uh oh, it’s pay day song time again. and you know, i’ve pretty much decided after several streaming listens to the album, that sumday is really kind of boring. i do, however, really love the first track, now it’s on. not enough to buy the cd, but enough to listen to it four times daily.
[addendum: if you tried to download this last night/this morning, it was broken, but is now fixed. i blame my four year old home computer.]
i just want to take a moment to declare my respect for the people of this world, the many, varied and scattered individuals who have the bravery to go out in public in outright denial of common fashion sense. the fully developed sense of self that allows them to not just leave the house going fully against fashion trends, but with utter disregard for the constraining rules of simple tastefulness, is something more of us should aspire to. couldn’t the world benefit from more heroes of dress with the courage to stand tall with a bugle boy fanny pack strapped proudly across their midsection?
so this is just a quick tribute to the men who walk confidently with socks stuffed into sandals; to guys who wear capri pants and girls who wear sweat pants; to those that manage to fill out XL-sized looney tunes t-shirts; to those committed enough to wear same-colored shoes, pants, shirt, bandana and hat, all at the same time (that’s dedication!); and especially to white guys with cornrows. your laughter in the face of the common aesthetic is truly an inspiration.
oh, and also to the girl i saw in the mailroom who for the second day in a row has worn a white shirt and no bra to our air conditioned office. thanks.
[now hearing this: alkaline trio – “’97”]
sometimes i feel like it’d be a really cool way to meet someone if you just pulled up next to them in your car at a red light, thought they were cute, then started talking to them. i don’t think i’d often have that sort of opportunity though. but last night coming home from a trip to pink’s hot dogs i might have missed a chance (the brooklyn pastrami swiss dog is choice; i have a special place in my heart for food that is delicious the first bite then disgusting by the last bite. i think that place is located just next to my gradually clogging arteries).
it was one of those times where i was coincidentally driving the exact same speed as the person next to me and we had both turned and looked briefly at eachother. my two roommates who were in the car also happened to notice the girl in the lane to my left looking over our way. so being a proper showman, as we rolled slowly up to a red light, i turned and caught her looking at me again and gave a very exaggerated, startled double-take sort of look right at her to see if she’d laugh. i get bolder when i’m with my pals i think. so having stopped my car, i held eye contact for a second to see if she was going to react at all. it was dark, so in that second i couldn’t tell what sort of face she was making, and didn’t get a chance to figure it out because in looking at me she had almost rolled right into the car in front of her and suddenly and jerkily stepped on the brake. the three of us laughed quite a bit at this but the light turned green too soon for any amiable glances back in her direction over our shared moment of foolishness, and she turned left at the next intersection bringing our affair to a premature end.
so sad, those glimpses at what could have been. good full weekend all around though: watched a few dvd’s, beach trip, movie outing, bike ride, video games, hot dogs at pinks, drinking with the crew, donut dash at 1am… i’m proud to say that i make damn good use of those two days off work pretty much every week so far in my first few months of genuine employment. here’s to time well spent, eh?
[now hearing this: grandaddy – sumday.]
buying a really expensive television is pretty lavish, but to be fully bling bling, you have to take a limo to go buy a really expensive television.
at least, that’s the only way i can think of to explain why there was a limosine parked in front of the circuit city i stopped in this afternoon.
do limos have really stretched out trunks then too? if your car can hold 8 passengers wouldn’t your trunk need to accomodate them as well?
actually who cares about that. i was just picturing one of those stupid looking stretch escalades. those are awful. the only way an SUV limosine would be cool is if two guys on motorcycles busted out the back like it was an episode of fastlane or something.
