Home is Where Beds are Made

and butter is added to toast


So, phase one in being a person who actually lives in Portland instead of merely existing in Portland is drawing to a close. I signed a lease yesterday for an apartment--a beautiful double studio in the neighborhood i wanted to live in. The layout is alittle funny, and i have to decide whether i want to buy a bed or sleep in the one that pulls out in a drawer, but its really nice, hardword floors, great kitchen, etc. Its a bit more expensive than i had planned, ut what can you do. I'm renting it from this nice old couple who seem pretty great but put the wrong address and zip code on my lease. so we'll see how that goes. so from now until further notice, correspondence, care packages, cookies, and birthday presents on or around Nov 9th can reach me at

2109 NW Irving St.
Portland, OR
97210

In other news, I have started rehearsals at Sojourn, put in a couple of job applications (Thats phase two) and kicked my AD addiction...and Matt,what maeby and i had was young love, not some crude adolescent thing like you described. I only whack it to House.

Finally, a few more albums i think you should listen to, but, for brevity's sake, no pictures and descriptions of equal word length as the headings.

1. Murder By Death- In Bocca Al Lupo:
rock+cello+Johnny Cash+grim stories=this

2. Bloc Party- Silent Alarm:
great album, good politics

3. Sun Kil Moon- Ghosts of the Great Highway:
"Duk Koo Kim"-Fourteen minutes of sonic beauty

4. Thom Yorke- The Eraser:
Better than Radiohead? Yes.

thats all for now. move in sunday. ill let you know if there are any huge crises. Also, I will officially be home friday the 6th-monday the 9th for wedding, hometown fair, and (huge fingers crossed) dodger playoff games on TV.

j

Or On a Silver Screen

so, Portland, day 6, still no apartment. and no job. i do get to start going to rehearsals tomorrow though, which is nice because it gives me something to do. up to this point, my days have gone something like:

wake up
look at craigslist
go to coffee shop
eat lunch
go to coffee shop #2
look at craigslist
(maybe see an apartment)
watch entourage or arrested development season 3
sleep

its getting kind of boring. On the plus side, both those seasons of both shows were amazing. It makes me sad to watch the end of Arrested though, it really was an incredible incredible show. Also, i have a probably unhealthy crush on Maeby. Alia Shawkat, if youre reading this, my intentions are totally honorable, i just want to take you to dinner sometime, I swear.

so yeah, hopefully ill find a place soon, hopefully ill be home in 10 days for a wedding and my first hometown fair in 5 years, hopefully Maeby is reading this.

j

PS Ive felt terrible since my last post not because it was super long but because I left off Bloc Party's Silent Alarm and Sun Kil Moon's Ghost of the Great Highway off the list. Theyre amazing albums that ive been listening to a ton and yeah i think about things like this

PPS Matt you were right, it was a typo, its been fixed, and ive been more than duly shamed. happy?

Home Is Where I Want To Be

pick me up and turn me round


I dont necessarily want to be home in LA, although i do miss my friends and my parents, but Id like a home. The worst part of moving so far is that, lacking an apartment, and even any good leads, I dont feel like my life is starting here yet. I have no apartment, no job, I dont start at the theatre for another week or so, and I dont have any friends. that all sounds more depressing when its actually written out. I know it hasnt been very long, and things will get better, its just hard to look forward when all your worldy possessions are in the back of your car and dont seem to be getting out any time soon. So thats where things are right now...lots of craigslisting, lots of calling and being told the building is full or only has 900 dollar apts available.

Everytime I start something new, I have this fantasy that I will be a different person. that just because I am moving to Evanston, or London, or Portland that I will change all the things about myself that i want to change...that i will start anew, rise from my own ashes like the phoenix i plan to get tattooed on my back. Its not a particularly unique sentiment, I'm sure, and it doesnt usually work out that way. I have made a small step in that direction this time though, i feel. I went to see a family friend's band play (one I havent seen in maybe 15 years, which still put him in the top five people I knew before moving to Portland) and a group of people that looked reasonable my age sat next to me, and I was able to carry on a conversation throughout the evening with one of them, who was a reasonably cute girl to top it all off. For most people this isnt a step towards anything, its just a Thursday. But I don't really like talking to strangers, and when I asked for her number after the show it was probably the first time I had ever done that. I asked partly because it would, as i told her, be nice to have a friend who knew the city and mostly just to prove I could, but still. One small step for man. So there Portland.
I should probably tell people about this if i want them to read it. Oh well. Everything in due time.

j

First Things First My Friend, A Change

Dear anyone who reads this,

So. I started a blog. I also moved to Portland. These things are pretty much directly related. I have to admit, the starting-a-blog-to-keep-all-the-friends-I-moved-foolishly-away-from-posted thing is not original, nor would I have done it had my friend Caitlin not done the same thing. And really, I feel like I wouldnt have started it at all had I not decided I wanted to write about music as well. So. I will keep you posted. And I will make top five lists, because I like High Fidelity that much. And hopefully you will read and respond. It will help pass the time for me, and its nice to know you're not alone online.

until next time, fearless reader

j