his six word short story is just one more example of why i like neal stephenson:

tick tock tick tock tick tick.

the end of october is apparently party season.

i think this is as many evite invitations as i’ve ever had, total. a disturbing trend?

so this past weekend i responded to a random invitation from my friend kristen to drive down to portland to see the sufjan stevens concert at the crystal ballroom. i’d never really listened to sufjan, perhaps once while riding in the car with jason or jordan, so i had no particular longing to see him. but the fact of the matter was that i really had nothing better scheduled, and the promise of seeing my wonderful ma and getting some delicious grub and beer at the hb was more than adequate to tip the scales in the favor of a pdx trip.

it was in a word, brilliant. why didn’t i listen before? regardless, i am now a sufjan proponent.

please, please, if you doubt me give at least these few tracks (from his album “come on feel the illinoise!”) a listen from my happy local streaming server:

• chicago
• they are night zombies!! they are neighbors!! they have come back from the dead!! ahhh!
• the man of metropolis steals our hearts

of course, they are approximately five times better at full fidelity, and even more impressive with live horns and strings in a cavernous space such as the crystal. definitely worth seeing live.