Team Elizabeth U.!!!

So, I got an email today that the new single from the Rapture will be streaming on their myspace profile starting tomorrow. I hope their next album is better than Echoes. That shit was way too inconsistent, and vocalist dude's uh, voice was unbearable. Ugh.

I just listened to the new Jessica Simpson song... Word on the street was that she ripped off Madonna's "Holiday". And they really do sound alike! Which is why I sort of like this song! But Jessica looks so messed up now with her tacky-ass wigs. Team Lachey! But Nick's fucking weepy song is painful to listen to! Team Simpson!

Um. I just listened to "Everybody" by Madonna for the first time. And yes, I did recognize the sampled part used in that Annie song. (I'm so perceptive.) Team Madonna!!

Speaking of Madonna, I bought Rachel a copy of Psychic Hearts. Team Ciccone Youth!!!

You know whose team I DON'T support? Fucking publicists. I swear to god, if I was a publicist, I would be answering my emails all day as quickly as possible and in an incredibly organized manner. I don't understand what they're thinking. Publicists should make the whole process of contacting a musician or band easier... unless your client is Pete Doherty or Britney Spears, then it's all about damage control and keeping the media away and trying to keep the dumb clients in line. Shouldn't publicists be at least communicative and professional? Do they realize that I'm trying to do them a fucking favor? Believe me, I'm not a moron, I'm nice to publicists so that they'll be good to me when arranging interviews. It should go as painlessly as possible, but a good number of them are totally lax about the way they handle their work. Do they want to be taken seriously? I am not a jackass unless they provoke me, and boy, some really rub me the wrong way.

Of course I'm ranting because of something that happened, and that something is THIS: I emailed Tuesday eve asking for an interview with this singer. And Wednesday I got NO RESPONSE whatsoever. This morning I checked my email and nothing. You know, I tried to calm myself down; I told myself that I've become spoiled by the internet and that I always want things NOW NOW NOW. Well I come home this evening, and I see an email saying "are you all set for tonight w [artist's name] ? do you have a contact phone ?" Uh, NO. I didn't even know that I was doing a fucking interview with a fucking certain Argentinian singer tonight. Hey, next time you arrange an interview, MAKE SURE TO LET ME KNOW. LIKE IN ADVANCE. How am I supposed to fucking prepare? To make things superawesome, I was emailed by someone different from whom I originally contacted (er, grammar?), and she didn't even use proper capitalization!

This last problem is such a plague what with the internets ruling the world now. But it's like, COME THE FUCK ON. If you're in a position of certain value, you should NOT conduct your fucking work without using proper punctuation and capitalization. You sure took your time getting back to me--how about you take the time to write properly? I can't believe people expect to be respected like that. I KNOW you're not fucking robots and you may not have a perfect grasp on grammar and punctuation. But how about you give it a TRY? I'm a lowly "writer" (haha) who doesn't get paid for her work, but I take it seriously and I feel that there's a lot of honor in what I do, and believe you me, I FUCKING TRY.

In other news, things I got from Insound: this crazy compilation of Indian-Brazilian music from Outcaste Records, Wind in the Wires 7", and Despite Everything by Aaron Cometbus!!

By the way, anybody sent an envelope to Dorothy Gambrell? Have you guys received any stickers and/or pins if you have?

Sigh, back to doing research.

Bags are the New Skinny White Belts.

CRUMPLER BAGS/FUTUREHEADS MEET AND GREET! (PLUS FREE BEER)

In between gigs the band will be busy as ever. This Thursday June 29th,
they give a little New York “hello” to the fans before their gig on
Friday. The band will be hanging out and showing off their custom
designed Crumpler Bags. Check out some of the goods at
http://crumplerbags.com.

StarTime and Crumpler will be letting the first 50 people through the
door with proof of a ticket to the June 30th Futureheads/French Kicks
show at Webster Hall. Once in, you’ll instantly be entered to win 1 of
10 of the Futureheads/Crumpler bags. The band will also be on hand to
say hi, have a chat, give away some lovely swag, and of course, share a
pint.

This is all happening at Crumpler Bags (West Village) @ 49 8th Ave. –
corner of Horatio & W. 4th St. – Thursday 6.29.06 @ 7:30PM to 9:30PM

(Source: Startime International mailing list.)

Let it All Go at Once, not Piece by Piece!

Sleater-Kinney are more over than Britney Spears's career. I can't believe myself, but I'm actually crying. It totally makes me wanna go 4REAL. I want to scream right now...

I got so annoyed at this obnoxious kid on the train today that I did what any passive-aggressive bitch would do: I kicked him in the leg as he was getting off the train. Yeah, it felt great. I love violence!

It Makes Me Smile and it Keeps My Teeth Clean.

Umm... has anyone else seen that Orbit gum commercial with Snoop Dogg and thought it was amazing? It's heaven-sent!!

Just $1.65.

Met up with Rachelini and went to Central Park to see my one true love, Buck 65. The weather was breezy and drizzly. We sat through Jason Collett, who was not bad, though I think he was a bit boring on the stage. He's one of those Broken Social Scenestars. Y'know.

