June 30th, 2005 14:30 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Anaiis No 4" by Mahogany
Feeling: headache

I gotta find out why I'm getting these headaches. Maybe it's just stress. I've had them off and on since Sunday. Grrrrrr.

DJ and I went to see War of the Worlds last night. Honestly, we loved it. I think Spielberg redeemed himself a bit with this one. It felt to me like a more classic Spielberg film. I always associate him with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws and Poltergeist. Yes, I know Poltergeist was directed by Tobe Hooper, but come on. That was all Steve's doing. DJ and I talked before the movie started about how this movie might tank simply because Tom Cruise has become such a celebrity jackass lately. He's sent out on a promotional tour for the movie and talks about his new fiancé and his scientology crap.

But beyond that, he does a wonderful job in this movie. It's tense, pretty much throughout the entire movie. You really get a solid feel for how his children view him and that he's just not comfortable being a dad. Then on top of that, you get to see some really neat looking alien war machines that have some VERY cool sound effects. I already knew the ending, having seen the classic movie as a kid, but I thought it ended a bit abruptly. Still and all, it's a lot of fun.

June 29th, 2005 08:38 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Isolation" by The Darling Buds.
Feeling: hot and sticky

I FINALLY got my journal done for my latest trip to Japan. I know I'm super late in posting this, but hey, it's done, right? Lots of cute pictures in this one.

June 27th, 2005 11:08 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Some Other Time" by Yoko Kano.
Feeling: got a big headache

This weekend was really freaking warm. I think Griff said it best when he posted on Myspace "Holy fucking jesus fuck, it's 8 billion degrees outside". Even with the air conditioning on, I sat in my underwear sweating most of Saturday. I did get up a few times to do some random cleaning. I'm taking to brushing Stella each day now, because of this heat. She threw up 5 times on Friday night, so I sympathize for her having all of that long hair.

Lisa called me up to remind me that we'd made plans to see Batman Begins on Saturday night. The weather outside was actually much nicer around 8:00. We ate at the Goose Island Brewery and I had a mediocre burger and she had BBQ ribs that looked like gigantic turds. Creepy. Batman Begins is fucking awesome. I LOVED this movie. By a wide margin, it's the best Batman movie ever made. It's dark, it's creepy, it's angry. The all star cast does a very good job. When Dr. Crane/Scarecrow unleashes his fear toxin on Carmine Falcone, I almost shit my pants. Part of it had to do with our theater being really, REALLY loud. Seriously. We even noticed that a couple of speakers in the front were actually distorting. When young Bruce Wayne encounters the bats in the beginning of the film, it was almost deafening. It was really cool to see how they altered Chicago to make it into Gotham. Seeing the batmobile tearing ass down lower Whacker Drive was a treat. I remember being delayed by over 45 minutes to last years summer office party because they were filming scenes with the batmobile in the loop and had closed off all of the bridges. I had to go out the south side to eventually get onto the highway. Too bad I never got to see the thing in person. It's a weird-ass vehicle.

In other news, Zeeshan quit the band yesterday. Anybody wanna play guitar for airiel? We're playing with the Brian Jonestown Massacre at the end of the month and we're going on tour in September.

June 22nd, 2005 12:48 hours CST
Currently listening to: Chicago street noises
Feeling: loved

Happy Anniversary, Yuka. ^_^

June 20th, 2005 09:50 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Welcome To The Occupation" by R.E.M.
Feeling: excited and stressed out.

Yeah, I'm listening to R.E.M.. A band that I once adored for being original, amazing and artistic, even for an American band, who I now look at with vicious uninterest. But things are good. I've been sending out email all day to bands in our touring range for September. Already have one good lead in Pihlly, which might turn out to be the keystone of this project. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I want to get all of this scheduling out of the way, so that Taka, Yukari and Yuka can get their plane tickets and we can all just rest assured that it's gonna happen and I can deal with easier things like mailing out press kits. Gahhhhhhh I need a manager!!!!

I saw High Tension (Haute Tension) on Saturday with my friend John. Fucking amazing film. The reviews have been kinda crap, but when do I pay attention to movie reviews? I already ordered an unrated DVD off of ebay. Can't wait. It was perfect scooter weather too. I was a bit hung over on Friday from the Thursday nights adventures to Sonoteque, Dark Room, Neo AND Smartbar. But I rode anyway. Even made it to see The Arks at Shubas that night. But yeah, Saturday was gorgeous. Not that it stopped me from playing Halo all day in a darkened apartment with a bunch of men.

