"Well, hello little hellion / make yourself at home"
So... I wrote most of this yesterday in between my many outings. I was going to rush posting it but I decided against it. If you're not gonna do it right, don't do it at all. :)
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I've been up since 5.30am. SERIOUSLY.
A delicious dinner and a superb roll in the hay had me seeking the sweet respite of a nap, unfortunately that nap at nine o'clock last night that turned into a full night's sleep and resulted in the predawn wide-awake state. Consequently, I did more crap before 9am than some people do in a day. We sorted all of our clothes and ended up with three bins for Goodwill, which I took there after my doctor appointment. We also made a box run to the apartment with some bathroom/kitchen stuffs just to reduce the clutter and increase the room to move in here. It's getting so claustrophobic that it's hard to want to actually pack anything else because we won't be able to get out! I went to the Port Huron (across the border!) with Ashley to get some new bras in the afternoon. I had been putting it off forever and the one good bra I have is literally in tatters and you know I don't trust my girls to anyone other than a Lane Bryant (conspicously absent in Canada, might I add.) Good deals also abounded at Target (oh, the sweet Motherland, I've missed you so) and I spent more than I wanted to but it was for the new apartment so I reasoned it away and this morning when I surprised Nicole with the things I bought I was glad that I did. There will be pictures when we finally do our apartment tour for the masses. :)
The "hefty severance package" that Craig has been telling all the cooks I would receive (obviously to make him appear a "good guy") was deposited in our account today. He can stick it right up his hefty ass for what it's worth. They HAD to pay me for one week--though, he tried to get them to pay me for a partial week--because he made me work my day off so he could go out of town the day before he fired me and then they gave me a week's pay as severance in lieu of notice and my vacation pay. So basically I got my normal pay for plus $200. ARRRRRRRRGH.
Also? He keeps asking Ashley about me and when she told him that I hate his parents' parents guts for ever conceiving the idea to have him he actually had the nerve to say "That's too bad. I really liked Heather as a person--we could have been friends." Okay, like W-T-F?! SERIOUSLY. Dude, you don't do what you did to me and say that. I wouldn't do that do someone that annoyed the shit out of me, much less someone I liked. Fuck you, buddy. I wish I could write down all of the crap I'd like to do to that guy but I'd probably get arrested for making threats over the internet so let's not and say we did. But seriously...
On a happier note... today's weather is beautiful and a gorgeous summer day always makes me crave ska and/or reggae. And what better band to highlight today than Sublime [SublimeWiki]. A band as revolutionary as Nirvana in a number of ways: most notably, they, too were pioneers of their genre--you'd probably be surprised at how many current artists cite Sublime as one of their influences. Sublime also lost its frontman and driving force, Bradley Nowell to a drug overdose with suicide undertones. The key difference is that Nirvana was well on their way to being legendary when Kurt locked himself in the garage, whereas Sublime was about to break wide open with the release of their major label debut when Bradley died. And though we are only left with posthemous recordings, there are a wealth of independent and bootleg recordings still lurking around the US that only make me appreciate what might have been that much more.
Let's get to the songs, shall we? "D.J.s" is a straight up reggae-groove with countless shout outs to reggae and ska greats, recycling a number of lyrics from other works, including the ending refrain which is borrowed from ska legends The Specials' "A Message to You, Rudy." Bradley sang all of the harmonies and played all of the guitars on the track which is reason enough to lend me your ear, but more than that, it's just a straight up sweet track. I will admit to listening to it on repeat for hours on end from time to time but what can you do? A happy little song full of male bravado, but truly a summer groove that shouldn't be missed.
Sublime - D.J.'s
"Same In The End" is a more hardcore track, exploring the band's punk edge while still retaining their driving the ska beats. What I love most about this track is that it fully captures the garage band/party band sound that Sublime was originally known for. I could imagine living next to these rowdy kids with their noisy garage band and hating them, but maybe when it all stopped sounding like noise I'd begin to appreciate the little bastards' racket. Sometimes you have to give yourself over to the nonsensical, and most of these lyrics will require some suspension of disbelief. The disjointed phrases don't make much sense in or out of context, but you gotta hand it to a band that can pass off KFC lyric and the uberporny "take a load from my big gun" without killing the rest of the lyrics around it.
Sublime - Same In The End
Gwen Stefani recorded "Saw Red" with Sublime in 1994, before No Doubt's 1995 breakthrough album Tragic Kingdom put her (and the band) on popular culture's radar and this live recording is pretty freakin' sweet. I prefer the peppier original version, of course, but there's something special about artists paying tribute to one another in this way--especially when they came up together. For Bradley, indeed.
BONUS: No Doubt - D.J.'s (live, "for Bradley")
-H