Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Zack Anderson's LiveJournal:

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Monday, September 7th, 2009
10:54 pm	November 07, 2006 Bruno was the baddest pit bull in the yard. He wasn't clipped, so he looked like a brown watermelon with nuts. Did the chick dogs want him? Yeah, they wanted him. But he had some wine to taste. Expensive-ass wine from the Asian steppes. Bruno paused. He turned a little and looked at his nuts in the mirror. "Now that's what I'M talkin' 'bout," he said. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
12:34 am	Drums, Vocal Stuff I hit a high B for the first time ever yesterday, and did it again today. Yesterday it was insanely hard; today it was a little easier, and I felt comfortable sustaining it for a little while. It didn't put too much stress on my voice and I was able to keep singing afterwards just fine. This means I'm just a half step away from hitting a high C, which would mean I'd be able to hit the top of the classical soprano range; if I succeed in that, I'll have accomplished my other big vocal goal for the last few years (the first one being that long note hold). I guess this is a week for vocal breakthroughs. Awesome. I finished the drum distillations. I really like how they came out. Hope you enjoy them. Me -- Distillation No. 3 (Drums) Me -- Distillation No. 4 (Drums) (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
2:27 am	Droumsseau I live in a world these days in which I read Rousseau and drink hot milk and honey at midnight. It is very strange. I hope college education is not making me Soft--that would be a Disaster. Drums tomorrow. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
12:24 pm	Hooray! I can hold a note for longer than Jeff Buckley! At least on his recording of "Hallelujah," anyway. I actually cannot really convey how excited I am about this without slipping into absurd hyperbole, which I won't do, but instead will simply say that I was singing along with that song and sung the high long note at the end, loud and clear, right through into Buckley's next line; I didn't hear him finish the long note and only stopped when I heard him come in again. I still had a good deal of breath left, enough for that flourish at the end and then some. This marks a pretty big milestone for me since I've been trying and failing to do this since I first heard the song four years ago; I'd only make it about 3/4 of the way through and my voice would quiver a lot on account of me restricting my breath so much to try to conserve it. This time it felt very comfortable. I guess I've come a long way. I suppose it might make sense to mention that I'm working on my album again, and this time making real progress; I'm finally starting to approach satisfaction with my songwriting, after throwing out countless half-finished sets of lyrics and meditating endlessly on various chord progressions without drawing a single drop from what thus far has been mainly a dry stone. Part of this I credit to a great effort recently to get my critical faculties to shut up while I'm eking out first drafts; in the past I've written four lines and immediately gone, "This is sick and trite. You're no Leonard Cohen--these sound about as good as Glenn Beck taking two shits. If Joanna Newsom saw this she would probably puke immediately, on you. Go back to writing silly plays about people rapping on volcanoes and don't bother me again." And, to be fair, in a lot of cases, I was right--they were shamefully terrible, but I've found that if I just let myself finish a whole song, everything looks better in context, and it becomes easier to hammer out the awful shit when I really know what the song is about and how I'm attacking it. The other part is that I've done a lot of analyzing songs I really respect recently, and figuring out how they work both musically and lyrically has made it easier for me to figure out in my own songs both how to do something correctly the first time and how to fix things that suck. Hopefully this will mean some finished, recorded songs soon that I am actually willing to let other people hear. Speaking of, I actually have some music for you to hear today. It's not off the coming album, but it is my dear hope that it will whet your appetite a bit. I play guitar more or less constantly while I'm at my computer, and it occurred to me to record the sort of thing that I tend to play offhand, in one take; I did this twice and was pleasantly surprised to end up with two tracks that give a good portrayal of my playing style, albeit without any of the influencing factors present in a song, like a solid tempo, accompanying instruments to accommodate, or other nonsense like that. Despite this, I promise that they ain't just boring-ass jam band silliness. Though my album songs have more structure, the "heart" of the playing remains the same, or something. Here, for chrissake: Me -- Distillation No. 1 (Guitar) Me -- Distillation No. 2 (Guitar) I'm doing the same thing with drums next; if y'all like this and wanna hear more, I'll post the results. I'll end with the world's best pick-up line: Your blond hair is the way I live -- smashed by light! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
