Category: Uncategorized

i’m in this class where we have to send a lot of class-wide emails, and we all have roles in one big semester-long project. one of the ‘supervisor’ kids sends emails that are almost unbearable to read though because of the extreme overabundance of praise and exclamation points. i’m sure everyone knows people like this. we got one this week that must have drained her thesaurus of synonyms for ‘great’, and contained an unbelievable twenty-two exclamations to only two periods and one question mark. that’s 88 percent exclamations! how unnatural can you get, honestly — one simply cannot exclaim every thought. and there weren’t even any doubles or triples. each one was a separate (apparently) exciting idea. frankly, i was exhausted just reading it.

but boy was i happy afterward!

spring break starts…well, right now in spirit but i guess technically tomorrow night after i turn in my art project, which i get to spend all afternoon tomorrow editing (it’s digital video). gotta take care of some business between now and then, but i’m dancing for joy already. and this is the last one too. yikes. better get a commemorative haircut right away.

[now hearing this: cursive – ‘the great decay’.]

just really quick: describing someone as a “direct-to-video fixture” in a movie review is even more funny than referring to that one overweight black guy as “kangaroo jack cut-up anthony anderson”… but either way you have to read the onion’s review of cradle 2 the grave. it’s terrific.

i got my new impossibles dvd (never) say goodbye in the mail last week, and watched every minute of it. yes, i’m one of those guys who watches commentaries — but only on the stuff i really like. i love the impossibles, so of course i was thorough with this one. it made me realize something though which i think needs to be instituted more uniformly across the world of independent rock music: the farewell video. i own two of these now, the other being braid’s killing a camera. interesting that both of them are named after songs of theirs, but that’s not the point.

the point is that if i were in charge, i would make these mandatory for any bands breaking up that have gained any sort of following. you videotape the last big goodbye show, provide interview/behind the scenes footage enough where you get to fully explain your reasons for breaking up along with some off-the-cuff humor and insight, and leave that to your fans as a kind of parting gift. i don’t know if you’ve seen this sort of thing, but i know when i watch either of these, it’s like watching a great tragedy. i get really involved with the characters and experience their excitement and joy, and then in the end feel the real sadness in the finality of the whole event. you get the pleasure of seeing them play their hearts out one last time and the pain of knowing that after that, it’s all over — it’s beautiful! it’s perfect. i honestly think every band should do this. that means you, any bands that have recently called it quits… ahemdplancoughshinersniffleburningairlinescough. plus, they get to make a few extra bucks in the final breaths of their band, right? everyone wins! it’s a glorious institution. vote yes on prop 35b and get a quality send-off from your favorite defunct music groups. the children are our future!

and in honor of this idea which i’m sure will take the music world by storm, i’ve chosen a delightful selection from the aforementioned impossibles dvd for the song of the week. that is to say, they play this song at the last show; but the recording i’m sharing is actually from their first album, not the live version from that night. still, you’d do yourself wrong to have not heard the week of august 1st. listen to it while emailing that special band asking them to document their demise before they fade away.

[now hearing this: ted leo/pharmacists – “the ballad of the sin eater” from hearts of oak. caught them live last night as part of my super-fantastic weekend but that story will have to wait til tomorrow.]

so now, i write a check to toyota every month so that i can zip around in a silver car. now, i have a ‘respectable resume’. now, i get to decide what town to live in in 6 months’ time. now, my eyebrows perk up when my cell phone has more than three bars worth of reception. now, the waiting is almost over and the building is about to get under way. now, more than ever, i’m aware of where i am and where i need to go, and now, more than ever, i feel like i’m in control of what comes next.

so now, more than ever, i hope there is patience enough in you to hear about it over and over until it’s just done with already.

believe me, no one is more sick of hearing about it than i am of thinking about it.

[now hearing this: kruder and dorfmeister – the k&d sessions.]

i didn’t mention that we saw old school on saturday. i’d say if you take it for what it is, it’s pretty damn funny. i know it was stupid, you don’t have to tell me; but will ferrell and vince vaughn both have really good comic talent that makes a lot of not-so-great dialog suddenly very funny. they know how to deliver, and they know how to improvise. could the movie have done with more of them shining and less old-guy and/or fat-guy humor? well, probably, but what movie couldn’t. i’d certainly watch it again when it inevitably ends up on comedy central.

in my philosophy class this morning the guy sitting next to me was taking notes with one of those little miniature golf pencils that are only about the length of a thumb. when he dropped it on the floor he made this face like he didn’t even want it back, but i picked it up for him and gave it to him anyway, and he kept using it. i kinda feel sorry for him for some reason. he doesn’t even get to erase.

