Agilent and I have come to an agreement that will allow me to be based out of the Everett office as of July 1st. The actual move date will probably be late July or August due to 2 reasons:
1) Emily is in the middle of long term dental work that won’t be done until July
2) Sara’s father and his neighbor are coming to Colorado and I must meet them
We haven’t determined where we will be living yet, but let us know if you are aware of any good rentals that will be available this summer. I will probably work from home quite a bit, so I don’t need to be too close to Everett. I’m also interested to hear opinions on school districts and schools if anyone has them.
This has not been publically announced at work yet, so please don’t post anything on facebook.
Musically, I don’t get out much these days. I’ll admit it. When we heard that The Dismemberment Plan joined up again to play a few shows in commemoration of the re-release of their album, Emergency & I we were totally there. Slanky made sure we had tickets far in advance and it was well worth it.
I know some of you probably wouldn’t like this band even if you’d actually heard of them. Isn’t musical taste an interesting thing? Think of a band you really love. Can you pinpoint exactly what it is you love about them? Instrumentation, lyrics, singing style… Or is it some unexplainable combination plus a few extras? For me, I’m not always sure. I think it might be something visceral that perhaps I should attempt to analyze further (especially considering I like to write and think about music) but for now I’m just going to go with it.
The Dismemberment Plan is one of those bands that definitely hits me on a level that I can’t quite explain. Here’s why. It’s not like Travis Morrison (the lead singer) has a fabulous voice. His voice is great but in terms of technical singing ability, not so much. They’ve got some songs that are just down-right loud and yelly and there are a lot of bands that I hate because of that. Some of Morrison’s lyrics are silly and sometimes no-point lyrics really annoy me. All that being said, The Dismemberment Plan is probably in my top 5 all time favorites list. Maybe it’s because it’s easy to see their arc clearly, with their less focused, raucous sounding earlier albums that moved on to Emergency & I, which has a little bit of silly, a little bit of yelly but also has a seriousness and melodic tone to finally Change, which shocked their most avid fans with its much more serious sound (and lack of harshness from their earlier work). That arc feels like an established story to me and I like that. Seeing their work as a whole, I also love love love Travis Morrison’s way with words. There are songs that totally speak to me in a way that nothing else does. Top the words with some strong guitar and a beat and you’ve made my day. I also appreciate their mix of musical genres. The Dismemberment Plan were early pioneers in the now common wave of mixing indie rock sounds with an R&B touch, using synthesizers and Morrison’s sing/talking. Especially within music, and I think I’ve even written about that on here before, I really see artist genius in the successful manipulation of musical styles.
Like so many loves, it’s also a situation of right-place, right-time. For me, The Dismemberment Plan appeared in my life during my mid-20s when I was asking all of those usual questions, like, what am I doing with my life, am I making the right choices, am I a good person, what do I value about the people in my life, etc., and, while it didn’t help me really answer them, their music helped provide the energy and and emotional outlet to really look at those questions. Slanky and I went to both nights of their farewell shows here in Seattle (I believe some of you who read this also attended) and they still stand out as some of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Now when I listen to their music I feel a little bit like I can see my own arc. I’m more comfortable with myself, I feel as though some of my earlier “life questions” have been answered, I see that some questions never get answered and new ones always appear and that you never stop getting something out of music that you love.
Ok, enough of my blathering on and on. The show was spectacular! I won’t bore you with an actual rundown of what I thought of each song but, man, was it good! Their musicality has matured so much that even their rough yelly stuff had a polish to it. They were still fun and upbeat, not taking it too seriously, which is nice to see, given that they are just doing this little tour. They spent time tuning!! They played one of my absolute favorites as their second song and that made me SO happy! They changed up a few of the songs and I really liked the little tweaks. There was one song that I didn’t recognize and even though I’ve read over and over that they aren’t planning on making any new music a little part of me is hoping that they’ll be inspired to do some more things together. Slanky bought the vinyl re-release of Emergency & I and we’ve been playing it for the kids.
I’ve struggled to narrow down what tracks I should include here. I love so many!
What Do You Want Me to Say? Emergency & I, 1999
The first is probably one of their most well known songs, for good reason. It’s one of my favorites, might be my most favorite. I love the hard feel (probably my definition of the perfect amount of rock, strong guitar and drums, a tad bit of enthusiastic singing, i.e. yelling!) and the exasperated tone of the message. To me it perfectly voices the frustration of being in an impossible situation with someone. I also love the slight intrigue – the written lyrics in the album (both cd and new vinyl, I checked) are different than what he actually sings. I think the difference is a poignant one but it could just be a mistake. The main phrase, “What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do, to let you know that I do mean it?” is actually written as, “What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do, to let you know that I still love you.” To me, that’s a giveaway by the narrator/lyricist. He’s exasperated about what lengths he feels he has to go through to show his devotion. But then again, he switches “I still love you” to “I mean it” – he can’t even say the words out loud so you sort of get the sense that whomever he’s singing to has a reason to feel insecure. Kind of an unreliable narrator sort of situation. Anyway. I find it interesting.
