n e n i e

From the desk of Nena, who's currently in Oklahoma on business.

This morning, we were talking about the rising oil prices and all of the doom that's been forecast because of this. During this conversation, she made a really great point.

"Gas prices are going to skyrocket until October 30th, then they're going to go down to pre-Gulf War I levels, $.95 a gallon or something ridiculous like that. Then, after Bush is reelected because everyone forgot about paying $2.95 for gas a few days earlier and everyone will think that the war in Iraq was OK because gas is so cheap. THEN! They'll screw us all and hike the prices up even higher. I think we should heat the house up really hot that week while it's all cheap to do, then live off of that heat we filled the house up with all winter. "

Yknow, she's got a point.

In baseball-related news. I HATE THE CUBS. NO, really, I REALLY HATE THEM RIGHT NOW.

How many did they lose to the Expos?
(The Washington D.C. Expos as of next year. Take that Angelos.)

Now, they can't beat the Reds. . .ugh.

To top it all off, the one team who I figured WOULD choke, isn't. (The Dodgers.)

I really hope it doesn't come down to a one game playoff like it did in 98. Cuz this time, there's no Sayles to run to after rehearsal.

Posted by nenie at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This weekend went entirely too quickly. I mean, damn it's gone already. Granted, I'm going to be up for a while longer so maybe that'll drag this weekend out. I'm going to the airport in a little while to pick up Nena's brother Tryst who's coming up from ABQ for a week on business. Sadly, he's not going to have his sister to hang out with this week as she'll be out on the range again this week- also for business.

But it's been nice to have Nena home for an entire weekend- something that hasn't happened in entirely too long. Especially this weekend since our wedding picture proofs came in this week. It's been nice to sit around and look at the pictures with her. They're absolutely beautiful and remind both of us how much fun our wedding was.

However, that was only part of this weekend's story. With the strange occurence of having Nena home for an entire weekend we took it upon ourselves to get a whole bunch of yardwork done. I still have to take out the tall grasses with a hedge trimmer, but DAMN if things aren't much improved. We pruned the shit out of our plum tree. Seriously, the clippings look like a whole other entire tree sitting out on the curb. In addition to that we took out a bunch of other trees and killed a bunch of what looks like kudzu that was eating our pine trees up. Yeah, we're suburban warriors, deal with it.

I haven't gotten enough school work done, though. I've just finished cranking out a paper that's due tomorrow, I'm presenting in class on Thursday, I'm teaching all week, I have another paper due next Thursday and I'm presenting an unfinished conference paper a week from Saturday. Yeah. . .life's busy.

And then Da Bears had to drop one to Minnesota, KU lost to Texas Tech in the last two minutes and the Cubs have been letting the Mets give us all flashbacks of the summer of '69. I swear, they're trying to kill us all.

That, of course, brings me to the thing I'm probably going to regret. While perusing the Giants website to see how badly my earlier prediction was turning out (pretty badly as it turns out, the Dodgers aren't the choke artists I thought they'd be) I came upon this it's an order form for Walker the Chicken. He's an orange and black rubber chicken the Giants are selling to protest the intentional walking of Barry Bonds by pretty much everyone and their nana.

Seriously, quit walking Bonds, you're just adding to his (well deserved) legend and being a punk all at the same time. Pitch to the man, make him work for his paycheck and quit inflating his OBP. I want to see the statistical analysis that actually shows me that teams are actually winning more games thanks to their intentional walking of Bonds. It seems to me that they're only prolonging or creating Giant rallies that are the only reason this team is still in the Hunt for October.

Oh, why am I going to regret saying that? Because I know someone's gonna stop walking Bonds and the Cubs are going to get dismantled because of it.

OK, enough of that, back to work for me. Take care, yo. And someone remind me to keep posting this week. It'll keep me sane.

Posted by nenie at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm callin' this now.

The Cubs will make the playoffs, as will the Giants. The Dodgers are going to fold, lose the division to Los Gigantes and will be on too big a slide to pick up the Wild Card from the Cubs, who benefit from the Giants winning the NL West on the backs of the Houston Astros. You heard it from me first, yo.

Posted by nenie at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Holy mother of crap.

Longtime readers of this space know that I have a pretty basic morning ritual that's been kind enough to get me through HS, a BA and halfway through an MA. I watch SportsCenter while I eat breakfast, that's it. That's the whole thing, but it's a great routine and it gets the morning started right.

