BrockLi Soup

I’ve been a pretty crappy friend lately. A great many things have kept me from keeping in touch with far-away friends, and fewer things have kept me from seeing local friends as much as I really should. As more time passes, I feel like I need to do more to catchup with those long-lost friends, but the extra time it would take to do it proper keeps me from doing anything.

Personal projects have suffered for the same reasons. I always seem to have something more pressing and important that needs to be done, so my projects and friends get put off a little longer, and now simple inertia keeps me moving further away from both.

I’m working on it, friends. I keep hoping that if I just keep chugging away on this endless todo list of mine, I’ll finish the things that need to be done, so I can get back to having fun.

It’s been a banner week here at the BrockLi headquarters. Got in a couple movies screenings, two concerts, and went out with friends almost every night.

On Monday, Schmitty, Fotios, Mace and I saw the screening of Hot Rod. I can’t even describe how hilarious and random it was - I loved it, but you definitely need to go in expecting Super Trooper-style humor.

Tuesday night was a screening of Superbad. Mace and I loved it, Kidder and his friend hated it. Again, you need to appreciate that kind of humor - it’s definitely a Judd Apatow flick. Michael Cera is hilarious and I’ve always loved Seth Rogen

Wednesday night was the Gogol Bordello show at 9:30, which was just as awesome as you would expect it to be. They did all the best songs from the new album and a bunch of my favorites from Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike. As always, their performance was entirely over the top. I left during a drawn-out marathon version of Baro Faro - I was too beat and dehydrated to handle any more - but apparently they did Mala Vida after that. NPR broadcast the show live, and you can listen to it on their site.

Thursday night, I finally got to use my iSight to chat with Ryan and Sarah for a bit. Fonny and Molly were in Columbia for a wedding this weekend, so we did dinner and drinks Friday night with a bunch of other folks. And last night, my roommate’s friend’s band was playing at the RnR Bar & Lounge. I hate to say it, but they weren’t very good. But, I had a good time hanging out with new people. Today, the Film Club went to see Manufactured Landscapes, which was incredibly disappointing. It was an interesting topic, but terribly presented and pretty boring.

This week should be a little quieter. Thursday night is the Swell Season show, also at 9:30, and that’s about it. Fine by me - I could use a week off.

I wasn’t going to do anything at all yesterday, because I really just needed a day off to recover. And I did get to spend most of the day just relaxing, but last night was pretty awesome.

I spent most of my afternoon doing that boring crap I’ve been putting off - opening a huge pile of mail, copying a bunch of media off the hundreds of CD-Rs I’ve had lying around for years - then I went to see Transformers, because I like doing matinees by myself now and then. It was actually pretty good, but I went into it with incredibly low expectations, so it would have been hard to disappoint me.

After that, I stopped by Olsson’s. Both Gogol Bordello and Against Me! have new albums coming out Tuesday and I wanted to special order them if Olsson’s wasn’t going to stock them (I like to buy the actual CD for bands I really like, and I’d rather get it from a local chain than Amazon). They actually had a box full of the Against Me album in back already, but wouldn’t give me one till Tuesday (obviously), so I’ve got one of each on hold.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the more time I spend hanging out in DC, the more I like it…especially if it’s with Schmitty. I seem to meet at least two or three people every time I hang out with the guy. Fotios moved back to DC yesterday, so we went to Science Club for drinks. I’ve been there a couple times before and always liked it. The place is really laid back and they have a big chalkboard by the bar where people write out equations and stuff when they’re arguing. The last time I was there was a Wednesday, so it was pretty quiet. No one checked my ID at the front gate, on the way into their patio, so I assumed that the guy standing at the door with a book and a cigarette was the bouncer. Turns out, he had just stepped out for a smoke; he spent the evening sitting at the bar, reading about philosophy. It’s that kind of place.

So we had a good time hanging out, and later learned that more people we knew were upstairs for Compton’s birthday. We got to talking with a guy and girl that work there and found out both of them had seen Against Me! and the chick had seen Gogol Bordello (this was after I’d convinced the guy to get tickets for their show next week). In the past two weeks, I’ve met a half dozen people that know one or the other - until recently, no one seemed to know who they were. Maybe I’ve just been meeting the wrong people.

I got home around 4:30 and slept till 2. In a few hours, I’m heading down to Chinatown to see Live Free or Die Hard with the Film Club. A pretty nice weekend, I’d say.

I haven’t had much time for the Internet lately, which is disappointing because I had grown so fond of it.

I’m still working a lot, but less so than a few weeks ago. In general, it’s all a lot better than it was a few weeks ago, and it looks like things will be even more better in a few more weeks. Relieving, that.

