lol, limewire

SNL has never been funny, ever. Argue all you want, it's 90% shite. ok, here's 5% funny.

Did you donate to Child's Play yet? If not, DO IT. Those guys do great things and have kept me entertained for more years than I've ever been entertained by anything. --

Probable song cover: Unicorn

Bob Ross, the video game

I feel like sometimes we should ask more scientists what they think of things. Little fucking cuties.

I'm encouraged to listen to my iPod at my new job, which is pretty sweet. Definitely one of a few pretty great perks of working for a Web 2.0 company / company whose well-being rides on portable audio. I have a hard time listening to most music at work lately because it's sort of distracting.. but the new Califone album has been a huge exception. It's the perfect soundtrack for background listening. There are quite a few parts that are so awesome that they do distract me... but that's a good thing, I think. ***

Here's my top whatever of 2006, in no order:

* Beezewax - Who to Salute
* Beezewax - Music to the Life of the Late Olivia Mordecai
* Jon Auer - In The Year of Our Demise
* Maritime - We, the Vehicles
* Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
* Mogwai - Mr. Beast
* Lemonheads - s/t
* Califone - Roots & Crowns
* Tattle Tales - Hearts in Tune
* Islands - Return to the Sea
* Thermals - the Body, the Blood, the Machine
* Steinways - Missed the Boat
* Portastatic - Be Still Please
* AV Club - s/t --

I think there's a few I missed, if I remember 'em I'll update the list.

here are some sky pictures of note, all have been hit liberally with gimp's unsharp mask feature.

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

ayeeeee

find ourselves a new place to haunt.

so three planets were recently visible in the dawn sky. jupiter, mercury and mars. i found that out by stumbling across this site. after reading through most of the archives and clicking around pretty much everywhere i have discovered that i am fully devoted to plasma physics research.

what started it all was a curiosity piqued by this nasty bastard. weatherman turned paranoid by observing unusual variations in what he thought he understood. bitter by the reluctance of anyone else in his field to make a comment. currently sitting on a wealth of information dangerously technical for approachable awareness. and of course his influence has spread.

so through known manipulation of the ionosphere a gaggle of different outlets here on earth are toying with forces until now only ignored. we are indeed entering a new era.

so plasma physics concerns our atmosphere and most of the material sustaining our universe. nothing big. for me, it's largely the effect of the sun on these physices that hold my interest. solar wind caused by coronal ejections send particles careening towards earth at high speeds (millions of miles an hour) only to be deflected by our magnetosphere. this activity is responsible for causing simultaneous and matching auroras at the north and south poles. recently, during a period of solar minimum, we have had a significant amount of activity. specifically sunspot 930. attentive to this hole, spaceweather.com notes

"One week ago today, sunspot 930 unleashed an X9-class solar flare--one of the strongest flares in years...The sunspot's tangled magnetic field still harbors energy for X-flares"

if you click on that link for strongest flares, it will take you to a list of the 20 strongest x-class flares since there has been equipment to measure such a thing ('80?). the one we experienced on the 5th of december is #15. not too shabby. what does this mean? i do not know. it means lucky bastards near the poles get some enjoyment.

edit: i cant give you enough links. an article on this recent flare and a video of japan's hinode.

jumpin at shadows.

how we doing today? i pass VLA's near every day. this one happens to be off of astropix. for the unfamiliar, it is a daily astronomy related picture website. i tend to go as often as i can. oh, a VLA is a very large array. array of satellites. the ones i happen across are in vernon, nj. and their purpose is for all manner of things, i assume. i saw some big fuckers in alaska, when i went. still paying for that. but yeah, this astropix brought something to my attention the other day. yesterday. yesterdays astropix really got my attention. it was a vid of the surface of the sun taken by the japanese hinode satellite. im pretty much in love with soho, its in my bookmarks under blogs. but soho is aging, and nasa runs all sorts of blurs over the photos, because there is something they either dont want you to see, or they are being selfish with the higher resolution photos. either way, what you see on that site, and what the equipment is capable of, is a very large rift (capable and current). i wish i knew why. but you see this hinode business. when they posted this i wish they had a channel on tv i could just tune into. oh, you can find that video here, by the way.

im getting really into the sun. i get up early to see it come up on the horizon. i study what the changing light conditions do to the appearance of the clouds. i buy these powerful magnets and run hypotheticals and conditions on them. to me it does not get much better. magnets people, magnets. magnetosphere? i really dont know. but i have this video i borrowed from derek called solar max. what a ride this sucker is.

speaking of rides, or lack there of, i got to retry the fountain experience. to me, this is an enjoyable film, if only slightly. i just cant help but feeling there could be more. the story could have moved in a direction it did not. i left feeling just a little cheated, or something. maybe this is how i feel, maybe i feel that im on the level with the content here; to me, it is approachable. therefore there are things id like to think i know which are rich in lore and legend to take and pull this sucker up and over the top. there was too much cheese. these days a movie has to have some sort of romantic plot line. basically it has to have a plot line. maybe i felt a documentary would have suited this topic a little better?

its hard to grasp what im feeling. which is the reason i traded away two of the superstar names i was so in love with on my fantasy hockey team. todd bertuzzi and peter forsberg now belong to de best. i set up a condition i thought was fair and probably ended up ripping myself off. gotta look forward tho. and yall really dont care. do you care that every time a dry leaf blows in front of my car i think its a critter which results in me swerving all over the road and an elevated heart rate? it has happened so many times youd think id be over it. its happened repeated seasons. yet no matter what i take the bait and bite. speaking of sympathy for critters, i lost isaac yesterday. its kinda sad. i liked that bird. maybe ill catch up with you later, isaac.

so yeah, if youre looking for something new to listen to try out the gotan project, i got lunatico and i really like it.

This post-Q And Not U project seems intriguing. A little bit like the old Q, but with more palatable (male/female) vocals and a bit of 50s pop charm. Now that I'm on this post-Q kick I'm realizing that I never really gave Ris Paul Ric a chance. The two songs he has up on his myspace are pretty good...

Marissa and I almost went to see The Fountain on Friday. Well, it was slightly less than almost. Faced with a Friday night with nothing to do for the first time in what feels like (and probably was) months, we decided to use it to do just about nothing. Well, except for dinner and a movie... but, compared to the other stuff we've been doing lately it certainly seemed relaxing and nothing-like. Unfortunately our plan was ill-fated. I left my office (Wayne) at 7 o'clock to pick Marissa up (Jersey City) so that we could go to dinner (Montclair, about 3 miles from my starting point) and finally to the movies (Wayne, about 10 paces from my starting point). Although it was a sort of circular plan, the timing seemed reasonable. However, I've never once driven to Montclair coming from the east, and botched up what I remembered being a decent way to go. We didn't get our dinner on until 9:30, so we had to skip the movie. Fortunately it was a nice enough experience to make up for the fact that I'd blown our non-plans for the evening.