10:24 pm	Jumping up and falling down Joanna Newsom on allowing her songs in ads: "I would definitely allow a song on a food ad. I can wholeheartedly stand behind foods, food products." On the Death of an Uncharted Planet Bilesmell in my room Too cold to open the window Lying on my bed Hand over mouth Didn't dare speak Out of razorblades New pimples When suddenly I knew it died Clean blazing death So bright So irrelevant Puff it went Ten times the Weight of the world Lost to nobody New meteors New collisions What comfort At my stomach gnawed The divine emptiness I ate The dirty dishes I squeezed my face Fat and full Free as a bullet I did pushups On the 11 th story Clean blazing death So bright So irrelevant --Leonard Cohen This Is The Kit on Two Wooden Spoons (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 31st, 2009
2:03 pm	Hello again Who am I? Am I a boy who plays bass guitar in a sludge rock band and eats the heads off chickens? Am I one of those girls who makes tiny bird purses out of felt and sells them on Etsy? Am I a mariner? Am I a whale? I have no idea. All I could get at the End-Of-Adolescence Identity Flea Market was a Time magazine from 1963, with Soviet spacecrafts and sailboats and cute ads for cute typewriters. Oh well. So, anyway, one or two of you may have noted that, despite having had a LiveJournal since I was fourteen and not being against posting in it, I usually do so about twice a year, at best (the others of you probably have not noticed, because the infrequency of my posting would tend to put my journal out of mind). There are two reasons for this, which cross my mind every time I think of something I could post here (which, counterintuitively, is as often as a couple of times a day): 1. I have been worried that, no matter how hard I try, my blog will never be as good as this one. Speaking of, Chris Onstad once explained his aversion to making an Amazon gift list by saying, "I never thought it would be cool to make an Amazon Wish List because why should anyone buy anything for me, you know," which brings me my second reason: 2. Why should anyone want to read anything I write about myself, you know? I have come to the realization, over too long a time, that this is silly. After all, I read things you folks write about yourselves and your interests and activities and such all the time with great enjoyment, and it stands to reason that you probably would not have friended me if you did not want to read the same from my end. So, with that in mind, I am going to do my best to get over myself and actually make regular use of this thing, rather than using it exclusively for two-second shout-outs to cetaceans, celestial events, or other things that will probably never read them. To get off to a proper start, I have used it today with Extra Vigor. I have an apartment now. It is in South Egremont, MA, in back of an antiques shop, and has a flower garden outside. I really like how the lease has a "Quiet Enjoyment" clause, specifying that as long as I do everything I am supposed to do, I "shall and may peacefully and quietly have, hold and enjoy" my apartment. Yes, indeed. Note that if you ever want to be really, really nice to me--like extreme, silly-Dubai-project-sized levels of nice--you can get me a subscription to this. You will not know how abashed a person can be until you do this. You will not know how quietly it is possible to say "oh god you didn't have to do that" and other obvious and maladapted expressions of gratitude before the moment I learn of your dear gift. It will be a discovery for both of us. Speaking of consumables that resemble Clint Eastwood, I have come to realize that my taste in alcohol tends towards the turpentine end of the gradient. When drinking, I like strong gin, whiskey, or vodka on the rocks, I would probably drink Everclear if I had some, and my favorite cocktails are a dirty martini with a ratio of gin to vermouth such that there are about two drops of vermouth applied to the gin with a dropper, and a gimlet made with unsweetened lime juice that is mostly just gin. I hate all mixed drinks that are anywhere within ten miles of cloying and will only tolerate those that are as sweet as, say, a very vodka-y White Russian at worst. I do like some sweet liquors, but only if they are fancy-shmancy enough to be mildly so--I like good port, for instance. I also like cognac, preferably with a nice cigar, enjoyed just after winning two million dollars in the Casino de Monte-Carlo and just before trading stocks for South African children to work in my diamond mine. I saw In The Loop a while ago and enjoyed it a lot. It was pleasingly like a razor blade with a Red Meat strip pasted on it. Here are two beautiful songs for you about rivers. Please please enjoy them: Marissa Nadler -- River Of Dirt Nicolay and Kay -- I've Seen Rivers Does anyone have any questions for me? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
8:31 pm	Ginvigoration, Glassed The other night, by necessity, I re-invented the best drink in the world, having never heard of it before, because the tonic water ran dry. It is called the gimlet, and is prepared thus: 4 parts gin 1 part lime juice That is all. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
3:58 am	I love meteors! Yay! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
