Start of spring

I'm posting at a more or less consistent once-per-month pace, but I've noticed that the posts in question are just hideously long. I think I'm going to try and institute a once-per-week policy instead. With any luck I can squeeze enough out of a week to make a post.

Monday I got the new Andrew Bird album, Armchair Apocrypha, in the mail. I've listened to it 10+ times since then. Yeah it's pretty amazing. I wouldn't say it's as good as & the Mysterious Production of Eggs, but given that that was a pretty much perfect album, you've got to be willing to cut some slack. There's a good interview with Andrew Bird over at the Onion's A.V. Club.

There's an interesting atmospheric difference between the two albums. I don't know the proper language to describe it, but I'll give it a shot. In Eggs, when I listen to it, I pretty much picture my head as a dark parlor room with me standing in the middle and Andrew Bird playing in my ear. It's a contained, private sort of feeling. In Apocrypha, it's different. Rather than there being that sort of contained feeling, it's like I'm in that same parlor room, but the roof's been taken off and the universe is pouring in. It's something in the acoustics of the album, I can tell, that make it sound open-air somehow. It makes me almost agoraphobic.

It's an amazing album, though. It's crazy, so many bands that I like have already released albums or are releasing them later on this year. Air, the Apples in Stereo, Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, the Shins, all have new albums out. Once I've listened to them a bunch more I'll probably post up some kind of review.

On Tuesday I finally got my learner's permit. I'm not sure what I would have done if there had been another set-back or if I had failed the test or something. Amazingly, things worked out and I walked out of the DMV triumphantly. It was made all the sweeter by the knowledge that Ben had failed his permit test earlier that day (although he got it the next).

Wednesday was the official first day of spring. I didn't get to enjoy really anything seasonal about it, but it was just a good day in general. Good things happened at school and after school and all that. Thursday was also pretty great. The weather was just beautiful and I had my first driving lesson. My mom took us over to a parking lot and I drove around it for a while and familiarized myself with the controls and habits and suchlike. This driving thing doesn't seem like it's as hard as maybe I thought it would be. Except for parallel parking, that would appear to be as heinous as I ever imagined. Then again, it was my first time actually driving, so I don't suppose I should expect too much.

Friday I went to school and hung out with Rachel for a bit afterwards. On Saturday I went over to Gabo's house to model for an oil painting. Unfortunately, I was oppressed into remaining clothed. Gabrielle is doing it for an art class but she said after the semester's over she'll give it to me. Were I to have a fireplace, I would hang it over it. I suppose I'll settle with hanging it over my bed, or across from it so I see it first thing in the morning.

After I got home from Gabo's I did some philosophy work. Fun stuff. After concentrating on that for a while, Rachel came over. We were going to watch Little Miss Sunshine with my mom, sister, and sister's boyfriend, but while we were waiting one of Rachel's friends called up and said they were going to be seeing 300 at the local multiplex. I'd watched LMS pretty recently and heard a lot of hype about 300, plus I've been fascinated with Sparta since I was taught about the Battle of Thermopylae in fifth grade. So we drove out and saw it.

I thought it was a pretty decent flick. I haven't read the graphic novel, so I can't really compare the movie to it. Nevertheless, I thought the cinematography was pretty cool. The acting was good. And it's awesome because Spartans really were as bad-ass as they were in the movie. Obviously, there were a load of historical inaccuracies, but none that I couldn't really accept as cinematic exaggerations. I did have some trouble with the gore. Not with the quantity so much as the inconsistency. There was a lot of it, but they didn't take it all the way re: decapitation etc. Not that I'm complaining, exactly.

Unfortunately, while I honestly felt it wasn't such a big deal for me to skip the pseudo-family gathering, my mom felt otherwise. I was planning on seeing Chris on Sunday but found myself grounded. I feel it's a little unfair to be punished when I hadn't knowledgeably been disobedient, but my appeal was rejected.

I've been doing some mechanical work on the blog and I've been trying to update it for all the New Blogger fanciness but I'm running into some difficulties. Bear with me, please.
Edit: Turns out Blogger is just giving the shaft to its users who publish by FTP. Nice.