The last two times I tried to write an entry for this blog I was interrupted by

ill health resulting from really nasty experiences with recreational drugs.

Well, third time's the charm.

I'm in my bedroom at my parents' house right now listening to "The Gift" by

John Zorn. I started getting into him around the end of last month. Ill health

of the aforementioned kind prevented me from spending as much time with his

music as I had hoped --- actually, I could barely listen to any music at all

--- so it's really nice to feel well enough to enjoy new musical experiences

again. For no particular reason, I bought a lot of Zorn CDs, in spite of having

actually very little familiarity with him or his work or even the albums in

question...but I've learned by now that my intuitions about "what I'm about to

get into" are actually quite reliable! I'm especially looking forward to

getting back to the first four volumes of The Bagatelles & his stuff with

PainKiller.

I caved & bought myself a huge tin of nice watercolor pencils. Sigh...though I

honestly don't regret it & am super excited to spend time getting used to them.

But sigh...

My eyes are still bad, I have a hard time reading! That's really getting on my

nerves, to be honest. (It's a lingering issue from a concussion I had in late

February of last year.)

The weather has gotten really lovely around here, it comes at a good time.

All the time I think to myself how remarkable it is that I managed to find so

many close friends that I really respect & love. I don't know how I did it, or

how I've held onto them all this time.

I've actually been so consistent about my sleep schedule over the past couple

of weeks that I'm starting to get routinely sleepy at the same time every

evening. That's a nice feeling.

Lately I like to take pictures of myself doing just about anything with other

people, even mundane or workaday things. I like to look at my camera roll & see

it filling up with time that I've spent with loved ones.

One of my closest friends was recently traveling in Chicago & had a lot to

report on his return. I might apply to school there later this year, so maybe

I'll end up living there, who knows? But I'm glad to have him back & I think he

was glad to return, too.

I haven't been able to spend much time thinking about religion lately. I wonder

if that's a good thing. (Although I did learn about the "katechon" for the

first time & was thinking about that a fair bit. Something worldly that holds

back the Antichrist, the "man of sin", thereby further holding back the

eschaton --- that's pretty interesting!)

Before my eyes most recently started giving me trouble, I was really enjoying

Sean Wilentz' book, "Bob Dylan in America". I didn't read it sequentially, I

just jumped around from chapter to chapter if the subject matter looked

interesting. I was particularly keen to learn more about "Blonde on Blonde" &

"Love and Theft", two of my favorite Dylan records. (If you like Dylan but

haven't heard "Tell Tale Signs", an entry in his "Bootleg" series, I highly

recommend it. Besides many excellent outtakes & live performances, it features

one of his most beautiful unreleased songs, "Red River Shore".)

There are very few albums that I would say I feel really at home with. I mean

that they give me a strong, soothing feeling of being somehow at home. "Love

and Theft" is one of them, & definitely "The Great Annihilator" by Swans. I

think at one time "Oversteps" by Autechre might have made the cut, & it still

might, it's just been a while since I was listening to it regularly.

After a long hiatus, I've started working on my colored pencil mosaics again.

It's nice to have the feeling of getting better at both coming up with ideas &

executing them, & making the drawings can get pretty meditative --- although my

posture while doing so makes my neck & shoulders ache, so I need to fix that.

I'll have to be less of a downer!

I'm looking forward to getting back to regular voice training.

I have to get my blood drawn tomorrow, blegh.

I'd like to start taking long walks regularly, especially since I naively

didn't realize that they can serve as perfectly good cardio. I mean, if you

keep up a brisk pace, you can actually sustain an elevated heartrate. I'm not

fit at all, but I like going on walks, so this is very good to know.

I've been watching so many movies lately! Probably my favorite has been "A

Month in the Country" starring a young Colin Firth. I doubt it was actually the

best movie I've seen recently but it was a really comforting viewing experience

at a time when I needed it, & I'll definitely watch it again. A friend of mine

showed it to me & even though she had only seen it for the first time very

recently, she said it instantly has the feeling of a cherished childhood

classic. (That probably has something to do with when it was made & the way it

was shot.) Some other good movies I saw were "Topsy-Turvy", a light-hearted

dramatization of a brief period of the lives of Gilbert & Sullivan, & the 80s

classic "Wall Street". I absolutely loved "The Blues According to Lightnin'

Hopkins" & strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in blues music.

Speaking of blues music, I recently returned to "Texas Worried Blues", the

complete recorded works (from 1927 to 1929) of Henry Thomas. It's WONDERFUL! If

you've ever listened to & enjoyed Lead Belly, I think you'd really like it. (If

you haven't listened to Lead Belly, please do!!! He's so, so fantastic.)