Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

mess

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The state of me at the moment is outstandingly tired.

Last weekend was our trip to NJ, and the weekend before a crazy deadline for Trio and arranging. Just now Elise was whisked away by our darling Mary in top secrecy for her bachelorette party … which you would think is a recipe for a restful, sleepy weekend.

But, hello, this is Crushing Krisis. Either we’re crushed or we’re having a crisis.

So, with a spare thirty minutes after Elise’s departure I am due at the Dark Horse South Street with Gina to play a benefit for Stand Up For Kids alongside plenty of our favorite musical friends: Joshua Popejoy, Bill Butler, Dante Bucci, Jon Glaubitz, and Andra Taylor.

(I was actually just mentioning to a co-worker that I’ve played more spots this year as Arcati Crisis or individually than I had played combined as either in my life to date. That kindof blows my mind.)

And, um, i was going to write more but Dante is in my living room to pick me up and I haven’t packed a bag yet for the second half of the odessey: staying over in East Falls to help Kate and Lindsay MOVE INTO THEIR NEW HOUSE tomorrow before escaping for the Amanda Palmer concert oh my god do i even have any clean socks okay now i am going to hit publish

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2008/11/3410/

Preoccupational Hazards

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Tonight was my one night off for the week, except I wanted to spend it on – do some blogging, maybe start my next Trio.

That wasn’t meant to be. I had some more pressing concerns to attend to, such as washing dishes and laundry. And, I’m not just talking about from a normal “chore” perspective. No. This was a no drinking glasses left and completely out of pants situation.

You might laugh at my situation. Ha!, you might think, he seems to be so together with his podcasts and his Groom Team, but it’s an illusion! You might continue to gloat, Aside from his yuppy job he’s living the slovenly, disorganized life of a lazy bachelor.

Yet, that’s just not the case – and not just because I’m living merrily in sin with Elise. I’m certainly spending time being clean, orderly, and tenacious outside of my yuppy occupation – it’s just that the time is invested in all of my yuppy pre-occupations.

At this point I have so many non-occupational jobs that it’s not unusual for a week to go by without me even finding the time to do a single load of laundry. Take this week, for example.

I spent half the weekend recording and mixing the four songs in the last two posts, and the other half working on an arrangement for Drexel’s all-female acappella group. Monday I spent a few hours cleaning up the back-end CK, and then I went to a concert of someone who is playing at my wedding. Tomorrow night I’ll be co-hosting an open mic with the other half of Arcati Crisis, and on Thursday I’m the artist liaison at our Lyndzapalooza Fall Mixer.

Did you catch all of that? Recording engineer, transcriptionist, network administrator, event planner, rock star, and A&R rep. That’s six hobbies that I’ve turned into part-time jobs. Hobs? Jobbies?

At least with the latter half of wedding, AC, and LP I knew from the start that I was getting into something that was both time-consuming and rewarding. However, the former three – CK, arranging, and DIY recording – all started out as innocent distractions from the rest of my life. I never meant for them to become staying up until 3am, working until I nod off in my chair sorts of engagements. It just turned out that way.

Is this insane or just slightly abnormal? Do you have jobs aside from what you do for a living and taking care of your home and family? If you do, did you choose to make them a priority, or did they sneakily transform into one over time?

Spring Cleansing

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Following my successful computer reinstall everything in my life has seemed primed for refreshment and renewal. After work my desktop is the place where I spend the most time – if I can be organized in both of those places, why not everywhere else?

I cleaned everything partially-hydrogenated out of my refrigerator. I collected all of my bills and financial statements into neatly organized binders. I re-organized my dress shirts into roy g biv order.

This mostly-organized better version of me is now contentedly sipping a strawberry Limoncello martini***, windows flung wide open to let in sunny spring air. Everything in my house is now clean and reset with one exception: my links folder. Let’s see what’s in there…

I know I’m a touch behind on this one, but I thought Time’s article on 300’s impact in Iran was intriguing, if only because from my perspective this wasn’t a hugely calculated studio movie, but an independent work inside of a studio system. In any event, the movie was fascinating, if not terribly great. Definitely worth seeing on a big screen.

The more I work in (and love) a corporate communications culture, the more I appreciate the awesome Ad Verbatims a blog that features such gems as, “I’m not sure what the client wants, so let’s try and do something the client will buy,” and “If I give you approval, what can I still change?” I can’t even begin to enumerate how many times I’ve heard those two phrases in the last month.

Just for reference, since I had an inordinately hard time figuring it out: K.T. Tunstall uses a Akai E2 Headrush to create loops in concert. You can buy one here, however, through assiduous and lengthy research, i discovered that instead you should consider a Boss Loop Station before ultimately buying the awesome DigiTech JamMan, which runs on flash memory.

Um, this is a great photography article. I can’t remember any other reason I would have bookmarked it. Oh, because I saw his flickr photo of Easter crucifixions. Also, his Millau Bridge photo is stunning.

Alright, I’m out of martini, so this is the last link you’ll get: The Weather Market is a competitive weather-prediction site where users try to run up the best streak of forecasting. Fun.

Oh, and, re: my martini, I used 3 parts cranberry to one part strawberry stoli to one part limoncello. Shaken and served on the rocks. Delish.

Pack Ratting Red Red Sharpener

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To ring in 2007 I undertook some major home-office/recording-studio cleaning last night in the hopes of stemming the frequent avalanches of stuff that occur whenever I place anything on or walk past my desk. Because, gosh darn it, if my work desk can be organized, so can my home desk.

My desk cleaning reminded me of just how much of a pack rat I truly am. Behold: Tiny boxes that held small Christmas presents four years ago. The extra buttons to every Express shirt I’ve ever bought (and that’s a lot of buttons). Six year old pens.

Think about that. I had pens from 2000! Six year old pens that I refused to throw away because they’re from the time VW set up a tent on campus and they gave me a bag of shwag for standing on a table in the middle of the event and singing I’m a little teapot (as if that was a challenge for me; I probably would have done it naked).

My desk cleaning also lead me to a moment of reflection on my red Panasonic pencil sharpener.

You see, my red Panasonic pencil sharpener has been with me since third grade. It used to sit next to the dining room table in my childhood home. It came with me to college, and survived all three of my apartments.

It might not be very sexy, it might be as heavy as a brick, but after seventeen years of use the darn thing still works perfectly. By contrast, I’ve been through three separate sharpeners in the past year at the office.

I guess they don’t make them like they used to.

(Yes, you do see Rogue in the foreground of that shot. She’s not quite as old as the Panasonic, but she’s survived all the same locales – in fact, when I first got my webcam in 2001 I believe she spent a day on-camera perched outside of my window, searching for injustice to fight.)