Ahh! Another one!

My pa and I visted the other day, he finaly told me about his time in the Yucatan during Wilma. Apparently his cheaper hotel was somehow the safest and witheld the storm better than any of the surrounding structures. He was going to come home complaining about living off of hot dogs while he was on his vacation, but he ran into a lot of people with stories on his way back to Detroit. Some guy he talked to, from East Lansing, lived off of a piece of fruit a day...

In other news, school is hard when you've lost your academic confidence. I've lost it! I have claves and maracas, but none of that.

Wait, I've got it back. 4.0!

Here's a dorky, kinda-one-sided, movie about organic foods that I had to watch today.

That theremin ben was after went for $51. The next one is already on ebay and they all can't go for $51, can they?

You remember my first post? I found out what a wandering genie is. I want one.

Yet, Lowrey's website sucks, is boring:

"Thank you for the inquiry,There are several reasons the Wandering Genie as well as some other models are not on the web page. They have reached a 10 yr. old plus age. Since then many more Newer Models were introduced, Also many more accessory items were added. We try to keep units on as long as it is practical on the web page - but it gets crowded fast. So we have to eliminate something. So we look at items that are 10 years or more old to make room for the NEW."

I found this thing on ebay it's at least cool looking. Ben's trying to buy it and I hope he wins.

Huh. Yesterday I saw footage of the hurricane over Cancun. I hope my pa is ok vacationing down there...

Update: I got a call this morning from Casey, my dad's girlfriend's daughter. She said they're fine and will be back tuesday.

That's Claudel--you can tell she's a true artist because of her awesome hair.

I love whoever you are for checking up on me. I've been sick and unproductive academically lately. I need a motivational speaker. Can I buy one at the meridian mall? A motivational loudspeaker. ha.

I wrote something about phones today.

On the title track off of Sufjan's new album, 3:08 in, Sufjan uses a sound that I wanted to use. :( It's the noise that my keyboard makes when I put it through my crappy little amp.

I didn't notice that pete was missing anything from his wardrobe until today:

Frontier Ruckus is signed?:

memorytrees: hey man
elodeist: hey matt
memorytrees: a record label/collective wants frontier ruckus in it
elodeist: no way, what are they about?

memorytrees: they're gonna record our album for free
elodeist: wow, that's insane.
memorytrees: sent me a lengthy email
elodeist: wow, cool, you have people courting you...
elodeist: have you wrote back?
memorytrees: ya i was just talkin to him
memorytrees: we're in!
elodeist: wow

To my readers who check this site a few times a day, I apologize for the drought of blogging. You should know that it is not for lack of interesting events in my life. What with the sit or spin session today, missing Pete-comedy at last Spartan standing the other night, and all sorts of papers due and writing and band stuff...But I won't get into that too much. The future's where it's at.

I've got 2 papers due and two tests this week. But I'll get it all done if I don't procrastinate. More.

Also, I'll be posting more this week out of sheer procrastination.

See the post from August 22nd.

I wrote my old Art History Prof.:

Prof. Jing,

I attended two of your lectures on the first emperor's terracotta soldiers. After running into some of the actual larger-than-life terracotta soldiers and horses in New York City and an additional two that seemed to be guarding a ridge in Kansas City, I wondered what was going on. Do you know anything about the warriors going on tour?

Zach

He wrote back:

Zach,

They may have sent a few samples here and there, but only a few pieces. The images don't look great when they are separated from the others.

Prof. Jing

Conclusion:

He's right about the statues needing to be together. They were basically assemly-line built and despite the ornate detailing of parts like the bottom of their shoes, their whole point is to be in a room with thousands of their copies. But yeah, he really didn't know much or anything more about them being sent around the world than I do. What do you think?

Wrench + Saw = Rhythm Section

So, the themed houseparty was fun. A good and unexpected amount of my friends came and drank a few and said they enjoyed seeing and hearing me. I have to say that though we played Aeroplane, Crazy Train was the best.

Jon Huguelet wasn't shot by anyone Saturday, but he knows a girl who's car fell victim to the shooter. Right between the headlights. Also, I hope that the guy that got grazed by a bullet in the back of the head realizes that a really small change in the way he acted could have killed him; and that's lucky.

