Intern Diaries: Levi Macallister
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Last Day
Well folks. I don’t know where the time went. Granted, I slacked off the last couple of days with Brandi and Chad being here, and I apologize for that, but I’m going to try and retell everything as best I can for you.
Thursday morning I wrote The Almost story. I love it. I really do. I really like the stories I’ve worked on for this issue better than the last, honestly. I guess because I went through it once. I can’t say how happy I am that I got to stay out here longer, because that’s exactly what I wanted to be able to experience… is going through the whole process and being able to do it with a little bit of experience again. Anyway – yeah.
Doug and I finally finished up all the editing on the Lulu project. Honestly, I don’t even know if I wrote about that, but it’s going to be a 2006 compilation book of that year… so all that’s left is turning the 600 some pages into PDFs and then sending it off to the printer. I can’t wait for that, man. It’s going to be epic.
Then… off to get Brandi. And Chad. What would a good Levi adventure be like without getting lost on the road and having to drive an extra fifteen miles and pull over to the side of the road and wait for someone to have pity on me and take me in the right direction? First, I pulled up behind a cop to ask for directions. I walked up to him and as soon as I was standing on the outside of the jerk’s door, he pulled ahead fifty feet and wouldn’t talk to me. What the crap kind of a cop is that? So then a nice Christian man in a black, beautiful Ferrari pulled in between me and the cop and told me to follow him, and I finally found my way, but I was late… which made me sad, but whatever.
I was so happy to see Brandi. She gave me a huge, long hug and she cried when she saw me and I felt very loved and my heart felt complete. That’s the truth right there. ☺ And it was so good to see Chad! I love that kid, love’m. He got sick Thursday night and all of Friday, though. Which sucked… but Brandi and me got to have a date night on Friday. “Scored an awesome date night” – as Doogie said. I got to hold her hand and get coffee and eat at an amazing restaurant… oooooh! It was awesome. I finished up a few reviews on a book, and finished editing the last of my stories for the magazine, as well. I can’t even believe I’m writing “the last of…” – it’s crazy. How did the time go by so fast? What the heck is time, anyway?
Saturday, we hung out around Taylor. It’s really a cool little place. I can’t believe that I lived in it for three months without really seeing much of it, at all.
Really what I’m trying to avoid right now, is crying. That’s why I’m writing out every specific detail about everything. I’m sitting in the hotel room in San Antonio with Brandi and Chad and I know I’m being having a jerky attitude right now because I’m irritable and emotional. It sucks.
I had to say goodbye to Tornado (I can never, ever tell you how loved and important and special you made me feel, and I thank you for it with all my heart. Thank you.) and all of my friends at church last night, and I had to say goodbye to Doug today.
Doug was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He was the funnest person to work with, the funnest dude to hang out with, and an amazing, Godly example of an unbelievably hard worker and family man. It was really, really hard for me to say bye today.
As far as the internship goes, specifically, I couldn't have asked for a better, more educational, more fun, more in-depth experience. From the first day I got there and Doug told me not to even think of or refer to myself as an intern, but as an editorial team member, that's what it was like. I got to have my hands on every little piece of the projects, the stories, the editing, the marketing, the promotions, and I am so very blessed and privileged to be able to have has such an incredible experience.
I don’t feel like this last entry does anything justice at all. This should be, like, pages long, but I just can’t find the right words. Maybe, someday, if I find them, I will add them, or write a book on them, but as of now… I think this concludes my intern diaries. It’s hard to believe the time has passed so quickly… but here we are, and here I find myself with three months behind me that past in the blink of an eye.
Josh and Cody, thank you for being the best friends to me.
Caleb and EJ, thank you for welcoming me into your youth group and church and showing me appreciation.
Alyssa and Tornado, thank you for always hanging out at the drop of a hat, for feeding me and my unhealthy, skinny body, and for loving me
Doug and Charlotta, thank you for blessing me with the opportunity you’ve granted me. Thanks for being my friends and for making a boys dream come true.
It’s true, what the say about southern hospitality.
Wear Boxers.
Love.
Levi Morgan Macallister.
(P.S. - Kiss the kittens for me.)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Day Eighty
It finally happened.
Aaron called. I got the interview done.
Let me tell you… it was worth the wait. It’s going to be a fun story. I really hope we can do the spread. We have the option of doing a feature (1200 words) or a short segment (I think it’s called an EC with doesn’t stand for anything – 400 words) – so I hope the full length works out. We’ll see how ad sales go. I transcribed the story, but I’ll have to write it tomorrow before I go pick up Brandi and Chad. Headin’ down to Life Groups at Doug’s place here after I finish this.
Did laundry (I officially did laundry three times in the past three months – and the only reason I did it today is that I figure I should be as beautiful as possible for my girlfriend tomorrow.)
I can’t believe she’s going to be here. (Chad – if you read this ever – know that I love you, too, and I’m super excited to see you, but I just can’t love ya the way I love Brandizzle. No hard feelings, brotha.) I seriously just can’t wait. I cannot wait to see Brandi. I can’t even think straight.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Day Seventy-Nine
Put up the twitter stuff for the myspizzle and facebook with Doogie.
Read the majority of Cast of Characters.
Didn’t interview Aaron. Called. Delayed. Called again – pushed back till tomorrow.
I don’t really care. I’m not bumming. I’ll just do some writing while Brandizzle and Chadddy (twitter names – I’m telling you people, you’ve gotta get a twitter account…) are here.
I played Guitar Praise today. We got one for review. The Christian Guitar Hero. It’s not as cool as Guitar Hero, but it’s not like, godawful, either. I played it for quite a while and didn’t accomplish much. I suck at video games. The only games I every liked were Goldeneye, Tony Hawk, and 1080. All N64. All awesome. I have a PS2 at my parent’s place now, and Tony Hawk #54 or something, is on there. That’s fun, too.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Day Seventy-Eight
You want to know something funny? Project 86 is coming out with a Christmas CD. The whole thing isn’t a Christmas album, but they cover “This Time of Year” – and it just seems hilarious to me. I’m stoked for it though. Project has been one of my favorite bands for – eh – forever. (Yes, mom, I’m aware that I say that about everyone.)
So we had our meeting about marketing and online promo and stuff like that. I told Doug everything that I’ve been doing on myspace and we threw suggestions back and forth about how he can become more involved with that side of things without using hours and hours of his day to do so. We’re going to put up Twitter applications on his Myspace and Facebook, and I just told him the gist of what’s been goin on with meeting new people and writing back and forth to each one and making them feel important and special and letting them know there’s a person on the other end of the phone lines that cares. I’m going to continue to help out with the Myspace stuff, too. I want to, and Doug’s cool with it, which I’m happy about. It won’t be like a job or anything, but I don’t care. our fan base has grown so much just in the last two months by having as small of a presence on social networking sites as we’ve had, and I want to continue to see that grow. So yeah. That’s cool, and I’m excited to be able to continue to help. I hope the magazine can continue to grow. Lord knows the economy sucks and the music market/business/machine isn’t as hot as it was at one time, but at the same time, there are so freakin many good bands out there – good music being made – creativity happening. It’s not like music’s gonna die out – it’s timeless.
Aaron couldn’t do the interview today… got pushed back to tomorrow. Whatever. It’s all good. I can’t deny I’ve got a little bit of a starstruck head about it. I love this guy.
Went on a nice long bike ride today. Two actually. One with Doug, and one later on, too. Listened to The Snake, The Cross, The Crown and rode my bike really, really, really slow and in circles and watched the sunset and had one of my sentimental Levi moments. It was nice.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Day Seventy-Seven
Chilled with Cody last night. Cody, I don’t know if you ever read this thing, but if you do, tell your mother that the meal she made was the best tasting thing I’ve had since I’ve been here. Tell her it saved my life because I usually eat cereal and tortillas with peanut butter on them.
Fried chicken.
Chicken fried steak.
Mashed potatoes and gravy.
Corn.
Good Lord, it makes me salivate thinking about it.
