michael8rown.com

Magnetism

michaelbrown — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:41:53 +0000

The first Magnetic Fields song I ever heard was I Don’t Want to Get Over You. Lisa Whiteman put it on a mix CD for me way back in 2003, I think. I remember loving the song and loving Stephin Merritt’s super deep voice.

Fast forward to last week. I’ve been doing a bunch of recording lately, mostly songs written by other people but some of my own stuff, too. But I’ve been having a problem with my voice. I’m not a singer. In the absence of a real singer I do what I can to make my stuff sound complete. Lately I’ve been tackling projects that require vocal ranges way out of my own range, like Interpol’s PDA. It’s a great damn song and I really loved recording the instrumental parts of it but fuck if the vocals don’t bring the whole thing down. So I started thinking of other songs that are more in my range. I was listening to that old mix CD from Lisa Whiteman the other day and lo and behold there it was, a song that I could sing without sounding like I was being tortured.

And so here it is: I Don’t Want to Get Over You.

Protected: PDA

michaelbrown — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:53:04 +0000

Je ne parle pas français

michaelbrown — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:55:02 +0000

So. I’m going to Paris over Thanksgiving. Wait, let me say that one more time: I’m going to Paris over Thanksgiving!!!!!! There, that’s better. It still hasn’t sunk in yet really. Maybe because it’s still months away. I’ve never set foot outside the U.S., unless getting shitfaced at Fred’s Bar in Juarez every weekend for three semesters counts, which doesn’t. So this is a pretty big deal for me. I was originally planning to go to Greece over Thanksgiving but three things made me change my mind: 1) I don’t speak any Greek (and despite the title of this post, I do speak some French (and I read it quite well)); 2) Paris is only 460 km from London; and 3) I’ve wanted to go to Paris ever since I saw the movie A Little Romance when I was twelve (cut me some slack, I was twelve!). So, Paris it is.

Last week I received confirmation on a studio apartment on rue Georges Pitard in the 15th arrondissement, Montparnasse. I’ll be about five blocks from the Plaisance Metro stop and about a mile and a half from the Eiffel Tower. I’ve asked around about that neighborhood and the worst thing anyone can say about it is that it’s boring, meaning it’s not very touristy. And that’s fine by me. I love the idea of staying in a normal neighborhood away from all the hype, assimilating rather than invading. But being so close to the Metro stop means I’ll be able to get to the touristy places relatively easily (provided the Metro workers aren’t striking, which I’ve heard they do on a semi-regular basis).

While I’m in Paris, I plan to visit the following places:

1) The Eiffel Tower
2) The Louvre
3) Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées
4) Jardin du Luxembourg
5) 27 rue de Fleurus (only about eight blocks from my apartment!)
6) The Catacombs
7) Moulin Rouge
8) Musée d’Orsay
9) Notre Dame Cathedral
10) The Sorbonne
11) Montmarte
12) Versailles, if I have enough time
13) Père Lachaise Cemetery (of particular interest are Chopin, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Marcel Proust)

The nice thing about renting an apartment is that a) it’s cheaper than a hotel and b) it’s got a full kitchen. My plan is to buy groceries as soon as I get there and cook for myself twice a day, eating out only once per day. And at some point during my stay, I’m going to take the train to London. I’ve got a lead on an apartment on Abbey Road, not far from the studio. If I get the apartment, I’ll be in London for two nights. If not, I’ll probably only stay for one. I realize that one night isn’t really much time in London but since Paris is really my main focus I’m okay with that.

Anyway, if anyone has an suggestions of other places I should visit while I’m there, or suggestions of substitutions on the above list, please let me know!

