Roses + Bluejays

In the Mood for Love.

2007-02-15T00:26:00.000-05:00

Hi. I hope you had a good Valentine's day. I hung out with my friends today. We did classy shit like having dinner at Chipotle. I gave them candy.

I'm very happy because I have fallen in love again with the one thing that matters most in my life (I'm talking about music, of course). I'm very excited.

PS: I know I was upset for a few seconds about not getting Arcade Fire tickets, but I saw all these people queued up for the show last night and I was happy I didn't have to line up in the cold for the shows.

Crummy Day.

2007-02-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, I sort of started my homework early today, and I'm like halfway done. I don't know whether I should be proud or feel disgusted with myself.

I rewatched Amores Perros today, and I'm glad because after watching it the first time, it HAUNTED me! Now I know that the first time wasn't a fluke and that it really is a fantastic movie. Incredible. And Gael García Bernal was so good in it, I think it's my favorite of his movies.

Man, I was already feeling really anxious and sick when my (hot) professor sat like, one row ahead of me. I just stared at the back of his head like the entire time and felt even worse, but then this kid on my row (the last) started SNORING and my professor just stared at this kid like, "Wow, what a fucking idiot," and I was just glad he wasn't thinking that about me. I don't know why I even think my prof is hot though, I mean, he's sorta really fucking geeky to be honest.

But yeah, after that I just had to come home cos--well, you know.

EDIT: BTW, I listened to that Spring Awakening soundtrack and it's aight, nothing to be raving about (maybe it's different seeing it on stage?). But that one song I really like, the emo one (it's even called "Don't Do Sadness"!) is pretty damn good, like better than 90% (95%?) of emo songs and on par with like 75% of indie pop/rock songs... of course those numbers aren't scientific or nuthin'. Just sayin'.

So Would!

2007-02-12T00:22:00.000-05:00

Tragic.

2007-02-11T23:47:00.000-05:00

Sigh. My life has reach a new level of pathetic. First, I watched the Grammys and I actually felt bad when JT didn't win for fucking album of the year! What the hell! The Grammys aren't worth getting involved emotionally! Especially when you find out that Black Eyed Peas actually won shit! Disgusting.

Second, I totally downloaded the Spring Awakening soundtrack because I keep seeing their fucking ads on the teevee and the music keeps fucking getting stuck in my fucking head and I sort of liked what I heard in the ads cos it sounded so fucking emo but I'm just mad at myself for being such a sucka and being affected by advertising! True fact though: I probably wouldn't have paid attention to the ads if the costumes hadn't looked so, uh, Amish. Though I found out why they looked Amish, it's cos this is actually set in late 19 c. Germany. LOL.

Last, I kept refreshing my Audioscrobbler page to see my charts and it didn't update until tonight. :(

Ugh.

2007-02-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

Anna Nicole Smith. How do you mourn someone of limited merits? It's like, you don't want to be offensive, and it really sounds like she was suffering and everything had been going wrong for her, but seriously, I can't believe the column inches and the minutes that have gone to tell her life story. She was C-list at MOST for crying out loud! Honestly, the most worrying thing about her death is her daughter. What the hell is gonna happen to her??

I watched Access Hollywood and lol'ed at their "ANNA NICOLE + MARILYN MONROE!! AMAZING PARALLEL LIVES!!!1!!1!" Um, okay?

But I do feel like she went through a lot of shit, I hope she's not suffering anymore.

Recent Finds.

2007-02-06T00:28:00.000-05:00

I've been lurking around a lot, listening to Soda Stereo, Calle 13, Edan, "Don't Call Us Immigrants", and all that good shit. I've been searching for other stuff, of course, and found some real gems recently and I am starting to feel hope all over again that there's good music for me out there.

Sr. Chinarro

When I was looking at year-end lists for a lot of blogs, I noticed that a lot of Spanish (like, from Spain) blogs were raving about Sr. Chinarro on their lists. I was like, "WTF is with that weird name?" I still haven't figured it out, but the band has been around for a while, and they're on Acuarela, which puts me at ease because that label is fairly respected. You might know the label for releasing Xiu Xiu shit; some of the import stuff finds its way over here sometimes.

Anyway, I've been listening to the most recent Sr. Chinarro album, El mundo según, and it's fabulous. Just a solid indie rock album, catered to marginally socially inept kids who have grown up on the Smiths with just a hint of twee.

Alaska y Dinarama

Fairly recently I stumbled upon this blog that had a song called "Ni tu ni nadie" which I didn't listen to, but I was cleaning up my tags this weekend (sigh, a perpetual endeavor to take on) and I was like, "Um, this song is sorta good". I'd never heard of the artist before and I googled the name, Alaska y Dinarama. I found out it's really gay shit. And I mean it in the sense that I could really see this being played in a gay club with everyone going wild and asking for more.

Even more spectacular was finding out that the one Thalía song I truly liked in the past few years, "A quien le importa", was actually a COVER and that the original was done by Alaska y Dinarama!!! No, seriously, this news has rocked my world, because this song is really brilliant. And guess how I found out?? YouTube, of course! And yes, ladies and gents, the original is absolutely amazing. In a cheesy 80s sort of way, at least.

Watching this video, my jaw dropped by the overflow of awesome, and I also wondered whether the singer was a man, woman, or something in between. I guess I'm not the only one, because in the comments someone makes the point that yes, Alaska is all woman and y'all better show some respeck. Or something like that. Ultimately it doesn't matter because the song is so damn catchy! The video is so cool, too, so much better than the shit Thalía made for this song, which was all like, "Let's go to CBGB's and make believe I'm all alterna-rock and edgy". Yuck.

Make sure to YouTube the vid for "Ni tú ni nadie" too! It's a wonderful pop song!

Lucio Dalla

One of the first few videos I remember seeing as a kid, besides "Thriller" and "Lambada" was this song that went, "Una casita chiquitita así..." And, well, I didn't remember the title, but I googled the entire phrase, and well, it pointed to this Lucio Dalla dude, who I gather was pretty popular in Italy a while back, and pretty respected currently.

I still can't find the song in Spanish, but I found out the song was originally "Attenti al lupo", which can be seen here:

The wonderful thing about finding this is knowing that it was an even better song that I remembered. Good shit, the video is hilarious, too. But even better was finding a wonderful video of Dalla singing "O Sole Mio" with Gianni Morandi AAAAAND Eros Ramazzotti!!! HOLY SHIT! I don't really care about Ramazzotti's music for the most part, but I find his voice to be nasal in a REALLY SEXY WAY (I can't explain any more accurately than that). And of course, I totally have a crush on Gianni Morandi. What a beautiful voice! Siiigh. He just warms my heart.

One thing to note about the "O Sole Mio" vid (below), the studio set up is a bit strange to me, I'm used to seeing the artists on a stage/platform with the audience looking up, not looking down, at the artists. Fantastic rendition, though. Wonderful seeing three very different pop singers getting together like that.

Ghetto Brothers

My best find, was just this morning. So I'm finally actually reading Can't Stop Won't Stop, and I read about this gang, the Ghetto Brothers. Well, they actually had a band with the same name, they would play parties the gang would throw on their turf.

The group sounded interesting, so of course I went on a google-quest. What can I say? I pretty much hit jackpot. Download away; the links still work. And if you haven't stumbled into the Waxidermy blog before, definitely check it out! It was my first time today, too, and there's some really weird, interesting stuff. I'm definitely going back to download more goodies. :)

I guess it's strange to use this adjective, but the Ghetto Brothers shit is real cute. These songs make me want to go back in time and just give these dudes a big hug and listen to the Beatles with them. You can hear the Beatles influence in "You Say You Are My Friend," which is my favorite of the four tracks. To be honest, when I was reading about them, I didn't expect these kids to have such a polished sound, but they really have their shit together! At the same time, they have this really raw teenage feel to the music. Absolutely tremendous, and at the same time a shame because I can't believe they were wasting their times being in gangs instead of just writing songs and trynna make it huge. This shit needs the Soul Jazz treatment or SOMEthing. (Wink, wink, just a suggestion if anyone from the label ever bumped into this blog.) This is seriously the most exciting thing I've heard since Soda Stereo a few months ago. Highly recommended, seriously.

Jamia Simone Nash

Before I forget, I wanna tell youse about this cute little girl. See, one of my favorite pop songs is "Who's Lovin' You" by Smokey Robinson + the Miracles. I cry to that shit, y'know? So I was looking for videos for it, and of course there's a few of the Jackson 5 cos they covered the song with much success (see here), but I also found this video of Jamia Simone Nash just going crazy on this shit.

See the proof:

So Addictive.

2007-01-31T23:06:00.000-05:00

Goodby homework.

Hello greatest game since Tetris? Maybe Tetris is too much. Minesweeper might be more like it.

Shit, the highest I've gotten is 115, and they just give me a "Good!"

Style Peaces.

2007-01-31T09:12:00.000-05:00

Well, walking around you see a lot of people have tagged up anything and everything that can be tagged on the street with whatever medium of choice. Sharpies, spray paint, stickers are really big now, too. Recently this tag caught my eye, because the name was so damn goofy. I will refrain from writing this person's tag (you can ask me in person if you really care, though you probably don't) because this person might find this blog and how awkward would that be? Anyway, I'd never noticed the tag before, so I was like, Where did this guy come from? So I googled the name.

This person has a MySpace.

Now, I think it's sorta "dumb" to have a MySpace, I don't know why, but it seems like it's way too public for you if you're a graffiti artist. If I was writing up shit all over the walls I'd lay low. But I guess he deems it safe.

Anyway, days ago I messaged him and was like, "Hey I like yr tags" and I forgot about it, but he messaged back and sounded very grateful! Awww. It warms my heart. Hope to see his name more often.

Speaking of graffiti, a word that I find hard to spell for some reason, there's one tag that I LOVE but I could never ever ever get the picture because it's so damn big and uh, it's sort of in the tunnel between the Fordham & Kingsbridge stations on the uptown D. "Sort of" meaning "definitely". Well, the tag says, "The words of the prophets will be written on the subway walls," which I thought was all OMINOUS and shit, so I googled that too, and found out it was from a Simon & Garfunkel song. Oooookay. How edgy.

Tacky.

2007-01-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got the new copy of Spin (with MCR on the cover and the 4-star Fall Out Boy review, LULZ), and there was one ad in particular that made me go OMGWTF. I just couldn't tell if it was real, but I guess it is! When I looked at it, it seemed like another snakesploitation movie by Samuel L. Jackson, but I guess it's more about Christina Ricci being blonde and not being fat anymore, which I actually hate! If you think about the fact that it has a February release date, it's probably not that great. Sigh.

But I'm glad they're both getting work...

Oh, and this issue of Spin is relatively great compared to some of the shit that came out last year. They even talk about music.

Todo Personal.

2007-01-27T23:51:00.000-05:00

So recently I was looking at John Leguizamo stand-up shit on YouTube, right? Like I had a class before where we actually studied his material. I know, totally ridiculous... until you watch his specials and you're like, "Um, this is sort of hilarious?" Well I borrowed out a book from the library, Freak, and I thought it was gonna be a laugh riot. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty funny, but the last bit just makes me wanna cry! It got all poignant and I'm all like, "No, no! Be funny! BE FUNNY!" Way to bum me out. No, it was worse. A lot of times you think people are just full of shit and then suddenly they pull out all this deep stuff out of their asses, and they're brave enough to share it with you, and you're all uncomfortable because you're aware that you don't really get it. Like there's this big thing about Leguizamo's relationship with his dad, and I can't relate at all because my dad is sort of awesome and all you can do is be like, "My bad, it's tragic I got it so good."

