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.

Pitchfork thinks that the new Thermals record is their best yet. I'll admit, it's growing on me a bit as I become more familiar with the songs, but I still can't imagine ever enjoying it as much as I've enjoyed More Parts Per Million, which most definitely sits on my top 10 favorite records of all time list*.

Whilist fishing around for an official link about the newish Futureheads album, I found this link, giving us a 9/26 release date for the new Lemonheads album. 2006 has been a far better year musically than 2005 was, in my opinion. It kicked off with the Lawrence Arms Oh Calcutta! and has pretty much been great release after great release from some of my favorite bands ever since. With new Lemonheads, Ergs, and Les Savy Fav all in the pipeline, I'd say the year will continue accordingly.

But back to the Futureheads. I heard the single Skip to the End from News & Tributes for the first time in a hotel room in Venice, of all places. Marissa and I had to wake up at about 4am to catch our flight home... and Venice all but shuts down around midnight, so we took to plopping our exahusted bodies in front of the TV during the interim. We found an MTV owned channel that played all indie rock and experimental videos in between short films and animation clips that reminded me of the irrevrant type stuff MTV used to do in the early 90s. Much of it was in Italian, of course, so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on.. but I couldn't help but think that maybe I'd actually watch TV if we had something like it in the states. It was all commercial free, which certainly helped, and it was actually playing good videos by (mostly) good bands! I was transported back to being 14 and watching Nine Inch Nails' video for Wish on 120 minutes. The Skip to the End video was pretty neat, and I really dug the song a lot. I just finally got myself a copy of the album last night and I think I'm going to end up enjoying it a lot more than the first one, which started to annoy me after only a few listens. The sound is bigger.. the songs are sparser.. and it makes for an overall better listening experience, in my opinion.

Paul likes to rag on me for my incessant music links and generally over-enthusiastic recommendations, which I'm sure is mostly warranted. So instead of ranting further about the new pAper chAse album, I'll ask him what he thinks about it, if anything. --

* This list contains approximately 40 records.

Ok, maybe linking this video makes me some magical queer boy, but there's some cool shit if you got 8+ minutes. The flips and stuff are kinda giy, but when he goes into the buildings, he does some crazy shit. Big Dumb Me sitting here barely able to move my neck, color me impressed. Read a little more about Parkour. Shit, I wanted to post something else but Weeds is on. Go watch Weeds.

Today we celebrate the two week anniversary of my cold. Congratulations flu-like symptoms, you've shown that you've got some staying power. Now, please get the fuck out of my body.

I set out to make today a coffee-less day, but I was lagging hard. Couldn't get my head out of the fog. Sadly, the lunch time iced coffee got me going and I feel a little bit better. I guess there are worse things to be addicted to than caffeine, right?

This weekend was great. Although it went by, way, way too fast. There was Snakes on Planesing, Mets game watching, boozing, cooking, relaxing. More on that later, though.. as I've got a busy day of watching Yanks/Sox on MLB Gamecast today. --

.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7024/p8182921jo8.jpg

This is bad, the worst Price Is Right contestant, ever. God I wanna drop-kick this fucking dolt. Fuck you Joy.

I busted my @ss at work today. Month end, a lot of work to do. I was on four hours of sleep, but I kept my head down and powered through. I made my boss happy, even heard a co-worker comment on how good I’ve been doing. This make me proud? Not in the least. At 4:46 PM, while sitting on the plop-plop machine here at work, I beat Nanostray. I shall walk a little taller today my friends.

there was something i so wanted to talk about. have you heard about this snakes on a plane phenomena. i heard it was good. i heard sammy jackson delivers some choice lines. he called my cell phone the other day from jimmy's phone and delivered some choice lines. i remember reading somewhere that this type of thing could be bad. some sort of reader response movie becoming more common. whoever wrote the article about such things was under the impression this is the only time it would work, if it even is working.

