I am taking percussion methods.

Unit One: snare

Unit Two: bass drum

Unit Three: cymbals

Unit Four: mallets

Unit Five: trap

Unit Six: drum set

rawk

posted at 2:25 PM by Alison

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Yeah, I've been back at school for about a week and a half now, and I still haven't updated. Whatevs.

To be fair (to me), I have been recockulously busy.

I am taking 18 hours of real classes. No more music theory with Linda Antas, who took two months to teach the concept of secondary dominance. No, now I have serious classes with nightly reading and regular assignments and lots of papers and really REALLY strict attendance policies.

Sigh.

Also, Campus Vegetarian Socety is going to be a real club now, so I have a lot to do in that way, too.

So I apologize if I don't update so regularly anymore.

posted at 3:59 PM by Alison

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The Saturday night before I left for school, for whatever reason, I felt like I simply HAD to watch Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II: Annihilation.



Luckily, Ethan is indulgent. So we went to Toby's and rented it on VHS, since it apparently only exists on VHS and Toby's is about the only place that still rents out VHS tapes.



I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. It wasn't quite as awesome as it seemed when I was eight.

We also rented a DVD of From Hell, which we watched on my laptop out on the patio. And as sensitive as I usually am to horror movies, I was much more scared by the possum (or "opossum") that wandered onto the patio. It could eat my doggies!

posted at 9:02 PM by Alison

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Wilco is my new favorite thing. Their performance at Lolla was fan-tass-teek.

I am in love with how fucking crazy Mel Gibson is. I cannot wait for Southpark to do "Passion of the Jew : Part 2."

The women in my family have a strange habit of buying trashy tabloids, reading them, and then gifting the other women in the family with them. Two days ago, my grandma swung by to drop off some garden-fresh tomatoes, and with them she brought two issues of People magazine.

I of course read the one about how crazy Mel Gibson is, because I don't give a shit how gay Lance Bass is.

The tabloid didn't tell me anything I didn't already arrogantly assume, but I did discover this fantastic article in a group of articles about unusual themes for kids' birthday parties:

Jim Lehrer?
It could be worse: Every night Henry Schally, 3, begs his parents to watch PBS's The Newshour With Jim Lehrer. When he misses it, he asks to hear the podcast. "That's all we listen to in the car, over and over," says his mom, Jennifer, 35, an office manager in St. Paul, Minn. Henry's dad, Troy, 35, a computer programmer, likes to watch the show but never expected his son to become a hard-core fan. "You don't get to choose what your little 3-year-old becomes obsessed with," says Mom. When asked if he'd like to include the show in his party, Henry said, "Oh yeah, Mommy, I want Jim on the cake!"
Gwen Ifill, Too!: Jennifer asked Newshour for permission to use an image of the cast as cake frosting. The show agreed and sent cast photos as birthday presents-including an autographed shot of Lehrer.
Extras: Guests wore hats featuring all four stars. After present time, Henry acted like a regular kid and blew bubbles.

(The caption of a picture of little Henry smiling at his Jim Lehrer cake is, "'Why are those gentlemen on Henry's cake?' asked one young guest.")

posted at 7:27 PM by Alison

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Today was the first day of Lollapalooza. It was good. And this is why.

-mates of State are cute.
- Death cab I s good.
- Iron + wine was too quiet and we couldn't hear so we went to get smoothies.
- i saw a segway
- Jack White's new band is cute, which is good because they sound like Led Zeppelin whom i HATE!1!!!!

that was the first time I ever accidentally put a 1 instead of an !. I will keep it that way. For posterity.

Chicago is pretty.

Why do the police officers at Lolla all ride horses? Isn't that a little impractical? They'll poop everywhere. If they need to catch a bad guy they wiould have to ride those big ass horses through all the people just to get where they wanted to go. They should just walk.

posted at 1:08 AM by Alison

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Two nights ago, Molly puked on my bed, so I have been sleeping on a bare matress the past two nights.

This is how lazy I am.

When my mom is home, I usually feel obligated to be at least moderately productive. But since she is away for the week, I've pretty much just been eating chocolate and watching reruns of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

And sleeping. Let's not forget about sleeping.

posted at 2:12 PM by Alison

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Michigan is fucking beautiful.

Ethan, the boyf, has been at the Interlochen Fine Arts Camp for the past month and a half, kicking ass and taking names, and last weekend I drove up in my NEW CAR (or my mom's old car, depending on how you look at it) to visit him.

The trip up was a little rough, because A) I hate travelling B) I was PMSing like crazy and C) I listened to Death Cab's most recent album, "Plans," which sent me into fits of hysterical crying. Which is no good when you're driving 70 MPH.

But everything was pretty much cool once I got up there. It's a really great place. It's totally the sort of thing I would have done in high school, if I were a good musician and if I weren't unhealthily, obsessively attatched to my home.

The night I arrived, Van Cliburn played Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. The second night, the Interlochen Philharmonic played Shostakovich Symphony #5, featuring Ethan Young on principal cello. I was so proud.

Mostly, though, I just sat around. Interlochen is situated between two lakes (inter-loch-en), so there was a lot of time spent sitting on the beach reading Chuck Klosterman's "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs," which I would describe as a pretty cool, moderately amusing book. Ethan showed me the secret, outdoor practice rooms down near the non-Interlochen part of the beach, and we practiced together. Que romantico.

I stayed for three days, then drove home with my feet in a puddle of coolant. My coolant hose has a leak, which I got clamped when I got home, but it remains to be seen how well that will hold. I'm lucky I don't have cancer yet.

My mom is spending the week at various special ed conferences, so it's just me and the dogs. That, combined with a wierd experience I had over the weekend, has me sort of bummed. So if you're reading out there and you think I would feel comfortable letting you in my house, drop on by. The dogs and I would love to have you.

I am mega psyched for Lollapalooza this weekend. Here is what I hope to see, so if you will be there, keep an eye out for me at these shows:

Friday.
2:30-3:30 Panic! At The Disco (maybe-they're not great, but I paid for the ticket, right?)
5-6 Mates of State
5:30-6:30 Iron & Wine
6:30-7:30 The Raconteurs (maybe-I haven't heard them yet, but I effing love Jack White)
8:30-10 Death Cab for Cutie

Saturday.
1:30-2:30 Feist
3:30-4:30 Calexico
4:30-5:30 Gnarls Barkley
6:30-7:30 The Flaming Lips
7:30-8:30 The New Pornographers

Sunday
2:15-3:00 Hot Chip (maybe)
2:30-3:30 Ben Kweller (maybe)
3:30-4:30 Andrew Bird
4:30-5:30 The Shins
5-6 Of Montreal
^ Here we have a problem, because two of my favorite bands are playing at overlapping times. I will most likely just arrive at the Of Montreal concert half an hour late, but I encourage you to voice you opinion in the comments.
6:30-7:30 Wilco

posted at 7:08 PM by Alison

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