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26/06/02- Welcome...
Old School Flyer, circa 1997
  
26/06/02(1030pm)-first off, id like to wish andrew and sarah happy 20th birthdays! born on the same day. what are the odds? oh wait, they're twins :-P anyways, short of that, not much has been going on. in fact the last week or so since ive updated, highlights have included going to dennys on saturday night, doing nothing the last 3 nights, and a surprise birthday party at lisas for andrew and sarah. lisa's gonna be in montreal the same time we are so that's gonna be cool. andrew's not sure he can go up so its now up to jon, otherwise it'd be me and seth visiting kristin and dave. anywho. maybe if i think ive done something else worthwhile, ill mention it later, but i cant remember doing anything else worthwhile in the last week. i went over to andrews one night, went to jons for wings another, i think that was about it? oh yeah, and in running some calculations, sbm is paying me about 600+$ less over the course of the summer than first federal. that cheeses me big time cause its definitely affecting whats going on with my spending. boo...
believe it or not, this forum is not only my journal but a forum of political/social/economical thoughts as well. and once in a while when i feel inspired, ill say something. here we go:
its interesting. the other day, i posted a message on a friends website with a link that another friend had on his website. the subject of the website link was humourous, albeit stereotypical of a certain culture. the first responder to my message said that he did not find the site humourous, but rather blamed the stereotyping for creating barriers. which begs me to ask the question: are stereotypes in the form of humour truly detrimental to the advancement of multiculturalism or does sensitivity to humourous stereotypes permeate a natural segregation between culture?
i believe the answer to the question is yes. as for the advancement of multiculturalism, one must be willing to accept stereotypical humour. and i do believe there is a different intent in stereotyping humour than in other aspects of life. for instance, one can read the comics and find atleast one stereotype daily. yet the comic would remain funny and probably be taken in good stride. people freely make jokes about jewish culture- using yiddish phrases, or jabs about kashrut or wearing of yarmulkes. the goal is to recognise the enviroment and atmosphere in which those quips are made. those same quips in one context could be humourous to all partaking in it. the problem is then acknowledging the appropriate sensitivity require in the situation.
my belief is that "uber-sensitivity" can lead to larger problems for the advancement of multiculturalism in the long term. in recent times, we can use bernie mac or damon wayans' stand-up comedy as well as sitcoms as a measure of racial integration in the u.s. thirty, even twenty years ago, the thought of black men on tv would have been unheard of, let alone black men with middle class families. the stand-up comedy portrayed in their respective sitcoms is reflective of stereo-typical african-american lives. we can even go back to earlier tv years when archie bunker was slinging insults on "all in the family." and yet from those times until now, humour has been one of the biggest boons to the advancement and acceptance of minorities. the popularity of a comic like chris rock was not born from his (pardon the pun) off-colour remarks about black people; it was born off of his insight into the humour of the situations.
while i recognise the opinion my friend's friend had about the website, i however disagree that websites like that are what oppress minorities. i believe quite the opposite: this "uber-sensitivity" is more detrimental to the problem of cultural integration. why is this so? in trying to remove stereotypes, it eliminates cultural identity. are not those stereotypes that give us cultural identity? for example, if not for the stereotypes of jews wearing yarmulkes as beanies, my integrated identity would have no meaning or bearing on other identities. in assimilated society, i am who i am because of those stereotypes. when combined with what i said above, the humour takes another interpretation. it is why comedians as jerry seinfeld or jackie mason remain funny to both jews and non-jews.
the collective deterrence of complete destruction of stereotypes- the calling for political correctness- makes it frustrating to others who are afraid of saying the wrong thing, making the wrong joke, acting the wrong way. one gets deterred from saying anything at all for fear of unintentionally offending instead of being humourous. "uber-sensitivity" is what perpetuates the continuous "outsider" feeling- in an inverse way, it's almost counterproductive towards not being an "outsider."
