*deep, meaningful title*

i just wrote like 10 paragraphs about this weird project that came into my head in the shower. it entailed me not going to school for 16 days while i maintained homework and made an album. then i realized how stupid it all sounded.

today was another one of those days where nothing eventful happened other than my track meet. our school got 2nd overall, our 4x400 m team got 2nd overall, our 4x200 m team got 3rd overall, and there were a lot of impressive individual performances. Ian won the 1000 this time, Ben got 3rd in the 600, Josh got 3rd in the 300. and a good time was had by all. (the end)

on the bus ride back, a few of us made sentences that had to be constructed so that each word begins with a consecutive letter of the backwards alphabet. that was a TERRIBLE explanation. here's an example:

"Zippers yearn x-rays with verve, unless telemarketers slap RachelRay, quickly pleading other nifty musical lyres knife JesseJackson in his gonads for every diaper consumed by Americans."

for some reason, we determined that Rachel Ray and Jesse Jackson were one word.

so then after they made the sentence, it was my job to try to make sense out of this sentence. this is what i came up with:

essentially, the only time that zippers want lively x-rays is when telemarketers smack Rachel Ray. the telemarketers have to also be begging for a certain musical instrument to stab a certain reverend in his balls for every time an American citizen either (eats or purchases, it's up for interpretation), a diaper. it all makes sense.

that's what happened today.
---
well i need to go suffer through another long, painful studying session. a demain, mes amis.

~-~

vial of hope and a vial of pain

i set up my recording studio today, and tried recording 'you look like a freemason', but without any success. i'm ok with it. in essence, i was really just trying to adjust to recording vocals and piano simultaneously. because now i have a second mic, which has many, many advantages about it.

i think the reason i couldn't record today is because it's a new song and i haven't really figured it completely out yet. probably gonna have to play it another 15-20 times before i can record it proper.

and i plan on incorporating drums and other sounds into this. i want layers now. for all this time i've been listening to music with layers, and yet i've never done it myself. I want to make music that you can hear four or five times and find something new about it each time. more effort, but more satisfying.

---
i saw Arcade Fire's DVD "Miroir Noir" today and ended up loving it. At points, it felt like Vincent Moon and Vincent Morriset were taking waaaay too much creative liberty with the film, focusing more on visuals than the band itself. On most occasions, they only play half of a song before cutting to a new scene. But when there's actual footage of Arcade Fire recording and playing live, we finally get to see the primal intensity, the perfectionism, and the camaraderie that all combine to make a truly fantastic band.

arguably the coolest part of the movie: when the mix focuses in on Richard Reed Parry absolutely beating the shit out of a couple of drums and a cymbal. awesome because a) you wouldn't hear it in a concert because i'm PRETTY sure the drums weren't mic'd and b) he's playing on beat. it's not just for show.

^the clip in question^

get it if you can. it's pretty much what inspired me to record today.
---
now i need to study and go over to Robert Nesbit's once more. Hoping Rob posts a video today.

~------~

Madness of Mules

I'm probably going to eat at a place called The Rusty Hammer tonight. Upon hearing my dad's recommendation of it, I did a quick search on urbandictionary, since it sounded an awful lot like something that would be on urbandictionary. and i was right. gross.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rusty%20hammer&defid=1842766

Tonight there's a pep rally at my school. Mules Madness, they call it. Being the mildly antisocial person that I am, I'm choosing not to attend.