Buck 65 himself was all right. I feel bad that the crowd didn't care much for him. As I watched the set I thought, "So that's why he has no distribution here". I think a lot of people didn't know what to make of him. Well, his voice was as gravelly as ever, and he had that little book with him with his programming notes in it. And maybe there are lyrics in there, too. I'm not sure. I think it's a magical notebook. Anyway, I think the set was badly paced. Maybe I'm asking for too much, but a family-friendly, afternoon show? I'd have performed some faster numbers. Or at least some more "classic" songs. C'mon, where the hell was "Roses and Bluejays" when I needed it? At least I could have gotten "Wicked and Weird"... It was mostly from Secret House Against the World. "Rough House Blues" actually quite nice, though. And the first half of "Blood of a Young Wolf" was excellent. He butchered "Kennedy Killed the Hat", though, slowing it down and losing all the awesome momentum from the recorded version. I don't think he's a bad performer because I've seen footage of him performing live and it's really bitching and engaging. I think the best part, besides when he spoke, was when he was doing his thing on the turntables. I was like, "I wanna be a DJ!!"

Here is a live set dear little Rich Terfry did. Seriously, this is highly recommended, especially because of this crazy ass story he tells about fuckin' Pythagoras. So charming.

We didn't stay for Feist.

Shockingly, they accepted credit cards at the merch table, so I bought a copy of Talkin' Honky Blues. I'm totally shocked that I now own a copy. I'm too scared to open it. Owning this CD, it always seemed like a fantasy. Like my plan was that one day I was gonna go to Canada, chill with my bitches (like Molly, or Jax, or V, etc.) and I was gonna buy all the Buck 65 albums. Haha. I'm very happy about it though, no doubt.

Going home, I made the brilliant mistake of not listening to the announcements, and the train... sort of skipped my stop. It went all the way to the last station, which is about three stops from mine. So I tried to go back down to my stop, but then I realized my train station was completely closed for the weekend. I actually got off one stop away. To make everything so much more enjoyable, I really wanted to go to the bathroom! I was definitely able to hold it, but it wasn't the happiest experience (lolololol). I called my dad and was like, "Yeah, I'm at Mosholu, our train station is closed..." My dad was thinking I was in Manhattan for some stupid reason. He kept telling me to get a cab for some other stupid reason. I didn't realized he thought I was in Manhattan and I was like, "Why??" And then I felt offended because I thought he thought I was too weak and wouldn't be able to handle walking back home. I was so mad, all like, "He doesn't think I'm capable of doing ANYTHING! [Miserable sob.]" I wasn't sure how far away I was, but after I came home I found out it was only like, 10 blocks, at most. I was planning on walking the way back, just to show the bastard, but once I got on the big street, I noticed a bus stop and I took the bus back. Why pay for a fucking cab when you can ride the bus for "free"? It only took 10 or 15 minutes.

When I rang the bell for the apartment, I got no response. I couldn't believe it, because I'd only called home 20 minutes earlier. I wondered why they were ignoring me. So I let myself in, and my dad was like, "Elizabeth!! What are you doing home?! How'd you get here?!?!?!" I was like, "Uh, I got on Grand Concourse and took the bus." He was like, "But I thought you were in Manhattan!!!" And then he tried to blame things on me, even though I'd been so resourceful and levelheaded! I was totally like STFU. And then I went to the bathroom.

I Love Rock N Roll.

Yesterday I hung out with my friends. Went to Other Music with Rachel and Grumpy Jesus Guy was watching us. I have concluded that it's because this one time, Rachel and I were at the store and I asked her if she was going to purchase the CD she had in her hands, and she said in her typical sarcastic manner, "No, I'm going to steal it." He just gave us both this look.

Anyways, we went to the Quirowitz household and read musicsecret and had a good laugh. I mistakenly told them that Shaant from CIWWAFUCKTHISGODDAMNBANDNAMEISWAYTOOLONG is 18; I was confusing him with Sonny from From First to Last. Hey, sorry I confused one ugly greasy-haired bum with another. Shaant apparently is all of 19! I think everyone else was confused, too, Steven's Untitled Rock Show was on and FFTL were on but we were like, "Dude, that kid looks like Shaant." Boogie-Down Nicole and I also concluded that Trohman from Fall Out Boy is fucking awesome. This is evident in the following clip from the "Making Of... 'Dance, Dance'" video:



(Forward to around 1:12, and then to 3:25)

Rachel was like, "What's the big deal", but we were both like, "Dude, he's Jewish!" because we all know that's a totally legit reason for liking someone. For dinner we went to get Chinese food and I think Boogie-Down Nicole got a bit teary talking about how much she loves Selena.

Anyway, since I haven't written about Interpol in ages, here are my favorite remixes of their songs:

(1) "Fog vs. Mould for the Length of Love"
(2) "Obstacle 1 (Arthur Baker Mix)"
(3) "Public Pervert (Carlos D. Remix)"

We got some cool stuff at work. Like this new intern kid. He's so cute and cuddly and namechecked Aziz in my presence. He also seemed quite amused when "OMG I <3 Livejournal (And My Livejournal <3s Me)" played on my mp3 player. I think we'll be able to be friends. LOL. Well, the products we got were awesome and I sort of want ALL of them! I must save my store credit. We got the Four Tet DJ-Kicks, a compilation of British reggae and calypso, and We Jam Econo. I was shocked by the new intern because he asked me who the Minutemen are. I don't know why I was so shocked especially since this kid is pretty young; I think it was probably my sexist views of indie rock fans. It was a weird and irrational reaction from me. I just told him to read Our Band Could Be Your Life.

My dad told me that he plays the CD that I burned him with all these songs that he likes, and he observed that when he plays "La jaula de oro", the Mexican dudes in the liquor store my dad works in get bummed. I'm like, NO SHIT. The whole song is how living in America as an immigrant sucks. But I have to agree with him, what an awesome fucking song!

OMG! By the time I wake up tomorrow, my Joan Jett vid on YouTube will have had 10,000 hits! ASSUM! Speaking of videos, in my last post I forgot two important videos I think everyone should watch: "Dog on the Sidewalk" by Deerhoof and "Karma Police" by Radiohead.