I tried to go to church this morning. I gave it a legitimate try. I woke up on time, got dressed and ready, sat back down again, and woke up an hour and a half later, late. Completely missed church. Sucked, man. I really wanted to catch it this week because we’ll talk about it Wednesday and I want to be able to join in on the last discussion I’ll be a part of. I guess I’ll watch it online before I go Wednesday.
I suck at life, I know.
Tomorrow starts my last week. I’m all jittery. I’m sad and happy. Mostly happy to see Brandi. Doug and I have a marketing meeting tomorrow. My plans for the week are to interview Aaron for my Almost story, write the story, finish some book called Cast of Characters (which I don’t like so far – it reads like a cheesy pseudo-devotional/Christian inspiration book you’d order over an infomercial), and write out a couple Pick of the Litter blurbs for this issue. We’ve gotten quite a few awesome indie CDs this go around – it’s pretty rad.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Day Seventy-Six
Here’s the picture: Half naked kids skateboards while listening to Eminem so loud that his eardrums explode on remote country road and doesn’t pay attention to cars behind him while he stands in the middle of the street and pretends he can rap like Marshal.
Turn around. Tornado’s husband is in his big truck about ten feet away, now idle, because he’s probably been sitting there for at least a minute waiting for me to move.
Oops. ☺
I took my first chance in a while to make some daytime phone calls for the Veil Arms job today. What I’ve been doing is working the HM stuff eight to six and taking bike rides as a break and then working the Veil Arms stuff nights. So it’s been kinda crazy.
I can’t believe that this is my last official weekend as an intern here. I mean, I’ll be here next weekend chillin with Brandi and Chad, but my internship will officially be over by then.
How in the freakin world has three months gone by? I feel like I got here yesterday. I don’t know man… I’m not bummin’ yet but I know I will. I’ve loved it here.
Crap.
I almost forgot… the show yesterday was really good. They wanted me to play for 45 minutes to an hour. I have that much material memorized, but it’s kind of all stuck in the back of my head and crazy, so I had to kind of pace back and forth on stage and mumble a bunch of random stuff about nothing until I remembered the opening lines to the songs. But it was fun. I appreciated the feedback I got, because the stuff I do is really hopeful, but it’s not really all happy-go-lucky, or whatever, so I’m always interested to see just how awkward the room can get, especially with poems like “Pretty In Pornography.” It’s that M-Word, man… all the dudes start to squirm. Haha.
But it was fun. I came home and checked up on my project page, too, and some person had found me in the Pick of the Litter for the new HM Mag that she got and said that she was going through a really dark time in her life and listened to my poetry and it kind of gave her hope for the beauty in the world again. That’s probably the nicest thing you can hear as an artist, I figure, so that was encouraging. Her name’s Sarah. So I said what’s up to her and stuff and thanked her and I guess we’re myspace friends now, whatever that means. ☺
Friday, October 17, 2008
Day Seventy-Five
Doug isn’t in the office today. He’s got a men’s retreat. I never knew that women were allowed to go on men’s retreats, but apparently, they are. Apparently Doug finds his relationship with the Lord to be more important than working himself to death here with me. He must be some kind of idiot. Talk about a crappy work ethic. I mean, this guy calls himself a Christian. What a hypocrite.
I got album covers for as many of the CDs we’re reviewing in the mag today as I could, finished up that book and started the next: Cast of Characters. I think it’ll be pretty good. I guess. I think. You know.
You know, right?
I looked for people that might be interested in sponsoring our online edition of the magazine to keep the digital one up online. Not that it’s going to be removed… but it would just be nice if we could get someone to help pitch for it a little, you know?
You know, right?
I wrote out DVD reviews for the South Park Cult of Cartman season I watched, for the Chapter 27 movie about John Lennon’s killer who was obsessed with Catcher in the Rye (which was pretty awesome, I think), the book review for Is Believing in God Irrational? the album reviews for the new Philmont full-length release and The Apprentice, and readied some HM press kits for the mail to send out to various advertisers.
So I think it was a pretty full day.
The best part of the day, though, was I took a really long bike ride around sunset. it was so beautiful outside. I didn’t want to stop riding, and I ended up way, way far away from the house and kind of got lost because I wasn’t paying attention. I think I was gone for a couple hours, at least. I listened to Angels and Airwaves and Blink 182. I’m not really one of those die hard Blink fans that loves the old stuff just as much as the new. To be honest, I hate the old stuff, I think it sounds like crap and I have no idea how they were so popular, but the newer material was all really good and I love everyone’s projects that they have now like A&A and Boxcar Racer and +44. Good music. But I was riding home and this bat flew right in front of me for the length of three whole Blink songs. I counted. It was weird. It was cool though. He flew about five feet ahead of my bike at eye level and make weird screeching bat noises every now and then. It was pretty rad.
That is all for now. The weekend ahead will be a fun one. I have a show tomorrow at this church where I’m playing for like an hour. I have to freakin try to remember that much material. Haha. It’s going to be funny. I always stop in the middle of poems and crap and end up messing up lines, but it’s so much fun, and I loved performing. I hope something rad happens with that project someday.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Day Seventy-Four
Today was reading day. Well, the whole day wasn’t reading day. But I’ve got two books to read and review by next Wednesday and I’m kind of screwed. So I read almost an entire one tonight: Is Believing in God Irrational? That’s the title. I like it, honestly. And I’m surprised I do, honestly. I’m not a big fan of apologetics. I don’t know why. Maybe I should be, because I know that I shouldn’t be ignorant about the things that apply to my faith, but I’ve never been one to need all of the logical stuff figured out. I just know what I believe, and it more because I’ve felt and known the power of God personally and seen it and I don’t give a crap about science or whatever. But this book manages to delve into a more philosophical look at things – and it get into apologetics a little bit, but not enough to read like a textbook for some class, or whatever.
Anyway, it’s good. I read almost the whole thing tonight, and I’ll finish it tomorrow. Doug and I talked over the clipboard and followed up with writers today and made sure everyone is assigned everything.
The only story I need to write now is one for The Almost. I can’t even tell you how excited Brandi is for me to talk to Aaron. She loves that guy. Ha. I’m stoked. I asked her what kind of questions she’d ask him and I’m going to use some of hers for the interview. That is, assuming I do the interview. He’s a tough guy to get a hold of. He’s out with Underoath right now, so we’ll see what happens. Chad Johnson up at Tooth and Nail has had to put up with about two million questions from me asking about the whole thing. Good thing the guy’s patient with me. I would’ve responded to all of my questions with something like, “LEVI! SHUT UP! I’LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN I FIGURE IT OUT!” But he’s nice and doesn’t and for that I’m grateful.
I’m listening to Bob Marley. I freakin love Bob Marley. I wish I could meet that dude. I would shake his hand and tell him, “Thank you” and “My friend Isaac says hello” and then leave.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Day Seventy-Three
Today I interviewed Matt from Anathallo. Dude, that band is incredible. They have this new CD out called Canopy Glow, and it’s just phenomenal and I say that about every single CD I hear, so mom, I know you’re laughing at me right now, but just know that I know that you know that I know that I know you know I know.
Got that?
Okay.
I fixed the Ruth story. I like it now. And I wrote the Anathallo story. I like that one a lot. We talked about X-Men. And Matt would be Storm if he had any super-powers because he wants to shoot lightening out of his fingers.
Yep. So basically all I did today was:
➢ Finish transcribing the Ruth review.
➢ Edit and finish the Ruth story.
➢ Interview and transcribe Anathallo interview.
➢ Write the Anathallo story.
➢ Myspace promotions.
So I guess it’s not like “well, this is all I did” – that all took a long time. Then I went to Life Groups at Doug’s house. It was interesting. We talked about the church and what the church is to us. I’m really going to miss Wed. nights at Doug’s place. It’s fun, and I really like it. I got to thinking about going home next week and got pretty bummed out. I’m excited to go home, but I’m sad to leave here, too. I’ve loved it here and I’ve loved my job with HM, I don’t know, man. Crap. It’s just going to suck at the same time.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Day Seventy-Two
Laurel warned me about this day. This is the day I interviewed Ruth. She said to be careful, because if I was interviewing the guitar player I might become overwhelmed by his hotness. Apparently he’s so good looking that I will be able to notice it through the phone lines.
