March & Birthdays & Madness
IPOD
About 2 weeks ago I picked up an 8GB IPOD Nano…my roommate had gotten a 4GB Nano that week, I decided I had to get one…all these years of going to the gym, I never had an mp3 player. My roommate said it was the purchase of the year…I concur. The first day I worked out, I put on some David Lee Roth era Van Halen…nothing like pumping up to Runnin’ With The Devil. It also comes in quite handy when doing yard-work.
St Patrick’s Day
Bought a 12 pack of Guinness and threw on a CD from the Punch Brothers (Chris Thile’s current band) and fell asleep jeans and all on the couch downstairs…that probably makes about 3 or 4 times within a week time I fell asleep wearing jeans listening to music downstairs and still waking up in time to go to be slightly late to work – so in other words on time (at least for me).
In Rainbows
Downloaded the recent Radiohead CD, yup the one that they released allowing fans to download it at any cost (even $0.00). I’ve never been a Radiohead fanatic, but gotta say I like it quite a bit. I’m getting more interested in music that to me is built around textures…the kind of music that I envision which is painted on a canvas with all sorts of textures and layers…this is what I hear in this CD. Great mix of acoustic, electric textures and a lot of depth to the recording…I imagine I’ll be listening to this CD for quite a while.
Birthday
This past Thursday was my birthday (mom’s is on Monday-St Patrick’s Day). Instead of using a vacation day to watch all the first day’s games of the NCAA Tournament – drinks inclusive (my buddy who did take the day off said he’d pay for everything) I decided to save up on vacation days and go into work, if my team made the tourney I probably would’ve taken the day off.
I did get the “privilege” to interview a young work prospect – my first time being on the other side of the table, which was quite interesting since I was part of a group asking questions and scrutinizing everything the interviewee said. Heading into the interview, I was thinking of a column I read from Aaron Karo (see entire column) I had recently read…here’s an excerpt from his experience of interviewing applicants:
“I just finished up another round of interviewing high school seniors who are applying to my alma mater. And once again, I’m so pissed that none of these kids seemed the least bit intimidated by me. Now don’t get me wrong, as a relatively recent graduate myself, I go out of my way to make the interviewees feel comfortable. But why do I feel like I’m more nervous than they are? What are they feeding these fucking kids?”
Anyway, this guy was a graduate of a nearby highly reputable private institution that for all intents and purposes is held in much higher regard than my alma mater…he didn’t exactly let this message be forgotten. Though a bright guy, his tone often smacked of arrogance, chocked full of pretentiousness, and he simply said plenty of the “wrong things”, some of which were brought up at his own discretion. We took him to lunch where I happened to be put on the hot seat thanks to his constant barrage of questions with the VP sitting right next to me.
After lunch, we congregated in my coworker’s office behind closed doors – the guy was interviewing for a position that would be working very closely with either me or my coworker (who was at the lunch as well). When asked if he’d be okay for us to work with, we both gave a slight shrug and somewhat unsure assurance that he’d be okay to work with (of course I’m thinking your group can have him!). Once the VP came into join our discussion, all gloves came off and it was unanimous, he wasn’t a good fit to say the least.
I talked to another colleague about the interview – his opinion was kids these days graduate college and act as though they don’t need to earn anything, we’re entitled to just give them a job, which in his opinion wasn’t quite the attitude 5 or so years ago (when I graduated).
After work, I met some coworkers at Sunset Grille for a few drinks. Usually I don’t go out on weekdays – but it was my birthday…so why not? Thursdays are usually music lesson days for me, but I called in to postpone my lesson until this Tuesday…my instructor called and said he wanted me to come in for my first vocal lesson – but the bar sounded like a better idea.
I ended up not having my ATM card (I misplaced it sometime within the last couple days but still had not found it) so a couple other people paid for my drinks – it worked out nicely given it was my birthday.