Hell, back when I used to have the Recurring Nightmare (tm) it always started out with me getting my Wheaties and sitting down on my couch (which in the dream was oddly like the one Nena and I just bought. . .wow, I hadn't thought of that until now) to watch me some SportsCenter. This is how normative my ritual is, yo. Even when I dream about a "normal" day I start by dreaming I'm going through these motions.

At any rate, I'm eating breakfast when a Ditech, or somesuch, commercial comes on. Hating these commercials more than a regular commercial I decide to see what else my digital cable package has in store for me. WOW! Videos on VH1 (after striking out on MTV). Excited by the prospect of videos on a music video channel I head over to VH1 and am greeted by, a half naked Britney Spears (a newly married Britney at that.)

Dude, she's really naked in this video, I thought. I don't know this video, is it new? I asked. So I sat it out and yes, it was, in fact new. It's the video for the new track off of her forthcoming Greatest Hits album. It's Britney Spears covering Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative." It was the kind of shit you had to see to believe.

There's Britney cavorting around in her underwear (which IS actually different from your standard Britney video) looking very much like the second coming of Madonna ca. 1992-1995. There she is in bed, rolling around like Madonna in the "Say Goodbye" video. There she is hiding outside of a darkened church like the "Like a Prayer" video (yes, I know that this is outside the chronology I've set up, deal with it. Her look is from the early 90s version of Madonna.) Just crazy, yo.

This is all the funnier when read against her mother's comments to the media last week about how they go out of their way to portray her daughter as a "skank." Which led to Jim Rome saying that the media hadn't created Britney's skanktacular image, adding- "if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, Britney Spears is a skank." This video makes Rome really right, really, really right.

And then there's the whole Bobby Brown thing. Holy shit, yo. Britney Spears is now placing her newly married self into a Bobby Brown context. Wow, can we expect her to really implode now? I mean, she was already kinda on the verge of it, but now will it really kick in? Now that she's gunning for some Bobby karma, will she end up coked to the gills and smacking around her hubby? Shit, this could break the unintentional comedy scale. Amazing shit really.

That said, it's a really nice cover of the song, and the video is nice, if you're a fan of seeing Mrs. Spears nekkid. But damn, what a way to start your day. Britney and Bobby. . .how can I work Whitney into all this?

Posted by nenie at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The weekend is over, and damn is it sad. Seriously, I need like 4 day weekends so that I can savor them the way they should be savored.

Nena was in town for 20 or so hours this weekend and that was nice. This whole travel season thing is seriously sucking. I mean, she's NEVER freakin' home. At her last job, she traveled but she'd be home on weekends and for the vast majority of the season. But now, she gets to come home for 20 hours and then she's back out again. It's sad, yo.

In other news, THE FREAKING BEARS BEAT GREEN BAY!!!! IN GREEN BAY!!!!

I can't believe it. I called CK to tell him and we were just amazed at the sight. For as long as we've been friends Favre has OWNED Da Bears especially up in the bay, but today was different. Sure, it wasn't like the Bears destroyed the Pack, but it's not like they gave the game away, either.

Yeah, the Bears' O played well enough to not blow the game and the D took it from there. I'm not ashamed to admit that we won the game with defense, cuz a win's a fucking win, yo. And this one was against GREEN BAY IN GREEN BAY.

OK, let's extend the logic out a bit. . .

The Panthers beat KC today
The Packers beat the Panthers last week
The Bears beat the Packers
QED
The Bears are better than KC

I like this.

Granted, by this logic the Lions should then be the favorites to win the AFC, which is problematic because A) they're the Lions and 2) they're in the NFC. But bear with me here. Chicago beats KC, this makes me happy. Maybe I should call Cheryl and gloat some more.

Posted by nenie at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I have a confession to make; I love mowing my lawn. I know, I know, I'm currently hemorrhaging cool points by saying this- but it's the truth. Until recently I'd never had a lawn to mow. Growing up in a townhouse, the lawn belonged to the homeowners' association and they paid some primos to do it, so I didn't have to. But now, 25 year old suburban homeowner Nenie has a rather large lawn to mow. . .and a RIDING lawnmower on which to do it.

I think this is where the crux of the fun stems from. It's a riding mower, so it's like having a 17.5 HP go-cart for your lawn. Damn is that shit fun, it's like sailing over your lawn at moderate speed. Last time I mowed the lawn I found myself riding across the back yard, full throttle shouting "All I need is a riding mower, and a STAR to sail her by. WHOO!" I know, I need help.