Unfortunately. I did not interview the guitar player. I mean, not unfortunately … it went really well, and Dustin (the vocalist) is a super nice guy … but if only I would have fainted from the good looks of the guitarist.
Oh well.
So yeah. I got that interview done today, and it was pretty rad. I wrote out the story, and I wish I had more words, but I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to in the story… so I hope that maybe we can put up the transcribed interview, because it was pretty awesome, and there’s a freakin epic fireworks battle between them, Surrogate, and Emery that you all need to read about. So we’ll see about that.
That took up quite a bit of the day. Transcribing things is kind of tedious. I like doing it, because I think it’s super interesting to get to hear about everything the band has to say… but I’m just not one of those 200 words per minute people or whatever. I know that I type a lot faster than I did when I got out here though, because I’ve transcribed so much stuff and I can just tell. I want to take one of those WPM tests and see how well I do. I remember I learned how to type to a Mario computer-teaching program that my dad made me do. Man I used to hate doing that thing because I just sucked so much. But at least my dad’s cool and let me learn to a Mario game. At least it wasn’t boring.
So yeah. I did that. I wrote out a draft of the story but I don’t like it at all how it is right now, so I’ll end up fixing it tomorrow.
Doug’s working late tonight. He’s writing a novel. It’s about … haha. You can’t know. Who do you think you are? What, do you think you’re special or something? I hope you feel horrible about your lives after reading this.
No, not really.
But I’m watching the Zodiac killer movie with Jake Gyllenhal. Is that how you spell his name? Anyway, it’s good and it’s long and we’re going for a bike ride soon, so I’m going to stop typing right n –
Monday, October 13, 2008
Day Seventy-One
This morning was beautiful. I kid you not, there were probably five hundred black birds on the lawn outside, and I opened the door to let the cats out, and they all flew in this black crowd you could hardly see through. It was awesome. It was seriously incredible. I sat there and watched them for a while, as my coffee finished up and I prepared my head for the day.
Wrote the Norma Jean concert review today. That was enjoyable. It took me a long time, but I think it’s a good review. I keep on forgetting about the punctuation rules Doug has though, with all punctuation inside quotation. For some reason that’s backwards in my head, and I end up doing it the other way around. Crapitty Crap Crap.
I’ve become somewhat of a personal counselor to a couple of people through the myspace. It’s kind of cool on the one hand, and it sort of makes me uncomfortable on the other. But I think that it’s good that people have somebody to come to, and it’s cool that they’ve found that person on the other end of an HM Mag myspace account.
But the myspace page responders and people interested grow each day, which is cool. Doug put this thing in the mag about how “Underoath makes Levi cry like an emo baby” and I’ve gotten a couple funny responses to that through the page. It’s good. It’s a good thing.
My car is done. It was 97 dollars. Do you know how happy that makes me? They freakin welded the light on, or some crap, but it’s not fallin off and it’s legal, so I’m stoked.
STOKED!
I’m going to have myself a movie marathon here in a couple minutes. I just realized that it’s practically pitch black in my house and I’ve been staring at this computer screen for so long I haven’t turned any lights on.
That’s all for now, folks!
Sunday, October 12, 2004
Day Seventy
I did go on a bike ride. I went on a two and a half hour bike ride and my legs feel like jelly. Today, my head officially exploded. I went crazy. I couldn’t sit in this house anymore by myself. I called like six people back home and talked to all of them for a long time. I did some Veil Arms work. I did some LevithePoet myspace stuff, I ran around the yard and yelled at nothing. I did get to talk to Brandi for a really long time, too, and that was freakin awesome.
Tornado and Alyssa to the rescue. They brought over the makings for some tacos, green tea, and a movie. I was so stoked to just have someone to hang with. It was nice.
Thank you guys.
So I guess I’m playing a show at their church next weekend, on the 18th, for some youth rally or something. That’ll be fun. I’ve been listening to The Chariot and Once Nothing all day, and pounding my head into tables.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Day Sixty-Nine
I freakin’ miss my girlfriend. A lot.
I know it’s Saturday and all and whatever but I’ve been working on some of the MySpace stuff for a bit today because I got a little behind the past couple of days what with Doug being back and all. That Doug, he’s just always in the way of my work. It’s like, come on who do you think you are? The editor of HMMagazine or something?
No… actually I’ve just realize that I hardly wrote anything about what I actually did over the last couple of days. Sorry. Man, who does this intern think he is? He must be some idiot.
So Thursday, let’s see. Once we got back to the office, Doug had some subscription cards for me to get people signed up and filed and all that goodness – we went over our notebooks together worked on making sure we had all the stories assigned and all the publicists contacted. I set up my interviews for my stories. I’m going to be interviewing Anathello, Ruth, and - if he has time – Aaron Gillespie about the new Almost EP that’ll be coming our way soon. So I’m excited about that. Especially about the Aaron one, because even though I won’t be talking to him about Underoath, he’s still part of Underoath, and I am a starstruck child with the maturity of a five year old. It would be very exciting to my girlfriend, too, because she loves Aaron more than she loves me.
So yeah. Doug liked the idea I came up with for the T-Shirt designs. I don’t know if we’re going to use them as T-Shirt designs, but they’re an improvement from what I made before, anyway, and so that’s cool.
Got some new Pick of the Litter bands to review. Some good. Some not good at all. Eh. Yup. Um… Friday I got a printout ready for Doug with all of the bands that want to take HM out on the road with them, and he created a new post card for us to be able to send their way to set up on their merch tables and stuff, too. I really hope this helps. I really hope that it’s a blessing for the bands to know that we support them, because Lord knows it’s a blessing for us to know that they’re helping us. Subscriptions are really low right now, what with the decreasing music market/economy/lack of funding for ad sales and things – we could definitely use the oomph from bands. That’s awesome of them.
My friend Josh and I went to the Norma Jean show in San Antonio and it was the funnest show I’ve been to all year, by far. But I’m not going to write about it now. I’ll write somethin’ Monday, probably, for an internet exclusive.
I’m going on a bike ride.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Day Sixty-Eight
Yeah. It’s three in the morning right now.
Just got back from the Norma Jean Solid State tour, and I am ecstatic to write about it.
But I am more ecstatic to sleep.
Later.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Day Sixty-Seven
The thing about Doug being back in town, is he took my dog.
My dog.
His trip to California was total abandonment of his puppy, and therefore I claimed rights, in my head, and Biscuit was mine. He’s an Indian Giver, is what he is.
DVP - a metaphor for “Indian Giver.”
I had to drive my car to the shop today. It’s right by Doug’s place, so he helped me talk to the dudes and picked me up for the workday and everything.
This is how the conversation with the mechanic went.
Him: You’re not supposed to hit big things in the road.
Me: (Smile) I don’t care if I have to plug my light into the cigarette lighter in my dashboard, just make this legal and make it cheap. I am poor.
Him: Okay.
And he did. He called me to let me know that it was going to be 220 buck even and I said cool and I know that’s not exactly cheap, but it’s definitely cheap relative to my fear of having to pay much more than that.
I felt much better about work-life today, with Doug back. It was nice. Brandi puts it like this, “O! How sweet – you have your friend back1”
Yes. I have my friend back. And my friend brings presents… THE NEW MAGAZINE!!! I about exploded! I tried not to act all stupid on the outside but my heart was beating with exciting stupidity inside and I was so FREAKIN STOKED. It’s awesome. I’m happy, and blessed. There’s one thing about it, though, that’s just the funniest thing in the world.
We had this joke template page for putting together the Pick of the Litter section and one of the names on it wasn’t the actual name of the artist. It wasn’t the actual name of anyone, actually. It actually says:
JEFF MULHANEYYUKIPOO.
Mulhaneyuckipoo.
Mulhaneyuckipoo.
Mulhaneyuckipoo.
What is a Mulhaneyuckipoo?
I’m not going to deny it. I laughed until my stomach was about to explode. I laughed until past the point of crying. That is just the most horrendous thing in the world, but it is also the funniest thing ever, and I just can’t imagine the types of emails that Doug is going to get from people for that.