(sorry, i’m going the easy route and linking to youtube because i’m lazy.)
I lost my membership card to the human race
So don’t forget the face
Because I know that I do belong here
Go down the checklist let’s see:
Feelings are good
Dishonesty is bad
And keeping it inside is worse still
You want a problem well I guess we got one now
I really don’t know how
There’s injuns over every goddamn hill
What do you want me to say?
What do you want me to do?
To let you know that I still love you?
What do you want me to say?
What do you want me to do?
To let you know that I still love you?
What do you want me to say, yeah?
I see it coming from a million miles away
What else can I say?
The only way you know I love you
And there’s no eye-to-eye just Moses on the mount
Or I’m in for the count
You need your man above or below you
I can not cry at will but I do wish I could
Cause it’d do you some good
When every joke I make is treason
There was a time when you could make me laugh at will
And you can do it still
But never is it for the right reasons, yeah
What do you want me to say?
What do you want me to do?
To let you know that I still love you?
What do you want me to say?
What do you want me to do?
To let you know that I still love you?
What do you want me to say, yeah?
Following Through Change, 2001
This second song is also one of my absolute favorites. When you hear the lyrics hopefully you won’t misunderstand why. Taken literally, the song seems pretty singular, as in a break-up situation or something. As you may already know, I haven’t experienced that sort of situation. This song speaks to me in a general me-against-forces-that-try-and-get-me-down sort of way. Though I think I feel less angst than my mid-20s self I still love the energy and power of this song.
It coulda been good
it coulda been something special
it may have had real potential
it never could show
It coulda been great
it could been something alright
but we never did keep it that tight
so whaddya know?
I get up at 5am I so don’t need those dreams that I used to have
It coulda been swell
it coulda been off the hook now
if we ever had what it took now
I haven’t a clue
I think it’s as well
we may have been on the right track
finding all the pieces we lack
but what can you do?
Now I see that these are cards we drew some time ago, so if you don’t know:
I can do it anywhere with anyone at anytime don’t you forget
this is my life and it’s going to be good, don’t you know
not a promise or a threat or an ultimatum, though I can do that too
I’m just telling you, I’ve got this life I’ve got to live
I’m just following through
I dishonor the past
being so loose with my time
I could stand accused of high crimes
in the court of the dead
and I could be next
on a page about to turn soon
so I’m movin’ my ass at high noon
you heard what I said
I could say I hope I’m not misread, but that’s all right
I’m quite OK with losing that fight
Today I baked two loaves of soda bread. After baking the first one I thought I’d try another recipe since I had everything out already. The first one is from Cook’s Illustrated and the second is a Mark Bittman recipe. There are some pretty major differences between the recipes and so I’m curious to taste both. The Cook’s Illustrated one gets pretty fussy about the ingredients, calling for low protein flour and cake flour, cream of tartar and sugar. Soda bread is something that’s been around for a long time, being made by Irish and non-Irish the world over, so a less complicated version (not that either is very complicated!) seemed like a good idea to try. Another major difference between the two is that the Cooks Illustrated version calls for butter both within the bread dough and melted on top. My guess is that the more complex recipe (CI) is going to win out for taste since what’s not to love about butter? But I’d imagine a lot of people make a simple one to go with soups and stews.
Pictured below are both loaves. Mark Bittman on the left and CI on the right. As you can see, the CI one looks a little more nicely browned.
A while back, I was having a restless night of sleep (how is that possible when I’m so tired??). I was in that half dream, half awake state and had been dreaming that we’d gotten a third cat who, for some reason, had not been fed with the other two. I became very worried in my dream, but then started to wake up – still thinking we had that third cat who needed food. So, naturally, I asked Jay if he’d fed the cat, hoping I wouldn’t have to get up to do it. Jay, very calmly (as I was more upset than one should be at not having fed a cat…), assured me we only had two cats – both of whom had been fed. Then I settled back in and fell asleep. The next day, I asked Jay how crazy he thought I was worrying about a non-existent cat. He had no recollection of our middle of the night chat — apparently he’d been more asleep than me!
