Two down ... one to go

Ya know how you have these way out there ideas sometimes of what you'd like to accomplish in life? Not the routine stuff ... graduate / marriage / children / etc ... but those rare, cool things that you always hear about other people doing and say "I want that."

I have three of those things. Well, sorry, HAD three. I'm down to one. Because yet another of those cool things has happened.

Saturday morning there was a knock on the door. Our friendly postman (and he really is a nice guy) has an express mail envelope for me to sign for. Hmmmm. I sign, it feels like a CD. And it is.

I look at the return address of NYC and realize it's the actual physical and final mastered version of "Hard Love and Free Luck" from my good friend Aaron Lee Tasjan. I've had a rough copy of the album since August ... and have been loving it muchly. I got a couple of the mastered tracks in December and was blown away. The album, pared to 10 tracks, and mastered, is amazing.

I opened up the CD and was reading the story inside Aaron wrote about how the album came to be and how he met the incredible lineup of musicians that play on the album. (SIDENOTE: I love liner notes.) I started to peruse the "Thank You" section and WHAT? I'm totally mentioned.

It was quite a pleasant surprise to be scrolling through and see "Eric and Kara" there among the list of friends and family and fellow musicians. Yep, that was one of the of the two remaining cool things I wanted to accomplish for myself ... receiving a published-liner-note-thank-you. The fact it was for Kara and I, and from someone as immensely talented as Aaron, makes it even cooler.

See, back in 2006, Kara and I did spend a lot of time following Aaron across the United States. In fact, our first date was Autumn Under Echoes at the Treehouse in Dec 2005, which featured a five song solo acoustic set from Aaron, including a great cover of Wilco's "Sunken Treasure." Wilco is Kara's favorite band ... and listening to the two of them later discuss the ins and outs of various Wilco albums and songs and writing patterns led me to have a greater appreciation of the band ... but like Mark & Kelly Nye, Jay Farrar got me in the Uncle Tupelo divorce. (SIDENOTE: In Morgantown, Aaron dedicated "Sunken Treasure" to Kara. She was floored. And, being the completist I am, I have it on DVD, and on my iPod. Cause I'm that cool.)

Also in 2006 we got to see Aaron accomplish one of his life goals, as he did a solo acoustic 10-song opening set ... before another Autumn Under Echoes show at the Treehouse. In his words, "I just did something I've always wanted to do - I opened for myself."

And in the final Treehouse appearance of Autumn Under Echoes, we saw the Greatest. Show. Ever.

In July 2006 Aaron did a solo acoustic tour ... Kara played hooky from work and we caught all five shows ... Columbus, Morgantown, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis, and had a great trip (despite the fact I was very very very sick.)

Throughout 2006, we saw Aaron in various locations with either Swigtooth, Autumn Under Echoes or Semi Precious Weapons, including Asbury Park, New Jersey, Chicago (again), St. Louis (again) ... and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh (a couple of times) ... and Youngstown.

But all that aside ... it still was pretty fucking cool to read my name there! And Aaron is so worth the trips, too (says he who was in Chicago last weekend to see Semi Precious Weapons, again!)

If nothing else, my life is exciting and adventurous. Two down, one to go!

Sweet home, Chicago

Well, that was a fun weekend.

After getting my face rocked off by Razorbliss, Semi Precious Weapons and Bullet Jones on Thursday night at Ravari Room, me and the roomie headed up to Chicago to see the tour-ending Semi Precious Weapons show at the Cobra Lounge. Outstanding ... was again in the front row, had my head used as a footrest and my big fake 'fro ripped off my head towards the end of the show ... and yes, there will be fabulous pictures of Justin, the insanity of Cole and Aaron and some damn near naked Dan photos to come.

Prior to the show, we spent the day Saturday at the Navy Pier since the weather was so crappy (cold rain, snow and the world-famous wind of Chicago that was producing massive whitecaps and waves on Lake Michigan that one could, given enough warm weather gear, probably body-board, if not outright surf). Walked through the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows ... which was AMAZING. (yep, pictures to follow. Imagine that!) Had a couple of cool drinks (with take-home souvenir glasses) at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and despite not liking the movie all that much (and having just seen the whole thing for the first time start to finish in 2007), still answered three trivia questions right.

Spent a little bit of time at the Cobra talking to Justin's mom, Cole, Dan, Krista, Sean and various other people about my new hair do (big-ass Afro wig I bought at the Navy Pier).

Spent a lot of time at the Cobra talking to Aaron Lee Tasjan ... both before and after his blistering guitar work that had the guys in the opening bands wow'ed. Then again, most are wow'ed seeing Aaron play.