It sorta sucked just reading it cos you know so much of it is physical humor and a lot of stuff with accents, too; I wish his specials were widely available on DVD, especially Mambo Mouth, we saw parts of it in class and it was amazing.

In other news, I finally forgot about going to a concert. It's an end of an era for me: I officially don't care enough about concerts. It makes me really sad.

What makes it worse is that it was Deerhoof. I just... It was a crazy week. I spent most of it incredibly angry that I took the time to review the Deerhoof album when all I wanted to do was listen to Soda Stereo. Like I was surprised by how pissed I was and I had to tone down my review, because it's not even a bad album. It's just that I could name way more shit that I'm enjoying right now that ISN'T Friend Opportunity. Whatever, it's my own fault, I don't know why I volunteered to write about it. :/ I'm even mad that Deerhoof are my no. 2 overall on Audioscrobbler. Shit. And it's gonna be my no. 1 for the week, too, which isn't even true because most of the time I was listening to Soda Stereo and Calle 13 on my mp3 player.

WHATEVER. I'm getting mad just thinking about it.

Oscar Noms.

2007-01-23T08:50:00.000-05:00

I just watched the Oscar nominations. Salma Hayek is so cheesy, I swear. But she looked cute with her hair like that. AND RYAN GOSLING GOT NOMINATED. Can I get an OMGWTF?

Somehow I'm Not Impressed.

2007-01-21T00:02:00.000-05:00

On my train ride home, these annoying little twerps got on the train with a boombox and started breakdancing. It was pretty unimpressive but they were pretty young, so I guess I shouldn't ask for too much. Plus, if you think about it, we were in a moving train, and they managed not to kick anyone by mistake. But I'm only telling you about this because one of the older kids was actually giving tips to the younger ones on their techniques while they were dancing in front of everyone. It was sort of sweet.

Oh, and the Tropicália exhibit: it was amazing. And interactive. And that museum is seriously a mecca of awesome in the ghetto. Totally worth going, especially since it cost me $3, but y'all better go quick because it ends on Jan. 28. Believe me, I plan on going back.

We had a dinner for Maria's birthday tonight! It was really nice and the waiter sang "Happy Birthday".

Grr.

2007-01-20T00:02:00.000-05:00

Dear Nicholas Hoult:

Plz stop being such a ~*hottie*~ and/or plz get a li'l bit older quicker so I won't feel so naughty whenever I see stuff like the video above.

Call me when yr old enough,
Elizabeth U.

PS: Yr eyebrows are really weird, but I think it's sorta sexy. I'm just sayin'.

PPS: That show looks really bad, but I can't tell if it's Degrassi bad or OC (seasons 2+) bad.

PPPS: Don't end up like Jamie Bell and go to MisShapes multiple weeks in a row. PLZ.

State of the Blog Address.

2007-01-17T23:30:00.000-05:00

Shit, doesn't this look absolutely incredible? That's it, I'm going tomorrow. I mean, it's free!! I hope there aren't massive lines. But it's the MoMA so there probably will be. And it's probably gonna be a looooot of tourists. Sigh.

Yo! I got so much shit to read! I love how professors think they're the only ones requiring ten books PLUS supplemental reading that ain't optional! W/E bitches! Actually, the reason I'm MoMA-ing is also cos I gotta pick up the rest of my school books at the library. It feels good saving $300+ in school books.

Still feeling sick. My brother just told me he's friends with Charlie Ahearn? WHAAAT.

Um, WHAT?

2007-01-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

Maggie Smith was in Sister Act AND Sister Act II? And I didn't realize until now?!?!?! THANKS WIKIPEDIA! Holy shit, I gotta watch those movies again. I think I love Maggie Smith. Actually... yes, I think I remember her... very faintly. This is as shocking as finding out that Brad Pitt was in the classic that was Cool World.

Also, totally forgot to mention, I watched SVU last night and it was one of those Tutuola episodes and can I just say, I'm happy that a whole generation of kids now know Ice-T as that badass dude from SVU instead of as a gangsta rapper. I don't know if he was good at what he used to do, but I sure as hell know he's awesome at what he does now. The only bad thing about the episode is that there wasn't much Tutuola-Munch interaction, and not to sound like one of those kids who writes slash, but those two were sorta meant to be, huh? Don't deny!!

Ugh, I really shouldn't have typed in "Munch Tutuola" on YouTube... so many slash music vids... What's the point? Their whole schtick is that they're hilarious when they're talking shit with each other.

Oh yeah, and Kal Penn was guest starring last night. ILU KUMAR!

Talking About Things That Are So Over.

2007-01-17T00:13:00.000-05:00

Watched the Golden Globes last night, sick and all. People who didn't look good: Sienna Miller's hair, Charlie Sheen's flab, Cameron Diaz (Team Timberlake, sry2say), Jack Nicholson... Actually, I hated most of the dresses the women wore. Proof here. People I thought looked good: Helen Mirren, America Ferrera, whoever was with Ken Watanabe (that kimono was a really pretty color), Bill Nighy. Who else? I can't even remember, it was so boring. You know your awards show is in trouble when you have to namecheck Clint Eastwood like a million times. I love that man but come on, he's such a gentleman and not stirrin' up no trouble, there was totally no drama last night. Oh, yeah, and Jack Nicholson's kid looked really adorable. I can't believe they share genes.

I'm very happy Ugly Betty won for the show (and also America, of course) cos they actually seemed genuinely happy and excited and um, friendly with one another. They were hugging so much, it felt like, "Oh, shit, these people ain't like the Grey's Anatomy folks where they makin' fun of teh gayz and punching each other." C'est tout.

Being sick on the first day of classes sucked moose balls. My professors seem nice and actually aware. Thank god. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Gotta get my books.

EDIT: Bee tee dubs, Prince, ILU but that mustard suit has got to go. Congrats on the award!

The Subway is a Porno.

2007-01-14T20:38:00.000-05:00

On Thursday I entered the bizarro world of Long Island. Of course I went with Boogie-Down Nicole and Rrrachel. We went to visit Angela, who fed us some really delicious bagels and then her friend Melissa showed up and Melissa drove us to Roosevelt Field Mall, where suburban dreams grow wild like weeds. I shopped for the first time at Delia's and got two t-shirts there. It was fun. I had a knish for lunch. The only condition I had about chillin' in L.I. was that I had to get back by 8 so I could watch Betty--sad, right? I made it back by 7:55 and I'm fucking glad cos that shit was intense and they finally wrote Salma Hayek who has been blessed with such a fantastic rack (or maybe she just bought them, I dunno) but was pretty boring on this show. The first thing that Boogie-Down Nicole said to me at work the next day was "Did you watch Ugly Betty?"

After work on Friday Rrrachel and I went to the Guggenheim to look at all these awesome Spanish paintings. It was my first time and I liked the building a lot but I don't think it's optimal for art exhibitions. The paintings were pretty awesome, I liked looking at the portraits and wondering who these people were. There were a shitload of people because it Friday evenings, you can pay whatever you want. I paid a dollar, and the couple lined up in front of me paid a quarter each. I heard them asking each other, "Do we get a receipt?"

Yesterday I decided to check out the Jewish Museum's comic book exhibit, which was pretty much Kavalier & Clay in a museum exhibit form and with more alt-comic stuff. Y'know, R. Crumb, Gary Panter, Chris Ware, v. v. early Mad issues. There was one section about the real golden era of superheroes, like with one cover showing character punching the shit out of Hitler, stuff like that. It was really cool to see all the drafts and early versions to the comics, it was a nice glimpse into the process these artists go through. I've never seen so many dudes at an exhibit, haha. It was older dudes, little boys, and college students.

I checked out an exhibit on Alex Katz, an artist I'd never heard of. They were actually all paintings of his wife Ada, who seems like a pretty cool, sophisticated NYC chick. Y'know the kind I'm talking about. I wish I was someone's muse! That would be pretty awesome.

Well, after I checked out the museum (also my first time there), I pretended I was a pretty cool, sophisticated chick and I just walked around the area. I ended up at 86th Street and one theater is playing BOTH Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, but I felt like such a bum going to a movie alone on a Saturday evening, so I just went to the bookstore and looked at music books. Yes. My life is full of excitement.

Honestly, I had a wonderful time and I figured I should go downtown where everything's waiting for you, so I took a pretty long bus ride and I checked out all the pretty buildings on Lex. I walked around a bit more and then I decided to head back home, but not before spotting Tre Cool (!!!) on Broadway, with a girl who I guess is his daughter. I freaked out, man!

Today I went lunching with not only Rrrachel and Boogie-Down Nicole, but also Steve and Claudia!! The funny thing is that we pretty much picked up right where we left off and it was as if they hadn't been across the ocean for about four months. But Bonnie et Clyde had to vamoose after lunch and we went to buy me some skinny jeans. Except we got to Trash and Vaudeville and I just felt too ridic for words and I don't even know what size I am, so I skeddadled out of there without new pants. Rachel bought a pair, though. It was on sale.

Looking back on this break, I only accomplished about half of the things I wanted to do. I definitely will go to see the Tropicália exhibit next Saturday cos that shit's closing soon. Also, the MoMA is doing this crazy wall projection shit outside its building for this Doug Aitken video art project. You know Doug Aitken, that dude who did the "NYC" music vid. Anyway, it starts on Tuesday and I guess the whole schtick is that you can just stand outside and check it out for free? That's why I'm planning on going to the Donnell library some time during this week. Actually, I have to pick up a lot of my school books at Donnell, too. I looked at my book list today and I can't believe how long it is. I'm definitely gonna try to buy the least amount of books possible.

I'm scared about school. I think my classes are gonna be hard.

That Clears Up the Mystery.

2007-01-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

Well shit, it took me two years and a Chilean blog to figure out how to pronounce "Øye". I always guessed, but I never got confirmation until now. Good to know!

From the interview:

"Before we begin, how is your last name pronounced?"
"Oh yeah"

You can read the rest of the interview here... it's in Spanish, but there's a few pictures of Erlend that are very sizzle sizzle. A lot of the Chilean hipster (indie?) blogs I'm reading are all excitedXcore because Erlend is coming around and doing a show. I'm sorta jealous!

Krazy Glue.

2007-01-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

I got sent out on an errand today, and I started to walk behind this dude wearing a messenger bag. The bag was slung so that the bag itself was on his back. On the bag there was a patch. For Los Crudos. I almost died. I've never met a person in real life who likes this band. I just thought, I can't see your face, but you're the hottest guy I've seen from the back!!!1!uno!!

The weird thing is that as I kept walking, a few paces behind him, he seemed to be going my direction and uh, he actually went into the building I was headed to. WTF? And we took the same elevator, but I really had nothing to say so I stayed quiet and avoided eye contact like any decent person would in an elevator full of strangers, even if one of those strangers had a Crudos patch on his bag.

Also, this video alone redeems John Leguizamo for ruining the awesomeness that is Luigi in that terrible Super Mario movie.

I love Mambo Mouth! Or at least the parts I've actually watched!!

Admission.

2007-01-09T22:06:00.000-05:00

Can I get a "Jesus muthafuckin' Christ"? I didn't realize that the Bronx Museum of the Arts costs only $3 for students. THREE DOLLARS! HOLY SHIT.