And, of course, I am very excited about the Levi the Poet reference to my poetry project that is in there, too. I’ve been looking at it kind of thinking it’s not real.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Day Sixty-Six
Today I woke up to Biscuit laying at my feet on the bed.
Then I fell back asleep and woke up to him licking my face.
I love Biscuit. He’s just rolling around a couple feet away right now. I sent out this mass text earlier with a verse from 1 Corinthians 2:9 –
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what the Lord has planned for those that love him.”
I read that this morning. Talk about Jesus giving me a loving spank and a hug at the same time, huh? How does that ALWAYS FREAKIN HAPPEN, MAN?
Ready for this?
The internet works! And it’s fast!
The phone works! (And Doug I’ve made some calls from the land line, so if I owe you money for it, then tell me – incoming calls don’t charge us, though, right? Whatever, I’ll pay whatever if the bill is weird.)
Everything works! It’s awesome! I’ve been smiling about it to myself all day!
We got some offers for people who want to help us with promotions at shows on the myspizzle, we got some testimonies in, we got some misconceptions cleared up with some potential stories for the issue, we got the new video blog for the band Confide posted on the site, we got another Bible study done which will be up soon….
So I’m pretty happy. Things have run smoothly. I cleaned the house for my husband who will be home tomorrow.
It is 5:03. I’m listening to Damien Rice. He’s kind of awesome, but the farthest thing from hard music in the world, maybe. I was trying to look through another old issue of a mag to do a bible study, and just looked up about an hour later and realized I’d been reading the whole thing. So much for that.
Yeah, Doug comes back into the office tomorrow. I still haven’t seen the magazine, but he had a copy shipped out to him in California. I’m super, super, super excited for that.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Day Sixty-Five
So today was not better. The Internet worked, but the phone didn’t. Which didn’t really affect much, but it made me nervous like my using it might have messed somethin’ up.
Basically I’m overly paranoid, and I think it’s because I’ve overworked since last week without really taking a weekend break. I tend to learn things the hard way, so when Doug says (and my Dad, for my whole life, for that matter) that it’s important to rest, the only way I learn is my not resting – thus experiencing the consequences of not pacing myself as I should.
I emailed Doug the longest email in the world, which I entitled, “designidea/annoyinglylongemailfromparanoidintern” and it basically outlined everything that I’ve done while he’s been gone, because I think I feel slightly unproductive in his absence. I don’t think that’s true. But I think without daily reassurance that “Hey! You’ve accomplished something in life!” I start to feel like I’m working without leeway. Then I emailed him thirty minutes later – after I went outside and talked to myself and realized that I sound like a clingy, whining significant other who’s crying to his counterpart – that he could ignore that email because I was feeling much better, thank you.
Haha. You know I shouldn’t make things like this public. It’s not popular to magnify your insecurities, I hear.
So yeah. But hey, I’m learning. I took a nap. Took a shower. Took a break. Called some friends and just stopped early today. And made myself refrain from getting back online for anything later. I feel better right now. I’m just listening to my iTunes on shuffle, these are the past songs I can remember that have played:
Incubus – Nebula
Pink Floyd – Nobody Home
Destroy the Runner – Resolution
Copeland – The Day I Lost My Voice (The Suitcase Song)
Secret & Whisper – Attacker
P.O.D. – Hollywood
Jonezetta – The Love That Carries Me\
Damien Rice – The Professor
As of midnight tonight I am official “terminated” from Starbucks. You know. I don’t know if I’m going to freak out about that or not. As of now, I’m not. I wouldn’t trade this last month out here for a chance to go back and keep it, either. I freaking love what I’m doing here. I just feel so freaking blessed. God is awesome, he’s used Doug and Charlotta to bless me by giving me this opportunity to help them, and hopefully I’ve blessed them in the process. They got a free babysitter for Biscuit, anyway!
Ha. So yeah. Whatever man, I’m just stoked. I know I write about the things that have bugged me and whatever, but at the end of the day… forget it. I’m happy that I chose to stay longer over the job back home. The Lord will provide. My heart’s at rest.
It’s a little colder tonight here. I LOVE THE COLD!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Day Sixty-Four
So I’ve got to be honest. I did not have a good day. There were a couple good points, but for the most part, today was just godawful bad. Starbucks called me and said that they were going to terminate me if I didn’t get in touch with corporate, and in my experience, corporate pretty much cares about no-one individually because look at Starbucks, right? So I knew how that would go over, and it actually went over worse than my preconceived thoughts, because, um, no one answered. I called five different numbers in three different area codes with Lord knows how many extensions and automated voices to listen to, and, yeah, nothing at the end of it all.
So that happened. The Internet sucked, but I’m not going to complain about that. In fact, I’m going to apologize to those of you that have read this for complaining in the past.
I’m sorry.
My mom called and told me she knows that things like that are frustrating, but that our time is God’s time, and that – you know – yeah, whatever. So I’m sorry.
I can’t even really think much about what I did today. I worked on a new design idea for HM that included pieces of string, shreds of paper, and a gorilla.
Wow, when you think you’ve been working for ten hours and have nothing much more than that to write about it, it’s kind of a bummer. I’m going to crash – here’s to a better tomorrow.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Day Sixty-Three
So I woke up to Tornado calling me at, like, eight, which is totally fine, but I sure wasn’t awake, and she needed to come get her cake which has been sitting in my fridge.
Wake.
Smile.
Crash.
Wake, this time at noon.
Work on some myspizzle stuff for my poetry page, completely miss a phone call from Tornado and not realize until seven hours later when I’m starving and need to eat.
Wal-mart.
Ramen.
Rice.
Sub sandwich.
Dizzy.
Eat.
Call B.
Sleep.
Sorry Tornado, I totally messed up our hang out day.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Day Sixty-Two
Well. I got here August 4th, and it is now October 4th, so I suppose this is where my official two month internship would be up. I’m glad I’m not leaving yet. I actually had a dream that I went home last night and I cried in it. I miss home, but I’m loving the work here, and I’m happy I’m staying and watching Biscuit while Doogie the Dookie is in California and being able to work through the next couple weeks of this cycle before I go home.
I didn’t really work today. I’ve been working late, which I haven’t realized until “late” is finally there and it’s like, ten, and I haven’t eaten food since the banana that morning. Awesome deal. I may have lost ten pounds since I’ve been here. But hey. I am so sexy. I’m too sexy for my shirt. Like, have you seen me without a shirt? Or with a shirt? Either way, it’s just incredible… the real question here is have you seen Doug without a shirt? Because I have. he even apologized for it. It was the first day I got here and he was working on his lawn mower and shirtless, and the first thing he said is, “Hi, Levi? Levi, good to meet you, sorry the first introduction has to be like this…”
That low self-esteemed idiot. I should’ve just said, “Hey man, no worries, you’re just too sexy for your shirt is all.” You’re so hot right now.
You’re so right, Steve.
But I figure, as a rule, I shouldn’t make things as awkward as they can possibly be on the very first meeting. What I really should have said is, “Well, you should be sorry, that’s absolutely disgusting. In fact, there’s no way I’m going to be able to stay for this internship. I’m going home.” And then drive back to Albuquerque.
Because, you know, my job at Starbucks is just so much more appealing than writing for a magazine you love with a sweaty, shirtless man.
This is what happens when you write nonstop without lifting your fingers from the keyboard. It’s like stream of conscious writing that they made me do in middle school in the school chapel where you couldn’t lift your pencil for five minutes. But that gets really annoying when you are an idiot mid-high kid who has a bad attitude and doesn’t want to do the project and ends up writing cuss words over and over again and then is asked to read the project and you have to make up the whole story off the top of your head to keep from getting in trouble. Good imagination, right there, is what that is.
But I did a lot of stuff for my LevithePoet project up on myspace today. Tried to make friends and coerce people into listening to my poetry and making me feel good. You know, accepted. Important. The kinds of things that are important in life.
