OMG, We met Youth Group

Last night we saw my favorite band Youth Group at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Yes, Hoboken is an unlikely place to see such an awesome band, but It was such an amazing show. The venue was very small, the crowd was light and afterward we met Toby, the lead singer and Cameron, the guitarist. They were so nice and down to earth; Cas asked great questions like: "Why did you name yourself Youth Group?" (to which Toby explained it was a joke. Anyone who's been to youth group gets it.) and other interview-like inquiries while I stood there like a complete dork- super happy to meet them, my smile couldn't hide it.

In case you forgot, Youth Group is on our 2006 Christmas compilation. If you get a chance to see them, please do. You won't be disappointed.

UPDATE: To listen to Youth Group's two albums, click MY RADIO under POLISHCARPETLAYER'S MUSIC on the left. After you click it, go down under PLAYLIST and click YOUTH GROUP. Enjoy. I've put up two of there albums, Skeleton Jar and Casino Twilight Dogs.

-caspian

It’s Music On helloPORTLAND

It’s music and I’m excited. Look to the left on the blog under For Your Ears. I’ve just figured out how to put our music up on this site. So now you can listen to the playlist we put together or you can listen to all the albums we have up. There’s even a way to subscribe to the music through your iTunes (I’ll tell you how to do that later). In the coming days I’ll be working to put more music up, but for now it’s up and working. So the next time we go to a concert, like last week (Menomena and Bloc Party), or listen to a radio show that’s particularly interesting, we’ll put up audio as well as the written word. Happy listening. Yeahhhhh!

Fresh from Costa Rica....

Although we lost them in Costa Rica, we found them in a beige package on our front porch. Here are just a few of the pictures we took when we were on our vacation (we lost another 500+ pictures). The inn owners at Dante Corcovado Lodge were kind enough to ship them to us. Click here to check out the pictures on our flickr account or just watch the slideshow below. The pictures are a perfect companion to the stories we’ve already told you.

Flickr Slideshow

What we found (and lost) in Costa Rica

My senior year in college was hell. I took 19 credit hours the first semester, 21 the second and all the while I was writing my senior thesis. Writing the thesis alone can be compared to some sort of medieval mind torture technique. Your trying to hit a moving target that they (the professors that incessantly hound you) describe as “original thought” while fretting over the exciting, impending future of graduating from college and putting that $100,000 education to work as a beer jockey at McMennemins or throwing carpet around for your father. It’s awesome and it’s a yearlong process. I’ll save you the details, needless to say I had to jump through something like 43,000 hoops to finish my “original thought”. You might be wondering at this point why I’m writing about this story. Well here’s the crux, and by crux I mean absolute worst part of the story that I never wanted to experience again but somehow, on some sort of alternate type of mid-30’s just got back from an amazing freaking vacation kind of way that reminds me of that beautiful time in college and I’m experiencing it again, crux. That kind of horrible crux. So I was maybe 75 percent done with my thesis, kind of hitting my stride, when I popped in my floppy disc one winter day (yeah I said floppy). Nothing came up. I tried again, but nothing. Damn. Nothing. Damn! Damn! Damn! Nothing came up!!! Fast forward to 2007, the last day of our trip to Costa Rica.

“Michelle, I left the memory card with videos and over 500 pictures of the trip in your bag. Can you get it for me?”
“It’s not in there Caspian. I looked.”
“Are you sure.”
“Yeah. I looked everywhere for it and I can’t find it anywhere. You had it last when you took the camera out this morning. Maybe you still have it.”
“I don’t.”
“DAMN!!!”

So there you have it and there we don’t have it.

- Caspian

P.S. For full disclosure I must say that we did get some pictures from the trip back to Brooklyn and we are working on getting some more so not all is lost. We will be putting those pictures up soon so get ready to see an amazing beautiful place.

P.S.S. The information technology department at Lewis and Clark was able to recover about half of my thesis for me. Those guys are awesome. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with another “original thought” after you’ve lost the first one.

P.S.S.S. Costa Rica was awesome!!!! You should go.

Homeboy respects his neighbor's ride

Homeboy respects his neighbor's ride
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Yeah, it snowed the last two days. And yeah, this guy love's his neighbor. A lot. So he's burying his car. For him. With love. On valentine's day.

Scratchhhhh

Scratchhhhh
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Yeah... she's a bit... well you can see when you look into her eyes. Just, please, don't make fun of her in front of her face. She doesn't like that.

New Keys... Please

New Keys Please
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

Some people wear the souls off of there shoes, others wear holes in pants... I wear the letters off of my keyboard. That's writing, my friends. And just because I've been slow in putting up new posts on this blog doesn't mean I haven't been writing.

January in the Forest

January in the Forest
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

A jaunt through the forest cleans your soul like nothing else. So that’s what we did. Got in the car, drove upstate and floated through the foggy forest on a beautiful hiking trail. We’ve got the pictures to prove it. Enjoy.

Mind Freeze

Mica
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

I’ll admit, I was a little freaked out. I mean she’s small, tiny, fragile and alive. A little person full of potential and the future and a whole lot of things that I don’t want to drop on the floor. She also looks a lot like Steve, but hopefully she’ll grow out of that (just kidding Steve). Be assured, the rest of the night went well. Amy and Steve looked liked they were going to fall asleep and I didn’t drop or harm Mica in anyway. Maybe I’m a natural at this stuff after all (we’ll have to see what happens in the next 10 years or so).

2006 turns into 2007

We are on a self-imposed drinking dry spell. The holidays were amazing, but I think we drank more calories than we ate. Portlanders (including us) sure like beer, brew, coffee, chai, wine and anything else that comes in liquid form. In the meantime, since we’ve been back in NYC, we’ve been enjoying the 70-degree weather (it’s much colder today) and putting up all the wonderful pictures we took over the holidays. Click here to check them out. See you all soon. Westside!