all i need is a nice bubble boy for our nice bubble life ...

i stumbled across something interesting last night. if you're curious, stop by RKOP's future show gatherings/reviews/etc. area and read the first post of "insanity at EMU." i couldn't believe how similar the sentiments, style, etc. are to my northampton review here ... looks like courtney and i share a point of view, that's for sure.

and ... i meant to post this, as i found it very amusing. i picked up a copy of the valley advocate while in northampton (think phoenix/seven days/citypaper.) and found the following listing under "happenings" - daniel oppenheimer hit it perfectly:

male archetype #22
in high school, he was the soft-spoken boy who managed to make friends with the good-looking girls. their boyfriends hoped that he was gay, but worried that he wasn't, and that the platonic friendships might evolve, late one night after a deeply felt conversation, into something more.

now in his mid-twenties, he's come into his own. people pay money to see him play acoustic guitar and sing folksy songs with thoughtful and funny lyrics. women swoon as he serenades them with lines like, "your body is a wonderland." his features, which in high school seemed too feminine, are now percieved as either delicate (elfin) or gentle (hobbit-ish). his clever t-shirts, faded jeans, retro sportscoats and surfer-boy necklaces, which at once seemed odd, now say sensitive in his own skin. women - mostly white women - love him. gay men ignore him. straight men, inclined to hate him, find him so unthreatening, and his music so appealing, that they end up liking him (though they don't admit so to his friends).

celebrity incarnations: john mayer, jason mraz (pictured), jack johnson.
local incarnation: stephen kellogg.
opening act incantation for local incantation: ari hest.

anyhoo. my new nickname at work is bubble girl. because i have suddenly become even more accident-prone. in the past week alone, i have fallen (see earlier tirade about TSFH), spilled steaming, THICK soup all over my arm, burned myself on a tray, burned myself on the landing zone, burned myself with hot water (notice a trend?), burn myself after spilling maranara sauce all over myself and smacked my head against a printer that we have set on a suspended shelf.

then there's today. during an eight-hour shift, i managed to:
- hit my head on a shelf after picking something up off the ground (i, being stupid, raised my head very quickly and i swear i saw stars - twas grand).
- ran into people three different times while walking quickly.
- yanked my headset off my head after one of the collisions, as we both stepped away and our headsets somehow got tangled together.
- spill hot coffee all over my arm (same arm as the soup incident).
- burn myself with hot vegetable oil.

after awhile, people were watching just to see how i'd managed to find a way to hurt myself next. i, of course, became so determined NOT to hurt myself that everything went even more wrong. the headset was the last straw. i went into a self-imposed exile in the drive corner, half laughing, half crying and shooting playful looks of death at matthew, who was out back in hysterics.

it was decided that either the entire store needed to be padded or i need to pad myself - that's where the bubble concept came into play.

grrr.

now i'm preparing to relax briefly before heading up to burlington for my column ... i'm not in the mood to really make the trip, but i'm focusing on the fact that i've gotten all of my calamities for the day out of the way and if i get everything for this week's column done early, i have the weekend free to enjoy my college homecoming (ack!) and whatnot.

while up north, i'm thinking i will treat myself to something, as i need some form of reward for getting through the day ... maybe some (more) new music or something? as if i need an excuse to buy another cd ... good lord. but i think travis might have a new album out ...

speaking of newly acquired music, i am really liking damien rice's disc, "o." while i enjoy his voice and the composition of songs (as well as some bloody fantastic lyrics), i'm most impressed by the backing vocals/sounds. if you listen to no other song, listen to "cheers, darlin'" - the way the clink of two glasses is utilized is brilliant. and i love "cannonball."

there's no way i can hurt myself while watching a movie, right?

right????