Author: brian

like most people by now, i finally caved. so if you want to see what my favorite books are or you just need that LA connection to open up a whole new coast for your voyeuristic purposes — my friends must be internet whores, i’m already connected to like a billion people — by all means be my friend via the name or email as listed on this page (please…?). so far i’m only up to 3.

now i need to get some sexy pictures taken that show off my good side and in which i am not eating a cheeseburger. i hope i don’t offend too many hot available vegans that want to get down.

maybe i can tell them i live across the street from a trader joe’s and all will be forgiven.

[now hearing this: tracks from my #1 most anticipated cd, loses control.]

three day weekends are good, but it just makes it seem like i haven’t worked in an awfully long time. as a result, today has been a bit of a crappy day.

on a good note though, the weekend was packed with fun, the highlight probably being getting ‘flagged’ at the well on friday. what does that mean exactly? who knows, but it was probably thanks to the 5 or so rounds we somehow got through in 90 minutes; we just found the waitress’s proclamation very amusing. i certainly slept pretty well that night once i finally got home.

and another long weekend on the way! so it can’t be too bad a week with a road trip to san francisco to look forward to. here we come dom! you can try to run away to go to writing school, but we’ll just come after you wherever you go. (sinister laugh).

so in the meantime i will try to finish my book (finally…and just over 200 pages to go), and guide jeff lebowski (my nba street 2 character) further on his path to becoming a street ball legend. just watch me!

[now hearing this: rumble grumble office mumble.]

ted leo – the tyranny of distance (try the pay day song!) – 4 stars

after the newness of this disc wears off and it isn’t in heavy rotation, i’m sure it will stand almost shoulder to shoulder with my other ted leo cd, hearts of oak. almost. i think the newer one is just bigger. at least it feels that way. it takes up more space in the room and pushes you around more while you listen to it. this one still gets me going though, although i think here more than elsewhere i feel like he/they just don’t know when to quit. like that song ‘stove by a whale’, which could be a badass 3 to 4 minute song, is a pretty overly drawn out 8 minute one. even the track off this cd i’ve decided is my absolute favorite ted leo song ever, ‘timorous me’, has a wholly unnecessary full minute of feedback fadeout tacked on the end which i guess is for some kind of effect…? and then of course, the song i wish would go on longer, ‘the gold finch and the red oak tree,’ ends after less than two minutes! oh don’t worry, i forgive you ted. it’s still a terrific cd and you’re still one rockin’ dude.

spoon – a series of sneaks (find your own this time) – 3 stars

alright, i listened to it for real this time. several times even. and i’m being totally honest when i say i really like spoon, at least in theory. i go to their shows, and i own several of their cds. but i can’t pay attention to this cd. i keep doing other things and before i know it, it’s over. now maybe i have a short attention span, or maybe it’s just that kind of cd you buy to support a band that you know is good. i stand by ‘metal detektor’ though. that’s some hot shit. as a whole though, i’d just much rather listen to girls can tell.

holy crap i totally love this. new hey mercedes songs give me a musical hard-on every time, guaranteed.

don’t worry, those are nowhere near as awkward to have around other people as the regular kind, otherwise my coworkers may not approve.

had an off night yesterday following a long-awaited reunion. expectations and circumstances got all jumbled and broken and i ended up sitting at home listening to the mountain goats’ tallahassee and drinking a root beer, which made me feel better but not good. i think the evening’s run ins have shaken loose some feelings of mine which i had successfully tucked away all summer, allowing me to be fully happy and perfectly fine staying utterly single, until their return which has left me insecure and grumpy. boy, i sure missed that feeling.

it’s not that i’m upset at what did or didn’t happen. it’s that seeing her reminded me of a lot of things i guess i hadn’t thought about in a while all very suddenly, and i don’t think i was emotionally prepared. living in a nice social bubble all summer spending tons of time with my wonderful friends has made me soft i think; the thought of trying to meet someone new right now is just scary. so although i’ve been happy for months just enjoying the people i already love, aburptly getting a reminder that i’m going to have to look elsewhere for that little extra something i’ve been missing for forever now kind of slapped me in the face. i suppose i’d just managed to ignore that until then, and she’s certainly a catalyst for memories. i wish i had been able to separate the two though because seeing her could have been a lot more fun if it could have been only that — seeing an old dear friend for a dinner party. it never is though and the day i can make it just that will be a happy day for me.

meanwhile, an attempt to shove those pesky nagging feelings back into the hole they leapt from with a combination of rock and roll, video games, alcohol, netflix, dostoevsky, and a friday off of work. let’s hope that plan works, eh? and if anyone wants to point a beautiful young lady my way to add to that list i wouldn’t mind so much either.

