ATTENTION

This journal is now obsolete. It will remain here, and maybe will be posted to again. And I will continue to post to various communities on occasion.

Please update your bookmarks to redirect you to my new blog:

lolz at zach.

Thanks to all who read this journal during my 18+ months here on ElJay.

It was hot yesterday. Hit 90 I think. The Mets are just as hot right now. And so am I, according to a note that was thrown at me at the UCBT with a phone number on it. Creepy. Maybe its my haircut? Yeah, I cut my hair. Pretty majorly, too.

Work is going well with the exception that I give up weekend nights. Pizza is so awesome. I honestly can't think of anything that could ever be as awesome as pizza. It even beats out bears and improv. And don't even think about comparing sex to pizza. Can you put sausage on sex? Okay, don't answer that. Bad example.

Here's a fucking meme.

01. Reply with your name and your breakfast food of preference and I will write something about you.
02. I will then tell what reminds me of you.
03. If I were to apply an o'clock to you, it would be...
04. I will try to name a single word that best describes you.
05. I'll tell you the most memorable moment I've had with you.
06. I'll then tell you something that I've always wondered about you.
07. Put this in your journal.

Hi, y'all. Summer has been nice, despite being dismissed from Amazon Cafe within a day and a half of working there. They seriously screwed me, and I guilt-tripped them majorly. All's well though, because I've got two potential jobs that are just as good, maybe better.

There's lots going on this summer -- job, the Mets & baseball, UCBT & improv, cool stuff, cool people, etc. The Mets are an exciting team to watch this year, despite not winning everyday.

The Fountains of Wayne concert in Central Park yesterday was absolutely fantastic. It's a large outdoor venue, but it had a very intimate feel to it. There was a small meet & greet area. As I did last year with Liz, I met Fountains of Wayne, but this time before and not after the show. And this time, I did indeed know where the guitarist's drummer was. (see: this post.)


( Concert Pictures & Set List )


There were some drunk hipster dicks next to us who were real assholes during Ben Kweller's set (he was the opener, going solo). After he opened with his version of Ice Ice Baby called BK Baby, some fuck shouted out "How did THIS guy get a CONTRACT?!" When Ben mentioned Fountains of Wayne, one of these guys shouts "Much better!" Ben whispers a sarcastic "thanks" in the microphone glancing in their direction. Without trying to cause a fight, I say "Listen, you don't have to like it, but you don't have to be a dick about it." They apologize, and nothing else like that happened.

Also, I got a 17-inch flat screen monitor from Dell, and it's AWESOME. Makes my computer just so much more pleasing to look at. Next computer though? Powerbook. Definitely.

Bought Yankees vs. Mets Subway Series tickets for late June. Dave and I are going to wear our Mets caps on the subway up to the Bronx. It's gonna be brutal.

Uhh.. is there more to say? Probably.

TONIGHT

IT CONTINUES...

SUBWAY SERIES 2K5

My Tentative Fall 2005 Class Schedule

Monday
1:25 - 2:15pm - Geo-Sci 370: Urban Geography, Gaubatz
2:30 - 3:45pm - Journalism 345: Media Criticism, Whitehead
3:35 - 7:00pm - Comp-Lit 381: Self-Reflective Avant-Garde Film (Lecture & Film), Levine

Tuesday
9:30 - 10:45am - Comm 391C: Media Audiences, West
11:15am - 12:30pm - Psych 380: Abnormal Psychology, Overtree
2:30 - 3:45pm - Comp-Lit 381 (Discussion)
4:00 - 5:15pm - Comm 297D: Film & Television Production Concepts, Geisler

Wednesday
1:25 - 2:15pm - Geo-Sci 370
2:30 - 3:45pm - Journalism 345

Thursday
9:30 - 10:45am - Comm 391C: Media Audiences, West
11:15am - 12:30pm - Psych 380: Abnormal Psychology, Overtree
4:00 - 5:15pm - Comm 297D: Film & Television Production Concepts, Geisler

Friday
1:25 - 2:15pm - Geo-Sci 370

( Total Advertising Ploy Behind Cut )

1. Post the names of 25 of your favorite musicians
2. See who can guess which is your favorite song by each.
3. Once someone guesses right, bold that row and include the song.