Tomorrow: Jason Collett, Buck 65 (!!!) and Feist. I wanted to go to the Pride Parade but I really can't do both. I'd be too pooped by the end of the day, I think. I don't want to be in too many crowds and in the sun for so long.

A Lot of Useless Opinions on Pointless Subjects.

"I'm Like a Bird"
Yesterday morning Nelly Furtado was on the telly and I'm sure she performed her "hot" new "hit", but she also performed "I'm Like a Bird". And she destroyed it. It was awful. I don't know what's wrong with her, but in every performance I've seen recently and even in her videos, it's like she's just posing, as if she went to modeling school and she just thinks that cameras are everywhere. You know, like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton do: always ready for the cameras by presenting their best angles. Nelly, she wouldn't ever really move her head. I guess her new hair was real expensive and she just wants to pose in the proper way to show it off. It just makes her "dance moves" all awkward and needy for validation from, I dunno, the cooler kids.

But that's not where it ends. Her eyes were glazed over like, "Why the fuck am I singing this song again?" She knows the words, but she didn't feel them at all. AT ALL. I was so appalled by this behavior and wondered where it all went wrong. She could have cared less about performing.

La Perdida
Dude! This book was totally intense, you muthatouchas! Except the back of the book quotes someone telling the readers to "put down their copies of Love and Rockets", which is probably the worst advice you could give anyone, haha. It was nothing like Love and Rockets! The main character was pretty much as the title suggests, totally LOST in the midst of things. The female characters in L & R are fucking powerful and amazing. The character of Carla in La Perdida... well, not so much. But it brought up some interesting points about culture and "revolution" and stuff. It was also nice learning some new Mexican slang, haha. I found parts of it scarier than in Persepolis, and I wondered why. I think because Carla is from a privileged, safe background, you know it's a total shock to her that such scum roam the earth and she's stuck among them. On the other hand, war and terror and oppression permeate all of Persepolis, and we know that Satrapi, though she lives hard times, has become successful in her adopted country of France. La Perdida is not the best work I've read in terms of emotional effect, but still tells a good story.

Estudando O Pagode
I was shocked to hear this album. I thought it was gonna be real nice 'n' easy. I was expecting MPB--música popular brasileira. No chance, fuckers, just from this album I found pagode to be a very strange genre. It's the hardest album I've listened to in the past six months. As soon as the music started I was like, "Oh shit, I really should have been more familiar with this stuff before I decided to get listen to it." Not a bad album though, but it's more of a concept album and I feel like I was thrown into it without proper research. I think what I like best is that it really IS a study of the sub-genres in pagode; every track explains which kind it is. I am pissed at the liner notes, which are completely in English. Even the lyrics. Maybe it was too much to ask for English/Portuguese lyrics. Gawd.

I should mention that last week when Rachel and I went into Other Music, there was a $75 copy of Estudando O Samba, which I'm sure has been sold by now. (Went to OM again today, and the album was still there.)

Marisa Monte
Two nights ago, I listened to her voice, and I almost cried knowing that I will never have as beautiful a voice or sing in as lovely a manner.

"Warning"
For some reason I was thinking about this music video I really liked when I was in high school, Incubus's "Warning". I re-saw it recently and cripes, that song was much much worse than I remembered. I remembered it being beautifully angsty and deep. Hahahaha. It's like when I re-listened to the Spice Girls way after they were over, I was like, "Wow, these songs are actually BAD!" Likewise, the video was not as great as I recalled, but it was fun to go to songmeanings and see what people were saying about the video. People seemed pretty hung up that this girl kept screaming at 10:24; I wasn't as concerned about the numerical time as I was about the fucking post-its all over her room.

Lance Bangs
I packed this limited edition 7" for Lance Bangs at work, and Damian was like, "Hey, tell Lance to give a kiss to his wife for me". LOL!

Pitchfork
Everyone's favorite not-really-very-good-yet-strangely-very-revered online music publication did a feature on their favorite music videos. I think they just had each writer pick 3 or 5 favorites. It was a pretty good list, at least from the 20 or so videos from the list I was familiar with. I did take issue with the choice of certain videos; I could think of better ones. I just wasn't sure what they were going for, they say they were avoiding all the obvious awesome choices (er, everything Gondry, pretty much, lololol), but then they picked stuff like A-Ha and Duran Duran and Madonna. It's like, srsly? I totally wouldn't have thought of that! Pfft.

Video choices I agree with:
"Take on Me", A-Ha
"Coffee & TV", Blur
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", Cindy Lauper
"Hungry Like the Wolf", Duran Duran
"Our Lips Are Sealed", The Go-Go's
"Move Your Feet", Junior Senior
"All Caps", Madvillain
"Gossip Folks", Missy Elliott
"Got Your Money", ODB
"We Will Become Silhouettes", The Postal Service
"Bad Cover Version", Pulp
"Trapped in the Closet", R. Kelly
"Just", Radiohead
"I Gave You", Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney
"Poney Part 1", Vitalic(!!!)

Other videos I've seen and don't get why they were included:
"Danger! High Voltage!", Electric Six
"War Photographer", Jason Forrest
"Galang", M.I.A.
"Don't Save Us From the Flames", M83
"Material Girl", Madonna
"Mickey", Toni Basil
"My Doorbell", The White Stripes

I really don't think, for example, those are the best Madonna or White Stripes videos. And I don't think that Jason Forrest video is the best animated war-related video I've seen, that would go to Pinback's "Fortress".