8:16 pm	The Philadopticon of Light ( I had a very vivid and worrying dream last night ) Philly's been great so far--the viewing of an IMAX movie called "The Wild Ocean" (YAY WHALES YAY SEALS YAY ETC.) preceded by a hilariously dramatic short on Philadelphia: BIRTHPLACE OF FREEDOM and the purchase of a book entitled Honorable Cat by Paul Gallico, author of The Silent Miaow, in a thrift store being just two wonderful experiences among many--both in the company of lots of friends (hi Dara! hi Lisa who doesn't have a LiveJournal!) and just the one (hi Noah! Thanks!). I'm looking forward to the Buckethead show on Thursday, as well as the Man Man concert in Northampton, since by all accounts Man Man is amazing and I know for a fact that Buckethead is. I have a question to pose those of you reading this and I hope you'll answer since I think it'll help alleviate some odd social anxieties I've had/been having--how would your view of me change if I was a disembodied floating orb of light but had the same personality and ability to communicate/manipulate objects/etc. (aside from the obvious "wow I've been friends with a floating orb of light for however long that's pretty wacky")? Feel free to answer even if you haven't seen me in years or have never met me in person at all; in a way I think the comparison between those responses and those of people who see me all the time will be helpful or something. Cheers! Current Music: Joanna Newsom -- What We Have Known (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
2:10 am	The Music and Machination, by Quicktale Waldoscoff So today I went and saw this concert, a piano quartet that Larry Wallach, my advisor/composition professor/magical musical robot/etc., was part of, in Harlemville, about half an hour out from school. They did this wicked Aaron Copland trio--wicked both in the sense of "hey neato" and "evil," in a delightful way--that was all full of quartertones and was based on a theme from a production in the 20s by an Eastern European theatre company about a Yiddish folktale of a devilish spirit that possesses people's souls. Listening to it was sort of like reveling in drinking blood or laughing at stories about nuclear waste. Larry gave it an added poignancy in explaining that it has added cultural significance as a container for that theme, since all of the people involved in the production were gone not ten years later. They had the concert at this Waldorf school called Hawthorne Valley. I did not know it was a Waldorf school before attending the concert, but the second I walked into the performance hall and saw the pink-washed walls and generic stained-glass windows I had a strong inkling. There were these irritatingly vapid paintings up, abstract blocky-bleedy light purples and blues all chumming up with one another and swapping recipes for tasteless bran cookies, that according to the blurb in the program by the woman who did 'em were based on Rudolph Steiner's interpreations of Goethe's color theory and were a product of her "translating her spirituality into color," sort of like translating a book into Spanish except with a vague feeling of empty pseudo-enlightened well-being brought on by washed-out violet paint instead of a book and paintings that look like the essence of morphine instead of Spanish. I keep wanting to write this huge magnum opus here, just spill my guts all over the place, and I keep sayin' I'm gonna, and man, I swear, one of these days... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
3:20 am	SELF PHOTO MEME • Take a [ONE, SINGLE] picture of yourself right now. • Don't change your clothes. Don't fix your hair. • Post that picture with no editing. • Post these instructions with your picture. Hi. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
11:52 pm	Ideas TomboyInDisguise: okay so ideas. . . uh. . .l ets fax. . . some. . . .soap to. . . the. . . secretary of agriculture Philosoraptor da: okay! let's go I am so completely behind this plan that I am warping time (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
3:54 am	I PARTIED WITH ANDREW W.K.! I played keyboard with Andrew W.K.! I gave Andrew W.K. five hugs! Andrew W.K. gave me the mic three times! I crowdsurfed twice before returning to the stage with Andrew W.K.! Andrew W.K. encouraged us to be joyous and spread love and be nice to everyone, so we bought two dozen donuts and shared them with our friends! Andrew W.K. had a party! There was a party tonight! Current Mood: best independence day possible Current Music: IT'S TIME TO PARTY LET'S PARTY (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 4th, 2008
3:06 am	King of U2 tomboyindisguise: go ahead and look at the picture on the wiki article about scott stapp just do it he bows chunks Philosoraptor da: alright I'll do that oh man that is an achievement he looks like a guy that would move to Mexico in an RV because beer's cheaper there ( tomboyindisguise: ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
4:44 pm	Dogs Every hour or so, a group of four dogs runs enthusiastically through the street in front of our house, so that I see them all capering by out the window. Explain this to me. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 27th, 2008
