SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE

A lot has changed. A lot of completely mundane things, that is. I mean, nothing new is really happening, but I needed some kind of opening paragraph to frame the minor events of this past week, and now that I've got it, let's just forget this run-on sentence ever happened and why don't we move along to the "substance" of this weekend update:


It's raining! All yesterday, all today, and probably all through the three-day weekend. (Thanks, Columbus! You too, un-PC employer!) If it wasn't so characteristically humid, I'd have to say this was Pacific Northwest-type weather. In fact this isn't the normal onset of fall weather at all, but the remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy. I guess that makes the dull gray drizzle outside the trailer trash of inclement weather.


I bought more peanuts. After becoming a fan of the goobers-and-burgers joint Five Guys, and munching on the nutty legumes at my last Nats game this season, it occurred to me that peanuts would make a great snack to keep around the apartment. So for the past couple weeks, I've had at least a couple handfuls per day, and sometimes more. (Are peanuts less healthy than I think? Consider your opinion solicited.) You know what peanuts go great with? Rib-eye steak. (I've been eating a lot of steak recently, too.) Five Guys, which is sort of like the District's answer to In-N-Out, was really onto something with that beef and peanuts concept. It's nice to finally have a real supermarket nearby, even if it means I end up sweeping shells up off the floor. Or more accurately, neglecting to do so and then having to sweep up even more.


Last Sunday the Non-Fat Latte Liberal and I hit the Decemberists show at the 9:30 club. (DCist has a full review better than I can offer here.) Like Modest Mouse or Rilo Kiley, this is a band I got into before they made waves beyond the staff of Pitchfork but didn't actually see in concert until the second or third opportunity. You will not be surprised when I say the show was terrific. They opened without a single spoken word, performing the entire length of their EP "The Tain," but after that leader Colin Meloy and recent addition Petra Hayden were friendlier/chattier than most indie rock outfits I've seen. They played a few songs off "Castaways and Cutouts," just one track from "Her Majesty," and most everything from their latest, "Picaresque," plus one cover — "Mr. Blue Sky" — during the encore. (Has any mostly-forgotten song owed its resurgence so much to one song? Consider your opinion solicited once more.) The picture you see (which, because I forgot to bring my digi, has been cribbed from another recent concert attendee's Flickr site) is the whale prop from their set-closing, Stevensoinian-Mellevillian, audience-participating, rip-roaring stomp through "The Mariner's Revenge Song."


I've started working on another website/blog project. Yes, another. About sports again, this time. This time I'm not the only one involved, and in fact it wasn't even my idea. Both of which augur well for its future success. I'll elaborate on our plans at the appropriate time, but for now it's on the QT, and strictly hush-hush. (I don't have a suitable picture that wouldn't give the whole thing away, so here's another picture of the Oregon-esque (Oregonian?) weather.)


Last night at midnight, Comcast reshuffled the lineup, and now I don't know where any of the channels are. This is the only reason why I'm watching "Dick Tracy" right now (except for the movie channels, which are right where I left them). I thought "The Kid" looked awful familiar, so I looked him up — turns out he's Charlie Korsmo, the son from "What About Bob?" And "whatever happened to" him? Er, apparently he's now Charles, an MIT physics grad and a Republican policy analyst, formerly of Chris Cox's office, where he organized their congressional softball team. I wonder what Warren Beatty would have to say about this.

I'm sure more important things have been going on — criminal indictments of congressional leaders, controversial nominations to the highest court in the land, the bottom falling out of the president's approval ratings — but if so, I'm not aware of it.

UPDATE — Wait a minute, something did happen: This! Which is pretty awesome, but not that surprising. Even so, he'll never top this.

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posted by WWB at 5:56 PM |