Thursday, September 29, 2005

Ouch.

I'm at work, and I just burned my tounge beyond the normal limits of pain. Why must I be so hungry and rush to the microwaveable rice dish? Patience! Patience!

-ed

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

I am in love with this song...

Stars - "Your Ex-Lover is Dead"

-ed

Monday, September 26, 2005

So Who Wants to Be My Facebook Friend?


Uh, can we say "Hells yeah?"
Double D is in the house!
-ed

Sunday, September 25, 2005

You're Supersonic...

Here's that zip file of my favorite songs by Modest Mouse, Red House Painters, and the Dismemberment Plan. It's a large file (43MB) but well worth the download, I promise. Enjoy!

-ed

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Sufjan Stevens, 9/23/05, Cannery Ballroom

I'm pretty conflicted about this one. To say that I'd been eagerly awaiting this one is an understatement, and maybe I had my hopes set too high.

The line to get in was ridiculous, and we got there at 7:45 and it was stretched all the way to the parking lot. We had the misfortune of being in front of one of the most annoying people I have ever heard before, this small girl who decided she would share her opinion on everything to this poor guy she had just met. She was obviously very passionate about her views, but she kept talking about God and her version of liberalism and it was pretty obvious she was a product of ignorance. We tried our best to tune her out, but her voice was piercing. Unfortunately, that was just an inkling of the douche-factor of this crowd. We finally got in the doors around 8:45-9, a full hour after they were supposed to open, they said something about a security issue. I don't really know.

Anyways, we got in there, not terrribly far back from the stage, but we made the dumb mistake of standing near a pole. During the course of the night, I constantly got edged more towards to pole and by the time Sufjan got to the stage I was basically directly behind it, so I all I could see most of the time was the trumpet player and the hyper guitar player. Oh well. That was really my fault more than anything for putting myself in that position. But seriously, who designed this place with poles in front of the stage. LAME.

Ok, the rest of the crowd. Basically the douchiest crowd ever. I've been to shows with the ultimate douche-potential (Los Lobos, drunk bikers. Do I need say more?) and they were nowhere close to this. Ashley had more run ins with them than I did, having beer spilled on her yet again and getting booty danced on. At a Sufjan Stevens show. Now, I don't want to judge people (which of course I am about to do now,) but as Ashley said "I assumed people who listend to Sufjan were reasonable people." How wrong we were. They were loud and disruptive, and acted like it was a freaking destiny's child concert of something. The asshole next to me had his cell phone on speakerphone mode and kept talking to someone loudly and of course I could hear the other guy talking back. Also, I really, really hate people who try to move up in the crowd, halfway through the show. Look, I'm short, I usually don't have the best view, but I stick with the place I get when I arrive, because that's just the right thing to do. You have no right to push me to the side and cram in there because you got there late. I've never really been one to yell at people about this (even though secretly I always want to) but last night two people almost made me break my silence. Obviously no room to move in, this girl and her fat ass boyfriend bulldoze through me like they own the space. Argh.

So, the music. To be honest, it was really hard to concentrate on it because of the people around me and the amount of time we had to wait and stand. By the end, my knees had cramped up and my back was sore. But really, the music was amazing. He played "Decatur," my favorite song, which hadn't been showing up in his setlists recently, so I was happily surprised. And "Metropolis" was absoultly amazing live. There was enough variation from the record to keep me interested and not feel like I was listening to a cd. But the entire experience left me sort of unfulfilled. Maybe in hindsight I'll believe I enjoyed it more. Ok, I'm out.

-ed

Thursday, September 22, 2005

HA.


*Japanese Smoking Ettiqute Sign.
-ed

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Inspired by the Winfield!

Today when I was helping the Winfield out with her Honors website, she asked my what my 3 favorite bands are. I had just writen an essay extolling the brilliance of Modest Mouse at the Paxford Blog, so the number one was an easy pick. They are, in order, Modest Mouse, Red House Painters, and the Dismemberment Plan. So, being the nerd I am, I thought to myself, what are my 3 favorite songs by each band? List time!