[now hearing this: cave in – “lift off”]

motivation: zero.

that point has come as it has every year in memory. only this time it’s more severe than ever because it’s not ‘i want summer’, it’s ‘i want to move into the whole next part of my life’. it’s much more intense than before because i know things are going to be new soon, and i just love the idea of personal progression and evolution. i’m excited.

too bad it’s only now turning to march, and there are months left to wade through between this point and that one. it’s a struggle that takes significant strength. just to stay awake in an economics class at this point is an ordeal, same with mustering the energy to do a video art project to complete a minor. especially when i can see no real way that either will give me any enjoyment or personal growth, which is most important; or even at least put another tool in my career-building belt, which would be at least some sort of consolation were it to be so. sadly, it is not, and i must waste time and energy doing futile things.

i have this great idea of the life i want, and it’s fun sort of skipping around picking out little ways to make it real. a lot of it i can’t control obviously, because a big part of it is connecting with other people — their participation not exactly being my decision. still, it does seem like i’m getting somewhere lately. now as soon as that dark-haired, lovely girl hiding behind a book and a pair of glasses decides to come introduce herself to me, i might be right on the path to something great.

[now hearing this: nothing technically, but i was listening to wu-tang clan’s “triumph” on the way in this morning and thinking how that song is pretty phat. yeah, i said it.]

wait a second, speaking of being funny sometime soon — i haven’t done the ‘gee, the internet is so cool, look what funny search strings bring people to my webpage!’ thing in a long time, but this one was so over the top i had to share it with someone. i mean, who types 16-word sentences into a search engine anyway? and gets all the way to proud search result number 67 (at time of this posting anyway)? that’s some funny shit. you know, funny in that ‘malaise of the handicapped’ sort of way

…umm, i think this is the part where someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me i’m going to hell if i don’t shut up soon.

but sorry, whoever you are, i cannot help you with your wordy conundrum. i’m SO down with the hearing community i just don’t think we’d get along.

i went to get a cheeseburger at carl’s jr. today as i sometimes do when i’m hungry. i normally don’t get the combo because just the burger and fries saves like 15 cents or something, and i have soda here. today i was feeling frisky though, so i got the whole shebang thinking, “hey, i’m in the mood for some dr. pepper, and i don’t have that at home. let’s go all the way!”

then i got to the fountain and of the 8 flavors, the damn dr. pepper had to be the one that was ‘out of order’. what the hell, how can one flavor be out of order? and even if there was good reason, that’s the sort of little irony that just puts me on the lookout the whole rest of the day. stupid coca-cola…i only really love you when you’re masked in vanilla or cherry.

alright i sort of slacked off on the song of the week thing, but for good reason. two actually. one is that i can’t ftp to my web space right now for some reason and i can’t upload. not my fault. the other is that really i’ve been listening most often to free stuff from various other places on the web, so there’s really no reason for me to put up my own separate mp3 this week — that’s just wasteful. and i’m certainly not a fan of superfluous actions. or prepositions, speaking of.

so here are a bunch of things that have been frequenting my playlist this week, which i urge you to sample every which way. the minus the bear track was song of the week a while ago and i don’t have it on mp3 but i listen to the cd an awful lot and they just put that up on their page so i thought i’d put it anyway.

rilo kiley – the good that won’t come out

rilo kiley – the execution of all things

mates of state – hoarding it for home

rainer maria – breakfast of champions

rainer maria – tinfoil

minus the bear – monkey!!! knife!!! fight!!!

reggie & the full effect – getting by with it’s

reggie & the full effect – congratulations smack & katy

postal service – such great heights

(this one i especially can’t stop. jesus, it’s like cocaine. highly recommended cocaine.)

ted leo & the pharmacists – where have all the rudeboys gone?