After a few minutes of this, I started singing some Styx, "I'm SAIL-ING AH-WAAAY. . ." It was awesome. As I finished the mowing, I drove slowly up the sloping driveway singing "I'll try, OH LAWWWD I'll TRYY/to CAAAAAAAAARRRY OOOOOOOON." As I hit the last line I took my hands off the wheel and threw them in the air and leaned back, by the time I finished holding the last note, I was at a full stop inside the garage. I guess you had to be there. . .

Yeah, mowing the lawn rules. Only problem is, we need to name the lawnmower. Any suggestions? We're totally tapped out. There's a bigger picture of the mower if you click on the thumb above. . .if Nena and I use your name I'll send you a copy of my "Music to Slaughter Grass To" mix as well as let you ride the mower around the lawn next time you come visit us. . .yeah.

Suggestions?

Posted by nenie at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

It seriously took all the energy I had yesterday to do my radio show, but Iˆ‚m glad I managed to get on the air. Bobo and I had planned an entire two hour kickoff to Hispanic Heritage Month (which starts today, btw) complete with guests from some of the different Latino orgs around campus to fill us in on what allˆ‚s going on this month.

Totally a great show. The guests werenˆ‚t scheduled to show up until the beginning of hour two so we spent the time playing some great Latin music and talking about all sorts of questions Bobo had for me, like ˆ¨Where is Aztlan?ˆÆ or ˆ¨Whatˆ‚s the difference between Hispanic, Latino and Chicano?ˆÆ And sometimes, Iˆ‚d feed Bobo a question that I really wanted to answer. It was pretty cool.

When the guests arrived, we had a good time talking about all of the different services KU has for Latin students as well as why these services even exist, a great night of talk radio centered around educating the community at large. And for the most part, the community seemed to really like it. We had more than twice the normal volume of calls telling us how great the show was and how much they liked the music we were playing. . .then there was this one guy.

He kept calling up trying to get us into a discussion on illegal immigration and the destructive nature of Latin culture on ˆ¨AmericanˆÆ culture. Yeah, that was fantastic. We ignored him as best we could, even when he called and asked us to talk about ˆ¨The price people have to pay for living in THIS culture. Iˆ‚m tired of hearing about Latin culture, what about THIS culture.ˆÆ I felt like saying, sorry buddy, if you want to talk about that, call ANY of the other shows on this station and bug them.

I didnˆ‚t though, if for no other reason than many of the other shows on KJ do talk about some issues of Latin culture. OK, Latin Lab plays Latin dance music. . .and Iˆ‚m sure one of the hip-hop shows plays stuff my Latin MCs and DJs from time to time. . .and Ozo was in heavy rotation this summer. But still, the guy was driving Bobo and I crazy. We value his point, but why was it so hard for him to see OUR point? Oh well, I guess weˆ‚re lucky that the only real negative reaction we got to last nightˆ‚s show was that guy, the one person who was scandalized to hear that Kansas was once part of Mexico, ˆ¨Like ALL of it? All the way to LAWRENCE?ˆÆ

ˆ¨No,ˆÆ we told them, ˆ¨like western and southwestern Kansas, out by Salina and Liberal.ˆÆ

ˆ¨Oh,ˆÆ they said, somehow relieved.

And then there was the guy that was hopping mad because Bobo called John Brown a terrorist.

ˆ¨Are you pro-slavery or something?ˆÆ He asked.

ˆ¨No,ˆÆ Bobo replied, ˆ¨I just have a problem with killing innocent women and children no matter what youˆ‚re for or against.ˆÆ

Yup, an interesting night up in the shack. Though, damn, that one guy totally got on my nerves.

Posted by nenie at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Is there anything worse than a summer cold? Yes. A summer cold that starts going away just as the weather shifts to warm and wet from warm and humid. Ugh. I guess I started coming down with whatever this virus is on Sunday- that would explain the lethargy and general feeling of being one step removed from my body. I hate that feeling; I never realize itˆ‚s the harbinger of a cold until itˆ‚s too late, like Monday morning.

