Jukevox

I’ve been neglecting my Vox account a bit lately, since I redesigned this site here. I just wasn’t sure where another blog fit into my online life, so to speak. but I finally figured it out.

My Vox will now feature a new song each day, and a few words about that song. I’ve been doing it for about a week already, but wanted to see if I would keep it up for that long before I made an announcement about it. I’m trying to focus on some rare stuff, or artists people may not have heard of, but I’ll probably throw in some really familiar stuff along the way. I’m trying to find some sort of interesting tidbits that go a little bit beyond “here’s a good song, listen to it.” So check it out if you’re so inclined.

C’est La Vie

So Paris is off. At least for me, for now. Serene will still be going, and living it up in the City of Light for a week, while I stay home in Seattle.

So what happened?

I sent in a Canadian passport application ages ago, since my old one had expired. Time went by. It got closer and closer to my travel date, and my passport charge had yet to show up on my bank record. So I called the passport agency. I knew they were backed up a few weeks, due to sudden high demand spurred by new US travel regulations, but I was expecting to receive the passport with plenty of time to spare. But when I called them, they were only starting to process applications they had received on January 12th. The 4 week delay they claimed to be experiencing was more like 8 weeks.

I ran over all the possibilities in my head. Luckily, I had a second copy of my birth certificate on hand, and if necessary, I was willing to camp out at the Canadian consulate in Seattle, or make a trek into Vancouver to apply in person. But after calling the consulate, I found out that even their rush service was close to 3 weeks at this point, and the only rushes they were approving were for the death of a family member in a foreign country, or urgent nonrefundable business travel. And they required supporting documentation for either one. The soonest I will see a passport, in any case, is early April. I was supposed to fly on March 20th.

There’s some small silver lining. Not going to France eases up my financial situation, though I had to eat $230 to cancel my flight. But I will get to go to APE in San Francisco in April, and probably take some other trip later on in the year.

Anyways. Paris isn’t going anywhere. I could use the cash I was forfeiting by skipping a week of work, and Serene will be an experienced Parisian navigator when we finally get to go together.

But this still sucks.

Sky Blue Sky

On the offhand chance that someone is reading this site in the next hour or two, Wilco is streaming their upcoming album, Sky Blue Sky until “the wee hours.” You will need Quicktime, and you will need to have “Enable Flash Tracks” set to Yes in your preferences. Enjoy.