(i wonder if this is at all a joke on the really shitty song about cowboys instead of rudeboys?)

ted leo & the pharmacists – under the hedge

(oh, plus we’re going to see ted leo with atom and his package a week from saturday at the troubadour. that should be great, if you want to come. hopefully atom will play that song about how strongly he feels about the US needing to switch to the metric system where he says “you can stick your fucking ‘foot’ up your fucking ass.”)

so that’s a tidy little list, you should get along just fine without a new song of the week with all this easy-to-download stuff in one place. and maybe sometime soon i’ll write about something other than music, possibly even something actually funny.

[now hearing this: see above.]

it’s been a few days, and i hope you missed me as much as i missed you.

had a hell of a weekend though. down to anaheim friday night to catch the stereo, which was a fun show more or less. i like the band quite a bit and they played most of the tunes i wanted to hear most (and if you’ve never heard their song “can’t look back” then i recommend you fix that right now). the night overall was severly dampened though by a late addition of this band abandoned pools to the bill. they sure weren’t on when i bought the tickets. in case for some reason you don’t recall, they’re an awful ‘alt-rock’ band that had one single that was on mtv last summer which was total shit — something about “..and you can be the remedy…”. anyway, they took forever to set up and kept whining about the monitors between every song, then had the gall to say to a crowd of maybe 150 suburban indie kids, “yeah, so we opened up for lenny kravitz on a tour last year, playing to places that seated like 15,000…but this is so much better…” what a bunch of jerkweeds.

apparently they also wrote the theme to clone high though, which they performed to start their set. i turned to my friend emily and said, “well…i sure like that tv show.” (ooo, and it’s on tonight too.)

we saw a much better overall show saturday night though. rainer maria with mates of state. i don’t own any music by either of these bands, but let me tell you i’m certainly about to. i’m normally not into female-fronted bands at all because they just don’t sound right most of the time. my ‘i’m not sexist, honest’ reason for this is that i think girl bands try to be just like guy bands but they’re not, because girls’ voices sound different than guys’ voices, so to be a good girl-fronted band, you have to work with what you have. so now i officially really really like three girl-fronted bands, the third being rilo kiley (listened to ‘good that won’t come out’ about four times yesterday, i think). all three of these bands know what the hell they’re doing and sound great. it makes me respect them that much more for not falling into the trap.

so i have to say that mates of state were outstanding. i have to get a hold of their cover of nico’s ‘these days’ which they closed their set with. and rainer maria was great fun too — i swear their guitarist guy spends the entire concert on the balls of his feet, either jumping, swaying violently, running, bouncing, or something. i bet he could kick my ass in a 50-yard dash.

the song of the week from last week came on my ipod this morning in the car and reminded me to switch it when i get home today, so hopefully i’ll remember and you’ll have grabbed it before it’s too late.

rock on, monday.

[now hearing this: i don’t know why girls wear shoes that make so much noise when they walk.]

a little post-valentines reflection has turned up an interesting revelation. namely that for what is probably the first time in my young adult life, i am honestly totally indifferent toward the whole ‘girl’ thing. i’ve had happy times and sad times with and without them, but i’ve always seemed to be trying to keep one or find one or in some few spans trying to get rid of one. now it’s none of those things and it doesn’t bother me at all. not at all.

this does a few things for me. on one hand it’s a nice sense of freedom. perhaps the whole thing is just the product of being very busy and not having time to feel lonely — i’ve been trying to balance school work and friends and still finding time for myself as it is. but i feel like all the self-afflicted pressure i’ve felt in the past to find someone is nowhere in sight this time around. it’s nice. really nice.

i can’t say that i’m not a little bit concerned though, cause on the other hand i’m worried that it might just be denial or something and in a matter of weeks i’ll be feeling the hole again. but even more scary is the possibility i’ll never care again. maybe i’m just better this way and romance isn’t for me and i’d be best just staying this way from now on. i doubt that’s true, but wouldn’t it be strange if i just gave up and admitted to myself that the person i envision in those daydreams probably doesn’t even exist anymore?

that’s depressing and probably not at all true so let’s not think about that — there are tons of amazing women in the world, i’m sure of it. i suppose i should just be grateful that now i’m in a position to just hang tight and let them come to me.

[now hearing this: soulwax – hang the dj mix session on mp3. this is some hot stuff.]