I went home where a friend was supposed to pick me up and take me to Jackastor’s…he ended up calling to cancel and I drove there myself as soon as Duke squeezed out a 1 point victory over Belmont…(the next morning my roommate texted something along the lines “…and the douche-bag of the day award goes to…”) At this bar, this girl summoned me over to her table (she was sitting with another girl) to give me a beer that they had ordered since they were going to leave – which was a bit strange. We were heckled later by a guy that pulled for both Duke & Carolina – he was quite the all-star. Got home, drank a good bit of my 12 pack of Guinness and went to bed a little after 4…nope didn’t get Good Friday off, alarm was set for 7:20.
I will not forgive you
Nor will I accept the blame
I will see you on Good Friday
Gotta throw in the Black Crowes’ reference for Good Friday – as usual Three Snakes and One Charm got a few spins. Got into work about 8:45 – we left a bit late and my roommate talked me into stopping to get Chic-Fil-A…since I lost my ATM card – free breakfast for me. Got off work at 3:30, took a power nap…then my buddy aka “douche-bag of the day” redeemed himself when he called at about 6:30 (waking me up) saying he was on his way to pick me up to go to Playmaker’s to watch the games. A couple of our friends there had been drinking since 2 – and the signs showed. After Carolina wins by about 60, we go to Player’s Retreat to meet some people that are friends of our friend. We walked to the bar, where we were greeted by 2 or 3 different waitresses telling us there were tables available and we should sit down…which would’ve pissed me off except that one of the waitresses made a nice gesture with her breasts which made the whole thing okay. Our group sat itself at the first table nearest the entrance and I’d imagine drew quite a bit of attention – of course I knew this would be the case. There was a nice 5 minute routine which I thought for sure would get us kicked out…if I wasn’t so busy laughing at my friends’ antics I probably would’ve been quite embarrassed. Needless to say, one of our friends was cut off and proceeded to stumble around the table and then pass out. Instead of going to Five Points and inevitably drinking until 4 and getting 3 hours of sleep that night, I opted to be picked up by my buddy’s fiancé and go to bed at 12ish.
Saturday
Went to the gym mid-day…worked out and then put on Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and did cardio for the whole album while watching Duke lose to West Virginia…all and all not a bad workout. Met a couple of friends out at Mac’s Tavern and played darts…an uneventful Saturday.
March me down to the seven seas
Bury me with a ruby ring
Kiss me baby on an Easter Sunday day
Make my haze blow away
Didn’t do anything for Easter really. Someone asked me if I was going to a church service – I said not likely given that I doubt I’ve been to a church service in about 15 years.
How about Davidson beating Georgetown right here at the RBC Center (<2 min from my house)…longest winning streak in NCAA’s, their last loss had come at the hands of NCSU. Looks like I have a team to pull for – a Cinderella team wearing red…that’s easy. Carolina blew away another team – gotta say it’s strange watching an RBC crowd cheer so loudly for UNC.
As for the rest of the week…I know some people interested in catching Rusted Root at the Lincoln Theatre. I was a pretty big fan in high school and late college, I threw in a few of their CDs last week to gauge whether or not I’d want to see them…I opted to catch another act when I was down in Wanee last April. It’ll be a game time decision, but if others are going I think I’ll go.
Saturday is Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers in Clayton. Chris’s first release with these guys How To Grow a Woman From the Ground, is one of my favorite CDs that has come out in the past couple of years…the new Punch Brothers is a fantastic mix of great songs with a classical touch, but with of course bluegrass instruments. This is a can’t miss. Also on Saturday, one of my friend’s band is playing along with Dizzy Reed formerly of Guns ‘N Roses – pretty damn cool gig.
Since I’m listening to the Grateful Dead’s Althea here’s a nice video (annotated lyrics):
I told Althea I was feeling lost
Lacking in some direction…
I told Althea
I’m a roving sign -
that I was born to be a bachelor -
Althea told me: Ok that’s fine -
So now I’m out trying to catch her
Tags: Black Crowes, Chris Thile, Duke, Easter, Good Friday, Grateful Dead, Guinness, March Madness, Punch Brothers, Radiohead, St Patrick's Day, UNC, Van Halen
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