Listen to me, I'm on the stereo

So. It is spring break. This is pretty exciting news. So exciting that someone forgot to wake me up before 3pm this afternoon. What I'm really trying to say is: I have done pretty much nothing of note so far in this young week. I've watched a lot of movies though. I've watched Pirate Radio, Sex Drive, Fired Up!, and She's All That. Don't ask me why I watched Fired Up, but She's All That was on HBO after I came back from Davey's, and I watched Pirate Radio, and Sex Drive because I wanted to. That being said, Pirate Radio, Sex Drive, and, Fired Up were all enjoyable movies. As you could have guessed, I really, really, really enjoyed Pirate Radio. It had everything I look for in a movie: good soundtrack, took place in the 1960's, and was about music in the 1960's. Win, win, win. We all win. The other movies were just regular old high school comedies, but still weren't a waste of time. And yes, I had seen She's All That before. Don't worry.

Besides movies, its been all music. I've gotten the new Gorillaz, Titus Andronicus, Jimi Hendrix, and Broken Bells albums, as well as some Pavement albums I didn't have. I also had the pleasure of enjoying the new White Stripes live album, and new She & Him record. Thank goodness for NPR, right? Anyway, everything has been a joy to listen to, especially the new Titus Andronicus record. I had heard their first record a few times, and wasn't incredibly impressed, but this new record...wowee. It is really enjoyable. Its an added bonus that they mention New Jersey in the lyrics a bunch of times due to the fact that they're from Glen Rock.

In other news, March Madness! The tourney tips off Thursday, and I could not be more excited. Hopefully my bracket turns out okay. We shall see!

peace, love, & 12 seeds,
m.w.w.

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Now playing: Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
via FoxyTunes

and that's a pretty nice hair cut

All in all, this was a pretty good weekend. I got do to a few things I don't normally do, which can be a fun thing.

Friday night I had to go into the city to go to the New York Historical Society to look at some paintings for my American Art class. The paintings I had to look at for class were pretty boring, but to my surprise, (and delight), there was a Grateful Dead exhibit, and a really awesome Abraham Lincoln exhibit at the museum. Besides the Grateful Dead exhibit, the museum was also giving away free Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. After the museum, I headed into Willamsburg (not the Colonial one, unfortunately), with Gwen, Mary and Claire to meet up with Gwen's cousin who was bar tending at a restaurant. This was actually really great news, because besides the free ice cream, and whatever lunch I had that day, I hadn't eaten, and it was pretty late by the time we got there. Anyway, I had a pretty epic burrito for dinner. In the burrito was radishes (which I ate for the first time, and enjoyed), chicken, rice, and other stuff. It was awesome, and exactly what I was craving at the time. We hung out at the restaurant and had a few drinks, and then once Gwen's cousin was done with work, we headed to a different bar down the street. We got home around 3 or so, and I re-played a game of Madden that luckily didn't save because I lost. Unfortunately, I lost the second time as well, by one less point.

Saturday was cool too. At like 4 or so, Mai and I headed into the city to go to Guitar center so we could both get strings. At Guitar Center we met up with some other people, but that is not important. What is important is the beautiful left-handed Taylor Guitar Center had. Oh man. I could have sat in that Guitar Center all day and played it. I actually seriously considered buying it on the spot. Good thing I didn't because the price tag was a cool $850, which would have seriously depleted my funds. But hey, you can "finance," or whatever, things like that, right? Anyway, after Guitar Center we hung around the city for a bit, ended up at the restaurant where Warren plays piano. I'm fairly certain that you can assume that we went to hear him play, but I'll say it anyway. We went to see Warren play. Everyone ate, except me, but that was because I was saving room for Japanese food. At the restaurant I enjoyed a delicious German pilsner. At around 8:45 or so we left Warren's restaurant, and headed uptown to go out for Joe's birthday with 30 of our closest friends. The restaurant was called Chinatown East, and was pretty good. I think it was picked because of it's all you can eat/all you can drink menu. I didn't do all you can eat because it was sushi (I had chicken teryaki instead), but I did indulge in the all-you-can-drink aspect. Needless to say, the Sapporo was flowing. The food was good as well. I wish they had given me rice with the food though. I could have definitely used some. After we got back from the city a few of us tried going out, but to no avail. We just went home and hung around for a while.

