Author: brian

on a more cheerful non-gambling note: there’s a new flaming lips song!

it’s weirder and heavier and more distortiony than anything on the whole last album — and that, fair listeners, excites me a whole heaping lot as someone who still prefers clouds taste metallic over their recent few releases. however outstanding soft bulletin, and to a lesser extent yoshimi, may have been, it’s good to see some thick fuzzy noise coming out of these lips again!

[the single’s already available digitally on itunes et. al., and the album comes out april 4th, for those like me who plan to spend the dough and not just enjoy this pay day song.]

well, looks like it’s more or less official, and i officially blew it. dammit, just barely in the upper half! but hey, now i know that next year i’ll just have to run off with the money before the lineup gets posted and i get embarrassed again.

the coachella pool winners

feel free to discuss the lineup here, unless you’re joe, in which case SHUT UP AND TAKE YOUR MONEY.

preliminary announcements from the actual source on the coachella lineup are promising as far as a solid two days of concertgoing; unfortunately i am more concerned with the fact that i fared barely better than half on our coachella pool below. no decemberists OR new pornographers? what the hell kind of promoters do you have working for you, goldenvoice!? although there’s still not an official flier released so i maintain hope that i will be vindicated against my evil, lucky, playing-it-safe friends. this is my form of faith.

it’s been quite a birthday week, i must say. the party last friday was out of control (pictures of the fun forthcoming), we had half a keg leftover with which to play some beer pong on sunday (pictures of my shameful losing streak thankfully nonexistent), then it was back to the work week. of course monday there were after-work beers for a meeting. tuesday on my birthday we went out for burgers (and a few pints), then i went out to a nice dinner with jess (and a few pints). wednesday was the day between mine and a coworker’s birthday, so we joined forces and hit the good old cozy inn for several beers and a few shots just for the hell of it. my shuffleboard game did not suffer. thursday, another meeting with some after-work beers. suddenly it’s friday again, it’s someone else’s birthday, and so of course we have to go out to a bar to celebrate….[pant, pant]…

i described to a coworker that no, of course there’s no problem with this pattern. it’s just your normal ‘mid-20’s alcoholism’ where it’s not a dependence, simply the way things work when young professionals socialize. don’t worry, little liver, some not-too-distant day people will start having families and dropping out of the scene and it’ll be just you and me again sitting around reading more books.

and some comics. screw getting old.

so my friends and i are music nerds, mostly, and concert enthusiasts for sure. way back last summer jessica and i had a great idea and now we have put it into action. hopefully for profit for one of us, otherwise this was just a noble act to benefit whoever wins instead…

the coachella pool

and until we figure out who’s actually playing, we can spend the time arguing amongst ourselves who had the best ideas and who is a total idiot. fun, eh?

oooooh man, getting older is awfully fun when you throw birthday parties like we do. our place was packed to the gills on friday night, people were still around til 5am that morning (i only wish i hadn’t passed out at 3), and the apartment was a disaster the next day. we must have thrown out 10 bags of assorted empty drink containers, and a nice array of at least 15 completely empty bottles of liquor. somehow we managed to clean up and realize we had half a keg left too, which lead to me losing several games of beer pong at a barbeque on sunday after recuperating by doing essentially nothing all of saturday.

the only downers for the weekend were that i drank so much i got sick that night, and that jess couldn’t be there for any of the fun — although it might have been best that the former happened without the latter around. on the other hand though, i might have back a little more if i knew i wasn’t passing out alone that night no matter what i did anyway. ah well, i’m better now and she’s back and at least i’ll have someone to have a special dinner with on tuesday for the actual D.O.B.

plus i got a new drivers’ license that looks just like the old soon-to-be-expired one. i think the weight is off by like 30 pounds though; how embarrassing. hooray aging! 25 is gonna be a good year.

oh yeah, i haven’t changed the pay day song in forever either, so how about another cop-out? just in case you didn’t visit james’ blog (which you should, regularly) back over the holiday when i guest posted (how could you not?), here is a morrissey cover, done by the year-owning decemberists’ lead singer at a solo acoustic show. and he’s playing another solo gig this saturday at the el rey, incidentally, which i hope i get to go to real real bad.

this track gives me a tingly sensation.