The few times we've had Italian food since visiting Italy, I've tried my best to recreate an order that similar to what we had over there.. but it's been tough. I think Friday night's was the best attempt yet, though. I'd forgotten the name over the weekend, but the internet helped me remember that it was called Palazzo. Pretty sure it was the best wine I'd ever tasted. ***

I remain mentally obsessed with Final Fantasy 12 but also without enough time to play it. Having Final Fantasy 3 DS in my pocket is nice... but doesn't quite satisfy the hunger that I have. I'm 15 hours in and feel like I just barely started. These games certainly have a way of skewing what I envision as normal gaming... or well, normal living in general. ***

There's a new band. Pretty sure it's way better than the old band. But of the 5 people that read this, two of them besides me are in it... so not much to talk about there. ***

I'd like to have some of that wine about now. --

Football is a 'Gentlemans'' game, played by 'thugs', Rugby is a 'thugs'' game, played by 'Gentlemen'

mornin' everybody.

not really organized today. just eager to bump chris's posts further down the page. woo, mystery job.

seriously though chris, i wish you the best of luck and i hope you're very happy, sincerely. how bout that word, sincere. cant be too careful with that one.

ah but time lurches forward. amazing, cause i feel like i am the force pressing back against it. well, life is, not me specifically. culture and counterculture.

salman rushdie, shalimar the clown. this is a book im reading. its choc full of indian lore (dot not feather). im starting to notice that rushdie enjoys creating very explicit sexual scenes in his novels. i dont know how i feel about that but it does something weird to my body. my hormonal makeup. he also is very adept at playing with indian and english words. hidden meanings and striations. i dont know what else to say. all his books have a sense of the fantastic and a courtesy to the spirit. it takes my mind off matters which wrestle to bring me down.

i went and saw the fountain the other day. before i went i got loaded on mad elf and alprazolam. senses blunted, i stumbled into the theater. not hard to imagine i dont recall a single thing. kristen, whom i saw it with, was eager to discuss it prior. how embarrassing when i had to fake like i was cogent. isnt it about time we dropped that second R from embarrassing. id like to see it again. its a movie finally worth my time. no?

what else have i been up to? im trying to make it a habit to consume grapefruit on the regular. something hunter thompson did every morning. well, his morning was around noon sometime. i remember reading somewhere his philosophy on eating. breakfast is a huge meal with a pot of dark coffee and at least two grapefruits. also drugs. he conceded that the huge breakfast, coffee and grapefruit thing came from mahamud ali. i tend to think about hunter often. specifically being trapped in ones body, it rebelling against life. i get flashes of that feeling. sends me into a meditation on purpose and intent. then ideas of sacrifice and all these "holy" sayings and church thoughts step up and demand attention. if i had to i would.

the other day the phrase, time heals all wounds, up and lumbered into my sphere. im wont to sharing company with such forces, so we played. now its easy to see how this applies, very subtly, to things right in your face. but this word time. that there is expanse. and some wounds are very large. expanse. vast.

there is a larger picture here.

I know, I know. You don't read Pitchfork. And you totally got over the Decembrists.. like.. three records ago. But the Colber / Decemberists Green Screen Battle is kinda sweet, I think. **

Added to the iPod for Friday listening:

* I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
* McLusky - McLusky Do Dallas
* Califone - Roots & Crowns
* Yesterday's Opie & Anthony show

**

Today at 7pm I looked up at the clock and realized I was still at work. I like liking my job. Still haven't gotten that elusive much-smaller-than-at-my-old-job paycheck I've been waiting for. But shit, I know I made the right choice. It feels nice. --

I've never played Guitar Hero before... but I do love Penny Arcade, Barcade, and have donated to Child's Play every year for the last three.. so I figure going to this is sort of a no brainer. Anyone care to join me?

Skateboarding girls.

Hollywood strikes again, the Zodiac trailer. Boo.

I'm not going to click, but Courtney Love got naked, click. (I clicked.)

David Cross and Johnny Marr opening for Modest Mouse in NYC, doing their version of U2's '"One".

well im as sober as ill ever be right now. so it is probably a good time to pretend to be lucid.

funny haha and peculiar. well the holiday season looms on the horizon like a dormant plague, ready to spread. soon the air will be rotten sweet with turkey carcass and cordoned douglas and frasier firs. today has been interesting to say the least. a school bus in alabama rolls off an overpass, kramer gets racist, the japanese fight for their right to kill dolphins and 3 tons of cocaine are seized in a homemade submarine headed for the us. luba?

its getting harder to pretend i dont care. its getting to the point where i feel like liberties are being taken which interfere with my right to life. one thing you can do about it is embed yourself deeper in the thick of it, this way when you look around, this is all you see. and thats it, thats your world. stop complaining.

who will be the first to claim their love of beauty has them in a prison? flickr recently implemented some option to assign gps coordinates to the pictures you take. im intrigued, but i also look forward to a camera that sloshes that shit into the exif data. labeling by hand is, you know, time consuming. thats not to say i didnt make it through 1/16th of my pics.

i know everyone is eager for me to do a hockey update. and speaking of eager how about philadelphia. its what everyone wished but now regrets. well i regret it. i like philly as a team, they are good for the league. the hockey press is making all sorts of excuses, not outfitted for new nhl, no top goaltender. its like why soccer isnt popular in the US but is called the world game. its right there, beating you in the head. but saturday and sunday ill make my body a sacrifice for everything america by offering my eyes to the nfl for roughly 36 hours. the only gay sport left.

but yeah, i happen to have todd bertuzzi on my fantasy hockey team. he plays for florida. i regularly purchase the hockey news to get updates from the league; the league is struggling, attendance is down, nj devils had lowest attendance since `91 last week against OTTAWA. apparently if you go to a bar in florida close to the arena where the panthers play, you can get four tickets, for free. i digress. this guy in my fantasy hockey league keeps making passes at bertuzzi. offering me glen murray from boston and when i declined that keith tkachuk from st louis. listen up buddy, the only guy on your squad worth bertuzzi... i dont know, while trading him would make sense, im not in the league to win. im attracted to the names i have. im not trading bertuzzi.

fuck it. its getting cold and the air grows still. today is the kind of day you look up and perceive the clouds are not moving. and they are more misty than cloudy. and the atmosphere looks charged with all manner of magnetic energy... and spirit goblins. but halloweens over and we still have candy left. so when is this carousel gonna stop cause im dizzy and have a headache.

ah but sometimes that dizziness and light headedness bears a message. ive been trying this out recently. getting up quickly after lying down, fasting for extended periods of time. its like a crystal blue clearing. maenads arms spread offering solace. its like i was saying, it will imprison you. make you seek the inverse, bandy it about in nice clothes, make you desire it. then in the end its all smoke and mirrors. and you were in fact unconscious, unmoving, unmoved.

The rights for (Dr.) Frank Portman's King Dork have been acquired by Will Ferrel's newly formed production company. The good Dr. makes the announcement on his blog and there's some chatter about it on the pop punk bored, of course.
**

I received this in the mail today, from one of Amazon's "Buy Used & New" vendors, and it is very, very excellent. Definitely the best record they've done. **

Final Fantasy III for the DS is staring at me, unplayed as of yet.. and well, that's just a shame. Time to get on that. --

The Cocaine Cowboys trailer. The real stories that inspired Miami-Vice and Scarface.

Good flickrer, E-Liz

Another Jack White side project, alumiiinium, is set to release a limited run of 3,333 individually numbered cd's and 999 numbered LP's. Interesting to say the least, he goes orchestral this time around.

Make cool shit over at instructables.

Hey, at least your aren't this lil' guy.

nice threads

Between the years of 1976-1984 the radio waves were dominated by really smooth music, also known as 'YACHT ROCK!' Although unknown to most people , each song had a story!

