December 24, 2006
Healing: A song list ::
music — tagged broken leg, buffalo, family, indie rock, music, personal and travel
12:13 pm
So I’m back in Buffalo for Christmas. The trip here was exhausting. After an eight hour car ride I tumbled from my dad’s car with a stiff leg feeling very, very cranky. My time here overall has been fun, and it’s been nice to show family members that, even though I’m still on crutches and have still-unhealed surgery scars, my condition has improved dramatically from the day I was discharged from the hospital. Also, it’s been fun to show off my x-rays and watch people squirm when I point out the fracture that starts from my hip and spirals around my femur.
So, with introductions aside, I put this mix together a couple of weeks ago while in the hospital, high on Percocet. I’m pretty happy with the sound of this one, much moreso than Winterish or the Fall mix. In part the outcome is the result of my immobility at the time, which allowed me the concentration and time it takes to make a good mix. But also, I think it’s an indication that drugs and rock and roll really do go together quite well.
Halloween by Matt Pond PA: Is it un-hip for an indie rock snob to actually like Matt Pond PA? No matter what the critics might say about the band’s artistic shortcomings, I fell for this song long before it would have otherwise been tainted by other’s opinions. And it’s dramatic lyrics, combined with the piano, acoustic guitar, and pedal steel make for a really seductive sound.
Pushover by The Long Winters: I first found this song over the summer, through a Music for Robots post. Since then the track has appeared and reappeared on a variety of playlists and mix CD’s I’ve put together. I finally picked up the CD at Amoeba Records when I was in SF in August.
Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby by The Islands: “Bones, bones, brittle little bones,” go the opening lyrics of this track. When I first added it to the list, I didn’t even think about how apropos to my condition the song actually was—I was thinking more about just how pretty the song is. But boy, does this one fit perfectly.
The End’s Not Near by Band of Horses: Band of Horses covering a song by The New Year for the OC Soundtrack. I really don’t know that much about The OC, but the track is really great—it’s an interesting reinterpretation of the original version of the song, in which the band makes the song their own.
Steps and Numbers by Appleseed Cast: They’re such a curious band, which moved from a straight ahead (and pretty annoying) Midwestern emo outfit to a post-rock band with a melodic, unique sound. So far, Low Level Owl has been the high point of their sound for me, but I also haven’t heard any of their most recent releases. But that’s on my to-do list, definitely.
Sukie in the Graveyard by Belle and Sebastian: I don’t love the album, but I do love this song. It does a great job of snapping the mix back into line after the more airy, nebulous sound of the previous track.
Hard Bargain by Ron Sexsmith: Ah, the underappreciated Ron Sexsmith. This is a great track that emotes a feeling of being beat up but willing to come back the next day for more.
Song for the Myla Goldberg by The Decemberists: This is the first song I heard by the Decemberists, and it’s the one that caused me to really fall for the band. But it’s never made it onto any of my mixes. So now’s as a good a time as any to finally add it to my song list. And the lyrics, especially the tongue-twister “I know New York, I need New York I know I need unique New York” always makes me smile, especially when I sing along and get it right.
This is the Way by Devendra Banhart: An interesting song in which Devendra sings about his physical self. One thing about this broken leg, as well as the healing process, is how aware of my physical self I have become during this time. With that in mind, the track works really well here.
Radio Campaign by M. Ward: Hey, I’ve been into M. Ward since August, and I think I’ve had one of his tracks on each of my mixes since then. So here’s another one. Here he pleads, “come back, come back my little peice of mind…” As I sit here, leg aching and knowing that I couldn’t get up to visit friends, get food, or go to the bathroom without a big production, I really know how he feels.
Paper Thin Walls by Modest Mouse: after the more intellectual, introspective stretch of tracks, I needed something to change the tone a bit. I found this song on a whim and thought it was perfect. Do you remember when the Moon and Antarctica came out in, what, 2000? And do you remember how new and exciting the track was? I sure do, now that I’ve heard this song. Now the album is back in my iTunes rotation.
A King And A Queen by Okkervil River: There’s an element of melodrama to all of Okkervil River’s music, and it provides me with a feeling of catharsis every time I hear it. This slow, acoustic number is a perfect example. Did I mention that my roommate went to high school with the lead singer? I’m totally serious!
