I’ve been meaning to read “Think on these things” by Krishnamurti for several years now. It’s been so long that I can’t remember the book I read that referred me to this book.

One of my ongoing life goals is to be less angry. I’ve been marinating over this passage from the book on anger for the last few days. Yes, it is ok to be angry but the key is to understand why you ended up that way.

Questioner: What is anger and why does one get angry?

Krishnamurti: If I tread on your toes, or pinch you, or take something away from you, won’t you be angry? Why should you not be angry? Why do you think anger is wrong? Because somebody has told you? So, it is very important to find out why one is angry, to see the truth of anger, and not merely say it is wrong to be angry.

Now why do you get angry? Because you don’t want to be hurt- which is the normal human demand for survival. You feel that you should not be used, crushed, destroyed or exploited by an individual, a government or society. when somebody slaps you, you feel hurt, humiliated, and you don’t like that feeling. If the person who hurts you is big and powerful so that you can’t hit back, you in turn hurt somebody else, you take it out on your brother, your sister, or your servant if you have one. So the play of anger is kept going.

First of all, it is a natural response to avoid being hurt. Why should anybody exploit you? So, in order not to be hurt, you protect yourself, you begin to develop a defense, a barrier. Inwardly you build a wall around yourself by not being open, receptive, therefore you are incapable of exploration, of expansive feeling. You say anger is very bad and you condemn it, as you condemn various other feelings; so gradually you become arid, empty, you have no strong feelings at all.

Sadly, I haven’t found any advice on how not to build a defense barrier like Fort Knox. There mush be some balance between being empty and locking yourself away.

I recently received an email request to post about Sweet Leaf Tea.  Specifically about  the winner of their Grannyism Cap-Off Contest being local Austin resident Angela Buraglia.

I know you remember the last time someone asked me to check out/promote their product.  Lucky for Sweet Leaf, I have been a fan of their teas and lemonade for a long time (not too sweet and HFCS-free.  The web-sites were pretty cool (and I needed something to distract me from Ms. Crankypants’ morning rage).  The contest was to come up with new sayings to go under the cap.  I had forgotten that they had those.  I’ve been purchasing Sweet Leaf in the plastic bottle for ease of beverage toting (BTW. Did you know that they have an area on their site  devoted to the use of Sweet Leaf as a mixer?) .

Back to Angela.  She has a whole site devoted to the Granny-isms.  I like the fact that she dug the product before the fortune.  I have the same relationship with Magic Hat beer.  The fortune is an added bonus.  My internet search showed the opposite is true for some Dove chocolate fans.  They dig the fortunes more than the chocolate (Great marketing trick.).  One blogger wished for higher end chocolate with fortunes.

Another Austin blogger  has taken the fortune thing one step further by blogging not just the fortune but about the fortunes.  . Allison Wright of Not-a-Fortune shares and muses on fortunes of all types.

It’s that time of year when M prepares to route for her Cubbies and I re-evaluate my intentions for the year.

I recently updated WordPress so I spent some time reading my posts while I backed everything up.  I realized there were a few things that didn’t end up on my to-do list.

For starters, on my birthday, I decided that I was going to focus on my art and do something dangerous.  Like take up welding or heroin.  Maybe do some experimental art… take up a strange instrument like the auto harp. Why?  I was going to make up for the fact that my friends were all getting married and having babies.

I also have to add “sell the house” to the list.  My friend is moving out and that means that I need to move back or try and get rid of it.

There is also the matter of my Clark Kent theory.  It has been eight months since I have been on a date (and M is still with 2.0).  I am seriously batting zero in the world of online dating (but the internet informed me ages ago that online dating was a lost cause in my case).

More later.

-j

We’ve mentioned previously that we loves us some trainwrecks.  Well we went to Stubb’s on Thursday and not even the amazing performance from Interpol could prevent us from catching a few.  All it takes is one thing (a sequined dress, no-pants pants, a dude rocking out on the balcony, Sasquatch parking himself in front of a short girl), then M will look at me, make the face, and I know exactly what is going on.

The show was sold out (told ya so), we got to the show just after the opening act.  There was enough time for the crew to grab beer and make a bee line for our favorite spot (I shouldn’t have to tell you were that is, you should be able to tell from the shots that M takes.).  We weren’t sure what to expect. Then the lights went up and the band came on, and all of a sudden it got really quiet.  Then it hit me, the sound guy knew what he was doing.  I didn’t need earplugs and the sound was amazing (except when the dudes behind me decided that this was karaoke).

