If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you . . .

This is my second attempt at representing my home state.  The first attempt didn’t go so well . . . which I’m completely fine with because I like this one very much.

Also . . .

My mom’s house has some amazing light coming through her house when the sun starts to set.  Hence this:

26 August 2009

I want my future home to have lighting like this, too.  I’m tired of look out my bedroom window and seeing a brick wall.  Maybe I just need a new bedroom.

Oh well.

I’ll have a video to display Duke’s spastic tendencies later . . . when I have a faster Internet connection.

To go back to the first line in this post, I just came back from a bonfire that was held at Krista’s house.  She’s a dear friend of mine that I went to high school with.  Someone that I wish I had the chance to spend more time with because she’s an awesome person.  In every sense of the word.  Seriously, you don’t find people like Krista in most places.  She’s such a naturally genuine, goodhearted person that sees the best in people no matter what.  I forgot that because I hadn’t seen her in so long.  So our meeting tonight was lovely because of this.  Krista and I also spent time with another high school friend of ours, Jim.  I haven’t seen him in some time either for much of the same reasons (college . . . ).  He’s quite the person, too.  As well as being a fucking great guitarist.

Today, Krista, Jim and myself went to the beach in Lexington.  After spending some time there, we went back to Krista’s to have a bonfire with a few drinks.  Jim played around on Krista’s guitar, and we all spoke about our experiences growing up in our small town and going to high school.  Who we used to rip on (that was mostly Jim and I since Krista isn’t one to do that), and how we all changed.  Despite this was only a few years ago (Jim and I graduated in 2006, while Krista graduated in 2007).  It was an interesting thing to revisit, but funny to talk about nonetheless.  We then talked about Michigan and how people don’t see the good in Detroit (a usual conversation I have with my friends from MI), and just about the ups and downs of life in general.

Normally, I can only have conversations like this with very few people only because life experiences differ with a lot of people I know, so I feel they won’t relate.  We all related though, and it was nice.  I don’t know how much more I can say about it.  It was just NICE.  It made me feel content and at home . . . something I haven’t experienced in a while.

All in all, it was a good night.

Earlier in the day, I ended up going on that bike ride.  The result?  I finally explored this awesome tree that I always saw while driving down my road.  If you’ve visited my actual childhood house, you know that it is surrounded by fields and fields of various vegetation . . . be it corn or soy beans or just weeds.  Anyway, it comes across as odd to see a random tree in the middle of a soy bean field.  I always wanted to investigate this tree.  So I finally did.

My first thought was that I would find something really cool.  Like a place I can hang out at while I’m home.  That’s the child in me thinking I guess.  The other thought that always came to mind was the tree toward the end of The Shawshank Redemption.  I LOVE THAT MOVIE.  Not sure where I’m going with that . . .

But what did I ACTUALLY find?  Nothing.  Its just a tree.  Surrounded by ant hills.  MASSIVE ant hills.  Ant hills that were just piles of dirt to me until my feet and legs became itchy for no apparent reason.  Until I looked down and I see many ants attacking my legs.

Of course I freaked out.  I jumped out of there immediately and even threw my shoes off my feet just to shake the ants off.

Creepy.

But my feet are no longer covered in ants.  They’re kind of covered in sand from the beach.  I’ll wash them off in the morning.  I’m too tired to do anything about it right now.

So right now is bed time.

A lot has happened in the past three months, though.

- I finished my summer semester successfully.

- I went on a week long tour with some favorite people of mine through out the Southern states in June.  Resulting in NOT going to Bonnaroo.  Ultimately, I’m OK with that.

- I worked as a crew member for a band at Lollapalooza.  Because of this, I had some nice networking opportunities, met Alex Turner and half-ass stalked Dhani Harrison.

- I turned 21.

- I attended Pitchfork.  One day for free (thank you, Patrice).

- I was in Michigan a lot, visiting friends.  Sometimes family.  Being spontaneous. That’s where I am right now.

- I saw the Dead Weather twice.  And Elvis Perkins in Dearland twice.  Between these four dates, I blacked out for the first time ever and got kicked out of a venue.  On two different days.  Not sure why I state this proudly.

- I went to the Detroit Zoo.  One of the best days EVER.  I love the Detroit zoo . . .

I took a lot of photos documenting my summer.  They can be viewed at the following link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadeameyphotography/

As for now, I think I’m going to go for a bike ride.  Being in rural Michigan, I don’t have to deal with bike lanes and traffic.  I’ll be riding my bike down a dirt road, and the only hazard is me running in to a deer.  Or vice versa.

Jade.

Its partially not all my fault.  I’ve been pretty busy in the past two weeks.  Especially last week.

Tuesday:  Music video shoot with the Sleeptalkers.

Wednesday:  Worked and got a tattoo after work.

Thursday – Sunday:  Memorial weekend in Detroit.

Then this week I started classes again.  Its not as rough as I thought it would be.  Finance online is pretty fucking easy, much to my surprise because I absolutely hate things like accounting and finance.  Russian and Soviet history is very interesting.  I’m learning a lot about Eastern Europe, which was my exact goal for this class . . . and to kill two birds with one stone by completing a history and global awareness requirement.  I learned that the worded “kalita” means “money bags” in Russian.  Best thing I’ve learned in that class thus far.  And my internship is my internship.  Its fun.

I’m seeing the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra tonight and tomorrow its Do Division Fest with White Rabbits!  I’ve heard good things from this band, so I’m excited to see them.

Pictures from last week:

Augie Visocchi of the Hard Lessons. Lager House - Detroit, MI - May 23, 2009.

Korin Louise Visocchi of the Hard Lessons. Lager House - Detroit, MI - May 23, 2009.

FAYGO!!!! Little Cream Soda . . . only in Michigan.

My 7 year old sister, Madison, drew it for me.

Music video shoot for the Sleeptalkers on Monday. The shop we shot it in was the shit.

You can be Augie, too! At the Detroiter Bar in . . . Detroit.

There’s a lot more but you get the idea.

Today, I’ve been casting people for one of our artist’s music video shoot on Tuesday.  Its a fun task, except for texting/calling everyone I know to see if they’re available to do the shoot.  I get mostly ‘Maybe . . . ‘ answers, which I don’t like.  I prefer yes or no answers.  But I have a good list going for extras.  A bunch of interesting folks, for sure.  And I’ll be in it!  So Tuesday is going to be a fun day . . . yes.  I get to take photos, as well [this excites me a bunch].  I think I want to shoot mostly on film, but we’ll see.  Its set in an old fix-it shop, so 35mm would be interesting for that.

Speaking of photos, I have a TON to scan/sort through/develop still from almost two months ago.  SXSW, Lake Tahoe, weekend in Michigan, Concerts I’ve been to . . . I’m way behind.  Catching up on my photo thing will be one of the tasks I’ll finish with my time off between these semesters.  I need a running list of things I need to do while I have time off . . .

I have to go back to work.

I’m currently working on a list of top five songs that make me go into a spastic Jesus Camp dance at concerts.  It won’t be for Facebook, but for myself [and here].  Just to remind myself of how crazy I will look at concerts this summer.

Three of the five are down.

In other news:

I have the cutest cat in the world.  Much like Michael Showalter, I love my cat a lot and she will be making appearances here every so often . . . for obvious reasons.  Simply put, she’s the best.  The best in the biz.

Why am I doing a pseudo introduction?  Fuck, I don’t have to do this.  I’ll just type as if you’ve known me this whole time . . . assuming that you have.  If not . . . Hi.  I’m Jade.  What’s your name?

ANYWAY . . .

Today was my last day of the semester.  This means I have three semesters left until I graduate.  I really couldn’t be happier about it, since Columbia has been pissing me off lately and that level of ‘let’s see how much we can piss Jade off’ has been increasing.  People have been telling me lately to enjoy college while I can because it is something I will truly miss when I leave . . . or something like that.  That’s what I was told my senior year of high school, and my opinion of it hasn’t changed.  I was still overjoyed with graduating from high school and if someone nerved me the wrong way, there would have been a huge “FUCK YOU.” to the whole school.

The difference this time around is that I like the people I go to school with.  Well, I enjoy their company more than most of the people I went to high school with.  The curriculum still annoys me somewhat and the way my college goes about some things is bull shit . . . just like high school.  I guess some things never change.

So, to celebrate my last day of class and the beginning of my two weeks off [summer semester starts at the end of May], I decided to do a little record shopping.  It wasn’t on a whim, I more so planned it earlier this week.  I initially wanted to go to Reckless Records in the Loop because they had a vinyl copy of Elvis Perkins in Dearland that I really wanted.

They still had it.  And I bought it.  And I love it.

Of course I can’t go to any record store wanting just one thing, buying said one thing, and leaving.  It doesn’t work that way.  I have to go through the ‘new/used arrivals’ stack, check out the music magazines, and see if any of my current staples in music have any used vinyl I can buy.  I spent most of the time doing the latter, and made my way through the alphabet of vinyl.  I get to the ‘W’ section, and immediately run my fingers across the tab that says ‘The White Stripes’.  I notice its a little thicker than usual . . . this makes me VERY excited.

I push the rest of the record collection in that file towards me . . . I think it may have been Weezer (no Pinkerton) so I can see what WS albums they had.  The first one I see is this:

Yes.  That’s right.  I saw a UK import of the White Stripes Elephant.  If you were there to witness this happening, you would have seen that I treated this album like it was the Holy Grail.  I slowly picked it up, jaw dropped and all.  I might have squealed . . . I don’t remember.  Regardless, I was SO so so happy.  And behind that, I saw a White Blood Cells import!  And the vinyl is red!!

This event made my day the best day ever . . . of this week.

In addition to that, my step-father sent me an e-mail today stating that the Hard Lessons are playing a show in my hometown on August 21.  Now, if you actually know me know me, you will know that I’m from a cornfield in Michigan.  Seriously.  Although, they are playing in Lexington, MI, I still consider that my hometown because 1.  I lived there for over two years and 2. my high school is ‘Croswell – Lexington High School’.  So its my hometown.  Or four miles from my hometown.  NEVERTHELESS, I don’t know HOW Lexington got them, or even knew of them . . . but I’m pretty stoked.  I’m definitely going home for that.

Best day ever.  Yep.

Sorry this is lengthy.  I’m very detailed when I write.  Don’t complain ’cause someone will enjoy it.