134: Three Down, One To Go

Just finished the 3rd of 4 chemo treatments and this one was by far the quickest. After the initial shot of benadryl and atavan, i was able to sleep like a little cancerous baby through my entire Rituxum infusion. 4 hours. Woke up. Played Scrabble with my mom. Visited my ill grandmother across the street. And now i'm home in my new beautiful apartment. One of the Megan's cats just knocked over something that sounded valuable. The janitor is about to come by to check on our failing AC. I still have to hook up my tv and stereo before the cable guy comes tomorrow. And then it's Food Network, here i come. It's been a long time, but i'm back.

Ever watch Ghost Hunters? Someone ordered a Threadless shirt for Ghost Hunter Brian. When i saw that that address was c/o TAPS in Warwick RI, i flipped my wig, and then wrote him a little "keep up the good work" note. In retrospect, i think it would have been funnier to say "don't be afraid of no ghosts" a la Ray Parker Jr. But oh well. It was a Dark Side of the Garden shirt so i probably should have said, you know, that thing about the force.

Speaking of wigs, I have all my hair. Haven't lost a strand. And in celebration, i'm not cutting it. I have started to wear a hat since heavy winds tend to give me that old school Carrot Top look.

Hey hey, 4 more Threadless jingles went up yesterday and here they are:

* Not Another Skull Tee : mp3 / shirt

I tried to summon my inner Glenn Danzig. Seemed appropriate. And I had one of those great moments where lyrics just pop into your head at the weirdest times. This one was ""I break bread with the undead in a hollowed out human head." Pfft. Just imagine.

* Empire: mp3 / shirt

I used samples from the audiobook of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close audiobook in this one. It was pure coincidence that i was on the chapter where the protagonist visits the Empire State Building and gets a tour. And all of the lyrics are true.

* You Got Some Splainin' To Do: mp3 / shirt

I tried to make a White Stripes-ish jam along the lines of "Fell In Love With A Girl" but it didn't come out anything like that. So i guess you can call it original! You can hear me humming the opening pitch at the beginning since i forgot to delete it. And also, i need to work on my solos. There's only so much you can cover up with distortion and echo.

* Know Your Meats: mp3 / shirt

Hey, i ain't no Weird Al, so i will never just do a straight up parody of a song. But since i immediately thought of The Clash's "Know Your Rights" when i saw the shirt and the coincidence that Joe Strummer says "All three of em!", I just had to include it. And then my song kicks in. I had to make some vegetarian comments. Just had to!

Working on next week's! And also, the Skinnycorp podcast will be back so i'll have a nice music roundup ready for the ominous release date of 6/6/06. Now, i build. I build furniture. I wield the allen wrench with grace. And accuracy.

133: The Reasons

At work early again today. I heard this report on the radio about how dangerous it is to reveal so much personal information on blogs and myspace and the sort, given that future employers or whatever would have full access since it is worldwide and all. I think this may have been directed mostly at underage drinkers bragging or posting photos of their exploits. Either way, it had nothing to do with the fact that i haven't been here for over a month. Sometimes you just feel like hiding.

I've been keeping myself busy. Real busy. In fact, I've invented extra work for myself. It's no big deal. I like it. In fact, for the first time in a long long while, i'm truly happy. Everything is peachy keen on the homefront. I'm even moving out of my parents house (for the 3rd time) on June 1. Everything is hunky dory on the workfront. I've even invented a way to be constantly writing music. I'm creating short 1 - 1 1/2 minute songs with themes culled from graphic artwork... that eventually gets printed on shirts. It's incredible to see something from start to finish for a change. No more half bits of songs that never get completed. I have discs and discs worth of half songs. A vocal melody here. A guitar part there. Not to mention the myriad of notebooks chuck full of lyrics, diary entries, junk. Now here is an outlet. I'm ecstatic. This was my favorite one from last week: St. George Vs. The Dragon. I was so psyched to be just casually eating a sammich at a restaurant last week not thinking of anything and then bam! "Fire breathin' heathen, heat him up and eat him" popped into my head! Megan, can i borrow a pen before i forget this?

I'm not sure where this Wikipedia entry came from. To be honest, I was very surprised to see it even existed. Can anyone just go in there and submit something? And edit something? Or does it pass some weird board of judges whose only purpose is to swing their royal thumbs up or down to signify an entry's worth? Sure, it's informative... but is it Wiki-informative? Thumbs up! (Fact checkers assemble! Pete's last name is spelled wrong!) The reason why i bring this up is that within the past month or so, there was an addition to it. An amendment. I now write short singles for Threadless shirts. Hmm. It almost seems as if I've given the City On Film moniker and manifesto the old boot in the pants. Nay nay nay. With the newfound songwriting vigor comes higher goals. A new album. A tour. An extensive band. Everything will be coming up Milhouse soon enough.

In my mile long to-do list, there is a bullet pointed reminder to start a NEW website. A home for everything. This will happen. You know how I used to talk about the albums that were coming out on Tuesdays? That will happen again. You see, I've actually been doing that on Skinnycorp podcasts. My favorite album that came out on Tuesday was Phoenix's It's Never Been Like That followed very very closely by Murder By Death's In Bocca Al Lupo. If I believed in ties, that would be the case. But I guess I don't. Phoenix won because the ass-shakingly hot grooves were constantly played round these parts. I went to a party at it was "Long Distance Call" pumpin'. I took a stroll around the office and "Napolean Says" was my background music...

I've been hiding from Myspace as well. No reason. I just need to get in the mood. I'd love to let everyone know the movies I've seen (lately, The Davinci Code & Capote) or the books i've read (almost done with the amazing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). This will come. All in good time.

Well, time to get to work. I have 45 minutes before i actually have to send out shirts, so i'm going to do a little work on the 4 songs that will go up on Monday (or probably Tuesday because of the holiday). They're my favorite yet! Carry on. See you soon.