These are in alphabetical (not favorite) order.

1) Andrew W.K. - Your Rules, yes_lets
2) The Beatles
3) Belle & Sebastian
4) Ben Folds - Kalamazoo, yes_lets
5) Ben Folds Five - Eddie Walker, yes_lets
6) Ben Kweller
7) Billy Joel - Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, alison_jane
8) Death Cab for Cutie
9) The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly, theblumbox
10) Fountains of Wayne - Valley Winter Song, yes_lets
I would've also accepted Bright Future in Sales.
11) Green Day
12) Guster
13) New Pornographers
14) OK Go - You're So Damn Hot, chemical_war
15) The Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day, crashdiet
16) The Postal Service - Such Great Heights, tshifttwo
17) Queen - Somebody to Love, princesspuffer
18) Rilo Kiley
19) Rooney - Sorry Sorry, tshifttwo
20) The Shins - Fighting in a Sack, tshifttwo
21) Simon & Garfunkel
22) Steely Dan
23) Straylight Run
24) They Might Be Giants
25) Wilco - Hummingbird, girlandtonic

EDIT: I recently removed Beulah and added Rilo Kiley. (5:53pm)
FYI - My favorite Beulah song is Popular Mechanics for Lovers.

EDIT #2: I recently removed The Cure and added Death Cab for Cutie. (April 1st, 12:39pm)
Reason: I cannot fucking believe how I managed to leave Death Cab off this list.
FYI - My favorite Cure song is In Between Days.

R. I. P.



"I love blackjack. But I'm not addicted to gambling. I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle."

"I saw a human pyramid once. It was very unnecessary. It did not need to exist."

"I got my hair highlighted, because I felt some strands were more important than others."

( THIS FRIDAY... )

You are

WARNING: This entry will ramble, and there will be a lot of stuff I'm leaving out. I'm doing my best to get all the highlights down.

SATURDAY: Workshop with Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman, and Abby Sher. Awesome. Saw Samantha. Awesome. Met up with Nick, went to Grand Central, Samantha went home, we had lunch at the Oyster Bar. Went down to Chinatown, had dinner at Joe's Shanghai. Went up to the UCBT, saw Respecto. Very disappointing from them, but still a fun show. It was only Chad Carter and Jackie Clarke, with Amy Rhodes and Chris Gethard filling in for others. Nick and I made our way to Juvie Hall and saw some decent stuff at The Project.

SUNDAY: Took the subway downtown with the intention of going to the Statue of Liberty, instead we walked back up through SoHo and Greenwich Village, stopping into the Flying A, the adidas store, among others, and then having a late lunch at French Roast. But not before running into Marcy Braidman and Natalie Baseman on the street. Craziness. I love New York. Up to the UCBT to see ASSSSCAT. Benny and Dave met up with us later. It was great to see them. It was one of the better 'CATs I've seen. Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz, Kevin Dorff, Rachel Dratch, Rachel Hamilton, Miriam Tolin, Seth Meyers, and Brian Huskey were all there. It was pretty fantastic.

MONDAY: The drive. We arrived in Chicago at about 11:00pm Central Time. It was a really great drive. This country needs a whole lot less Pennsylvania.

TUESDAY: Woke up early to get some keys made and hassled around for like an hour trying to get parking passes we realized we didn't need in the first place. After some relaxing, it was off to brunch at Orange, which was FANTASTIC. Nick and I then took a train and bus we shouldn't've taken down to the South Side of Chicago for a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, which we arrived at while it was closing. I did manage to catch a bit of the train exhibit, though, which pumped me up. We took the same scary bus & train combo back to Wrigleyville (where we're staying) with Liz, where she met up with Andy and they went out to dinner. At some point we made it ImprovOlympic where we saw "Play" upstairs at the Del Close Theater, and then "Bassprov" followed by Traffic & Weather/The Lottery in the Cabaret. Needless to say, my first night at IO was a good one. A bunch of us headed to Misty's for some beers, but I bailed early due to exhaustion.

