28 May 1998: Maybe This Year is Turning Around

Thursday, 28 May 1998:

Maybe This Year is Turning Around

I woke up this morning to the sounds of a thunderstorm. I thought this was cool. I'd have loved to have lain in bed for another half an hour until the storm died down, but alas I had to get up and go to work. I love thunderstorms.

Work was hectic again, as I worked to answer questions for the customer I'm helping, and programmed some further stuff to send to them, probably early next week. Fortunately, the person I was in contact with was friendly, competent, and easy to work with, and she seemed to get all the information she needed, and things seem to be going more smoothly there now.

It's a good feeling to help someone out like that, but I don't think regular support work is for me. Never knowing when the phone is going to ring - especially when you're expecting that it will - is quite stressful.

After work I had some of the best news I've had all year.

I hit the comic book store to pick up this week's shipment, and then decided to drive past my old comics ship, the one that was seized by the IRS a couple of months ago. I'd heard there was a chance that they might re-open, and to my surprise, there were lights on in the store! Could it be...? Yes, it was! Capital City Comics is open again!

They've rearranged the store considerably, although whether this is because some stuff was auctioned off or whether they just decided to change things around to get past the whole episode I don't know. But I went in and looked around (didn't buy anything, since money's a little tight just at the moment), and talked to the owner. I told him I was really happy he was open again, since I think Cap City is hands-down the best comics shop in town. The folks there seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and although I didn't press them about exactly what happened, they seem to feel that they've worked things out with the government.

It'll be nice to go back there next week. I've missed them. I had a big grin on my face the whole way home, and realized that this is really one of the best things to happen in a long time.

Okay, WisCon was fun, too, and I got my new computer last weekend as well, but this one tops both of them. Having a good comics store to go to is just a great thing, to me.

The day is ending as it began: With a big thunderstorm. Unfortunately, it's also become very humid outside, but it feels like it's getting better. This time, though, if the humidity persists I'll definitely turn on my A/C. No more of this "toughing it out" stuff. And I think the cats agree.

P.S.: Melody Paulk wrote an entry on the new Tori Amos album. We obviously have diametrically opposed viewpoints on Amos at this point, since this is what I wrote in response:

I used to be a Tori Amos fan.
When my then-girlfriend introduced me to Little Earthquakes I thought it was one of the best albums of the decade. I still think that. It's a monumental work, full of competence, power, and variety.
Then I bought Under The Pink and thought, "enh". It's mostly a one-note album, except for the cheesy singles, "Cornflake Girl" and "God", either of which would have been at best the tenth or eleventh track on Earthquakes.
Then I saw her in concert.
By a wide, wide margin it was the worst concert I have ever seen. Amos had no stage presence whatsoever, and the terrific arrangements and rhythms of Earthquakes were utterly butchered every single time. Her rendition of "Happy Phantom" (my favorite song of hers) made me cringe. She really, desperately needed a rhythm section to keep her in line, as she wandered hither and yon on every song depriving them of all musical purpose. If it weren't that I was at the concert with someone, I would have walked out halfway through.
Then I bought _Boys_For_Pele_, which I thought was one of the worst albums of the decade, and which I sold within a month of buying it. I tried to like it, really I did, but there's not one song on it that even remotely interested me.
The single from her new album has me mildly intrigued, but I can't get up the excitement to actually spend money on it. Sort of like Swamp Ophelia killed my interest in the Indigo Girls.
I used to be a Tori Amos fan, but the magic of Little Earthquakes seems very far in the past, indeed.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)