90s Weekend

Coming of age in the late 90s it use to be 80s flashback weekend on KROQ, after college it seemed that suddenly 90s were on the flashbacks lunch. Also Richard Blade had long since left KROQ to be replaced by Tammy Heidi and later Kat Corbett. But none of that rotating Jockery mattered just that I got to listen to music I had forgotten about. Songs like Tattva and The Way one hit wonder like songs that caught in the old brain cavity and would ring through the week. Or something like Your Woman that happened to get fame near when the Star Wars re-release happened so that riff that sounded a bit like the Imperial March had people humming in all it’s 4 track glory. But those weekends showed all manner of lost gems that couldn’t be crammed into an hour.

This past weekend The End here in Seattle did the same turning over the airwaves to the old time music of its first decade. Back when Alternative wasn’t a generic subgenre of mainstream rock… then again it may never have been a legitimate subgenre of rock. Merely something that wasn’t the 80s pop classics that preceded it. Some of those songs brought back memories that I’d rather forget about. Sitting alone waiting for a show, listening to near static after school or riding long trips on the bus after summer school. But also of dreamier times when my form of difference was a real shock to some kids that I hope are happy with their choices and don’t want for the courage I had to make some seemingly stupid decisions.

There’s a quote that I remember from a documentary on Rock n Roll when it was dealing with the Grunge and Gangsta movements that happened in the 90s it went something like ‘…but they’d have to come up from the underground.’ Seemed to sum up a lot about what was happening. But listening to by gone bands on a long weekend in Seattle just didn’t give any great insights on what the underground was or if it's still there but it was fun anyway.

2HT Weekly Update 3

(Note: I'm part of a theater company and it was decided we should do weekly updates. I haven't been taking it seriously. I'm usually the first one to post.)

Spent a good chunk of my week thinking about Artaud's 'Theatre and its Double'. There's a section where Artaud describes the spreading of the Plague in Europe and uses this as an analogy for the spread of theater. Didn't quite see what he was saying at the time but I often thought about that while doing this show 'One Flea Spare' which I thought was called 'Wonderfully Spare' until 3 weeks into the rehearsal process when I finally realized I wasn't doing a show that was a light heart romp through the Plague years but a serious show about people descending into madness under horrible circumstances.

That show had an illness that spread, like the Plague, through the cast and crew and enhanced the show by giving people this horrible cough. But sucked when you were in the booth trying to stay quiet.

Still waiting on a letter to mail with my envelopes. Other than that nothing to report.

-Sal

2HT Weekly Update 2

(Note: I'm part of a theater company and it was decided we should do weekly updates. I haven't been taking it seriously. I'm usually the first one to post.)

Spent much of the previous week in Issaquah operating a spot light. Gave me perspective on single point perspective. After all in a proscenium house you can create multiple vanishing points but when you get right down to it there is only one that you can exploit to the greatest effect. Beside that I looked over the hardware I had and attempted to sort some of it. Didn't complete this task, perhaps next week.

Other than that I have very little to report beside the fact that working in theater is so much easier when the weather sucks and much harder when it is nice.
Here's to another week,
Sal

Savages

'He who makes a beast of himself

gets rid of the pain of being a man.'

Dr. Johnson as seen in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

Dante: Somebody put gum in the locks

Randal: Buncha savages in this town.

Dante: That's what I said!

-Clerks

I've tried to avoid E/N (Everything / Nothing) posts but this one I feel deserves to be added to my blog. Especially when I factor the increased speed with which I am trying to depart my current residence. But first a little background: I live in a 3 floor house with 8 other 'adults', mostly the experience hasn't been too bad usual sort of stuff when you get that many people in one place for an extended period. We each have a room and there are three bathrooms, (which will go uncatalogued so as not to expose the squeamish to those conditions) a shared kitchen and a living room. I live on the main floor and it can be loud when a bunch of people are hanging out in the living room but with a few doors closed it's tolerable. And I keep later hours so it's not a problem, most of the time.

I am no stranger to unclean living space, any one that had the (mis)fortune of visiting me when I lived with Rich Watson knows what a bunch of guys and some apathy can do to a place. After all the bathroom doesn't need to be that clean and a layer of dust on pots and pans that no one uses isn't such a big deal, right?

And the various dorm rooms I've lived in during college where not up to surgical standards. They were ok at best and at worst 'wear shoes when using the bathroom' bad. But I did know people that were worse. There was a friend whose dorm you needed to be out of when the sun came in the window at about 10 am because the smell of urine and rotting beans in the bathroom was intolerable. It wasn't until we hung out most of a night that I realized why he always seemed to swing by at about that time. My room was the model of health when compared to his.

So I'm not OCD about cleaning, I wipe down surfaces and try to do my dishes, occasionally putting them away but since I tend to use the same few having them in a drying rack makes sense (to me).