Modest Mouse:
The Stars Are Projectors
Never Ending Math Equation
Heart Cooks Brain
Red House Painters:
Have You Forgotten?
Grace Cathedral Park
Byrd Joel
The Dismemberment Plan:
The City
The Ice of Boston
You Are Invited

I'll post a zip file of all of them sometime soon, so you too can hear the awesomeness.

-ed

Monday, September 19, 2005

So...

This might sort of seem dumb and lame to all those hardened music industry people, but today I finally had a childhood dream realized. My name is on the packaging of a professional CD recording. I mastered an album by a band called Eagle*Seagull who are on my friend Bryan's label, Paper Garden Records, and my name is in the credits on the sleeve. I know this doesn't sound all that cool, but ever since I decided that I wanted to pursue engineering, this is something I've looked foward to. I used to read the credits whenever I bought a cd and look at who engineered it, where they did it, and who mastered it and wish I could be there someday. All the rock stars want their names on the cover, all I've ever wanted is to be in the fine print. But yeah, I think it's really cool, and hopefully there are many more to come. So go buy the album and marvel at my name in silver ink.

-ed
Why, In Hindsight...

I miss San Antonio.

Thank you, Cary, I remember again why you're the best columnist in SA.

-ed

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Pasta Jeopardy...

Answer: What is a strainer.

Question: What does Eric need to buy before he makes pasta again so he doesn't dump said pasta into the sink while trying to remove the water?

Yeah, that was embarrasing.

-ed

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Weird...

There's something really, really familiar about part of the Mariah Carey song that I heard when I was working out this morning...and I can't place it. I thought it was a rip of that "Ignition" song by R. Kelly when I first heard it, now I can't seem to remember what exactly it was. It's only a few measures, but it's a phrase I've heard before....any ideas? If I can figure out what part of it it is, I'll let you know.

-ed

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

New Outlet!

So our Tuesday night group is off the ground now, and we've started a blog to publish what we've written for each meeting. The address is: http://paxford.blogspot.com

Check it out if your curious, this weeks topic was "People who we know, but don't know their names." Thus my three haikus about the fat kid I saw at a greek festival. Next week promises to be a bit more substantial. We're writing off the quote from Dead Poet's Society, "words and ideas can change the world." I'm keeping the link on the right side of the blog in case you ever want to visit it. The writers are: Ashley Strosnider, Shadndus Valentine, Ryan Stufflebam, Tara McDonough, Lauren Winfield, and myself.

-ed

Sunday, September 11, 2005

BEST SHOWS ON TV...EVER


Tommy Lee Goes to College


Gene Simmons' Rock School


Hogan Knows Best

This has been a banner year for reality TV shows. It's near flawless, and could only be better if they had a show about Mr. T.

-ed
Sunday...

The only songs I have in my iTunes library with "Sunday" in the title are by Beck and Jimmy Eat World. This is depressing because I thought it would be cool to listen to all the songs I have with Sunday in them, on a Sunday, and it took a total of 8 minutes. So in a list of irrelevence, here are the songs I have, sorted by days of the week:

Sunday:
"Sunday Sun" - Beck
"A Sunday" - Jimmy Eat World

Monday:
"Blue Monday" - New Order

Tuesday:
NOTHING

Wednesday:
NOTHING

Thursday:
Everything by the band "Thursday"

Friday:
"Casual Friday" - Black Leotard Front
"Friday Night" - The Darkness
"Friday" - Sunny Day Real Estate

Saturday:
"Saturday" - Josh Rouse
"Saturday" - Yo La Tengo

So, yeah, the middle of the week seems to get no love from songwriters.

BTW, why do I suck at writing? I'm trying to come up with something for Tuesday night, and everything I've tried just doesn't seem good to me. I need decent subject matter.

-ed

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Opa!



Blubberbelly Bluelips, I miss you.

-ed

Friday, September 09, 2005

The Disco Strikes Again!

The Disco Arts and Crafts Collective - It's a Scrapbook Party!