The Guggenheim is $15 for students! If I'd known the Bronx Museum was so cheap I'd have gone sooner. BTW, I found out the Jewish Museum is doing an exhibit on old-school comics (like Will Eisner, etc) and that's only $7.50, so I'm totally planning on going to that, too.

Started reading Random Family, which so far is excellent but I can't quite believe that this white chick was hanging out in the South Bronx during the mid-80s. C'est tout.

Oh, and I got the latest Under the Radar in the mail. I know I shouldn't talk shit about stuff I get for free (thanks to Doris) but sometimes it's necessary ('sup Spin). To illustrate: Modest Mouse are on the cover. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I have to say, though, Johnny Marr is looking good; he only appears like 10 years older than the rest of the band? Maybe he is only 10 years older... I don't know. Whatever, he's got a full head of hair. Not like Moz who's struggling with his receding hairline.

Oh yes, I love Morrissey. I'm just sayin'.

Nada Me Limitará

2007-01-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

Not that you were thinking about me, but here I am, writing mostly because I have nothing better to do. I'm about to finish As Nature Made Him, which has left me confused and has been a really fascinating read. I've got a lot of books lined up to read next, but I don't know which one to pick up. Maybe a slimmer one since school will be starting up soon. I've been thinking of making a Favorites Books Ever list.

My most recent download has been Calle 13, Chetes, and Prissa.

You should listen to Prissa. They do this throwback guilty pleasure electropop shit, but without the guilt and with a lot of fun. It's sort of like Le Tigre but prettier? I'm not sure. Anyway, Javiera Mena is in the group and I sort of think she's beautiful, but really, the songs are really good, too!!

Ugh, isn't that video so fucking cute you wanna throw up? I think so.

I've been looking for Ready Steady Go! videos on YouTube, but there's a fucking L'arc-en-ciel (sp?) song with the same title and there's like a million fan-made anime clip mashups using that song. But I've been partly successful, in particular with this Kim Weston performance:

And this next one is quite lovely, except for the fact that John is doing his spaz routine, which leaves me feeling guilty for finding it funny. I'm sorry, I know it's not nice to find spazzy people funny ('sup Ian Curtis)... Pretty song though. Actually, the best part of the entire clip is when John sticks out his tongue and shows he's lip-syncing. Haha.

Bummer Summer.

2007-01-05T23:52:00.000-05:00

Nothing to break your heart like finding out that taking a summer class costs more than $4000.

Saw The Devil Wears Prada with my mom, we both liked it. Especially cos it was free.

I'm Sadder Than I Expected.

2007-01-05T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well. Ten minutes in and there are no more tickets for the Arcade Fire. I guess I shouldn't have wasted so much time at the Ticketweb site... I got confused and didn't realize they were using something else until I checked the Merge site.

Way to not have this info on your official site, bitches. Why are you paying all that money and spending all that time making fancy flash shit if it's not gonna contain any pertinent information on it? You might as well just have a MySpace page. Whatever, now I know not to rely on your site.

Or to even try buying tickets online.

EDIT: I'm excited though, I can't wait for the Craigslist posts asking for "special companions" to start rolling along.

Things to Do.

2007-01-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

A couple of things worth taking note.

(1) Coliseum Books is closing 4EVER, which means they're slashing prices big time. Well, it was half off, but there's still some time, and there's still some interesting shit, so go go go. 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Aves., near the (fancy) NYPL. Last day is Saturday. I spotted the issue of Mome I just read, featuring "The Armed Garden" by the genius that is David B. There was also a memoir on the making of Water, the Indian movie that just came out this year and has a bitching soundtrack. There was a lot of shit, honestly. I picked out like 10 books until it got too heavy, so I only got five--the Adrian Tomine subway sketches, As Nature Made Him, Erasure (of which I read an excerpt in Creative Writing and loved), that rock en español book, and this book on New Journalism.

(2) Actually, the NYPL store on 40th Street, next to the regular library, is closing as well. Their last day is Friday, hope they slash their prices just a bit more, hehe.

(3) Nuyorker says that David Lynch (!!) is speaking at the Union Sq. Barnes and Noble on Jan 11 @ 7 pm.

(4) Obsolete Units is presenting a show at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar on Jan 22. It will include Totally Dad, Richard Kamerman, a dude from Talibam! and The Groits. $7. Got my ticket today. Join me if you can!

Today: Library, Coliseum books, expensive lunch eaten in front of the (fancy) library, walk to the Times Square Virgin, bus ride down to Chinatown, ticket-buying at the Knitting Factory, train ride home. It was such a nice day and I had a lot of fun!
Tomorrow: Buy tix for Arcade Fire (for the last night); Devil Wears Prada with my mom (maybe)
Sunday: UCB show with Doris and Kat

Free Movies.

2007-01-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

I signed up for these free movie screenings that were advertised on the NY Times, and the one I wanted to see the most was Babel, cos I wasn't gonna pay $11 to see it. They're happening this weekend. But when I signed up last night for the Babel screening, it said that one had reached capacity already. What!! I was sorta pissed. C'mon, who the hell was signing up for these? Old people know how to use the interwebs! Who'd have guessed?? Man, that's what I get for thinking no one would rush to get free tickets.

Went to my grandma's house, got a lot of money. It was all right.

I think the funniest thing that's happened to me in the last couple of weeks is that I went to Trader Joe's and this woman was asking one of the employees for wontons, but the dude was like, "Wontons? I think that's the same thing as gyoza..." UH YEAH OKAY. Not all dumplings look the same! Go to dumpling school, dude!! Okay, I'll stop being an ass about it.

I watched Britain's Next Top Model, season 2, and it was all right. The girl who won was such a crybaby. Cripes.

Hair.

2006-12-31T17:57:00.000-05:00

Got haircut. Look like retard. Ego shaken. My head smells like chemicals.

Happy New Year.

Winter Plans.

2006-12-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

Things to do before winter break is over:

(1) pay my fucking tuition on jan. 3
(2) see Tropicalia exhibit
(3) go to Guggenheim to see Spanish art exhibit
(4) Pan's Labyrinth
(5) read
(6) there's a Buñuel marathon happening at the NYPL (Donnell Center) in January that I really want to go to
(7) fix the fucking tabs on my fucking music--just when you think you're done, you go on a downloading binge and find you have 200 new tags to fix
(8) get a haircut

Tell me if you want to come along for (2), (3), (4), or (6).

Life is Unfair.

2006-12-25T11:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the grandpa on Everybody Loves Raymond, and the dude who made the Flintstones and now James Brown? WHAT? Fidel Castro still alive?! WHAT?!?!

Bummer.

Merry Christmas, I guess? Hope you're all doing well.

Aw, look at Bowie and Bing Crosby. How cute.

One Dolla, One Dolla.

2006-12-22T00:06:00.000-05:00

School's out... for winter!

The second-best thing that happened to me today was going to the Lincoln Center Tower Records on its last day and buying like 11 for $13. I got Test-Icicles and a So Solid Crew album, and also the solo album of Hector Buitrago and one of the dudes from Café Tacuba, which is weird because I don't own any Aterciopelados or Tacuba album, but what the hey right?? They were both a dollar, so whatevs.

Oh shit, so Maria bought me a Sandman book, The Kindly Ones, which is the really really crazy book that sometimes makes me want to stab myself in the uterus so that I'll never have a baby. I'm so excited to read it, it's got a fucking amazing story arc.

The best thing that happened to me today was finding out that the Charlie Rose Show has a YouTube account. All the clips are short but I don't care!! I love him!

A couple more things!

Los Prisioneros are a cool band!!! Look at this goofy-ass video!!

And damn, they ain't bad lookin', neither.

But Soda Stereo were ever cooler!!! Check out that crazy terrible hair!!! GUSTAVO CERATI SIRE MY CHILDREN POR FAVOR KTHXBY.

Sick!

2006-12-21T09:18:00.000-05:00

Oh jesus, my TA for this class I had added me on facebook. My stomach really hurts just thinking about it. I don't care if you're a student too, that's not punk rock. Especially if you spent most of the semester macking on all the long island hoochies wearing Ugggggs and Juicy sweat pants. Oh, and he's greasy. He's just... you know, that kind of greasy guy who goes to real people's clubs and buys really expensive bottles to impress girls who are still in their teens and then drop roofies in their drinks. I mean I'm not saying he has, but he sure looks like that kind of guy. IHU TA dude! You're disgusting and stop looking at my f-book profile!

On another note, I really really want to sleep with Gustavo Cerati! Just thought I'd let you know!!

+/-

2006-12-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

+ On Saturday I went to Boogie-Down Nicole's house... in the Bronx. It was very nice. Man, her guitar is so pretty. We looked at old NMEs. Favorite front cover headline: "STROKES WRITE 14TH SONG". Holy crap, remember when they only had 13 songs? I do. "Ze Newie" 4EVA! We watched a lot of Top Chef. It was really fun! I wish I had cable at home.

- OH MY FUKCING GOD WHO THE FUCK SOLD MY EMAIL ADDRESS TIO THIS GHETTO ASS LAEBL HOLY SHIT I WANT OUT. FUCK THAT Ugh I hate fucking publicists putting me on every fucking mailing list on earth. I don't care if Snow Patrol has been played on Grey's Anatomy, okay? I don't care who the fuck Earl Greyhound are. I don't care if you're sponsoring some "hot party" with free Sparks. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

Okay, sorry. Off to finish my work. Two more papers to go.

Favorites Songs 2006.

2006-12-17T23:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not gonna post these songs because they're probably all over Hype Machine anyway. Unless someone asks, I'd be more than happy to.

"Back to the 101" by Albert Hammond, Jr.
"Danca da ventuinha" by Bonde do Role.
"You Are Not My Boyfriend" by Britta Persson.
"Alala" by CSS.
"Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix)" by CSS.
"Sex-O-Matic" by Edu K ft. Deize Tigrona.
"Rock Stepper" by Excepter. (ZOMGWTF THIS SOUNDS LIKE A REAL SONG WITH LIKE STRUCTURE AND SHIT? SELLOUTZ! LOL AM I RITE)
"The Champ" by Ghostface Killah.
"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.
"Knife" by Grizzly Bear.
"Boy From School" by Hot Chip.
"Cuando hablamos" by Javiera Mena.
"Micael" by Juana Molina.
That Justice vs Simian song.
"My Love" by Justin Timberlake -> PROBABLY MY #1.
"Bossy" by Kelis.
"Una línea de luz" by Kinky.
"Ven aquí" by Los Bunkers.
"Kick, Push" by Lupe Fiasco.
"Friend of the Night" by Mogwai.
"No Hay Igual" by Nelly Furtado.
"Achete-moi" by Omnikrom.
"SOS" by Rihanna.
"Wolf Like Me" by TV on the Radio.
"This is Love" by Utada Hikaru.

Favorite Albums 2006.

2006-12-15T23:05:00.000-05:00

Fine, here's my list, usual suspects, no one cares about it really, already regret the order, etc, etc, etc.

15. Los Bunkers - Vida de Perros (US release 2006)

The sticker said "For Fans of The Strokes, Oasis, and Franz Ferdinand." Accurate as hell. See? Why can't American bands do that? All they write is that they were influenced by fucking Radiohead. YEAH YOU TWAT. YOU AND THREE MILLION OTHER SHITTY BANDS WERE INFLUENCED BY FUCKING RADIOHEAD.

14. Jeffrey & Jack Lewis - City & Eastern Songs (US release 2006)

This album is totally worth it just for this crazy song about Will Oldham. The punchline is amazing. I bow down to Jeffrey and his brother.

13. Various artists - Big Apple Rappin'

THROW YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR
PARTY HARD LIKE YOU JUST DON'T CARE

12. Cat Power - The Greatest

For those of you who like sad Chan, fuck you. Those who like happy Chan chilling with old Memphis musicians, ILU. Still waiting for her hip-hop debut though.

11. Juana Molina - Son

You know, I didn't really like her when I met her, but this album is hypnotic with all those loops, and songs like "Micael" sound like creepy lullabies.

10. The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes

Okay, this is a backhanded compliment, but The Black Parade? Totally should have sounded like Young muthafuckin' Machetes. High-pitched, over-the-top vocals, abrasive guitars, amazingly fun.

09. Javiera Mena - Esquemas Juveniles

At first I wasn't sure what to make of her, I heard another soft-voiced, cute singer-songwriter this year I liked, and I wasn't sure if I was going through a phase. BTW, the other singer is Britta Persson, who was just reviewed on Stylus with an A-, which is ridic because I would really give it a solid B. Javiera Mena's debut is so much stronger and has this quirky electropop thing going for her. It's definitely grown on me the more I listen to it, too, which is always a good thing.

08. Marisa Monte - Infinito Particular (US release
2006)

I think Marisa Monte has one of the most distinctly beautiful voices I've heard in pop music. Apparently, she studied opera when she was younger. In the US, Infinito Particular was released simultaneously with Monte's Universo ao meu Redor, which I didn't care for as much as I did for this album. But still, she's a stunning singer and her compositions in this album really play up her voice.

07. Asobi Seksu - Citrus

You guys probably aren't aware of this, because Asobi Seksu had really shit distribution with their first album so no one heard it, but the band used to have a different rhythm section, and when I found out about this I was like, "Well, that's it, Asobi Seksu are over." Except this album happened and I was impressed by how pop-y and lovely it was.

06. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

I don't know what to say that hasn't been said. This album is beautiful, that's all.

05. The Knife - Silent Shout

Sometimes I find singer girl's voice really annoying, but when you take the music into account, it totally works. I love how moody and dark the songs sound, and there's some real standouts, like that song with that video that was marginally based on Black Hole. Good shit!

04. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Last year, I remember listening to Buck 65's "Blood of a Young Wolf," in which my one true love Rich Terfry namechecks several awesome ladies within the same line: "I'm talking Amelia Earhart, Neko Case, Frida Kahlo..." I was like, "How the hell do you put a pop singer in the same fucking sentence as Earhart and Kahlo?" In 2006 I got to know Case's work better, and now I know that Mr. 65 was right. Neko Case is brilliant.

03. Various artists - Tropicália

I guess it's sorta like when people think of New York City in '75 or even the late '60s and they think everyone was so damn cool and talented and loved each other and were BFFs. That's how it feels when I listen to this shit.

02. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

Wow! A Brooklyn band that doesn't fucking piss me off!!

01. Liars - Drum's Not Dead

!!!

If You're Bored...

2006-12-14T01:29:00.000-05:00

Here are my favorite vids of 2006. I feel like DoCopenhagen left a lot to be desired on their list. Most I've already posted. But here they are, all together in their full YouTube glory. Enjoy, or not.

Favorite Videos 2006

(25) OK Go - That treadmill video.

(24) The Rapture - WAYUH

(23) Supersystem - White Light/White Light

(22) The Gossip - Listen Up!

(21) Albert Hammond, Jr. - 101

(20) TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me

(19) Julieta Venegas - Limón y Sal

(18) Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before the Lights Come On

(17) Cobra Starship - Snakes on a Plane

(16) Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill

(15) Calle 13 - La Jirafa

(14) CSS - Alala (the bitch fight version)

(13) The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt

(12) Utada Hikaru - Keep Tryin'

(11) Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends or Never Be Alone or Whatever The Fuck It's Called ;)

(10) Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down

(9) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

(8) Mostro - Moha Moha

(7) Vaquero - Sunshine

(6) The Knife - Silent Shout

(5) Minus the Bear - Pachuca Sunrise

(4) Hot Chip - Boy From School

(3) Zoé - No Me Destruyas Más

(2) Mogwai - Friend of the Night

(1) The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New

Damn, I Hate Shakira.

2006-12-13T00:14:00.000-05:00

How come she gets to be biffles with Gustavo Cerati AND Gabriel García Márquez? Fucking lucky bitch. That's even cooler than the Strokes chillin' with Kurt Vonnegut. I can't believe it. Do they know how fortunate these people are?!?! Grrr.

ANOTHER UNRELATED NOTE: I think Barbara Walters is gonna pick Stephen Colbert for most fascinating person of 2006 or whatever. Y/N?

Past My Bedtime.

2006-12-13T00:08:00.000-05:00

Well. That's fucking embarrassing. This entire time, I had no idea that Gustavo Cerati played in Shakira's last albums. Which makes sense why there was a video on YouTube of her singing "De música ligera" back when she was still a brunette. I wish YouTube was working so I could show you what the fuck I'm talking about. Not that you'd care, but still. Also, I keep thinking I have a crush on Gustavo Cerati (old as he may be, lol), but then I see pictures of him and I'm like, "Uhhh nasty hair". I know, I know, I'm shallow. His voice is so hot though.

It doesn't matter anyway, it feels like I get a crush on every guy I see. I watched Saved twice in the last few days, and I have decided that Patrick Fugit as a Jesus-Lovin' Sk8r Boy is sort of what I'm looking for in a significant other. Le sigh.

Changes.

2006-12-11T21:01:00.000-05:00

Holy shit y'all. Augusto Pinochet died. Perfect day to die, too. End of an era. Goodby you fucker. But thanks for helping Chile become one of the most economically sound countries in Latin America. It just blows that you killed so many people to accomplish what you wanted.

On a related note, I HATE THE MORNING NEWS. STOP IT. STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT PET GROOMING PRODUCTS CAN DOUBLE AS HOUSEHOLD CLEANING PRODUCTS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH MENOPAUSE AND HOW TO TALK TO YOUR BOSS ABOUT GETTING A FUCKING PROMOTION. I DON'T CARE. IT'S NOT NEWS. It's absolutely pathetic that I only found out about Pinochet's death until I got to work and went online to read BLOGS (while I worked, of course!).

Okay, discuss!

Here's Los Bunkers:

This is a cover of an Inti-Illimani song, "La exiliada del sur," which is based by a poem by Violeta Parra, who's like the godmother of protest folk music in Chile.

This is the best song Los Bunkers have ever written, and it's a protest song of their own. I've probably posted this video already, but if I did, I didn't know the story behind it. It's called "Miño" after a man who lost a relative to asbestos poisoning; the company Miño's relative worked for profited a lot during Pinochet's dictatorship. Well, to protest the preferential treatment that this big company got, and how little shit they gave over his relative, Miño burned himself. To death.

Thanks.

2006-12-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

Dear Boogie-Down Nicole, Gabs, Maria, Notorious Angela, and Rrrachel,

Thanks for the party, and thank you very very much for the gifts. I appreciate it. Damn, that food was good, right?

Love,
Elizabeth U.

Why I Like Calle 13, and Other Matters.

2006-12-09T14:10:00.000-05:00

(1) I tend to have a rockist (or at worst, a popist) attitude about music, which leaves out a lot of musical genres that are worth hearing. Looking at the list I made this year, I felt disappointed that it was so monochromatic. I feel bad that I didn't give a chance to albums by Ghostface Killah or Clipse or Lupe Fiasco, all of them hip-hop artists who released albums many people enjoyed. I didn't even listen to the J Dilla, or the Plan B (the British dude, not the reggaetonero), or the Kelis, or the Calle 13. Part of the problem is that I never was a big hip-hop fan and I feel like I should know more about it before I starty saying "this is good, this is bad." But I'm just mad at myself that I didn't even try. How am I gonna learn if I don't even try?

(2) I don't really like hip-hop artists who sound like hip-hop artists. ("Say what?") Like that's one reason I listen to The Streets or Buck 65 more than anything, it's like they're talking to me more than they're spitting out rhymes. I haven't heard his entire album, but this is the reason I like Calle 13. He's called a reggaetón artist, but he doesn't sound anything like it to me. Like the two singles I've heard by him use interesting "instrumentation" for hip-hop music (I quote that word because I'm sure the sound was created by some man-made process in the studio...). If the rest of his album sounds like every other damn reggaetón album out right now (aggro delivery + dirty lyrics + THAT REALLY ANNOYING BEAT), then I give him many props for choosing such unusual singles. And he's one of those talkin'-not-rappin' kinds of dudes. I mean obvs he does rhyme, but what the hell, rhyming "Coldplay" with "Green Day" doesn't call for Puerto Rican Poet Laureate of the Year, or even this month, y'know. Do I make any sense? I'm not sure.

At the same time, his singles, especially "Atrevete-te-te" are fucking catchy. And the rappero seems really charming but not in an arrogant sort of way ('sup Daddy Yankee). Of course, Calle 13 has been around for like a year, and there's a lot that could go wrong, either musically or in terms of public persona ('sup Kanye). But let's not dwell on how everything might go wrong, and let's enjoy what Calle 13 is doing well right now.

I dunno, maybe I have a warped sense of this artist because I'm not in PR having to hear his songs all the time. I wonder what Julissa has to say about this? I remember she was like, "Bitch, please!" when I said I liked "Gasolina".

"La Jirafa"

(3) On an unrelated note, I'm incredibly mad that Buju fucking Banton got nominated for a Grammy. I haven't heard this album so I dunno if it's good. Ugh. I understand that saying something in a song and meaning it is two separate things. I mean, sometimes you just have to love the music even though you hate the artist ('sup M.I.A.). The problem is, THIS IS THE FUCKING GRAMMYS. They have no concept of "art" or whatever, so it doesn't matter whether his album was good or not. I mean, the Black-Eyed Peas got nominated for "My Humps", so that really cancels out any other nomination for an artist I might actually like ('sup Thom Yorke). Why the fuck did Buju Banton get a nomination???

Loose.

2006-12-07T00:29:00.000-05:00

a - I admit I gave two whole stars to the Gwen Stefani album.
b - I got an A- on my Les Savy Fav paper (!).
c - There's this book I like called We Owe You Nothing, which is an anthology of interviews from Punk Planet. This is how I learned about, erm, Porcell. I really picked it up because the cover picture is of Bikini Kill. Anyway, I was finally ready to buy this book about a month ago when I realized I couldn't find it anywhere. I went online and found it was out of print. I was so fucking pissed at myself! BUUUUUT. Today I found out that they're publishing a new edition in April with new interviews!!! I'm very excited. I will definitely buy it this time around.
d - I submitted my Year-End List to TMT. I think it'll be published Dec. 20? So you can find out then what my #1 is. Some really great guesses, though, especially Christina Fairy's. ;) Even if no one guesses correctly, I'll probably buy a gift to whoever gets closest to the top of my list, haha. Good luck, y'all.

Here's a Hint.

2006-12-06T00:59:00.000-05:00

WHAT THE FUCK MAN! WHY DID I DECIDE TO REVIEW THE NEW GWEN STEFANI? WHY DID I ACTUALLY GIVE IT A FAIR LISTEN? OMAGOSH Y'ALL I'M ABOUT TO DIE.

DEMENTORS > GWEN STEFANI.

No seriously, guess.

Contest, sort of.

