I Thought I'd Write, I Thought I'd Let You Know...

"...The year since you've been gone, I finally let you go...
--Ben Folds

So, I saw Ben Folds Saturday night. It was pretty awesome. The first half of the set was kind of mediocre, but after that, it was incredible. They weren't supposed to play a certain Dr. Dre cover that they're famous for, but of course, they did anyway. And they didn't get paid because of it. And they knew that beforehand. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Lots of new songs, too. I'm psyched for the new album. Woo!

That's about it. I'm leaving for Chicago on Thursday night. I think I'm getting back the next Thursday? I dunno. I'm looking forward to the 5th, because there's an awesome show that I'm planning to film, and all of my friends from the area will be there plus I'm staying with them. Should be an adventure. Last call (until the next one) for anyone who wants anything.

I still haven't gotten to hang out with Bella, my friend who's visiting from Florida. She doesn't have a cellphone anymore and is on crappy wi-fi so it's kinda hard to communicate, but maybe today?

That's all, really. I'm just bored in third block, as usual. Here's a song by Ben Folds called "Smoke."

Leaf by leaf, page by page
Throw this book away
All the sadness, all the rage
Throw this book away
Rip out the binding, tear the glue
All of the grief we never even knew
We had it all along
Now it's smoke

The things we've written in it
Never really happened
All the things we've written in it
Never really happened
All of the people come and gone
Never really lived
All the people come have gone
No one to forgive - smoke

We will never write a new one
There will not be a new one
Another one, another one

Here's an evening dark with shame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time I took the blame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time we didn't speak
It seemed for years and years
Here's a secret
No one will ever know the reasons for the tears
They are smoke

Where do all the secrets live
They travel in the air
You can smell them when they burn
They travel in the air
Those who say the past is not dead
Stop and smell the smoke
You keep on saying the past is not dead
Stop and smell the smoke
You keep saying the past is not even past
You keep saying ...
We are smoke ... smoke ... smoke

When It Comes Down To It, I Am Filled With Hope...

...when I look around at all these faces, eyes are filled with love.
Even though it may be false, it still brings me joy...
--Eric Ayotte

Well, it's been a week since my last post, and I'm bored, so here ya go.

Nothing has happened.

A friend of mine from Florida is coming up towards the end of this week, and I'm super psyched to hang out with her. However, Bethany is moving, I think, this week, and I'm super bummed about that. Yargh.

I don't have any shows planned until April 30th. Krieger: Prom is on the 19th, I think. Would April 25th or 26th work for a Key Club fundraiser show? Well, if we can wind up using the Family Life Center, that is? This one would probably be much, much better than the last one.

So, Crafty Records is pretty much awesome. What is Crafty Records, you ask? Crafty Records is a NYC based record label. Some folks from Crafty have stayed here twice and are always super nice and courteous. They released a CD called "Thanks for the Floor" that they're giving away to people who house them for a night, and I got one! It came in super cool darkwood packaging. Really thoughtful! Crafty is one of the most original, "crafty," if you will, labels out there today. They're also working on something called the "1,000 Letters Project." Basically, the writing of physical letters is dying, and they're trying to save it. They're getting 500 letters and packaging them with CDs. If you buy a CD you have to write back to the person whose letter you got, starting a kind of penpal thing. It's really neat. Anyway, I'll shut up about Crafty Records now. I know you don't care.

Four releases coming out by mid-next month! Woohoo! Two will be basically free! More / cooler buttons coming soon! Our new stickers will be printed on the 31st! Shirts are...delayed. Again. I need transparency paper! I like exclamation points!

I need to go to the Post Office. I hate going to the Post Office. Oh well.

Kylewilliam and I are buying all the remaining copies of his album "Tomorrow, We Start New" from Valiant Death Records soon. Anyone want a copy? $2 - 3. I'm also buying most of The Alcoholic Freshman's "Sick of Depending On People." Gimme like a dollar and it's yours. Or I might just give you one. Probably that. I like giving people things. Oh, and hey, does anyone who reads this draw decently? Or crappily? I don't care. I need to make a "Bonfire Club Records" logo. I don't care what you draw. Just make it fairly large so I can scale it down later. And you can just put "BFC" in really big letters somewhere. I would totally give whoever does that a big smooch. Or not. Probably not. But hey, it's worth a shot, no?

The chord organ I ordered like a month ago still hasn't arrived. The guy I ordered it from's dad is a UPS driver. This doesn't make sense to me. Good news, however, my ukulele will be here tomorrow!

Oh, and that reminds me. Some awesome label from Canada asked to release a CD by me the other day. Now I just need to write songs I like...

If You Make It is pretty much the greatest thing on the internet. Go to it, love it, revisit it every 5 minutes. For real. The stuff in the "Series" section is hilarious, and I like pretty much every band / musician that they post. Woo!
http://www.ifyoumakeit.com

So, I'm gonna be in Chicago pretty much all Spring Break. And will be going to a couple balla' shows. Anyone want anything? Postcards? CDs? Hugs? Snow? Hot Dogs? Phone calls? Ankhs? Anything? Lemme know and I'll do my best to hook it up!

My blog sucks. Why did you just read all of this crap?

You Wouldn't Know Honesty If It Hit You Goin' 90 On the Interstate...

Wow, what a terrible weekend.