I tried the Google blog-search: it was hard to find my blog, but I was the 2nd result when I typed 'Zach Zooms.'

Akers Hall Music Room Guidelines (Effective 5/15/89):

1. MUSIC ROOM KEY CAN BE CHECKED OUT BY AKERS RESIDENTS ONLY FROM THE WEST DESK.
2. TIME LIMIT OF 1 HOUR. EXEPTIONS GRANTED IF THERE IS NOT A WAITING LIST.
3. NO AMPLIFIED MUSIC.
4. NO DRUMS.
5. NO EATING OR SMOKING.
6. FAILURE TO ABIDE BY THE ABOVE GUIDELINES WILL RESULT IN REVOCATION OF THE PRIVILEGE TO USE THE MUSIC ROOM.

Adopted by Akers Hall Residence Association (5/30/89)

This weekend was wonderful; again, probably due to all of the visiting.

My sawing skills are getting better, and though I really enjoy practicing, I don't think my roommate enjoys the dulcet vibrato of the saw like I do. Lately, I've been working on softening the interesting noise you get while the bow is first in contact with the saw. It's delicate, but getting a bit better. Also, playing along to a couple Frontier-Ruckus songs: Rosemont and Abigail.

It was great playing with the guys last Saturday. Our up and coming concert dates? Matt and Dave are definately performing Wednesday (in Ann Arbor), but I think I'm going too. Though, I might just play with them for a couple songs. Next Saturday however I will surely play the concert here in East Lansing and then the Monday after in Ann Arbor.

I'm learning how to speak French. Other than that, my classes aren't very interesting.

A summary:

Labor day was the best weekend I'd had in a while: I think it was all the visiting.

Watched a couple movies over at Derrek and Ben's including Beowulf (with Christopher Lambert): the worse adaptation of anything to anything, ever.

Went to Elderly with Ben to get a guitar string and ended up staying an hour, playing a variety of instruments including a banjo-uke and an accordion that was just like Jeremy Barnes'! While I was pouring over the capo section (yes, a whole section), I noticed that Jeff Daniels was standing right next to me. Ben said hi and talked to him about his music, Daniels said Elderly is his 2nd home. And later I overheard him talk about how his next idea for an album was a cookbook where the songs would be different recipes. Tomato Pudding?

Learned to play saw and responded to an "ad" to play it with an e6 influenced band. Sept. 17. Also, Ben and I are playing at a cookout this sunday for free food. And the first dollar that Elodea made was from kindly, but lying, high-school students it turns out.

Lost my wallet somewhere. It's odd because I remember exactly what I did between the time I lost it and realized it was gone, checked everywhere I'd been and still, no wallet. Everything is canceled and I have a replacement ID, so that's good...and I have to admit it was fun having my friends sneak me into landon caf to get food.

Ate Orange Juice.

The LGBTGA Pride meeting last night was really fun. My friend lauron, who asked me to come, was there with her girlfriend Meghan. The winds of change is like musical chairs except there's no music. It helps me make friends!

I went to my remaining 2 classes today. Hilariously, my TE150 "prof" has the personality of one of those cooky science personalities (Bill Nye, Dr. Science, or Beakman--not Mr. Wizard). He made us get together for a skit that would help remind the class of our names. We chose alliteration: Jessica Jumps. Zach Zooms. Then, he went into a detailed discussion on how to access the MSU email service...

After classes, I visited Ben to rock out. He has this friend who lives down the hall who's painfully good at bass and guitar, but spends his time practicing Dave Mathews and the like. Crash! Into me, baby. He told me that he plans on writing music, but doesn't yet feel like he's good enough to play what he would write. When you can play every part of Canon in D like this kid...sigh.

My roommate wants to know what a bumbleclot is. Google says it's a Jamaican insult, but what does it really mean? I sort of got the hint that it means confused asshole, but still, I'd like to hear from an authority on Jamaican diction if at all possible.

Another day, another run in with Graham. This one not so bad for either of us I think. Just funny in a weird way. Sure, I still felt depressed but the feeling mostly passed.

Actually, Graham didn't see me despite being at arms length. Still weird.