Things have felt very Once In A Lifetime lately. I’ve been in my new apartment for over a month, but it doesn’t feel like home, and I’m not convinced it ever will; it’s like I’m just staying here while I’m in between places. Work hasn’t felt like my job, but just the thing I’m doing for now, because it needed to be done and I was standing there at the time. I don’t know where I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to be doing, but it’s a very odd feeling, and a little too existential for my taste. I just know that exciting and important things are happening all around me, and I just continue trudging ahead with my boring life.

I don’t have an iPhone, and that makes me sad.

I DO have a cold, in July, which also makes me sad. I mean really, who gets a cold in July? Kids these days.

I’m pretty sure that tomorrow marks 12 weeks without a cigarette, and at some point in those three months, I became that asshole that accosts smokers to remind them it’s bad for their insides. What’s happened to me?

Oh yeah, this week was pretty great. I spent most of the Fourth sleeping; I felt like crap in the morning and slept till 3 - right through Jym and Mel’s BBQ - but I felt a hell of a lot better because of it, and made it to Schmitty’s BBQ. And this past weekend was OATS, which was, without a doubt, the best bluegrass festival I’ve been to yet. There were some folks who couldn’t make it, and they were missed sorely, but I got to hang out with some of my favorite people, and Casey and Matt came down from Boston on Saturday. It was a blast.

So I suppose I’m trudging ahead with my boring life, but every now and then it’s fifteen shades of superfly, so it works out OK.

I have about 240 screen names in my AIM buddy list. Ya know how many of those people I actually talk to on a regular basis? Probably about a dozen, and that’s counting people I talk to for work. I’ve got a “Friends” group with 30 people in it, all of whom were friends over three years ago and probably haven’t been heard from since. There’s even a “Never Talk To” group (seven people).

Obviously, I don’t need all these people hanging about, but I can’t bring myself to delete them. What if I need to get in touch with them? What if I never manage to find their contact info ever again? What if I don’t recognize a third of the screen names in the list (whoops)?

I was going to clean it out and copy any deleted names into some kind of address book, just in case, but that never happened. Remind me to do that one of these days.

And if you’re in the Never Talk To group…well, maybe YOU should get in touch with ME! How bout them apples!

• Poop jokes are still funny. From one of my recent favorites, Dethroner.com (”Where every man is king”): A Brief Guide to Public Restroom Etiquette.
• This evening I watched Kicking and Screaming, which was very much like someone predicted, ten years ahead of time, my first year after college.

  I’m nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I’ve begun reminiscing events before they even occur. I’m reminiscing this right now. I can’t go to the bar because I’ve already looked back on it in my memory… and I didn’t have a good time.

• This past weekend was Shamrockfest, and I had a full house for it: BP and JL came Thursday night, Eric, Tasia, and Fonny on Friday, and Dan came Saturday morning (in addition, of course, to Mel, Jym, and myself). The actual festival was a lot of fun, but the rest of the weekend topped even that. The thing I miss most about college is the ease with which I could pull together a dozen close friends for a weekend-long party at the drop of a hat.
• That’s about it. Now that this past weekend is behind me, I’m back to being busybusybusy, and probably will be for another month or so.

Check it out, I finally put up some pictures at work. Picture frames are pricey - $20 for a 3-picture frame - so I got some fishing line, binder clips, and 3M hooks, and made my own damn picture hangy thingy! I ordered these from Flickr a while ago, but I’m going to print some more over at Target sometime soon.

I also bought a new shower head. Staying with Sarah and Ryan gave me all sorts of ideas - I tend to get stuck in a rhythm and don’t even realize that things could use some changing-up. It’s little changes like pictures of friends that make my day a little brighter.

Ya know what? California is pretty great. And this assessment is in no way swayed by the five days that I’ve had nothing to do but hang out with Ryan and Sarah.

San Francisco was pretty neat, but not what I expected (but I honestly don’t even remember what I WAS expecting). We went and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard St, wandered around the Financial District (give or take), picked up some CDs at Rasputin, walked around Fisherman’s Wharf, and had dinner at Zushi Puzzle (which, despite their website, was a very cool place, and pretty delicious too). We spent the night at Marriott, then drove back to Campbell for the Super Bowl.

I didn’t do much on Monday, and I even felt a little guilty until I remembered, hey, I’m on vacation! Screw it! Yesterday, I ventured out into downtown Campbell and found a nice coffee shop with free wifi, and I might go back there this afternoon if I’m feeling better.

Oh, I didn’t tell you about that part? We went to Chicken University for wings last night, and I can only assume that they’re the reason I have such an upset stomach this morning. I was planning to go back up into the city for the day. Ryan was going to drop me off at the train station on his way into work, but - well, I’ll spare you the details, but I really don’t feel like walking around downtown all day. Unless things take a turn for the worse, I’ll be heading up there tomorrow instead.

