The Good Son

I played the role of the “good son” this weekend as my parents have been visiting me here in Virginia since Thursday. They arrived late Thursday with little more than time for a quick jaunt to the mall (where I discovered the new Ben Folds album) and dinner at Slade’s. Friday my Mom wanted to go to the Potomac Mills mall and go outlet shopping. While she spent a mind-numbingly long amount of time at the Nordstrom outlet, my Dad and I wandered the length of the mall, popping our heads in here and there. For anyone who’s never been to the Potomoc Mills mall, I’ll just tell you that it’s huge. I was reminded several times of the massive concourses of large international airports like Atlanta, or New York. Exhausted from a day at the mall, I discovered a Sakura nearby and we had teppanyaki with and the usual trappings for dinner. Saturday we went to Old Town Alexandria, once again at the request of my Mom. I think she was expecting something a little different, but was not disappointed. I personally had never really spent much time there except a brief walk around the eastern end of King street and time spent at Le Mademoiselle on a couple dates. It was a beautiful day, but once again the amount of walking was exhausting. Today, Sunday, my Mom wanted to spend time shopping at Tyson’s Corner and my Dad and I had made plans to visit a couple local used CD shops: CD Cellar and the Record and Tape Exchange, the only two establishments I’ve found around here that are worth any mention.

Seeing my Dad and I in a used CD store is to stumble across an animal that is truly in its element. We can spend hours flipping through CD racks in search of something we don’t yet own. Ultimately I came away with 5 CDs:

• Ganging up on the Sun by Guster, an album I somehow managed not to acquire when it was released

• Tectonic Membrane/Thin Strip on an Edgeless Platform by Emperor X, an album I was not aware existed

• Midnight Boom by The Kills, an album I’ve been meaning to pick up should I ever encounter it for cheap

• Grippe by Jawbox, which completes my collection of Jawbox’s full-length albums

• File Under Black by None More Black, a post Kid Dynamite project that I was somehow unaware of … I blame Markwood

I also picked up a City Paper and the October On Tap, a pretty useful magazine that I’ve only ever seen before at CD Cellar.

Anyway, tomorrow marks the end of my stint as the “good son” as the folks head back north to Connecticut. I’ll be back at work Tuesday, but will likely end up spending most of Monday catching up on Warhammer. The last thing I need is to hear AZ give me crap for not levelling fast enough. Not to mention I’ve got some more time off coming in less than two weeks when I head to New York for several days for Coheed & Cambria’s “Neverender” concert series. So October is a pretty full month, a final cavalcade of events before I turn 30 at the beginning of next month. One thing is for certain right now though. As much as I enjoy it when my parents visit, I will be looking forward to an almost guilt free day of slacking tomorrow. I need a break.

One Day

The one day … ONE DAY that Faraquet are playing a show in DC for the first time in 10 years and it falls on the same day that my game launches. I’m guessing with the size of this launch that I’ll have to be on call the whole day and into the night, but there is also a chance I won’t have to be. I’m just going to have to ask some people Monday and see what they say, the show doesn’t start till 9pm anyway and Faraquet are headlining so they won’t be on until at least an hour after that.

Then again, I kinda want to play my own game on launch day, probably all day. Meh, we’ll see.