WEDNESDAY: Woke up, lazied around for hours, watched "50 First Dates," and became a little frustrated. Not necessarily in that order. Nick and I headed downtown to check out the John Hancock Building. We stood in awe as we looked up 96 stories at one of the coolest buildings I have ever seen. We took the trip up to the top, but were turned away from the Lounge because of my young age. Back downstairs we went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Nick seemed more in awe of the restaurant than the John Hancock building. Joking. Took the red line to Addison, and got some nice shots of Wrigley Field. Wow. Saw three Harold teams perform at IO: Sturgis, Mother Russia, and Carl & the Passions. Each got increasingly better as the show went along, in that order. Carl & the Passions was closest to NYC improv that I have seen. We headed to a pizza shop, got kicked out of a pizza shop, and proceeded to watch the best improv show I've ever seen outside of WeirDass (DCM '04). Messing with a Friend featured Susan Messing and three friends, one of which was ex-husband Joe Canali, and two others whose names I forget right now. Trainwreck was Dan Bakkedahl and Zachary Thompson (filling in for Ed Furman) doing a half-hour scene in "real-time," which was absolutely brilliant. As was Messing with a Friend. We headed to Misty's for a cigarette filled party that made my clothes stink.

THURSDAY: Woke up, went out to eat and had Crab Cakes Benedict. Nick went off to see some people and participate in a free impromptu workshop with TJ Jagadowski that I wasn't allowed to go to. Andy and I took the bus down to Lincoln Park, walked to Old Town, and shopped like MANIACS. Andy bought an ice cream spade. I bought jeans and a shirt. Whoo. Took the train back to the apartment, Nick met us there and we got picked up by Doug & Jackie Rapp to eat dinner in Hyde Park, the area where University of Chicago is. Doug was kind enough to give us an absolutely breathtaking tour of the city of Chicago. This was the best view I've had yet. Spectacular. We were dropped off at the Playground, and we saw one of the worst improv shows I've ever seen. Sciatica, Bevy (six girls), Miss Hawaiin Tropic (2-person improv), Inside Vladimir all disappointed to what I was expecting. Vladimir was only half-good, and the rest were pretty terrible. Nick and I walked over to IO, and then back to Jon & Adam's where we took off for Eric Cartier's place in Andersonville. Fun party, I drank a 2-liter bottle of Coke, and then we took a cab back home to Wrigleyville where I type this. Nick isn't here, he didn't come with us to the party, I have no idea where he is. He is a ghost.

FRIDAY: ??

SATURDAY: ??

Chapter One

( IMPROV-A-THON )

RLLsinger: want me to make a poopy joke?
Sgt Pepper ZL: YES
Sgt Pepper ZL: ALWAYS
RLLsinger: i just made an awesome poop.
RLLsinger: It was delicious.
RLLsinger: poopir.
RLLsinger: **poopie.
RLLsinger: poopie doopie doo.
RLLsinger: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Birthday rundown to follow.

From Gawker.com...


FEB 21 2005

Bad News For Hipsters: Hilary Duff Is On To You

Gawker exclusive: Hilary Duff has defiled the ironically disastrous alcoves normally reserved for downtown New York’s finest assymetrical haircuts! In what can only be described as a painful fit of post-punk partying, Miss Liquid Ice spent Friday night asserting her hipster cred and spacing out to Joy Division at East Village inferno Lit. This only prepared her for Saturday night, where she graced the weekly Misshapes party with her DJ skills. (She played a lot of Smiths, we hear, and we bet she made friends with Queen Leigh Lezark. But did she use the bathrooms? That’s the real question.) So, um, what the fuck? How could bubbly clean Duff invade these smoke-filled, drug-oozing dens of indie sin? And, more importantly, what will Disney think?

