November 30th, 2005 13:55 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Inside" by Hope Chest
Feeling: tiiiiired

Practice last night was reeeeally loud. I need to get some new ear plugs quickly. Chris, John and I went to Metro to hand out flyers to people as they left the Dinosaur Jr show. Chris is a god damn flyering MACHINE. John and I watched him hand out over 90 flyers in about 10 minutes. It was crazy. We then went to the Ginger Man for a drink, which turned into several. We talked about stuff until we realized that it was 2 AM. I watched Chris eat 2 chili dogs and an order of cheese fries. Jesus. Guilty pleasures of drunken hunger are awesome. What's not awesome is that I went to bed ad 3 AM and I had been up since 5 AM. I was starting to fall asleep while I was driving back home. I wasn't drunk at all. Just completely exhausted. I don't think I'm going to make it to the gym after work. Airiel is representing at Panic tonight and I'm in serious need of a nap.

November 29th, 2005 11:28 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Before The Celebration" by Hammock
Feeling: good

Thanksgiving was ok. Nothing special. Felt a bit odd not having my brothers and sister there. They were all at my sisters place, so it was just me and the parents. My aunt Janet came over. So did my grandmother. She's doing ok. Not sure if she actually remembers me or not. We didn't cook too much food, so I didn't come home with many leftovers. In fact, I used the last of the turkey for the sandwich I made to take to work.

I took my truck to Ziebart and had them spray that liner stuff of theirs into the bed and also install the truck cap that I had ordered. As soon as I walked outside, I could tell that the paint didn't match. It was a shade darker than the rest of my truck. Granted, this isn't a HUGE deal, but if I noticed it already, I was gonna notice it every time and it would drive me insane. Even the sales guy admitted that it looked darker. So, after a little while to think it over, I had them take the cap off and send it back to A.R.E. and then I placed an order for the Leer 100R. The back window area also looked really crappy. Badly cut fiberglass and even some paint chips. Boo to you, A.R.E.

I had brought my gym clothes down to Bloomington with the intent of combating the Thanksgiving gluttony. Unfortunately at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning, I pulled a muscle in my ass while loading my truck to drive down there. :( So, no working out for me. However, I am resolute. Already this week I've been to the gym twice. If I can't get there in the afternoon because I'm busy right after work, then I will go in the morning. Waking up at 5 AM sounds horrible, but this is my 2nd day of doing it and so far so good. The place is surprisingly busy at 6 AM. I think it's less busy at 6 PM. Kinda weird.

I met with a woman who is a consultant for immigration services last night. She answered all of my questions. The wheels are turning. ^_^

I just watched the DVD of our interview in New York. It's pretty cool. There's 3 songs from our show at Sin-e as well. Thinktank, Rainflower and Airtight Angels. I forgot just how awesome that audience was for that show. I wish I could hear Xiomara say "Welcome to New York, Airiel", but that's not in there. We do, however, get to see Rex Nexus dancing his ass off and also shout "best shoegaze in America!". \m/

We have our company 10 year anniversary party on Friday night. It's supposed to be pretty huge. I hope I've lost enough weight to fit in my merc suit comfortably. :/

The show on Saturday at Double Door is gonna rock. We're playing 2 new songs and John is using his electronic drum pads. Evolution, people. It's a beautiful thing. My parents will also be in town this weekend. Dad has a medical conference. I'm glad they'll be able to see us at a proper venue. We're going to get a new mattress for me on Sunday. Can't wait. Hopefully I can say goodbye to all of the muscle aches in my back. Speaking of which, I'm also saying goodbye to that awesome blue vinyl shoulder bag that I've been wearing for over 2 years. In an effort to make my back feel better, I've switched to a good old reliable JanSport backpack. Not as flashy, but I don't mind.

Hi everybody.
The airiel show on December 3rd (this saturday, for those of you with calendar issues) is going to be very, VERY cool. If you caught our last set at Dark Room, you got treated to two brand new songs that we more or less made up a few days before that show. well, we've had time to practice since John got back from mono-land and things are looking to bliss the f@ck out.

Here are the dirty details:

When: 3-December-2005
Where: Double Door (1572 N. Milwaukee Ave 773-489-3160) - Chicago, IL
With: Helen Stellar and On A Son
Details: 9PM - 2 AM. $8 in advance, $10 at the door.
Flyer: click here

Helen Stellar is on tour and once again are being supported by us at our beloved Double Door.

Bring your ear plugs and maybe even your sunglasses.

and if that wasn't enough, we have 2 (TWO) events to coincide with the show:
FIRST:
Come to Smart Bar on Wednesday night (November 30th) for Panic to hear resident DJ's Pogo, Kerry Finerty and Arturo Valle spin a night of shoegaze music with special guest Jim Evans from Helen Stellar.
The airiel boys will be on hand to give away 3 of the new EP’s and also a t-shirt.

and if that wasn’t enough, there’s an after-party for the Saturday night gig!

