Worcester - the city of _______

Howdy folks. I've been in Worcester for about 3 weeks now, and it sure has been an interesting experience. I began my adventure with an apartment that was nowhere near ready to sustain life, so my landlord let me and my apart-mate Dan squat in another apartment that actually had electricity. The first night it was just my sleeping bag, which really sucked. After that I had a mattress on the floor. That was slightly better. I have a few pics of my little squat pad below.





I lived there for about a week, smoked a lot, read a lot (check out the unbearable lightness of being, an amazing book I finished here), threw an little party with some Marshfield friends, and all was good. Then on a Friday, the day electricity was finally available in our actual apartment, I moved in. I had tons of pictures from my cell (my digi cam is broken) of my room and the whole place, the parties I've been to since here, the volunteer work I've done, ect, but my phone got stolen. I will get to that later. I will try to take some pics of the place with my mac cam later and throw them up in case anyone is interested. The first night there we threw an epic party with Scott and friends coming up. The next night we also threw a party and witnessed some crazy shit. Me and some of my Marshfield friends were about to leave to visit another apartment when after stepping outside my place we witnessed 20-30 teens running down the street. They were yelling, throwing chairs at random cars in the road causing near accidents, and most had bats. They then turned off the main street onto my actual road, at which point we all retreated back into my room and watched from the window. What we witnessed was the two cars directly across from mine being smashed apart by bats and tires slit with knifes. These cars got FUCKED UP. It was one of the craziest things I had ever witnessed. Luckily, my car stood untouched, an innocent bystander to what was likely a gang related attack. The day after this, there was a shooting a clearly heard a street down from me, and the road was blocked off by the cops for the rest of the night.

Since that first week, I haven't witnessed anything quite as crazy as that, but things have been interesting nonetheless. I got pretty much blackout drunk at a party we threw that somehow ended in the brilliant idea of "strip beirut." I'll leave the rest of that night up to your imagination. Other than that, I've been doing volunteer work for two sects of mostly Clark student environmental group, Summer of Solutions. These are "Green Jobs", which is working to educate the Worcester public about green jobs, environmental and social justice, how this can help our economy, etc. The other is "Urban Gardening," which is really cool. I helped to turn a crappy little plot of land into a really nice looking garden, and most of the gardens we are creating and maintaining are open to the worcester public, so it's basically free organic food.

...so right now I'm sitting on a bench on the Clark campus and it's starting to rain, so I can't finish this update right now. Stay tuned for part 2, and some music!

exit 10A off the mass pike

I'm moving to Worcester for the summer today. I have very few friends here, so expect a lot of updating. I plan on chronicaling my adventures in the woo out of boredom for all you readers that don't really exist. So if interested, keep on checking this other world.

it's essential to coffee

American Analog Set are the perfect band to sit back and relax to, as well as sip some coffee, light up a j, and perhaps read a book. They fit the soundtrack for both a rainy Sunday and a fine summer night. Andrew Kenny, the main man behind this band from the glorious indie scene in Austin, Texas, now has a new band on Barsuk Records called "The Wooden Birds." From what I've heard, it sounds a lot like American Analog Set but a little folksier, and perhaps a bit more bass heavy. I really like it and I'm looking forward to grabbing their first CD when it comes out on May 12th. They are also playing TT the Bears on April 18th. If I had money I would go. For now, we have this song.

The Wooden Birds - Sugar

Back at school. I feel like it hasn't stopped snowing for a week. It's been so cold. Here's a song, a song by The National that I think was a b-side from Boxer, and is on the Virginia EP. It's a slow mostly acoustic number. It's also featured on a black cab session and is my personal favorite on the whole site, so I included a link to that video. If you don't know about black cab sessions, basically it's this really cool website where they get mostly indie artists to get in the back of a black cab in London and they get to play one song in one take in the back of the cab, and it's all video recorded. btw, Happy MLK day all.

Black Cab Session - The National

The National - You've Done It Again, Virginia

tis the season

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, crisp Kwanzaa, etc. Hope the season treated everyone well. I thankfully received a brand new, pretty decent digital camera, so I should be able to throw a lot more pictures up on this here blog. But for now, a new song! This one is from a band known as American Analog Set, hailing from the Austin, Texas indie scene (spoon, okkervil river, explosions in the sky, etc). This band defines simple, low-fi, mellow music. A great band to listen to when relaxing in a nice heated room on a cold winter day with a cup of hot chocolate. The lyrics are really simple but I like them a lot, so I've decided to post them.

And her mom's from Indiana and she
She married an Asian man and they
They brought her from Japan to be
Happily suburban and I
I met her one summer when I was
I was just visiting ten days
Her wrists were island thin but she
She smiled like her Indy kin
And she's half

She's into strictly rich and
Overworked businessmen
She don't remember when
She used to hold my hands
After the Rollerland
After she closed the stand
Now it's supply and demand
And it just comes down to the math
And she's half

American Analog Set - She's Half

off we go, or so we say

So I have officially decided that my favorite band is most definitely Modest Mouse. Anyone interested in the band should check out this really cool documentary that was shot while they were making the amazing Lonesome Crowded West. Part one of five can be found below.



And my favorite mouse song of late? check it. off "Building Nothing out of Something"

Modest Mouse - Other People's Lives

record year for rainfall

It's raining out. It has been raining for I think three straight days now. I love the warmth for this time of year, but when you wake up at 4 in the afternoon hungover, it's pitch dark, and raining once again, it gets pretty depressing. Luckily, the Decemberists have a new song that can help us share the pain of this rain. This new song on their new series of singles, "Always the Bridesmaid: A Single Series" is shaping up to be one of my favorite Decemberists songs. I saw them the other night at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston and it was an amazing show, with this song being one of the highlights. BTW, These pics were all taken when I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza this summer.





The Decemberists - Record Year