On that note, all of you art students should probably head to Queens. Lizzie McGuire just killed your identity.

UPDATE: Our informants tell us that it’s worse than we thought: last night, the Duffster hit the Motherfucker brouhaha to catch Bloc Party before making her way over to Morrissey night at Sway. And then, she got a lifetime subscription to Spin and ate six pairs of legwarmers.

presents...
AUDITIONS
for I . W . A .
IMPROV with ATTITUDE
a brand spanking new long-form comedy improv company from the people that brought you Toast!, and in association with Mission: IMPROVable, and Sketch-22
OPPORTUNITIES to AUDITION for 3 COMEDY IMPROV TEAMS!
THIS TUESDAY
Machmer W-25, 6:30pm

And forget about Valentine's Day.
She wasn't right for you anyway.

Comment here for more info.

Death of a Playwright

Arthur Miller passes away at the age of 89.



Milestones:

• Wrote "The Crucible," "All My Sons," "A View From the Bridge," and perhaps the greatest American play "Death of a Salesman," among many others.


• 1999 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award


• He was a target of the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.


• Fucked and married Marilyn Monroe


• Pissed off Joe DiMaggio


• Smoked a pipe.

In 1949, famed New York Times theatre critic Brooks Atkinson reviewed "Death of a Salesman."
"It is so simple in style and so inevitable in theme that it scarcely seems like a thing that has been written and acted," Atkinson wrote. "(He) has looked with compassion into the hearts of some ordinary Americans and quietly transferred their hope and anguish to the theater."

Two iTunes/iPod Memes

iTunes
How many total songs? 2,676

Sort by Song Title - first and last?
First: "You can close the New York Stock Exchange" / Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins cast recording
Last: Zigzagging Through Ghostland - The Radiators

Sort by Time - first and last?
First: Horn Intro - Modest Mouse (0:09)
Last: The 2004 Democratic National Convention, Day Four, 7/29/04 (1:41:55)

Sort by Album - first and last?
First: "5th" - Lee Michaels
Last: You Can Play These Songs With Chords - Death Cab For Cutie

Top Ten Most Played Songs:
1. Your Rules - Andrew W.K. (450)
2. Testament to Youth in Verse - The New Pornographers (129)
3. All For Swinging You Around - The New Pornographers (127)
4. Chump Change - The New Pornographers (124)
5. The End of Medicine - The New Pornographers (124)
6. From Blown Speakers - The New Pornographers (122)
7. Electric Version - The New Pornographers (120)
8. The New Face of Zero and One - The New Pornographers (120)
9. Miss Teen Wordpower - The New Pornographers (120)
10. Laws Have Changed - The New Pornographers (119)

Find "sex," how many songs show up?
5

Find "death," how many songs show up?
30

Find "love," how many songs show up?
123

iPod

Make: 3rd Gen, 20gig.

length of ownership: 6 months

length of time it took Apple to come out with a cooler IPOD after you bought yours: The 4th gen was already out, but I wasn't a fan of the click-wheel design. The iPod Photo came out a little bit after that, but that one's lame.

Still using the White Earphones: Yes. 2nd pair.

Stil HAVE the White Earphones: On my 2nd pair, but probably soon to get a 3rd. I love how they fit in my ears perfectly. Although I'm really aiming for a set of those awesome Bose headphones.

Specs: Currently 2,672 songs, taking up 8.3 gigs.

Song number 1: (Alphabetized) "You can close the New York Stock Exchange" / Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins cast recording

Song number 2,672: (Alphabatized) Zigzagging Through Ghostland - The Radiators

Song that comes up right now when I hit Random song shuffle: The Stranger - Billy Joel

Song that I wish had come up to make me look cooler: TKO - Le Tigre

A quote about your iPod: You are mine, not Lauren Mapp's. I own you.

In two years, my iPod will be: Most likely replaced by the Apple store with an identical model.