How did he not become the most popular man on the planet back when this happened? Jon Mayer sums up my feelings exactly.

Shitty new Modest Mouse songs here.

I've been a bad blogger. But I've spent a bunch of my free time at work emailing the majority of the people that read this sucker anyway. Here's a bulleted summary of everything just in case that doesn't include you:

* I quit my job.
* I start a new job on November 15th.
* I plan on doing a lot of sitting on my ass with the days off I have because of the job change. I will play lots of Final Fantasy 12, probably drink a lot of hot chocolate, and hopefully see some Birdsting recording and get to touch boys inappropriately while playing football with them.
* I started getting the wheels in motion to getting my MBA. I've always planned on doing it.. and I think it's finally time, come hell or high water.
* There is new musicks being played. I'm pretty sure I like it a lot more than the old musicks.
* Bitch, where'd the motherfuckin' cheese go at?

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Steve-O stopped by the Tom Green Show recently for some Whip-its and booze. His other recent guests look pretty good too. In the age of satellite radio subscriptions, and $150 cable bills, it's nice to see a guy set-up a TV studio in his house and give it to us for free. Thanks Tom.

Keeping with crazed TV appearances, Crispin Glover on Letterman, circa 1987.

There's a new Beatles album out this month that I don't quite understand.

Bill Murray still keeps being an awesome guy.

Basically this:



With a little of this:


I also got a new job and quit my current one. That's pretty cool. More on that next week.

Friday night:


Saturday afternoon:


Saturday night:


Sunday:


Jetsons:

In line with my current mini obsession of the moment... apparently a company other than Sierra (no affiliation with Roberta Williams either) began creating a game called King's Quest 9. Vivendi eventually asked them to stop, but they were allowed to continue making the game as long as they changed the name. I haven't downloaded the demo.. and the screenshots look a lot less inspiring than the Al Emmo shots do, but this is probably worth checking out: The Silver Lining.

Screenshot:


---
3:58pm update: Apparently there is a Space Quest 7 fan game being created, as well as a new Quest for Glory game in the wotks, too! Holy shit!

I didn't get a chance to play Al Emmo last night, but I did pick up the King's Quest collection after searching four stores for it. The place I eventually bought it didn't even have it out on the shelf.. it was in the back room. Sad. Those games are too good to be left in the stock room!

I installed and messed around with a few of 'em and was instantly taken back to being 12 years old. Amazing. **

Hot Cops are paying at the Loop Lounge with Birsting and Arcade Academy this Friday night. I haven't been this excited for a show in awhile. Should be a good one. **

With a 16.5 point spread this week I'm taking the 49ers over the Bears. Also, Denver beats the Colts straight up, and with the 2.5 point spread. --

I first read about Al Emmo and The Lost Dutchman's Mine over three years ago. I'd stumbled upon a website for a "company" called Tierra Games (now called AGD Interactive) that had faithfully recreated the old Sierra Adventure games King's Quest 1 and 2 to work with Windows XP and released 'em for free. I grew up on all of those old Sierra games, and immediately downloaded both of them. I plowed through the first one with Marissa in two days and got most of the way through the second one shortly thereafter. For whatever reason, those few days are some of the most memorable of my senior year in college. Upon reading more about the people that developed the remakes, I found out that they had started a commercial software company called Himalaya Studios that would be making original games in the all but dead and gone point-and-click adventure game genre. I kept up with the development of Al Emmo for a bit, but eventually forgot about it as development dragged on and on and on. A recent message board thread, however, sparked my interest in the game once again... and I was happy to find out that it's finally out! I downloaded the demo before bed last night and am pretty excited to get started on it. I've got an extremely busy schedule for the next few days, but I'm hoping to get through it at some point soon. As always, I'll be sure to blab about it here.

If adventure games were ever your thing.. or if you think that they sound cool, here are a few other links that might get you excited:

* Adventure Game Studios - Homepage for the AGS development program, which allows you to make your own adventure games. There are some homemade downloadable games on the site, too... which I'm psyched to try out. I hear Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator is pretty great.

* Space Quest Compilation - Looks like Sierra finally decided to re-release these games with Windows XP compatability! Woo hoo!

* King's Quest compilation - In my opinion, the best of all the "Quest" games. Also compatible with Windows XP for the first time.

Just looking at screenshots like this from KQ gives me goosebumps and reminds me of how much I enjoyed sitting in front of my computer alone or with friends trying to plug through these games:



I'm definitely picking up the King's Quest collection today! ---

As promised, here's my 90s emo You Send It Mix:

01 - The Jazz June - Day 7
02 - The Appleseed Cast - Fishing In The Sky
03 - The Promise Ring - E. Texas Ave.
04 - Lync - Cue Cards
05 - Knapsack - Simple Favor
06 - Empire State Games - Falling Forward
07 - Braid - Never Will Come For Us
08 - Cap 'N Jazz - In The Clear
09 - The Get Up Kids - Off The Wagon
10 - Cursive - When Summer's Over Will We Dream of Spring
11 - Mineral - Forlvadell
12 - Texas Is The Reason - Back And To The Left
13 - Sunday's Best - When is Pearl Harbor Day
14 - Starmarket - Fool
15 - Christie Front Drive - Seven Day Candle
16 - Piebald - One Hundred Percent Good
17 - God's Reflex - That They Should Never Weep

The link is here:
http://download.yousendit.com/5F0624F00F9FC10F

You have to sign up for Yousendit to download it.. but it only takes a few seconds and is definitely worth it to have yousendit access. Love that site.

In keeping up with my recent hobby of documenting bands that I see with shaky video, I give you the following video of Maritime from the Mercury Lounge last Saturday night. The song is Tearing Up The Oxygen, from We, The Vehicles which as of right now is my record numero uno for the good year 2006:




The show was pretty great. The band looked thrilled to be playing, they played only three songs from the slow and sorta boring first record, and the new songs they played were phenomenal. Davey stumbled upon something great with We, The Vehicles and I'm pretty sure that the third record is going to fucking slay, too. I can't wait. Marissa enjoyed it, too.. although we both felt that the crowd was a bit too much of the jaded-everything-bores-me-except-for-bands-that-suck-but-sorta-sound-like-Arcade-Fire assortment. None of that mattered once the tunes started, though. Good times. ***

It's only Tuesday but it feels like I've already gone through five full work days. The boredom that I experience here at work lately is redefining the term. My job was never too tough, but after doing it for two years I can practically do it with my eyes closed, in 45 minutes. The rest of my 9 hours or so are spent here trying to ignore the idiotic conversation bouncing back and forth amongst the drones and trying to find cool websites that aren't blocked by my IT Department. It's not a very satisfying way to spend my days / the majority of what is my non-sleeping life. I'm hoping for a lil' good news that would change all of this in the next day or so. Don't wanna jinx it or talk to much about it, though. More later in the week. ***

I totally fucking dig the fall. Tonight I'm going to put together a 90s emo yousendit MP3 mix for all of you to use as the soundtrack for your leaf piling, scarf wearing days ahead. I'll post the link and tracklist when it's done. --

well well well, how we do.

another glorious week. cant you just feel it in the air.

