We Go Through All The Same Lines Or Sell Out To Appease

Thursday. Not too much going on today. Today is website upload day, so I have kept myself busy this morning doing that. Right now I am working on some collections stuff and still trying to clean up my headache account. The branch financial manager here recently had her 25th anniversary working for the company, so her boss and her big boss have been in town to take her and her department out to dinner to celebrate (I don't work for the branch, I'm a corporate employee who just hangs out here, and in a peculiar situation my boss and my big boss are the same person). I had teased her yesterday about behaving herself and not partying too hard, but sure enough there were a few glossy eyes and hung heads as the group filtered in this morning. Her assistant told me that they didn't get in until 4:30 this morning. So that whole situation has provided a bit of entertainment and levity around here today. Hey, if she's been around this place for 25 years I'm sure she's seen worse days than this one (and not necessarily caused by a hangover, either...).

So, the other day when I was putting together the brief history of this blog, I quickly referenced an email conversation in which my friend Lampsidebriefcase and I were goofing around instead of working. I had pulled that conversation up out of my email archive (I'm such a pack rat, I never delete anything) so I could piece the events surrounding the blog's foundation back together and I got a good chuckle out of the aforementioned emails that preceded the suggestion that we publish our own blogs. I had forgotten all about this conversation and I am still chuckling two days later, so I thought I would post it to share. There really isn't a set up to this, all you need to know is that Lampside likes to send me completely random emails out of the blue just to keep me on my toes. The following begins with just such an email:

Lampside: WAKE UP and join a karate school!

Me: I joined up with a karate school once, you know, just for kicks, but I quit when I found out I just didn't have the chops for it.

Lampside: Have you ever worked at a hardware store?

Me: Yes, actually I did. People thought I was nuts, but I was in it for the free screws. However, I was getting hammered too often after the daily grind, so I bolted.
Lampside: Wow with that experience you probably could work anywhere... I am sure you made dough at a pizza place, how about a record shop?

Me: You are correct; I worked at a pizza shop because I kneaded the dough, but it didn't deliver. So I tried to give the record shop a spin because it sounded good, but they threw me out when I skipped.

Lampside: Talking about skipping... I bet you spent some time skipping school.

Me: Correct again. I did have troubles in school. I pictured myself a good art student, but apparently the teacher thought I had drawn the wrong conclusion. Gym class never worked out for me, math never added up, and I had to repeat history. Luckily, I had a music class where the instructor initially sung my praises, however, she changed her tune after I missed some notes for my absences.

Lampside: Nice.


I listened to more Spoon this morning. I know it seemed like I came to a conclusion about Spoon in yesterday's post, but I still had a few more albums left in their discography and my choice was to either do a repeat or push on. I figured, hey, why not push on. So, today I listened to Girls Can Tell. I am wondering if I should just keep listening to more Spoon albums, because admittedly each one is getting better. I liked Girls Can Tell better than the other ones I've heard so far. I read a Pitchfork Media article about this album because I really wanted an answer to yesterday's question regarding what the big deal was about this band. I got this insightful answer: "...I don't think I've ever really captured in writing what it is about Spoon that I like so much." Hmmm... well, that's not helping. The article did mention however, that this album (and the other two discussed yesterday) came after a three-year hiatus and label change. Apparently these albums sound radically different than the albums from the previous Spoon era. I guess I have been doing things backwards by listening to the more recent albums first. I didn't know, I was just randomly picking them (looking at the release dates might have helped...). So, perhaps next time I pick out a Spoon album I'll start from the beginning where I should have started in the first place. At least this way, I've managed to save the best (hopefully) for last...