oh and don’t forget the pay day song. lord knows i haven’t. picking up tyanny of distance at amoeba was a smart move even if it was while inebriated, and once you hear timorous me, if you haven’t already, you will see why. i think this may be my absolute favorite ted leo song, in fact. album review up soon i imagine, but enjoy this terrific song right now. it’s quite fitting actually.

the animation show (2003) – 5 stars

click that link. if it’s playing in a town you live in or can drive to, for god’s sake pay the 8 bucks to see this. not just because they’re working really hard to get it distributed to a wide audience so people can actually see some award-winning and amazing animation that never gets shown in front of wide audiences otherwise. not just because i think you should support the project of someone i have a specific love toward and i want to see this do well so that it happens yearly as they hope it will. see it because it’s great. visually it ranges from 3-d computer animation to cartoony animation to pencil-drawn pieces and claymation, and i don’t think there was a single piece among them i didn’t love watching. check out the lineup, and i can personally vouch that each one of those pieces was excellent. and i can vouch for the fact that there were several others not on that list that were all pleasant surprises too. of course, i especially enjoyed the 3 pieces (yes, three! all on a big screen! that alone should convince you!) from hertzfeldt, even though i’d seen one of them dozens of times already, but overall it was really just a great time. if you don’t live in one of those towns on that list (which i’m sure you’ve already checked), they said in the Q & A afterward it would likely be released on dvd eventually as well.

ps: seeing the two guys in person at the special LA opener was awfully cool, and although you won’t get to see that, the film alone is still plenty worth your time.

and some recent netflix rentals…

hedwig and the angry inch – 3 stars

although the music was at times surprisingly great, and there were some hilarious moments, i don’t know if it was quite my brand of film. i don’t mean this disparagingly at all, but it was pretty gay. i liked it overall but just don’t feel very strongly about it as worthy of a repeat viewing, though i would recommend it for a first time to others.

the good girl – 3 stars

similarly, a decent movie to see once that gets some solid laughs — my favorite character was the bitter and bitchy young coworker cheryl whom i had a big crush on from her first few seconds of screen time — but had what i thought was a very unsatisfying ending. i know it was supposed to, life is unsatisfying, blah blah blah . . . but screw you, i want fantasy dammit.

the man who wasn’t there – 4 stars

as my quest to catch up on my recently-declared-favorites the coen brothers continues, this lived up pretty well. the dialogue didn’t crackle as much as some of their other films, but that’s what happens when you have an unaffected camusian main character who just doesn’t talk much. but the black and white cinematography was excellent, and even though the movie was about as monotone as the narration, the lack of highs and lows did not keep me from enjoying the whole thing.

last night, after a midday office summer party (meaning free lunch and beers), i decided only a little tiny bit buzzed just wouldn’t do. this led to a number of discoveries, such as the availability of a happy hour within comfortable walking distance of mike’s new place featuring three dollar drinks. we made full use of this discovery up until 9pm. afterward i discovered how novel it is that not only is it a fairly short walk back from the bar to his place, but that it just so happens to be a short walk passing right by amoeba music. at this point i discovered the novelty of going to your favorite record store on the planet while gleefully intoxicated. everything is so delightful! i’m usually all smiles and eyes a-twinkle when i’m in that place already, but picking up glorious used cd’s without a care in the world and a lingering whiskey sway is just a joy, let me tell you. i hope my willpower keeps that from getting to be too expensive a vice, cause it was a pretty great, chill bar with a pretty talented, friendly bartender. that means of course we’ll be going back, and i’ll be faced with that temptation again…

and the last discovery i don’t know if you’d believe if i told you, nor do i believe you quite need to be told. but i did get a free dinner out of it.

tonight it’s off to the animation show! i’m going to try get my eyeball to shoot out and spray blood admiringly on don hertzfeldt’s shirt, if possible. a handshake may have to be substituted last minute though.

[now hearing this: neutral milk hotel – in the aeroplane over the sea.]

following the craze of talking about digital piracy issues, here’s a short essay from hey mercedes (august 13th). it’s extra interesting to hear the opinion of people in indie rock bands, and encouraging to hear that they think exactly as i do. thought this would especially interest you, justin. i like the comparison of an ipod to a ‘portable record-store listening station’.

ha! who the hell had the brilliant idea to make an aquaman video game?

and if that gets a 2.3 out of 10, what ranks below it?

what a numbskull! the pay day song link was bad for over a week and i didn’t know it. fucking space bar!

anyhow it’s fixed so you may go ahead and rock now.