[now hearing this: spoon – ‘take a walk’.]
cages – dave mckean
4 stars (out of 5)
so i like to pepper my reading schedule with a few comics, what are you going to do, beat me up? well i wouldn’t if i were you, because i own a copy of cages, which could easily double as a weapon seeing as how it is 500 pages long and roughly the dimensions of a phone book, not to mention hardcover as well. so i don’t think you want to be making fun of someone who could potentially reach for it and give you a swift concussion.
someone who, while you were in the dreamy state of newly-returned consciousness, would then politely point out to you the masterful talent that went into this behemoth visual work, from panels of traditional comic drawing to page-sized paintings or manipulated photography collages, and the sheer beauty of the whole thing that would easily dazzle anyone with the least hint of artistic appreciation.
someone who would then read you a selection just to cement his point, at which time the charmingly eccentric but believable characters would definitely convince you to take it all back and buy yourself a copy if it weren’t fifty dollars at retail, in which case you may just want to wait for a birthday or other gift-giving holiday and hope you have friends as generous as i do. just be sure they know well beforehand who your new favorite artist is.
yes, you definitely do not want to pick a fight with a person that has read cages, if you have any sense in you. it would be so much easier to just skip straight to reading the book on your own and save your forehead the bump.
the story itself might not take your breath away but the style and content of the images are well worth forgoing the potential pleasure one would imagine comes from beating up a comic book geek. and i won’t even tell you’ve crossed over.
[now hearing this: the roots – things fall apart.]
Super Fucking Rock Month has encountered a little bump. the jerks at the el rey (i refuse to believe it was spoon’s fault) switched that show from thursday next to friday next, which is the same night we already had reggie tickets. now we have to go and palm off the reggie tickets at the house of blues to some teenage girls with studded belts — hopefully in exchange for their phone numbers and the date of their 18th birthdays — then get back in the car and go to the el rey for spoon, then drive out of town to see reggie saturday night instead. what a hassle. so if anyone wants two tickets to reggie on friday july 18th, i’ll give them to you for what i paid, which is a fair price for a reggie show. you don’t even have to be hot, or 17. it just helps.
speaking of underage sexuality (i can see the search strings now) . . . i happened to see a commercial for mtv latin america at work today. it’s a baby being breast fed. then some sexy music comes on and the baby starts smiling up at his mother, then the baby’s little hand goes for the mother’s other breast and starts . . .[shudder] . . . yes, it’s what you fear. so i’m thinking, ‘wow, this is really gross and weird’. then the tag comes up at the end and it says: “i watched mtv once.”
what the hell does that mean? mtv makes kids want to fondle their mothers? i mean, i know foreign ads are usually more daring and don’t have the same restrictions ours do, but that’s just messed up. now when i want to get in touch with the pop culture trends of el salvador i’m going to have to turn somewhere else; i just can’t support that sort of organization.
[now hearing this: the pay day song floating down from upstairs. go roommate.]
our neighbors next door to the west are a couple hispanic families in two little houses on the same lot, and they have a lot of barbeques. possibly more than we do. theirs always seem to smell better too, but i’d say that’s just because they have more experience. i’m just getting started on the path to barbeque-master status. yesterday’s was especially fun to watch from our porch though because through what i imagine are connections in our friendly nation just to the south, they had a bunch of fireworks to light off in their tiny paved front yard/driveway area.
it was pretty funny though because they also have an indeterminate amount of children which seems to range from four to fourteen depending on the day, probably all under 10, maybe 12 max, who are always running around having a good (loud) time. and who on this special occasion they were letting light off explosives right in front of them. even funnier because the kids were using long sticks whose ends had been lit in the grill to ignite the wicks, which made a pretty funny scene of kids running around with their little firebrands trying not to get blown up as things popped and exploded pretty much all day and into the night. one of my roommates was getting really jealous cause he didn’t get to blow anything up like the neighbor kids. we showed them though when we got on our roof and got to see real fireworks going off in all directions all over the city. who’s the winner now?
well anyway, happy 4th of july a day late. hope your holiday was as excellent as mine — but that would mean you’d have to match grilling delicious bratwurst at a lively barbeque, kicking ass at ping pong, the aforementioned roof climing that also let us see a house catch on fire a few miles away, and then winning at late night poker. if you can beat that then more power to you.
plus minus the bear put on a show thursday worth way more than 8 dollars i’d say. those guys are just fabulous; and communique, the middle act, played some hooky stuff too. i’d give them a thumbs up. this weekend is shaping up to be a worthy celebration of our nation’s independence, i’ll tell you what.
how about a beach trip and a birthday party to keep it going then? yeah i think that just might work.