Video I'm conflicted about:
"Helena", My Chemical Romance
"Untitled #1", Sigur Rós

"Helena" is interesting because it matches a cool concept that is well-realized with a really good, anthem-like song. But I don't think it's the best My Chemical Romance video, I consider that video to be "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". Yet "I'm Not Okay", as a song, is pretty crappy and is nowhere near the strongest MCR track. So which is more valuable? The solid video that lives up to the song, or the AMAZING video that makes the song more tolerable than it would have been otherwise? I love the "Helena" video, but I think the "I'm Not Okay" video will become the video that defines My Chemical Romance visually and will have a slightly better shelf life. Besides, the dead girl in the former video really creeps me out (in a bad way).

"Untitled #1" is definitely a beautiful video and very representative of not only the song, but Floria Sigismondi's visual prowess. But it's neither my favorite Sigur Rós video nor my favorite Sigismondi video. I think I like the "Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása" video the best; it makes me cry. And I absolutely love what Sigismondi did for "Blue Orchid", because it's The White Stripes past their prime but they still look awesome and creepy (in a good way) in the video.

The rest of the videos, I've never watched.

Videos I think should have been included, other than those I've already mentioned:
Remember, they tried to avoid Directors Label videos.
(1) "Pin", Yeah Yeah Yeahs
(2) "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)", Taking Back Sunday
(3) "White Lines (Don't Do It)", Grandmaster Flash
(4) "No Good", Plan B
(5) "Hell Yes", Beck
(6) "On My Block", Scarface
(7) "Dream", Dizzee Rascal
(8) "Deceptacon", Le Tigre
(9) "No Tengo Dinero", Kumbia Kings, El Gran Silencio and Juan Gabriel
(10) "Sudden Rush", Erlend Øye
(11) Uhhh "The Weeping Song", Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (props to Maria for the heads up on this one)

They're all pretty awesome videos and could have had a spot on the list, I think! The only problem with my list is that I'm mostly very familiar with music videos from like 2000 and on.

Sorry for this massive, crazy ass post.

None More Scene.

Well, I just listened to the radio, which I seem to be doing increasingly. There was a point when I seriously couldn't listen to the radio, but now I've come to the conclusion that people really do have a mediocre taste in music and that I can't listen to the radio and consider these recordings as music but as noise. Just thinking of it as noise, it helped me just block it out a bit except for the parts that I liked. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. There was this one song that was quite naughty but in Spanish, so obviously the censors didn't care. It was like, "Shake it, you got a big ass", or something. Poetry, I know. Please don't argue with me that it's no different from other songs on the radio by its appreciation of the human posterior. I don't care; I think most of those other songs are just as tactless.

There was also this piano number with a girl with a very cutesy voice singing, and it reminds me of an English-version Belanova song whenever I hear it. At least in the voices of the singers. The thing is, I already don't think much of Belanova. They're okay, more like for party occasions. Here's their video for "Por ti".

They also played the new Paris Hilton, which is not as bad as you'd think but still totally disposable, and the new Beyoncé. I think this last one was the most disappointing. It was like she was warming up her voice for the real thing and like Jay-Z was just checkin' the mics to see they were all working properly. I just listened to the whole song going, "Where's the big pay-off like in that other song you fools did?" God knows the only part that makes me love "Crazy in Love" is the horns. I'm not necessarily asking for more horns, just a REAL AWESOME PART. I can't even remember how "Deja Vu" goes.

Now I'm listening to XFM. Aw, man! I'm so disappointed, they're doing commercials right now, and they were advertising this one Lupe Fiasco's new single, which I thought was "Kate Bush", but it's really just "Kick, Push". So disappointing! Haha. Actually, I just watched the music video and it's so cute. Heehee.

Today I listened to that At The Drive-In compilation (compilation? anthology?), and it was pretty awesome. I haven't watched the DVD that comes with it, though. What weirds me out is that I watch silly videos of them* on YouTube and I'm like, "Wow, so they're not the delusional wankers that I expected". When I think of what's become of ATDI now, especially those two crazy Mars Volta dudes, it shocks me.

I also fiiinally listened to the Lata Mangeshkar CD I took out of the library ages ago, and it was good but not as great as the Asha Bhosle CD I borrowed. Tip: it's really fun if you look these two women up on YouTube, because it just shows clips of old Bollywood movies. It's good for shits & giggles!

So Miss Modernage got a new blog, which covers stuff like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and all those bad bands that I've been listening to lately. It's called So More Scene and its creation pisses me off not because it covers all that trash I like, but because it's separate from The Modern Age. I just don't understand why she would do that? She wrote to her mailing list, "I've started a new blog where I talk about all the music no one lets me talk about on The Modern Age." I mean, so what if people give her shit on the regular blog? Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of her blog, I just read it all the time, and it gets annoying to just read about stuff like the Strokes and Jack White**-related posts. And it's pretty annoying and even creepy to read a blog that is mostly entirely OMG WENTZXCORE, even if peppered with occasional commentary on my dearest pale chubby rocker. So I seriously don't have a problem with her mixing the two worlds. Besides, (1) I think I'm not alone in being fed up with the more "indie rock" shit and gravitating towards a more emo feel, since when I last saw Cam, he was all like, "I like We Are Scientists cos they've duped the hipsters into liking an emo band" and (2) these bands are relevant because musicsecret is awesome, so everyone should at least hear them once.

In other news that I received in my inbox, apparently someone made a Motherfucker documentary! Is Misshapes next?

Yesterday I sent this quickly-scribbled note to Dorothy Gambrell at work. If you go to the Cat and Girl site, she says that for a limited time, if you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope, she'll send you stickers and pins. Hope my letter doesn't freak her out and that I get stuff from her. Hurry up and send her a SASE if you want some as well!

