Hip To Be Square?

I got new glasses a few days ago. Big, over-sized, Woody Allen glasses. They are my new favorite things. Except when I wear them around, I can't decide if I'm the hottest thing ever or if I'm absolute hipster scum.

I asked one of my neighbors for her opinion on the new glasses. "They make you look really smart," she replied. "After all, you're not one of those lazy kids that drinks nothing but Pabst Blue Ribbon."

Shortly after that, I walked into the pub with some friends and the bartender popped open a can of Pabst the minute he saw me walk in. "The usual, I assume?" he asked, sliding the beer towards me.

"By the way, nice glasses," he added as I fished around in my purse for two dollars.

I mumbled a "thank you," paid for my crappy beer, and proceeded to run into Mr. Syracuse. He was drinking alone at the end of the bar and immediately noticed my new glasses.

"Are those prescription?" he asked, smirking just a little bit.

"Yes," I said, wondering how many people would dare to ask me that question. "Yes, I actually need glasses to see things."

Over the past few days, several people have felt the need to ask me whether or not my new glasses have prescription lenses in them.

I doubt Woody Allen ever had to put up with that.

For Better Or For Worse, Techno-Folk Night Is Now A Thing Of The Past

First off, on Tuesday I wrote a guest post of sorts for my friend Allison. She's in England right now and asked me to cover her weekly playlist for her. You can check it out here. You should check out the rest of Allison's blog while you are over there too.

Now that we've got the shameless plugs out of the way, I can tell you that I got through techno-folk night and lived to tell about it. It wasn't necessarily a raging success, but it didn't bomb completely. On a 1-10 scale, my stress level was probably at about 11 the entire night, but that's fairly normal. I think I did an alright job at playing it cool. Though the conversations I kept having with my boss didn't always help:

Boss: So, it's your first time coordinating an event...are you nervous?
Me: (lying through my teeth) Nah, I've totally got this under control.
Boss: You're not nervous at all?
Me: No.
Boss: Well you should be! This is all depending on you!

I have never smoked in my life (and don't plan on starting), but at that moment, I really could have used a cigarette or something.

I did more last night than most people realize. I took care of the musicians when they arrived. I ran all of the sound-checks and got everything sorted out on the technical side of things. I played the role of The Bouncer during the show (though there wasn't a huge crowd or much alcohol to monitor). I bussed the occasional table at the order of my boss.

I was also the liaison to the surprise belly dancing act that somebody booked without telling me. I'm still confused about that part of the evening. One minute I'm jamming out to a strange techno remix of a Beatles song with The Poet and the next minute my boss is introducing me to some chick in a belly dancing costume.

Because a line-up involving the world's most enthusiastic banjo player and a techno guy that comes equipped with trippy movies on a projector is really not complete without belly dancing. Gah.

Tonight will be better.

Which reminds me, I need to get my final playlist together. I've never really DJ-ed anything that wasn't a private party or a college-related event, so I'm slightly overwhelmed. Especially since I had a humbling conversation about software and equipment with the techno guy last night and realized that I really have no idea what I'm doing.

But life is a learning curve, right?

I plan to spend most of the day in my sweatpants and transform into my ultra-hip DJ persona just in time for the event. This week's model of my DJ persona will be wearing a dress that belonged to my mother in 1980something. To your left is a picture of the last time I wore that dress (which, by the way, was a million years ago).

Not quite as good as the leather pants that The Chef had on last night, but it's difficult to compete with that man's fashion taste.

Anyway, there are currently twelve hours between me and 80's night and I've got a lot to do. The first thing on the list involves going back to bed. So I'm gonna sign off for now. Hope everyone is having an absolutely groovy Saturday and hopefully next time I pop up on your blog roll I will have some good DJ stories to tell.

Soul Aslyum and Sausage

I'm feeling fairly rock and roll today. 

I think it's the Soul Asylum connection I have going on right now. 

While I was doing my laundry today, The Chef made me this T-shirt:

 

When The Chef lived in Minneapolis in the 80's, he made the same T-shirt for the drummer of Soul Asylum.  The drummer wore the shirt on the cover of this album:

The logo is larger but it's still the same design made by the same person.  I can't help but feel cool.

As a side note, Soul Asylum's "Misery" was my favorite song when I was seven years old.  I feel like that probably says something about me but I'm not sure what. 

In other news, I was downstairs working with The Studio Musician until a little bit ago.  I can't wait to show you guys what we've been cooking up.  Right now, it's just at the tedious phase of him mixing it and me telling him to tweak different instruments.

Me:  "Can you put a little more guitar on the chorus?"

The Studio Musician:  "Yeah...I have nine guitar tracks layered there...which one do you like best?"

Me:  "Oh wow, that's intense.  Uh..."

The Studio Musician:  "Yeah, don't even look at the computer screen...no one likes to see how the sausage gets made."

It's going to be some great sausage when it's all done. 

Anyway, that's all for now.  Another lame post.  I'll be back on my blogging game soon.

The Highlight of My Day

I walked into physics class today to see Ryan sitting there in his infamous purple pants. His outfit was even complete with the infamous white button-up shirt. Usually these particular articles of clothing only come out of Ryan's closet for shows. Not accustomed to seeing this attire in physics class, I ask him what the occasion is. "I am out of clothes," he confesses. "I need to do laundry."

This picture doesn't really do the outfit justice, but you get the idea. It's magical.

Ryan's a brave soul. I too have various trash rock outfits but would never wear them to physics class, not even on the most desperate of laundry days.