Mike_Hilgemann's Xanga

The End is the Beginning is the End

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:28:19 GMT

I hereby announce that this blog is over. I have decided to move elsewhere instead of continuing my stay here at Xanga. My new blog is located here: http://blissedandgone.blogspot.com

Please bookmark it. Check it often. Whatever.

Notice that the address is, of course, the name of a Pumpkins song.

Goodbye, Xanga!

Holy crap!

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:52:58 GMT

As you may recall, The Hourly Radio is a band that I discovered recently and have been eagerly awaiting their first full-length album. Well, today I got to hear it for the first time. They are streaming it - check out the link above if interested - and it is amazing! It has a bunch of songs on it that I've already heard, but whatever...the new songs are completely worth it. Life will be complete when I can finally purchase/download/burn this record and this band finally comes somewhere near me so I can see them play live! Ah!!

It meant the world to hold a bruising faith...but now it's just a matter of grace

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:17:17 GMT

Kelly and Dan's wedding was very nice - and very fun! A big CONGRATS to my dear friends, once again! I was so honored to be a part of it! Here's a photo featuring Amy, Kelly, myself, and Tiff during the wedding dance:

Don't I just look adorable in pink?? Oh yeah, and the bride looks pretty, too, huh?

And the people that you meet want to open you up like Christmas

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 00:37:06 GMT

So again I apologize for not updating until now. To update, briefly:

1. I am now teaching again. Session 2 began Monday, so now I will be teaching for 1 hour and 20 minutes five days a week starting at 8:40 AM. So fucking early. It sucks. Really...it does. Things seem to be going smoothly so far, though.

2. I took the midterm in my Linear Algebra class last Thursday. I rocked it, more or less! Good thing. Our instructor for that course has now changed, and we now have a dipshit teaching it. He's the worst teacher I could possibly imagine. Just horrible, horrible! I can't express it enough. I now fear that I will learn nothing the rest of the semester and fail my qualifier simply because of this. ...grumble, grumble...

3. This past weekend was fun. Andrew's birthday was last Wednesday, so he had a party on Friday. Good times! Morgan did manage to throw my keys on the roof of the building, but they were easily retrieved. On Saturday, Morgan, Andrew, Eric, and I headed down to Des Moines. Very good times were had.

4. Lastly, and most important of all...my dearest friend Kelly is getting married this weekend!!! I head back to Pipestone Friday with the wedding on Saturday. I'm VERY much looking forward to it!!! All the best, Kel - don't trip walking down the aisle!! The dance should be a fucking blast! My brother is also going to be home for a week, so I will get to see him briefly this weekend. Briefly is better than nothing, I guess!

Now that I'm so sad and not quite right, I could dance all night

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 14:55:36 GMT

So I'm off for Decorah, IA today to attend a friend's wedding. Jake and I are staying overnight there and then heading for Minneapolis tomorrow to attend a Band of Horses show. Their album is one of (if not the) best album of the year so far, so this should be a great show. Will all this travelling this weekend, it leaves no time for doing everything that I should be doing instead. Oh well.

You're my sheath, I'm your rapier

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 02:28:10 GMT

So I haven't posted in over a week. Forgive me.

Before I go into a recap of the past week, let me just say this. Thom Yorke's (of Radiohead fame) solo album (due out in July) leaked, so I downloaded that this morning. It is very good. While not deviating from what you would expect from the next Radiohead album (not a bad thing anyways), this is extremely quality material. For all you fans of Radiohead out there, definitely get this as soon as you can.

Now for the recap. First off, last Thursday Jake and I attended the Two Gallants show at the Triple Rock Social Club in the cities. While this resulted in another very late night for us, it was well worth it. I was actually blown away by how good they were. I expected greatness, but this was ridiculously good! It was also one of the loudest concerts I've ever been to. Just two guys on stage can make a lot of noise! Anyways, the next day, running on 3 hours of sleep, I drove back to Pipestone. The weekend there was good - got to see lots of friends that I miss dearly and got to see lots of my parents and my beloved cats.

School is going fine. Keeping busy, and managing to study a lot of Algebra. Linear Algebra has been giving me varying degrees of difficulty, but nothing like the difficulty of say Real Analysis last year. While it is over 2 months away, I am already getting very nervous for my Qualifier. I think I've shown myself a marked improvement in my problem solving abilities of the Abstract Algebra portion of the material, but I have a ways to go yet. I begin teaching again a week from Monday. That should make me even more busy...but luckily I have a grader for this course, so no grading for me!

Can we all hold hands when we make new friends?

