Flooding

I'm leaving in just a few to go to a brief, mostly informal interview with Kathy Sprague, a local business owner, entrepreneur, and equal rights activist who is also a board member of the aforementioned Inland Oasis group. We're going to discuss the idea of me writing a regular column for the regional newsletter Diversity. Fingers crossed that I can get some work! 

Earlier today I updated my portfolio (sparse as it is) to include physical samples as well as photocopies of the stuff from the UI Blot Magazine, and an open letter to the President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Team; the first in a series that they've been asking for on http://change.gov since early November. You can read the letter I sent in its original, unpolished form on my Myspace blog over here or if that link isn't working for you, with enough requests I might just post it on this blog as a separate entry.

I made a mix for a co-worker at her request, but I'm all out of blank CDs. It's on the list of things to get while I run errands to Safeway and Office Depot. Here's the (tentative) track listing:

Mix for Ava

"Dancing With Myself [cover]" - Nouvelle Vague

"Nature of the Experiment" - Tokyo Police Club

"Pants" - Lemuria

"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" - She & Him

"See and Be Scene" - The Hard Lessons

"Ready, Steady, Go" - The Meices

"Plea from a House Cat Named Virtue" - The Weakerthans

"Breaking Down Walls" - The Black Fortys

"The First Single" - The Format

"Smoke Detector" - Rilo Kiley

"You're Supposed to Be My Friend" - 1990s

"I Fought The Law [cover]" - The Dead Kennedys

"Zombie Party" - Be Your Own Pet

"The Gap (between the rich and the poor)" - You Say Party! We Say Die!

"Lions and Lambs" - The Get Up Kids

"Knights" - Minus the Bear

"Body" - The Servant

"Wolf Like Me" - TV on the Radio

"Time to Pretend" - MGMT

"Well Thought Out Twinkles" - Silversun Pickups

"Jane Says [live/steel drums version]" - Jane's Addiction

I highly encourage all of you out there to legally download these songs and give them a listen to. I tried to have something for everyone on here. The version of "Jane Says" is a personal favorite because of the addition of the steel drum and I mean, come on, when has Perry ever sounded so good on a live recording? This is from way back when around the time of the first years of Lollapalooza so the poor guy doesn't sound so strained when he's belting the chorus. You also get a good idea of the size of the venue thanks to the natural sound, the echo of his voice, and the crowd's noises.

The news says that up where my folks live is going to be experiencing some flooding today and tomorrow. I need to call my mom to see if they're all doing okay. Today wouldn't be a terrible time for them to come down here seeing as I have today and tomorrow off and, you know, there are no floods. House guests a-go-go!

"Charge me your day rate,

and I'll turn you out in kind.

When the moon is round and full,

gonna teach you tricks that'll blow your mongrel mind."