Reasons:
a) almost nothing happens, other than talking to the people around you.
b) i don't think it's necessary to pay in order to talk to a few people.
c) When something DOES happen inbetween the 15 minute hiatuses, we watch people win prizes, while occasionally chanting our school's communistesque chant "N-H-S! *foot stomp* N-H-S! *foot stomp*". not exactly appealing.
d) the games that precede the pep rally won't even be fun to watch, because the school we're playing against is like 3000 times smaller than ours. which is saying something. (good job in advance, team)
e) i have to make a video on TOP of blogging (that i still have yet to start)... friday's are difficult for this reason in the first place.
f) i'm too COOL for pep rallies, obviously. /blatant sarcasm

i've come up with a couple of titles for my previously untitled songs. 'En attendant...' which translates to 'While waiting...' and 'You Look Like A Freemason'. I have no idea how the latter title came about, I just know that it sounds fancy.
---
For future reference: Trigga Hiccups by Menomena goes absolutely flawless into Underground by Ben Folds Five, for the next time you decide to spend 38 hours making an hour long mix.

This reminds me. This is gorgeous sounding.



And while we're on the tangent of music sharing, I found out about the song below (called the Coloring of Pigeons by The Knife) through a certain Anthony Fantano. (http://youtube.com/theneedledrop). A word of caution: it's 11 minutes, very minimalistic, and has operatic elements to it. But i've determined that I like it, because it really does feel as if you're walking through a dark forest:
http://theneedledrop.blogspot.com/2010/01/mp3-new-collab-from-knife.html

all i'm asking for for my birthday, i've determined, is Beloved by Toni Morrison (really really liked Song of Solomon) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. aaaand a little more money towards my piano, which is slowly turning into just spending money. *stupid consumeristic mindset*

(also. optimization problems hurt my head.

Question: A sheet of cardboard 3 ft. by 4 ft. will be made into a box by cutting equal-sized squares from each corner and folding up the four edges. What will be the dimensions of the box with largest volume?

Answer: .57 x 1.86 x 2.86. somehow.)

i need to go run off and make a video now. I'm stealing Robert's ideas of describing a bunch of things. (they need to realize that if they keep using copyrighted music, our channel WILL be taken down. see http://musicfromblueskies.blogspot.com for proof.)

~-~

P.S. Tonight's Conan O'Brien's last night on NBC. I can not wait. Hopefully he ends up spending like $10 million dollars of NBC's money and just gives the best, most epic send-off ever.

SO MANY ELEMENTS TO THIS BLOG, MY GOD.

Waltham System

Day 21. SIX DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY

i need to make this short. i have a lot of math studying to do. i'm not ready at all for this test. going to fail.

in fact, this is all i'm going to say today. nothing that revolutionary has happened. rob's coming back to school tomorrow, and it turns out that it WAS a sinus infection. so yay for the 3kewldoods hiatus that never existed?

I DUNNO WHAT TO BLOG. today's the first day where i feel as though i don't have anything to say. so instead i'm just gonna kind of. yeah.

SOMETHING OF MORE SUBSTANCE TOMORROW. INCLUDING A VIDEO.

~-~

le chasseur du bois

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 3kewldoods is on a temporary hiatus (already. Jesus.) until things can get back to normal. Robert's video just wouldn't upload this week, and Rob's been in and out of the hospital. He was having a chronic headache, went to the hospital, one doctor said it was a tumor at first but then he said it was his sinuses but it's apparently neither of those two things. So he's missed two days of school and is missing another one tomorrow for more tests and shots and god-knows-what. We just talked on AIM, he seemed to be fine, but he's apparently on 'so many pain killers'.

So since those two aren't in a position to upload at the moment, I feel as though it'd be best to just let the channel sit for now. I'd rather have us doing this as a collective instead of just me making videos by myself until god-knows-when-things-get-back-to-normal. I could do that on my own channel.

EDIT: Robert's video finally showed up today. I guess we're going on with it!
---
today was alright. i discovered that i nearly have a full EP worth of material. Here's the rundown:

1. Untitled Song (4-4.5 minutes long)
2. Triumvirate #1 (short interlude)
4. Untitled Song (5-5.5 minute song)
7. Triumvirate #2 (another short interlude)
5. Slow Clap (actually recorded, short song)
6. Untitled Song (6.5 minutes long, formerly called Nightmare)

I apparently need to work on titles.