Protected: Music

michaelbrown — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:29:43 +0000

Protected: I have some things to say

michaelbrown — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:47:53 +0000

Technology

michaelbrown — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:45:13 +0000

Thanks Wordpress and its myriad nifty features and plugins, I’ve not only re-enabled comments but I’ve also figured out how to keep certain topics out of the public realm entirely. I really had a lot of hesitation migrating to Wordpress at first in large part because I had written my own CMS called Chatterbox using a combination of Perl and PHP. I’d put a lot of hours into developing it. The plan was to eventually integrate the CMS with my image management system called Imagesource, which Lisa Whiteman was kind enough to beta test for me (and which she is still using to power her fantastic portfolio, Lisa Whiteman Lens). But earlier this year I started futzing around with Wordpress, getting it set up at another site. That migration proved to be painless enough on the Wordpress end that I decided to set it up at my own site and put Chatterbox to rest. For the first few months I didn’t take advantage of fully half the features, and I’d never once looked through the plugins database to see what added functionality the Wordpress community had to offer. But now I have, and Wordpress is working flawlessly … and suddenly this is starting to sound like viral marketing so I guess I should stop. Anyway, as you were.

Out

michaelbrown — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:29:32 +0000

Every morning I receive an e-mail from the assistant to the State Archivist with the subject Today’s Calendar. This is a procedure that was implemented a few years ago in an attempt to keep those of us in the Archives, Reference and Information Services department well-informed. I usually don’t read it very thoroughly because I don’t interact much with people outside my immediate vicinity. But this morning I read it quite well. I was looking for this:

Nov. 2008
24: Michael out
25: Michael out
26: Michael out
27: Thanksgiving Day holiday - agency closed
28: Thanksgiving holiday - agency closed

Dec. 2008:
01: Michael out

Yes. I will be out. More later.

Icebreaker

michaelbrown — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:05:48 +0000

I took Emma to Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse tonight. My plan was to take some pictures and read a little. I’ve been working on Middlesex for well over a month now and I was kind of hoping to get at least halfway through. I’d made it about five pages and had almost finished my Italian soda when a woman sat down two tables away from me. She had with her what I think were two German Shepherd puppies, probably about eight or nine months old. Emma started tugging against her leash and when she realized she couldn’t get away from me to greet the other dogs she started whimpering and finally barking. Not annoyingly really, although I started to get nervous that it would become annoying if I couldn’t get her to stop. Before I could calm her down, the woman got up and brought her dogs over.

“Can they meet him?” she asked.

“She’s a her, and I think so!” I said. Emma hadn’t been nose to nose with another dog since I brought her home, and I wasn’t sure how she’d handle it. “I’ve only had her a week and she hasn’t met any other dogs yet, so I’ll have to keep a close watch.”

Nervously holding her leash I let Emma meet the two puppies who were actually a little bigger than Emma despite their youth. They sniffed, pawed, and rubbed up against one another. I thought how funny it would be if two humans did that to each other when they met for the first time. Of course, I didn’t say this out loud. The woman was quite cute, I’m guessing in her mid-thirties, and that would have been a pretty weird thing to say to a cute stranger, right? Right.

“So you’ve only had her a week? Is she a rescue dog?”

“I got her from Town Lake,” I said.

The woman sat down at my table, and while her dogs and my dog got to know each other, she and I continued to talk. I kept looking down at Emma, who had managed to tangle herself up in her leash no less than three times in the span of about a minute. My conversation with the woman lasted about ten minutes. We talked about how hyper puppies and Jack Russells are, about kennels (I’m thinking I’m going to have to get a kennel for Emma on account of the considerable damage she’s doing to my house while I’m at work), and we talked about how much fun her dogs had at the lake today.

By that time, Emma had climbed into my lap and the woman stood up to leave. “It was nice to meet you,” she said, even though we never officially met. “You, too!” I said. And then she and her puppies were gone. I put my stuff back into my bag, and as I headed to my car I wondered if that woman ever would have come up to talk to me had it not been for Emma. I’ve heard people say that dogs can be great social ice breakers but I never thought to put it to the test. I’d have to say those people are right.

Protected: Testing

michaelbrown — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:32:08 +0000

Disabled

michaelbrown — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:37:40 +0000

A recent spate of unsolicited observations regarding events I’d hoped were finally behind me has prompted me to disable comments for awhile. Those of you I trust to make useful observations have my e-mail address; we can communicate that way in the meantime.