ive had this concept of an "assertive hand", something i wanted to elaborate on. ah, in reference to my experience of things. for example, if i were to go see a movie or something and talk about it, id want to avoid direct statements. ie, the movie is bad. it would be more of, in my opinion, the movie is bad. or, fall is the time of year when everything is crisp and people are more manageable with the smell of agoro-death in the air. it should be prefaced with, in my experience, as to avoid someone thinking im taking an assertive hand in describing the environment. as if i am an authority.

today on howard stern elegant elliot had a meltdown. it was fucking unbelievable. he claims he is suing. claims he is entitled to a commercial before he makes his football pick. howard is claiming that his commercials go on way too long, people are bored of it, and they must be shortened. no agreement was reached as of yet.

i saw the movie perfect stranger last nite, halle berry, bruce willis. it was a pre screening as the movie is not done. work in progress. i drank some booze, ate some nubbins, saw george's (clothed) unit, colored with crayons, made outlandish remarks, stared at some girl courtney's ass and gave my opinion on the movie. i think it is pretty good. one of the murder weapons in the movie is belladonna, which i have a happy relationship with. thanks to krista for bringing that experience to my door. the last time i was at a screening was with that movie mars or something. last time i was at the movies? couldnt tell ya.

no appetite this morning. buttered roll kinda day. goin to see the devils tonite. they play nashville who beat the rangers last nite. nashville. ha. my fantasy team is kicking ass. martin havlat is leading the league in chicago. hes unstoppable, a fucking monster. the next player doing as good is shanahan on the rangers. tender of the year? vokoun? manny? manny is 6-0 folks. if you ask me, picking him up was just as good as grabbing havlat.

if you have spare time, and youre halfway into hockey, you should click these links.

Been a little too busy to blog. While typing that out I thought "Been a little too bloggy to biz." This makes no sense, clearly, but I kinda like it better.

I don't even remember where I left off, so I'll just start with recent goings on. Last Fri./Sat Jimmy and I (99% Jimmy) recorded some songs with Grath Steinway and Mike Erg. By "recorded" I mean drank about 30 beers, ate some junk food, and went record shopping, of course. The recordings are for the Hot Cops/Steinways/Tattle Tales/Mike Erg four band 7" that upon formulating 5 months ago figured would've been almost out by now... However, as it currently stands only one band has a finished batch of recordings, one band hasn't even begun recording, and the two others are sort in between. If I had to give an estimated release date I'd guess about Feb. or March of 2007 right now. Kinda depressing, but I'm still hopeful that it'll be as great as it seems like it could be.

Sunday Marissa, Kelly Lynn, and I drove down to Edison, NJ to join a bunch of pop punk kiddos to see Mazeffect, The O>Matics (who Riss and I missed on our lunch run), The Groucho Marxists, For Science, The Steinways, The Ergs, and one other band whose name I can't remember at the Edison, NJ Skatefest. It was a great fall-chilly day to spend outside bopping around to some tunes. Marxists were loud, For Science was drunk and broke shit, The Steinways were hilarious, and The Ergs were The Ergs, only The Ergs playing mostly songs from the new record, which I was psyched to hear. My ears were still ringing last night when I hopped into bed, which is a pretty good indication of the show's rockingness.

I've got a fair share of photos from the weekend on my flickr account as well as a bunch of movies that I'm going to upload to Youtube once they approve my "Director" account. I kinda fudged the truth as to why I deserve such an account, but I'm hoping that they don't notice. **

I've been reading this for the last few days and am enjoying it quite a bit. Enough so that I can envision a long period of me reading a slew of Dick and Pynchon-like books for the next few months. Combine that reading material with a little bit of Final Fantasy 12 and Final Fantasy 3 dropping soon and it looks like I'm ready to revert back into my 18 year old self. I suppose that would be swell, as long as I don't start listening to Radiohead again. That would be most unfortunate. --

Best one yet.

Don't Be Evil. I'm not a Gates hating Microsoft loather, but I very much support that link and things like it. --

Pyongyang is probably the greatest city name of all time. It's with great pleasure that I hear it on the news as often as I do these days. **

Last weekend was pretty much exactly as expected. Lots of indoor/outdoor relaxation up at Marissa's folks' house. Watched some pathetic baseball and some ok football on the TV. Watched her sister rip up the field hockey, umm, field on two occasions. Good times had for sure. Everytime I go up there I'm still struck with the "whoa, your girlfriend grew up on a farm" realization. And it's never not cool. **

Today is Final Fantasy XII Day in Times Square. I walked by this morning and they were handing out posters and stuff, but I was sorta late for work and wasn't able to check it out. Around 11 I had a few spare minutes so I high-tailed it down there. All of the posters were gone but there was no shortage of silly people dressed up as FF characters. I'm glad I went down, but it wasn't half as exciting as I'd hoped it would be. I am, however, very excited about the game. I paid an extra $10 to get the special edition and am damn sure that I'll be more excited about its release on 10/31 than I am about costumes or candy. --

mornin everybody.

north korea?

mas

two pages of great pics...

found on the streets of israel

colts giving ten?

Keeping up with the recent trend of letting other people blog about things I should be blogging about, I give you this, at which I was in attendance. I agree with Jim, it was 100% excellent. The last week has been an excellent one for rock-n-roll... and well, just fun in general, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't exhausted. Have a lazy New England long weekend ahead of me to celebrate Marissa's birthday / Columbus Day and I'm pretty excited about it. Playoff baseball, Sunday football, orange leaves, and DVD boxsets. Can't think of much else that I'd rather have as tools for relaxation. **

I'm not going to make football picks this week because no one seems into it. So let the record show that I am the winner of in.circles football pick 'em 2k6. Word. --

...sadly, I've never seen or even heard of this movie. What a fucking gem this must be. God.


M. Ward was on The Late Show with not Craig Kilborn. Cool song, even though I never have the desire to listen to this guy, he's pretty good. Stumbled upon the Merge Records blog. Not a huge fan of all their bands, but I imagine if I was, I'd be cool to check out on a regular basis. Also found The Clientèle blog.

I know he was ruthless and egotistical when he had his wits about him, but can we please cut cut this shit out already? He's senile, barely knows what he's talking about, and cruising him after games for quotes is terrible. Stop pls/thx. --

did i post this already?

Here's the Lemonheads review I wrote for Jersey Beat:

THE LEMONHEADS – The Lemonheads (www.vagrant.com)

If 2003's Baby I'm Bored was Evan Dando lazily waking up after a decade of drug induced sleep, The Lemonheads (s/t) is his first bright idea of the day, fueled by the buzz of his morning's first cup of coffee. Nearly ten years after the last time The Lemonheads name was slapped on a full length album, Dando has brought along punk rock veterans Bill Stephenson and Stephen Egerton (Descendents, All) for a 30 minute trip through a faster and glossier version of the types of songs that The Lemonheads have been known for since 1992's classic It's A Shame About Ray. While no single track on The Lemonheads measures up to even the weakest tracks on Ray, a few come close and are a welcome breath of fresh air alongside the pretentious rock environment of the mid-00s. Choice tracks "No Backbone" (featuring J Mascis' guitar noodling), "Let's Just Laugh", "Pittsburgh", and the Stephenson penned "Become The Enemy" are some of the most solid Lemonheads songs since Ray, showcasing Dando's signature vocal delivery (which remains 100% intact, I'm happy to report) and catchy folk chording with just enough fuzz to make it rock. While I don't think The Lemonheads packs enough punch to intrigue the legions of fellow Vagrant Records' bands' fans, it certainly presents a reignited Evan Dando, who seems as happy as ever to be alive and rocking - and I think those who still care enough to remember his name should be just as happy to have him back. **