The three untitled songs are very sporadic, they go through several changes, no distinct verse or chorus in any of them. Not that any of my songs follow verse-chorus-verse structure anyways. i have the attention span of a 5 year old, essentially. The problem I'm having though is that The 1st two untitled songs have kind of similar elements, and I tend to hate when that happens. A little more ironing out, and then

I need to spend a good solid half hour reconstructing my studio, it's been unplugged since Christmas. And now I have another mic, so hopefully recording piano and vocals at once shouldn't be an issue. This will make things go literally twice as fast, and it'll probably make things sound better. I tend to emote in my vocals more when I'm playing piano at the same time.

---
if you'll excuse me, i have about 30,000 hours of undone homework to get done.

but first, cinq choses plus:
1. coke zero's rather tasty.
2. my painful sore throat's making a comeback.
3. the title of this blog directly translates to 'the hunter of wood'. it was the name of some french folk-indie-country song by some french canadian band that we had to partially translate for our french final.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-EAiNewsQ&feature=sub
HENRY GREEN WAS BORN TODAY!
5.

THATS IT

~-~

SAWNG!

this is the first time i've written a song in a-a-ages. not sure if i have a title, feel free to suggest any you might have.
---
She came into life
With a pretty smile
On her stupid face

And every time they tried
For her to cut her hair
She would kindly decline

She came into life
With a pretty smile
On her stupid face

And her hair just grew
Until the locks, they bled
Into outer space

And in outer space
No one screamed
But they all thought

Come on ride the wave.
Come on ride the wave.
Come on ride the wave.
Fill my waaaave with light.
My liiiiiiiight with air.
My aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir with trees.

With branches spiraled upward
Quickly turning into spiders with their
We won’t come down e’er mentality.
We won’t come down from here mentality.
Acrophobic arachnids
Slimily smiling simply smiling at their fall.
---

in other news, today has passed by uneventfully. midterms are next week, and i'm desperately trying to prepare for them. 1.5 more years in high school. yipes.

there's this big deal going down in the state south to me over a senatorial seat and how it will impact health care reform. unshockingly, if the republican side wins, health care reform will take a striking blow. and if the democratic side wins, health care reform will probably be passed through the senate. both sides are dumb. Martha Coakley (D)'s quoted as saying "There are no terrorists in Afghanistan" and Scott Brown (R) supported an amendment against emergency contraception for rape victims. So either way, we're going to have another bumbling idiot occupying precious space in our lovely bipartisan federal government system. Three cheers for participatory democracy.

5 more things: (soon to be a regular staple on this blog, possibly)
- i need to make a mix CD filled with old school Modest Mouse for Richard Nesbit.
- i feel fat for not running for the last 2 days.
- meowth is my least favorite pokemon.
- i have unreasonably short hair all of a sudden.
- you can count to 512 on your fingers using the base 2 system. look it up.

~-~

P.S. This blog-every-day project has already outlasted Rob Bennett's blog-every-day project. winrar.

SemiMicropost

Tiny, tiny update because I still have a massive health project that I've barely started.

I started a new song today, and I've done about 10 pages worth of work today. All while wasting time on the internet.

Dr. Strangelove was one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. "Mein fuhrer! I can walk!" I might watch it again on the internet tomorrow.

I wrote a short, one-page story for English. The only guideline is that it had to be one page and we had to have 4 instances of parallelism. (With... with... and with..., he waited.)
---
With silence, with patience, and with fear, he waited. As he sat up straight on his bed in near perfect darkness, he chanted under his breath “This is it. This is it.” He knew that he had heard a door slam despite the fact that he had locked all of his doors, and he certainly wasn’t expecting any company at this late hour of the night. So he grabbed his shotgun, took off the safety, and sat on his bed, waiting for whatever could be behind door number one. He knew it wasn’t a new car, or a new hot tub, or a new spouse. It was the Grim Reaper behind that door, breathing his icy breath, ascending the stairs leisurely, and filling the house with his rotten odor.