Greetings!

Saturday, 3 December
American Gothic Productions Presents:
~ SHIMMER ~
- a night devoted to shoegazer/dreampop/darker, moodier indie music spun by DJ Scary Lady Sarah, in a cozy, glittery, friendly venue.

10pm - 3am / $5. / 21+
Held at Elbo Room, 2871 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
*If you go to the AIRIEL concert at Double Door first, show your ticket stub/hand stamp to get in to SHIMMER for FREE!*


Come out & chill, drink, sway.....and shimmer with us.

Hear the music of these bands & many, many more: ARKS, Cocteau Twins, AIRIEL, My Bloody Valentine, WALKING BICYCLES, A Northern Chorus, Cosmicdust, Closedown, Guitar, High Violets, Ether Aura, Longwave, Medicine, Pumalin, Magnetic Fields, Pia Fraus, Dorian Gray, Readymade, Should, Sianspheric, Swoon 23, Bethany Curve, Voyager One, Guitars Vs. Gravity, Landing, Midsummer, Sybris, Blood Ruby, BloodWire, Hungry Lucy, Alcian Blue, Astral, The Prids, Brief Candles, Slowdive, Ulrich Schnauss, Emulsion, Guitaro, Moonbabies, Francis 7, Lovesliescrushing, The Flir, Dreamend, Whimsical, Sky Parade, Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Violet Grey, Dreamend, Spiritualized, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE.........

*If you go to the AIRIEL concert at Double Door first, show your ticket stub/hand stamp to get in to SHIMMER for FREE!*

November 18th, 2005 12:22 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Theft, And Wandering Around Lost" by Cocteau Twins
Feeling: hung over, tired, etc

Last night's airiel show went off surprisingly well. John had been sick with mono for 3 weeks and the rest of us unanimously agreed that we didn't want to be in a practice space with him for any length of time until he was well. What resulted was some new and old airiel. We broke out the Alesis SR-16 and I set up a drum loop. We came up with a basic structure for 2 new songs and basically jammed with them, making the set last a full 30 minutes. We were a little worried how this would work in a live setting, but it was something that Cory and I had talked about doing for a long time. Turns out it went over quite well. I thought that we didn't play the 1st song long enough, but the 2nd song was more rock, so that's always fun anyway. John heard the songs during the sound check and he approved. After we played the show, he said he had lots of ideas for both songs. That's awesome. I'm glad he liked them because we really want to keep these and develop them. Hooray.

Dark Room was once again a blur of whiskey. We went to Tuman's for some pub eats. Brock and Tobias joined us. We were in the back room and we were incredibly loud. The bathrooms are back there and these 2 girls made some funny jokes about our noise level. Lots of friends showed up for this gig. Autumn Thieves couldn't make it because Courtney was denied entry while getting back into the US after playing in Toronto. Andy and Mike had to drive her back to Toronto and leave her there. That totally sucks. It would have been great having them at the show. Brock and Tobias played great music as always. Some of my coworkers also showed up. I told myself that I wasn't going to drink too much since Autumn Thieves wouldn't be staying with me and I therefore wouldn't be taking today off of work. Well, anxiety for this improvised set sort of overrode my better judgment. I'm pretty tired today. I took a shower when I got home to get the cigarette smoke off me. Have they passed the smoking ban yet??? Tonight I'm going with Arturo and Chris to see Arks play at Hyde Park Records. I'm looking forward to it. It starts at 8:00. It's free and all-ages. 1377 E 53rd St.

Something interesting happened on Wednesday night. Chris dropped me off at home around 1 am after going to Panic at Smartbar. I got into bed with a book and Stella jumped up on the bed. She typically doesn't do this. If she's on the bed, she's always at the foot of it. Ever since I got back from the tour, she's made the Rubbermaid merch tub her new sleeping spot. Not quite sure why she prefers plastic to a bed, but whatever. She is her own pillow. Anyway, she jumps onto the bed right by me and plops down onto my book and gets comfy, purring her little head off. After I turned the light off, she eventually went on patrol or did whatever it is she does while I'm asleep. I was hoping that she would clean the living room, but that has yet to happen.

I'm not sure what time it was, but I woke up to the sound of creaking floor boards. The floor around the right side of my bed is really loud and my cat is fat, so I always know when she's coming into the room. I was lying on my left side to try to find her and she suddenly jumped up onto the bed and then onto me and settled down on my right shoulder. Wow, neat. She's never done this before. She'll always climb onto my lap when I'm on the couch, but never my shoulder. The thing was, she did not want to get off. I rolled over and she adjusted, waited until I was settled and then laid down on me again. In between my shoulders, on my butt, on my stomach. Stella was determined to be a blanket. The is the kind of thing Chobi does all the time, but Chobi also lies down right on my face sometimes and then licks Yuka's face. Luckily Chobi is small. Granted, the weather absolutely shifted gears and went straight into winter these last few days, so maybe she was just looking for warmth and the Rubbermaid tub in the hallway wasn't doing it for her.