So yes, vacation is lovely and relaxing and I suggest you all try it just as soon as you can. I’ve got a few more people to see while I’m here, and then a Friday-night red-eye - with a four hour layover in Atlanta (fun!) - to get back to DC. These things never seem to last long enough.

So I bought a pack of cigarettes tonight.

And I know, I’m a terrible person, but I’ve been all sorts of pissy lately and I figure it’s best for everyone if I just go back to smoking so I’m deal-with-able. I installed Call of Duty so I could kill Nazis, but that hasn’t been as therapeutic as I hoped.

But anyway, Casey and Matt are in Baltimore for the weekend, so a few of us went up to hang out with them at Matt’s sister’s place, and then we spent the afternoon today wandering around DC and protesting a little bit, and then I took a nap. It was nice.

I’m trying to get the DC chapter of the Sunday Night Film Club going. Last week, a few of us saw Curse of the Golden Flower (which was disappointing), and this week, we were going to see The Good Shepherd, but I’ve heard it’s pretty slow and boring, so I’m going to pick a different one. But I’ll keep y’all posted on SNFC dealing.

My dear friend and former roommate Sara recently posted a video of herself doing a painting in a temporary tunnel over the Quarter Mile at RIT. The Quarter Mile (which is actually about a third of a mile) went from the sundial on the dorm side to the Infinity Quad on the academic side, so I walked it almost every day until I moved out of the dorms at the end of my junior year. The temporary “tunnel” was erected late in my freshman year when they started the Gordon Field House. I don’t remember when they tore it back down, but I remember thinking that, at that point in my time at RIT, it had been there longer than it hadn’t, so it was weird to see it go.

After the thing was built, RIT had a bunch of artists paint panels in it. I have no idea how they chose the people to do it, but Sara painted Icarus in one panel (see the final product in her gallery). I walked past it almost every day for a couple years, but I didn’t realize at the time that she had done it because I barely knew her then.

Most of my fondest memories are of seemingly insignificant shit like this: walking past a bunch of paintings from people I didn’t know at the time, watching CMT’s Top 20 with BP, our weekly Iron Chef get-togethers. It’s always the little things that seem most important in retrospect.

BP and Klem are down here for the weekend, and we’ve been having a hell of a time.

BP and I have been marauding as the O’Malley twins all weekend: our mother Shannon - rest her soul, she died when we were nine - slept with two different men, Patrick and Seamus, in the same evening, thus two different sperm fertilized the same egg, thus two twins from different fathers.

Yesterday, we had dinner at the pub and met a ton of college kids in town for this solar power contest thing, then went out to Whitlow’s to meet up with a bunch of Sharon’s friends, and convinced this chick Jen that BP and I really WERE twins. After some pant-less Scrubs and pizza, we turned in around 4.

We finally got up around one today, grabbed lunch (breakfast?) at Five Guys around four, and had some more napping, Scrubs, and beer. We were going to get drinks at Fado, but a long line sent us up to Dupont Circle, where Schmitty invited us to a full-up apartment party for a bit (just long enough for me to fall halfway down the outdoor stairway in front of a bunch of people). We wound up downstairs at The Big Hunt, then had an absolutely delicious dinner at Kramerbooks & Afterword Cafe, then met some cool chicks on the Metro ride home and spent pretty much the whole night yelling “O’Malley!”

It’s been rowdy and fun and lovely, and I wish we could do it every weekend.

UPDATE: I feel it’s worth noting that while I was writing this, they both fell asleep in front of the TV. Damn college kids got nothing on me!

This past week marked the 25th birthday of the illustrious Mr. Lee, so he decided to have a weekend-long shindig down at his place near Raleigh. I almost didn’t make it - he called me Wednesday night about it, leaving me little time to make plans (bastard), but Schmitty, Aubri, Kidder and I drove down after work Friday. We met Rhubarb and Becky - and of course, Dan and Darrin - there, and had the bitchenest weekend I’ve had in…well, in two weeks (to be fair, the Meteor Shower Party was just last month, so it’s been a pretty good season already).

We didn’t get there until after 11, but we made up for it by drinking until about 5:30 in the morning. I had forgotten how incredibly ridiculous those guys can be, and I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed that much in one night. Saturday brought Raleigh-style garbage plates (so-so), some lounge-around recovery time, and then more people and beer pong around 6 in the evening.

I had been looking forward to a quiet, relaxing weekend, and almost didn’t go. I’d had a rough week at work (particularly Friday) and two eventful weekends before, so I was pretty run-down and pissy by the time we left Friday. I couldn’t have been more relaxed this morning, though - a weekend with those guys was just what I needed. Dan and Darrin are incredibly gracious hosts, and for some reason I kind of love their house (and sort of want to move there). We had an absolute blast, and no amount of relaxing at home would have been as refreshing. I don’t get that many opportunities for spur-of-the-moment weekend road trips anymore, but I’m convinced that they need to happen more often.

