No Labor

Let's see, Thursday night Mary Beth and I went to see The Clean at the Hi-Tone. It was a good show. Haven't really listened to them much save for a song here and there and a lot of that New Zealand pop stuff kinda blends into the same pretty good to listen to but doesn't really make me seek it out category. But I did enjoy them live. I especially liked their jammier stuff. Friday night we went to see Wattstax at the Shell. I thought it was really awesome. After that we went to Murphy's for Strengths' cd release show. The opening act was awful. You could tell it was probably their first real show. The place was packed with people obviously there from out in Cordova or whatever to see their friends in a "punk" band, slumming it up in midtown. Judgement proved corred 'cuz all the suburban-looking folks disappeared after their set. I counted four video cameras (three right in front of the stage, all next to each other, I mean, Murphy's IS pretty tiny...two of these are on tripods and one guy has a mount on his shoulders; the fourth guy also has a camera mounted to his shoulders and was going around the venu capturing different angles) and Mary Beth said she counted five. Even nonwithstanding the cameras, they exhuded the disproportionate self-importance of a new band in their demeanor and posturing. Musically they sounded like pretty bland 90s pop with a little dose of not-having-gotten-over-Nirvana. Anyway, Strengths were next. They were very good. Vanishing Islands were last. They were good, but they're awful at dragging the whole thing out. The show should've been over an hour earlier than it was. They take a long time to set up and they even joke about this on stage. Fine, but while setting up they don't seem to be in any particular hurry. I'm sure a lot of it is their comprehensive lighting rig (not that important, guys!). They kind've meander between songs, talking and joking but it mostly feels like they're just killing time. And finally the encores at 2 am. Did some cleaning on Saturday. The apartment really needed it after all the moving of stuff around. So in a way I was happy to get to scrubbing certain parts of those floors. Jacques came over and we finished the album art. We designed the cd label. We looked again at the back cover 'cuz Jacques was sure it needed to be adjusted but then he was back to being fine after looking at it again. He gave me a lead to a position opening up at his workplace. I had him look at my resume so I've got some tips to get to reworking it. Oh, we also listened to my updated version of "Battle Chant." He thought the keyboard was now too loud so I redid it somewhere in between and we both think this sounds good. So NOW the record is finally done...? Hopefully something can happen with that shit soon. Friends of Jacques seem to be saying nice things about it online, Brad too. Yesterday Mary Beth and I finally saw Best Worst Movie and it was pretty entertaining. Now it's a holiday that in no way applies to me. Hopefully that'll change soon?