18/06/02(530pm)-wow, long time no update. you know, when you're busy, you're busy. and somehow ive been busy and bored at the same time. so im gonna do a quick rundown of stuff in the last 2 weeks before i forget (like i did last summer during july-august). two thursdays ago (june 6), dad's friend from northwestern, norm, came in for a family bar mitzvah of his, so we went to the train station in new haven, picked him up, and went to pepes pizza. good as always. norm doesnt like clams, but we were able to get him to have a few slices of the clam pizza. then onto libby's, but the cute girl that was there the last couple times i was there wasnt working that night.
the next friday was another fun day at work and i went to dinner at tgifridays like 5 min after i got home (no sense in eating more leftovers). so it was me, jon, eric, waffle, nicole, sarah, and mike. hanging around jon's friends is kinda cool cause its nice to be able to have other people to hang out here in ct with (considering how much id rather be back in the city- at this point, any major city would suffice). so after dinner, we went to starbucks and then to nicole's house to watch return of the jedi. called it a short night since saturday morning was more work.
saturday morning capped off a perfect week of balancing. no over/shortages. right after that, i picked up dad and we went to elise's piano recital. was okay and even the little kids played really well. and elise did a good job, but as an older student, she was near the end. got stuck accompanying mom and dad to the jewelers to find out that i could take elise home after i wasted an hour and a half with them. got home to a message on my machine from sarah d that there was gonna be people over at kadee's that evening. so i to dinner with the rents at benningans and then went to kadees for a short while in the evening and that was it.
sunday, i mowed the lawn in the early afternoon and then went up to jon's apartment in storrs. its not a bad place, although the lawn needed to be mowed their too (dont look at me). jon was having people over to have a bbq and it was pretty cool cause we were playing guitars a lot and eric was playing his drumset in the backyard so we were all jamming. the only thing was that most of them only knew mostly Praise songs and im obviously not into that at all, so i kinda felt out of place, but short of that, they seemed like a pretty cool bunch (ive been slowly meeting more of jons friends from school and seeing them more and more often). so i hung around there til around midnight and then it was back home for bed.
monday (june 10- moving along quickly) was work and i was over quite a bit and im still hoping proof finds where my mistake was cause i was/am not happy about it. came home in the evening and watched the hockey game. called andrew up, talked to him during the game. that was about it i guess.
tuesday, went to the doctors in the early am, then to work (what else is new). got audited for the monday overage, but they found that i was 9$ less over than i was on monday. so im still not happy though. nothing else doing during the day- just that i got the tragically hip's new album, in violet light. its pretty good. sounds like rolling stones meets REM, meets canada. tragically hip are one of canada's biggest bands. up there in status with the guess who and rush. but not as popular in the us. ironically, rane opened for the hip when the hip played at the webster theatre back in 99. i dont think rane had a clue as to how big the hip are up there.
wednesday was relatively do nothing i think? other than work. but thursday was the last game of the stanley cup finals. i picked detroit in 5. it was detroit in 5. so i won a lunch and milkshake off my dad for detroit winning the last two games. i'da rather the habs, avs, or canucks, but i suppose i had to root for the team, not from hartford, not the ones that beat the habs, and that was detroit. so. detroit won, i won, everyones happy. so the gang came over to show me the scrapbook they made for mr. cloutman's retirement. looked pretty impressive and i signed my note in it, thats that.
friday, more work. went to see bourne identity with jon, scott, paul, sarah d, and ryan. pretty entertaining movie. the plot was relatively simple- cia tries to take out failed amnesiac assassin in europe. no brainer movie whatsoever, but highly entertaining. i give 3 1/2 out of 5.
saturday, i worked in the morning, got out and did whatever i did (who knows). had to take elise to some friend's house for a study group (hah!), then picked her up, dropped off her friends, and picked up margaret on the way back. basically we watched billy madison and the waterboy on USA, had some randy's pizza (take-out), and i dropped her off. it was cool to hang out with her cause she's going to taiwan for 6 weeks next week, and i havent gotten to talk to her much this summer yet. so...
sunday (june 18) was nothing big in the morning but justin novick (rane's graphic artist)'s graduation was in the afternoon. went to that and rane was supposed to play, but they ended up not because everyone was at the trey anastasio concert the night before and still kinda a mess, not to mention it was raining on and off. but it was cool to hang with the rest of my rane buds. that was it for most of the day. we played a lot of bocce ball and nate and meg kept winning a lot.
yesterday, i went to work, balanced perfect (as today as well). i had the car, so i went to best buy at lunch. bought the cd of this swedish punk band ive seen some buzz about, the hives. their album, veni vidi vicious is pretty good, going back to old school, clash/sex pistols-like punk, not the pop punk of greenday/blink182. i kinda like. im sure if they get a little bigger, their other big swedish counterpart, millencolin, will get some attention. millencolin's done fairly decent in canada. but the hives were on conan the other night and ive found that conan tends to showcase some buzzworthy artists before they're big. ie, the strokes, john mayer, the hives, etc. in the evening, i went over to hathaway's house to see him since he's going back to the naval academy on tues. was cool, i met two of his academy friends, scott, amy, sarah morris, and dan mccann. we played some volleyball for a while, then went to blockbuster and rented that movie, "evolution." entertaining for a 90's cheesy b sci-fi flick.
