January 31th, 2002.
Thursday
I've spent most of my free time the last few days doing music-related things. After work, as planned, I went down to J&R Music World and picked up my turntable. I like it. They had a lot of 40's style cabinet record players which I thought were great, but were too expensive and too impractical. So I came home, rearranged some stuff, and found the perfect place for the record player, which was on top of a little end table that James had taken out of someone's trash in Park Slope, when he thought he would be moving into the neighborhood last spring. Now I'm wishing I hadn't sold or destroyed or otherwise lost possession of all the records I'd got/found in college. The only records I currenlty own are the Stephane Grapelli/Sven Asmussen jazz violinst record I bought on Saturday, and a 7-inch I got from Caryn, a Luna record from the Subpop single of the month club. That was before she liked Luna. So i plugged the turntable jobby in, and put on the Grapelli record. I liked it immediately. I've only heard a handful of his songs though, and it took me a little while to figure out that I was playing the record on the wrong speed. Hmm. The Luna record was even more confusing, with one side playing at 33 rpm and the other at 45 rpm. Anyway, I wish I'd kept my other records now. When I managed the radio station in college, the records were never put on the playlist, and I could take whatever I wanted. I got this very handsome Sonic Youth Washing Machine record on double vinyl. It was only three sides, and the fourth side had this really intricate engraving on it. I ended up selling it to one of my economics professors for 20 bucks. I partially sold it to him in order to maybe instill a sense of some sort of comraderie or kinship between us, because I hated his class and was not doing well. He gave me a C. I really wish I had that record back. I wonder what's it's selling for on eBay these days. I also had an Urge Overkill album that was on the rear window of the Grey Ghost for a little too long, and melted and warped. That looked great. Then there were a bunch of 7-inches I got that are collecting dust in my parent's attack. Some Husker Du singles if I recall.Anyway, I've also been fretting about my guitar lesson. No pun intended. I didn't go last week, and it seems that I'm expected to pay for the lesson I missed. I suppose I'm ok with that. I'm really more concerned with how the actual lesson itself will go. It's producing too much anxiety. It's supposed to be fun. But I think I am learning, so I guess I'll keep subjecting myself to this.
I've also been hard at work converting the until-only-recently lost tapes of Underpants Cowboy into computer files. I think my copies were taken along with the Grey Ghost, and I've been missing them ever since. James finally found them at home, after months of me patiently pleading. Though now that I have the only know tapes, I'm worried that every machine I put them in will eat them or somehow destroy them, and they'll be lost forever. I've been meaning to copy them every night this week, but I've been too lazy to dig through my closet to find my blank tapes. Anyway, when the converting is complete, I will post them on the Underpants Cowboy page, and the glory of the Pants will finally be unleashed. Or unsheathed.
On the free music front, I got the latest Jim O'Rourke album from James. I'm liking it so far, but I'm a little surprised how straight-up rock it is, coming from a guy who has a reputation for a lot of sonic variety. Or so I'm told. Other than that- two songs I've been listening to repeatedly: Billy Bragg's "A New England," and, for some inexplicable reason, Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." I've always really liked the song, but in the present day, it's a fairly corny sentiment. And if it were anyone besides Nine Inch Nails it'd be a lot cornier.
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