Haven't blogged in a lot of days.

Yeah, so I went to New Hampshire. It was totally fun until my grandparents started snapping at everyone they could see and I was forced into more boring activities than I ever thought I'd have to do and I had to sleep on a cement floor with an oxygen tank sighing loudly at me all through the night and my brother snoring. Thank you for that, my darling brother. The rest of vacation was alright. I was thrown out of bed around eight every day. Which was unfortunate, since it screwed up my head, but the rest of the days were decent. The trip was devoid of hipsters, besides a couple at Hershey Park. Hershey Park was pretty, and it was probably pretty darn awesome if you didn't have a chronic fear of head trama that made you stay away from rides at all costs. Which I do, for the time being, anyway. I should get on a ride at some time in my life, but what if that happens to be a head trama inducing one?! I hate near death experiences. Two is enough for one life. First the bolting horse, then the drowning. Too much risk taking. If I cut that out, I can (maybe) count on a gentle death in my sleep when I'm old. That sounds better than being taken down by something that's scary, or something that hurts. For some reason, when I tell my father about this philosophy, he tells me not to committ suicide. Which is stupid, because suicide is the last thing I'd do, right now. Or ever. I'm sort of anti - causing myself any pain at all. I won't even rip off a bandaid.

But I'm rambling. I could say it's 'cause I'm tired, but I've had so much caffiene today, I don't even think tiredness is possible. I've had two Pepsis, one very large, and a mocha frappichino that made me unable to sit still for the better part of a day. Coffee is my favorite thing in the world. Today was boring. Eleven, almost twelve hours in the car with two and a half books does that. Suddenly, having seven hundred songs on my iPod feels like nothing. I don't even have Machina on there yet. I need Dayglo so darn bad. Oh, that reminds me of something I need to rant about after I finish talking about this. The first book I read was 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' but Oscar Wilde. Best. Book. Ever. Not only did the author's personal life hook me from the start, the novel was so entertaining and thought provoking. I read a lot of classics, but I have to confess that some of them are things I read because I know they're meant to be good, even if I don't adore them. Like 'Pride And Prejudice', which I recently re - read. This book was different. Wilde writes in a way that is easier to understand, since the book was more recent than the average classic, but something about the way he writes is so artistic and fascinating. That's the first novel, bar none, I've read in a long time where I found myself re - reading parts because they were so darn good. Nobody writes things like that anymore. I wish I hadn't already finished 'Tunnel', because then I could try writing more like the way he writes. Maybe it's just as well though, because I don't want to start ripping him off... Anywho. The second book I read was 'The Dave Grohl Story' which was okay. The first part about his upbringing and his first experiences with the DC hardcore scene were good reading, particularly for someone who lives where I do. The part about Nirvana was interesting, but it ended up leaving me more annoyed than anything else, because the author had it out for Kurt & Courtney, from the very start, it was all about Kurt trying to decimate the band and Courtney treating him as a puppet and alienating the whole world through her sheer Courtneyness. Don't get me wrong, I don't object to Courtney bashing in the least, I, like about ninety five percent of the world, doesn't like her at all, but Kurt? By most accounts, he was a sweet, sort of misunderstood person who tended towards being very quiet. Not a band decimater, at least, not on purpose. So that was frustrating to read. The Foo Fighters part was alright. Mostly, it idolized Dave and took shots at everyone else in the music industry. Which is always nice to read about. If one was a manic Foo Fighers fan, they might appreciate it a little more. I can't call myself that, not even owning one of their albums, so I had only passing interest in parts of it. The last half of a book was this Christian woman genericish novel my mother had. I read it because I had two hours left and my other books were done. I could have attempted 'Paradise Lost', but I was sick of weeding through annotations after 'The Taming Of The Shrew' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. Nothing better for light reading than a book intended for thirty somethings who like romance without any physical contact. Those books are generally full of cliches and impossiblities that would be profoundly annoying anywhere else, but are kind of funny there. This particular one was about some woman who works at a cancer clinic and then gets breast cancer and falls in love with the doctor who she works for. Dunno if the irony's meant to get it pegged as witty or smart, but it had a rather fourth grade reading level, so I mostly just read it to pass time. Never finished it, don't know if I will. My mother doesn't like me reading her books, which is understandable, because I wouldn't let her go near mine.

Oh. Yes. Love Battery is playing their first show in years for seven dollars at an all ages club. Guess what city it's in. Freemont, in, y'know, Seattle. I can't really complain that they're sticking to their roots, and with the economy or whatever, it's probably hard to fly out to DC, but... I need you to play here, Love Battery!! My devotion for this band has reached a manic obsessive level over the past few weeks induced by repeated plays of Straight Freak Ticket and a crush on Ron Nine. I want to write them a fan letter, preferably begging them to come to DC or Northern Virginia. My parents rejected my offer to be in debt for several years so I could fly myself and one of them there. I actually cried over it. Twice. I might be a stupid suburban kid who knows nothing of real suffering, but I want to see Love Battery. So bad. Ron Nine normally plays more with his new band anyway. I should check them out. Down With People, they're called. Oh well. I'll have to content myself with finding out how to burn my Between The Eyes cassette to iTunes and hunting down copies of Confusion Au Go Go and Dayglo. I'm actually drained of cash, for the time being, because I sold my darling old guitar and bought myself a new one.

It is a white Epiphone G - 310 SG, which is a long way of saying it's a pretty normal looking electric guitar that can do a lot and isn't too complicated or expensive. Well, actually, it does cost more than I'd like, but I had enough, so I figured I may as well live within my means. Oh, speaking of musical instruments, I can ramble about piano for a little while, right? I practiced on my grandparents piano, which was old and out of tune and felt all wrong to me. It screwed up my Prelude so darn much. Prelude is turning out to be one of my favorite songs. Not just to play, but to hear. Although, playing it is really exhilerating, in a way. The progression of notes that are part of the D minor (I think) chords in both hands is so fun. I don't even think about what my fingers are doing very much anymore, which is my favorite part of learning any song. I like playing classical ten times better than playing pop or rock. That said, I've cultivated an odd little aspiration to play piano in a riot girl or grunge band (that sounds more like one of the heavier, earlier ones). Something like Green River, only maybe even heavier. And with a piano. Mostly, this is because I'm incapable on the guitar and enjoy playing the same five power chords way too much to make something of myself, but also because the idea just appeals to me quite a lot. Can't imagine how I'll find multiple people willing to work with that, but that doesn't mean it'll never happen.

Oh, goodness, this entry was long and rambling and had almost no content worth actually reading. Music lately has been Love Battery. I swear, the only thing besides a couple of L7 songs I listened to the entire duration of my trip to New Hampshire was the two albums currently on my iPod. Drowning Sun is the best song in the world. What other artist can pull off the groovy thing?! Might have already mentioned that, but still... I've been listening to Nirvana and Mudhoney too. Also some Pavement, which makes me worry that I might turn into a hipster some day. Then there's Veruca Salt and Bratmobile and Lady Gaga. I really like 'Love Game'. No idea why. In fact, I don't think I want to know. I listened to more Devo, and then some Le Tigre. More of the same thing I always listen to, really. And always Love Battery. They catch me by surprise in the best ways. Thus why they're beating out Smashing Pumpkins for my second favorite band, at least, right now.