Nate Houge

2February2007

things i love

Posted by nate under: fact.

taco del mar – moorhead has one

starbucks – everybody has one – except battle lake

savers – fargo, TC, where else?

country inn and suites – fargo, and most of north america

so yesterday we headed up to the FM area which is our new TC.  we got a great deal via priceline on a country inn and swam late into the night, woke to the best continental breakfast any hotel has ever offered me – save the C’mon Inn, swam some more and took jodi over to the hospital for her prego check up.  All is well in the growing family tree.  for lunch we found a taco del mar – i’m not sure how all over these places are – i went to one 5 years ago in seattle and fell in love so i was super stoked to find one in moorhead.  taco del mar (taco of the sea) specializes in fish tacos – which few places do and that’s a sad thing because a good fish taco is awesome.  I’m guessing that the moorhead tdm is probably their furthest location from el mar, but i’m so glad they took the risk on mid-america’s palletes.  and lookie here – it’s attached to a starbucks! so i can have two delicious fish tacos and chase it with a cup of coffee – all they need is a playground and a grandparent and it’d pretty much be heaven. 

so while jodi was at the doctor lydia and I hit up savers and thank God we did.  We picked up some fine literature, overalls, connect four and 3 great cd’s for 15 bucks.  We went to pick jodi up and show off our finds only to find out she had to come back in 1/2 an hour for one more blood test.  so she dropped us off at another starbucks – one that sadly was not conjoined to a fish taco establishment, and lydia and i read calliou and played connect 4 while drinking fru-fru drinks with whip cream and testosterone reducing italian names.  Jodi picked us up, which was good because lydia really shouldn’t be allowed to spill the same drink more than 3 times, and i was anxious to listen to my new cd’s.

suspect bill – this cd always reminds of my senior year of high school and freshman year of college.  i think ska was really just the rise of the band geeks – similar to how coldplay and 5 for fighting signify the rise of the piano recital geeks

josh rouse – subtitulo – this was the missing rouse in my rouse-ography.  i had heard it was pretty mellow and than heard him do a thing on the current and thought maybe it was time for us to break up.  but when i saw it today for 3 bucks i figured if nothing else it would provide closure.  though i only partly listened to it i am surprised how much more i like than i thought i would – haven’t heard anything hooky or amazing but all in all i think i will enjoy it.  i remember seeing josh open for son volt after nebraska came out.  that was a pretty good night to be at first ave.

semisonic - pleasure e.p. – another great college memory – i was never into trip shakespeare but i remember moving to st. paul and my friend and later roomate adam having this cd and one of my all time favorite songs – sculpture garden.  (yeah, me and every other minneapolis fan i’m sure) it’s such a perfect pop song – easy to digest, great hook, kiss me romantic, geographical reference point, under 3 minutes in length - i love love love it.  If top 40 radio wouldn’t have championed the ‘death-by-closing-time’ campaign i think i would be an even bigger semisonic fan.  as it is i’ll be a dan wilson fan – his stuff with storyhill, mike doughty, the dixie chicks… whats not to like about the guy?  oh, and did i mention he called me at home once?  wrong number, but still, he called me at home, and that’s pretty cool.  I think secretely he wants to be my friend.  Join the club Dan, join the club.

So operation fargo overnight was a success. we’re all exhausted, lydia got her mermaid time in, jodi got her urban time in, and i’m just thankful that my time intersects with their time so much of the time – and of course sometimes it’s me time, and this time that me time is cyber time.  and now folks, it’s closing time,

the pleasure is mine,

n.

31January2007

Could Be Love

Posted by nate under: song.

Well, tomorrow I beging my Album in a Month adventure.  So to get in the mood I recorded this song today while my daughter was at preschool.  It’s pretty rough, but not bad for a couple hours.  I’d like to mess the mix more but I figure since I’ll be doing 10 more songs in the next 28 days I’ll just enjoy this the way it is.  I wrote the words yesterday at Burger King while my kiddo dominated the play area, the melody came last night after supper and the rest happened a few hours ago.  It makes me excited to write more in the next few weeks.

could be love

30January2007

How to make a hit record

Posted by nate under: fact.

Micah and I have been talking about recording a welaware album, so today at the library i found a book called ‘how to make a hit record’ where could i go wrong?  It was written in 1976, so sure it’s a bit dated.  Also, I can’t help thinking, “where in all the liner notes that i’ve read have i seen this book credited?”  But maybe, it’s not the books fault, maybe the author should have read the book ‘how to write a bestselling book about making hit records’ before writing his book.  Anyhow, the first two chapters have been riveting. 

So this evening i thought, How does one prep for making a new album?  as i pondered this i ran across the rpm challenge and i thought, ‘bingo! i’ll make a prepatory album for the welaware debut’  I figure if I’m posting a song a week anyways, why not knock it up to 2 songs a week for the month and call it an album?  My goal is to write it all during february as well, which i might fudge on a bit since i wrote a song at burger king today that i might want to use…  maybe that’ll be a prep single to the prep album.

So do follow along as i plan on posting as much as possible as it happens.

also, i shaved my head yesterday with my daughter’s help, and just now as i was putting her to bed she cuddled up to it and kept rubbing it for good luck.  that was a pretty sweet moments folks, just thought i’d share.  Today was one of those 12 hour parenting days – though Jodi did come home for supper.  I’m exhausted.  good night all.