Will you carry me across the sea...

I honestly don't remember the first time I heard Sunny Day Real Estate's "Diary." It must have been ten or more years ago, in High School. I assume I was in my 4Runner, or in Juice Box's Jeep. I don't remember. So, I can't say how long it has been since I have wanted to see them live, but it has been a while.

I got to see them Sunday night. They were amazing, in the most un-bastardized, literal sense of that word.

Elle and I went and ran into Terrence of the Lafayette Luftwaffe. Terrence got to see them in their heyday, on their tour supporting "How it Feels to be Something On." We both pine for that period of music. We both still listen to Superdrag, SDRE, Samiam, and other bands from the early-nineties, before the word "Emo" was ruined, coopted and stripped of any meaning. It is a word that does not mean anything anymore, and certainly one that a band like SDRE does not recognize.

I'm sure one day I will get around to writing a long-form essay about my love affair with this time period of music, about the aesthetics of vulnerability, etc. But right now I want to tell you that SDRE played an incredible show. The crowd (which consisted of a disproportionate number of tall, chubby, black-shirted sad men, so many that is was very difficult for Elle to see no matter where we were in the crowd) erupted at the first notes of each song, a choir singing in unison to each chorus.

It was a good show and one I will not forget soon.

Here's some clips.

It's starting to feel like fall here in New York. The leaves have already begun to look singed at the edges and the air feels lighter today. These are the days for bike rides, for sunset sessions and offshore winds. For coffee on the boardwalk. The beginnings and ends of the day auburn and rusted, crisp and clear.

This is my last semester as an undergraduate student. I have been in New York for almost two years. I feel like I have been here forever, yet at the same time like I have just arrived.

I spend a lot of time browsing graduate schools in the afternoons, waiting for 4:45 to roll around so i can pedal downtown to pick up Elle from work. It makes me hopeful, yet empties me. Where to go now, what to study, what to do. MFA in creative writing, try to get a book deal? PhD in American Studies, teach college, write essays on the bowels of American popular culture? Who knows which way the wind blows.

I do know that in <9 months I am getting married to a girl who everyday surprises me with he fits of beauty, her moments of grace and humor, her empathy. Other than that, well, I'll figure it out. I'm not worried about it. Not worried at all.

I realized that I never put a decent shot of MY bike up, and, since I will inevitably be putting a picture of Jack's bike I just finished with Devotion, I figure I might as well. My baby:

I built Elle a bike. I'm very proud of how it came out.

We went skateboarding yesterday. Elle and Noelle hung out and chewed gum while Vava and I shredded. I haven't skated in a while--not counting trips to the grocery school on my zip zinger. It was a good feeling, still being able to pull a few tricks out of my bag for Vava.

Here are some pictures Elle took: