think about packing for MT, oil change for the van, getting as much done with the magazine ahead of time, etc. Which means I should really write my column, uh... today. Soon.

Brain Dump

Ohhh...This muscle aching has really got to stop. It's just taking it out of me. My arms, the tailbone/leg thing -- all of it affects everything else. Add in finally falling asleep at 2 am with a wet little boy waking me up at 7 am, and I found myself tossing a box of Cheerios at both children and saying, "Watch TV quietly while I rest."

Mother. Of the Year.

Now I really need to do laundry because Jack is out of sheets and most of his summer clothes. At the risk of sounding like one of those parents who regularly provides way TMI about their kids' bodily habits --- Oh my god, is this kid a peeing machine. I've switched to nighttime diapers, and after he uses up the regular pampers he has left, I'm thinking he needs to wear the nighttime ones all the time. (Nevermind the fact that he was wearing one last night and still wet the bed, but I have to think they'll help some.) The other day, I must have changed his clothes 4 times. And if he's wearing a t-shirt and not a onesie, he has the delightful habit of shoving his hands down the front of his diaper while he sleeps, which doesn't help. Such a boy... ha.

Yesterday, I did manage to make a real dinner that was not sandwiches or some variant on refried beans and rice. Pasta with a creamy tomato sauce and cheese this time. Friendly to both Grace and me, of course. Jack, though he normally will devour what seems like a pound of pasta on his own, wasn't interested. Grace ate an okay amount though, and Tyson had plenty once he came home, so it was okay. There are times I bother to make something involved for dinner when it's just the three of us, and they just stare at me. Hence the frequency of sandwiches or beans and rice. Not that there's anything wrong with sandwiches or beans and rice, but I'd like some variety on occasion.

I had to buy Grace one of those eggshell-type mattress pads. She was complaining about her back hurting after she gets up, and then my mom confirmed that the mattress wasn't the most awesome sleep ever. In fairness, it is the same mattress I've had since I was her age. But at the moment, I'm only in a position to drop $15 on a mattress pad, not however much for a whole new mattress. (Which would actually go on our bed and she'd get ours, which is only five years old.) She said she slept better last night, so that's good. It'll do for now.

Yesterday, I finally booked the dog at the doggie hotel (Flintlocks Kennel, in case anyone in town was interested. They're $12 a day and it's a nice little setup in Greenacres). I was afraid we were cutting it a bit close and we'd have to bother someone we know into taking Penny, but I guess since it's the weekend after the 4th, we're okay. I told them to give her a bath too, since I figure she can always use one and neither of us particularly want to wrestle her down to do it.

Not exactly looking forward to the unairconditioned drive from here to GF or from GF to Billings, but that's the way it goes. I wish the train ran closer to Great Falls. I wish I didn't have to drive anywhere at all, but that's what you get when you live in the boonies and your area has poor public transportation.

Today (while probably folding laundry) I plan on putting on the Echo & The Bunnymen self-titled vinyl that I bought at Recorded Memories (on Hamilton, sort of near Indiana, I think) on Tuesday. I was in the neighborhood and had never been in, so I thought I'd poke my head in. It's a small place, but had a fairly decent selection. I was hoping to find The Jam, but no luck there. There's a ton of cassettes on the walls, and I asked the guy if those did much moving anymore. He said that in the summer he sells a ton because all the guys with classic cars come into town for the car shows, and they can't update the stereos. In the winter, he sells almost none. So I suppose if any of you out there have some cassettes you'd like to unload, there's the place to do it. I momentarily considered buying an old, old Fleetwood Mac album (from right after Christine joined, but pre-Stevie/Lindsey), but I was already planning on buying some new clothes at Target and didn't want to make too many extra-curricular purchases. Another day, perhaps. He'd just put it out on the floor, so I imagine it won't be going anywhere.

A week or so ago, I was looking through some various mix CDs that came with magazines over the years, and I realized my Q Essential Drive mix from 2001 had both The Jam's "Start!" and Stone Roses "She Bangs the Drums" on it. Had these songs all this time and it took eight years for me to come around. Eight years! Had no idea what I had. If I'd known I had "Start!" I would have included it on the mix CDs I sent out to a couple of people w/ Draft 3 rather than "The Bitterest Pill." Oh well. Another song, "Very Best Friend" by Proud Mary, I remembered but had forgotten about. Noel produced that one, actually. I wish I'd remembered it when I was doing my Alphabet Soup project because V was a hard letter to fill. Great song. If I ran into the album, I'd be tempted to pick it up.

What I'd really like is a better turntable. I'm glad to have one, period, but the sound isn't the greatest. It's a little one speaker thing. Does the job, fits the small amount of space we have, but... Eventually I'd like a nicer space, some real shelves for the records, etc. I'm not a vinyl nerd --- I don't have strong ideals regarding sound quality, nor do I have a nostalgic attachment to vinyl. Being a teenager in the 90s has me fairly well tied to CDs as far as the "format of my formative years" goes. However, there is still something special about an actual record and they have the added benefit of being less than $10 most of the time. It's a great way to pick up old stuff without spending a ton of money.

All right, I've rambled enough....

The children have taken up spinning...

Around and around in circles, that is. Jack thinks it's possibly the most hilarious thing he has ever done. They crash into each other a lot. While I'm convinced (as worst-case-scenario-mommy) someone is either going to break themselves or toys or furniture, it does provide a break from fighting over the toys and furniture. So spin away, kids. Try to avoid crashing too hard.

Friday, only Tyson and Grace went to the art thing. After being out in the heat all day, Jack and I were pretty much done. I didn't feel like being on cranky-toddler duty. I guess it was just a small thing, but Grace really liked what she saw and talking to the artists. She's quite the charmer, of course.

Earlier, she and Tyson took photos at Hoopfest, and she made the mistake of not wearing socks with her shoes. (And I made the mistake of not making her wear socks with her shoes.) So we've still got band-aids on her chewed up heels. I think she had an ok time, but would have liked it more if it wasn't so hot.

Jack and I went to Northwest Seed and Pet. He kept calling the puppies "kitties" and wasn't entirely sure that the giant macaw was real, but the bunnies, chickens, snakes and ferret were a big hit. The ferret was doing its best to escape. There was this yappy Westie in a section right next to a chicken of some sort, and the chicken looked like it was about to peck through the wall to stop the barking.

We also went into Grocery Outlet. I've lived here six years and never been in. Faythe and Jenn were always talking about what an odd, magical wonderland it is, and yes, it really is. I bought some of those Olay face cloths for $3.99 when normally they're $6. Rather strange assortment of stuff in there, but not all that scary as one might think.

Yesterday I had some extended running around to do, including spending waaaay too much time at the recycling place with the epic amount of glass bottles we'd let sit around here too long. Our garbage men can barely handle just picking up the garbage without complaint, so their heads might explode if anyone asked them to do recycling bins in addition. *sigh*

And after hauling all that, whatever sharp-pain nerve-thing I occasionally get in the neighborhood of my tailbone started again. Makes to where one leg hurts every time I try to do... well, anything with it. It usually lasts a couple of days, but I've had fun weeklong extravaganzas too. And seeing as I'm supposed to do a lot of walking around on Friday... Let's hope I'm feeling better.

This has been rather complainy, hasn't it? Sorry.

I'm procrastinating. There's laundry I need to do but don't enjoy the thought of hauling it around the house. There's writing stuff to be done, but I'm at a point of more re-writing/adding/elaborating/re-thinking etc. etc... And my brain's not quite there. While I may have thoughts rolling around in the back of my head, I don't know what should go on the page yet. I'm about 45 pages into Draft 4.

And on top of all that, I promised Grace a bowl of cereal an hour ago. Whoops. She and Jack have been playing nicely, and sometimes, that's the most helpful thing of all.

"So I started this damn country band because punk rock is too hard to sing..."