Mon, 22 May 2006 19:33:35 GMT

So the Mogwai show was incredible, as I knew it would be. Holy fuck - they ended the show with the song Glasgow Mega-Snake. Such a great rocker! Anyways - yeah the show was great. I was pretty drunk throughout...this happened because we arrived at First Ave before the doors even opened, so we went across the street for some (pretty strong) drinks. Good times, good times! We made a strange decision on the way home and cut over to Hopkins to say 'hi' to Amy & Brent...for some reason...but it was great to see them, even if I'll be seeing them next weekend in Pipestone.

Jake and I decided also to go see Two Gallants on Thursday at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis. More late night driving! But I've really, really grown fond of Two Gallants so this will indeed be another great show.

I happened upon the band Radio 4 this morning. The record "Enemies Like This" is really good...the first and last tracks are incredible. Check it out.

Have been busy working on Abstract and Linear Algebra. So much to do! So much to learn! Unfortunately the Qualifier Study Group on Friday is again at 3:00 in the afternoon, so I will be a little delayed in my trip home to Pipestone for the weekend by a couple of hours. Oh well! I'm looking forward to seeing lots of people this weekend that I miss.

That's enough outta me. Bye!

All things grow, all things grow

Sat, 20 May 2006 13:18:21 GMT

So with help from Jake, I now possess the new Sufjan Stevens album "The Avalanche" which will not be officially released until July, methinks. It's great - a couple really good new songs on there, and the alternate versions of "Chicago" are great as well.

Be jealous.

I am going to see Mogwai at First Ave tonight. They are an incredible live act, so I'm very excited!

Be jealous.

If music is the victim, then so am I

Thu, 18 May 2006 23:06:02 GMT

So I said that I'd rant about music for a bit in my last post. Luckily for you, I will now do so. As always, I've been listening to some newly discovered music and found some of it to be highly enjoyable.

First, for you Sufjan Stevens fans out there, another artist you might enjoy is Beirut. He's 19 years old and his album "Gulag Orkestar" is wonderful. Despite the fact that this music sounds like it should be coming out of Russia or Eastern Europe, this guy is an Albuquerque native apparently. For those of you who might prefer something non-guitar based, check him out for sure. Gorgeous!

I'm not sure if I mentioned him on here before, but Jens Lekman is also someone you might want to check out if you're into the singer-songwriter type. His almost "You're So Silent Jens" is great. I listened to this more than once while on my trip to Texas. The song "Black Cab" on that album is fucking perfect.

I stopped by Waterloo Records while in Austin - what a fucking awesome record store. They've got everything I might ever want to purchase there (except, for some reason, I was not able to find anything by The Hourly Radio there...even though they are from Dallas...). I got a couple Low albums that I was not able to find anywhere else. I also purchased a couple EPs from the Austin-based band Voxtrot. What a horrible name, but their music is great. Very poppy indie rock stuff - check that out, too.

I picked up an album by The Hidden Cameras there as well - "Missasauga Goddam" - very good as well! I also realized how absolutely great the Scissor Sisters' record is. Almost every song on there is pure pop/dance genius! I've been listening to that one a lot lately.

And to conclude, here is a list of 10 must-hear songs (not including those recently discussed) that have been soaked into my brain lately:

Jens Lekman - "Black Cab"
Metric - "Too Little Too Late"
Scissor Sisters - "Music Is the Victim"
Ladytron - "Sugar"
Tapes 'n Tapes - "Insistor"
Neko Case - "Hold On, Hold On"
Voxtrot - "Rise Up In the Dirt"
Okkervil River - "The Latest Toughs"
New Order - "Turn"
Fischerspooner - "Just Let Go"

We knew all the answers and we shouted them like anthems

Tue, 16 May 2006 21:47:07 GMT

So I am back from Texas and the summer semester has begun. I won't go into too much detail, just because I don't feel like typing all of it. The trip to Texas was great - very relaxing and very warm! Got lots of sun (and not much sunburn). The driving sucked, but what can ya do (besides fly I guess...)? Spent a full day in Austin (that city is so cool...SXSW next Spring!)...spent a half-day in San Antonio (saw the Alamo and the Riverwalk)...and spent the rest of the time in Corpus. I am now pretty tan - which is nice as I won't have much time this summer to work on it anyways.

So the Linear Algebra class has begun. It should be a lot of work. That combined with stuyding for the Qualifier (which I've already begun as well) will take up a lot of time this Summer. Ugh! I did purchase a different Algebra text (Gallian) to read instead of Dummit and Foote. It is a much easier read. The Qualifier study group thing starts this Friday, too. I'm glad I don't start teaching until mid-June.

Well, I have lots of music stuff to talk about, but I'll leave that for another day. Have a good one!