and that brings us to today, another fun day at work and here i am. not much else is doing for now and i dunno if im gonna have any plans this evening (wish i did, but also wish i had more money). and so the other pieces of news... creed's coming, but their tix are expensive. im gonna just wait til they go up to do a canadian leg of their tour and get better ticket prices. ... speaking of canada, seth and i are in high level discussions of going to montreal july 11-15(-16) to catch some of the comedy festival. im hoping andrew can come along with us cause it would be cool to show him around my place, just chill in the city, and everything and during the year its tough to get up there for people, but right now, i dont think he's sure yet if he can go. if not that weekend, then july 25-29(-30). ... there was one more thing i had to mention but i just forgot. as always, if i remember, ill put it up there, but im feeling the impending need to just stop now. and also, addison groove project's playing at le swimming august 1. i have to get on tom's case (that wasnt what i forgot). more later...
fooled you. i remembered now. the new coldplay song, "in my place," is now online in realplayer format. visit the audio/video section of www.coldplay.com or the direct link to the file is http://mcms-delivery.virtuebroadcasting.com/deliverMedia.asp?id=4A73C2A4-BFFC-4A68-AA5E-E1AD034CC4A9 . coldplay is one of my favourite bands and this is definitely a pretty kickass song.
08/06/02(730pm)-been mad busy the past few days. first, work. technical snafu on the computer here meant i couldnt get online since tuesday. pepes on thursday, fridays on friday, piano recital today, jons party tomorrow. this month seems so busy for some reason. i wish i had a calendar here. detroit in 5.
03/06/02(8pm)-From the Journal Inquirer, 3 June 2002, p. 28:
Concert Review:
Rane a crowd-pleaser in midst of storm warnings
By Jen Chapman
MANCHESTER- Dedicated fans of local band Rane traveled through severe weather on Friday, May 31, to hear the performance at Cheney Hall. And once Rane took the stage, its fans were not disappointed.
The band members' instrumental work is phenomenal, and is on par with or better than many national acts. The show opened with a spacey kind of jam that transitioned into "The Gauge." Almost immediately, fans who had come to dance were out of their seats and in motion at the front of the stage.
They were rewarded with not only their well-known favorites, but with the premier performance of the song "Bubbles," the band's latest creation.
Rane has a musical style all its own, though it has been likened to that of Phish, the Allman Brothers, and the Dave Matthews Band.
However you classify its style, Rane has amassed a loyal New England following. The band's second release, "Camelopardalis" (2000), broke into the top 50 in album sales in the Hartford area. The album followed "At War With the Moon" which was released in 1998- when the members were still in high school and called the band "Truth."
For more information on the band, visit its Web site at: www.ranetides.com
(p.s. the nice new user-friendly web address can be reached at thesoundofrane.com. you can still use ranetides.com, its just an easier way.
02/06/02(11pm)-ive been working on this update 3 times today. hopefully this time's a charm.
last time i really sat down to do an update was last sunday afternoon and at the time, things over here were okay. but overnight, things in tucson started to go wrong for my grandmother, and unfortunately, she passed away in the morning. i know despite the fact that my dad was keeping a rather straight face about it the whole time, it was tough for him. and i cant remember what happened in the evening, but the next day, i still ended up going to work. that was also when the family started to come in for the funeral. between still going to work and everything that was going on in the house with funeral arrangements, it was still stressing nonetheless all week for me. but tuesday night, my uncle kc and aunt karin came in from phoenix and ate dinner over here. while everyone was still grieving, the mood was somewhat lighter, but im not sure if that was because everyone was moreso in planning mode. its good to see family again, but not always under the circumstances we're given. so i gave uncle kc a couple rane cds and ended up also making a copy of the new wilco cd later on. later in the evening after dinner, i went to the airport and we picked up my grand-uncle frank from san francisco, so he stayed over here and we talked a bit in the evening. my cousin adam is ceo of an internet site, alternacast.com that does radio programming. so i might talk to him about getting a weekly show that broadcasts live rane bootlegs. ill call it "ranestorm with the smalrus" sundays at 8. :-P
wednesday, went to work and got picked up by my dad and my aunt betsy and grandpa. uncle kc and aunt karin came over and so all of us had dinner. i hadnt seen my grandfather since last august just before i went to school, which was also the last time i saw my grandmother. we were both getting ready to move and so they were giving me some stuff to use for the new apartment like pots, silverware, etc... dinner together was nice, although i could definitely tell things were hard on my grandfather.