Must be in a singing sort of mood lately. Maybe I'm feeling productive. I don't know. Draft 4 is scooting along. Not flying, but scooting. And I've got a non-American set of eyes to read it now, so that's good. (A German who lives in Liverpool? That'll do! Hi, Karo. ;))

Tyson has been trying to claim that I can sing, but I'm not sure that I believe him. I think it's best for everyone if I operate under the assumption of only being able to carry a tune.

Save my over-inflated sense of skill for other categories, right? ;)

Today I have to wash some things so I actually have something to wear tomorrow. Have my massage in the morning, then Tyson and Grace are going to take photos at Hoopfest while Jack and I find something else to do. I will not have the soothing effects of the massage be negated by the madness of those crowds.

I don't know what the line is on crowds for me. Some, I'm totally fine. Walking around cities? Totally fine. Except for when I went down to the market in Seattle. Was there all of 5 minutes, long enough to take a photo of the fish for Grace, before hiking back up the hill and out of there. Another day, might've been totally fine. Who knows. Disneyworld, crowds don't bother me. A concert, doesn't bother me. Pig Out in the Park though? 8 zillion people trying to find somewhere to sit with their food? Been three times. I think I'm done. Not a good time. If it hadn't been for Lucinda Williams playing last year, I wouldn't have gone then.

After that, we're going to a closing party for an art exhibit over at the Saranac building called "Overripe Apple Pie." Because apparently people will use any excuse to throw a party... Can't just have an opening party or a launch party anymore. Oh that'd just be too typical.

No, no, in all seriousness though, a closing party is a good thing here. I haven't seen the exhibit yet, but when publications that barely talk about art are talking about it, that's notable. Tyson called the exhibit "the coolest shit I've seen in years," and anything that might help artists make a living is a good thing. We can take Grace and Jack, I can be a little social, etc. People know Tyson some from the magazine now, whereas I'm the apparition, ha.

That odd music writer who talks about the same stuff all the time...

All right, the dog is attacking a fly in the laundry room. I should let her out and wash the laundry she's trampling all over.

Would it be inappropriate to quote George Michael here? Yes, I think so.

Father's Day... Tyson had originally planned to play tennis with Grace, but by the time we got out of the house, it was raining. Also, only around 55 degrees. We decided to do a little shopping instead, and picked up the makings for dinner. We'd planned on picking up a steak from Egger's, but forgot to get there during the week, and they're closed on Sundays. He ended up with a cheaper, very-good-but-not-awesome New York strip from Roseauer's instead, along with two chorizo sausages. I made meatballs (beef) for myself and the kids, and we ate everything with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. Would you believe that I'd never had asparagus up until that point? I'd always heard that it was one of those things that was really good if cooked right, but absolutely horrible if not. As such, I'd always been nervous to order a dish with it in a restaurant and never got around to cooking it myself. Tyson did the cooking this time, and though I don't have any point of comparison, he did a good job. Butter (well, Smart Balance), salt and pepper... Good stuff. Grace and Jack even ate it. Grace is usually game to try new things, but Jack freaks out over almost anything green. Lima beans, edamame and peas -- those are about the only green things he's okay with, but he ate one stick (sprig?) of asparagus, so I'll count that as a success.

In other news...

Though I'd been poking at Draft 3 for awhile within the printed out pages, just the other day I started typing it back into the computer as Draft 4. It's going well. I mean, I'm only 4 pages in, but I'm feeling good. The act of scribbling around on an actual page and then the mental editing when typing all that seems to really work well, and the first few pages have always needed work. I never thought they sounded quite like the rest, and a friend I had read it said the same thing, so it's good to have confirmation. And this won't mean anything but to a couple of you reading, but I rewrote "Head Like Mine" at the end. Much better now. What was in there always felt like a placeholder.

All right, vague mental notes aside:

I have a gift certificate for an hour long massage that I've had in my wallet for almost a year now, and I'm finally going to schedule it. My right arm was driving me nuts last night. I kept waking up what seemed like every half an hour from about 4 am on, just unable to stay comfortable. All the knots need to be rubbed right out, and this week will be a good time to go. Last time I went, it didn't do as much good because I will occasionally get a sharp sort of pain around my tailbone that no amount of rubbing will make go away (advil takes the edge off), and so even though they did a good job, an hour later, I didn't feel as good as should have.