I'm using a file sharing site, so when you click on it, it takes you to an external site. Scroll down to the bottom, choose "free," and then wait for the link to show (@ 30 seconds), and then download!

-ed

Thursday, September 08, 2005

I EFFING CALLED IT!

Mark Kozelek records album of Modest Mouse covers, via Pitchfork

Um, did I predict this in uh, April? YES.

Does this mean that I am peeing my pants in anticipation? Correct.

-ed

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Werner, why aren't you wasted!?

So last night's C.S. Lewis/Shadowlands party was actually fun, despite the fact I fell asleep for the last 20 min or so. Out of it came the suggestion that we start our own Inklings type group, which I think would be great, but I'm not sure if anyone but Ashley and me are interested in it. Hopefully something will come from it.

The sound in space question was answered, and the correct answer is yes, the sound would be audible in the craft. Thank you, Ryan, Tara, and Dad.

Nearly done with the Eagle*Seagull album. Quite a learn as you go experience.

-ed

Monday, September 05, 2005

BIG POST!!

Ok, I will attempt to write about everything I've meant to write about in the past few days.

First off, a letter I just wrote my dad...

hey dad,
I'm reading a book, Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis, and it's a science fiction book, writen before anyone had ventured into actual space. Anyways, there's something in there that I'm fairly sure isn't possible, and that is the main character hearing the sounds of meteroites hitting their space craft. Now, I base my disagreement with this solely on a Superman comic book that I read in middle school, where Superman is in space and realizes that he can breathe in a spacecraft because he can hear sound, and you can only hear sound in atmosphere. However, because the character in the book is inside a craft w/ breathable air, would the sound of something hitting the outside the walls be translated into sound inside the craft? Or would the sound just be non-existant?

Anyone have an answer for that one? If you can beat the physics teacher to the answer, I will give you a gold star.

Next, the topic of "Dirty Dancing"...

I finally saw enough of that movie to know that it is ok to make rash judgements on it. Now, inane dialogue and plot aside, my main problem with this movie is their choice of music. It is from my observations on the dress and automobiles in the movie that I can conclude that the movie is set sometime in the 1950's or 60's. The music director was placed in an interesting position of having period-correct music during the dancing scenes, and 80's music (when the movie was made) as the film's soundtrack. These two elements are allowed to coexist, as annoyingly as it is, and the separtation between the two is kept up until the end scene. I consider this to be an affront to anyone who knows anything about production quality and basically, music. The end song "I've had the time of my life" is obviously an 80's song, yet the characters are singing and dancing to it like it was a freaking Guy Lombardo hit. This is just wrong. It smacks of 1980's studio production. The snare is artificially huge. The duet is extremely 1980's. How did this happen? What a mistake.

ok, done for now.

-ed

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Whoooooo!!

Well, we can't win in Mexico, but at least we can take care of business here.

Bring on Germany!

-ed

Friday, September 02, 2005

Dear San Antonio, I hate you.

Read this.

Now read my diatribe:

Dear Chip Haass,
You are a dumbass. I can say this because you were once my HS baseball coach, and you sucked at that too. So let's see, there are God knows how many people dying in New Orleans, and you are worried about getting the New Orleans Saints to play in the Alamodome. And there are business men who are going to PAY Benson money to move the Saints here. WHAT THE F**K. How about you use that money to get food and water to the people who need it instead of bringing a sub-par football team whose payroll could feed all those who need help. That just disgusts me. Mr. Haass, you suck at life.

-Eric Domkowski
Saint Mary's Hall, class of 2003.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Tradegy Brings Out The Worst...

Hey, here's a bright idea. Like, if I were in a city that just got destroyed by a huge hurricane and me and 10,000 other citizens were stuck with no place to go and then some people tried to help us by bussing us to Houston, you know what I would do?

TOTALLY GET A GUN AND START SHOOTING AT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP.

And then I would get in fights with people. Brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

Then If I were NBC, I'd get world renowned social commentator Harry Connick Junior to give his words of wisdom, since you know, he's a genius and all. he calls New Orleans citizens "freakishly strong." I think we have the freakish part right, Harry.

-ed