Sleeping In by The Postal Service: One thing I like about the Postal Service is the sense of calm the songs seem to bring in the face of apocalyptically bad news. This song is a perfect example: here the singer dreams that global warming was simply a reward for humans being so good to each other. “No we can swim every day in November,” the verse concludes. It’s definitely not something I’d want to maintain in my entire life, but while I’m healing it makes me feel just a little bit better.
Throwing Things (Acoustic) by Superchunk: I pulled this track off of Superchunk’s Incidental Music, a compilation of the band’s singles and b-sides from the early 1990’s. This is a wonderful acoustic rendition of the electric original, and can make me weep if I hear it at the right time.
Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans: this is probably John Samson at his most melodic and fun. This great sing-along tune can help me see the bright side of just about any dismal situation.
The Ballad of Daykitty by Lou Barlow: Lou Barlow is so strange—his music can range from exploring the deepest, darkest emotions to just having fun. This track, which closes out Barlow’s Emoh release, is an example of his later line of songs, in which he sings of a cat who, after much flirtation, decides to come and live with him.
November 7, 2006
Where I’ve been ::
personal — tagged bethel, montpelier, personal, recap and vermont
3:23 pm
The contractors are outside the house, dismantling the rotten porch. What started as a small project involving some joists and a couple hours under the porch on some Saturday has developed into a pretty substantial home renovation. But it’s been fun listening in on the contractor’s conversations, which for the most part don’t get much beyond their parroting lines from South Park back and forth to each other. (If you can imagine two middle aged guys with Vermont accents doing that, you might crack a smile.)
I’m in here, posting to this site for the first time in, what, three weeks? It’s been quite some time. But as has become the standard, you can assume that if I’m not writing, there’s a reason. Actually, there are multiple reasons. They are:
A trip to Washington DC to visit Robin. It was really a great, though pretty whirlwind, trip. I saw a couple of friends from Vermont Law, one of whom I hadn’t seen since before he graduated back in 2005. I also (finally) saw the Wrens play, at the Black Cat no less. It was an amazing show. Unfortunately, I have no photos to share, though here’s a picture of the two hand stamps I got—one to get me in and the other, of course, to get me to the bar.
A new job! That’s right, I am employed, and will be until May. I’ll be working at the state house, where I’ll be clerking for Legislative Council, dealing with judiciary matters. As near as I can tell, the job entails dealing with criminal, constitutional, and judicial matters, and I’ll be working closely with legislators throughout the legislative process. It’s pretty much a dream job, and I still don’t quite believe I got it.
This weekend consisted of two parties, one trip to Bethel and one to East Bethel. It involved some substantial driving and some really great interactions with friends, including people I hadn’t seen in quite some time.
I also stopped by the old Bethel house to get the last of my stuff, which has been sitting up in the attic for the past four months or so. That was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it’s over now, and I feel like I’ve made my final break from that house. While there, I helped my landlady with a computer problem and took Shamus for one last walk, which gave me an opportunity to say goodbye and remember that, as hard as the past few months have been, I’m in a better place now.
So, as I survey everything that’s happened since I last posted here, I realize that I should feel pretty great about my life. I’ve passed the bar, set myself up in Montpelier at a place where I can afford the rent and I really like my roommates, I have a new job that will involve interesting, important work and hopefully lead to something more permanent; I continue to meet great people and do a pretty good job of staying in touch with old friends; but for whatever reason, I continue to feel a little sad. Maybe I’m still in the process of separating myself from my old life, or maybe, despite all my social interaction, I still feel alone. In any event, I don’t feel terrible, and I know it will be just a temporary thing—if nothing else, work starts next Monday and after that I just won’t have the time to worry about such things. But in the meantime, some insight into all of this would be helpful. If you have any, send it my way?
October 8, 2006
New about ::
meta — tagged meta and personal
8:58 am
Something I’ve never been very good at: talking in an open-ended way about myself. Nonetheless, the about page for this site was in severe need of updating (it’d been more than two years since the last!) so I posted this. I found the exercise valuable, though, because it gave me a real sense of how much things have changed since June, 2004.
September 12, 2006
The bar exam stress index? ::
meta, personal, legal — tagged legal, meta and personal
10:05 am
So, I was looking at my site usage stats this morning, and noticed a pretty clear pattern emerging. Of the top 20 search terms that resulted in links to pageswithin.com, I found six that had something to do with the bar review or the July bar exam: “july 2006 bar exam results,” “pmbr lawsuit,” “bar exam results july 2006,” “pmbr,” “bar exam blogs,” and finally, “bar exam results.” That’s kind of surprising, since I really didn’t post all that much about my bar exam experience.