At lunch, we were talking and this girl mentioned Larry Clark, and I paused for a second going through my inner useless info storage center, and then I asked, "The guy who did Kids?" She was like, "Yeah, that guy!" And I was so excited and surprised that I even knew the dude, because I've never ever watched any of his movies. How do I know this stuff?

In other news, I pretty much detest someone at work, and I feel bad because the person is quite nice.













*Like this silly video.

There's another video where they're being interviewed, and it's so old that Omar refers to "Derek from Murder City Devils", which is very strange to hear for someone who only knows the dude as "Derek from Pretty Girls Make Graves".

** BY THE FUCKING WAY: at work recently we got an order from a "John Gillis" from Tennessee and I swear to fucking god that I stared at it for ages wondering whether this was actually an order from Jack White. I don't even remember what he bought. :/ I just didn't know whether Jack White actually lived in Tennessee, even though I know his daughter was born there, but I just looked at Wikipedia, and y'all know Wikipedia don't lie!!!!!

Fight Off Your Demons.

Christina Fairy is in a band called The Modern Hour! They are playing at Piano's tomorrow night (6/20) at 8 pm! Go see 'em! Dance! Jig! Rawk the fuck out! AWESOMESAUCE! (Apparently the cost is $8; the venue is located on 158 Ludlow in the Lower East Side.)

-----
The following items from your Annex order have been shipped:
1 - At the Drive-In - Anthology: This Station is Non-Operational
(CD+DVD)
1 - Mogwai - Mr. Beast (2xLP)
1 - Liars - Drum's Not Dead (LP/DVD)
1 - Blood Brothers - Burn, Piano Island, Burn (LP)
1 - Tom Ze - Estudando O Pagode (CD)
1 - Robyn - Robyn (CD)
1 - Sparks - Hello Young Lovers (LP)

During lunchtime the one other intern who decided to show up told me that she is going to see Brand New tomorrow. I almost cried from the jealousy. Seriously, my first reaction was like, "ORLY?! TAKE ME WITH YEEEW!!!" She turned me down quite politely, I must say. Haha. I spent the entire afternoon just moaning about how lucky she is, and how much fun she's gonna have.

And now I'm off to open my box of records and CDs. Yay, it's like Christmas comes every few weeks. :D

Oh shit, I gotta go to the library tomorra. Okay, mental note? Mental note.

Ian Curtis! Say Hello!

I have recovered fairly well from a massive snot attack yesterday that occurred thanks to my allergies. I had the loveliest dream last night, I was taking another class with Prof. Deer (a.k.a one of the coolest professors I've had thus far), and we were totally analyzing Rushmore and I was like ZOMGZ MY LIFE RULES.

Don't know how clear I've made it, but my mp3 player is so messed up that the music only comes out on one side. At first I thought it was the earphones but believe me, it's the mp3 player itself. The speakers on my computer have been messed up for a while, too. Just one side works, and on occasion, somehow both sides spit out sounds. Well yesterday the thing just started dying in the ass completely. The whole thing is pathetic.

I bought the latest issue of AP. I didn't even buy the one with Davey Havok on the cover, but that's okay, because my mom would have told me to throw it away. Yes, for its questionable content. By the way: don't bother buying AP. It's pretty much like musicsecret but not as funny/in absolute hysterics, plus, did I mention it's all of $4? That's like $13 Canadian!

In other news, hey, remember when M.I.A. was popular last summer? LOLLERCAUST! Hm... I really want vinyl today. Maybe I should hold off for tomorrow? Oh shit but I wanna go to the library and I probably shouldn't carry too much stuff. I can't bring in a vinyl box into the library without having them open it to make sure it's not a bomb. I know that sounds ridiculous as they see me come in every week, but I don't doubt they'd do it. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

My Allergies Are Making My Head Hurt.

At work I was talking to this girl Anna and I was like "I write for TMT!" and she seemed genuinely excited. She was like, "TMT is my home page!" It was nice because I hardly write to many people except for the other interns. Speaking of the other kids, the two guys I work with regularly both have a "softer" taste in music than me. Like when I like pop music, I want it totally bombastic and loud and flashy, but when they like pop, it means it's nice and well-structured and... I dunno how to explain it. Let's just say I play Kylie Minogue and they play stuff like Jens Lekman. It's not necessarily bad, but I feel like a poop for hogging the music (I usually get to the office first.) Also, and I say this half-jokingly, I fear a coup d'etat against my Reign of FLASHY MINDLESS POP Terror.

The problem is that when I play mainstream stuff, it's just very obvious and already overplayed, and it's no wonder people are like, "Whatevs, biznatch." At the same time, when I play more underground stuff, I go off into some very "obscure" shit, at least for those who live in this American Indie Rock culture. Like if I listen to Café Tacuba, I know there's a lot of people who are like "WTF is this." And to me, a band like Aterciopelados, they just sound like, RAWWWKMUTHAFUCKAS!!! but for others, it sounds like, er, World Music. And it doesn't occur to me there might be music taste issues until the song starts, so part of the problem is definitely me. On top of that, I don't see why we should listen to Pavement and the Clash and Sufjan Stevens and Bloc Party and other such indie rock staples at work when we, as individuals, can go home and listen to that stuff ALL DAY. It's all in my head, but I feel so bad that I keep playing all this music that I'm sure they dislike, but it's not like the other kids are putting on some wild shit of their own for me to discover. Like the only thing I've realized in the past month or so is that The Soft Bulletin really IS a bitching album that I really wanna get. Shit, this is not really making sense. I don't even know what I'm ranting about. I just want to stop feeling bad about playing Asha Bhosle.

