My last post came at a particulary bad time. I have since started feeling a little better about myself although, my overall mood would be considered slightly depressed. This is strange for me because winter has always been my favorite season and I do not usually get sad when it rolls around. But for some reason this year is different.

This past week can be summed up simply as confusing. There have been some monumental lows (which I am going to decline to talk about) and some amazing news, all within the span of the last five or so days. I am going in to meet with the Grad tomorrow to talk to them about the upcoming Rock It! and the possibility of starting to do that twice a month. Which is essentially as often as I would ever want to do that event, I don't think that Davis can support a weekly event at this point in time, maybe if Rock It! builds up to a really solid, concrete level we could think about it, but right now twice a month is all I could ask for. I am also going in to talk to the Grad about possibly spinning a set on some of their other nights, we I was asked about this, I was completely blown away. I don't really consider myself a DJ at this point, I just think I have a good idea of what people want to hear and when. And it is a big leap for me to go from DJ-ing the fairly modest indie rock dance night that I also promote, to doing a set at one of the Grad's 18+ dance nights which regularly attract 300-500 people over the course of the night.
We will see how thursday goes.

life is not particulary awesome right now

This playlist began as something that I could listen to before I went to sleep at night, but now has evolved into a sort of all-purpose playlist for winter. I have been listening to music a lot more than usual lately because my room is extremely cold and therefore I am usually huddled in blankets for a good portion of time before I get up/fall asleep.

Current Playlist:

Cat Power - He War (She's playing in Feb. and I kind of want to go, although I usually don't like mellow live shows, the reason why I did not go see John Vanderslice when he played in SF recently, which I sorta regret, partly because he seems like such a cool guy that I want to support him any way I can)

Cat Power - Free (These two Cat Power tracks are off You Are Free, and are probably the tracks that I like best, off of the album that I am most familiar with of hers)

She Wants Revenge - These Things (I kinda don't know why this track is on here, except that I have been listening to a lot of She Wants Revenge lately and so a track made it on here almost by default)

AFI - Morningstar (Some would call this a guilty pleasure, but I don't believe in them, you should never feel guilty about anything that you like)

Gorillaz - Dare (I first heard this song in a pizza place maybe two weeks ago, and since then I have come to think it should have been the first single off the new album over "Feel Good Inc."

Garrett Pierce - Left Side of Space (I can't believe that this is the same guy that I subletted my room to two years ago, Garrett is so talented)

Calla - Swagger (This and the other Calla song are damn good, but are only in this playlist as substitutes for "The Strangler")

Of Montreal - The Party's Crashing Us (I dare you to listen to this song and not feel good)

Lil' Wayne - Shooter (I found this song on a music blog the other day, and it is amazing, the sample is one of the most soulful things I have heard in a long time)

Death Cab For Cutie - Crooked Teeth (I am not even that big a Death Cab fan, but I really like the fact that their major label debut is as good as anything they produced on Barsuk)

Calla - It Dawned on Me (Calla's new album is my current addiction, although I only listen to it at work, if I could find a way to make one of their songs work at Rock It! I would be so happy, but Calla is not the kind of band that anyone would really want to dance to. However, they are excellent for lying in bed on cold mornings)

Smashing Pumpkins - Eye (Kai, this song is also to your credit, I think it sounds very uncharacteristic for the Smashing Pumpkins and that is probably one of the reasons why I like it so much)

Matt Bauer - Window Hill (Kai, I owe you for turning me onto this song, it is silly that I had never listened to this, especially since he plays in Davis so frequently, but now I know, and now I love)

The Stills - Still in Love Song (This is currently my favorite song to dance to, it is not a new song, but my love of it is fairly recent, and while I think it is a great song to dance to, I think it is like the Arcade Fire, or the Walkmen in the sense that they are not dance bands, but certain tracks have so much raw emotion that they become danceable)

Laymen Terms - Verity (I found this CD in Amoeba's bargain bin, every time I go record shopping I make myself buy one CD that I know absolutely nothing about. I buy it solely based on the album art, band name, and other superficial factors, most of the time I get burned and end up with a CD that sounds nothing like what I expected, but this CD is actually quite good and the album art is made entirely up of these really cool looking woodcuts. At least I think they are woodcuts.)

This past weekend was jam-packed with activities, and now it is Friday night again, and I am planning on sitting in my room and watching The Great Escape, because quite frankly Steve McQueen is the shit. However much I want to go out and go to parties/socialize sometimes it is nice to just have some time to myself.

The Rundown:
Friday Night - Jesse, Kat, and I went to see the Devil Makes Three at GAMH, this was a very good night for several reasons. First, because Jesse did not flake at the last minute. Second, because I love the DM3 and no matter how jaded I get about other live shows they will always entertain me and make me feel good. Third, I got to see a bunch of people that I have not seen for quite awhile, Dan S., Luke, Davey, Siobahn all showed up at the show. This was pretty rad, I love all those kids and wish that I could see them more, we talked a little bit about them all coming to Davis, but that likliehood is very low. Kai came back up to Davis with us and spent the remainder of the weekend with me.

Saturday - Kai and I went and had breakfast at Delta, and then she took my car to Sac as I went to work. we met up after work to go to Jesse's house because he was having a few friends over. There were some people there that I don't get to hang out with much, and so hanging out with them was very nice.

Sunday - Kai and I went to Little Prague for breakfast, which was a nice change from Delta. I spent most of the day in a stressed out frenzy and I am amazed that Kai, Jesse and Kat were able to put up with me. Both times I have DJ-ed thus far I have gotten really stressed and irratable before the actual event. The night itself turned out great, I started DJ-ing a little before 10 and although people didn't really start dancing till around 1030 by 1130 there was a solid crowd on the dancefloor. I felt that my DJ-ing was a lot better, my transitions were smoother, and I didn't really ever feel frantic. As usual the silly requests started to annoy me a bit, but that is just something that I am going to have to get used to. The aftermath of the night was that overall about 25 more people showed up, which made for not an excellent turnout, but a very good one. The other thing that I am going to have to get used to is who shows up and who doesn't. People who are supposedly really good friends of mine have never come to one of my nights, while people I only know casually have made time in their schedules to show support. The people who show up I really respect, it is all too easy to make excuses not to come out, and showing up after telling someone that you will is harder than it seems.

It looks like Jan. 8th will be the next night, which will be awesome, because it is on a sunday night (which I prefer) and it is early in the quarter, so school should not matter that much. I really want this one to just explode, it would be great to totally stun the Grad with an amazing night.

Alright, Steve McQueen time for you to take on those Nazis