Enough Already.

Here are 3 things I am over:

1.  photographs of locations our parents are visiting, when the number of those photos exceeds three and especially if the photographs are of flora or signs of any sort

2.  texts from our parents at 1:00 a.m. that feature a photograph of a place or relatives they are visiting

3.  emails containing unquestionably sad news about people we know either not at all or so tangentially as to make it more than a little odd that we are being made aware of the news in a way that would suggest we are actually close to the people

I realize these 3 items make me a cold, harsh person.  I'm over that too. 

Brent's Slightly More Than Half-Year Music Revue

Sometimes listening to music is hard.  Making time for it.  Remembering to pay attention when it's on.  Accidentally listening to the same album over and over again for several weeks.  Forgetting that you have the new Damien Jurado album because it's in the Damien Jurado folder on your computer and you didn't think to look there when it was time to add your new music to iTunes.  So June and July fly by, and suddenly you realize you haven't written shit about music all year.  Next thing you know, you're writing your half-year story in late August.  And you're a piece of shit.  And everyone knows it.

For the purpose of this list, I listed the band and a favorite single from the album.

1. I don't like anything enough to take this spot.  Which may be part of the reason this list is so late.
2. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - No one was prepared to hate this album more than me.  But more than once, I found myself checking who sang a certain song on my "Need to Listen" playlist, and it would turn out to be this band. I'm just going to fess up that I like many of these songs, and prepare to be beaten by anyone with relatively good taste in music. 
3. Sleigh Bells - it's just like their first album, but with two songs that sound like my favorite song from that album.  Zero points for ingenuity.  10 point for giving Brent what he wants.  
4. First Aid Kit - What I like about this album is that people many different corners of my life all agree it's pretty good.  It's hard to put up a fight. Charming little songs, and a nice cameo from Conor Oberst near the end. 
5. Sharon Van Etten - This was the first album of 2012 that caught my attention.  It's sad and deliberate. Two things I always like in an album.  But not a high flier. I don't have a favorite song on this album.
6. Best Coast - I accidentally listened to this album a gazillion times. And it won me over.  It's really simple stuff.  Simple melodies.  Simple lyrics.  But there's something charming about them.  And they stopped with the crappy lo-fi recordings.  
7. Cloud Nothings - This band has all the charm of the early 1990's.  "Stay Useless" may still be my favorite song of the year.
8. Japandroids - Chuck dragged me to this band's show the last time they came to Omaha.  I think I would willingly go if they ever come back.  There's some really great tracks on here.  Mixed in with some not-so-good ones, but the high points are loud and make you want to pump your fist. 
9. Dr. Dog - I will always love Dr. Dog.  I know they are boring.  But they harmonize well, and they like to try new things, even if they don't go that great.  And even though I know that many of their songs sound the same, I don't care.
10. Three way tie - Kelly Hogan/Christeene/Moonface - First of all, I didn't have a number one, so I feel like a three-way tie for 10 is okay.  Now then Kelly Hogan is Neko Case's traveling backup singer.  She sings retro-y songs and looks exactly like Chelsey's friend Alea.  Chirsteene is my friend Paul, and while it's not for everyone, I really like the album.  More than I ever would have expected.  It's really well done. I always get excited when it comes on my iPod.  And lastly we have Moonface.  Moonface is the last living remnant of Wolf Parade.  All the other side projects are dead. So I think maybe I like it for that reason.  I loved Wolf Parade. Dammit.    

Edith Clapping for M. Ward

Number One:  Edith can clap now.

Number Two:  She is already supporting the arts.

Back Patio Ghosts

Here is a nice picture of Chelsey and I on the back patio. What I like about it is that she looks really beautiful, and I look like I am 50.  I also like the flame licking at the bottom. We added that because it's so dark. And because we are telling a ghost story in the picture.

A New Hope

Little follow up to my post on Sunday.  I think I have finally found a song to be happy about in 2012. 

This is Moonface.  Moonface was a side project of Spencer Krug from Wolf Parade.  Now Wolf Parade is dead, and this is all Spencer Krug does.  He recorded this album with a band Finnish band called Siinai.  This is the last song on the album.  I think it's pretty great. 

Fourth of July

Lest we forget...

The Summer of Handiness and Swimming

I haven't written on this thing in a while.  Mostly because I generally blog from work and I've been really busy this past month.  Like super-duper busy.  Way more busy than I generally am.  I'm not really cut out for working that hard.  I hope it stops soon.  Now then.  Here are some updates.