Thankfully, Nena was out of town this weekend and didnˆ‚t get home until noon yesterday. By the time she got home, the most contagious phase was gone and all that was left was the burning eyes, the lack of energy and the sinus headaches. Unfortunately, I took the last of my Sudafed this morning and weˆ‚re TOTALLY out of Emergen-C. Granted, I havenˆ‚t been taking one a day since we moved to the new house so I guess this cold is a warning shot across my nose. Start taking Emergen-C again, itˆ‚s seriously brilliant. One of the best things Freesiaˆ‚s ever clued me into.

This stupid cold has succeeded in making me feel generally disoriented. Iˆ‚m giving an exam on Friday and I havenˆ‚t had time to write it because any spare time I have has been devoted to napping. . .suffice it to say Iˆ‚ve been finding more free time than I really have. Seriously, when is my nose going to get tired? Suckerˆ‚s been running for three days straight. Fucker, running for 26 miles kills some men, but my nose is too hardcore for that. Kinda like Oprah. Damn, is she hardcore or what?

And now, Chicago sports are doing their damnedest to kill me. The Cubs need 12 innings to beat the Pirates and stay a half game behind the Giants (though weˆ‚ve played 3 fewer total games) and the Bears have to drop a lead over FUCKING DETROIT via a blocked FG returned for a TD. Ugh, I swear. . .gonna kill me, or my dad who celebrated another birthday yesterday. I hate to break it to him, but I think that heˆ‚s less likely to see a Super Bowl or World Series win off of the Oso Twins this year than last.

Word, enough rambling. Iˆ‚m gonna go drink some more lemon tea and honey. Iˆ‚m drinking this shit by the Nalgene to keep me going. The only problem is that itˆ‚s a bit more citric acid than my body would like. Any suggestions for remedies to this situation?

Posted by nenie at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

DJing went well on Friday night. Thanks to those of you who either posted here or emailed/called to see how things were going. I know I was silly to have worried, but sometimes. . .change is a really scary motherfucker. Yknow?

I hit soundcheck around three, discovered a bug in the system they'd set up for me (no way to read track numbers on one of the decks they'd gotten me), corrected the bug and chilled with Das Nibblet and Cheryl for a while.

By the time I got home, Nena was there waiting to remove what was left of the nerves. I packed my box of music, showered, changed and was ready for Nena to drive me to the gig. Yknow, it's kinda nice to have someone to drive you to these things.

As soon as I got behind the table, life was good. People came by, in off the streets, and pounded on the big window I was DJing in front of to tell me they liked what I was spinning. Cute girls and their moms came up to to ask what who the artist I was playing was, and a few folks even asked for my card. Heh, my card. Hell yeah, I managed to rig something up to work as a huge, lime green 4"x4" business card. Yeah, life is good. . . Which brings me to the next issue of the morning.

Football season starts today. My poor father. As if the Cubs don't give him enough to worry about, the Bears have to up and start a new season. I swear, it might just be easier on him if they took a season off. I really don't think he can handle what's about to go down this year.

To make matters worse, he seems oddly attached to Lovie Smith. The man hasn't coached an actual game as the Bears' head coach, and my dad's already attached to him. It's just so odd, my dad's one of those guys who normally starts the call for the coach's head (only the Bears, though. Other coaches deserve sympathy or the benefit of the doubt. But not whomever is in charge of his Bears.)

Maybe it's because he's the first "marquee" coach the Bears have had in ages.
Maybe it's because everyone else hated him from the moment he was named.
Maybe it's because he's not white, I'm not sure.

All I know is that my father has an unusual attachment/soft spot for the Bears new head coach and I'm afraid it's going to make the inevitable that much more painful for the man. I mean, is this what he deserves for his upcoming birthday? More pain and misery? No. I'm telling you. Those Cubs better fucking deliver. We've just passed the seven year anniversary of his heart attack (Can you believe it's been seven years?) and I don't want to see the Bear family give him another one. Cuz baby bears are one thing, but grown ones. . .ugh.

Posted by nenie at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A while. It's been a while.

Remember when I used to DJ? Remember when I used to make mix CDs for parties?

Yknow how I got out of the habit after I left IMSA/Carleton/Missouri. . .well I guess I'm gonna be back in the game for a few hours tonight.

A few months ago a friend who works for a store here in L-Town talked to me about maybe DJing a show at her store some Friday night. Sure, why not, I'll never actually have to do it. . .One thing led to another and tonight I'm actually DJing in front of people again.

I'm scared out of my mind, people.

