the worst is over, but there's still much more to come.

within the last 72 hours, i have solidified all my material possessions into discrete units, namely [cardboard boxes] [plastic bags] [unbelievably awkward chairs and lamps]; hauled said possessions from old place into new place with a couple pairs of strong-armed companions on the most miserably humid day of the year; and drove to the takes-3-hours-to-get-there IKEA to peruse swedish impulse items and purchase about one month's rent's worth of birch veneered particleboard.

now i'm 99.999% done with transporting everything from A to B, but now i have a roomful of disorganisation in my newly adopted home sweet home. my bare, $50-from-craigslist-posting bed is particularly unhospitable at its current state, covered with everything imaginable starting with the letter m, and i can barely see the floorboards beneath the healthy abundance of crisp corrugation. i can't wait to start building stuff so i can put stuff with stuff and clean up my stuff that's sitting underneath the other stuff. ai ya.

going to IKEA is always an exhilaration and a half, but it's especially surreal when you have a limited but workable budget (i.e. you can choose between buying an insane amount of cheap stuff or purchasing a few higher-quality items), limited schedule (due to poor car-obtaining-planning on my part, we were only there for *three* hours... which becomes even more exciting when you quickly realise it takes half an hour alone to walk from one corner of the building to the other...), and the smell of cinnamon lingering in the air as you peruse the home lighting area one more time "just to browse." i managed to get all the basics, stuff that dorms furnish and of which i have none, plus a fantastically expensive but lovable wardrobe that will compensate for my closet-less room. i proudly resisted all urges to get yet another cute, colorful ice cube tray, and made the mature stand to invest in higher-quality finishes. i learned the difference between birch effect and birch veneer (the former is completely artificial while the latter is laid with actual wood layers).

of course i could have just outfitted my room with $10 random furnishings from moving sales and things, but i suppose i put a premium on my personal environmental aesthetics. plus, i really need more work on integrating different styles that are independently attractive but look strange with undiscretionary combination: monochrome colored geometric, wood geometric, wood traditional, glass and steel, industrial, playful plastic, lush textures, organic silhouettes...

last friday night, before all this madness, niknak and i went to PA's lounge in union square to scope out the scene, featuring performances by keith fullerton whitman (layered noise via knobbox, powerbook, and guitar-esque strummable instrument), colleen (a one-woman orchestra through artful samplings and loopings on cello, guitar, music box, and keyboarded recorder), and a hawk and a hacksaw (inventful and talented rock/polka/gypsy duo, complete with cowbell-round-the-knee and incredible accordion and fiddle playing punctuated by a hearty "heyyyyy!" on occasion). the show was put on by critique of pure reason, a project i later realised is produced by stacie slotnick, fellow media lab and wmbr comrade. yay stacie! it was a great venue, less uppity and pretentious like central square is really coming to be, and hopefully we'll be able to make the future shows up in union square.

i now am sooooo close to the zeitgeist and to ryles! and a much shorter walk to PAs, not to mention a bucketful of homey korean joints and taqueria la mexicana. mmmm.

september outlook: sigur ros at the boston opera house on 9.15, royksopp at paradise rock club on 9.22, and beck at bank of america pavilion on 9.29. the horizon hasn't looked this fantastic since i saw bjork and tori amos within the same week in boston four years ago.