I had been playing music with Ben at, I mean outside, of starbucks. It was going slow and then a couple people stopped and listened to us. We responded under the pressure. I think we really did a good job and that felt really wonderful after not playing together well in 3 months or so. And later, We ended up teaching them a melodica part and playing a song with them! For our efforts, we met two girls, one, a possible romanic interest for Ben. Best of all, we earned a whole dollar. Yes, you really can make money with music! Anyway, after they left, Ben and I just practiced and improvised off of a simple latin chord progression that went like: A Bb(Augmented) D D. Then we just messed around and talked for awhile (Graham walked by somewhere in there). Then, we met this homeless guy that said he lost his ID and we sat stumped about how you get ID when you don't have ID. We asked him a series of questions and found that he'd saved up the $14 it costs to get a new one at the secretary of state, but he needed his birth certificate or some like document to get it. Of course, you need ID to get a copy of your birth certificate too...We decided later that he could save up for a fake ID. I'll report on the Pride meeting I went to tomarow, but here's a taste: we played a game called "the winds of change."

Went out for dubs last night.

The hurricane spanning several states makes me nervous to watch.

Running into graham yesterday was awkward and depressing. He complimented my shirt, said it was nice. It is nice. We both could have stayed in the same place but, of course, it was bad for him too (for more go to gamblejones.com). I hate the situation, and worse, I can't pretend like it's not my fault...I wonder if he reads this like I read his.
I remember times when I was really angry at Graham. The time he yelled, with blatant spite, 'lukyguy' at me for more than a few minutes. Maybe some of my readers remember that. I think I just chalked it up to him being a dick and reminded myself never to talk him again, but it's easy to forget when a friend calls you up months later to go out for coffee. However, it's really easy to remember the low points in our friendship now. Sour grapes, I think.

I can't stop thinking about how he didn't really want me to visit him at Kcollege. Whenever Graham comes up in conversation, and Graham's present disposition towards me, our many common friends remember to me how much he was complaining about me, invited, going to visit him. What a burden it was to have me drive 4 hours to see him. How annoying I am. But again, that's just me finding faults in an ex friend that hates me, which is too easy to do no matter who it is. If I were on the opposite side, I'd look at me and perhaps think, I'm annoying, poorly read, and pretentious beyond my intelligence. I wear bad shirts, I drive a car with a dumb license plate, swoop and generally suck. (I don't mean to cut the list short, but I can't be too self deprecating without feeling like more of an ass).

Anyway, today I had 3 of my 5 classes. Bought a $160 French book. It hurt, paying for it, but now I can do my homework. Ate with Sandi, Derrek, Pete, and Seth. We talked about comics, our respective majors (Spanish, Advertizing, Journalism, and English) and the bullshit our colleges put us through. It's rough all over, Cherry.

I conquered my sickness. Did I wuss out and go to the doctor? No, I crawled under my covers and let my white blood cells do the dirty work.

Also, I drove to Kansas City with my dad.
My grandparents (91, 92) are losing it. Poker explains it all. Grandpa dealt 6 cards nearly every time. Grandma couldn't remember which part of the game we were at, always asking for more cards...These people have been playing 5 card draw for like 70 years and now they don't remember how. Still, I managed to lose...

(The Plaza)

Walking down to the plaza, after my dad was asleep, and getting a cafe au lait at Latte To Go was certainly the best part of the trip. Later in my wandering I saw, gaurding the bridge, two larger than life terra-cotta Chinese soldiers that were actually built for the first emperor of china and buried for a thousand years. Touched them even. I had seen them in NYC and thought that was special (after learning about them in Art History), but being able to walk around them and scrutinize made them more real for me. Also, it was especially great because they were just out in the open. No sign explaining how cool or even what they were! Walking to the plaza this year reminded me of walking to it last year. Also alone last time, I wandered the much more lively streets. There was a band playing on every corner and on a rooftop I heard The Violent Femmes playing 'Gimme the Car Dad' and later, 'Blister in the Sun'. I remember giving $5 to someone, busking, playing Elliot Smith. That was when a) I thought elliot smith could do no wrong and b) I had money.


The driving really wasn't bad except that it was another 13 hour drive. Actually, the worst bit of driving I've been doing lately was tonight when I had to dodge a dog walking in the middle of Milford Road... It should be careful I guess. I honked and maybe it learned it's lesson.