[SIDENOTE: I urge everyone in the greater metropolitan Columbus area to come get wow'ed as Aaron plays the Rhumba Room on April 23 ... backed by the genius that is Two Cow Garage ... and bring some cash money to purchase Aaron's debut (as far as you know) solo album "Hard Love and Free Luck" ... which I'll be reviewing here later this week.

And then come see Two Cow Garage blow the bark off Andyman's Treehouse on April 25 ... but bring your earplugs. END SIDENOTE]

And finally closed out the weekend stopping off in Indianapolis for a bit ... saw Monument Circle, stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe, Circle Center Mall (four floors of shopping goodness) and got home at 9:15 p.m. - exactly 36 hours after we left.

Oh, and we saw a midget, too.

*Sigh* ... I hate missing someone

Man ... I've been in a bizarre music mood lately ... lots of Kinks, lots of David Ford. That's about it. Have a couple of new Fish (that's F, not PH, thank you) cd's to listen to ... just haven't found the time.

The other day I heard this great Kinks tune and it made me look back and smile ... remembering someone special I let get away. *Sigh*

No More Looking Back
~ Ray Davies

Walking along a crowded street
I see thousands of faces before me.
Then I see a face that I used to know
Long ago in my life story.
It starts me thinking about the things you said
For your image is still inside me.
The past is gone but in my head
You're still walking along beside me.
Is it something playing tricks with my eyes
Or just an illusion deceiving me,
Or is it someone in a disguise
Or visions of things that used to be?

But lately I've been going to
All the places that we once knew,
And just when I think that I am free of you
I keep seeing the things that remind me of you,
And just when I think you're out of my head
I hear a song that you sang or see a book that you read.
Then you're in every bar, you're in every cafe,
You're driving every car, I see you everyday,
But you're not really there 'cos you belong to yesterday.

No more looking back,
No more living in the past,
Yesterday's gone and that's a fact,
Now there's no more looking back.
Got to be hard,
Yeah, look straight ahead.
That s the only way it's going to be,
Yesterday's gone and that's a fact,
Now there's no more looking back,
Perhaps someday I'll stop needing you,
Then maybe one day I'll be free of you.

But lately I've been going to
All the places that remind me of you.
And just when I think you're out of my head
I hear a record you played or see a book that you read.
Then you're in every bar, you're in every cafe,
You're driving every car, I see you everyday
But you're not really there 'cos you belong to yesterday.

No more looking back,
No more living in the past.
Yesterday's gone, that's a fact,
Now there's no more looking back.
No more looking back.
No more living in the past.
Yesterday's gone, that's a fact.
Now there's no more looking back.

I miss my Jersey Girl.

Counting Crows news album ROCKS

Fuck me sideways.

Buy that shit.

It's good.

"Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" is the title. So far ... my 2008 album of the year.

For reals.

I'm in love. For reals.

My friend Lia once said to me, "You fall in love fast."

I laughed.

Because she was right.

And she often makes me laugh. We creative people have that quick wit and way with words though.

When I finally got word I got the job and was moving back to Columbus, I sent her an email that said "Hey, after I get back to Columbus, you wanna fall in love and stuff ... or maybe just grab a beer?"

She reply was something like, "You fall in love too fast. I fall in love slowly. But the beer sounds good."

I laughed. Because it was the answer I expected.

Well ... it appears once again she's right.

I'm in love.

Solidly. In. Love.

And yes, it was was fast.

In fact, I was taken from the very first moment.

The first time we touched was magic.

I knew.

I just knew.

I couldn't resist.

Everything I ever wanted ... and a few things I never realized I wanted.

In fact, I can't ever imagine being apart.

We're talking damn-near-every-waking-moment-together-kind-of-love.

Yeah, it's that good.

Yeah, it's sudden.

But it's solid.

Here's a picture of my new love.

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Nice,eh?

New Job Update

Things I like about my new job (other than the fact it's in Columbus):

• Working in a building with 1,000+ people. It's nice to see new faces on a daily basis.
• Not having a laptop. Because it means no after hours work, no on-call, no remote support. Yay me, having a life again. When 5:00 rolls around I head home and leave work at work.
• Having a defined, detailed job description (gotta love government lists and regulations) that has the famous last line of "Other Duties as assigned."
• Parking in the furthest lot away from the building because I'm new and parking is based on position and seniority. The upswing ... at least I'm getting my exercise!

Things I need to adjust to:

• Working in a building with 1,000+ people. I worked in a building that initially had 25 people, when I left there were 20, because, YMDC people reading this - "Less is better." Prior to this position, I worked in a building that had 15. It's been over 3 years since I've had to deal with seeing people I don't know by name.
• Working in a building with multiple bathrooms ... and multi-person bathrooms. That's quite different, too.
• Not having free coffee at work. This sucks.

Things I don't like about my new job:

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