Speaking of things that are almost a year passed, my birthday is coming up. We'll be going over to Great Falls on either July 10th or 11th, stay there until the 13th, then head over to Billings for a couple of days from there. My brother said that his wife and the new munchkin will be there likely on the 12th and will be staying a few weeks, so it'd be nice to see them. He's coming up at the beginning of August, as he's in a friend's wedding up in Kalispell. I didn't know whether or not we'd be able to come over in August, but he's out of the military for good come November, so it'll be easier to see him after that.

Originally some friends were going to be joining us for a night over in GF, but the scheduling didn't work out, which is too bad. However, there are still people in town to see and I'm waiting to hear if Amy can come up from Helena, so that night before my birthday, we'll still go out. So Heather, clear your night for July 11th. ;)

Haven't worked out the firm details regarding Billings yet. I still need to call my grandma and take a better look at the calendar to plan. Lots of people to see there too.

Well, Grace requests that she play one of her art computer games, so I should finish up my other stuff and turn it over... Onwards.

Compulsive List Making

Recent stuff watched on 120 Minutes, which plays in the middle of the night on VH1 Classic

6.6.09
1. Laid - James
2. Knock Me Down - Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. Never Stop - Echo & The Bunnymen
4. Book of Love - Tom Tom Club
5. Stranger Than Fiction - Bad Religion
6. One - U2
7. Get On Your Boots - U2
8. Blue Monday '88 - New Order
9. Ant Music - Adam & The Ants
10. I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
11. Two Worlds Collide - Inspiral Carpets
12. Friday, I'm in Love - The Cure
13. Under the Milky Way - The Church
14. Don't Change - INXS
15. Shiny Happy People - REM

6.14.09

1. Don't Change - INXS
2. Angel of Harlem - U2
3. Ziggy Stardut - Bauhaus
4. Glamorous Glue - Morrissey
5. Lips Like Sugar - Echo & The Bunnymen
6. Wonderland - Dramarama
7. Homosapien - Pete Shelly (never heard this one before, kind of funny one)
8. High on You - Iggy Pop
9. April Skies - The Jesus and Mary Chain
10. Deadbeat Club - B52s (quite often gets stuck in my head)
11. Breaking The Girl - Red Hot Chili Peppers
12. Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
13. I'll Stick Around - Foo Fighters

6.15.09

1. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen (the kids like this one too)
2. Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2
3. Jane Says - Jane's Addiction
4. Here Comes Your Man - The Pixies (ALWAYS gets stuck in my head, riff included)
5. Let's Go to Bed - The Cure
6. Walls Come Tumbling Down - Style Council
7. Disappointed - Public Image Ltd.
8. Don't Let's Start - They Might Be Giants
9. Stand & Deliver - Adam & The Ants (what's funny is that I knew the Sugar Ray cover of this song first.)
10. I Melt With You - Modern English
11. Anything, Anything - Dramarama
12. Candy - Iggy Pop & Kate Pierson (Also ALWAYS stuck in my head. Must be something about Kate's voice...)
13. Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads

Issue #6!

If you're with me on Facebook (which you probably are) or looking at my flickr stream or anything else, this is going to seem very, very redundant, but...

Issue #6 of SPOKE(a)N(e) is now up.

Lots of pictures in it this time, including a photo essay by yours truly. Plus, I talk about the music (and the infinite waiting around) at Elkfest, and this month's column is peppered with moments from summers long ago.

By some miracle, we had the photo for the column before I'd even written it. Usually, my photo is the last thing we get done.

And over on Glorified Love Letters, I introduce Grace to the dinosaur that is the mixtape. And there are also scans of old mixtape liner notes.

If you happened to catch my flickr page last night and saw the scans already, I've since added information to their captions. I know one of 'em is a little hard to read.

And if I'm not already bothering you on Facebook, do take a moment to become a fan. Don't worry if you're not local. There are plenty of fans (internationally, even) who aren't.

....thus ends all the shameless self-promotion for the moment....