Ugh, and I also hate that they play entire albums. C'mon. If there's four kids working, and they all have different tastes, that's not cool! Knowing that my taste in music is a bit weird for the other kids, I don't play more than 5 songs from an album in order.

I feel very relieved just saying all of this. I'm sure I must have contradicted myself like a million times within this post, and I know I need to stop being so fucking neurotic about the music I play in front of other people.

One good thing though! Having guys who like softer music has made me go in the opposite direction, so like on Monday or Tuesday I'ma go and buy that Blood Brothers album I've wanted 4EVA and I think At The Drive-In and get all aggro on y'all. Haha, yeah right. But yeah, I only listened to ATDI for the first time today, I think, and I really liked it.

Oh, and the reason I haven't mentioned Fatrick this entire post:

Yesterday Rachel and I hung out and she mentioned the Hebrew Hammer and I remembered how fucking sexy and awesome he is and I was like, LE SIGH! And I forgot about poor little Fatrick. It was good while it lasted, though!

Yesterday we also went into Trash and Vaudeville uh, twice, to buy two pairs of the same skinny pants, one pair for Rachel and one for Claudia and none for me because I'm afraid my ass would look massive and ugly in that shit even if they say that black is slimming. Tonight my dearest hipster scum friends are going to go-go at Misshapes again and yes, I'm quite jealous that they'll get to dance to "Push It".

Today I stayed home until like 4 before I went out to get my dad a present. Cooped up inside, I thought my head hurt because I stayed up too late last night having a WILD WILD TIME watching er, Conan, and for oversleeping. But then I went out and my head felt, and still feels, quite awful and like it's stuck up someone's ass. But not my ass. Believe me, I have my head stuck up my ass all the time and I know the difference. Holy shit, I sound totally mentally unstable.

Well I went into K-Town. To be honest the reason I waited until today to buy my dad a present was because I was too nervous to go and ask in Korean for the book I wanted. Like my insides were just writhing with nerves, even in though in my head, I knew there was nothing to it. And I went to the bookstore. I tried looking around by myself for the book my dad asked me for, my reasoning being that since I know my Korean letters I'd have no problem finding it. Nope, no clue, so I finally gave up and I went up to the store person and was like, "Do you have this book." No, they didn't have it. Grrreat. Of course, to make things better, my brother was busy so he asked me to buy a cake for my dad, since it was in the same vicinity and all. So I went there and that was absolutely nerve-racking too. I managed to ask for the cake and just when I thought my excruciating experience attempting to speak in Korean was over when I gave the girl two 20-dollar bills for the $28 cake and she gave me only $2 back. I had to correct her. I walked out and went back to the train station and all I wanted to do was cry because I felt like I totally fail at life (and because of the damn allergies). I mean, I already get very nervous talking to people and doing it in a language I don't quite grasp just got me very edgy.

Ummm I swear the next post will be all POPCULTUREXCORE. I'm so glad hardly anyone reads this!

Extra, Extra! Read All About It!

I just opened my copy of News and Tributes. The liner note paper smells a little weird, but in every other respect, the packaging is pretty swell. And they included lyrics! I don't have the time to listen to it at home, and my CD player has no batteries left. Therefore, I weep.

(I remember this great poem I read in Spanish Literature and its refrain was... oh, found it in my book. The refrain in one part goes, "Flow forth, tears, painlessly." I laughed really hard when I read that, because this was from like the 16th century. I was like, "Garcilaso de la Vega! You so emo!!" HAhahahahaha)

Speaking of emo, I keep staring at the Vagrant logo on this Futureheads CD. Haha. It says it's just a distribution deal. Hah.

Anyway, yeah, I listened to the free single that came with it, and it was very cute, if brief! But I'm still trying to figure out how to listen to this shit. I actually have like two other CDs I haven't listened to. Cripes, yo.

More MoCCA.

Today I went to the MoCCA fair, and I had a lot more fun than last year. By some great windfall, the Charles Burns panel ended up being moderated by Adrian Tomine. I was far more excited to see Adrian Tomine on the stage, and I felt so good knowing that as accomplished as he may be, he still walks the more awkward side of life. It was strange to hear the voice of someone whose handwriting I love. It didn't feel like his voice and his handwriting correlate, but once he spoke more and more I got accustomed to his voice. Does that make me sound absolutely insane?

Anyway, yeah, it felt really good that whenever Tomine opened his mouth, the questions sort of struggled to form, even though he had these index cards right in front of him. I know I sound like a total ass, but I don't mean to describe all of this in a mean way. I thought it was absolutely endearing and he seriously seems like someone I'd want to be friends with. Doris got two books signed by him, and I think she really enjoyed it.

The panel discussion was pretty cool, too. It made me take Charles Burns more seriously, and it was cool to see how methodic he is in his work. Man's got discipline.

(We were gonna maybe sorta not really see Jessica Abel, we were eating and we didn't make it in time, not that it mattered because we wanted to just look around for the last hour of the fair. I spilled like 30 ounces out of the large 42 ounce drink that Kat and I were planning on sharing during our late lunch. :/ I still feel bad about it...)