2006-12-04T00:18:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, I went back to the school paper again for the first time in months, which is hilarious because it was the last meeting of the semester. We got cookies, though, that was exciting. Editor asked us our favorite albums this year, Kareem said Fiery Furnaces, which made me lol cos I had no idea they'd even released anything. I said _____, which made my editor raise his eyebrows in approval. I don't know why, to me it's a very easy choice. Anyway, guess what my #1 album of 2006 was, and I'll buy you a nice gift. Or something.

:)

2006-12-04T00:03:00.000-05:00

mi mamá y mi papá me compraron una guitarra. fender squier, azul. ¡¡lo compraron en costco!! jajajaja. pues me lo compraron pa' mi cumpleaños. lo irónico, claro, es que no es mi cumple.

aquí está un video por vaquero que se llama "sunshine" que descubrí hoy. es muy divertido y me da risa:

Damn Hair.

2006-12-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

Gabs told me to think about my head shape if I get my hair cut, which was a valid point, so I was thinking about people who have my head shape, and I couldn't think of anyone except Kirsten Dunst. Well, after googling "haircuts round face" I remembered Christina Ricci's head is pretty round, too, but I've never really liked any of her hairstyles I don't think. I did like that hairstyle that Kirsten Dunst got and later Maggie Gyllenhaal got because Kirsten got it and they're all like BFFs and shit. I'm only writing about this because I told my parents I want my hair like Kirsten Dunst just now, and I feel very goofy and like a sucker for pop culture/celebrity. Plus, not a celebrity I adore or anything, though I agree she has her moments. Man, if I get that haircut I'm gonna look terrible. I can feel it.

Set Fire to the Car on Fire.

2006-11-28T21:04:00.000-05:00

In class today I tried to explain that the theme song to Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is used in a shitload of movie trailers. And people stared at me blankly. HELLO? Okay, yeah, I was hardly coherent in the morning, but c'mon. Don't tell me you don't recognize this song (the most used bit starts at around 1 min):

Sorry for using someone's tribute video or whatever you call them. It was either that or a video of Elvis Stojko skating to this song at the Olympics.

Whatever, most of those bitches hadn't even heard of the movie. Dudes! That shit is classic! Like Teen Witch. Y'know.

Esquemas Juveniles.

2006-11-27T18:26:00.000-05:00

How was my long weekend? Let us see the scoreboard.
- SEE VOLVER!!!
- Go to MoMA
- Go and see that exhibit on tropicália at the Bronx Museum of the Arts
- Go to the Palms Out Sounds store
- See Evil Dead: The Musical
- Go to Paul's and paint CDs
- Do my homework and catch up on school (fat chance with that one)

2/7 accomplished. Meh, it was still worth it.

Last Tuesday I did watch the Tony Bennett show which was really wonderful except for the part where I didn't really care for the sound of his voice. I'm just sayin', y'all. I mean I listened to a lot of Gianni Morandi this weekend, and his voice is so wonderful compared to Bennett. Like what the fuck was that song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"? Weakest signature song ever. Listen man, congratulations on hitting 80 years, but c'mon. When you were singing with Stevie Wonder? Yeah, the fool was kicking your musical ass. It was your show man! ON THE OTHER HAND: his song with Diana Krall was great, it really suited his voice! Oh, and Christina Aguilera was really good, except for when she got a little too loose with the melismas. Yeah, you can sing--we get it, aight? Pop and R&B stars gotta cut out that melisma shit. But still, the show was much more fun and classy and the sets were so much prettier than the American Music Awards.

The awards show was pretty drab. I'll fess up, I watched it cos I was waiting for the Fall Out Boy performance. It was terrible. Just... just terrible. Well, Trohman doing his jumps was cool. Everything else was horrific. Oh, Fatrick. The sad thing is, it wasn't nearly as bad as the new Gwen Stefani. I felt my soul die a little.

Nicole Richie was looking so cute though. Aww. Gotta eat a little more though.

The next day Gabs and I made plans to have lunch, except we ended up having early dinner and then we went to Strand's where I think she bought multiple Dave Eggers books, and she said she has a love/hate thing for him which totally made it okay that she was gonna buy two of his books. Whatevs, at least the girl reads, right? I told her I've never read anything of his but later I realized that was a lie, because I remember reading his column in Spin back when Spin was going downhill but was still marginally readable, and I remember hating his column and wishing he would just die in the ass.

Anyway, we parted ways and I was all ready to go to Volver but I didn't know it was only showing in like, three theaters in Manhattan so I went to two theaters before I was like "Jesus, fuck that..." It was all rainy and shit, too. I ended up in... Shakespear & Co. At first I wasn't sure if it was open but I figured it was just dead because everyone was busy going like, home and shit. So I looked around and I picked up The Motorcycle Diaries, only to drop it and pick up the new Marc Spitz book, instead.

I know. I know. Somehow, I own all of his books. I understand how ridiculous that is. Especially choosing it over The Motorcycle Diaries. I just... needed something lowbrow to read, okay? Don't judge, bitches. And bee tee dubs, the book's just fine. I just got to the part where a cute Jewish blogger grrrl who has "a thing for posting photos of baby animals" discovers the never-was band the intrepid protagonist was in during the 90s. Sounds like Sarah Lewitinn, huh? Haha. That's very sweet of him. The books all right, so far. I say so far cos that Smiths book was pretty fun to read, too, until the part where the main character is an adult and pathetic. But I think this is easier to read because the Smiths book was like the most thinly disguised roman-a-clef ever, so every time something pathetic showed up I would be like, "OMG Marc Spitz, you loser". I guess it's good that the second book is better than the first book, wouldn't it be embarrasing if it was the other way around?

Ugh I can't believe I typed all those words about fucking Marc Spitz. Yeah, well, less words than he spends in the book on Winona Ryder. God bless her, what's she been up to?

Thanksgiving, as I said, was weird.

Friday I went out. Or did I? I can't remember. Fuck. Honestly, I spent most of the (entire) weekend thinking it was Sunday, so I kept going to the Palms Out Sounds blog (they put up some hottt remixes every Sunday) and to check if my Audioscrobbler charts had updated. I know... I'm such a slave to the internets.

Saturday I went out and just walked around a lot. I went to the library and paid off my fine. I listened to Soda Stereo as I walked near the Junky Park and I decided they ROOOOOCK. I ended up at the movie theater to watch Volver. When I went into the theater I was surprised by the small space. 137 capacity--and most of those people were old. Damn. I loved the movie, of course. There were a few twists here and there, but they weren't revealed in an outrageous way. The acting was excellent. When I got out of the theater it was dark. I called my parents and told them I was gonna have dinner with my friends; I don't know why I lied. I do that all the time, too.

When I got home I was hungry, so I had ramen.

Yesterday my mom and I went out and there were all these fuckers like, shopping and shit, and it was so crowded in the streets. Terrible. After that I went to Paul's house, and I had a feeling I was gonna be exactly on time, and it's like, who the fuck gets there on time? There was some racket going on on the street and this old lady with a dog starts talking shit about the noise to me. I'm like, "I'm sorry, who the fuck are you and who gave you permission to address me?" I know, I'm an asshole. Anyway, Paul let me in and I painted some of his CD-Rs and I hope they turn out well. It was fun, but I've still got traces of paint on me. It looks like I was bleeding, a bit. We listened to hip-hop Christmas tunes, compiled by Paul's roommate. Then we had pizza. Then I left. I met some nice people there.

Today I had a mediocre day. I read Fametracker at work. It pretty much explained every feeling I have for Steve Buscemi. The end.

Gobble Gobble.

2006-11-24T12:25:00.000-05:00

WTF? Volver is only playing in 5 theaters in the city? I don't get it. Who the fuck doesn't wanna see a really busty Penelope (Penélope?) Cruz? Oh, and don't you love how people sound sooooo surprised she can act? "OMG no rly, u guyz! She's assum! It's not like in her English movies!" Yeah, it would help if her English roles had actually been good. Just sayin'. I mean, Captain Corelli's Mandolin wasn't exactly her most exciting role...

Yeah, Thanksgiving was okay. It was as good as it could be with all these suburbanite Korean people. The food was right out of a Normal Rockwell painting (y'know), complete with mac & cheese made out of a box. No kimchi, but we had rice cake stuff. Haha.

After eating we just watched Elf, which was all right, pretty funny at points. There was this one part were there was a little person and Will Ferrell kept calling him an elf, and I found that much funnier than it was on the screen, because I kept thinking about that bit in The (British) Office where the boss and his employee keep talking about the difference between midgets and dwarves and it's uncomfortable enough but the gag runs for a really long time and it just makes you squirm. Don't you love how I'm describing this entire thing to y'all? By this point you must have realized I have nothing to do (read: don't wanna face the facts that I have a shitload of homework). Haha.

I have to go out to the library cos my book is totes overdue.

On the car ride to my parents' friends' house:
Suburban Dude: I feel bad for Jewish people, they don't have any happy holidays...
Me: They have Purim.
Suburban Dude: (doesn't hear me) ...It's like they're always fasting or something...
Me: They have hamantaschen.
My Brother: (doesn't hear me either) What about Muslims? They have it worse.
Suburband Dude: Oh, that's right. They have Ramadan.

Yeah, it was a weird night. My brother kept bitching at me about how he wishes he could go back in time and kill Derrida.

Altman.

2006-11-22T08:09:00.000-05:00

Oh no!! I jsut heard Robert Altman died!! What a fucking pity. At least he had a good career before he up and died, right? RIP!

Sigh.

2006-11-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

Y'know, I wasn't that bummed about Thanksgiving and having to have dinner with people who are only tangentially a part of my life, but then I remembered I'm gonna miss Ugly Betty. AGAIN. Grr.

Which means I'm gonna miss the high brow brilliance of moments like these:

Guess Who's Not Writing Her Paper on Les Savy Fav Right Now.

2006-11-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, you heard right. I'm so full of shit I'm writing a 5-6 page paper on Les Savy Fav right now. Think what you will. I only hope that no one from the band finds this and demands that I send them a copy of my paper.

Cough. So tomorrow on TV, there's gonna be a special on NBC. Tony Bennett (sp?) and friends. Watch it. I know I will. Honestly, I don't know why I'm geeking out over it, especially since I can't name any of his signature songs. I just think it'll be nice. Don't you think so?

I'd like to accomplish any of the following during this long weekend:
- SEE VOLVER!!!
- Go to MoMA
- Go and see that exhibit on tropicália at the Bronx Museum of the Arts
- Go to the Palms Out Sounds store
- See Evil Dead: The Musical
- Go to Paul's and paint CDs
- Do my homework and catch up on school (fat chance with that one)

If anyone would like to accompany me to any of these, please holla back.

Oh, bee tee dubs, the Times totally wrote an article about little kids in Park Slope being in rock bands and how the mastermind behind all of this is Steve Buscemi's kid. The namechecking on this article was astounding.

Um...

2006-11-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

Doing nothing to quell the Waycest slash-fest.

Why is he touching him there??

Cornetto.

2006-11-18T23:07:00.000-05:00

HIII!

So last night I went to see Andrew W.K. do a "lecture on anything he wanted" which meant he didn't prepare anything and it was really chaotic and sure it was funny on occasion and he was super nice, and his fans were really nice, but it's like, why you gotta ask him about influences and shit? Why don't you read interviews with him? I preferred the sillier questions, like somebody asked him to tell a crazy on-the-road story. There was a singalong bit that was really cute, too, but for the most part, it didn't seem worth $4 and wasting a hot Friday night. Believe me, I was really bummed. I can't believe how boring this was, for the most part.

