My Week In Review, or, Ouch! The Musical

     I introduced my finger to the spinning blade of a circular saw on Monday. That's the wound after it was temporarily stitched at the urgent care. It looked quite a bit worse when it happened, but I'm proud to say I didn't pass out the, either.

    That's me yesterday, all prepped for surgery at the Rothman Institute. At one time, I thought the likelihood of me being conscious with an IV in my hand was slim, but now I know.
    The surgery went well, or so I'm told. I was busy time-traveling to three hours after it started, which is when I woke up. Synopsis: Completely severed artery, tendon, and nerve, as well as a nicely nicked bone. Probably won't regain 100% operation, so that may put a damper on future PMMP reunions. Oh well, at least the finger is still on my hand.
     And, of course, waves tomorrow.

Movies I've watched today (in viewing order):
 
Two-Lane Blacktop - Starring James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and Warren Oates.


Breaking Away - 1979 cycling film. As mentioned in a previolus post, I have been cycling a lot. I did a fifty mile ride last Thursday, which felt really good and was a really nice milestone to reach, and I've been gearing up to do some bike camping, but I guess that will have to wait.


Triplets of Belleville - If you have never seen it, do yourself favor and see it. If you have, but haven't seen it in a while, do yourself a favor an see it again.
 

Sorry if this seems rambling, my pain medication has just started to take effect, and that combined with one useable hand have made this tough typing. Maybe if I was typing in Dvorak....

Signs of the Times

     Spring is just around the corner, and even though it has felt like Spring for much of the Winter, there are a few things that come the changing of the seasons other than warm weather and sunshine. One of them is ice cream, and the fact that Jeffreeze is opening this Friday makes me so happy I get brainfreeze just thinking about it.

     And I'll be riding my bike there more, to partially (barely) offset the caloric consumption of a gargantuan Jeffreeze small soft serve. Since this winter has been so warm, and we haven't had many waves (up until the last two weeks anyway), I started road-biking a lot. I didn't really decide to, I just kind of suddenly felt like getting into it, and bikes have always been a part of my life, be it BMX or British 3-speeds, or what-have-you, and road riding was the next logical step. I bought the above Nishiki Sebring as a single speed, rode it like that for a bit, discovered the magic of gears (I still really like single-speed riding, and am in the process of setting up another bike for that), and added more stuff along the way. I have been commuting when I can, and nothing makes a work day better, in absence of a good morning swell, than getting an hour's bike ride in beforehand. Also, figured pretty conservatively, I save about 2.30 on gas each way, probably more now that gas has gone up a bit, and that makes it that much better. Of course, we won't talk about the cost of bike parts to a restless tinkerer...

    And despite the lack of surfboard construction recently, I have been surfing some, and here's proof! Every time someone captures me surfing, I'm just going straight on a crumby wave. Someday I'll see what I look like turning or something. Maybe an air...

     I have also been doing lots of prep for gardening this year, whether it be reading about it, working on the garden, or starting seeds. I found a book at the thrift store in the fall, Square Foot Gardening,which has a different method of gardening much better suited to small spaces, as opposed to traditional row-type gardening. I definitely recommend it, and I can't wait to see the results this growing season.

AHHHH! OK HENRY I'LL STOP WRITING NOW!!!!

Jeff Mangum/Music Tapes Philly Show Review

     Since it's a rain day, here's my rambling, less than cohesive, review of the show. 

      We went to the Jeff Mangum/Music Tapes show in Philly the other night. The show was at the Irvine Auditorium (photo above not from that event, but sans the stars in the background, it could have been), which, if you've never been there, is a really cool place to see a show. It was weird seeing Mr. Mangum and the Music Tapes (who opened for him) in a theatre setting, as I have previously only seen them in smaller, seatless venues such as Maxwell's, but after standing at shows forever, it's nice to sit, and our seats were good, even though there didn't seem to be a bad seat in the house.