Now the question might be posed, 'If this bugs you so much why don't you do something about it?' Simple: I'm not these people's mom. I do my dishes, clean up after myself and throw out my trash and recyclables. Like dealing with children once you start taking up the slack it becomes expected and like when I had a bathroom cleaning cold war with someone I ultimately lose. In this case I lose by bailing on my lease a month early (with luck) and getting a new place. Then there is the possibility I bring this up to the landlord but since I only know that most of the other people are doing this and not specific individuals no reason to punish others that are just trying to live out their leases and then cut and run.

In the past I've lived in places where things went missing occasionally. But it was usually returned, except in one case where Rich Watson stole my ketchup thinking it was his but that happens since we shared condiments (and some weird condiments we got from Food 4 Less), or some money left in its place. On one of the fridges a house mate has repeatedly put notes saying not to eat his food. Even if something has your name on it there is not guarantee that it's safe. Now if we were miles from a grocery store I could almost understand. It's late (or early) and starved so you snatch a bite of someone's food but we are 4 blocks from 2 grocery stores and one of them delivers groceries. If this were a co-op or people split costs of groceries or a situation like that it'd make sense but nothing like that had happened. To combat this I stopped buying things people seemed to enjoy or went about keeping more expensive items in my room until I wanted them. Not the situation I enjoy. But when the excuse I've gotten was, 'Oh someone else owed me money and I thought they were his' with promises to reimburse that never occur I can take only so much.

My plan is to move, maybe to this decent spot I saw the other day, maybe to another one I'm going to see soon but either way I'm getting the fuck out of this place. But there is something about having to search for something to put your breakfast in and ending up with a measuring cup. Not because you can boil water in it in the microwave without fear but because it's clean. That's how I like starting my day.

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Now playing: The Grouch - Green Day
via FoxyTunes

2HT Weekly Update 1

(Note: I'm part of a theater company and it was decided we should do weekly updates. I haven't been taking it seriously. I'm usually the first one to post.)

I spent the last week or so contemplating lime lighters. The old style ones that often died in an explosion as the mixture of gas was sparked and brought a brilliant end to a career on the Victorian stage.

Other than that nothing to report because I'm still waiting for a letter to be set out so I can beg my folks for some green.
-Sal

All of my best titles are stolen from better people

During my last trip to California I found an old bag of mine, it came free with the lap top I got back in '99. (Jeez that 9 lb monstrosity nearly made it all the way through college with me but died just a year and half short) I haven't used this bag since about the winter of my senior year and only did a bit of emptying it when college ended and left the Land of Enchantment. So here in a place with far more water and trees than the desert that I went to school in I got a few presents.

It was like a delayed X-mas, thankfully no one gave me an orange, chocolate or other perishable that may have made this 4 year package all the more strange. Instead there was an invite to a birthday party for September 13^th and of course BYOB. An add slip for Journalism 105 but the interesting thing on this is that my signature hasn't really changed from the one I was using then. A copy of the 10/7/02 Round Up (Campus auto burglaries rising) and one from 11/11/02 (Insurance cards mailed late [real late indeed]), two thank you cards from 'The Laramie Project', a program from 'Africa A-Z', a Steer Skull bolo tie from a costume I wore back in the Halloween of 2000(?) and a red ribbon saying 'I promise to be drug free.'

Mentally I'm trying to come up with the rationale of why I have all this stuff. Some of it makes sense and some of it (like the skull bolo) is just odd and I'm curious why I would have carried that to class for 3 years or so. A side note to say I'm horrible about cleaning out anything. I horde things and only when I have to move, or transfer materials from one bag to another do I see the reason to empty a bag. Hell one bag I have has several old issues of the Weekly and Stranger from when I first moved to Seattle.
Not first moved maybe a couple months in.
I swear I'm not holding onto them as a memento I can throw them out at any time or so I keep telling myself. But isn't claiming you can quit at anytime one of the signs of an addict? If only I had the AA book I found and have been carrying (in another bag) since Februaryish.

Still all of this says something. But one question persists why don't I have a copy of the New Testament in this bag? I could have sworn that began in College, I know I had one for a bit in high school but was that because we had religion class? Wasn't it back then I had a green covered small copy of Psalms and the New Testament that I had received from campus crusade, newman, or just found on the ground by the New Library? Also I wonder if the coupons that are in the Round Up could still be used. One or two companies failed to print an expiration date on them but that means going down to Cruces to try and get my cheap sandwich, second soda with purchase of a soda or discounted suntanning.

At least there wasn't any old papers that may have changed a grade and caused me to reevaluate my academic career and maybe try my hand in another field that could have left me in a better (read: different) place. That's always a shame when that happens. Like when I cleaned out a bag before college and found an old story I wanted to submit before high school ended. Reading it again I didn't like it as much but at the time (high school Sal) thought it was the greatest work of fiction ever. Now (Late 20s Sal) would like to read that story again, perhaps I won't be so hard on my younger self or possibly I will agree with the arrogant college bound version. Either way there wasn't any work like that this time. Only a hand full of trinkets from a different time like a poor man's time capsule but, I guess, more like the volcanic ash covered town folk of a different time. Yeah that metaphor will do.

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Now playing: Golden Touch - Razorlight
via FoxyTunes