rainy days and bookshelves:

i spent friday and saturday in ATL with my good friend Andrew from college while my fiance + sisters + mom + other college friend went wedding dress shopping (with great success, so i’m told). While they were busy doing that, Dru took me around to some of his favourite hot-spots; Little Five Points, Dekalb Farmer’s Market, Doraville, the wonders of MARTA, and of course, his lovely new apartment.

though i rained almost the entire time we were there it was a pretty fun trip and the rain helped add a sort of chill, relaxed vibe to our galavanting across ATL. it was a good time and i look forward to being able to do it again and spending more than 26-ish hours in town.

in other big news, i have come into possession of a bookshelf that emily helped me set up last night and is now sitting beautifully in my freshly cleaned and rearranged room. it is a wonderful sight to behold and a long time coming; now all of my books and dvds have a loverly (and relatively cheap) home. it is really good for me to finally have a place for all of my stuff; feels at little bit more like home. i’ve been staying in the guest room of emily’s sister and brother-in-law’s house for about 5 months now and i needed to sort of make the space my own until my own apartment happens in a couple of months. thus this fabulous bookshelf.

so that was my weekend, in brief, i’m currently partaking in my weekend haunting of Dewey’s, drinking coffee, enjoying the rainy weather, listening to some hot tunes, and updating my blog. and in honor of the ray autumn days of winston-salem and atlanta; i’m working on the ultimate rainy day mix that i will upload in the next couple of days...so stay tuned.

be well.

the baron

and if you haven’t listened to the new yeasayer jam below, please; take 4 mins. and be blessed.

yeasayer's new single: ambling alp!

this!

listen

and listen

and listen again

everything i was hoping it would be!

fall/winter/spring reading list

for those interested these are what is coming up next in the great reading quest; most of what's on this list is from the TIME 100 Best Novels Since 1923 list that I am (slowly) working through. these books will take me quite awhile to read and i can almost guarantee you that i will deviate from this list...but for the time being:

:The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

::Different Seasons by Stephen King (Mike at work has finally convinced me to give King a chance and this is where he told me to start)

:::The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

::::Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta

:::::A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess

::::::Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

:::::::The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (continuing my re-reading of everything Tolkien)

::::::::Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

:::::::::Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series by Rick Riodan (my little brother has been trying to get me to read these for awhile and I'm a big geek for Greek mythology so I thought I would give them a shot)

::::::::::Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (all of my friends who I talk to about this book say they haven't been able to finish it..so we'll see)

:::::::::::The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (again, inner nerd)

::::::::::::The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

:::::::::::::Atonement by Ian McEwan

::::::::::::::The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien (I haven't read this yet, so I am excited to see what all the fuss is about

on a personal note:

I am currently sitting in my fiancé's place of employment, about to enjoy a hot beverage, listening to this and generally taking it easy on my day off. This morning I slept in, read my book a little (still in the middle of The Lord of the Rings), and watched Pineapple Express; not the Apatow crew’s best outing but still a pretty amusing time.

My new job is treating me well and I really enjoy the environment and the people and while it isn’t something I want to be doing for the rest of my life; I am throughly looking forward to spending a couple of years there getting to know people and getting a crapload of books and movies at excellent prices.

I am also grateful to be having a paycheck again as loan payments are coming due pretty soon here and that makes them a little less scary. Winston-Salem is a great town and I am really looking forward to planting my feet here for 7-ish years with Emily and enjoying what life has to offer. Should be good.

...and so I leave you with my current jam (aside from the plethora of 80’s tunes I’m enjoying), ‘11th Dimension’ from Julian Casablancas excellent new album, Phrazes for the Young:

I promise that in a day or two I will get back to some posting beyond life-updates.

Til then,

The Baron

getting in touch with my inner nerd...

my weekend:

:day off..

i am throughly enjoying my day off here in winston-salem; after a crazy weekend at work it is nice just to do pretty much nothing all day long. i woke up and read and visited my fiance at work and drank coffee and read there. all and all pretty brilliant.

i also realize that i have basically failed at updating this blog on any sort of a regular basis and so i will try to do a little better at that in the coming weeks; i just got over a nasty cold so i will use that as my excuse this time.

but for now i am just checking in; saying hi; and letting you know that i am determined (yet again) to get this rolling so see you in a day or two with a real update.

enjoy the rest of your sunday.

be well.

revival

so i haven't written on this blog for quite awhile, but i am hoping to revive it shortly here. i am going to start by posting reviews of albums and books and movies that have been getting my attention with a new post coming every couple days or so; and more once i get into the flow of things. hopefully the few of you that stumble across this blog will be able to take away some new sounds or reads or sights. til then.

the baron