1:15 am	Radiohead + Anticipation I just had an extremely appropriate Radiohead moment; I was listening to "Fake Plastic Trees" (and still am) and my computer speakers began carrying cell phone static that happened to be in key with the music. It is was if the ethereal ghost of the essence of technological alienation had turned up to sing along! I want to write more here, but! I am not ready yet. There is a large block of things clawing its way to the surface that will get out soon, but at this particular moment I don't have the time or the fortitude to start going through it; it's too late. This weekend, maybe? Current Mood: wistful Current Music: Radiohead -- Fake Plastic Trees (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
10:59 pm	Nested slashes! (This is cross-posted from Facebook; my mega-entry is still in the works, awaiting a lull in my schoolwork.) Do you ever have a problem in which you want to utilize a slash in a phrase/clause inside a larger sequence of connected slashes but are worried about ambiguity//reader orneriness/objection? Now you don't have to worry another second (see above)! For another example of correct utilization of nested slashes, see the instance in which they originated: gabgoroth: she's just overwhelmed because she wants to help her friends, and sees this situation as somehow worth helping Philosoraptor da: ah, I see and isn't sure how to proceed//doesn't have the necessary energy/time? (hey, nested slashes--I think that's new; never seen anyone do it before) gabgoroth: so cute As you can see, using nested slashes not only eliminates the risk of ambiguity and resulting confusion in complex slash systems but also makes your writing twice as adorable! Your style is thus improved on multiple levels and your readers will shower you with praise/gifts//be overwhelmed with cuteness/love for you! So go forth and multiply your slash use--without fear! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 7th, 2008
4:53 am	Inflammatory writ! (The exclamation mark makes all the difference when compared to the one before.) Golly gee! How long has it been since I have written in this journal in earnest? Over a year! Am I doing it now? Yes! My stars! Actually, that's only half-true, because as I am wont to do when undertaking this sort of thing I am writing a sort of precursor-entry to the real thing. This is to allow the following: you, dear readers, for whom this prose is penned, ought to comment and inform me about what you'd like to hear in the coming entry. This can come in any form of your choosing--simple question, prosaic admonishment with passive-aggressive undertones and unvoiced desire, self-aggrandizing Welsh epic poem in the style of olde, and what have you--but ought to be done so I don't leave out something you might be curious about. 'Twon't concern your concerns alone--I have further things weighing on me mind 's well (mind's well? mindswell?)--but they will be given good weight, and surely. Also, this entry is public, but the one to follow will not be. If you happen across this journal, are interested in the coming Daedalic deluge, and are not on my friends list, then comment asking addance, and if within reason, verily, 'twill be done. Well, with that, hop to it, then! (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 12th, 2007
8:37 pm	A meta-limerick. There once was a man from Moselle whom something unfortunate befell. The story was remarkably comical. The laughter was quite astronomical! And it thus seemed terrific to tell. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
7:52 pm	BEST. JOKE. EVER. textchan: JESUS FUCK SHIT OH MYG OD HALO #. textchan: 3. Philosoraptor da: Have you played it yet? Philosoraptor da: I've heard only good things. textchan: It's Terrible. textchan: I bought it. textchan: :( textchan: No, it's actually one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Philosoraptor da: It would be really funny if it was awful. textchan: Wcwe. Philosoraptor da: Like, Daikatana awful. textchan: Ever. textchan: That would be so awesome. textchan: Then like two months later they were like, "Nah, that was a joke. Here's the real Halo 3." Philosoraptor da: Oh, man, that would be so rad. Philosoraptor da: I would laugh forever. Philosoraptor da: It would be, like, the most expensive practical joke ever carried out, though. textchan: Worst. Business practice. Ever. Philosoraptor da: But, then again, they can certainly afford it. Philosoraptor da: I think you mean best. textchan: I do. textchan: The new maps are awesome, and the ones they kept are even better than before. textchan: They made Zanzibar not balls! Philosoraptor da: Oh, man, what if it turned out that the entire reason Microsoft was founded was to do that to people? Philosoraptor da: Like, immediately after releasing a shitty Halo 3, Bill Gates disbanded the entire company and revealed that he had been planning this since the early 80s. textchan: OH MY GOD! textchan: A TWENTY YEAR LONG PRACTICAL JOKE! Philosoraptor da: That trillions of dollars went into the execution of. textchan: Bill Gates reveals that Microsoft is not actually a software company, but a practical joke company. Then, twenty years later, reveals that that was a practical joke, too, and they actually are a software company. Philosoraptor da: And then suddenly begins releasing products again. textchan: HALO 4! (Comment on this)