Last night I got the crap scared out of me. I woke up at four in the morning to the house alarm going off, and that’s the most god-awful loud noise in the world, and Biscuit’s not even barking because he’s somewhat paralyzed by the sound, I think. So I turn off the alarm. There’s an exposed wire in the cat’s room that they’ve been screwing with every now and then, so I figured they just tweaked it again and I’ve have to fix it.
No.
Open up the pantry door to where they stay, and the door to the outside world is wide open with the spring broken. And you know, I don’t particularly like dark, solitary places in the first place, let alone in the middle of nowhere in Texas where a murderer with a chainsaw is going to come kill me… not that cool.
I mean, of course, I’m only scared for the cat’s safety. Yeah, obviously.
So, what does any courageous, mature, strong young man do in a situation like this? Turn on every light in the house and sit Indian style on his bed with the dog behind closed doors in his bedroom, that’s what he does. That’s right.
Brave little Levy.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Day Sixty-One
So here’s the checklist I wrote out for the day:
√ Confirm all editorial tracking info
√ “The Becoming” Snail Mail Address
√ Hot Topic?
√ HM Animal Designs?
√ Myspace
√ Testimonies? √ New Blog…?
√ Email Bands about taking HM out on the road:
√ Underoath √ Philmont
√ The Chariot √ Abandon
√ Anberlin √ The Wedding
√ The Glass Ocean √ Norma Jean
√ Trenches √ Wrench in the Works
√ The Classic Crime √ Take It Back!
√ Grave Robber √ The Becoming
√ The Showdown √ Jonezetta
√ Head √ Agraceful
√ Await the Day √ Kutless
√ A Kiss for Jersey √ Third Day
√ Means √ The Devil Wears Prada
√ August Burns Red √ Dizmas
√ Inhale/Exhale √ War of Ages
√ This or the Apocalypse √ The Almost
√ Living Sacrifice √ P.O.D.
So yeah. That’s pretty much what I did all day. I made a blog for the testimonies on the myspizzle, too.
A lot of the bands that I wrote have gotten back to me already, too, which is really cool. Um, obviously, we don’t have an unlimited supply of magazines for bands to take out with them – especially if we’re going to let them keep the profit for it. The idea that we came up with a while ago is that we give bands some magazines to take out onto the road with them and they sell them for three bucks (or whatever, just so they’re not “free” – thus “trash”) and then let the bands keep the profit for the trouble for extra gas money or food or whatever. Everyone’s been really down, and I think most of them are down with just taking out subscription cards for us, too, whether or not we can send them a whole lot of magazines. We’ll see what goes down. So far, Grave Robber, Inhale/Exhale, The Chariot, The Devil Wears Prada, Wrench in the Works, My Epic, and Philmont have all said they’d be down. So that’s cool. I hope that really helps bring in more subs and get HM out there more. It’s a bummer, because Brandi called me the other day and said she wasn’t able to find HM anywhere in ABQ, and that’s no good. We’re distributed through Ingram Periodicals to Barnes and Noble and Borders and, you know, a lot of places… but Doug said that if they don’t sell as many copies as they’d like that sometimes the individual stores just stop putting them up on the shelves. I hope that if HM starts going out into shows and stuff, and is supported by the bands that people love – that we cover - it will become more popular and more people will start to know about it.
Like, maybe this is just an Albuquerque thing, but we have a huge metal/hardcore/experimental thing going on in the scene there, and man, if everywhere has something like that, then HM should be much bigger than it is, for sure. Hopefully some of this stuff will produce good fruit for the labor for Doug and Charlotta.
Listening to some Counting Crows. Adam Duritz sings about rain a lot. He is the Rain King.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Day Sixty
Did I mention in any earlier entries the music testimony idea? Anyway, I’ve been sending out blogs and bulletins and messages to a ton of people on the myspizzle, seeing if anyone has an interest in sending in a testimony as to how music – particularly Christian hard music – but music in general, has touched them in their lives. And it has been awesome. I got three in by the end of the day, and they’re kind of intense. One of them was about how music had played the major role in this person’s life as a drug addict with a personality disorder due to suffering sexual abuse as a child. This is a clip of what she said: “One night, I was feeling horrible after having just talked to my 'perfect' Christian friends. I put my Ipod on shuffle with two bottles of prescribed medication next to me along with my Bible. Right as I was about to take the pills a song came on that touched me. The Widow by As Cities Burn. God played this song for me, because he loves me.”
Another was from a woman who suffers from bi-polar disorder and chronic depression, who dealt with broken relationships to the point of having to file domestic charges against two of them that tried to kill her and made her work the streets to pay for their drugs… guess who inspired her… ? Carman! How awesome is that?
I’ve also made pretty good friends with a guy named Carlos who sent in his testimony. He’s as awesome guy, and he lives in Texas, I think. He grew up in a Christian home, but it was years later at Festival Con Dios that he decided to give his heart back to the Lord. He’s a big fan of Rob Bell and has had some encouraging words for us here at HM, too. It’s cool.
I don’t know. I’m just really excited about it all. I mean, people have even felt comfortable enough to send in their prayer requests and stuff through HM’s myspace. It’s pretty awesome. Doug said he wouldn’t mind if I continued to help out with the site after my internship was over, so I’m definitely going to do that. I think that it’s been something that’s really encouraging to people.
Love.
Levi.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Day Fifty-Nine
Micah Dean says it best on his chat status: “OcFREAKINtober”
How the heck is it October?
What happened to August and September? I remember talking to my dad about coming out here in July. I was standing in Wal-Mart looking for $4 lime green grandmother tennis shoes. He wanted to know when I was leaving, and I said I don’t know. And he said, “Well, when are you gonna find out?” and I think I said some smart aleck thing like “probably the day that I put all my crap in the car and leave.”
Sorry, dad.
Turns out that’s kind of what coming home is lookin’ like. I know when I’m going home, but I don’t know where I’m living once I get there. I work at Starbucks and there’s this really nice customer there whose name is Gator and he loves Radiohead and he has a hippie van with a sink. I think I would like to ask him if it’s still for sale.
Live in that. Maybe in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Get a membership at Stone Age rock climbing gym, shower there. That sounds fun. That’s what I’d like to do.
That won’t happen though. Everyone will tell me how impractical that is, and then I will get stressed, and then I will end up getting an apartment or something and spending money that I don’t want to on a place that all I do is sleep in and have no possessions to put in it. Yep.
So I’ll be returning and moving in somewhere with someone as some point.
No leases though. God, no leases, please. If I can help it.
When I first started up here, I was making checklists for the day each morning, and I kind of got away from that as things got busier, but this morning I did it again to keep myself on track. Did some editorial tracking to double check and make sure all the writers and publicists have been contacted for this cycle…
and checked them off on the sheet right away…
and did it in pencil.
No more of this “email everyone four times with the same question crap like the last go around” – See! I’m learning!
I started working on some T-Shirt designs, too. HM Animal Series is what I called it. It might only be really goofy, but it might be cool too so we’ll see when I’m done.
The internet kind of sucked today, but it’s definitely been better since I’m the only one using it. Doug – you know – you can just stay in California, okay? I’ll keep Biscuit.
Here is a picture of my girlfriend. She looks like she should be in the movie Donnie Darko as Frank’s sister.
Frank’s pretty sister, that is.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Day Fifty-Eight
I think today is the first day that I actually feel like I started working on the Jan/Feb issue. I know that’s not entirely true, and Doug has been working on assigning writers to stories and we’ve been getting info on what and where we want to go with it, but today I actually started assigning people their stuff and everything.
I’m stoked to be staying out here a little longer than the general length of the internship cycle. I feel like I know more of what I’m doing now, and I’d like to hope and pray that some of the snags I got caught up on last month can bee avoided this go around. It’s weird to say that. I’ve been here for two months already. Crazy. Freakin crazy.
So, yeah. Again, I worked from the church. Laurel and Cody and Tornado and Alyssa and I went to see Death Race tonight – a horribly violent but awesome movie about prison and car racing and beating people up. I don’t recommend it to anyone. Haha.