She didn't do this last night, or at least not that I can remember because I was passed out. I just thought that it was funny how she was suddenly all over me while I was in bed when she's always stuck to the foot of the bed.

Now I'm on a search for hang over food.

November 15th, 2005 15:10 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Kiss Them For Me" by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Feeling: better than yesterday

Lisa came over on Sunday night to show me how to make meatloaf. She also made a green bean casserole. Well, the casserole and I had different views on what proper digestion means and I had to take a sick day yesterday. I was just about to leave my apartment when a warning light went off in my mind. I had things I needed to do with a day off, but I was pretty much isolated to the couch in the living room and the throne in the bathroom. Fun! Anyway, I watched all 4 Ju-on movies back to back. I rule.

Something else I ruled at this weekend was Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented. I spent half the day Saturday cleaning my kitchen and bathroom in preparation for Autumn Thieves crashing at my place and the other half playing and finishing FF3. On the whole, it's a great game. Wonderful atmosphere and you do get really creeped out when you play that game with the lights off. Especially when you have some black framed glasses on that rob you of peripheral vision and your cat jumps on your lap, prompting you to thrown the controller in the air, scream like a girl and potentially have some immediate potty issues. Um, anyway. I still feel like Fatal Frame 2 is a better game over all. The story for that one was amazing and I was in tears at the end. FF3 is still very powerful, but I don't feel like you develop as strong a connection to the characters.

I immediately started playing another game after finishing it and unlocking all of the different options. In the previous games, playing in Nightmare mode would give you a different ending. This isn't quite the case in FF3. During the second time you play through it, no matter what the difficulty setting, you can unlock the better ending. Well, "happier" is how it should be described. I won't spoil anything for you. Although, it's disappointing that they didn't give you a different ending cut scene for getting the happier ending. What you get is a series of still photographs while the credits roll, detailing the aftermath. Now that I've played through it twice, I think I'll finally be able to pay some attention to SSX On Tour.

The airiel show on Thursday should be interesting. For those not in the know, John has been out of commission due to mono. It's been weird not having him at practices. I haven't contacted him in a couple days, so I don't know what his status is. He wanted to come to practice, but honestly, I don't want to be in a basement with him for 3 hours if he's got mono. Sorry, dude. Anyway, we're testing a little experiment at our Dark Room show on Thursday. Airiel is going a bit "old school". Back to its roots, so to speak. I'll shall say no more. Just go to the show. It's only 3 bucks.

November 10th, 2005 09:48 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Lonely Bedroom Encounters" by Serenaide
Feeling: headache-y

I bought Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented last night. I've been waiting for this game for a looooong time. I turned all the lights off and booted up the PS2. This game is already fantastic. Several times already the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I'm not crazy about the English voice actors, but it could be worse. The atmosphere of these games is so amazing. The catch is that the main gameplay happens in the "nightmare world" when you go to sleep each night. That's a rather unsettling thing to deal with when you're playing this at 1:30 in the morning and you gotta get to bed soon.

Let's see.... what else is going on.... Yuka is sick with a cold right now. Poor thing has no vacation days available and she also has two video shoots this weekend. :/ I'm really excited that she's going to be here for x-mas. Drinking wine, making/eating cookies, wrapping presents and sitting by the fire with my girlfriend. Awesome.

I'm gonna go back to my hometown for Thanksgiving after all. I ordered a cap for my truck and I'll have it installed while I'm down there. Apparently lots of people from my high school meet at Nick's on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Should be fun, and a little scary at the same time.

November 8th, 2005 11:50 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Coast To Coast" by Thee Hypnotics
Feeling: sick to my stomach

Ok, eating a bunch of baby carrots and then drinking a Mountain Dew was a super bad idea.

I finally finished Far Cry: Instincts last night. I would have finished it sooner, but Shadow Of The Colossus demand repeats. FC:I is such an amazing game. The environments, the voice work, the graphics, the enemy AI, the vehicles the FERAL ABILITIES make that game a top tier title in my collection. It's weird starting a new game after finishing it. You get used to your feral abilities toward the end of the game and end up relying on them quite a bit. Starting a game as a basic human feels kind of....odd. I didn't realize Stephen Dorff was the voice of Jack Carver.

Saw Isobella on Sunday night. Good show. Small crowd, but hey, it was a Sunday night in Chicago. Nice to finally get to meet them and also hang out before their set. I had the most kickass tacos ever that night. That place on Diversey at Lincoln. There were two scooterists there with a box of parts for a new saddle seat for a VB. \m/

I'm gonna go buy the new Warlocks CD.