You’d think with the greatness of these angsty sounding metro dudes M and I would behave (Mmmm, dudes in dandy clothes…). Nope.  M spotted a dude rocking out in the VIP area.  His head was bobbing double time.    Then there were a few people that decided to push through the crowd for better spots.  Then the bathroom break crowd. Then the Stubb’s security guy dancing with some chicks in VIP.  This could have gone on for a long time had M not moved up closer to shoot the show.

After the show I waited  with the Jew for M and 2.0.  A girl walks past us in some sort of short sequined tank top thing and something resembling a skirt.  I don’t know if it qualified as a skirt since it was barely there.  Maybe it was a black lace ruffle on the bottom of said tank top thingy.  I gave the Jew the look.  Sadly, I didn’t get the same response M would have given.  Oh well…

Are we evil?

Key to M's House

As some of you know, I spent about six months living in a store display.  My house was on the market and it had to look “lived in” but not cluttered or have any personal items.  In other words I was living in a house, not a home.

Living in a house void of personal items was stressful.  I keep a clean house but I am a bit like Monk.  I am OCD about my things.  I don’t like sharing and I don’t like knowing that random strangers have been in the house possibly touching my things.

After six months and two realtors (I will spare you the details of that experience),   I was homeless, both literally and figuratively.  Did I sell my house? Nope.  It has however become a home once again.  It has a family now (more details I will spare you of since I am not ready to write about that experience).

So where was I living?  For the last two months I have been living in “my” room at M’s house. Drunk housing became my home and the majority of my belongings were in storage.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out.  But I was truly grateful that I had a place to call home.

It has been years since I had a roommate.  Sure, M and I live together for a week or so during SXSW, but that is different.  That is vacation (…and we are a lot like the Odd Couple.  She’s Oscar and I am Felix).  This was full-time job/commuting Jen. Jen who deals with stupid people all day and spends much of her weeknights hermitting in her workspace.  Now it was Jen, sans workspace, living with 3 roommates.  I did get a few sanity breaks here and there.  There was house-sitting for Yenta and some cat-sitting with streaming Netflix.

After a long search and a pause to round up enough money to pay rent and a deposit, I found a new place.  It’s not quite home yet.  I am still rounding up my belongings around town and there is some decorating to be done.

After a two month stint in cohabitation, I realize that it’s not the life for me.  I like knowing that the crumbs on the counter were left by me and I am the one who left one square of toilet paper on the roll.  I think adjoining houses is as close as we will get.

M this one is for you.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros “Home” from Edward Sharpe on Vimeo.

Pixies- Austin Music Hall 9/22/10 photo by Emily Lim

M and I saw the Pixies this Wednesday.  Once again the universe proves that social media and online credit card payments make things happen.

Sometime in May, I got an email from the Pixies mailing list saying that pre-presale tickets would be available in limited amounts for mailing list subscribers.  I checked in with M and decided to go for it.  I had never seen them live, and the last time that M saw them was at ACL several years ago.  Would it be worth $50 to see them play Doolittle in its entirety?  Hell YES!  You know M and I love the Pixies and would pay to see them inches from the house (unless it involved selling a kidney).

Three days later I can still say the show was amazing (I’ve watched loudQuietloud more times than I would like to admit and I had high levels of expectations.).  Granted, there are a few things I am a little miffed about.  But, having a decent spot just left of the stage, the Pixies’ stage presence and talent outweighed the negatives.

Now for the show… They started with B-sides from Doolittle, then they played the full album.  [Little Readers, I have a confession.  There are several songs that I skip over when I play Doolittle, but hearing them live made me feel a little guilty for doing that.]  They finished out the show with the best of Surfer Rosa.   They gave it 100+% . The crowd was mesmerized and after all these years, we still know all the words to the songs.

For those of you who missed the show (or for those of you who want to relive the end of the show, I have a little clip I found on YouTube.

Now for the complaints:

1) Dear Music Hall, why can’t we bring in descent camera’s to photograph once-ish in a lifetime experiences?  M had to leave the BAC at home and shoot on my tiny camera.  Click here to see them on Flickr.

2) Dear Hipsters, why can’t you bath once and awhile.

3) Dear dudes in front of us.  M is only 3 apples high, yet you feel the need to stand in front of her, and prevent her from seeing the show.

4) Dear Chicks with giant shoulder bags, please pack a smaller bag when you are going to shows.  You are not Mary Poppins, you will not need all of that crap.