But the other great thing about this event: I TOTALLY GOT TO TALK TO DOROTHY GAMBRELL! My life is complete!! See, I spied a couple of people with Cat and Girl comic books in their hands, and I was like, "Uhh holy shit I need one," and I mentioned it to Doris, and she's like, "Yeah, I know where they are," and she walked me to the table. So I thought it was the publishing company that had brought the book to sell it, but when I asked who I needed to pay, the guy at the table pointed to DOROTHY!!! And I was like, "ZOMGZ YR TOTALLY HERE ZOMGZXCORE YOU TOTALLY LOOK LIKE YR PIX ZOMGZ 4 LYFE MY MOM TOTALLY RUINED MY ICELANDIC T SHIRT." She understandably avoided eye contact with me. Can I get a LOL? I was a bit too intense, but I was just so excited to meet her. Damn, yo. I swear to God, next time I'll be more chill about it. Haha, she was very nice, shook hands and asked my name and everything. Lovely. The whole encounter was quite goofy.

Man, there was so much shit I wanted to buy! There was this David B. thingy and Love and Rockets books and and and and and oh god... Next year. I thought it was really cute, there were plenty of artists themselves just walking around looking at their peers' work and buying stuff too! Aww.

Seriously, that L&R volume I got out at the library was fucking excellent, I love it love it love it and I love Los Bros Hernandez and Adrian Tomine and David B. and Marjane Satrapi and Dorothy Gambrell and Craig Thompson and I'm so glad I have geeky friends who encouraged me towards this sick path of comic book love.

Bits + Pieces.

The Clint + Charles Show are playing at Fat Baby tonight:
112 Rivington Street between Ludlow and Essex

7:30 - The Fools
8:30 - The Clint + Charles Show
9:30 - G-Whiz

$8 cover.

-----

Haha, also, Steve and I were walking on St. Marks yesterday and these two decadent hipster types, bad haircuts and skinny girl pants and all, walked in front of us, and I was making fun of them, and Steve and I were talking about Misshapes without mentioning the party name, but all of a sudden the two guys in front of us started talking about Misshapes, too! The two guys did see us, but I don't think they knew we were talking about Misshapes, especially since we weren't referring to it by name! Later on our way to the Mercury Lounge, we saw them bumming around in some diner...

No Es Amor...

A few weeks ago I discovered that the only place that sells Bonde Do Role's EP is Turntable Lab, who have a special somethin' somethin' going on with Diplo, who signed Bonde Do Role to his label Mad Decent. After spending a couple of hours (literally!) I decided that I had to marry this store and/or pay a visit and spend all my hard-earned money!

What made me go "D'oh!" was realizing that I pass this store ALL the time! And I never went in because I was too scared to go into a hardcore DJ store! It's right across the street from where the original Wiz Kid Management used to be. So Steve and I shimmied on down to the East Village and the place was pretty sweet! I just liked it because they had stuff I wouldn't come across otherwise. Well, maybe in other DJ places, but I don't know of any of them. The place is tiny, as is everything else around the East Village where rent is a cruel bitch. Next time I go there, I shall get the Tropicalia compilation on vinyl. Well, that's all they have, really, vinyl and then turntable and assorted DJ-head goodies. I bought the Bonde Do Role EP, haven't listened to it yet.

At the Mercury Lounge I bought tickets to the Futureheads show, for Rachel, and then we walked back to the Quirowitz residence. I watched Steve sorta try to edit the songs he was gonna play on his radio show, which was really interesting. I don't know if I could do that, because it's about listening to lyrics, which is something I'm really bad at.

Dude, so I returned Persepolis 2 and Yes Yes Y'all to the library, and I borrowed out a Lata Mangeshkar CD I'd been awaiting for many a moon, Supersize Me, a Love and Rockets (comic) collection which has been really great so far, and this Bollywood movie called Chhupa Rustam.

I don't know anything about this movie, but the cover looked cool, and the blurb on the back was pretty funny. Most importantly, it says that the music is by S.D. Burman, who I think is supposed to be a real big deal in terms of Indian movie soundtracks.

Steve told me that somebody had reviewed Joan Jett's show at CBGB's recently in the Times, but didn't remember who it was. I found it was Sia Michel! Damn! Can I get hired at Spin, get fired, and then get hired at the New York Times? Maybe she just did freelance work. Who cares, it's a big deal! At least she's doing better than that Pemberton dude, huh?

Aw, man, why the fuck did I end up liking this fucking "Obsesión" song... These guys look like fucking douchebags... Whatever, I feel so much happier realizing what bachata is. I mean, I hear it all the time, I just never connected the sound to the name of the style. Wow! "Obsesión" was totally remade into that Frankie J song! And this bachata one is so much better than that other crap! I love how I'm 10 million years behind everyone else on this.

Oh, and one last thing: this band, Todosantos. They were reviewed fairly recently on Stylus, but their album Aeropuerto has been out since last year. They're from Venezuela, it's post-punk-y but in a pretty way, and somehow far more interesting than what comes out of Brooklyn, who knows why, but the tracks I've heard from are magical! I really like their "Ian Curtis" song! 100x better than the Sugababes' "Joy Division"!!

So, how have y'all been liking all this fútbol hoopla?

Edit: Oh shit, new Kinky album in September! Hope it's as awesome as the last one!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL...!!!!!!!!!

The World Cup starts tomorrow!!! El Mundial, y'all!!!!!

Work is wonderful, mostly because Damian thinks I'm smart! Oh, and he trusts me! I was very happy to hear that. It was like "Mwahaha, I've got you fooled!" Except maybe the flattery has got me fooled instead, because I've been working my ass off. I definitely overwork for a job that doesn't pay me (much). Meh, better than bumming around bored out of my mind.