Haha – I didn’t really laugh. I didn’t even LOL.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Day Fifty-Seven
So, my mission failed. I did journal for the last two days. I will justify that by saying that I didn’t have a computer, but man I tried so hard to have it up every day. Oh well. Anyway, I am a failure.
Rub it in, rub it in. Wax on, wax off. JK, LOL, JK, LOL.
You know what’s the worst? The worst is when people start to say that stuff in their actual conversations – like in real life, and not on their cell phones. I know so many people that do that, too. That is sign #1 of Too-Much-Cell-Phone-Syndrome.
Austin City Limits was - how do I put this without any overly excited expletives…? … AWESOME. Fantastic. I am still, so stoked that I got to be able to go to that. I have a friend that went last year who was just blown away and said if I ever had the chance to go, take it. So I’m happy. I got to see:
City and Color – my friend, Chad, he’ll hate me for that.
MGMT – my friend, Julia, she’ll love me for that.
CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND – These guys get all caps because Conor Oberst is my favorite musician in the world, and I have been in love with Bright Eyes for years, and even though I don’t love MVB as much as Bright Eyes, it’s still Conor Oberst, and he’s still my fav. ISAAC TRUJILLO! THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING ME TO GOOD MUSIC!
Iron & Wine – Such Great Heights – one of my fav’s as well.
ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS – How could I not give these folks all CAPS? It’s friggin musical hero of the world people, right here! And they did the only thing that could’ve possibly made the set better than it was already – they covered Zeppelin’s “Creepin’” to the most chill, different bluegrass thing ever. The band was way legit, too. All in suits with stand-up acoustic bases and jazz sets and violins and things. It was beautiful. It made you feel like you were flying.
Beck – Eh, not so much. You can’t go from Robert Plant to Beck and expect it to compare.
Flyleaf – Awesome set. Weird for ACL, too, because they’re such a hard band, but great nonetheless. They opened up with “I Love You, Lord” – and I could hear it from a mile away – literally. I was late and had to walk from the nearest drop-off which was a mile away and it carried that far. Lacey Mosley is hot. She explained the song Cassie, which, contrary to popular believe, isn’t about suicide, it’s about Columbine. She also dedicated the song “Here For You” to a woman whose husband had sang it to her the last time they talked – right before he was killed in Iraq. Needless to say it was kind of emotional.
COLOUR REVOLT – another CAPS band. For Jonathan. Though I’ve got to say I’m surprised more people didn’t show up for their set, but it was awesome and the dudes on stage new a bunch of dudes in the crowd, so there was some cool interaction there.
Okkervil River – Good. I chilled and listened and journaled during his set.
Stars – didn’t hear a lot of the set, but I liked what little I did.
THE RACONTEURS – the last three are all CAPS bands and they speak for themselves.
BAND OF HORSES
FOO FIGHTERS.
‘Nuff said.
I feel like this is stupid to say but seeing the Foo Fighters is kind of like seeing Nirvana – except I know it’s not at all, but the dude was in Nirvana once – and it’s kind of like saying hey I say Angels and Airwaves so I saw Blink 182. Except not. Except none of that makes sense, but it does a little bit. In my dumb head.
Probably one of the reasons my head is dub right now is because today I am so tired that I don’t know how to think straight and Doug and Laurel have been giving me crap all day because I’m so slap-happy that I just laugh about everything and I’m pretty certain I’ve accomplished absolutely NOTHING.
Doogie the Dookie leaves for California today. Biscuit Buddy McGillicutti is chillin with me for the next week and a half. I love this dog. He’s awesome. Doug and Laurel said bye to one another, because Laurel freakin leaves Wednesday… WHAT THE HECK!?!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Day Fifty-Four
I was awake working on some stuff for a friend back home until four o’clock in the morning. Four-thirty, actually. Maybe five. Thing is, I think I could’ve just stayed awake till now. I don’t know, man. I just wasn’t tired. Whatever, I guess, but anyway, I slept in an extra hour this morning – meaning I got four hours of sleep instead of three – and now it’s two in the morning on Saturday I guess, actually, and I’m not tired again.
This makes me cool.
What?
I don’t know why I said that except for when I journal I don’t really think I think about what I say beforehand. I just say it like Doug says random crap when he’s thinking out loud, and then you ask him what he said, and then he doesn’t know he even said anything, and it’s just confusing.
Back to Taylor and my place at the church entrance for work today. Ha. I don’t know. Poop. It’s poop is what it is.
That about sums up the day, actually. Exciting, I know. The thing is that working away from the office is more efficient in terms of internet activity, but it’s hard because you don’t have all the resources right at your disposal if another question comes up or something like that. But I worked at the church for a while, and then my friend Josh came by and told me I could come work at his house, so I did that. And he’s got high speed. So that was cool.
Um – I totally forgot about the kittens being outside, though, until around seven thirty. And I totally freaked out. They’re supposed to be let in at five. I totally thought they were dead – eaten by coyotes. Gone. Luckily they weren’t. Or by the grace of God. Crap I would not have wanted to deal with that with Doug and his daughters. I haven’t mentioned anything to him about that before this journal entry, actually. So, aren’t I so sneaky? He just thinks I’m such a good person and really I’m a forgetful jerk.
I’m so stoked to sleep in tomorrow, and then it’s off to ACL to see City and Colour. I’m going to stay with John – the old intern – this weekend with him at his parent’s place, so that’ll be pretty rad. Won’t have to drive an hour and a half fifty times back and forth from the ranch house to Zilker Park. I’m so excited. And I’m sleepy. Goodnight.
Thursday, September 25, 2005
Day Fifty-Three
Laurel and I get to go to Austin City Limits! I’m so freakin stoked! I feel bad that Charlotta (Doogie the Dookie’s woman) isn’t feeling well enough to attend, but I can’t deny that I’m super stoked she offered her spot to us. Laurel is going to go tomorrow and get to see the Mars Volta! How cool is that! I know there are lot’s of other bands that are probably notable, but Mars Volta is the only one I can think of right now, and I just freakin LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE that band! I’m going to get to be able to go Saturday and Sunday. I am most excited about seeing Conor Oberst. He’s my favorite musician in the world, I think. As emo as I am.
Dude. I am so stoked about this.
Ha.
Tornado brings us so much food. It’s awesome. If I hadn’t hit that deer I probably could have come out with here with no money at all and the Lord would have provided through her cooking. She is awesome. Thank you madam! I appreciate everything you do, it means so much. You’ve been so welcoming to us.
I tried to sort through a bunch of Pick of the Litter bands so that we’d be a little more ahead by the time we start writing up this new issue, but there are so many with such close ratings that it’s hard to decide one over the other. There are a few that I really like a lot, though. One of them is SOTAHUTTO – they’re some, like, German band or something and I have no idea what they’re saying, but I would describe their music as “violently killing someone and then laughing about it.” They’re nuts.
Dude, you’re so brutal, I love being in a band with you.
Yeah.
Another is The Anomaly – they’ve got kind of a dirty Chariot feel.
Yes.
Amen.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Day Fifty-Two
So today was Doug’s day off. I think that the majority of the magazine cycle, he works four day weeks and then the last two weeks of deadline, he works all-day-everyday-weeks, and then back to normalcy.
The morning started out exactly how I hoped it would – with me getting a phone call from a fanatic person who was scared about the future of music – certain that it was going to come to an end the way the world is – and needed to know how to his hands on every possible CD before this happened, and why is everything digital?
Super kind dude. But, Lordy.
So yeah. I tried to work here at the office – I did – but I couldn’t get anything done. Drove into Taylor to work at the church. It’s funny when I work at the church, because I usually sit on the porch underneath the canopy and work for a while, and then somebody who works there will pull up and tell me I can come in, or someone who’s already there will be coming outside and open the church door up into my knee.
And then the kind woman walks out and says, “OH! Hi!”
And I say, “Hi.”
And we look at each other and it’s awkward, a little. And then I wait about ten minutes to walk inside and work at the front desk. And then I put in some earbuds and listen to music. I’ve realized, through personal inspection or other’s criticism as of late, that I am an incredibly awkward person, sometimes, and I feel much less awkward with music, so I put that in and kind of forget about the rest. Haha.