Here's a lil' snapshot of the records I've picked up in the last week:



I like new music in the fall. **

And here's an insane video of a way fucked up Evan Dando answering fan mail and babbling about all kinds of weird shit on European television:



---

read these:

one

two

hey.

light the candle at both ends, am i right?

i am pretty upset that i have not seen hot cops. i think i have seen them, just not as much as i would like to. i dont even have the record, nor the cd, nor any songs in mp3 format. one part of that statement is a lie.

i am upset though. i really appreciate creative effort and when i cant manifest that appreciation as a form of support to the ones creating, it brings me down. not to mention that the two other people who grease the cogs of this lumbering jabberwocky are people i rarely see anymore. i tend to think im not making the effort. things can happen.

its just a mood. but i would not want to be in a situation saying, "i should have..." or, "if i only..." because that right there is regret.

the touchpad on my laptop decided to stop working. this ever happen to anyone? why do you judge me? human, flesh and blood. cast the first stone. casting call. wearing a cast. cast the line into the lake. upper caste? one tends to think, given circumstances. carries out ideas and scenarios. what ifs... get the hell outta dodge.

i had a dream the other nite that i was being chased by black bears. i woke up and noticed i left scissors on the couch. my mom taught me never to do that. you can run with scissors (i dont think anyone can sustain an injury there) just dont leave em open on the couch or bed. it wasnt scissors. it was the knife part of a corkscrew. nearly forgot.

there is a place that makes thai food, river kwai, right here in wayne. they have good food and great desserts. i had the fried bananas and vanilla ice cream, stupendous. ive also had their fresh mango and sticky rice. food.

well my candle burns like shit. in the instructions it says not to blow it out because it will effect the burning. well its not burning very straight and i havent been blowing it out. im left with a beeswax glob and a shitty half wick. im just really fucking bitter right now.

Football results, week 4: Christoper 1 point. Nobody else, 0 points. Go me! --

Jim Testa wrote a great wrap-up of Saturday's Carlapalooza festival. All told, the event was a huge, huge success and I haven't talked to a single person that had a bad time yet.

Since the event was at my grandfather's legion hall and I had done some of the work for setting it up, I started off the day in worried mode. The wonderful Chadd Derkins had put a lot of time and heart into putting the show together, and I didn't want anything related to the hall messing up his plans. The following events didn't do much for setting what I thought could end up being a horrible precedent: Jimmy and I stayed up passed 4am on Friday night with Dead Mechanical drinking Bud and Whiskey and playing ping-pong, Street Fighter II, and Virtua Tennis. I woke up far too late and took a really long time getting out of the house. I was supposed to pick up Marissa before-hand, but was running so late that I had to head to the hall first to make sure that Chadd and Chris Pearce were able to get in to start setting up. When I got to the hall, the guy that was supposed to prep the hall for us had gone missing and there was still gym class/dance equipment all over the room. After quickly disassembling that crap and throwing it in a closet I headed back into the car to finally get Marissa, and got stuck in Route 1 and 9 traffic due to a car that had decided to drive itself into a wall. On the way back into Secaucus from Jersey City, a whiskey hangover induced coughing fit almost caused me to lose my breakfast while sitting in even more Route 1 and 9 traffic going the other way. When we finally got to the hall proper and saw people trickling in I began calming down, although by the time Hot Cops played my head and stomach were still stuck on spin cycle. Jeff and Jimmy were flawless, but I messed up a few parts and forgot a few words that the night before at practice I'd nailed perfectly. I think I did a better job at covering up than usual, though, and everyone was complimentary of the set. Testa's link above pretty much tells the rest of the story, so I'll stop here. But I will say that I am very happy to have been a part of the day and feel sorry for anyone that wasn't able to be there. Great bands, great people, a great cause (they raised over $1300!), cheap beer, and just a whole, whole lot of fun. Smiles all around. --

My picks:

Eagles over Packers
Colts over Jets
Bengals over Patriots
Falcons over Cardinals
Browns over Raiders

All favorites. Kinda boring. But I figured for the first week it'd be a good way to go. I'll throw in some underdogs next week.

From the conversation in the comments box from a few days ago regarding football picks and Jimmy and I's conversation while playing Virtua Tennis last night, here are the rules for our weekly football picks: Pick five games each week, straight up, no spread. Picks are due Saturday by noon. Winner gets.. umm.. gets, I dunno. We can figure that out next week or something. I'll probably start making picks on every game with the spread here just for fun, too. If anyone else wants to play just make your picks in the comment section. I'll keep record of wins/losses.

Here are the matchups for week 4, home team listed second. I've included the most recent spreads for reference.. but our picks are straight up.
--

Arizona
Atlanta (-7.5)
--
San Diego
Baltimore (+2.0)
--
Minnesota
Buffalo (-1.0)
--
New Orleans
Carolina (-7.5)
--
Miami
Houston (+4.0)
--
San Francisco
Kansas City (-7.0)
--
Indianapolis
N.Y. Jets (+9.0)
--
Dallas
Tennessee (+10.0)
--
Detroit
St. Louis (-6.0)
--
New England
Cincinnati (-6.0)
--
Cleveland
Oakland (+3.0)
--
Jacksonville
Washington (+2.5)
--
Seattle
Chicago (-3.5)
--
Green Bay
Philadelphia (-11)

does anyone have my andy kaufman poetry book?

The Zombies, and Kirsten Dunst.

Little Stevens Underground Garage tour looks good again this yea, but either I missed the NY area date, or there wasn't one.

I could have used Tour filter. You add what bands you want to see, where you are, and they email when they come to town. No ads, No spam.

I've been told I watch too much TV, so I won't catch this one, but here's a peek at the new show from David Cross and Jon Benjamin(Dr. Katz/Home Movies).

One show I probably will catch is Dexter. Here's the first episode which will air on Sunday. Password is "Sneak Peek".

Here's a sort of lousy video that I took of Evan Dando at the Apple Store in Soho on Tuesday, 9/26:



And here's a picture of Evan and I from after the performance, courtesy of Kelly Lynn:



More on the night later.

All of my co-worker's were mysteriously away from their desks a few minutes ago... so instead of considering that they may be plotting my firing and/or murder, I decided to give myself 10 minutes to write out my favorite 25 records off the top of my head. Here's what I came up with, in no particular order (it ended up taking me 12 minutes because I accidentally wrote out 29 and had to remove four):

Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Plow United - s/t
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Screeching Weasel - Anthem for a New Tomorrow
Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Beezewax - South of Boredom
Superdrag - In The Valley of Dying Stars
Braid - Frame & Canvas
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
Superchunk - Here's to Shutting Up
Frodus - And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea
Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2
Q And Not U - No Kill No Beep Beep
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Thermals - More Parts per Million
Les Savy Fav - Go Forth
Mogwai - Rock Action
Wrens - The Meadowlands
Sicko - Chef Boy R U Dum
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Starmarket - Sunday's Worst Enemy
Fig Dish - When Shove Goes Back to Push --

I was going to write a weekend rundown type post, but Marissa beat me to it. Substitute her Friday night for Hot Cops practice for me, a quick lesson in cannabalism courtesy of educational television, Jimmy recording Jeff's Dear Electric vocals while I tried to pick-up my untouched for over a year Half Life 2 game and note that the hour that I was sitting next to her without her realizing what I was doing consisted of me playing with Fantasy Football lineups on her G4 laptop and watching the Jets take care of the Bills. All told it was a great weekend. Whether inside or outside, being lazy or active - fall is always, always awesome. **

In five days the Hot Cops will be playing their first show in over three months. We're pretty rusty with the old songs which we're quite sick of and/or don't really think are that good and don't have any new ones... but I'm still extremely excited for the all day Carlapalooza festival in Secaucus. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the link for the details. In sum, $10 (all for charity), cheap beer and food, and some of the absolute best bands around featuring some of my favorite "musicians" in the world. Hot Cops are on at 1pm on the dot. Doors are at 12:30. Come early and get a nice buzz on with us. You know, for charity. **

I'm writing the Jersey Beat review for the new Lemonheads album this week. It's been a long time since I've written a real record review and I'm pretty excited to get to it. If Mr. Testa says it's cool, I'll post it here before it runs in The Beat. --

powerful souls reborn

hey guys.

exhaust is a funny word, aint it.

today on the howard stern show one of the guests were girls from bum luck . com. this website has videos of girls that give lapdances to bums. they then sell the videos on the internet. im not sure.

so stern has three homeless dudes in the studio. in order to win the lap dance they have to be the most "hard up." one by one stern gets their stories and everyone votes. one of the gentleman was coping with heroin addiction. artie, stern show sidekick took jackie's job has movie beerleague, felt bad for the kid and mentioned he had some pills for beating the horse. this led to a discussion regarding artie and why he had such pills. turns out last year when he took off work for a week he was layed up beating the withdrawal from heroin. being a follower of the show this was quite a shock. i like artie. the whole scene was very sad. they actually went off air cause talking about it bothered artie so much. it was a very powerful moment.

ice cream and unicorns, lolli pops and black men with hot dogs, huzza! why do they say hooo-AH in the army?

hockey season has somewhat started. imri wants to go to a game a month. anyone want to match him on that? pick a team. here, this weekend ill take the titans and seven, ravens and eleven, broncos and eight, cards with however many points theyre offering out there. maybe ill get naked and tease the cats. it confuses them when you dont wear clothes.

A cross eyed me gets giddy like a schoolgirl over getting an early copy of the new Lemonheads album:

Neurons in mouse brains look a heck of a lot like the universe, apparently.

the year of cam janssen

As promised in my blog yesterday, here's one of my old songs that no one's ever heard before. Just the instrumental, though, I didn't have the guts to upload one of ones with vocals:

Amazing Digrace - Untitled 1 (instrumental)

My apologies for the sound coming in and out.. I have no idea why that's happpening. More apologies for the fact that it's pretty horrible.

I should really be sleeping. --

"-- A new survey shows which office-based jobs host the most bacteria.

Here is the list, going from careers with the most to least germs on workspace surfaces:

Teacher
Accountant
Banker .... "

Hey hey ho ho. Been awhile since I posted anything that wasn't product pushin' or simply just a link to something else. Too much doing and not enough sitting and writing about it - probably for the better, though. Lots of miles on the car, pages of zombie books read, Mario beating, Daxter starting, baseball watching, football watching, job searchin', lots of drinking with lots of people I don't see very often, people getting married, etc. etc. Craziness. Very little relaxing and very little free time for what seems like the last few months, but surprisingly - I feel great. Been sleeping more regularly. Feeling the need to nap less. Maybe it's the fall, which for reasons that make no sense, always puts a spring in my step. **

Sunday I stumbled upon a bunch of old music recordings I did with my friend Josh when I was 18 years old and he was 15 years old. We each wrote six songs and recorded them over the course of the summer of '99. I've listened to his tracks often over the years, as I always thought they were pretty excellent.. but it had been the first time in quite some time that I'd checked out mine. The majority are still pretty embarassing lyrically/vocally, but there's a lot of music portions that I like quite a bit. I'll probably rip one or two of 'em to MP3 tonight and post 'em here for the listening pleasure of all 4 of our readers out there. Previously unreleased. Rare, OOP. Word. I called the "band" Amazing Disgrace, because I'd just started to get into the Posies album of the same name. My tracks sound nothing like that, sadly... they're sort of a lame mixture of Hot Water Music, Lemons era Piebald, The Promise Ring, and Jimmy Eat world. Hear that emo shit is going to be all the rage someday, yo. --

a note from chaz

radio

today til 3pm

Man, I temporarily lost my camera and I was actually doing ok with my Pic-of-the-day. Ho-hum. I stole the idea from someone on flickr, and now I notice it everywhere. I didn't think it was an original idea by any means, but I still like it. Here's a photo-a-day blog a dude started after broke up with his fiancee(?). Sounds cheap, but it's not. I've only peeped about 2 months post break up, and it's sad, funny, interesting...

A silly site that'll induce a chuckle.

If anyone has the newest TOOL album, I'd like to hear it. All those inputs for the drums, yowza.

Well, shit.. while we're talking about conspiracy theories:

--

save

I thought Red Sox fans had resigned themselves to 2006 being a lost season... apparently not this dude, who decided he was going to go down swinging.

Bill Burr trashes Philly after him and a bunch of his comedian confidants are booed at the Opie and Anthony Travling Virus. Kinda hard to hear some of it, and I was expecting it to be a little funnier than it actually was, but hell... I hate that fucking city, too:



And while I'm at it, here's a daily dose of Ultimate Warrior for you:

--

biker week in wildwood

soooooo. im tagging along with the family for a fun weekend in cape may. this weekend is biker week in wildwood and there are choppers and whatever your motorcycle idea of the badass variety consists of, tons of em. the ride was rough. 4 people in a van that have very conflicting perspectives. three dogs, one terminally ill, and one cat. fiesta!

buddy would not give up his seat. he yelped and snarled at me when i had to show him who gets choice. this later left me on the floor. i was so tired the seat wasnt doing it for me and i lay on my back on the floor of the van. ipod on. 46 songs when i checked this morning. 20, being generous, i skipped through while coherent. thats 26 more that just sorta played to a slumbering... thing. but yeah jiffy throws up, so i was mindful of that. but yeah, buddy sat on the seat for a while, but when i woke up in cape may, all three dogs were near me in some fashion.

after a day on the beach with persistent background revs and what have you, i hit the boards. have some vodka tonnies at the house, mess around with the internet, routers and such. tease my niece into saying wierd shit to her parents. hit up the great noreaster. wax poetic with ant. get tempted into the spring shot. do it. said it was the first ride in a while he was actually scared of. i was scared shitless too. but being scared is funny. it stimulates interesting thoughts, you have to know.

great day, get back to the house base, and have urge for more. 1030pm. hit the bar scene in cape may. fuckin scary. where are these people from? what sort of lifestyle do they lead outside of capemay. gettin trashed folks. lit.

so thats why i get lit. my way. this show weeds, it will fuck your life. im irritable as fuck. more acute, snipping at these bitches whenever they fuck up. i think its normal, they think, prick. so i go to wawa for papers, nothing. ask guy if he knows papers store nearby, "no sir none that would be open now." well shit. dont need to, just booze. never. get back in line get dutch. score. sit in van and roll it, score score. alls thats left is someone to share it with. oh . boy.

