schneeschuhe and freakishly good music

went snowshoeing (sic? hell, i don't even know if that's a real word---but guess what? i don't care either) yesterday. it was pretty awesome, even considering that even though i originally invited 17 people, the only person who actually came with me wasn't on that list; i asked maurice at the last minute. but thomas got seven others to come with us, so it was a nice size group (thomas, david, patricia, walter, joanne, amanda, martin, maurice, and myself).

now for the irony (of course, there's _always_ irony). i've actually been pretty proud of myself that maurice and i have always spoken together in french. the other seven were all swiss germans who are used to speaking with me in english, though. and, naturally, maurice also speaks swiss german. well, so much for my french doing me any good... i tried to turn it into an opportunity to work on my german, but rather than being particularly effective, that mostly just provided entertainment for the rest of them, and frustration for me, not merely due to the fact that when asking 8 swiss germans how to say something, you're guaranteed a minimum of 10 answers (most of which will probably be countradictory), and often you even get a good fight out of it. hahahaha. wow. well, i've got lots more work to do as far as any kind of german is concerned. that's definitely for sure.

we started in st. luc, and went up to the weisshorn, where there was a little restaurant that we had a drink in. then we walked back down the other side. and even though my shoes weren't waterproof, my feet somehow miraculously still managed to stay dry. unfortunately, what they didn't manage to do was to stay free of blisters... ouch. at home when i'm not wearing shoes (my preferred state of being), no problem at all. but putting shoes on to come in to work? wow, it's like i can't walk, because walking will cause my shoes to rub against the raw spots on my heels, and then---the _paaiiin_... i hope they heal soon.

two weekends ago, i went with peter on a whim to see a random british band i had never heard of called "the editors." the warm up act, "gliss," was nothing special, but that might have just been because they predictably fell victim to the "we did the sound check for the headliner" phenomenon, so it was too loud, and not particularly well mixed/balanced. but hot damn, the editors were awesome. i can't stop listening to their album now. it's really quite addictive. almost reminds me of the texture in some of the earlier U2 albums... there's a possibility these guys could end up making it big. who knows? the best part was that this new venue in lausanne actually has decent prices---i bought my ticket in advance for 20 francs! hell, they jacked the prices at the movie theatre again, and now even for a student ticket it's 12 francs (not to mention that you have to buy them in blocks of 5, and they expire every six months if you don't use them fast enough... how ass is that?). anyway, this concert was great.

but even as great as it was, it couldn't compare to the one last weekend, when we went to see "death cab for cutie" in fribourg. fucking fabulous. i used my elbows and got all the way up to where i had my hands on the stage. i guess the sound technician that night was retarded, because all the vocals were coming out the side monitors, whose cone of view was behind me, but i didn't even really care; i know most of the words anyway, and the music was just that good. i was a little surprised, though, that it wasn't more of a team effort. watching them on stage, it's really just "ben gibbard and supporting musicians" rather than an equitable music group, but nobody's perfect, right? i was also reminded of jim's comment about "yo la tengo" when we saw them last summer; it's really refreshing to see people that are successful (even kinda famous in a way, one might say) who aren't exactly "magazine quality," if you know what i mean. they weren't bad looking, but they're just real ordinary looking people, and even towards the short-and-round side of the spectrum as well, which naturally drew my empathy and admiration even more.

still kinda in catch-up mode, i feel like i'm glossing over plenty of details that otherwise would be worth mentioning... sad... regardless, there's no way i can neglect to mention the monstrosity in fri-son's (the venue) bar. i swear to samhain, there was a mirrorball hangin from the ceiling in the shape of a freaking *skull* about 5 feet in diameter. unbelievable.