 

     The Music Tapes (photo above, also not from the show), led by singing saw-loving Julian Koster, were as fun and weird to see as always. The set was a mix of mostly old and some new songs, all of which were good. Koster has a wonderful singing voice, and I feel like that shines through much better during live performances versus albums. He told a great story about a Romanian circus family who passed down there secrets through songs, and proceeded to play one of the songs. Koster creates not only great and unique music, but alternate worlds and universes in which that music dwells. It's always Christmas there. In every performance I've seen of him, he exudes such vast quantities of music and joy that a spectator would be hard pressed to not enjoy the show, even if his music isn't their cup of tea (which I'll admit, it's not for everyone. I bought my Mom a copy of his album The Singing Saw at Christmastime last Christmas, a copy which I now own. I replaced it for her with A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector). A really fun set.
     Jeff Mangum's stage appearance was preceded by five guys carrying one guitar each. This was an acoustic solo performance, and I was surprised to see five guitars. He entered  the stage with a casual wave then began playing. He played most, if not all, of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, some songs from On Avery Island, and some other various songs. No new stuff, though, which I hoped for but didn't expect. Mangum played the songs well. They echoed album versions so closely that you could almost hear the band that would be backing his percussive acoustic strumming. Some of my favorites from the show were songs other than the Aeroplane songs, such as "Engine" and "Little Birds," two songs with almost exactly opposite emotional content.
     He did some songs with the Music Tapes, too, which were really good, but left me yearning to hear other NMH songs, specifically "Ghost" and "King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two and Three," with a full band playing them. I think that's the only time I'll go see Jeff Mangum again, if it's a full reformation of Neutral Milk Hotel. One can only dream.

A video from the show, another of which can be found at this website, as well as the setlist.

"Rubby Bulbs," one of my favorite NMH songs that wasn't played at the show.

 P.S. This is ostensibly a surf blog, and I finally got a good post-work solo surf on some clean waist high lines the other day. It had been two and a half weeks, the longest I've gone in a long time, and it felt like I hadn't paddled in years. I live for winter surfs like these: lined-up, empty waves. Doesn't need to be big. In fact, I almost prefer smaller, because it brings less people out. It was also nice that it was above 50 degrees after 4 pm at the end of January!

Snow!

     Well, a little anyway. Enough for Henry to love it, and for it to look nice, at least for a little while. Once again, haven't been keeping up with this blog. For the few people who check read this, and for myself, I'll try to keep up on it more.
     I have been slowly making my way through 009, which can be seen in the photo above standing in our dining room lammed, hotcoated, and awaiting sanding, which maybe I'll get to this weekend. It's funny, I find it takes me so much time to begin the next step on a board, and that it sits for a while, but then when I actually start I enjoy it so much I wonder why it took me so long. There's always something going on, I guess. That's just how it goes.
     This is the first board I've done with epoxy, and I have to say I love it. It wets out on the cloth so much easier, especially when you microwave the resin first to heat it up, and as a result it uses less, so weighs less the kind I used (Resin Research Fast) allows plenty of time to work with it. The mixing ratio is always 2:1, no matter what temperature, so it does away with the charts and figuring that comes with traditional poly resin. It has no odor, which means no ventilator, and I can bring it inside to let it cure so I don't have to keep the shop heated. Also, the lack of odor, along with a carefully placed tarp, would allow me to glass in the house, thus saving the money of heating the shop at all, if only I could convince the Missus. It cleans up with vinegar and gojo citrus handcleaner, which puts an end to harmful-for-me solvents. All in all, it's great stuff, and I can't wait to use more of it.

The Mighty Nauga!

     I like the Feelies alot. I first got into them after reading Rick Moody's 1992 novel Garden State, and have since been a fan. However, I often find myself listening to their first album, Crazy Rhythms, and eschewing their sophomore album The Good Earth. I found that record at a thrift store a couple weeks ago (in a lucky record haul that also included the Beatles' Help! soundtrack, Pet Sounds, Led Zeppelin I, Kinks Kronikles, some Mitch Ryder records, and a bunch of other good stuff), and after listening to it I wondered why I haven't more. Also, their new album is pretty good. 

ON A FINAL NOTE, in trying to catch up with all the movies we didn't get to see this past year, we watched Another Earth last night. It was an interesting and well-done science fiction film, but sci-fi in a way that uses the sci-fi element as a backdrop and instigator, a MacGuffin type thing, that drives the very human drama that plays out between the very human characters. More psychological sci-fi than aliens-and-rayguns sci-fi. I would definitely recommend it.

VOTE!

     Should have posted this a while ago! Vote HERE for School of Vintage as Ideacafe's "Entrepreneur of the Year." If they win, I'll give everyone who voted from my blog a free Strange Flora surfboard*. Vote every single day! Thanks!

      Also, buy some beets and make this beet soup. Throw in some carrots and things and you won't regret it!


     I was going to post something from Tom Waits' newish album Bad As Me, but I came across this promotional video, so I decided to post that instead. I'll post a song tomorrow, when it's more à propos.  

*Not really.