but there is a concept for you. working. working hard at eating everything in sight. thats my new job. somedays my appetite is a force even i dont believe. a while back i went to lewey lake in ny state. a beautiful little alcove in hamilton county with some nice wilderness sites to camp out at. on the way back i got a ticket. woe. so i went to fight it and now i guess i have to go back again. they sent me a little letter, with all sorts of impossible requests. sorta like when i applied for my passport and sent them my original birth certificate. then they sent back that they needed some elementary school pictures, and my high school yearbook, hospital records, oh.. and my original birth certificate. that i thought was some mean joke. had to be?

well clouds. i posted a picture last nite of a cloud i saw then fucked with in gimp. i think there is more there than clouds. for example, freshly manifest deities from my subconscious. the paint hasnt even dried yet and youre already praying to them, ease up. these will be my allies in the upcoming war on something i choose to war against. fighting to find something right now and .. nothing.

so what, its a slump. i got stood up for a date i never made. that was depressing. self destruct mode. could usually grind out something positive, what with the music and endless possibilities for self entertainment, but when its not there a flashlight is useless. im walking around with three sections of the sunday times. front page, which has some stories ive been meaning to get to. week in review, has the op ed section where loons like to sign off. and travel, musing about ayurvedic healing spas in india. woe.

so i saw bill pascrell speak in little falls and as i was getting there someguy ambushed him for a picture to hang in his restaurant. room for 15 people held about 50 and i stayed for like 20 mins. dirge-like atmosphere. camera girl with a horribly scarred face taking pics from all over the place. and he talked about nonsense. to me at least. the audience was old and some lady in front of me must have thought him and her were kindred spirits, cause shed respond outloud to things he said, in a speech, one way, mono, monologue. when someones cellphone went off and the congressman got upset she was also vocally upset, people actually looked at her like, not only have we collectively harmed big william pascrell, but his confidant. his lackey. then we all chuckled and that girl took some more pictures and he said lets talk about the environment, people clapped, he said im no tree hugger, and someone said why not.

You can vote for MLB Comeback Player(s) of the Year here, as long as you give out all of your personal information to a company that specializes in thinking about your dick. My votes went to Nomar Garciaparra and Frank Thomas. Thomas had a .245 AVG and hit just 30 home runs combined in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. While this year he's at .305 with 25 homers with about 40 games left to play. Not too shabby for a 38 year old. I picked Nomar because I've always kind of liked the guy, despite his Red Sox roots. I'm glad he's healthy and I hope he finds himself that way for awhile... because when he is he's pretty nasty. I'll never forget seeing him at The Living Room in Boston, a few weeks before he was traded to The Cubs. It was the night of a Yankees / Sox game, and the majority of the patrons were crowded around the big screen. I made a wrong turn on my way to the bathroom and found a back room that was empty except for Mr. Garciaparra, sitting at a table by himself sipping whiskey. I certainly wasn't as surprised as most other people when I heard of his being traded a few weeks later. ***

I've got a date with the Apple store on 5th Avenue at lunchtime today, hopefully to get my iPod fixed.. again... for the fifth time. ***

The woman at the desk next to me at work, Linda, is eating the most disgusting smelling thing ever. It's chicken.. but it comes out of a can, tuna fish style. I had a discussion about this with her once about a year ago... and from that was able to figure out that she's able to buy two cans of this stuff for about the same retail cost of one Chicken McNugget. If any correlation between cost and meat quality exists... well, this shit is probably the most vile food on the planet. Plus it's all over her face right now. Goddamnit, Linda.. get a napkin! Ugh. I'm going to fucking puke. --

carry the light, i suppose...

silly willy mason, singing oxygen in glastonbury (2005)

In the years 2005 and 2006 I've been sick more than the rest of my life combined. I feel like at least once every two months I've got some kind of sore throat, stuffy nose, chest cold, head cold, or some other nonsense going on. I found this list of things to boost your immune system somewhere, which makes it seeems pretty obvious why I'm constantly on the mend:

* Washing your hands thoroughly and often with soap and warm water, particularly before eating and after using the bathroom. This reduces the number of organisms that can enter your body. -- At least I've got this one down. I wash my hands obsessively, but hopefully not so obsessively that I've screwed around with my immunity to bacteria.

* Cooking meat thoroughly to kill dangerous bacteria and other microorganisms. -- I just began ordering my meat medium but for 24 years it was always medium rare, which is still far more delicious and something I indulge in occasionally.

* Getting at least eight hours of sleep every day, deep sleep stimulates and energizes the immune system. -- I probably average less than six hours of sleep per night. Although for a small stretch (Feb of this year) I was averaging above seven and felt much, much better.

* Maintaining a healthy weght, obesity can lead to a weakened immune system. -- I weigh the same now as I did when I was 16... which was not very much even then, does that mean anything?

* Excercising at least 30 minutes most days of the week, physical activity stimulates the immune system and helps with weight maintenance or reduction. -- I haven't been regularly active since 7/05 and it can be argued that I was half-assing it then. The last time I was active every day was the fall of 2002, a time in which I weighed about 20 lbs more than I do now.

* Consuming alcohol moderately, while one drink does not appear to affect immune response, having three or more drinks in a short period starts to impair white blood cells' functioning. -- Fug to this one. I drink at least four nights a week and very rarely drink less than three drinks. I don't drink like I did in college and wouldn't really be upset if I had to cap myself at three drinks every outing.. but some things (baseball, rock-n-roll) just seem to go a little bit better with a six pack.

* Eating less sugar. 100 grams of sugar, the amount in one 12-ounce can of regular soda, can reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs by 40 percent for up to 5 hours! -- Have you ever seen me drink coffee? Eight sugar packets, minimum. I have given up soda, for the most part... and try to drink one glass of water with every meal, but even that's nowehere near the eight per day people say you should have.

* Not smoking. Smoking leads to lung and other cancers, and also weakens the immune system. -- I'm nowhere near the two pack a week smoker I was in college. But it's still rare that a week goes by in which I don't have at least one smoke. Always harder to hold off during the summer.

* Reducing and managing stress, such as effective time management — long periods of feeling stressed weakens the immune response. -- I work for a bank and although I have free time to blog and send emails to friends, every bit of work I do usually affects millions of dollars. Any screw ups are generally very, very big deals and getting things right can sometimes be incredibly stressful. Working on a trading floor means people are on top of me all of the time. Phones ring off the hook and there are over 100 other people in the same room as me who are very good at being distracting. Add to that the hour plus bus commute each way in NYC rush hour traffic, the fact that I rarely get to eat lunch anywhere but my desk, and the long hours... my mind is usually spinning by the time I get to my pillow, which is usually about two hours after I'd like to due to trying to cram things I enjoy into a few hours each night.

* Getting the vaccines recommended by your health care provider. -- Umm, what vaccines? ***

Of the ten suggestions, I score well on exactly one of them. I don't think I'll ever be able to nail down all of the other nine at once, but reading that definitely makes me feel like I need to take care of myself a little better. By the end of this month I'd like to try and sleep more every night, eat a little better which will hopefully put a little more weight on me, run or do some kind of activity at least once per day, hold off on grubbing that cigarette that always makes me feel terrible the next morning anyway, and get a job that stresses me out less (fingers crossed). With those, hopefully I'll be able to keep enjoying a lil' booze, my coffee nice and sweet, and mediumly cooked meat. But man, I've gotta do something now. This being sick and tired all the time is the pits. --

If anyone has that Anthony and the Johnsons cd, send it my way.

Ron and Fez are still the.best.thing.going. Today! As of now they are only on XM, but ronfez.net has tons of clips for downloading. Here are some to get you started. Burn em to a cd, play em in your car, whatever.

How many 9 year old can you beat up, in a ring?
Jessica Simpson's Christmas Album

"The way I see it, more people are wired with broadband from 9 to 5 during the day than watch TV at night. So therefore isn't the real prime time 9 to 5?" he wonders. "Playing games at your desk -- that's the new prime time, isn't it?".