I don’t know about you, but I had a hell of a weekend. We closed up shop around noon on Wednesday, so I went beer-and-food shopping with Jym and Mel, who cooked an incredible feast for six of us on Thanksgiving (when I saw “who,” I mean Mel - Jym had nothing to do with it). Elsie came down Friday for a long weekend, since RIT is in between quarters right now. A bunch of us spent Saturday afternoon at Fort Hunt, wandering around and flying toy airplanes, then went out to meet some people that night. Elsie and I spent Sunday doing “the walk” (Washington Monument to WW2 Memorial to Lincoln Monument to Vietnam Wall to White House) and wandering around other parts of DC. She fell asleep when we got home - at about 8 - so nothing much happened last night.

Over the course of the weekend, we ate at a few new places and some old favorites. I really do need to get out into the city more often - I always have a good time wandering around up there and we keep finding cool new restaurants. It’s easy to say “I’ll see it later” and spend the weekend on the couch, so it’s kind of nice when someone comes to town for a bit and gives me a reason to get out there.

Also, the monuments are beautiful at night, and one of these days (when I’ve got a few hundred bucks laying about) I’m going to get a new camera and show you what I mean (looking for Christmas ideas? Get me a D50).

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve written much of anything, but let’s make this quick, shall we?

About a week and a half ago, my parents and youngest brother came to visit for a long weekend. We hit some museums, looked at some monuments, and spent a lot of time just hanging out. I was the de facto tour guide, but since I don’t know the city terribly well, we almost got lost a couple times. I took some pictures - see?

This past weekend, BP, Otto, and Freshman came down to visit. We spent most of the weekend drinking and BBQ-ing, and I’m still recovering from it all, but it was wonderful. During the BBQ (and after a number of drinks), BP and I agreed that we would get tattoos together on Monday. Turns out, I had to work and he had to drive back to New York, so that didn’t happen, but it will sooner or later.

On Sunday night, BP and I drove up to Baltimore to see Flogging Molly (the fourth time I’ve seen them, the third time with BP) at Rams Head Live. The venue was pretty good for it - medium-sized and conveniently located on the closer side of Baltimore. Zox (not bad) and Bedouin Soundclash (”horribly average,” as a guy at the bar described them) opened the show, and thankfully, neither of them did a full set like the last time. During Bedouin Soundclash’s set, Nathan Maxwell (the bassist) came out from backstage and hung out with the crowd between the bar and the pit. I wandered over to shake his hand, mostly so I can say I touched a Molly.

BP and I made our way into the pit about 15 minutes before Molly took the stage, and, being a few beers deep, spent the entire time getting the crowd around us riled up with sing-alongs, stretching exercises, and bare-knuckle fisticuffs. It was definitely the best show of the four times I’ve seen them - the crowd was fantastic, I had just the right amount to drink beforehand, and I even managed to hang onto a bottle of water in the pit (you get thirsty in there). Dave King came back out alone for the encore and did the first half of Black Friday Rule acoustic, before the rest of the band jumped in. It was OK, but definitely didn’t touch the thirteen-minute version. The openers could have been better, and we could have convinced more friends to come with us, but really, the show was so good in so many respects that I can’t complain.

It was a rowdy rowdy weekend, and totally worth the hurt Monday morning. Right now, I think I need a weekend without extra people around, but I’m already looking forward to the next big party here at Brockstone Manor.

It’s been a rowdy rowdy tiring long weekend, and I’m glad I’ve got a couple hours of down time before the next one starts.

I woke up feeling like shit on Thursday, so I stayed home and slept pretty much all day until Fonny and BP got here. I was still pretty run-down Friday and Saturday - and even now, I don’t feel like I’m totally over it - but I was good enough to go out and stuff. We had a BBQ here on Friday, for Fotios’ Going-Away and Jasmyn’s birthday, and wound up with a ton of people. I’m still not sure where a lot of them came from, but it got pretty big pretty quick.

Fotios moved out yesterday, so I moved into his room and Matt started settling in a little bit. We went and saw Beerfest again last night, then hung out at Fado for a while. BP and Schmitty wandered off on their own when the rest of us called it a night, but they managed to find their way back here early this morning. BP and Fonny headed north around noon, and Schmitty just left a little while ago.

And, in a few hours, Darrin is stopping in for the night on his way to somewhere, which is why I say I’ve only got a few hours to myself. We’ve got a revolving door here at the RIT Hostel, and a lot of times I’m not even sure who’s on their way in.