Month: September 2003

Some of you may have noticed that I am, in fact, still online. This does not jive with the originally stated plan of “leaving on Friday morning”. Let me explain what’s happened this week.
On Tuesday, we took our car down to Shade Tree Auto in hopes they’d be interested in buying it off of us. John took it for a test drive with me, and pointed out all the things wrong with it (most we knew, some we didn’t), but then still offered us $700. I need to add that this is an 87 Volvo Wagon with 140,000 miles.
The next day, we’re running errands, and we have more to do when the accelerator on the car stops working. Just no response. We manage to pull into Triphammer safely, and the car won’t stay running after we shut it off once.
We get it towed down to Shade Tree. My mom saves the day and loans us her car. We go down to Shade Tree and now our offer is only $500, which is generous considering the car doesn’t run.
Then, the next day, Katie’s parents arrive. We go down to pick up the U-Haul, and after loading the old TV in it, we notice the Service Engine light is on. So the truck goes back to U-Haul temporarily and gets fixed.
Then on the way back from Best Buy (new TV) and Pizza Hut (dinner), Katie’s parents’ car won’t go in reverse.
We’re leaving tomorrow at 4 AM. Yurgle.

Yeah, I’m late. I blame the moving thing.
[friday five]
1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why?
I have to choose one? Ugh.
I don’t have just one favorite. If I’m looking for something to help me unwind, I put on Massive Attack or m-flo. If I’m looking for raw painful emotion, I’ll go to Trent Reznor. If I want driving techno, I have to take Prodigy. I can’t limit myself to ONE musician…
…but if I really had to, I think I could live with just DJ Shadow. His music ranges over more than enough genres, and he very rarely missteps. Always full of surprises, always something new to catch my brain on.
2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why?
Again, just one? I hate Britney. I can’t stand Matchbox 20, or 99% of rappers, or practically everyone on the MTV music awards. Oh, and I don’t like Moby at all anymore either.
3. If your favorite singer wasn’t in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person?
Referring back to Shadow – from the interviews I’ve seen of him, he’s very down to earth. So, sure.
4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show?
Hahaha, been to concerts…
To those who don’t know and haven’t read my bio page, throughout my entire Cornell career, I was a part of the Cornell Concert Commission. I worked security for 6 shows. I worked as security crew head for 7 shows. I worked as stage crew for 4 shows. I worked as stage crew head for 2 shows. I personally put together 2 shows.
That said, I need to divide this up into multiple categories.
Best concert in the musical sense? Stone Temple Pilots, or Guster.
Best band to work with at a concert? Jurassic 5.
Best concert for anecdotes? Run DMC and Biz Markie.
Show I’m most proud of? The Cake/Rahzel/Spoon show. First show I put together, and it went off flawlessly. No hitches at all.
5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from dowloading free music?
I feel that persuing people who aren’t making money off of music trading is a waste of time and effort. I think it would be better to go after the guys on every street corner of NYC with boxes of bootleg CDs for $3 and shut *them* down, because they’re hurting the industry worse than a 12 year old downloading a few songs.
At the same time, I think people should certainly keep buying music they like, and that file trading shouldn’t be a substitute for supporting artists with money.

I’ve gotten a few complaints that the blog has been a little slow lately; as previously mentioned, Katie and I have been doing our best to attempt to secure housing in NYC. This means frequent 5-hour bus trips, and work, and…all in all, very little time for the blog.
But I’m happy to report that I’ve been told everything has checked out and we’re signing a lease tonight for a 1 bedroom in Astoria.
Moving is next week, which means I’m going to have even LESS time for blogging over the next week, and then god knows when I’ll have a connection at home – needless to say, it’s going to be a seriously crazy number of weeks.