well, sittin at a bar solo. nothing inspiring you to do anything further. even smoking outside, mutants. but dour. so so dour. order my 3rd vodka tonic, think i said gin and tonic, to the guy taking my drink orders all nite. it was an odd exchange, but it was an exchange, which makes this part odd. some other bartender comes up, asks if i need anything, i say "vodka tonic," sure got it. so 4th drink. sit at a table with two drinks, some cover band playing "8675309," "southern man," dude all sorts of silly shit, think i heard some killers. people were dancing. dancing. fucking dancing. i wanted to dance.

not going good. just drunk, 3rd drink, one from my normal guy, doesnt taste like vodka tonic. thats why i think i said, gin and tonic, but it didnt even taste like tonic. i dont know what it was. sorta made me weary. on top of everything else. hey, played some 11 ball. 112 at best, and thats like 6 games. 60s consistent. what time is it? 1230. gaysauce. gotta just bounce, christmas pics tomorrow, hit the beach, hit the hay.

get on the beach and investigate my shit. maybe someone will creep on share style. not many stars. rained a lil earlier. chillin. peeps creep, but lookin nook, bounce up the beach to where the bar was. hit the wet sand and stare. buzzin. cant get relit, stash n bounce. bouncin, heads rollin? share time? gettin jumped, rollin at me hard. cops (3). oh. hey. i know my rights?

"whatcha doin"
"smokin a cigarette"
"didnt look the way you were lightin, a cig"
"twas"
"where is the butt"
"threw it in the ocean"
"thats LITTERING"
"sorry"
"do you have the pack of cig on you"
"yeah" [shakey shakey]
"you have any id on you"
-id-
one cop investigating where i was sitting, rollup
one cop from shadows, rollup
"you ever been in trouble before"
"nope"
acop calls in license
bcop you got cigs on you
"i showed him"
bcop shines light on blanket in distance
acop "blanket"
bcop "that your blanket from the kids before"
"you guys have increased activity because its bike week"
bcop "no"
"you get a lot of people out here campin out"
bcop "theyre not exactly campin out"
"how many in a peak month, campin out"
bcop "quite a few"
acop "the beaches close at 10pm"
"i didnt see any sign, but i also didnt think beaches closed"
acop "10pm, lets start walkin back"
walky
radio "that guys clean as a fresh sucked dick"
"i---"
acop "beach is--"
bcop "what were you going to say?"
"i was gonna say, im sittin there on the beach, and i see three guys rollin towards me. and even though im in cape may, the first thing that comes to my mind is im gonna get jumped."
acop "we were all wearing blue uniforms"
[stoned]"man, its dark out here, aint no lights on ya, alls i saw was three shadows"
acop "mumble mumble"
"excuse me"
bcop "he said dont throw your cigarettes into the ocean, its littering"

*c cop never talked

then i get to my car, heart racing, and get paranoid that these guys are waiting for me to leave to bust me on dui. cause they lurkin. but after 30 secs i realised that was paranoia. and came here to write this shit. 154am right now. hop on youre harley and head down.

Ya know, just in case.

Still four months to go... but here is my favorite records of 2006 list, thus far:


10 - Jon Auer - Songs From The Year of our Demise
9 - Cursive - Happy Hollow
8 - Copyrights - Mutiny Pop
7 - Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
6 - Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
5 - Ergs! - Jersey's Best Prancers
4 - Steinways - Missed The Boat
3 - Beezewax - Who To Salute
2 - Lawrence Arms - Oh, Calcutta!
1 - Maritime - We, The Vehicles

I'm hoping to get my hands on the new Eric Bachman record sometime this week and I'm thinking the Lemonheads and Les Savy Fav are pretty strong contenders to crack the top 10 later in the year, as well. Also hoping for a few new surprises, too... because just about every single band on that list is a band I've been listening to for years.

A lot of people are talking about Facebook's new stalker tools. I've never setup a facebook account for myself, but it seems to me like it's a myspace that originated with its roots in colleges and universities instead of music. Upon first reading about (and seeing, Marissa showed me using her account) the new features I was taken back a bit. It sure seemed a little creepy and stalker-ish. After thinking about it, though, I think it's great. Not only does it make it a heck of a lot easier for stalkers to stalk, it promotes non-stalkers being accountable for the bullshit they put up about themselves on the internet! If subtle jabs and passive aggressive tactics are your bag, I would imagine this being quite a shitty turn of events.

The article was pretty balanced throughout, but I think this last paragraph tipped the scale:

Still, for George Washington senior Justin Persuitti, the mere prospect of unexpected disclosure made him conjure up unsettling scenarios: "You could have a girlfriend and be at a bar kissing another girl, and somebody could post [a cellphone photo] on your wall." ***

Marissa scored me an advance copy of Max Brooks' World War Z:


I'm only about 75 pages in, but so far so good. It's no striking piece of literature, but it's a pretty fun book about, well.. zombies. The book is made up of hundreds of stories, supposedly all taken from different people, that the author collected after the end of The Zombie War. The only complaint I have is that all of the different people dictating the stories all seem to have the same voice and grasp of the English vocabulary. I've found myself on more than one occasion going back to the introductory paragraph for these characters to remind myself of who the hell they are. The light political and social jabs are a nice touch, though,and overall it's been incredibly enjoyable. I mean, it's fuckin' zombies, brah. ***

i set it up so the faux candle would be in his face, i didnt know it would branch out at his eyes, thats kinda eerie.

i looked at this week and last weeks issue of exit, and did not see a hot cops article. what gives.

i may give cash to the cato institute. some guy sent me mail with tempting words. made me feel like i believed what they believe.

got discover magazine this month, woo. so many interesting things. dinosaurs and astronauts. together. all sorts of figures and science and pomp and circumstance. why are scientists so ignorant? yay nasa government star wars.

watched the squid and the whale, you see that? bitter sweet movie i tell ya.

so, red vines? yeah, me too.

ramen. windows vista.

“The idea of blasting into space thrills her, but I don’t think she’s done the research.”

The Lemonheads have some tour dates up, NYC 12-14.

A little creativity and a good cause gets you $137.50

There's a new Shins album due out in January called "Wincing the Night Away". A true story; when asked to a crowd at Maxwells, "Any ideas on what we should call the new album?", a young Lank yelled out, "Pissing With A Boner!". They went with Chutes Too Narrow.

The Wrens have a video for "She Sends Kisses" from the album The Meadowlands. Some dude took a loooong time to do it, so please give up 6+ minutes to watch and listen. For you lyric lovers, you'll never ever ever understand them, so here they are...

"Ten tons against me and you've gone
I put your favorite records on
And sit around
It spins around
And you're around again

Struck dumb while drugs run at how high reeds
Cue every memory at half-speeds
Just like.. Charles, hold-me-downs
I'm coming sounds
Cut crap, who's filling shoes like these anymore?