[now hearing this: reggie and the full effect – under the tray. that show’s coming up in two weeks too.]
charlie’s angels: full throttle – 2 stars (out of 5)
yes, i went to see this movie opening weekend, but i was thinking it over, and the movie doesn’t really bear a full review. so here:
enjoy that? well since cameron diaz’s ass/abdomen combo is more or less the main character in the movie, if you did enjoy it, then this movie is for you. at least, assuming you can also bear lots of ludicrous and flashy action sequences. luckily i can go for a hearty scoop of both once in a while and actually had a good time watching. sure missed bill murray though — the first was definitely better.
the pianist – 2 stars
weeeellll…adrien brody was really good. but i’m pretty sure i can never fully enjoy a holocaust story. just not my kind of film. plus you know what’s going to happen; the war is going to end and either the guy survives or he doesn’t. although there were some great shocking images of german cruelty that i appreciate the dramatic value of, i just feel like i could have missed it and not been that much worse off. not really a critical review here, but what can i say. needed more ninjas.
tomorrow our weekend starts on wednesday, for real. how exciting is that? i don’t quite understand the logic behind giving us the 3rd and 4th off for the holiday, granted. it would make sense if thursday was the 4th and they gave us the 5th off so we didn’t have to come back for one day, sure. but this way it’s as if a bunch of important people just wanted to be able to take longer weekend trips to expensive locales, which i certainly won’t complain about, don’t get me wrong. it gives me an extra day to watch dvd’s i got in the mail and eat beef products that have been cooked over fire. i’ll take it.
not to mention that this begins Super Fucking Rock Month (also known as july), in which we’re scheduled for a record-breaking six concerts. at least i think that’s a personal record. nonetheless, the excitement begins this thursday with one of my favorite newer bands minus the bear and continues in full swing on sunday with rilo kiley. i’m already getting anxious. oooo, indie rock girls.
i would make the pay day song one by the bands with live shows coming up in anticipation, but they’ve both been songs of the week recently already. and i thought about making it d-plan in memorial after seeing them the last time a month ago and then listening to them all day at work the other day, but that passed. instead i’m gonna go with a differently appropriate song to lead me into the long weekend. i haven’t been able to stop listening to XO lately so i don’t see why this week of all weeks i shouldn’t share some independence day goodness. delicious.
[now hearing this: dianogah.]
it’s alive! it’s aliiiiiiiiiiive!
so here we are in the new digs. hopefully my clever subversion of blogger difficulties has led the right people to the right place despite the hassle. i will explain. i switched my settings in blogger to publish via ftp to test out this new location. it worked great, and it was oh so easy. score one for blogger. then i said to myself, hey, time to post a nice little “we’ve moved…” message back at the old space on blogspot, so i tried switching back to the old settings. what’s that? i can’t publish to collapsing.blogspot.com? because it’s taken by someone else already? but wait, i AM that someone else! what’s wrong with this picture? big strike against blogger.
but after an hour or more of research and no leads, i remembered i had image files in the old template that was still up, just unreachable for editing, which i could manipulate independently of blogger. so i just changed the text of the logo image and now i have outsmarted the idiot once again, proving i am an internet superstar. i assume everyone will be kind enough to update their links and follow my rise to virtual celebrity status/descent into megalomania. and buy the shirts.
now that i’m here i’ve added some touches, fixed some graphics, and for the first time, allowed some audience participation. all just in time for the big two.[years].collapsing that was yesterday, officially. it seemed like the time to move out on my own. besides, i was going to need a new email address once my university one expires in a couple months anyway. done and done.
BOO YAH!
[now hearing this: the plan all over my itunes at work.]