The Most Serene Republic

The Most Serene Republic is not a weird political cult, it is an indie band! I went to see them at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday in NYC (on Bleecker Street). I love them for 2 main reasons:
1. Amazingly complex musically, blending 3 guitars, a bass guitar, a keyboard, percussionist, and a vocalist. The keyboard player also sometimes plays the trumpet and a few of the guitar players sometimes play a mandolin, banjo or violin instead.
2. Unlike many musically interesting indie bands, their vocals are always good and they do interesting harmonies. It's always a shame when a band has good music but the lead singer can't actually carry a tune or sing.

I couldn't believe that the band that was headlining, the Grand Archive, sucked so much in comparison. The Parisian Indie Hipster and I sat there going 1, 4, 4, 1 etc. for a few songs and then decided that if they weren't going to use any new chords it was okay for us to leave a little early. Their music was also far too mellow for the venue and rather sleep inducing. If you have insomnia listen away, they'll definitely put you to sleep.

Today has been an exercise in keeping myself from going insane from the boredom. I went to several yard sales which were largely unsuccessful though my Dad did score a box full of new Polish light bulbs and a weed sprayer. Grocery shopping was alright though I failed to find vegan margarine for baking purposes. The vegan spread isn't so good for baking with. However, my Mom is going to make me chocolate mousse instead so I'm not really suffering here.

I checked my email, played text twirl, ate lunch, read part of A Canticle for Leibowitz, brushed the dog, helped my Dad fix a circuit light problem thingy and then walked slowly around the house contemplating the art work. We do have a pretty rad collection of art thanks to the fact that my Mom used to paint, her best friend was an artist and a great art hook-up for photography because of a gallery that our cousin owns. I also tried to convince my Dad to fix the frame of the cloud painting that used to hang in my bathroom and has since been replaced with an oil painting of a post office. Don't get me wrong, the post office is nice enough but doesn't really go with the zen relaxation theme I have/had going on. The wire snapped at some point during the past year causing the painting to go crashing do the floor. Luckily the glass didn't break but the frame itself needs to be put back together. I'm not entirely clear on what's wrong, it looks like it just needs a couple of nails to me but it might be more complicated since it hasn't been fixed yet.

And now I am infinitely happier because I got a Skype video call from Salsa Boy who was freakishly up at 3am his time.

On the other hand I completely lost my train of thought. Oh well. More next time!