In other news, I can't believe I stopped reading Bomb the Suburbs; I picked it up again today, and I re-read some of it, and it was so good! It makes me think a lot, and it seems very sincere. And the variety of the essays is really interesting. Better than this dumb Thomas Mann book I'm reading. (Haha, just playing, I'm reading this story and it's hysterical, it's about this pretentious suffering artiste type...) I gotta re-borrow Can't Stop Won't Stop, cos it's seriously in a similar zone of how Upski and Chang treat hip-hop culture. Besides, I didn't get to finish it; I barely got to read it before it was overdue at the library.

Speaking of the library! I've got plenty of goodies waiting for me there. Sooooo excited.

Sunday: MoCCA Fair! Yay!

Push the Button.

Yes, I did try to watch the Alma Awards. No, it wasn't any good. Also, I have never been a fan of Paulina Rubio, so having her butcher "Pretty Woman" did not win her points in my book. However, I did pity her when she was up on stage with these "country" artists. It was ridiculous, the whole thing was her going "Uh, uhh". How fucking degrading.

You know what Hedy Lamarr said, "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

I guess Paulina shook her bum a bit instead of just standing around, but you get the point.

I was right about work last time. Since I didn't clean up the shit on my boss's desk, no one else did. He was like, "Yeah, all these boxes were on my desk when I came in this morning." I totally apologized.

I always get to work at like 11 or 11:05 and even though I'm right on time, I'm always the first one there. It makes me feel like a dork and a goody two-shoes and it makes me mad that the other kids don't come on time. I know we're getting shit pay, but a job is a job, you know? Work starts at 11, not 11:35. If you don't show enthusiasm and dedication now, when? Am I a moron for actually caring so much about a job with shit pay?

Also, to my fellow intern: stop playing Cherry Peel. I love that album and you're fucking ruining it for me. And don't follow up your choice with Vespertine. Seriously, why the hell would you pick a quiet album while we're fucking working? It doesn't motivate me enough! I need music that will keep me energizized!!

Eat My Shorts.

I forgot to mention I bought schtuff from Insound. I preordered News & Tributes, got Sea Change, Elliott Smith, and Psychocandy on vinyl, as well as a Vaselines compilation.

In other news, I want to watch this movie Water because the soundtrack seems really good. I wonder who sings "Aayo Re Saki". Their voices are great. Actually, the movie itself looks pretty good, too, in that depressing Oscar-season sort of way.

Uncannily Bad.

Finally watched the new X-Men movie and it was horrible. I had a good laugh in the movie theater, and the previews were pretty funny too (anyone up for The Omen?), but now that I've had time to think about it, I hated it. There were a few good bits, but the movie was a disaster on multiple levels. I can only imagine what the really hardcore comic book fans are saying. I think the worst thing Rachel and I agreed on is how badly-paced the movie was. Really, just terrible.

The acting, of course, was bad. What can you expect from a non-script? Except for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, who are awesome and untouchable and they was totally keepin' it real with the Marvel folk. There were way too many characters, so none of them were well-developed, not even Jean Grey. I hate Jean Grey, but c'mon, she's fucking supposed to be The Most Powerful Mutant Ever! She didn't even seem like she ruled the world, she just seemed like another disposable character, especially when you see how they dispose of her. Yeah! There, I said it! She DIES! Pfft what a joke. C'mon, even Wolverine didn't get a proper screen treatment... I don't think the fucker said "Bub" once! GAHHH.

Most of the new characters were just total throwaways, and so were a lot of the old ones. Rogue disappears for most of the movie, Cyclops is in it for only a few episodes, Professor X is only in it for like a 1/3 of it... Colossus was completely underused, hardly see Angel...

Beast looked great, though. His fight scenes were cool. Juggernaut was pretty cool, too. Overall, the special effects were excellent. And that's pretty much it. It could have been so much better. So much funnier and camp-ier, even better deaths. This whole movie was a major mess.

Oh Shit x 3

Oh Shit no. 1

Um... a few days ago Julissa was like, "Send me Nelly Furtado plz" so I did, and I forgot that the tracks I have are from a watermarked promo CD! And then Molly D was all like, "Wut 'bout me m8te" so then Julissa gave Molly the yousendit links I sent Julissa on an LJ comment. So god knows how many people have downloaded them now... I don't think we'll get into trouble but if it somehow horrifically gets in the hands of someone with power, the person who sold the CD to the store where Steve bought the promo he passed on to me and I uploaded is gonna be in deep shit, cos you know they're gonna make an example of this person and they're gonna screw him to ruins!!! And then no one will wanna sell their crappy promos for like 10 cents for fear of getting into deep shit and I won't be able to benefit from listening to bad music because there will be no promos for me to devour!!!!! AHHHHHHH

Oh Shit no. 2

At work, everyone works in one giant room with lots of cubicles, and my boss's cubicle is right in front of the intern station! Apparently my boss has been non-existent the past couple of weeks because he is like on his honeymoon or something, so it's been pretty sweet, like I would work at my boss's desk and shit. (Shhh... don't tell on me.) Well, anyway, we started working on a project that involved us making a lot of 7" single boxes, and I was like, "Hey, let's put all the boxes on Patrick's desk." So we did. But I forgot to clear them out of the way yesterday, and I know that if I didn't clean them up, NO ONE ELSE WILL! Well. Maybe Damian. We'll see on Monday when Patrick comes back. Crap, I hope he doesn't get mad his desk is covered with a couple hundred of these boxes!

Oh Shit no. 3

This one is the one that hurts most! I went to take a shower just now, and I left my computer on playing Kylie Minogue, and when I came back... it was STILL playing the song! And I was like, "WHY?!" The fucking "repeat" function was on. God knows how many times it fucking played the song. Well, God and fucking Audioscrobbler. My charts are so, so off now.