Doing live shows is a totally different animal from doing the radio thing, and I'm kinda scared that I'm gonna have forgotten how to do shit on the fly with people watching.

Sure, I did it for the kidz in Missouri, but (no offense to y'all) they were a captive audience. They didn't have to like what I played, because they really couldn't go anywhere else.

Sure, I made mix CDs at Carleton, CDs that I liked and that some folks danced to and that some folks complained about (there's not enough swing dancing) but that's different. It wasn't me and the machine, doing it on the fly. There was so much reflection and planning that went into those albums. . . and KRLX was a different beast as well. That was in the basement, by myself. . .not even my friends listened to my show, where's the pressure in that?

Which brings be back to IMSA, seven years ago. That's the last time I was ever as creative as I wanted to be. It was insanity, yo and I was too young to be afraid of screwing up. Hell, one time I blew a fuse and fixed it with alumninum foil- that's how young and unafraid I was. Alas. . .

Right, so here I am, DJing, tonight.

I've always been too afraid to DJ live, so I've had to divorce myself from reality and create a performative me to get by. At IMSA, it was DJ Span, but he's been gone for a long time now. At Carleton, there was Czar Nenie I- and even he was too chickenshit to DJ live- that's why he had those mixes. In Missouri it was RC Nenie, the adult who was nice enough to throw parties for you. . .yeah, none of those guys are gonna do tonight, they're all part of a me that's no longer around, I guess I'm going to have to invent DJ Slim Mochachino for this. A breath of oldskool merino in a cotton/poly world. That's the only performative me that I can find, the only me that will enable me to extend far enough outside myself to get by. Should be. . .fun.

Calling DJ Slim Mochachino, the new 2004 version of the performative me. It's all an act, so no one gets hurt. . .

Wish me luck, and if you're in the area come check me out. 7p-9p at Hobbs, on 7th and Mass. Yeah. . .light a candle for me. WHOO!

Posted by nenie at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Who misses the Friday Five? I do. It's the kind of Friday where I could really have used the sucker- like Barry in High Fidelity would have said, "it'd have been a, a, a fucking conversation STIMULATOR MAN." But alas, nothing. . .

It's Friday and I, for one, am thankful. Not only is it Friday, it's Friday of Labor Day weekend; a Labor Day where I'm doing nothing and going nowhere. I'm going to sit around the house, maybe buy a lawn mower so I can mow my lawn, maybe unpack and I'm definitely going to READ. Going to get a few weeks ahead on my teaching prep and the like. Since I don't have class on Tuesdays, I actually have a FOUR day weekend, yo. It's really quite brilliant- I only hope I'm as productive this weekend as I'm planning on being. Lots of rest, lots of reading. . .lots of goodness.

Nena's parents are coming to town tomorrow, a visit that I'm actually really looking forward to. They haven't seen the house yet, and I'm excited to have them see it. . .without our BigKid furniture, of course. Because that would make us seem more together than we want them to think we are.

And with that, I'm off to teach. There's something about teaching on Fridays on this campus. Thursday is the big party night so I have a lot of students on Fridays who've seen better mornings. . .and then I teach at 1:30p on a Friday, in the classroom closest to a bar on all of campus. The bar that features it's Friday afternoon beer in a brown bag. . .

Which means I have to amp it up on Fridays, I have to come in there as fired up as my favorite undergrad prof. Granted, she is a lot thinner than me and so could look like an overexcited Muppet when she was flailing about the classroom, exuding her love of film history. With that in mind, I have a rivetting lecture about Brown v. Board. Three page outline, yo (which is a lot longer than my normal page of condensed, leave room for discussion- lib arts style, lecture. Today, I'm gonna talk a lot, and pause for questions, and have "Bueller, Bueller" moments, and make pop culture references that they're not going to get. AND I'M NOT GOING TO FEEL BAD ABOUT IT!!! Then I'm going to the liquor store and buying some whiskey and I'm gonna come home and drink a whiskey sour and play video games, or watch Logan's Run or something. YES!!! THIS IS MY FRIDAY AND I WILL SEIZE IT!!!!

So, what are you guys doing to seize your Friday? In honor of the Friday Five here's my own five for Friday.

1) Why are you glad it's Friday?
2) How are you seizing your Friday?
3) Big Plans for the weekend?
4) Throw your hands in the air
5) Wave them like you just don't care.

Answer in the comments, feel free to SPAM the universe with this bad boy. . .

Posted by nenie at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)