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.