danb's blog

If you are going to dress up for Halloween, what will you be? Why? 
Submitted by Auweea.

I have some funny ideas, but I doubt I'm actually going to dress up as anything.

• Mac and PC, from the Apple commercials.  Obviously, this would require another person, and we'd have to be attached at the hip the whole day to make it work.  ("Hey, what are you?" "...and I'm a PC!")  Also, I'm pretty sure I don't have any of those clothes.
  
• Homestar Runner.  They sell the shirt on the official site; I'd need to find white pants and a stupid propeller hat to get the whole ensemble.
• Bob Dylan.  I could just walk around with a harmonica in one of those braces, and that'd probably be enough.
• Jesus Christ.

What's the last thing you crafted, constructed or created yourself?

A physical object?  I have no idea.  A couple of weeks ago I made one of those psuedo-origami fortune tellers out of a square of paper -- does that count?

Most of my creative stuff nowadays is electronic (website stuff, maybe) or ephemeral (improvised music that I never get around to recording or writing down).  It's on the list of Things I Should Improve On This Semester.

What's up?

Hah.  Best Question of the Day EVER.

I feel like I'm in the wrong decade.  I just got back from seeing The Who, I'm seeing Paul Simon next month, and I'm considering Bob Dylan the month after.  60s music for the win!  (I'm seeing Monteverdi's Orfeo next week too, but that doesn't really fit with the rest of this stuff, I guess.)

What else is up?  I have to do a lot of work tomorrow.  The last day I did homework was Wednesday, and I have a lot of classes.  My room is almost in order now.  It seems like the MBTA is finally starting to move along with the Charlie card thing.  I kind of want an iPod nano.  AllPosters doesn't have any posters of David Gray or Béla Fleck.  I talked to two Matts today, and saw three.

Um, that's it.  Oh wait, one more: It's bedtime.

How many languages can you speak?  Which languages can you read or understand?

One, really.  I know a little bit of Spanish, but I'm not nearly at a level where I can speak, read, or understand fluently.

How many places have you lived in your life?

Not many.  If you count permanent-type residences -- places that I'd call "home" -- only two.  One was in Croton-on-Hudson, where we lived until I was maybe a year old, and the second is in Cortlandt, which is where I still live now.

If you count college too, then I've lived in two Tufts dorms and one nearby house in Somerville (which is where I'm typing this from).  Compared to most people, though, still not a lot.  So sheltered!

What's your middle name?  Is there a story or history behind it?

Elliott.  Two Ls, two Ts.

I'm not sure about the story/history, though.  I think it came from a grandparent or something?  Maybe?

Most people figure my middle name is Michael, which they get from the dmb in my screenname.  Michael is the first male M name most people can think of, I guess.

If you could write a book about anything, what would it be about?

Wow.  No way do I have a good answer for this one!

I think I'd like to write a novel.  I'm not sure what it'd be about -- I have enough trouble deciding on a topic for a three-page paper -- but I think that would be a great project.  Alternatively, I'd like to write a book of funny short stories, a la Davis Sedaris.  I think that's more likely, as I don't think I have the patience for a novel-length work.  Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm funny enough to come up with that many stories...

What's your favorite song to sing karaoke-style?  If you don't have one, why not?

Well, I don't have a karaoke machine, and I don't go to karaoke bars or anything like that, so I've never really sung it.  The only karaoke I've done is High School Musical, at the summer camp I worked at.  Over and over and over.

As far as just singing along, though, I don't have a favorite song.  A lot of my favorite singers (Paul Simon, David Gray, Dave Matthews) have high voices or good falsettos, neither of which I have.  My range is most compatible with, say, James Taylor.  Or Trey Anastasio.  Still, I try to sing along with everything.

Random sidenote: for my jazz class last semester, I transcribed all the vocals Ella Fitzgerald's Blue Skies.  It took about a week, and I've almost certainly heard that song more than any other, ever.  I know the entire song and scat solo by heart, and I try to sing along every time it comes on.  If only I had Ella's range.

What are your plans for the holiday weekend?

Not much.  I'm here at Tufts, hanging out and waiting for classes to start on Tuesday.  I finally got myself to start practicing guitar again.  Tonight I tried "St. Judy's Comet" by Paul Simon, which has a fairly complicated fingerpicking thing going on.  (Well, complicated for me -- I have pretty terrible right hand technique, so I was happy to get the notes to come out.  Singing and playing is a long way away.)

I also brought a harmonica to school, for whatever reason.  It's in D, and I can play Oh Suzanna and Home on the Range thanks to this site.  Soon I'm going to need one of those neck brace thingers that Bob Dylan has so I can play while strumming.

In other music news, I have new mandolin strings, so I can finally pick that back up.  I sort of wish I had stayed with the violin, because guitar players are a dime a dozen.  Mandolin is the compromise, I guess.  I think with only a little bit of practice I could read music for it better than I read for guitar, since the tuning is just like a violin.

Or, I might not do anything with music, and I might sit around and play video games instead!

What's your favorite way to keep in touch? Phone, snail mail, email, text message, Vox, _____ ?

Well, I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I use instant messages the most.  I'm not really a phone person, for whatever reason -- I feel like there can't be a natural gap in conversation, I think.  Although I like writing letters, I think it would weird out pretty much everyone I know if I started now.  I email sometimes, but if I'm going to use the internet, why not go with the more immediate IM?  Text messages are cool, but expensive (for me, anyway).  And I still only know one person here on Vox (I still have invites!  Start a goddamn blog!).

So, yeah -- IM it is.