But I feel like I got a lot done. Today was a big myspace day since I had a high speed connection. I’m meeting a ton of cool people through the whole myspace promo stuff – which means a ton of people know that there’s a person at the other end of our page who talks. Haha. So it’s cool. Doug recognizes a lot of other people that I don’t, too, that have started to talk to us through the comments or messages, or whatever, from other magazines or labels and stuff like that. So it’s cool. It’s interesting to see who comes out of the dark to say what’s up.
I think Laurel’s head almost exploded today, she worked all day on this project, uploading a bunch of album reviews that seriously took her, like, eight hours, and then she realized she did something wrong… so she was kind of pissed and “went for a drive”. I think that’s kind of like me “taking a walk”. Haha (you need twitter). So yeah – we also got an ad request from a magician today. He promotes himself as the “Chris Angel of Christian Events” – apparently that means he’s pretty good?
I went to life groups tonight. Did a little poetry for the “icebreaker” – which went over about thirty times better than Doug’s “Let’s-watch-the-seen-where-Samuel-L-Jackson-gets-eaten-by-a-shark-in-Deep-Blue-Sea” idea. Haha (you need twitter). We talked about truth.
It’s funny how truth is both vague and specific at the same time.
Love.
Levi.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Day Fifty-One
Today we started planning out the January/February issue. Honestly it was a little bit disappointing – not because it wasn’t fun, but because no one has anything coming out on their labels. There’s just not a whole lot to work with. Um, Laurel and I emailed and called people at labels all morning to get info about new stuff that’s being put out – and pretty much came up flat. There’s a couple potential projects that could be really awesome. But like, we got nothing from Rise. We got nothing from Tooth and Nail. It’s just kind of a dead spot – I hope the few possibilities that we have will work out.
But man, the magazine that we have been working on is officially done as of late last night – and I’m so freakin stoked to get one of those in my hands. Haha.
Remember the giddy little girl analogy? There you go.
So, my journals have been getting progressively shorter, which sucks, because I like writing long things about random nothingness. I don’t really think it’s me being lethargic or anything like that. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just increasingly uninteresting. That’s such a nice thought.
I should start introducing myself at shows like that:
Increasingly-Uninteresting-LevithePoet.
I’m going to be talking about snails.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Day Fifty
Day fifty. You know on people’s fiftieth wedding anniversaries people have big celebrations and things and eat lots celery with peanut butter and sip on wine and things. It’s totally time to party.
It’s weird not being in deadline.
Like, the stuff I worked on today was only stuff that maybe, maybe, might have fit in during the last couple of weeks if we happened to be hung up on not being able to do something else. Just random stuff. But Doug was still having crappitty crap-crap happening with getting the magazine out. Like, we all sat here this morning in his office as he finished up the last document, and uploaded everything onto his drive so that he could send out all of the PDFs from home and we all clapped and frolicked in the fields and did little dances… and then I called him later on this evening and he said he was still have problems at home and he probably wouldn’t be able to send it out till tomorrow.
Big old dumbness.
So, it seems that even as per normal deadline craziness, this one is abnormally nuts. That kind of has a ring to it. Abnormally nuts.
The myspace promotions seem to be doing really good. I’m way happy with it. I’ve been sending out “questions of the day” just getting people involved in somewhat of a social network within a social network and replying to each person individually, which gets somewhat tedious, especially with a slow internet, but more than anything it’s just really cool. I’ve already met tons of people, and more and more people are getting involved and giving their input, and it’s just really good. We’ve gotten more replies for ad sales and stuff, and I think that if we keep this up we will definitely continue to reap benefits of it – as well as – at least for me – build relationships in the process.
So that’s really, really cool. The last question I asked people was:
1) Why am I SO, SO, SO HORRIBLE AT PHOTOSHOP?
2) If you were given the choice between being eaten alive off of the toilet and chewed on for five minutes by a dinosaur (remember Jurassic Park?) or getting pinpricked to death by an oompa loompa, which one would it be?
3) Favorite Zao album?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Day Forty-Nine
Holy crap I didn’t even mention that I hit a deer! Friday night, I was driving to Wal Mart (which, by the way, I pretty much go to at least every other day) and a deer ran across the road and I hit it.
It almost made it all the way across. I hit it’s back right hip going about sixty, and it was disgusting. I felt horrible, because it’s uh… well, it’s definitely doing to die. Or, has died. I wished it would just died there but it definitely hurt for a while beforehand.
And my car? Well, lets just say it’s a good thing the body was already a little banged up beforehand. I have those cool James Bond headlights that flip up out of my car, you know? Yeah. No more right James Bond headlight. Gone. Smashed in and out. The blinker light still works, but it’s hanging to the side.
Anyway. That was dumb.
It was funny because I sent out a twit saying that I just hit a deer and immediately my mom and sister called freakin out. I am so loved.
Got up for church. I actually slept through two alarms to help me get up for church and then woke up to one of Doug’s twit about how he can’t believe he’s awake and then that sorry son of a gun made me feel like I should be awake so I jumped up and went to church like a good Christian. I am so much holier than anyone else right now. I’m listening to eminem.
The other day I was listening to music and it was pretty loud I guess, so Laurel was sitt
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Comments
By Mark Macallister
L. Morgan,
I love your heart and your creative self there at HM and ... well, I can't think of anything I don't love about you.
It's just like you (Good on ya) to give up the master bedroom. -Didn't surprise me a bit when you told Mom and me tonight.
The more stoked you are the more stoked I am! :o)
Behind you 110%!
God on ya son,
Dad
P.S. If posts like this from your Dad embarrass you ... just delete it. It's enough for me to know that I submitted it! :o)
By Jody Macallister
Ditto everything Dad said!
I'm so glad Jesus let you come live in our house!!
I love you son. Mom
By Levi Macallister
love you guys. ha. you make me smile.
By tornado
Hey Levi, It was GREAT to meet you today.. I KNOW you are gonna have an awesome time.. HM is awesome!!!
By bree [bubble butt, levi's sister]
levi!
im jealous!
it sounds like you're having a pretty sweet time so far!
i miss you tons already, but im stoked that you have this oppourtunity.
learn alot and talk to me alot
:)
love you juan,
bubbles
By Levi Macallister
you too tornado! thanks for everything!
bree bird! i LOVE you.
By Mom to you
And now I'm laughing all by myself with this funny smile on my face...!
You are someTHING son!
(Pretty many "thing(s)"! - Sweet!)Love you, Mom
By Aunt Jamie
Well - that was some fun reading! Sounds like a great start, Levi. We met a friend at camp this summer, who Ty started to call "Levi - William" because he reminded us so much of you! We miss you! A big hug! AJamie
PS I'm very curious about Tornado's chicken-curry spinach sandwiches...can we get a "Levi's Tasties" link or something? Maybe HM would like a new feature? No?? =)
By Dad
Hey Son, I just read all your "Intern Diaries" you posted since my first incredibly stylin' comments about you. :o)
Here's a brief, but totally heartfelt P.S. to that first post: You are 'da bomb! I know, that's an old one. But, then again so is "SeeGar man" :o)
Bree, if you happen to read this I just want to take this format/opportunity to say that I love you with all my heart honey and you, too, are 'da bomb.
How can two people be "da" bomb?! -Just like Jesus can love ALL OF US like we were the only ones. It's a "Dad(dy) thing" :o)
Love you BOTH more than I can express,
Dad
P.S. "Proud as hell" of you both too! What?! No worries ... it's an old saying with a very good connotation. Idioms don't "make sense" at first glance sometimes.
By tornado
so did you try the sandwhich thing yet?? I'll have to come up with some "interesting ' styles..Garlic butter on the bread with cheese was really popular..
By Douglas Gene
In all website stuff you post, avoid the double line breaks between paragraphs. Why? Because you'll get that "page one" and "page two" break up stuff. And, if you've ever had a girlfriend, you know that breaking up is no fun. So, just put ONE line space between paragraphs and then your online article / diary entry thing will all be on one page and not broken up at the point of two line spaces. Follow me? Cool. Eat more fish.