ps: if you have any suggestions of movies, albums or books that you can’t believe aren’t on my lists below, please share. especially with fiction… i have lots of film nerd and music geek friends, but not as many bookworms.

best of 2005

you can tell the difference between a professional who takes their website really seriously (e.g. sets and sticks to deadlines for pieces they want to write) and someone like me who occasionally finds himself only going through the motions for posterity’s sake. just look at every other site who did a ‘best of’ list, then look at a calendar and see how long it took me to get around to it.

even though looking back, i always seem to be about a month late, this time i’m totally phoning it in. no fancy popups or album covers/movie posters/etc., partially because i feel like i didn’t buy enough albums or see enough movies this year to be a proper judge. my social life cost lots of time and money in ’05, and what can i say other than it was totally worth it. not that i’m saying i always phone it in, just that i’ve seen plenty of other places that did a totally adequate job of telling you what you should have spent your time consuming this year entertainment-wise, and this is only really for my own personal records at this point, with no commentary. a shame, i know, but nonetheless…

best books i read in 2005

10. the informers – bret easton ellis
9. the fountainhead – ayn rand
8. the last samurai – helen dewitt
7. hocus pocus – kurt vonnegut
6. emporium – adam johnson
5. broom of the system – david foster wallace
4. still life with woodpecker – tom robbins
3. the moviegoer – walker percy
2. how we are hungry – dave eggers
1. sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs – chuck klosterman

also:
— best comic: batman: year one – frank miller
— biggest letdowns: ellis’ lunar park made me think he should keep writing like himself and not try to write like stephen king, and klosterman’s killing yourself to live made me think he works much better in essay/article format since he’s so tangential anyway, the narrative really just gets in the way.

best movies i saw in 2005

10. sarah silverman’s jesus is magic
9. wedding crashers
8. the animation show 2005
7. ong bak: the thai warrior
6. star wars: revenge of the sith (i know, shut up)
5. 40-year-old virgin
4. crash
3. batman begins (as much as it hurts not to put at #1)
2. sin city
1. good night, and good luck

also:
— purposefully absent: i’m sorry, but the ending to war of the worlds sucked, king kong was long and kinda boring, i probably don’t need to see walk the line more than once in my life where i’d watch all the above again in a second, and well, i missed a lot of other big ones this year.
— best netflix rentals of the year: the first two seasons of six feet under, which is amazing, and probably vertigo, which was so good i should have seen it ages ago. also shaun of the dead and primer, which both blew my mind.

best music in 2005

best albums:
5. get behind me, satan – the white stripes
4. a certain trigger – maximo park
3. silent alarm – bloc party
2. the sunset tree – the mountain goats
1. picaresque – the decemberists

best shows:
5. david byrne/arcade fire @ the hollywood bowl jun 26
4. lcd soundsystem @ the avalon, oct 15
3. mountain goats @ the echo, feb 10
2. decemberists @ henry fonda theatre, sep 13
1. arcade fire @ the troubadour, jan 16 (faux pas to have them twice but they’re rad live and i didn’t see enough bands this year)

also:
— best song that gets played too often on kroq: ‘jesus of suburbia’ by green day. that song rules even if the album came out last year.
— best song i shouldn’t like: ‘since u been gone’ by kelly clarkson. i know, me and everyone else, right?
— best non-rock album i listened to lots: the mouse and the mask – dangerdoom. sorry kanye, you lose this one.

oh man, holy crap, what a week, what a week. i mean, it’s sorta exciting to be headed into a three day weekend (beer pong?), but that’s nothing. yesterday i actually PLAYed a certain STATION that is generation 3 and not coming out for months. i was told we, in that room, were the first people anywhere outside the company to even see it in action much less use it. ho man.

also, it became official today that i will be taking a vacation this spring. IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA. i think i will go attempt a backflip now.

oh my god this was too good. from an ny times article on the AVN awards:

Saturday night, though, was an unapologetic, hearty celebration, with a flashbulb-drenched red carpet entrance and awards presented in 104 categories, including best performances in a wide range of explicit acts and sexual positions. The more conventional were for best director, supporting actor and actress, screenplay and the most anticipated award of the evening: best feature.

That went to “Pirates,” a relatively high-budget story of a group of ragtag sailors who go searching for a crew of evil pirates who have a plan for world domination. Also, many of the characters in the movie have sex with one another.

that last line is INGENIUS.