But then, to be fair, I didn’t post all that much generally to this site during that time.
September 5, 2006
More bar exam-related ridiculousness ::
legal — tagged bar exam, bar study, legal, personal and rant
8:22 am
I noticed that James started posting more regularly again. How nice! One post that particularly caught my eye was this one, on the stupidity of bar review courses. He notes specifically the lawsuit that the National Conference of Bar Examiners brought against PMBR, the self-appointed “leader” in Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) test preparation, which PMBR lost. In the opinion, the federal judge presiding over the case noted that PMBR lifted a test question directly from the MBE but actually got the answer wrong.
I remember when I was debating on whether to take the PMBR course, one of the sales representatives noted that lawsuit as a selling point for the program. The inference I was supposed to draw was that PMBR’s questions were so good that NBCE was actually scared of the program, and thus brought a (frivolous?) lawsuit to protect themselves. The disingenous way in which the rep tried to present this suggestion immediately turned me off to the possibility of taking the exam. In the back of my mind since then I’ve found I’ve had a little regret for not taking the exam or, more generally, not taking every opportunity to prepare myself for the bar exam. But after hearing this story, I don’t feel so bad at all.
Which I guess goes to show that some opportunties are best left unexplored.
September 2, 2006
Bar exam results coming soon ::
legal — tagged bar exam, bar study, legal, personal and rant
9:01 am
With September here and the Vermont Bar Exam results most likely being released in just a few weeks, I’ve been thinking more lately about that test (and of course more specifically, whether I passed it). With that, I thought this WSJ essay, written back in July and linked at the 2006 Bar Exam Blog is becoming relevant—and to certain degree kind of funny—once again:
Even putting aside the hours of enjoyment you can have packing your test-day clear plastic storage bag, preparing for the bar exam isn’t a heck of a lot of fun. Most people say the worst part is doing hundreds and hundreds of practice multiple choice questions, but I think the worst part is how doing those multiple choice questions makes you feel about the world. Nothing good ever happens to the people in practice bar exam questions. Everyone who crosses the street gets hit by a car, every doctor botches the surgery, parachutes never open, contracts never get fulfilled, anyone who uses a lawnmower ends up in the hospital, as soon as you write a will your whole family dies, employee benefit plans never pay out their benefits, computers all get viruses, your friends are always intoxicated, stealing your farm equipment, and driving it into the barn, police search you all the time for no good reason, you can never find a good place to hide your weapons, banks never recognize a signature as a forgery, and the forger always flees the country.
August 6, 2006
Coolest thing I’ve done in quite some time ::
personal — tagged cycling, narrative, personal and vermont
8:42 am
So, I’ve been dealing a lot with cars lately—much more than I’m used to, or particularly comfortable with. But I’ve resolved most of my car related issues over the past two days or so, and I look forward to motorized transportation taking a much less substantial role in my life in the coming weeks.
Here’s the story: my old car, a 1994 Honda Accord EX, has, at 12 years old and with 200,000 miles on it, become not the car I need, given the amount of travel I’ve had to do over the past few weeks and will likely be doing in the near future. To remedy the problem, I worked out a deal with my parents where I would get one of their old cars, and would pay them back once I became gainfully employed. But in order to get their car, which is Buffalo, I had to do some pretty serious planning and logistical maneuvering. The plan I came up with was this: Drive to Burlington, leave my car with friends up there; take a flight to Buffalo; Drive from Buffalo to Chicago for Pitchfork, then drive up to Milwaukee to visit Jeremy; then drive back to Vermont. All that plan worked out just fine, and I got back to Vermont on Wednesday.
But that still left the problem of the old car, which was up in Burlington still. I was fretting about finding someone to ride up with me to pick it up when my friend (and temporary roommate) suggested that I ride my bike up to Burlington to get it. Well, of course! I thought, why don’t I? And so yesterday I did it. I estimated the ride at about 68 miles, up 12 through Randolph and Northfield to Montpelier (2.5 hours), then cutting across 2 up to Burlington (about 3.5 hours). With the half hour or so break I took in Montpelier for lunch, the whole ride took (watch me do the math) six and half hours! Overall it was a much quicker, and much less painful, ride than I was expecting. Next time, I’ll have to take some alternative routes that involve more climbing. But that’s next time.
In any event, I haven’t taken any pictures since the batteries on my camera died during the Mission of Burma set at Pitchfork. Why I can’t get it together to get the damn things charged, I do not know.