thursday morning was the funeral at the cemetery in meriden. grandma and grandpa were originally from meriden, my dad was from meriden, and thats where my grandmother was to be buried. being there was weird because even though it was seven years since bubbie died, it felt like yesterday. so people started to show up, many of whom were friends, acquaintances and family of grandma's that i didnt even know. and some people my dad knew, and andrew, sarah, jon, and scott. the service was rather nice, and although we didnt know the rabbi, she gave a real nice eulogy for my grandmother. it was definitely emotional for all of us and it was short but traditional, the way my grandmother would have wanted it. when it was over, elise and i left right away for big y to get the deli platters. we ended up over-ordering and now are still stuck with extra cold cuts out the wazoo. anyone who wants to come over for a pastrami or turkey sandwich on rye is more than welcome.
everybody came back to the house after the funeral and my grandfather didnt want to do a whole week of sitting shiva, but it was nice having people over and my friends particularly. a lot of people came over, but i didnt know most of them so i just hung downstairs with my friends. we were chatting about grover and how he pecks at your hand, and so i said there was a time when he actually liked me. so i pulled out the album and showed the picture. from there i just started showing all the pictures. its kinda one of those things thats like, you normally wouldnt do with your friends, but just having them around was good, between the whole week going as it did and not really knowing many people there. so they left around 5, i went for a walk with my cousin adam and his fiancée laura and people started showing up again around 7. sarah d came as well straight from work, so it was nice to see her. after a long day, people started leaving again and we were able to get to bed.
friday was practically the start of my weekend just because it was trying to get destressed a little. went to work, did straight transactions all morning. around lunch, we took the teller test and i really cant forsee myself having gotten any of the 29 questions wrong. we got out early, but i had to wait for mom to pick me up, so i just got the usa today and did the crossword. came home and hung around. played a little guitar i think and dad came home with grandpa. around 7, hit a big lightning storm, but the weather channel said the watch was only til 8pm. we ended up losing power around 745 while we were eating dinner, but sure as shit, the lightning stopped around 8. wasnt sure if the rane concert was still gonna be on, but i called cheney hall and it was. so i said goodbye to grandpa and randy (who stopped by), and took off for the concert around 820. everyone (andrew and sarah, sarah and erin, emily and dave, and margaret) was waiting for me since andrew and sarah needed my will call tickets. so we got in and gruvis malt was playing for them. theyve played with rane before, but i think i remember their sound being a little funkier instead. found julian and the rest of my rane peeps and so it was pretty cool, although having chairs there was kinda stupid. but on the other hand, it looked like they got about 2/3 of the chairs filled by the time rane came on.
rane came on around 930 and played til 11-1130ish and if you see below, there was the setlist. julian and i were up at the stage for most of the show, so unfortunately, i wasnt hanging around with all my friends. it kinda sucks that i could never get my friends as into rane as i am, but atleast they came out to the show, which was good enough for me, because i didnt even expect as many people to come. usually, its just me or me and julian. so im not sure what everybody thought or anything, but i hope they had a good time. but its different for me. when im at a rane show, its like thats my thing and i think a lot of it has to do with me knowing the guys, but also because they're the reason why i want to do careerwise what i want to do. and 10 years down the line, if they're looking for a legal consultant, i would definitely love to work for them. theres still time for that though since i have yet to finish undergrad. but i love when people come with me to the shows, even if im up front and they're not because it gets me into it more and it just makes for a more fun concert. my mom said before the show that i should just split a shirt- one half have the canadiens and the other half rane. and shes right. if theres two main interests i have in my life, its both of those and when you get that into something, you want to get the people who are your friends as excited as yourself.
the show was really good. twitchell apparently was the one that knocked bowmans amp out in the beginning of goomba, so that was that, but wade did a great job with the lights and dres was great inbetween the sets. they premiered a song, "bubbles," that was extremely good, and although it was slow, it was still uptempo and the jam was excellent. i was gonna write down the lyrics, but they finished most of the verses by the time i thought of it. all i got was something like "all this confusion, all of the time, always feels heavy on my mind." afterwards, i was told by novick that it was heavily steely dan influenced and the lyrics were written by greg coster (their second lead guitarist back in the first year or so when they had 2 lead guitarists). was good to talk to the guys, although they didnt have a party after at the space. but i got my cds back and they included the lupo's and 7 barrel shows.
