Category: Uncategorized

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.

so i go to in-n-out with a couple friends. i drop them off at their place and head back home (south on la brea from sunset). i pull up to a red light and stop. i look around at the people in the cars around me, as usual — nothing interesting. i look to my right at the people getting out of the car parked right next to me against the curb. ooo, hot girls. and she looks like . . .

no way. impossible. of course, there is a huge man looking very bodyguard-esque escorting her and her friend into the shop there. and there are a few paprazzi across the intersection . . .

oh my god i actually did see britney spears from like 10 yards away. not even at some red-carpet hollywood star-watching thing, on a regular old sidewalk a few miles from my apartment. and she looked right at me when she was closing her car door. she made me get honked at when the light turned green because i was not paying attention at all. i laughed most of the rest of the way home because i didn’t believe that really just happened to me.

living in los angeles is so weird. and SEXY!

too bad it wasn’t living in chicago which would mean i could drive down to champaign this weekend for furnacefest and see my favorite band of ALL TIME who has the nerve to play a REUNION SHOW halfway across the country from here (or 300 dollars of short-notice-airfare from here, in more practical terms) after being broken up for several YEARS. now that would be sexy. anyone who lives in driving distance and happens to videotape their set will garner my undying love and an adequately substancial financial compensation as well; no fooling. any midwesterners who are tempted by this email me for more details and agreements can be made, you lucky bastards.

{addendum: i don’t know how i got birmingham and champaign mixed up, but gabe tipped me off and the sad thing is it’s equally far away and i know even fewer people in birmingham. meaning zero. but the invitation stands all the same.}

[now hearing this: headin’ home to go wifi! i can download new music again and be all cultured and shit! and have something new to name-drop in this post-script next time!]

wireless card: received!

minor obstacle of incompetent mailman: overcome!

set-up and implementation: imminent!

more posting: later tonight!

i bet you didn’t know i had a little doohickey for music, did you? that’s cause i was a little dry in the cd-buying department for a while, but then with the excitement of Super Fucking Rock Month i just had too much music to process. so having had a little time to reflect, here are some cds i’ve picked up in conjunction with all those great concerts:

spoon – a series of sneaks (mp3) – ?? stars

i know this is an awful way to start off this post, but it’s the most honest one: i only listened to this cd once, and that was on the way home from the concert in my car while i was also having a conversation with joe, so i really have no opinion on this. it was just the worst time to try to get into a new cd, with packing and moving and all. i have always really liked the song ‘metal detektor’ though and i can only assume i will feel the same way about this cd as the other spoon cd’s — it’s good but not favorite-good. time will tell.

rilo kiley – take offs and landings (mp3s) – 3 stars

jenny lewis single-handedly broke my aversion to girl-fronted bands by simply writing some fantastic songs. her voice is such a pleasure to listen to and the lyrics are genuinely good. the live show convinced me more than anything to buy their newer album the execution of all things a few months ago — which is even better than this disc — because they are just so good in person, but a second show prompted me to buy this older album. sure, i had to go to amoeba to get it because they didn’t have any at the merch table (why not, i will never know), but there are enough great tracks on this cd, especially ‘wires and waves’, to make it worth grabbing. all the charm of the band that attracts me so much with just slightly less rock than execution, is all.

piebald – rock revolution ep (mp3s) – 3 stars

i looooove piebald. i adore piebald live sets. they’re just a really fun band to see and hear. so the piebald/ozma show at the troubadour last week was about as good as they come (see below for more), topped only by last year’s hey mercedes/piebald shows with koufax opening. although their set didn’t contain a single song off this ep and was instead chock full of all their greats (‘location is everything’! ‘just a simple plan’!) and at least 5 new songs which were all really great, i bought this because i like buying things from my favorite bands, and this was the only cd i wanted i didn’t already have. for five bucks it’s not bad: you get a version of ‘american hearts’ where he sings bostonian for “you’re part of it…” which is more like “you’re PAAHT of it…”, and you get a few other decent b-sides, even if one of them is a sort of corny one about van halen. but if you’re stingy and not a collector, you can just save the cash for a new bright eyes shirt and download the definite best song off the release, ‘they don’t understand us at the academy’, from mp3.com (link above). not doing at least that would be plain foolish.

ozma – spending time on the borderline (mp3s, sweet ass video) – 4 stars

up there on the ‘bands that are probably better live than recorded’ list is ozma, for sure. i like almost all of their songs, but on a stage they tend to rock a lot more than they do on a cd. not to say i don’t like listening to them that way either — cause it’s still solid stuff. it’s poppy and full of sing-a-long choruses and great riffs with some keyboards thrown in to increase the bounce factor. i probably have listened to this several times daily since i bought it with no signs of slowing. you might want to check out the song of the week for a demonstration, or watch their cool video. the real ticket is seeing them play though, because the lyrics get belted out and the guitars get shredded on in ways i guess they just couldn’t capture in a recording, and it’s all a great, clean sound. maybe they’re really picky with sound guys, but somehow their tunes always seem really crisp and well put together, and seeing their little guitar player jose jump around doesn’t hurt either.

ted leo – a notably absent tyranny of distance review

who plays a show and sells absolutely no merchandise? not a single scrap? i go to this show fully intending to give up 10 or 12 bucks for some of the great tunes i just heard, and i CAN’T, cause there’s no one selling anything. i don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. so twice now i will have had to go to a record store post-show because i couldn’t do what i wanted to do most, and buy cd’s right from the bands so i know they’re getting my money. ah well, i dig checking out record shoppers anyway.

since we don’t have cable (yet?) at the new place, instead of flipping to comedy central and cartoon network to watch my two favorite shows at night, my new roommate and i were flipping through the rabbit-ear-enabled channels we do get the other night in our boredom. we watched the last half of an episode of dharma and greg which was hilarious in a way because after they were fighting (oh no!), they made up and it was very cute (can you believe it!?), but as they were driving home together they, you know, swerved to miss a deer and ramped an embankment and rolled their car about 4 times down the road.

what the fuck is that about!? i doubled over laughing at that one — is that what you call a plot twist? dharma and greg are stupid jerks. and so are the makers of dharma and greg. if i ever hear something advertising, “from the makers of dharma and greg…” i’m going to specifically watch educational programming instead of that show, just to show them. i mean, have you ever seen that show extreme engineering? sure, it loses a few points for the overused ‘extreme’ in the title, but it does gain a lot more for being awesome. and not being full of or written by stupid jerks.

[now hearing this: me still not having internet access at home and typing quickly so i can blog and still leave soon. laterrrrrrr.]