“This is it.” They were just three short words, but they were all that he could speak. Next to him, his wife was lying down, not snoring like she usually did. My beautiful wife of 52 years, I’ll make sure this killer won’t get to you, he thought. Your face is so pale in this light. You used to be so much more vivacious and alive in your younger years. You used to laugh, you used to sing, you used to dance! What happened to you? What happened to us? He heard the doorknob turn, and he cocked the shotgun.

Instead of a killer or the personification of Death, it was the police. He managed to shoot one round at a cop, but he missed and was soon overtaken by blue, yellow, and black uniforms. As he was rushed out of the room, he caught one last glimpse of his wife, the two bullet holes on her visage gleaming red in the moonlight.
---
I showed it to someone and she jokingly asked if I needed help, because yeah, it is a little twisted. But her asking that made me paranoid, and I hope my teacher doesn't think i need help for writing it. I certainly wasn't depressed or upset while writing it. I really just see this as trying my hand at being a creepy writer.

Back to this health project. Peace + blessins.

~-`

Dr. Strangelove

My nickname, and the movie I'm about to view with Sir Dr. Cpl. Robert Colin Nesbit, Esq. III. But at this moment, Robert's beating Classic Mode on Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Intense (after 4 or 5 continues... n00bh4xx). He's on Master Hand right now.

Just looked at the track results, and yes we did get DQ'd in the 4x400 relay, and yes it's my fault. *beats self up* I went into lane one when we were supposed to transition from our individual lanes to lane two. rawr. But in any case, we ran 3:51, which is good for us. And I managed to get a personal record in the 300, 40.9. And Ian managed to get second in the 1000, which was all at once surprising and awesome.

So that was essentially all that happened to me today. I was gone from 11:30-7:30 riding up to Maine, cheering on my team, running, and then riding back.

The (amazing) barn concert from yesterday is up in (nearly) its entirety on the 3kewldoods channel.
Start Here:



and eventually, if you end up watching all 10 parts inbetween, you'll wind up here:



And I want to thank the late Martin Luther King Jr. in advance for his incredible contributions to civil rights and the day off tomorrow.

Robert just beat Master Hand. Took a few times.

~-~

My ears hurt.

Prolonged exposure to loud, repetitive, tinny noises is never a good thing. And yet for close to an hour and a half, I smacked the living crap out of my ride cymbal, and now there's an incessant ringing in my ears.

But it was worth it. The concert was essentially a huge success, minus the late start and the failure at playing Sandstorm.

There was Lady Gaga and there was rapping and there was a strobe light and there was of course plenty of wrock. I played four songs, two of them covers (At The Hop - Devendra Banhart), and whenever I said anything, it was awkward. Because I'm generally an awkward person. But those went well, except for All Day Long because I decided to set it to a crappy setting that didn't work at all with the song. In comparison to everything else, it was downtempo and slow. My act was surrounded my a cover of Party in The USA and RP Beatz, after all. But I was proud of it, for once. I actually had a live show that went well for once, in my opinion.

Dumbledore's Army had their best concert. We say that everytime, which is definitely a good thing. Spirits are always high.

There was a good turnout of new people and they ended up getting into it, which made us ecstatic. Rob pumped them up to no end, serving as the leader of the band and the conductor of the crowd. Other than a complete mess-up of Felix Felicis on my part, we played very well. We got loud very often. It was a beautiful show.

I need sleep, ANOTHER track meet tomorrow. I better run faster. Otherwise I'm gonna kick myself in the teeth.

~-~

Luna Lovegood > Sliced Bread

Here's essentially my blog today. There's no point in me repeating myself , really... on top of the fact that i only have 7 minutes left to post before it becomes January 16... now 6 minutes...



Voila.

I'll be posting my reflections on the concert tomorrow.

~-~