Like when Ian MacKaye came last year, he was amazing. Mind you, he's told some stories a million times so he really knows how to pace them and how to hit the punchline and shit, but seriously, I feel like Ian has so much to say, and I really have a love/hate (mostly hate LOL) thing for him but the respeck is definitely there for MacKaye cos he knows how to talk to a crowd. Must be daddy's preacher genes.

Anyway, I watched Amores Perros last night when I got home. It was incredibly good. I watched it late at night so I had a bit of a hard time keeping track of all the storylines and how they were connected. Also, there were a lot of bloody dogs, but I liked that they didn't really hurt the animals. Oh, and I really wanted to punch the Gael García Bernal character in the face. Except I probably would have settled for kicking his ass cos his face is so pretty. But damn, that movie. I loved it, it was just depressing enough--like don't you hate movies that make you lose hope for the world? This one, I felt like maybe the characters could move on from their adversities. Well, eventually, anyway. Also, the DVD had the video for Café Tacuba's "Aviéntame" which has got to be incredibly emo and sorta disturbing.

I also watched Shaun of the Dead and all the extras on the DVD. Well, most of them. I watched the movie with these subtitles that gave away all the references to previous zombie movies as well as the songs soundtracked. Shit, I didn't know they used so many Ash songs on there. Also, I totally saw a copy of White Blood Cells like around in Shaun's house, but it's so brief I was like, "Whoa was that what I thought it was?" and rewinded (er, rewound?) and paused it. Oh, and there was a whole bit about the 2nd albums the cast members bought in their lives.

BTW, I just finished reading Girl Trouble, which is about Gloria Trevi and her uhhh I can't explain. Like she got into deep shit, ended up in Rio, etc. The book was really good! Very well-written. At the same time I feel like Gloria should have stayed a little longer in jail. I don't know why, because it seems like she suffered a lot a lot a lot, too. I'm just an asshole. I know she's got her comeback and all, but she looks awful lately. Almost like a Latina Paula Abdul. ::shudders::

*

Okay, help me out with these lists (they're not ranked or anything):

[EDITED]

People who are allowed to be crazy
Mariah Carey
Prince
Missy Elliott (is she actually insane or just quirky?)
Cat Power

People who are NOT allowed to be crazy
Gwen Stefani
Michael Jackson
R. Kelly
Beyoncé
Devendra Banhart
Billy Corgan
Courtney Love
Kanye West
Jack White

I'm on the fence on where to put OutKast.

Here are a video of Gloria Trevi and another of SODA STEREO <3.

Does That Make Me Crazy?

2006-11-16T02:09:00.000-05:00

ahhh se me pierde la cordura, y'all... me duelen los ojos ya no los puedo enfocar pero tengo que terminar mi ensayo... :( no quiero ir a la escuela mañana.

Forgot to Ask:

2006-11-15T00:33:00.000-05:00

VERY IMPORTANT! I HAVE AN EXTRA TICKET TO THE ANDREW WK LECTURE ON FRIDAY.

Anyone wanna go? Open to the public with gov't issued ID. $4 worth.

Agitate! Educate! Organize!

2006-11-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

There's this blog I read, Palms Out Sounds, which I actually used to read once a week, solely for their "Remix Sunday" posts (the latest one is here) and which I never mentioned to y'all cos I'm a greedy asshole who didn't wanna reveal her source for the awesome remixes she's been hearing recently. I know, I suck. Anyway, I've been reading this blog a bit more closely lately specifically because of a recent post they made. Go read it. Rly. We don't get enough people talking about this stuff.

Well, this post has another purpose, Palms Out Sounds has been nominated by Roc-A-Fella Recs for best hip-hop blog, and they need votes and I think it would be really cool if y'all could vote. You can only vote once a day but I figure if we all vote they'll get to do all the exclusive shiznit on the new Jay-Z album release frenzy.

VOTE HERE PLZ.

Weird, cos just today we were discussing this stuff in my Theory of Drama class. It was about performing gender (particularly drag acts) and performing race (particularly blackface). I was pleasantly surprised by the discussion, it was really interesting and I don't think anyone said anything too offensive, except for one kid who said that culture is a construct but race isn't, or some shit like that. I was like, "WHAT? WHAT? RACE IS A CONSTRUCT." Naw, I didn't say that, but I was shouting inside my head. Which makes it sound like I hear voices. Well shit, I do. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ohhh lord. Anyhoo.

Here, this is one of the first music videos I ever remember watching.

Watching it now, I'm like, "Go figure he likes the blonde. Tch." I can get a bit bitter at times. Which is hilarious because when I was six, I thought the most beautiful people in the world were Ludwika Paleta, Xuxa, and Marisol. Sorta sad, yeah? I mean I still think they're beautiful ladies. But y'know. Now I make room for people like Julieta Venegas or Beth Ditto or JD Samson or Kelis or whoever. Shit, my philosophy is that I'm too ugly to be picky and be all uppity about who's beautiful or not.

The other music video I remember watching when I was little, of course, was this obscure, low-budget production called "Thriller," which scared the shit out of me.

Up to Date.

2006-11-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

Shit I'm so disappointed. Last night I met the sibs from The Knife without their masks on and I felt so special to know what they really looked like, but I just realized that it was a dream, which makes a lot more sense since in my dream it wasn't a guy and a girl but two guys. Gawd.

So I've got a lot of ground to retread. I'm just gonna post YouTube vids in between to balance out all the text. Like this:

Nov. 2

I saw Frida Hyvönen, the Wrens and the Walkmen.

I was surprised by how good the sound was at Skirball. It was wild how loud it got, even with my earplugs.

I didn't care for Frida Hyvönen, I thought her lyrics were laughable and she was pretty unremarkable for a "girl with piano" act. Except I'm aware that it's also the kind of music a lot of people dig, plus she was cute, but I couldn't believe she was eating grapes in between songs. Maybe they help her with the singing? ::shrug::

The Wrens may have been almost sorta just a little bit amazing. It was my very first time hearing the Wrens. Well what really shocks me is that they were so old (read: probably in their late 30s). They sounded a little British to me on certain occasions, so I couldn't believe they were from Jersery. Er, JERSEY. They weren't being very showy at first but all of a sudden, bassist dude went wiiiiild and we was all like WTF GRANDPA CALM DOWN but he didn't and all the kids left their seats and rushed the stage and they looked SO HAPPY to be there. Funny about the bass, it looked real shitty and taped up all over and I wondered why, but then the dude started throwing the bass into the air and trying to catch it and I was like, "Oh... that's why..." At the end they were like, "Fifteen years ago we thought we were rock stars" and how they used to volunteer at CMJ too, and

The Walkmen were pretty good though they didn't take over the stage the way the Wrens did. Boogie-Down Nicole said it was the worst Walkmen show she'd witnessed. I liked it, except for the encore Ham came out with this electric saw and uh cut part of this guitar off. We were all confuzzled and the smell and the dust was weird. Oh yeah, biggest applause: "The Rat". I do love that song, but still.

Nov. 3

Went to see Junot Díaz who was hilarious. A must-see, seriously. He didn't want to read that much, so he just wasted time by talking to everyone about Rutgers (where he attended) and stuff. These students from BMCC were there, and all the rich NYU kids were a li'l scared, you could feel it, lol. Except for the most part I want to cry because he's such a good writer and I'm afraid I'm never gonna get to. I mean I don't want to be an author, I just wanna have a basic grasp on the English language goddamnit!

Nov. 4

I went to a CMJ panel on how to make it as a VJ. I went because Kim from Top Model was a panelist. And yeah, she looked beautiful. Also, Steven from Fuse was there. I really liked the panel. Since these people are on camera all the time, they were all very talkative and kept the panel going. Steven hogged things a bit though, revealing too much about himself: he used to be a middle school teacher and he thinks Micky Avalon is gonna be huge. I was like, Micky who?

After that I stayed for a panel on The Next Big Thing. It was basically people plugging their own projects. Like Jim Diamond (y'know, "the dude who sued the White Stripes") was plugging for a band he'd recorded recently and it pretty much sounded like one of those Detroit New Garage Rock bands, 3rd-rate White Stripes, etc. Or like Sarah Lewitinn (yeah, I KNOW) was plugging for The Oohlas. I mean she's cute but she was looking rough and her hair looks terrible. And someone from XL picked an artist from her label. I thought the panel was gonna discuss how buzz is created, I didn't think it would be so narrow as to literally pick 5 artists to expose to the crowd. We also had to listen to one full song by each of the artists, which ate up most of the one-hour panel without leaving much room for chitchat. It's not to say that the songs were bad, but there could have been a really interesting dialogue that just didn't happen, y'know?

The sad thing is, the panel moderator (who was from the Shortlist Music Prize) was the only one who picked someone totally unrelated to him, and he actually seemed really embarrassed about his pick, because rationally he understood what a dumb choice it was, but at the same time he sincerely liked it. Well guess who the fuck he chose: Micky Avalon.

Now the song was hilarious, because when I saw his picture I thought he was some white version of the kids out of Wassup Rockers, but uhhh apparently he's a crazy Jewish hip-hopper kid. But don't mind all of this, the fact is that this dude is on MySpace Records. Brace yourselves, y'all, this guy's probably gonna become really popular. Somebody get me a barf bag plz.

The third panel I went to was one on the influence of bloggers. I met my classmate Monica there. It was nice to see someone I knew. Well as the panel went on (which included Fluxblog dude and a Pitchfucker) my eyes started wandering and all of a sudden I made eye contact with... um, Kareem. Haha. It made me feel better about being at a panel on bloggers. At the Les Savy Fav show a couple of days ago he said Ryan Schreiber was sitting a couple of rows behind me. That also made me feel better; I may know what Kelefa Sanneh looks like but it's cos he's cute. Kareem has no excuse for knowing what Ryan Schreiber looks like. LOL.

After the panels I recovered by having dinner at Rachel's house. Maria was there too! Dinner was really good! Damn.

Nov. 5

Hung out for like an hour with my presentation partner. Remember? We're doing schtuff on Touch and Go? It was pretty awesome, and there was a weird moment, too: his suitemate walks in and we say hi and he says, "I think I know you from somewhere, WSN?" YEAH! He's the kid who seemed like he got into music because he got injured in his junior year of high school and lost his football scholarship and ended up with a guitar in his hands while he recovered. You know the type. And then we both fessed up about not having gone to meetings for a while. Haha, aw.

Nov. 7

There was a career fair for the noobs at NYU Law. Cute "kids". In quotes because they're all older, sometimes much more so. But still. Whatever, I got to smile at high-maintenance lawyers (some nice ones, too), and the snacks were pretty sweet. Even the Pepsi I pilfered tasted pretty good.

Nov. 9

LES SAVY FAAAAAV!!! GREAT!!! ENERGETIC!! SHORT SET (AND THANK GOD COS I WAS ABOUT TO DROP DEAD).

Missed the two openers. Boogie-Down Nicole and I spent the time bonding and talking shit about people. Y'know. And then inside we met Kareem who was happy (read: a bit on the drunk side) and was all like, "You just missed me DJ" and I felt a bit sore about it because I do love the kind of shit he DJs, but it was all good. I also found out my classmate, Monica is a mutual friend, so I was asking her about it and one of the first things he pointed out is that she meows.