Past clumsy crushes beneath Thrill Pier
Hopes pinned to poses honed in men's room mirrors
A sophomore at Brown
She worked lost & found
I put your face on her all year

From five rows of photos when you wrote
Of posed you, dressed blue, in a backyard boat
And at the bottom with this quote:
(#4 North Shore) a Cape May address
Your new one I guess
'All's well in hell and here's hoping'

She sends kisses
Some signed 'with Love, Beth O's and X's
She sends kisses
Same old Beth
Some signed 6's
Our shore town knockdown sure was fun
yeah, white trash, what have you
I fired replies back gun by gun
past Seven Wrecks I read your four answers: 1. your move 2. I'm tres involved 3. move on 4. love, Beth
I walk it down
this tourist town
'just thought I'd' calls
just friends
she sends kisses
and all at once back doors blow open
she sends.... in envelopes stamped with 'Hope & Hearts' - ripped right open
she sends...
but I'm corrupt - I wrote back good luck"

Amazing.

This album was actually released on vinyl, and I actually like it lots, but of course it's only available in the UK. Gatefold, double vinyl, extra tracks, hefty shipping charges. Damnit, why did I buy that sweatshirt today?

Within what seems like minutes I'm no longer downing my coffee in an iced variety, wearing short sleeved shirts, or trying to find spare time to hop in the pool. I'm hoping for an Indian-esque summer relapse at some point in September, but all signs point to it being over. I don't even really have any feelings on it ending (but that's not going to stop me from talking about it, obviously). Parts of me feel like it's just started. Other parts of me don't really even remember the seasons in between this summer and last. It's hard to form opinions on periods of time that seem to pass by so fast that I barely remember them. I remember once discussing the "man, time flies" feeling that I know a lot of people my age feel. I don't even remember who I was talking to, but the suggestion was made that time seems to feel like it's going faster as we get older because as each year goes on, 365 days makes up less of a percentage of your overall life. When I was 15, the year 1996 made up 1/15th, or 7% of my life. At 25, though, 2006 will take up 1/25th, or 4% of my life. When being nostalgiac, or introspective about the past year in 2006, it has to contend with more years than when I did that in 1996, which makes it seem less significant.

Gobbledy, bloggedy, blech. I don't really know what I'm talking about. It just seems strange to me that as each season vanishes I feel no more accomplished for having lived it than I did prior to it starting. ((Wake, work, eat/drink, sleep)*5+ (wake, fail at doing ten million things I'd like get done during my free time, eat/drink, sleep)*2). There are exceptions, of course. I enjoy myself quite often. But it just seems to fade away much faster now, buried quickly under the first half of that equation, the one that consists of my Monday-Fridays. ***

With that said, Fall is my favorite season. So, despite the fact that moths ate most of my good sweaters over the summer, I'm kinda hopeful that maybe this season will be more significant than most of the recent ones have been.

Every once in a while, a truly great maniac-tweak-ass-celebrity comes along and momentarily steals our hearts. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez. Wacko Jacko. Tom Cruise. The chick from Black Eyed Peas that pees herself. Mel Gibosn. Today we lost one of the greatest one hit celebrity-wonders we've ever seen. The mere fact that he became "celebrity" because he was fuckin' whacked, should be reason enough to love him. Yea, recently, when you heard his name, you think, lame. But the first time you peeped this nut, you were in love. You made the references, did all the quotes, you told the friends who didn't know yet. For years this guy stuck around, just kept nutty. It did get old, which appears to be this mans only flaw. Respect.

As a tribute, today I took my own life in my hands, walked that thin line between life and death, faced the animal kingdom face first.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grinningidiot/234283827/

hay paris

took that from wwtdd.com. unfortunately i half watched the VMAs last nite. best new ringtone was fort minor. i see it.

i found some more datura, heres pics of that shit.

Fellas

i fucked around with the flickr badge nonsense and somehow came up with what you see...

does this work for you fellas? looking at the code i saw that when chris put up his he was trying to break the site... i also noticed that you had pic set to thumbnail whereas jimmy and i have it set to square... would you like me to change it back. i need feedback.

Finally added the flickr photo box to the side of the blog, following Pauly's lead (using Jimmy's pictures). I invite Paul to put his, umm, box up there, too. As his flickr pictures are probably some of my favorite pictures of all time. **

So I'm surrounded by chit-chatter about Bernanke.. and rates.. and the market.. and well, yuck. This job is a death sentence. Thankfully there's a few opportunities bubbling... no sure things yet, but hopefully one of them pans out, because my life will instantly improve tenfold if any of them does. Don't want to dedicate too many words to that, though.. no need to do any jinxing. **

I'm going to pick up the Arrested Development box set that Jimmy mentioned at some point this weekend. Tomorrow's payday... so I figure why the hell not? **

This article from the New York Post sums up why I love Joe Torre. It's one of many regarding the Carl Pavano fiasco and features a choice quote from Torre:

To gauge what the Yankees feel about Pavano, it's better to pay attention to what they don't say, as to what they do. That includes everyone. Joe Torre was asked if he was concerned about the way his teammates would receive Pavano if and when he's ever again healthy enough to pitch for the Yankees. Torre's greatest strength as a communicator, normally, is a pathological devotion to candor and frankness.

"Everyone has teammates," is the way Torre described it.

How pissed off do you think that Pavano and his agent were that the Yanks were rained out last night, leaving many-a-reporter with even more blank pages to fill than on the off day the day before? --

Weeds, a fine, fine show on, uh, Showtime, just started it's second season, and it's already projecting itself to be fanfuckingtastic. Only gripe is that it's only a half hour each week, seriously, give u(me)s more. They play some really great music, I hunted some down for you.

Clicky here , it should bring up a little player. I suggest you listen through them all, I guarantee your ears perk up to something completely new and like, wow!

There's also http://myspace.com/weedsmusiconshowtime if you're into the friends thing.

If you're already a fan, check out some podcasts with the cast.

The very best show on the good ol tele is, and still undisputed, The Shield on FX. It's gone through 5 seasons, which you can and should find on DVD. Without getting caught up in the rumors flying around, there should be a mini-season coming late this year /early next, and then the final season will air sometime in 2007. While I play the patient boy, Rescue Me has been good, and next week Nip/Tuck returns for what will surely be a season of "whaaat?" Long short, watch FX, other TV is pretty sucky compared.

Flickr is amazing, we all know that. The have another new feature, seems they are adding new ones all the time. Geomapping, you can add your photos to a map. Watch the quick vid here. To keep up with everything flickr has going on, be peepin' the flickr.blog.

The 3rd season of Arrested Development comes out today, I think it's like $20 at Best Buy. I stupidly pre-ordered it and won't have it for a few days.

I believe the new Beck album comes today out too. Wired has an article about what he's doing with the cd, which sounds cool. His website is also pretty cool.

greatest photo taker ever

Leroy Jenkins

“Like NMH, I’ve been playing the piano and violin since I was six years old, and singing.”
~Paris

Jack White is selling his house in Detroit, he recorded "Get Behind Me Satan" there.

Haven't really heard of Kaki King, but this video is pretty neat. Cool song, and the fact that she's doing those loops on the fly, bad ass. Some of the other videos on YouTube reveal that she's got some crazy fingerplaying going on, but prolly not something I'd pursue past this little post.

Oh fuck

"Hybrid Mutant" found dead in Maine.


I am going to try and upload to flickr everyday, at least one picture. Prolly be boring, but it's easier than writing here everyday, and it'll give me something to do. If all was right in the world, there'd be a little thing on the right side of this page where you can see our most recent flickr uploads, but it isn't.