NP: The Cult, Pure Cult: The Singles 1984-1995 (MP3)

On the heels of the George Ryan bit from last time, both Red Eye and Red Streak, Chicago's "hip new" tabloid papers from the Trib and Sun-Times, respectively, used the same "Boy, George" headline the other day. That's just hilarious for so many reasons. We're hip! No, we're hip! See, 80s pop culture references!

Anyway, slight disappointment that my broke ass couldn't convince the fine folks at Elbo Room to let me in for free last night, but that was mitigated somewhat by only paying for one of four drinks. Had a couple of short conversations about Scotch Plains with Mr. Pat DiNizio, he of Smithereens fame, who was the main attraction. Apparently the music store moved a few doors down, which I didn't know. Really crappy turnout, which is unfortunate. I also talked with another friend who was opening the show about the potential to work together in the future. Might just be percussion, might be full-on plugged in rock, we'll see. Left some elephants in the room alone (which is not a commentary on Pat, although I guess it could be) when I talked to Henry, but he's certainly not his brother's keeper. And I'm not bitter about that, honest.

Speaking of the Plains of Scotch, bastion of suburban New Jersey living, I leave bright and early-ish tomorrow for my last Christmas there. Mom and Dad are building a house in Virginia that we should be inaugurating at this time next year. My initial reaction to this news was sorta panicky, but then I realized that I'm home twice a year if I'm lucky, and other than the music store and occasionally the high school, it's not like I really have any active connections to the town outside of the sentimentality of having grown up there. And keep in mind that this sentimentality is what drove me 850 miles away to college and my future in the first place.

I'm hoping to make the drive on all of 3 CDs, thanks to the wonders of MP3 technology, but I threw one of them in last night and it didn't work. That might be the CD-RW, which is supposed to work, or the program I'm using to burn, which isn't the one I usually use, but is the only one I have that can burn a playlist to a data disc right now.

Naturally, this break is coming right when there's a whole mess o' shit happening across the board. Although one income-generating opportunity seems to have fallen by the wayside either for being a scam or just having dubious ethical qualities, the latter of which might not matter if things get tight enough. That said, I am, once again, cautiously optimistic about righting the ship in the near term. Now if only I had a nickel for every time I've thought that in the last two years, I wouldn't need a steady (steadier?) job.