i made an observation in the car on the way home listening to 7 barrel that i never consciously made before: when rane plays big shows nowadays (ie, cheney, iron horse, paradise, etc...) they're a lot tighter. they dont do as many multi-song jams. ie, when they had that october penuches show where they had a 5 song jam. in the larger shows, they play more to whats on the album, but when they play smaller shows, they're a lot looser, they extend their jams longer, they're more experimental, etc... sometimes i wish i could bring my friends to the smaller shows to show them what rane is like when they're just having fun with it all.
saturday, i slept late, then napped, and then we went to framingham for my cousin seths graduation party. it was okay. i didnt really know anybody so in that respect it was kinda boring, but sometimes thats the way things go. today, we worked on opening up the pool, but the water was definitely looking murky. that was about it.
right now im pissed at sbm. i got my first paycheque yesterday. significantly less than a week at first federal. so im looking at pros and cons to working at sbm. pros: still have nights and most of weekends, still looks good on resume. cons: lesser wage, unpaid vacation, counts for less hours (they dont round up to 40), and there was one more beside the fact that the people working their are older on average than the people working at first fed last summer. so. what to do? not much i can do because no ones really hiring for summer unless youve got a connection. it just sucks so much that over the course of the summer, im making probably 5-700$ less than last summer. and thats even if i take no days off. its a sizeable chunk that im really pissed at sbm about. and so tomorrow is day one at the buckland branch. woo. its gonna be a hoot. and if i wasnt so pissed, maybe id enjoy it :-/ and so for the 5th time ive tried to finish this update, im gonna end it here, maybe get to bed so i can bank tomorrow. wee. not.
(145am)-no time for a real update, but i just read on mosesmayes.com that as of may 10, they disbanded. :-0 this is sad. their album is among one of the best i own and it definitely sucks that theyve broken up. i tried to hook them up with rane, but who knows now... was looking forward to see them again. theyre the second big canjam to break up this year. meanwhile, youve gotta hear the album and if you need a copy, ill work on it.
01/06/02(145am)-my rane setlist review to the onelist:
hey all-
first off, i would like to preface my experience with tonights show by saying that my grandmother passed away on monday morning. the funeral was yesterday and today, i needed to get out from the stress of it and the family. i almost didnt even come tonight but because of it all, tonights concert had special meaning to me, particularly certain lines in "for them" and "the words."
im not 100% sure on the setlist order, but it went something like this:
I.Jam>The Gauge, Where We Come From>Flutter, From the Vine, Circus Ride, new song (first time played; working title: "Bubbles"), For Them, Secanendo Maldanado, Goomba, The Words (You and I)
E: Center of Ourselves
first off, there was a rather large crowd, and showed manchester that despite the loss of the equator, rane fans would still be in full effect. gruvis malt opened and were pretty slamming but i think rane got everyone really going. acoustics helped the whole show and the jam and gauge sounded really well in the big hall. come from was good and an old classic, flutter was played for the masses and bowman definitely ripped his solo. from the vine has been sounding better to me as of lately. the band barely started the audience on the circus ride clapping, but everyone knew damn well what to do and how to do it. definitely, another of those songs that hit me about whats been going on this week in my life. next, rane premiered a brand new song, with the working title "bubbles." on this, kurt has a large part on the keyboards and although i thought it was a cross between "tonight tonight" by smashing pumpkins and "pyramid song" by radiohead, i was later told a large influence in it was steely dan. dont know too much steely dan, but whatever. it definitely sounded great and was moodlifting for me. for them? one of my favourites on at war and i always love to hear the metamorphosis of that song as the rane sound evolves. my favourite of the newer songs, seconendo maldonado was excellent and then was goomba. bowman's power got shut off accidentally and so they spent the first 2 minutes jamming while that problem was fixed, but they came back and fought it big with an excellent goomba that rocked the house. the set ended with a standard closer, the words, which again, held a lot of meaning for me. the encore was center, which has become standard as a closer. but seeing it live definitely is high octane.
like i said, it was a tough week and tonight definitely was indicative to me how powerful music is and how much the music of rane influences and connects with my life. big welcome home to megan for getting to come tonight. its always good to see old friends at shows and im look forward to meeting more people at iron horse. time to hit the sack. its been a long and stressing week.
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