By Levi Macallister
man if i had some fish i would.
By Levi Macallister
i didn't try it yet, tornado, sorry. tomorrow i've got to go shopping for some cheese! i'm stoked about it though. maybe i'll come my your work...you work on the weekends?
By brandii
this is hard to read.
you're funny.
By Doug
Levi: Do not use spaces in between paragraphs anymore! It makes your entries get all broken up. Just use a symbol to force a line break.
For example, end of sentence.
Next paragraph begins.
Do you feel like your diary was just hacked? Well, at least it was cleaned and hacked. And I added another photo for ya.
I'm so cool, I could sneeze!
By Levi Macallister
Ha! I finally understand what you're talking about!
Thank you sir.
By Jonathan
levi you are real real funny and i really enjoyed these. i'm watching the olympics more and watching liebchen as she barks alot. she says "hello and i love you even if it doesn't seem like it". last night brandi wanted us to do her sparklers, which you heard, so we went out and did them and when we came in (all of us being real stoked about seeing the 400 medley relay) it was almost over and we only saw the very end (which was the best part but still). but the sparklers were fun. anyway, keep learning and loving and laughing. love,
JOnathan Daire
By Kane
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. i like the one about buying the alarm clock. it reminds me of buying apple juice. Love.
By Mom
Hey! What happened to Sunday? Were you "Sabbathing"? Today's Monday the 11th, son!! I love you!
By tornado
Hey Levi, Yea I definately work on weekends.. BUT ... This weekend I am off!!!!but , yea I do.. If you ever need something you can call and I can bring it home with me.and BTW..U R Fun E!! and everyone asked about you from Youth too.=)
By katie
hahahaha pink underwear?!
your adventures crack me up
and i love how you can make the most mundane things so interesting!
By Levi Macallister
ha ha. thanks mom.
and thanks tornado. i checked out dougs church with his family on sunday. are you guys doing anything on wednesday even though there isn't youth group?
By Mom
You're very welcome for the cookies! My pleasure! Now get that AAA to give you some point to point maps, will ya?! :o)
By Gawa
We are happy you got your AAA card! (along with the great cookies) You might need it on one of those wild trips you've been taking in and "around" Austin! We've been reading your "diaries" and enjoying them a lot....we also liked your "review" tho, of course, we had no idea what you were talking about most of the time....the curse of grandparents. You are making us laugh....with pride. We love you, Levi....
By brandii
i like reading peoples comments.
kane makes me laugh.
i almost read allllll of these!
By tornado
You are funny... have a great day today!!
By tornado
Happy Birthday Brandi!!!!
By Dad
Hey son! A quick I miss you and I love you followed by a ...
Happy Belated Birthday Brandi!
I can't EVEN believe you were here yesterday and we didn't know. Likely too focused on this hard it's-been-a-year season. You were so understanding.
THANKS!
Love from all the Macs!
By brandii
hi levi i am talking to you now.
By brandii
hahaha... you said it yourself. you write A LOT
By Mom
LEVI! You asked Doug to kick a cow? OMG! What did I tell you about "sling-shotting" lizards back on the Ranch?!
By tornado
hey where's the picture????
By Jonathan Orner
hey levi. you are real funny. hey, you should check out yeasayer. brandon sent me a youtube link which was amazing so i went to their myspace and am totally diggin the first 2 songs. check it. anyway, i'm praying for your mind to be totally blown out there and to have the experience of a lifetime. NAU is crazy and fun and funny and school still kinda sucks but people don't so i'm workin on finding a good balance. anyway, i love you.
By brandii
i love that you put the dates on your entries. thank you for doing that.
By Levi Macallister
oh yes, anything for you, dear.
ha. that was your influence, i believe.
By Mom
Ahhh Levi. You really never got the lizard thing, did ya? :o] - Happy l9 month anniversary Levi & Brandi! Blessings on you both!
By brandii
man you are so cheesy i can't handle it
By tornado
You are too funny so how do I fix Twitter???
By Levi Macallister
Okay, So you you log into your account and then click on the "Find and Follow" link - right next to "Home". From there you click on "Following" and a list should a appear of the people that you are following. You can click on whether or not you want device updates from there. To whoever reads these comments... check out twitter. It's awesome. Tornado, let's all hang out tonight.
By tornado
Thanks .. I will do that so I can actually recieve twitts?? Maybe I'llcatch up with you and laurel later..
By brandii
gee levi. you really are a butthead man.
By tornado
656-1593...that is the number you wanted and I forgot..sorry..
By brandii
did you tell me about the doug tear thing the other day? or was that a dream. i think you write more then any other human alive. IT'S AWESOME!
By John McEntire
howdy gangster pimp.
im diggin on the thoughtful diaries, you're making me look like a child. well, ill have you know im not a child, no i am much younger than that......
but conor o aside, i like to keep up appearances. keep up this good work and i might just have to kill you
keep it real
By tornado
You rocked at the show!! I know alot of people were encouraged ..very cool.
By Mom to you
Haven't "commented" in awhile ... Thanks for the updates, Twitter and otherwise! Enjoying ALL of it! Love you son!
By Dad
Levi,
It's been some time since I last touched based through this medium. -Just wanted to say "BLESS YOU" for working so hard alongside Doug et al getting the latest print version of HM out the door (over the Net). Take some time for yourself when it's done. -You deserve it, 'specially since God made the sabbath for man. :o) Love, Dad
By laurel
"hi. i'm levi the creeper...."
your crazy.
By tornado
Hey I think you make a GREAT drummer...
By Mom
Can't believe you're like a week behind in your diaries. Must be all those Twitters! Love you son!
By Levi Macallister
oh wow. i'm workin on it. i have them - i've just forgotten to upload them. sorry everybody! i must be some kind of idiot! they'll be up by the end of the day...
By laurel
post something new!!!!!!!!!!!! i want to hear what you are doing. NOW!
By Mom to you
Oh but you ARE too sexy for your shirt! :o) How are the purple tennies serving you these days?! Love you!
By laurel
k i just read your last weeks worth of comments. for some reason they werent showing up. lame.
sounds like you have had your share of adventures. i would have been crying in the corner if i woke up to the alarm going off.
you are designing shirts??!?!!?!?!?!?! i'm very excited bout this!! cant wait to see the results!!!
By Levi Macallister
Haha, I don't know if the shirt designs are going anywhere. But I'm just thinking of ideas. What's the deal with these robots, man? Poopy is what they are...
By Levi Macallister
I don't know how to delete them. There's some weird message that comes up when I try - will work on fixing...:-(
By tornado
Your welcome for the dinner.. can't wait for the youth rally.. that will be awesome!!
By laurel
laskdjfjhasl;kdjf
you and josh went to the norma jean show?? soooooo cool. wow everything there sounds aweseome! so exciting. haha part of me is reallllly sad :(
i hope you get to interview Aaron (yes we are on a first name basis) wow.
oh and when you interview Ruth, if it happens to be the guitarist Nick, prepare yourself cuz he is VERY good looking..and you will be able to tell through the phone...thats how good looking he is.
i'm so glad your car was cheap! that makes me so happy! man i miss you like crazy and i'm excited that you get to see beautiful brandi soon!!!! :)
tell doug that i have been having ALOT of growth time lately.
misssssssssss you.
btw. a robot is attacking your comments
By Dad
Crapitty Crap Crap -Haven't heard you say that one before. Cracked me up big time. I love you son! ~Dad
By Dad
I have no doubt you can design ROCKIN' t-shirts son. Stir up those artistic gifts God has given you for His Glory. -Can't wait to see what you come up with! Can't wait to see YOU! "RUFF!" :o)
By laurel
is believing in God irrational? yes.
i'm so proud of you for putting air in your tires and getting off your butt to ride your bike. good good job
By tornado
Hey , Have a blessed day and Don't be late picking Brandi up ... Talked to the group and saturday sounds good.. see ya soon..
By Mom
All the "ad folks" who have supplied comments are pretty funny. Random indeed! And Levi, -I know that you know that I know! Geez!
Love you! Can't wait to see you!
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