It's not the best article in the world. But I've been more interested than usual in how the slightly older generation is responding to the way my generation consumes entertainment / media. ***

I'm pretty fried. Everything that was supposed to happen this weekend went down without a hitch. I wanted to choke my alarm clock this morning, but I'm not the least bit unhappy about the fatigue now that I'm out and about. The Barnyard was fun, if a bit tame. The Yankee game was fun, if a bit uneventful (we got there in the 2nd, it was 5-1 and ended 5-2). Recording was a hell of a lot of fun, even though I had to sort of play double duty because my mom had decided to invite family over for a BBQ, too. There was a lot of running up and down the stairs... flipping between being "helpful recording intern" and "elder son of family" for 30 minutes at a time. I think I sort of failed at both, to be honest. But the little bit of time I got to dedicate to each was well suited for a fun and perfectly weathered weekend. The Steinways sounded great. Their songs represent them perfectly. They're just a fun, easy going bunch that are tons of fun to hang out with. I was a little nervous about how they felt about recording in my basement... but I think they left more than impressed with what was accomplished with Jimmy's equipment / knob tweaking and the unique layout of my basement. I believe all told 10 songs were completed in just about 24 hours, of which 7 or so were spent sleeping. I can only hope that recording TTT and The Ergs goes as well... and I've got no reason to think it won't. Each of The Steinways, on multiple occasions, would say things along the "thanks so much for the hospitality" and "thank so much for letting us take over your place" varities.. but I honestly can't think of many other things that I'd rather be doing with my weekends/living space. Music, food, fun. Photos here. ---

Hola. My calendar reads August 11th, but the crisp weather that hit me this morning felt more like late September to me. No complaints there, fall-chilly mornings are my favorite. I'm going to take that as a good omen, as it's the weather I've always associated with new beginnings, which is exactly what I'm pulling for right now. For eighteen or so years it was a new school year. For five years after that it was a new apartment and new classes. It's been stagnant the last two years of my post graduate life, though. If my gut is right (it is very often wrong), things could be-a-changing soon - and for the better.

It is still summer, though... and the chilly mornings are quickly replaced with hot afternoons, which is a good thing as it allows for all kinds of outdoor activities. If all goes as planned, tonight will find a handful of Wayne-ites enjoying some beverages outside at The Barnyard and tomorrow will find Marissa, my brother, drummer Jeff, and me at Yankee Stadium, enjoying some afternoon baseball. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing Jaret Wright pitch. He wouldn't be my first choice... but Wang and Moose just got knocked around quite a bit.. and Johnson got shellacked the last time we were at the stadium. Wright's actually been pretty solid his last few starts (4-0), so I'm hoping for the best. Psyched to see Abreu in uniform as well.

By the time I get home from the game, Marissa will be enjoying her weekend with her parents and Jimmy will be getting recording started with the Steinways at my house. We've sorta been keeping it mum through the usual channels... but The Steinways, Tattle Tales, and Ergs (well, maybe just Mikey last I heard), along with Hot Cops will each be spending some time at my house these next few weeks recording what we hope to be kick-ass four band 7" for Formula 7. Jimmy's been doing some great recording lately, Corey's commited to making it a great release, and I'm just excited to be a part of it. The people in those bands are excellent people that make some very excellent music, and I am so happy that we're finally breaking ground, so to speak, on getting this sucker done. **

I'm a little tired from last night's Birdsting-o-thon at Maxwell's, but more on that later. --

high risk behavior.

'mornin everay buddy.

so where did we leave off. my brother is in south america, chile. he is there for the second time in as many years. USSA stuff, skiing and what not. at the last minute he wanted to bring another pair of skis, which would mean he was bringing 3 pair. if i may butt in for a minute and let you know that i went through high school skiing competitively all four years and i had one pair of skis, that broke the first year. so now you know why i push him down stairs. but i like skiing and i miss it, and with those same skis ill still beat him down a mountain no matter what you put in front of me. super g, slalom, jumps. im a fucking lunatic.

oh sweet luna. you comfort me with your warmth and impress me with your maternal vigil. did anyone happen to see her sweetness rising on the horizon last nite? mmmm

so we received an email from his highness saying he fell hard the first day and broke his newest skis, super g fuckers, but that their chaperone had some magic ski glue and buttered em up. the next day they got dumped on, 3 foot of snow fell in the nite. that mother fucker.