She literally meows. It's just a habit, and if she wasn't cute she'd probably get a lot of shit for it, but I think it's endearing. Kareem said it freaks him out a bit cos he used to have a girlfriend who did that. WEIRD! What is this, some trend I wasn't aware of? Tch, better than hipsters wearing those palestinian scarves. Don't deny, you know what I'm talking about.

We also couldn't figure out whether Steve Buscemi dies in Reservoir Dogs. I've never watched the movie, so I dunno. I only figured he did because he dies in most of his movies...

Anyway, the show was great, it was a bit scary when Tim came our way but it wasn't too bad, didn't get no spit from him and he wasn't hassling people that much. Maybe he got a little talk from the NYU folks. Whatever, I'm just glad he didn't make me cry.

But next Thursday I wanna watch Ugly Betty on the TV because it's a pain having it stream on my computer.

Nov. 10

Work was a pain, but then when Boogie-Down Nicole and I walked to the train so I could go home, there were a shitload of police cars and fire trucks at Houston & Broadway. Fuck. So then Nicole and I walked to 2nd Ave, and the train wasn't working but I didn't realize so I walked into the station and at the bottom of the stairs was... UHHH ALBERT HAMMOND JR. And I was like, "OMG LOOK AT THIS GHETTO ASS STROKE GETTING ON THE SUBWAY" not that he was looking bad, oh no, he looked quite nice, but I'm just sayin'. I mean, this might be the most mundane thing I've seen someone do since I witnessed Frodo "Jordan Catalano is Mad Jealous of Me" Baggins getting on the line for coat check.

Well anyways, I was really stressed out and I was like, "How cute, a stroke on the subway" so I didn't say anything to him, though Al got out of the train station and I followed suit because I saw Boogie-Down Nicole had come back and was like, "Yeah biznatch, trains ain't runnin'". Nicole did see Albert come out of the train and she told me I should have told him I liked his album okay, and I was like, "Goddamn missed opportunity arghh". Well, anyway, we went to her dorm to see what happened and the Gothamist Map said that someone had reported a "suspicious package". Ohhh boy.

This Weekend was Gael García Bernal Weekend.

I watched Mala educación and El crimen del Padre Amaro. I liked the former much better than the latter, though I have to say the acting was fantastic in El crimen. But I love Almodóvar and the movie was too fucking meta to be true. And it was so colorful! Aw and the kid in it was so cute with his ears sticking out!

Also, I'm a bit pissed about the version of Mala educación I got, supposedly it's the "NC-17" cut, but honestly, some bits of El crimen freaked me out a lot more than Mala educación--I really feel like they both should have been R movies.

The amount of homework I finished: zip.

Get It Right, Bitches!

2006-11-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

COLOMBIA IS A COUNTRY. COLUMBIA IS A UNIVERSITY.

ALUMNUS IS SINGULAR MALE. ALUMNA IS SINGULAR FEMALE. ALUMNI (A-LUM-NEE) IS PLURAL MALE OR PLURAL MIXED. ALUMNAE (A-LUM-NYE, the way everyone pronounces 'alumni') IS PLURAL FEMALE ONLY.

John is an alumnus. John and Michael are alumni (rhymes with knee). John and Mary are alumni. Mary is an alumna. Mary and Jane are alumnae (rhymes with eye).

Colombia is the home country of Shakira. Utada Hikaru attended Columbia for like a year before she dropped out.

OKAY? And don't get me started about 'nauseous' and 'nauseated'. Tch.

EDIT: PLZ READ COMMENTS, I'M CONFUSED, NO SRSLY DON'T MAKE ME SAY IT AGAIN BECAUSE NOW I DON'T KNOW THO I STAND BY MY WORDS. This is where I also note I didn't learn latin in school, but used to know a teacher who did and he was anal about us pronouncing alumni rhymes with knee. The end.

Random (Elizabeth U. Rmx)

2006-11-09T07:56:00.000-05:00

(1) Shit I really need to fix the tags for all my music. It's so inconsistent it drives me mad.
(2) No, srsly, I want an explanation: Lady Sov #1 on TRL?! What?! WHAT?! TRL STILL EXISTS?!?! If that's not proof of payola, I dunno what is. I don't even know why Jay-Z is pushing her music so much. And I can't believe what a sucka Sov is, she's all like, talking about how Ms. Dynamite was ruined by getting signed too quickly, blah blah, yeah well Sov ain't doing too hot either, and Ms. Dynamite at least had one hot album, what does Sov have? A couple of good singles? Also, she needs to stop appropriating the "midget" title, it's offensive to little people that she'd count herself among them. And to the general population: stop encouraging her, y'all!
(3) Britney, best of luck! We know you're a shit singer, and have the mentality of a teenager, but anything is better than being married to K-Fed, so when you make your comeback I'll be more than happy to talk shit about you for your crappy music instead of your crappy husband!

(4) ZOMG I'M MISSING UGLY BETTY AGAIN I'm gonna diiiiie.

Icky Feelings.

2006-11-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

Hmm. The calm before the storm. Trying not to think about it too much, but I can feel a breakdown comin'.

When I came home last night my dad asked me if my classmates had liked what I wrote. I just started crying telling him it didn't matter because it's shit anyway. My mom was like well you can rewrite it right. Woman has a point there. Actually, and I know this is a bit weird, but I sort of like feeling inadequate. I feel like it keeps my ego in check.

In class, the Mean Girl really went off on this other girl who wrote a story that included a graphic rape scene. It was statutory rape, no less, and it was in the POV of the rapist. The Mean Girl was offended and thought it was disgusting, blah blah. Yeah well suck it up bitch. I mean I didn't like the rape scene either but you're not exactly the best writer so you really shouldn't be all like "I didn't like it" when you should really be like "Here's why this didn't work for me." I talked to the girl who wrote the story afterwards and I think she got a bit weepy. She told me she didn't know people would be so offended. I told her I think the Mean Girl is a bitch, but what I really should have told her is that getting a reaction is REALLY GOOD and she shouldn't sacrifice whatever sense of art she has just because someone couldn't stomach what she wrote. The scene didn't quite work, but whatever, I admire that she took a risk.

Anyway, tomorrow I get my turn to workshop my story.

Say what? Andrew (not Andy!) WK is gonna lecture on Nov. 17? Woot! That's cool.

OH HEY AND I"M SEEIN LES SAVY FAV FOR THE FIRST TIME TOMORRA HOPE TIM DOESN'T KILL ME WITH HIS BELLY.

Brief Recap.

2006-11-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

Incredible. My mother is currently on the phone explaining the concept of Thanksgiving to my uncle (his family moved to the US only a few months ago).

No srsly, I'll make a really long post soon. A lot has happened, none of it important. I finally hit the jackpot and I'm finding more indie pop in Spanish. I can verify that it's just as mediocre as the American kind, but the novelty of it all is wonderfully interesting and I'm at a very happy point in my life.

Here's the vid for "Karma Police", just cos it's amazing:

Things I bought at the WFMU Record Fair yesterday:

- The OK Computer book from the 33 1/3 series = $4
- A Carter Family record with a cover of "These Boots are Made for Walking" (!) = $7
- A Pete Seeger album = $6
- A Lovin' Spoonful album = $2
- An album full of Chilean songs I just bought because there was a Violeta Parra song in it = $4

- Buying cheap used records on the last day of the fair = priceless

Things I didn't able to get:

- The second volume of a record full of WHALE SOUNDS
- Linda Ronstadt singles of her covering "That'll Be the Day" and "Alison"
- THE SOUNDTRACK FOR THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY goddamn why the fuck did I hesitate! Somebody else fucking took it! And it looked in good condition, too. :(
- An extended dance mix 12" of Bowie's "Underground" (yeah, from Labyrinth...) The dude was willing to give it to me for $10 instead of $15 but I passed. Maybe next year! LOL

Yuck!

2006-11-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

Fuck man! My dad's fucking around with the computer and for some goddamn reason which I fail to understand, he fucking started playing the "NARC" remix and I was very surprised and was like "Haha, haven't heard that horrible piece of shit in a while," but then 2 minutes of "NARC" became like 7 minutes of "NARC" which brought the mortifying realization that IT WAS ON REPEAT! At least the Audioscrobbler thingy doesn't work anymore, but seiruosly, I ran over to him and was whined, "Turn it off!"

UGH.

Life is About Choices.

2006-11-03T23:45:00.000-05:00

Last night I missed Ugly Betty for The Wrens and the Walkmen. I'll post about that in the future, once I have more time and once everyone forgets about it.

Tonight I missed the Kill Rock Stars showcase for Junot Díaz. And I have to say, I can't believe I even wanted to go to the KRS concert, because Junot Díaz really moved me, it was incredible and I'm so glad I made the right choice. I mean, I could go see Excepter and Mary Timony and Erase Errata and Deerhoof some other time, y'know?

Tomorrow: Major CMJ panel-ing.

Boo!

2006-10-31T18:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween, you pagan fuckers.

That was the scariest thing I could find. God bless Einstürzende Neubauten.

SO! I got a badge for CMJ! With my full name on it! And some Insound people got their badges at the same time as me, lol. I said hi. BUT even more exciting, I bumped into Rrrachel! Literally! Well, more accurately, I saw her and I charged at her. She took it well. And... let's see. I got a bag of free stuff. TOTES WORTH $295. I really have no idea how badges work. I'm gonna try to go to a few panels.

I'm in such deep shit, I have to present a summary on a critical essay but it has words like "chthonic" in it. UCK!

Oh, and by the way, today in class, a mouse came into the room. I was really freaked out. I'd never seen a mouse so small, it was only like two or three inches long! SO unsanitary. That's NYU for you. Great location, shitty pest control. Though I'd sorta like to stick up for the school and say that there's pest problems everywhere in the city.

To Do.

2006-10-29T15:10:00.000-05:00

(1) Junot Diaz reading at school. Hope it's good.
(2) WFMU Record Fair next weekend!! Anyone wanna be my date for that? Should be ASSUMEXCORE.

Here's a vid, since I'm making a post and all.

OH YEAHHH!! AND THE BEST THING I SAW ALL WEEK ON TV:

Jared Leto Plz Die in the Ass.

2006-10-28T17:59:00.000-04:00

GAWD! JARED LETO! YOU FUCKING DOUCHEBAG! GO PICK ON SOMEONE YR OWN SIZE.

KTHXDIE.

Oh, and he sorta hurt Stereogum's blogging finger, too? I don't mean to sound like an ass, I don't like getting hurt after all, but a finger... meh. Just call me jealous because I'm not cashing in from being a blogger. But Stereogum has a day job, doesn't he? Okay, yeah, I feel bad. You have my solidarity dude!

Tiny Moments.

2006-10-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

At lunch today, Boogie-Down Nicole and I revealed to each other that when we were kids, we always got the mcnuggets when we would go to Mickey D's. We bonded over it until she said she ate 'em with ketchup. I was more of a sweet & sour gal myself, y'see. Tragic really. For a moment there, I really felt like we had something special.

This guy came to the office because he had an appointment, and I asked him if his name was "João" except I pronounced it the way you're supposed to, and he seemed very grateful that I said it correctly. So that felt very nice.

Erratic My Chemical Romance Post Ahead.