Sunday was band practice. TSRJ is back and pretty much the same! I don't want to get everyone's hopes up. Keep your expectations low. But as Chris said in one of his most recent posts, keep your ears peeled because we do have some pretty exciting news coming your way. You didn't hear this from me, but, the news is actually exciting.

Also:
1) The mandolin is totally awesome.
2) Looking forward to going home for spring break.
3) Done with two-thirds of my graduate school applications.
4) NCAA Tournament/March madness bracket time very soon!
5) MLB opening day in less than a month!!!!
6) Started watching the O.C. It's actually not horrible, and kind of really good.

It's good to have these things to look forward to.

Thanks for reading.

peace, love, & the old grey cat,
m.w.w.
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Now playing: Broken Bells - Trap Doors
via FoxyTunes

There's blood in the streets its up to my ankles

There was a fight outside of my apartment yesterday. All year I've been sadistically hoping to witness one, and finally it happened. At first it was totally awesome. Then I went outside, and saw the bloodshed. Unfortunately, I am not exaggerating when I say that. I went to get a sandwich for lunch, and the blood stained the sidewalk for almost 2 blocks. Not to mention the fact that my front door/foyer looked like something out of CSI: Miami. *Insert awesome Horatio Caine one-liner*

In other news, Dan & Mai were the only ones who made the playoffs in our Madden game. Dan made it to the Super Bowl and lost to the Browns, riveting.

The 100 Nights 'Til Graduation dance was a ton of fun. Also, apparently it was not 100 nights, but 92 or something. Not sure how that works, but I definitely feel cheated out of those 8 days, and would like them returned eventually. Here I was thinking last Thursday was 100 nights until graduation. I feel cheated, somehow.

Last week I stared reading Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood. So far it's really good. I haven't had a chance to pick it up since but, it's a book about two friends living in a post-apocalyptic world. I'm excited to be able to get back to that later in the week once midterms/homework/graduate applications are out of the way. Come Thursday I am going to be one happy camper, I hope.

So, I know I mentioned our 100th (maybe 150th?) post, but for some reason I neglected to mention our 1 year anniversary at "In Search of Lost Time - (we)blog." Well, if it means anything, we've been writing for you for 1 year, 1 month, and 3 days. Here's to another year, month, and 3 days of blogging enjoyment in the future (at least).

EDIT: I knew I was forgetting something. American Idol! The new season has started, and it's pretty good so far. I don't have a favourite yet, but I'll keep you posted as time progresses. There doesn't seem to be anyone as awesome as Danny or Adam this season, so we'll see.

peace, love, & mandolins,
m.w.w.
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Now playing: Coldplay - Warning Sign
via FoxyTunes

climbing up the stairs

So today I took a major step forward in terms of the graduate school application process. I took the GRE. Don't tell anyone this, but, considering I did about 3 serious days of preparation, it went very well. This was very relieving, to say the least. The test was all the way in Fair Lawn, and now that I think about it, i should have stopped at Guitar Center on my way home. I literally drove past it. Regardless, the GRE took me about 3 hours. I was totally caught off guard by the writing section (forgot it was going to be on there). Luckily this was my only real surprise of the "experience." Now that the GRE is behind me, I can go back to solely doing work for school/just sitting around. Awesome.

In other news, I've acquired a lot of great tunes the past week or so. An LP and an EP by the Avett Brothers, an album by Sarah Jarosz (who is like a 17 year old mandolin/banjo virtuoso who plays very nice sounding folk music), and an album by a band called the Amazing. They're all really good, but right now I can't get enough of the Sarah Jarosz album. I recommend my currently playing if you are interested.

OH! I bought a mandolin!

Time for me to go to sleep. It's been a long day. Goodnight.

peace, love, & folk,

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Now playing: Sarah Jarosz - Left Home
via FoxyTunes

I'll call for pizza! I'll call my cat!

Hello men and women readers,

First of all, this Thursday is 100 Nights Until Graduation! Answer me this: How did that happen? Where did all of my time go? There is no reason that I should be sitting here tonight rushing out graduate school applications to try and apply for school in the fall. I would like at least one year back if you don't mind. I'd like it to be Spring 2008 again, if you must know. Okay, okay, that's two years, but still. Honor my request or pay the price! How nice would it be if all the snow melted and I could just go sit out on Eddie's and play the guitar, toss around a frizz, or just sit for sitting's sake? But I digress...

Not too much has really been happening since we last spoke. The 4 of us on Belmont have started a sort of post-football season fantasy team on Madden. Essentially, we sat down and drafted our own football teams. I'm the Jets, Dan is the Panthers, Mai is the Seahawks, and Jake is the Chargers. If all goes according to plan, the 4 of us will be the 4 teams in the AFC/NFC Championship games, then two of us will play for a Super Bowl. Some say "waste of time." Others say, "Incredible waste of time." We'll see how that goes. I'll keep you all posted. I promise.

And, how about all this snow! My goodness. We had a snow day the past Wednesday. This is great news because it is when i have my night class. Jake and I played snow football during the storm. It was actually my first experience playing tackle football. It was definitely interesting. Luckily I only had to be tackled once. I did make an incredible catch though, so well worth it. The games were more defensive than offensive due to the less than desirable conditions on the field. My play defensively can be described as nothing short of "Revis like" (NY Daily News).

That's all for now.

peace, love & friday night lights,

m.w.w.

After the Goldrush

My, my, my. Things are really in full swing on Belmont Avenue. A lot has happened since you last imagined me reading this blog to you.

Firstly, we had people move in upstairs. This really isn't that big of a deal except for the fact that every few hours or so it sounds like they are dropping a bowling ball on the ground. That or they are construction workers who bring their work home with them. Who knows. And FYI, as we speak it sounds like they are moving around furniture.

Next, when the semester started, we were playing a lot of board/card games here. The game action has cooled down a bit, which is kind of a bummer, but understandable nonetheless. We've played Stratego, Risk, Wizard, Boggle, Scrabble Slam, Pictionary Man, and probably others. I'd definitely be interested in picking that back up.

Other big news is our functioning record player. This is probably the most wonderful new addition to our apartment. Since we've been back at school we've spun many a record. I picked up What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens, and Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins, which added to my already awesome (budding) record collection.

I also took my senior portrait. I got to wear a graduation gown and everything. I get a special sash because I get my B.S., rather than B.A. Its not as much "special" as it is different from the one the B.A. kids get, but I'll take what i can get, right? I thought it was kind of cool. In that same vein, I filled out my "intent to graduate" form. This ish is getting real, and fast.

I've resumed my practice of yoga, and also look forward to resuming my trips to the gym. On my to-do list for tomorrow is to go buy basketball sneakers so I can play basketball comfortably, as well as do other physical activities without having terrible foot pain, and leg pain, as well whatever other problems come from having bad shoes. I looked into getting the Kobe V's, but they are $130.00, and realistically, I'm probably not even cool enough to own them, let alone wear them AND attempt to play basketball in them. If only I could get $20 Starbury's.

Some of us also made it out to another "brewery." I only put brewery in quotes because it wasn't really a brewery like Yuengling was in the sense that it was like a factory-esqe place that did bottling and stuff. The place in question is the Brooklyn Brewery, located in, you guessed it, Brooklyn. The place was like two rooms: one where they brewed the beer, and another, which was kind of like a bar, where they sold beer. It was a totally different vibe than Yuengling, because of the fact that it was essentially a bar, rather than a beer museum. I still have to get out to the Sam Adams brewery, and the Magic Hat brewery, which is much less likely, because it is in Burlington, VT (how Vermonty!).

well, i guess that's enough for now.

peace, love, & new neighbors,

m.w.w.

i read the (huey lewis and the) news today, oh boy

1) The new vampire weekend album is really enjoyable. for a taste you should definitely listen to the song posted below. the album doesn't come as easy as the first one, but it definitely it worth that extra listen to really let it hit you. It definitely has the same, if not more, staying power than their first record.


2) St. Vincent - Dig a Pony

3) Did I tell you guys I went to the Yuengling brewery while I was in Philly last weekend? It was really cool. I got to see them canning the beer. For some reason, they don't do canning and bottling on the same day. Makes sense I guess. They only had one conveyer belt. Can't be mixing cans and bottles!

peace, love & contra,

m. ward