In an attempt to both avoid my homework and some unpleasant realizations about my current situation I’ve been cleaning my room. This is, you would think, a simple enough task. That would be, however, a wrong assumption because my room contains ten years worth of material possessions. I kind of feel it will take me another ten years just to wade through everything in my room let alone my house. It has, however, provided some interesting reminders of who I used to be. I’ve found a clay jar in the shape of Lord Morpheus from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman that I created in high school; I found purple sunglasses that I thought were awesome when I was thirteen but are actually hideous. Some of this cleaning also includes deleting files off of my computer which has also lead to some interesting discoveries.
For example, here’s a photo from 2004 where I had, as a 16 year old, used MS Paint to show my excitement about being photographed in the audience of a Rocktopus show. I kind of miss the ridiculousness of the band name Rocktopus. It’s more endearing, I think than As Fast As and I’d be more likely to flaunt Rocktopus merchandise than I would Spencer and the School Spirit Mafia merchandise. Ah, well, I can’t complain since Spencer has, in all my interactions with him, been a friendly type of guy and I like his music:
I also discovered a small collection of travel photographs from my time in Australia and Ireland. In the interest of space and since I don’t think anyone else will find these interesting, I’ve just chosen two representative photos. The first is from Australia, when I was 15. Here I am sporting a very fashionable hairnet after my tour of the Cadbury factory. I’m told they don’t do the same type of tour anymore for health inspection reasons (the tour I went on took the group down onto the actual production floor and we got to taste candy as it literally came off the conveyer belt. I’m glad I got to see that before it disappeared):
In Dublin (which was my second time in Dublin but I was three years old during the first trip and don’t really remember it) I have very few pictures of me. It’s mostly touristy things like “oh, look, the Guiness factory. Exciting.” The few pictures I do have of myself in Dublin that trip are from when I met U2 (Oh, Aubin, your young innocence made you so fearless then) and I really don’t want to subject anyone to my “hey, here’s me hugging Adam Clayon because bass layers are sexy” photos so instead I’m opting for the photo of me outside their studio at sunset. I met them about an hour after the picture (once again, I can’t believe I thought nothing of waiting on a dark street with only three other people outside some rockstar’s studio in the middle of a chilly February after a 6 hour flight. I kind of miss that ambition, actually):
Okay, I miss the ambition but not my desire to wear the shirt of a band when I go to meet the band. That’s just creepy.
The best thing of all was finding one of my first solo albums. No one wanted this one, which is funny if you track my musical history in correleation with what name I created the music under. Either way, This was my last album to date produced under my full and real name of Aubin Thomas (although once I’ve made sure the Gin Circus demo is in order I may gather up some solo tracks I’ve been working on and release that somehow). The cover is silly so I won’t subject you to it but I like the ‘Choirgirl Hotel’ vibe of the back cover so here’s a scan of it for your enjoyment. You can also wonder what the songs were like based off their titles:
Out of 13 tracks none of them have made it this far. I’m not sure if I should be comforted because it means I produce more material than I need or sad because I’m wasting songs.
Since I already mentioned it, here’s a shortened version of my musical history in terms of names: 1)Aubin Thomas; 2)Mary Kelley [a weird kind of riot grrrl band I was in for two or three months in 2005 and of which there are, thankfully, no pictures]; 3)Mad Ophelia, the baby version of the things I’m doing now. Mad Ophelia looks like this:
4)Nelly & Sylvia, in which I was Sylvia to Helen Ray’s Nelly. There are certainly pictures of this band since I went all the way to London to take pictures with Helen/Nelly. Had to get my money’s worth with shots like this:
5)Aubin Thomas (technically, I went back to being solo under my own name before Gin Circus existed, which bumps this up to 5). You know what I look like, no picture necessary.
6)Gin Circus. Also known as these people:
And there you have it. The next blog will most likely be on Sunday after the show at Slainte is but an increasingly distant memory. Rehearsal tomorrow (or is it practice? The theater in me says rehearsal, the rock chick in me says practice). Tomorrow promises to be unforgettable, I just hope it’s unforgettable in happy ways this time unlike the past three promisingly unforgettable events that ended in ways that made me kind of wish life had a reset button.
Alright! Enough avoiding. I now return to my homework.
-Aubin
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