late break update

pink champagne cupcakes at mom's 50th
Originally uploaded by rswells.

i had my fall break 2 weekends ago. fun times for serious. first my parents flew up here to ann arbor, and together we took in an amazing paul mccartney concert that friday night, an impressive michigan football game the next day, and numerous good meals. paul pulled out all the stops, the wolverines won on the final play of the game, and i ate a rainbow trout wrapped in prosciutto (aka fancy bacon). then we all flew back to kc on sunday to celebrate mom's 50th birthday the next tuesday. she had a "game party" with an ivitation list of 50 femmes. i also got a chance to spend a fine night in lawrence with the crew. photos of the extended weekend can be seen by clicking here.

all was going well and more or less according to plan...until the travel day from h-e-double hockey sticks on that thursday. i arrived at kci around 8.30am and was supposed to arrive at detroit at 12.45pm on northwest airlines. after one first class upgrade wasted, 2 ginger ales, a pepperoni pizza bagel that made me say "oh my gross" out loud as i consumed it, a maintenance issue with an electrical box on the first plane, which never took off, a long wait in a long line to get re-routed, a $5 calling card courtesy of nw airlines as a compensation for my troubles, a flight to minneapolis, a dinner at chili's too where i finished reading MRS. DALLOWAY, a flat tire and a missing co-pilot on my third plane, which did eventually take off for detroit, a long wait for a shuttle to the big blue deck parking facility, a gas stop to fill up my car, and a key episode of LOST missed, i arrived in ann arbor after 10.30pm.

uh-oh, ab came to town

abbey hugs trees
Originally uploaded by rswells.

although a few days removed, images and sensations from last weekend continue to linger and loiter about my mind. yes, the young doctor made a visit. unfortunately, she spent most of the weekend rather pissed - both in the american and the british sense. indeed, after a beer.5 she'd start rambling on about how much she liked this band called the fire arcade and then go on and on about the weather, footwear, her extensive "running," and disease. she referred to these things as "phernomener."

on saturday, however, things settled down, or should i say brightened up, when we went to ann arbor's arborous arboretum after walking through a protest on campus against the war. i had never been to such a place before, thus my reaction. abbey, on the other hand, maintained her dour disposition until she found a lonely tree that, much like herself, was in need of a little tlc. meanwhile, i proceeded to make a fake firearm and aim it at the dorky dorm kids that tried in vain to play ultimate frisbee and other simple, relatively unatheltic games, like catch.

later in the afternoon, we took in a funny film, THE BAXTER, done by the same people who did THE STATE and WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER. we both laughed and laughed.

sunday meant studyday, at least for a while. a-b read from a book that looked to weigh as many kilograms as she, while i finished off a novel called THE VOYEUR by a. robbe-grillet. i drank my raspbetty tea and she an amerispresso. the weekend's highlight came that night: 2nd row tickets to INTERPOL. when i screamed out "STELLA!" they went right into "stella was a diver and she was always down." whether they heard me or not, i'm still not sure - you tell me. no photos, sadly, but we both looked really good and my red umbrella matched her red hoodie.

in the end, she also listened to my heart. with her stethoscope.

(one other thing, anyone interested in downloading previous radio shows of mine - i've only done two, one more tonight - can click on this link for access. just click on either sept 16th or 23rd and then the 3, 4, or 5 am options and it will take you to a realplayer to stream the show.)

do i do

dinner
Originally uploaded by rswells.

last night, i drank a couple imports while watching a french film - i'm trying to watch all of the movies in the antoine doinel series by f. truffaut - in my "tv room," before doing some dancing and getting into some bacchanalia at the BANG!

on thursday night / friday morning, i had my first radio show of the semester on WCBN FM ANN ARBOR at the ungodly hour of 3-6am (2-5am cst). my first set went like this, starting from the top:

the velvet underground - satellite of love (demo)
bill withers - lovely day
bobbi humphrey - uno está
pavement - no tan lines
q-tip - let's ride
lowrell - mellow mellow, right on

if you want to review the rest of my playlist, you can go to the WCBN website and search for it under "playlists." i can tell you right now, though, that "remember" by air from MOON SAFARI shall serve as next week's opening theme.

i had one caller phone in, asking me what song i was playing at that moment because he thought it was cool, which made the whole thing worth it. (the song, by the way, was donny hathaway's live cover of john lennon's "jealous guy.") it was fun to be djing again, no doubt, even though only a handful of people probably heard me. it is also fun to be able to say hello to more people in this city. people that i've already met through the radio radio. in the city that already puts a foreboding faint chill into its arborous air.

one other recent development of note can be viewed in this post's photo. yes, i now am the proud owner of a grill or grille. this, of course, brings me one step closer to becoming an M-A-N.

in other news

this is what the face of venus looks like.

arrival

the bean at millennium park
Originally uploaded by rswells.

after spending a few fun days visiting friends in milwaukee and chicago, i arrived in constantly arborous and sometimes ardorous ann arbor last monday. i found milwaukee to be surprisingly charming and hip and would like to send a special thank you, coupled with a birthday shout, out to la doctora maussonbronche.

chicago, meanwhile, was pretty laid back with trips to millennium and lincoln park, the lincoln park zoo, and the art institute of chicago. the art institute blew me away, especially the monets, renoirs, and the special exhibit on toulouse-latrec and montmarte.

i learned on thursday that i'll be teaching spanish 101 again this fall - classes start on tuesday. my house is not as dirty overall as i had previously feared, but the number of cobwebs confounds me. this morning i went to the farmer's market nearby and bought some broccoli, grapes, and a few paula red (semi-tart) apples.

i'd like to make a brief comment here on the imbroglio that once was the gulf coast: seems to me that this is the third time a massive loss of american life has occurred during the bush presidency; one can apparently blame all three tragedies and the respective after-effects on "bad intelligence."

(on a sidenote, i'd like to send my best to the burgeoning band, KELPIE, as they embark on their european tour opening up for koufax. godspeed you young men.)

moving on

Originally uploaded by rswells.

being here in kansas for the past three weeks kinda felt like what's going on in this painting to the right.

anyone interested in the new broken social scene lp should click here to download one of their new songs, "7/4 (shoreline)."

kansas

ku
Originally uploaded by rswells.

i've been home for a while now, doing the back and forth twixt kansas city and lawrence, family and friends. on tuesday i will begin the long drive back up north to ann arbor, making stops in milwaukee and chicago along the way. here are some photos that might help describe the time. (the big news in all of this, though, is that brother curtis made the freshman soccer team at sme.)