the other day i let the imagery of eyes wide shut bathe my mind. i had to, you understand. i had an article forwarded to me by jenn, who received it from ryan, who stumbled across it in a fever dream. you can find that little gemerald here:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html

oh we yearn, and our souls burn for something we cant understand. come with me for a moment, lets dance above the clouds, flirt in the thin air of atmosphere; a party! what does it matter, up there where life is so still, and grows stiller. or down in the mud, grinding away with the earthworms and maggots, teeming with life and decomposition, building another layer for life centuries away. nutrients, sustenance, the evidence of lifetimes past soaking into the very things which provide for you today. becoming you. urging you towards an understanding that is only present once you pass on, longing and crying for you to exist with care, coddle creation in your heart and dare to take such a miracle for granted. mmmmmm I HATE YOU

woo. so i was here:

http://www.coffeeteaemporium.com/

yesterday between the hours of 2 and 7pm. speaking with my friend charlie. of value, of life. alan watts. "load universe into cannon. aim at brain. fire." etc.. please visit him, i know you will take something from it, and he could use the business. but it isnt all about business.

so i took melatonin for three nites straight. reading from this youd think it was some sort of miracle enzyme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

i cant say it promoted a healthy sleep. the three nites i took it i was restless as hell. i didnt necessarily feel unrested in the morning, i just know that in the course of the nite i was up more than usual. two people i know that have taken it have reported nitemares; vivid, dark, unsettling imagery. but others report no such thing. i didnt get that. fuck it.

if you havent done so already check out jimmy's "holmes" featurette on his flickr. i look to imitate him whenever i can in regards to such "holmes." i could see the question mark was emphasized.

Luckily, my cold subsided for a bit this morning, allowing me to enjoy the beautiful weather and also perform swimmingly in a job interview. It was a breath of fresh air to have it go as well as it did. In fact, I'd wager that it's one of the best I've ever had. I'm hopeful, but know better than to get my hopes up too high. I've been pretty choosy about the sort of jobs I seek out since deciding I needed to get my ass out of banking in order to save my life, and this is one that finally meets all of the criteria I'm looking for. On the perks side, let's just say this: it involves video games and music on a daily basis... Guitar Hero tournaments at work... and the company has internally developed an audio application on their network that allows people to import CDs, play them jukebox style for the whole office (first picked, first played), and then allow people to leave comments regarding certain tracks, etc. Bad Ass. I'm sure I'm up against some stiff competition, but with any luck I'm not the only one who felt that I was perfect for the job. I won't find out until next week, either way, which is a bit stressful. Until then I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. My cold came back not too long after I mosied on in to my current job (one hour and 15 minutes late, without giving my boss any notice)... leading me to think that my severe hatred for this place is messing with my body as well as my head. **

I finally picked up the sort of newish self-titled Broken Social Scene album in between my interview and work this morning. I initially Soulseeked it and cast it to my "eh" pile when I first heard it last winter. However, I gave it another spin surrounded by warm weather recently and it took on a whole new life. I've been listening to it non-stop since and decided it was definitely worthy of purchase. The artwork is swell. And the booklet even better. Check 'er out:
**

Who gets a cold in the summertime? Seriously. The girls in the coffee shop downstairs prescribed chamomile tea with honey and lemon. It tastes like an arts and crafts store, but I think it's actually soothing the throat a little bit. Boo-ya. **

Last night Jimmy, Ryan, Corey, and I entertained ourselves by drinking various lagers, playing multiple games of Virtua Tennis, and last but certainly not least.. gluing ourselves to Birdsting's You Tube videos. I warn you, though. Crappin Flaps is not for the faint of heart. Watching Birdsting in action is enough to make you never want to play music again. They're the real fuckin' deal and if they don't die, you can bet your ass that they're going somewhere. **

This morning's weather was perfect. Getting on the bus was horribly depressing. --

wandering star

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/08/03/jeff/

good morning everybody.

a life of ups and downs, if i do say so. right now my cats are in the "nono" room. i can easily get hunter out by opening the food drawer, but ive called sally for a while and she aint comin out. so where the door to the nono is usually closed now i have to leave it open allowing for passage. hopefully all i get are my cats back and not something bearing ill tidings. i guess those things are out there and i can say that lately im becoming more and more aware of the forces at play outside of my personal sphere (or that have the potential to impress on my sphere).

Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence.

i played catch up with my page a day calendar today because doing it a day at a time is entrapment. i came across the above passage and it struck me, because its a topic of recent focus for me. i suppose i have been taking many things for granted. im lucky to have the attention of various people at my disposal, at any moment. ive been thinking about intent, and just what im trying to convey, and how to convey it. something that was important to me has now graduated to a new level. im going to work on being more clear in my intentions, positive in my outlook, and certain that when i have someones audience i will not waste it with the byproduct of my daily living but something im attuned to and passionate about. and i will work to make this happen and make my thoughts clear. this is very important to me.

where i call myself lucky i dont mean this forum. this is something else, a digression.

anyways, its interesting to see the effects of the heat on living things, is it not. lets hold conference. oh, josh cut his finger off fixing a lawnmower. here is a pic:
http://static.flickr.com/61/205070344_0112f93d06_b.jpg

also. pbfcomics.com

My office has CNBC on 24/7. I just glanced over and saw a headline that read "Pump and Dump". I've worked too many hours this week to work out a punchline. **

My house tonight... Virtua Tennis, Ping-pong, new Monkey Ball (courtesy of Jim), and booze. 9 o'clock. Be there and be square. **

This
this
and this. --

NJ's own Lifetime, is a band that isn't really that good, and seem to be more popular now than they were a few years ago when they were actually relevant. Admittedly I was never a fan, but I did really like the 2nd Saves The Day CD, which, c'mon, is pretty much the fucking same thing. Anyway, Lifetime had a chick bass player for a while, now a stripper in Union, got arrested last week for having a severed hand in her posession. Classy.

Ean Hernandez, the peppier, sillier songwriter from Sicko, is packing up and moving to England with his wife. He's keeping a blog about it. You can also surf around and find out some more personal information about him if you'd like.

" The current plan is as follows:

July 28 - quit jobs
July 29 - BIG luau at Tasha's
August 1 to 30 chillllll
August 30 - vacate house, fly ONE WAY to the UK
September 4 - meet mom at Heathrow
September 15 - Reba comes out
September 19 - Reba goes to Greece with Leah, Austen, Marshall, and others
October 2 - EAN STARTS GRAD SCHOOL
October 8 - Reba comes back to Oxford Mom Trip"

Despite my lame geekery over most things electronis, I've never really been too hip on what's what with cell phones. I picked up my first a few years ago and took the bland set they gave me. Ever since then I've just gotten whichever one was free when I re-signed my contract. Once I even exchanged a camera phone for a black and white set because the colors were annoying. I must admit, though, I'm a bit intrigued by this. I have an iPod (well, sort of.. my 5th one just conked out on me last week) so the MP3 functionality is just an added bonus (heard it's only a 520mb flash drive... less than a feakin iPod shuffle).. but.. well, it just looks sexy. I like great design.. and even though this is so glaringly copped from Apple that it's sort of embarassing, I certainly wouldn't mind carrying it around in my pocket. If I wasn't in the market for a new phone I probably wouldn't have even noticed the posters for the Chocolate phone all around the city, but since my current handset's speaker decided to blow out on me, rendering it pretty much useless, I guess I'm susceptible to the pitch.

On an unrelated note, Volkswagen's making Rabbit's again. I can't imagine at that price that they're even made in Germany (I don't think non Wolfsberg Jetta's are anymore, either). I was bored at work so I built one... and found out that after you do you can play a video that puts your designed Rabbit in a weird video with an actual Rabbit. They eventually breed and you're allowed to re-create the video with the offspring. VW is down with incest, apparently. Crazy Germans.

Pulling a 13 hour day here at work. I hear it's hot outside. --

In other Thermals-related news, I ordered this the other day. I figured I didn't have much of a chance of actually getting one, since the blurb says there are only ten... but I just received my shipment confirmation. Bad ass.

You can pick up some pretty cool Modest Mouse tour posters here. They had some dates scheduled in August, but are busy finishing the new album, so the cancelled. New album.

May or May Not - Work By Nine















Ha.















I wonder how many celebrities are on flickr, I'd like to find some. Rosie is.