Done?

It's 8:30 in the morning and I just recently completed an epic all-nighter writing a final paper on The Boondock Saints which directly followed a rigorous final exam yesterday afternoon. But considering I pounded a NOS and a Rock Star overnight, I'm not going to sleep right away. I'd just assume stay up all day as if I slept last night, excepting the fact that it's pretty difficult to keep my eyes focused.

So...all this pertains to the blog in that now I'll actually have ample opportunities to update it over the next couple of weeks. Should be a good time.

There's more music coming, I swear

I'm presently tied up with end-of-the-semester academic stuff. But in about a week the semester will be over and I'll be posting much more regularly over holiday break, in large part because I will probably not have anything better to do. I'm leaning towards making this more of a straightforward mp3 blog, but we shall see. In the meantime, check out these links:

Kid Omega (blog of my main musical focus)

Funion (Myspace page of my side project)

The War of Northern Aggression, Part 2

The pangs of guilt I feel for having not updated my blog have led me away from my studies (which ironically enough at the moment consists of reading a book called The Confederate War) to bring you, loyal reader, a second installment of the ongoing series of songs with a fratricidal flourish...so with no further gilding the lily and absolutely no adieu whatsoever I give you some additional selections.

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (From The Band)

There is no stretch to be made while explaining this song's relevance to the topic put forth--it's just a straight-up tale of the Civil War from a Confederate perspective.

Josh Ritter - Girl in the War (From The Animal Years)

It is worth noting that women disguised as men saw combat for both the Union and Confederacy during the war. Women's contributions on the home front also should not be overlooked. Even if they were simply whining in letters to their husbands, whilst their husbands were dodging bullets and living on hardtack and saltpork, they served to persuade their men to reenlist so as not to have to deal with their incessant jabbering on about nothing. How's that for an impact?

Buy 'em up:
Capitol
V2

The War of Northern Aggression, Part 1

This semester (being an American History major) I'm taking a class on the Civil War, referred to by many of our Southern brethren as "The War of Northern Aggression." My roommate has repeatedly asked that I one day in class refer to the war in said Southern manner, as of yet I have failed to follow through on this request, tempting as it may be.

So on a somewhat related note, last week I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea to compile all the songs I have that can be connected to The War of Northern Aggression and compile them into a playlist. More recently, I thought "why not post some selections from this amalgam of songs on my blog and thus flirt with making this something like a proper mp3 blog?"

Since I went down to New York last weekend to see The Mountain Goats play (which, by the way, was friggin sweet), I thought it would be fitting to start with some relevant selections from John Darnielle's vast catalogue. Doubtless there will be further installments in this series of songs. Hope you enjoy this fusion of awesome tunes and American History.

The Mountain Goats - Jeff Davis County Blues (From All Hail West Texas)

Jefferson Davis was, of course, the President of The Confederate States of America. Apparently, they also named a county in Texas after him.

The Mountain Goats - Going to Georgia (From Zopilote Machine)

Who could forget Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's (who by the way, was one mean, angry, ragged dude) March Through Georgia in 1864, burning Atlanta, not to mention laying waste to whatever is 40 miles from Atlanta.

Buy 'em up:
Emperor Jones
3 Beads of Sweat

So I'm not moving to Canada...

Part of me still isn't sure whether last night really happened or if I'm the victim of some massive cosmic joke, but thank God Obama won. After the past eight years of lies and incompetence, Obama could pull a Jimmy Carter over the next four and still be a marked improvement.

Because I will do almost anything to avoid attending to my studies...

So it's already been a couple weeks since my last post, which doesn't seem at all possible, and yet it is. This evening it started snowing, which drove home the point for me that before I know it the semester will be over. Being busy does tend to make the weeks pass pretty regularly I guess. A lot of note has happened in the gap between entries, and although perhaps it would be wiser for me to spread the content of this post out over multiple ones for the sake of updating more frequently, the temptation to say everything at once is simply too great. So:

- Kid Omega (my band) played a show at the VFW in Walpole, MA last Friday. There were some pretty awesome people there and it was a fun time for sure to get out of Worcester for a little bit. It was a great experience and hopefully we can get some more shows soon...which leads me to my next entry...

- When attempting to book shows, it is advantageous for one to have several songs put to tape of halfway-decent quality. So, for this and other reasons, this upcoming weekend we intend to do some recording that takes place outside of the confines of our room. You know, with electrically powered instruments and stuff. Pretty exciting, I know. And once we have some new recordings, we can post them on Myspace, last.fm, etc. too for y'all who care to listen. Looking forward to it.

- I can't wait for the election to be over and done with, so long as it turns out the way I'm hoping it to. If not, I'm liable to pack up my things and move to Canada. I hear that Ottawa's the London to Montreal's Paris...

The Greatest Game of All of Time

Though you wouldn't know it by my previous post, I'm not one for shameless plugs. However, once again I cannot help myself--for you see, in recent weeks I have been all-consumed by a computer game that I have come to recognize (and I most assuredly will end up taking some flak for this) as the greatest that I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

The game is Pinch Hitter 2. I have not played the original, but I'm sure it was also ballin'.

It can be found here. I have been a Tetris lover ever since my Windows 3.1 machine came preloaded with it way back in '93, but other than the likelihood that I will probably develop carpel tunnel playing Pinch Hitter, it is very much in the same league as Tetris.

Not that this game is without fault (some hits are inexplicably turned into outs), but it sure is a great way to waste your precious days.