5) Dear People responsible for the redesign of the Music Hall, the sound still sucks and the overhangs prevent air circulation.

Life has been way less organized these last few months little readers. I feel bad because M and I are growing our little ticket farm and we have neglected to remind you of the following:

• Rodrigo y Gabriela: that was last week and it was sold out (Sadly no pictures, Stubbs wouldn’t let M and 2.0 take the BAC in).
• Pixies: umm, that would be in a week and it is sold out.
• Ratatat- umm, that would be in two weeks and it is sold out
• Interpol- that is in late October and it will be sold out, so move fast.

And now it’s time to get to business…

M and I are early birds once again.  But due to an odd shift in the cosmos, we did not win the lottery to purchase said early bird tickets.  The Jew and 2.0 were some how chosen instead of us.  WTF?!   How did this happen?  We told them about the lottery. I suppose we can’t complain.  We weren’t exactly rolling in dough at the time.  I suppose we should commend ourselves for selling the festival to two dudes based on previous experiences.

Now that the full line up and schedule have been completed, it is GOOGLE SPREADSHEET TIME!  You know that M and I are huge nerds when it comes to cramming as much festival goodness in as possible.

Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the show.  My plan for the weekend is to catch up on writing and sleep.

These guys rock!  The show was great, and they’re from my home town.  Woot! Woot! Go Chicago!  In addition I would like say that they are super nice, totally willing to pose with their drunk fans… (A.K.A me that night).  We had a great time, and definitely plan on trying to catch them while we’re in Chicago in August.

This was my attempt at being artistic.  I like the shot, but I won’t lie; it was just an off chance that I got it, we were busy having fun, not really taking pictures.

This is almost the same one that Jen took during SXSW this year.  We saw them at Karma Lounge on one of the last evenings.  That too was a great show.

Sometimes when you give Jen whiskey, she gets mean.

So M and I buy tickets for shows during pre-sale or within seconds of tickets going on sale.
This is Austin, venues are small, shows WILL sell out.  When we tell you to buy your tickets, you should listen.  90% of the time we are right.

M bought the tickets for the upcoming Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club show the day they went on sale. As always, we debated the need for an extra pair of tickets just in case.  We had a feeling that it would sell out fast so we decided to get them and deal with them later.

We bought our tickets for Miike Snow and the Middle East during SXSW (after we stumbled home from the Spin party).  We didn’t know if we would be available on those dates but we knew we couldn’t wait.  We ended up buying two extra tickets for Miike Snow because we knew that inevitably, one of our friends would forget to buy their ticket.

We attempted to get tickets to the Phoenix show (I gave M my credit card # so she could buy them for me while I was at the office).  Tickets went on sale at 10am.  M had the computer queued up at 9:45.  At 9:58 she attempted to hit the button to see if she could buy tickets. No luck.  The sale started at 9:56.  The show sold out in 2 minutes.

Vampire Weekend was a show we were on the fence about seeing.  Sadly we spent too much time on the fence and missed out on tickets to that show.

I received the email from the Pixies mailing list about the presale for the Doolittle tour over the weekend. I am not that excited about the show being at the Music Hall but it’s the Pixies and they rarely tour.  M and I WILL be going in September.

Fast forward to now…
Miike Snow (sold out). Great show, sadly Antone’s is not the greatest place to see a band.  The Jew got one of the spare tickets and the other one was sold on CL.

Middle East/Mumford and Sons (sold out and moved to another venue to sell out again).  La Zona Rosa was a much better venue to see this band.

Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club (sold out, they added another day and they sold out again).  M and I plan on getting their early enough to be close enough to eat their faces.  The Jew gets the spare ticket.  Sometime between now and the show one lucky person will get the last ticket.

So this year I was supposed to be enjoying men like a good meal.  Enjoy it while it lasts, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

So maybe this wasn’t the best plan for keeping things simple.

M and I are into food.  Sure we may be finished with something but we often want to know more about the meal.  What herbs and spices were used, was that a hint of carrot, etc… Sometimes we make an attempt to recreate something we had out.  Or use elements of a good meal in some other dish.

So, my last “dining” experience was awesome.  I tried to put it behind me, but two weeks later I find myself analyzing it and trying to find out why it was so good in the hopes of recreating it.  Or thinking somewhere back in my head that maybe I could go back for more.

BAD!

I need to convince myself that this place serves local/seasonal and I can’t go back and get the same thing.  The service may start to suck.  Something!