Friday -- Got back from the band festival (we got superiors...woohoo) and went to work. Got to leave work early because Mack came in when he wasn't supposed to. Awesome. After I got out of work I got a phone call from my friend Kylewilliam. He and his bass player Evan are getting ready to play a show for a bunch of drunk people in Chattanooga and wanted to know if they come could crash at my place afterwards because they didn't feel too well and didn't wanna stay with a bunch of drunks. They were set to play here the next day, so of course I said it was fine. Their show didn't wind up starting 'til past midnight and they were the second band. They wound up getting here around 3:45.

Saturday -- Woke up around 12:30. Sat around for a bit, playing some folk instruments, went to Downtown for lunch. I paid for everyone's stuff. Came back to my house, played with puppies, puppy stole Kylewilliam's shoe while we weren't paying attention and we still can't find it. Gave Kylewilliam a pair of my shoes and onward to the show. The show sucked. I mean, everyone played well, but the other bands were total jerks and hardly anyone in the crowd participated. How so? Kylewilliam broke a string when they had two songs left in their set, out of four guitarists, no one would let him borrow a guitar. For two songs. That's just rude. And for the first time ever, I just left. All the other bands were being rude and arrogant, and I just don't tolerate that. Oh, and I rode over there with Kylewilliam and Evan, so they were my ride back, and they wanted to leave too. We came back to my house for about an hour, where they finished downloading book 7 of Harry Potter to listen to on their way back to Tallahassee then off they went. It was awesome hanging out with them, Kylewilliam is always fun and Evan is basically exactly like me but taller and bearded, but the show was a total bust. I feel terrible. Shows like that are why I want to stop. But it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it now. At least I got to see some people I hadn't seen in forever: Bethany, Stephanie, Kylewilliam, blahblah. Oh, and if you get bored and for some reason want to see some of this show, a lot of it is on YouTube. You know the drill.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DakotaFloyd

Sunday -- Work. All day. Magical.

Yea, my life is pretty lame right now. Except for a couple people that I am extremely thankful for. Even though they'll never read this, thank you for making life at least halfway interesting and bearable!

That is all. Four CDs coming out by the middle of next month. Awesome.

EDIT: It's Monday. I have a flat tire. I am annoyed. Having terrible luck sucks.

I've Tried To Know Which Words To Sing So Many Times...

...And I've tried to know which chords to play
And I've tried to make it rhyme
And I've tried to find the key that all good songs are in
And I've tried to find the notes to make that great reason begin
--Andrew Jackson Jihad

Here is an official "screw you" to being sick: being sick, screw you.

I've been sick since I played soccer who knows how long ago. Today was the worst, but I think it was a combination of other things, such as sleep deprivation and over eating.

"Overeating," you ask, "but Dakota you're so skinny." First off I'm not that skinny, and yea. At work yesterday, once the lunch rush was over, Dave told Ed to make him a pepperoni pizza to go, but didn't put in a ticket. About 30 minutes later Ed remembered. By that time, the pizza was black, and Ed and I decided to hide the evidence. We put in another one, and wound up finishing the whole, black pizza right as Dave walked in the door. Dave takes his new, nonburnt pizza, grabs three pieces, then gives the rest to me: "Look Dakota, they made us a pizza." No one would help me eat it. Ok, so there's basically a pizza and a third. On top of two cookies, two glasses of really thick chocolate milk, and three chicken tenders. Oh, and a milkshake. Great Scott. That is a lot of food. Especially for me. But hey, if you ever need to get rid of a pizza quickly, and I'm the only person around, you know what to do.

But enough about food. Ugh.

Onward to Friday's show. It was alright. The music was good and all, but the guys in the band were kind of divas. But they're basically signed to Sony so I guess they have an excuse, even though it is a bad one. All of it, save the first song (camera malfunctions), are on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=DakotaFloyd&p=r

Two shows Saturday! The first one is imadethismistake playing acoustically at Meeks Park at 2PM. The second is fullband imadethismistake, The Dancing Pandas, Social Medicine, Mr. Microphone, and A Piano for Penelope at the Black and Gold Center at 5:30! Both are free. Both are awesome. Be there?

Oh, and a new band is in the works. We jammed Wednesday. What we have so far sounds pretty nifty. I will be singing and probably playing guitar.

Bands / Musicians you should all listen to:
Doby Watson
Eric Ayotte
Ghost Mice
Best Friends Forever
Andrew Jackson Jihad
imadethismistake
Your Heart Breaks
Paul Baribeau
Suite 11
The Max Levine Ensemble
Anathallo
The Accident That Led Me To the World

Indeed. Good night.

I've Got the Rotten Apple Core Feeling...

...Dying like a living ghost. Now I'm lying on the ground, not making a sound, thinking I love you the most."
~Andrew Jackson Jihad

So, Ghost Mice played here today. It was pretty awesome. They showed up about 10 minutes late (surprised?), and out of their van pops Eric Ayotte, which was an awesome surprise. I conned him into playing a short set, and it was pretty fantastic. Only a handful of people showed up, but it was still fun. It seemed like everyone had a good time. I have all sorts of random CDs from the show, so if anyone wants anything, lemme know! Oh, and I recorded the whole thing except for about a minute of Ghost Mice's last song (I ran out of film). It can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=DakotaFloyd&p=r

Woohoo!

Next show = This Friday at Antioch Baptist Church. HighFlightSociety is playing. 6PM. FREE! Should be magical.

I am so sick. I've been feeling dreadful since Friday night when I played soccer (for the first time!) with Ben, Tommy, Victor, and a few other people. Oh well.

Now onward to finish this paper for Batchelor!