KING EDITH


When I found out that we were going to have a baby, I was most excited about the 9-month old age.  I don't know why.  I just feel like that's the age where it all comes together, before it all flies off the tracks.  Edith has proven to be no exception.  She's so fun to hang out with now.  It's all cure noises and drunken attempts at walking.  I love it.  She also smiles at everyone and everything.  Oftentimes waving while she does so.  We take her swimming all the time. Which is also something to see.  Today she exchanged screams with a kid who looked to be about 18 months.  They just went back and forth.  Screaming.  It was great.

HANDINESS


Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not really that handy.  I aspire to be handy, but sooner or later I just want to get things over with, and I start fucking shit up.  For some reason, this summer has proven to be new era for me in this realm.  Suddenly I am able to carefully complete projects and not have Chelsey make fun of the quality afterwards.  I think this might have something to do with Edith, or the fact that we are going to be selling our house in the next year or two, but whatever the reason, it makes me feel like a real man.

A few things that might be adding to this:

• Chelsey's Dad.  I've done a few projects with Greg Erpelding (who is really fucking handy), and one thing he taught me was patience.  We would be right at that part of the project where I would start doing dumb things, and he would stop and smoke a cigarette.  Genius.  It slowed him down, and gave him a chance to think about things.  I of course don't smoke cigarettes when I project, but I do bear that in mind.  I try to tell myself to slow down throughout the process.  I have to do this.  The urge to fuck shit up is really strong in me.

• Realistic Scope.  Some shit I can do.  Some shit I can't.  I can't pour concrete.  I just can't.  I'm sure I have what it takes.  But I'm just as sure that I can't do it.  Mostly because I can't imagine what the conversation would go like when the concrete truck pulled up.  So I'm trying to know my limitations.  Which is hard, because our driveway is about 30 feet of crumbling cement and shame.  I want to fix it.  I know I can't.

•  Chuck Koster.  I never though I would say this, but I actually think that working with Chuck on projects has officially turned from being a diminished returns arrangement to an advantageous one.  We have somehow gone from getting dumber when we think as a pair to getting smarter.  I don't even want to talk about this because I'm afraid I'll jinx it.    

• Success Begetting Success - So far this year, I have built a fence and gate for keeping rabbits and such out of my wife's stellar garden, redesigned the backyard patio, installed a rainwater barrel, fixed/replaced the gate that leads to said patio, and redid the shower in our basement.  Each of these projects have gone unexpectedly well.  Creating new pressure for the next project not to be fucked up.  

• Being a dad.  I'd be stupid to ignore the fact that being a father creates a certain amount of internal initiative to stop being such a fucking moron.  

I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MUSIC


In preparation for the half-marathon this year, I made an all-time best music of Brent playlist.  It's a fucking monster.  I think it has something like 1300 songs on it.  Basically any song that I ever liked.  Putting it together took like a month, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy something like that after putting so much time into it. So I have been listening to nothing but my favorite songs for the last two or three months.  Subsequently, I have no idea about any 2012 music.  Ask me what my favorite album of the year is, and I will have nothing to say.  Ask me what my favorite songs from 2012 are, and I will have equally little to say.  I'm listening to my "need2listen" playlist right now (my playlist of current music that I need to try to form an opinion on) and all I'm getting out of it is that The Flaming Lips new albums is hard to listen to, and I need to take that crappy Cajun album Kent had me download and the Neutral Mile Hotel mash-up off my ipod.  Not really productive. So I'm going to try and cram in the next few weeks and decide if I like anything.  In the meantime, I'm open to suggestions.  Which reminds me.  Chuck, I have the new Japandroids.  I realize I should have said something when you had your Japandroids shirt on yesterday,  But somehow it slipped my mind.  I hear that album is real good by the way.


THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR  


Friends of this blog will note that the house next door used to be occupied by a weird old lady who talked Chelsey's ear off about World War Two and hoarded and smell like piss.  Well, you might remember that we accidentally had that lady removed from her house by calling the cops to check on her when we feared her dead.  Since then, she's sold the house to a nice couple who gutted the house, and fixed it all the way back up.  Now that house is nicer than ours.  Which is a little hard to take, but mostly we're just really happy and thankful about how things turned out.  Apparently the old lady had not used the bathroom (bath or toilet) in quite some time.  She appeared to have a system that involved buckets in the basement.  So it's a really good thing that she found a new place to live.  And it's a good thing that her house which once looked like I could push it over, is now a happy place to live again.

There.  That's a nice recap of the last month.  Hopefully I will be able to stay more on top of things going forward.  Oh!  And I don't know if I ever said this, but Chuck has kindly offered to take Deuce for a while so that we can hopefully invite him back to the house when Edith is a little more stable on her feet/less harassing of Deuce in general  Hurray for Chuck. Also we went on a little vacation last week, but I'll let Chelsey handle that in her blog.