Yeah, that's right. Rich, Arturo, Aaron and a few others all met at Aaron's house for Halo, carbohydrates and beer. Pizza came later and thanks to the mushrooms, that may have been my only consumption of vegetables that day. Jesus. We had a good time. Lots of laughs and lots of Tea Bagging.

We played Halo 2 most of the time, but did whip out the original Halo for a few matches. I forgot how much faster you move in Halo. You're practically a cheetah, for fucks sake. Yeah, you take damage from falling and you can't jump as high, but running across Sidewinder feels a lot faster than running from one of Coagulation to the other. It even inspired me to play through the campaign on Sunday. Honestly, I feel that Halo is a superior game to Halo 2. There is drama, tension, action and great gameplay. The graphics are even BETTER, in my opinion. In Halo, I can fly around a huge vista and not once be distracted by textures popping in and out of resolution. Shit, you can't even walk down a hallway in Halo 2 without noticing that. Halo was monumental. It inspired and it caused me to buy an Xbox. Halo 2 was great, but obviously the focus was on the multiplayer aspect and they forgot that less is more.

June 14th, 2005 09:50 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Yet? Why Not?" by Tsutchie
Feeling: my throat hurts for some reason

It's amazing what a 10 degree drop in temperature does to your outlook on life. The weather was so nice this morning. It's gonna be PERFECT scooter weather all weekend long. \m/

DJ, John and I were going to go see Star Wars again, but decided to watch DJ's new directors cut DVD of Team America: World Police. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, this movie was so hilarious. I can't believe that I missed it in the theaters. I laughed pretty much non stop. Even though I should have been grossed out, the puke scene gave my abs a good work out because I could barely breathe from laughing so hard.

The show in Indy went really well. We drove through some nasty rain storm on our way down there, but Indy was rain-free. At least until we arrived. They scrambled to cover up the gear on the stages and the rain really only lasted about 10 minutes. Didn't slow anything down. We played a good set, even if we only played 4 songs. Kiss Me Sadly takes a while and we were determined to do it. Cory overdrove the bass amp there so much that the speaker was actually hitting the grill. I got to see some old friends and my parents even made it up there. We went out around Broadripple and hit a bar and an absolutely awful dance club. Crashed at Brian's place and then hit a greasy spoon diner the next morning. Pancakes and bacon, baby. Awwwww yeah.

Yuka sent me the most awesome book! It's "The Original 'Point-and-Speak' Phrasebook" for English and Japanese. It's SO USEFUL. You find a topic, like, say, drinking. Then they give you the phrase for "I'm thirsty", then show you how to start a sentence of what you would like to drink and then you pick what you want off of the examples on the same page. It's genius.

June 9th, 2005 16:41 hours CST
Currently listening to: "VOX" by Jenka
Feeling: busy, hot and sweaty

Griff just sent me a text message. They reached a settlement and The Double Door will be open for another 10 years. Rock the fuck on, everybody. \m/

June 8th, 2005 16:17 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Revolution Solution" by Thievery Corporation
Feeling: busy

I haven't updated this at all. Eek. The show on Sunday went very well. We made some new friends and sold some CD's. Cool. they also have this fucking awesome grilled chicken salad that I devoured. John's eyes went wide and he started inching his way from the table in fear that I might devour him in the process. I was hungry, ok?

The rest of the weekend was alright. This heat and humidity already sucks. I put in my 2nd air conditioner and already I want a 3rd. The first thing I do when I get home is take my clothes off, and for the wrong damn reasons. Living on the top floor of my building is nice because I can leave my windows open (when it's nice out), but man it gets hot up there sooooo quickly.

The new gym is very nice. It's comforting to have the little niceties in the locker room, like q-tips and stuff. I find myself sort of taking my time when I get out of there. I'm more relaxed. At the Y, I was showering in a room full of flabby, angry old men. Now I have a private shower and the only men are either businessmen or guests of the hotel trying to fell less guilty before they go devour a fattening Chicago dinner. Rock.

Getting my hair cut in three hours. Weeeeeeeee.

Go here. Right now.