Author: Aryn Crowley

Last night I went to see a show that was part of the multi-day Tomorrow Never Knows winter music festival. Basically the premise is to get a bunch of indie bands together and help people fight their “it’s winter and this sucks” feelings. I went with two friends of mine, braving the negative 12 degree cold weather*.

*On a side note, we were discussing how one of Chris’ dog walking clients had asked him to put the “hipster coat” onto this lady’s dog which looked like the material that this guy right next to us was wearing in hat form. We all felt that this was something that a person who is either from Minnesota, Wisconsin, or cuts logs for a living would wear and not so much a hipster style.

We had not heard of the first 3 bands so were a little excited to hear something unbiased. So first things first though, the three opening bands in order of performance.

The Poison Arrows: Think of what would happen if Tool only studied the musical scores of John Carpenter films… and then played loudly on huge drums. I don’t think I need to see them again.

Alla: This band seemed to rely on shoegaze jams far too much, without having enough forward direction. They did have some interesting builds in their songs, but I felt like the vocals were both too hard to hear, and swallowed by way too much reverb. Ultimately, they just didn’t know when to climax and end the song.

Dissapears: Loud, washy, reverby British vocals; blah.

Finally, Department of Eagles: The band had a minimal stage setup, with small amps, shared swapping of guitars and an unassuming, almost awkward presence. Clearly this band was very good with dynamics, which was a nice change from the continually echoing noise of the previous groups.

The interplay between the members was subtle and maintained the sound of the album In Ear Park; it was nice to hear that they can actually play what they’ve recorded instead of overly relying on too many studio fixes. The lead singer Daniel Rossen’s voice was clear, and coupled nicely with the backup vocals from the drummer.

Dept. of Eagles’ drummer added a lot to the group: I am kind of a sucker for drummers who play with mallets and know when to lay out for (and turn off the snare) during a quieter sections.

Strangely, the band actually ran out of material to play leaving the audience slightly puzzled with the ending. He said something along the lines “Thanks for letting us play” and then with the audience expecting something else he said “really we don’t have any more songs.. this is awkward.” I think they just replaced the bass player and it’s possible they had not had the chance to beef up their set yet.

Oh, and the man with the red hat turned out to be the drummer, so maybe it IS a hipster hat…

Here is a video of Dept. of Eagles playing “No One Does It Like You” from Bell House, in Brooklyn NY in October of last year:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3S1_vs2MDU[/youtube]

So as I now have a shared bathroom that I split with the rest of the floor, I’ve been noticing more and more that there are different types of flusher users out there. Here are the differences I’ve noticed:

“The Nihilistic Flusher” – No flush. (Not so common)

“The Single Flusher” – This person goes in , does their business and flushes once at the end. (Pretty Common)

“The Double Flusher” – This person goes in, flushes at the start, and then once more again at the end. (Also Pretty Common)

“The Intermittent Flusher” – This person may or may not flush at the start, but will flush 2 or 3 times during their stay, and once at the end. Do they need this extra noise to keep out the stage fright? (Happens more than you’d think)

And today, I’ve encountered a new breed never before heard in the wild (at least by me):

“The Double Trouble Intermittent Flusher” – This guy flushed TWO toilets at the start, one or two in the middle, and then BOTH toilets at the end. That a lot of water displacement. Does he feel more manly having two handles to pull down at the start and finish? So many questions..

Did I miss any?

So I was just perusing our spam that had been caught in the ol’ filter and came across this one.. Its basically a bunch of cleaning tips.. :

GUM: To remove chewing gum from kids clothing – harden the gum on the garment with ice; it will become brittle, and can be chipped off, wash thoroughly to remove any sugar.

CANDLE WAX: Place the stained area between paper towels, or pieces of brown paper, and press with a warm iron to absorb the wax.

PERSPIRATION: Soak the stain area in a warm white-vinegar water.

INK: Do not use hairspray on ball point pen ink. The oils and lanolin in the hairspray can cause more stains. Bring it to us.

General Tips
Never iron fabric with a deodorant stain, as this will permantly damage the fabric.
Be very careful not to get suntan oils on garments as many of them will permanently stain.
Do not attempt to remove cosmetic stains yourself, as the color in cosmetics runs easily and enlarges the stain.
Never wash an egg stain in hot water – this will cause the stain to set.
The safest form of mild bleach for whitening all natural fibers is white vinegar.
A common fatal error is the use of acetone in home stain removal. Acetate fibers will dissolve in acetone – Don’t attempt your own stain removal.
Some water spots on fabrics such as taffeta or silk can be removed by holding the fabric over steam (as from a kettle) and then ironing gently while damp.
If the stain is still wet, do not rub it, or you will spread it. Simply try and absorb excess moisture with paper towel or cotton towel….

And it goes on like this for a long long time… intermixed with links to various other pages that I didn’t care to click on.

Oh those spammers.. what will they think of next.