2006-10-24T22:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, guys, new My Chemical Romance album, very hit or miss. Actually, mostly misses, but some of the songs are so bad that they're beyond good--they're CLASSIC. Like that song that's supposed to have Liza Minelli on it? Hilarious. Changed my life. Wept tears of joy. The clouds parted and I saw God. Etc, etc. There was another song that sounded like post-Elephant White Stripes, but it sounded much better because when Gerard wants to sound all snarly and "intense" or whatever he can nail it, whereas Jack sounds like he's got something up his ass, which is quite funny to think about because it's probably TRUE.

The really really really bad part, the part that made me wanna barf, was "The End" which IRONICALLY enough is actually the first track of the album (omagosh! orly?! no wai!!) and I'm pretty sure it takes the melody from "Five Years" and it's like, NO. No, no no nonono. I groaned so hard and wished it wasn't so. I think my heart broke a little when I heard this track. And by "a little" I mean COMPLETELY. Also, Gerard Way: crooning, really not your forte, huh? Even Julian Casablancas is better at it than you. On the other hand, I'll look forward to the day when you and Jules do a lounge act double-header. Ahhh.

Long story long, I'm so happy that My Chemical Romance entered my life! They're hilarious! And they could have picked worse a worse hero than like, David Bowie! I mean, Panic! at the Disco are so young that their heroes are like, Third Eye Blind!

School of Rock.

2006-10-24T18:15:00.000-04:00

AHHH!! First the gays, now musicians?!?! Why don't they make themselves useful and like, fight terrorists or some shit like that?!?!?!?!?!?! Or while we're at it, why don't they do what the Girl Scouts are doing and just try to examine why the fuck they're so irrelevant in this day and age. Tch!

So, let me talk about school a little bit. My last punk class was last Thursday, quite sad, but we watch music videos. Most of them were uninteresting, and the ones I really wanted to watch we had them on MUTE! GAh! I'm sorry, but I'm not down with that. I mean, a skinny, half-naked Birthday Party-era Nick Cave deserves to be heard! Actually, they did put up the volume for that one, at least for half a minute, but people were like, "WTF" and creeped out and I was like "STFU NICK CAVE IS MY MOST FAVORITE DILF EVER!"

Okay, and then last Wednesday, too, we started doing presentations in my other music class. We work in pairs, we pick a music label and talk about it. So uhhh the first group was presenting on Fueled By Ramen! And they didn't even talk about Less Than Jake, it was all like WentzXcore, but not the interesting stuff, so it sort of sucked. Also, I felt pretty ridiculous listening to "Snakes on a Plane" IN CLASS. Oy!

I have to present on Touch and Go, but I'm not sure what to say about it other than "ASSUM!" My mid-term is due and I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Poster Children for Abstinence, Cont'd.

2006-10-23T18:55:00.000-04:00

Sooo... let's forget what I said about Lindsay Lohan. Word on the street is that Kate Moss may or may not be pregnant. And that Pete the Sorry Sod is her baby daddy. Now, if these couple of sentences don't make you quake in fear, I don't know what will (though "Steve Coogan did Courtney Love" comes real fucking close). As Gawker points out: "Frankly, we are mildly surprised that anyone with as much drugs in his system as Doherty can procreate, let alone, you know, do the deed." All I can say is WORD! Even Iggy Pop couldn't get it up during his worst drug period. And we all know Iggy's like, almost invincible, so I have a hard time believing that Pete could achieve anything like this.

I mean, what's the justice of the thousands of people who are infertile and want children, whereas there's a chance that Pete might be having ANOTHER one on the way? I told my boss about the chance of a Kate-Pete baby and he was like, "You know, people are all up in arms about gay couples adopting children, but when people like this have children, people think it's so cute and funny." SIGH.

I have to admit, I almost titled this post "Poster Children for Abortion", but I know that's too wrong on too many levels, and I feel bad for even thinking about it. But yeah, unfit people procreating... that's NOT punk rock.

Another thing I feel should be mentioned: their kid's probably gonna have a really wide face!

This is Worth an 'OMG.'

2006-10-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

Nick Cave doesn't know who Busted were?? He missed the greatest musical creation out of the late 20th century!

Recently Consumed.

2006-10-21T10:55:00.000-04:00

Edit: Aterciopelados going on tour! Releasing a new album Tuesday! HURRAH!

If you don't care to read the rest of this post, please, just WATCH THIS VIDEO! NO SRSLY! WATCH THE ENTIRE THING! IT'S SCANDALOUSLY GOOOOOD.

So, on to things I've watched or heard or read or whatever recently:

The Office Series 1. Amazing. I can't believe my brother didn't like it. This show was beyond hilarious. Ricky Gervais must be one of the most annoying people I've ever witnessed. Well, not really. Lots of annoying people here in NYC. But yeah, the "crazy" character in the British version (Gareth) is so much more awesome than the American version (Dwight). I mean, I love Dwight, but his antics pale in comparison. In general, the American version is so much more... obvious. I don't know how to explain it, it's like their facial expressions have to be wider, more prominent, so that the dumber people can RLY RLY GET IT. Well, does anyone think so? I think so.

But I still think Pam is cuter than Dawn. I mean Dawn is cute too, but in a more realistic sort of way.

Also been watching Ugly Betty every week. I can't explain how funny this show is. And it's not even like "look at us immigrant folk" jokes, it's "omg the fashion industry is FABULOUS" jokes. And the cast, even the ones who are just in supporting roles, are absolutely ASSUM. I mean, even my dad likes it!

Vida de Perros by Los Bunkers. I'm shocked by how some parts really sound like Franz Ferdinand (first album)! I also don't understand why they're not such a great band but I still love ALL their songs to pieces! Best Chilean band I've heard? YES. FUCK YOU TO LA LEY.

Sandman: Endless Nights. Pretty good, not as amazing as the original Sandman series, but this book will stay with me and I love how it reveals a lot of things about the Endless.

The Big Lebowski. No words. I need to stop watching Steve Buscemi movies. I just feel myself blushing when I see him on screen. Sigh!

Sizzle sizzle!

I know The Big Lebowski is not a "Steve Buscemi" movie but a "Coen Bros." movie, but w/e.

Help Plz.

2006-10-19T00:19:00.000-04:00

THINGS I NEED/WANT:

(1) Pictures of Nikolai Fraiture with his fucking mohawk!
(2) That Blood Brothers song from their new album that apparently has the same bassline as "I Turn My Camera On."
(3) A hug.

I Have a Way of Making People Uncomfortable at Times.

2006-10-17T23:44:00.000-04:00

Look! It's Håkan Hellström!!

So... Simon Reynolds, who wrote Rip it Up and Start Again, came to speak to our class. He was very nice, very cute and cuddly and knowledgeable, too. Then a fire alarm went off. I was so fucking pissed off! I did not wait for 7 weeks for this dude to show up just so the fucking fire alarm could fucking go off on a fucking rainy day! Tch! Anyway, we only stayed out in the rain a few minutes and we made it back in, and we found out we got locked out of our classroom. Haha. Ohhh god. So I happened to be standing right next to el señor Reynolds, so I go, "Hey, you should do another episode of New York Noise" to which he made this face, in recognition, and replied in his proper British accent, "Oh god, you saw that, did you," and then he sounded sort of apologetic trying to explain that the producers had stuck him in a hair salon and how he didn't know what the fuck he was doing there so he had to improvise. Aw! I didn't mean to bring back bad memories, so I tried to assuage the emotional damage and was like, "Yeah, but I really liked your choice of videos, like I'd never seen Josef K video before," and he seemed to appreciate that okay. And then we parted ways with an awkward goodby, since class was over.

Oh yeah, totally forgot that CBGB's finally closed. What's next? Chinese Democracy finally to be released???

Oh Really, Your Folks Are Away Now?

2006-10-16T23:19:00.000-04:00

I guess Paul told his roommate (Poingly) that I LOVED his set at the Obsolete Units party, cos he added me on MySpace. That made me LOL more than a little. Of course I added him back.

So on Friday I spent most of the day with Boogie-Down Nicole. After work we went grocery shopping and we also bought a gift for Rrrachel. Oh yeah and I bought Rip it Up and Start Again. Assum! I watched a bit of MTVU at Boogie-Down Nicole's and "Wolf Like Me" came on. It was awesome. I love that TV on the Radio look mad serious but they're pretty goofy when they wanna be.

We went to get Pommes Frites and we met Notorious Angela and I dunno. Oh that's right, we went to Disshapes @ Militant Vegan Emo Boy Adam's. It was pretty lame while I was there, but it was still sorta fun. Like I got so annoyed that we hardly listened to any song all the way through, but at least they let "Deceptacon" play to the end. Shiiit, that was seriously so annoying. Also, it was way too estrogen-heavy. Where were all the duuudes. As my dad was driving me away I saw Kareem (avec his posse) and I was like, "Damn, well there goes the REAL party". Indeed, I hear the party was awesome once Kareem (and his minions) got there.

Whatevs, the best thing that happened all night was that Boogie-Down Nicole burned me these Håkan Hellström albums into one CD and they're fucking awesome. Actually, I can't get through the first album because I like it so much. But eventually, I'll get to the second one.

On Saturday I met with Doris and we made fun of white people and looked at comic books and I bought an Anita Carter album and a Los Bunkers album from Tower. The LPs I wanted were GONE, cos I'm too much of an obvious idiot who waits around too long and doesn't take advantage, but at least I got those 2 CDs.

Then afterwards I went to Rrrachel's house for her birthday and I wasn't looking forward to it but then Rrrachel gave me some ibuprofen and the rest of them fine folks drank wine and we all had grilled cheese sandwiches courtesy of Boogie-Down Nicole and we listened to Room on Fire and everyone tried to clap but no one could get it right and it was hiiiii-larious. Best party ever! Except for the lack of hot guys. All we had was Panic! at the Disco on the cover of Spin. LMAOXCORE.

I'm so exhausted. At least my musicsecret showed up. Guess the number. Hint: reference to the Illiad, LOL! No seriously. Like the epic poem. What what.

Today I went to Staples and there was one of those hot Latino scene kids. I mean, totes in black, from head to toe. Damn. Anyway, he was there picking up some bubble envelopes. Go figure--he probably had some demo tapes to send out. Sexy.

Do You Like Me Vulnerable?

2006-10-15T00:52:00.000-04:00

Have I ever made it clear that I'm pretty paranoid? Do you think the North Koreans will bomb the US or South Korea because of the new head of the UN? Do you think the North Koreans will wage a war? Do you think they would win the war? They have an entire nation of soldiers. The US has a nation of fatties and South Korea has a nation of cell phone addicts.

I think if North Korea started a war and they won, the worst part would be that we'd all be forced to stage those campy productions hailing Papa Kim. Ew, can you imagine? The film industry would be even worse than it is now. Awful, just awful.

Come Out and Play.

2006-10-12T08:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was national Coming Out Day!

Here's a video of Klaus Nomi. He was one of the early victims of AIDS, when it was still seen as a gay epidemic. In his dying days, he was actually quarantined because of misconceptions that even being near someone with AIDS was dangerous.

And here's a video of the Germs. Darby Crash never came out of the closet, which I personally feel contributed to his depression and recklessness and ultimately his death. I'm really just including this because I love the Germs, and although I hardly agree with Darby on anything really, you have to admit it's impressive how many suckers fell for his fascistic tendencies.

Here's something more recent, a video of Grizzly Bear. I love this video, they've got such wonderful songs.

Another recent one, just for the LOLz.

This last video may be really obvious, but whatever: Madonna has been a queer icon for decades now, and this MTV performance is scandalously good.

Sorry this seems to have a bias towards gay men! Really, all these songs are excellent and I love them! I know there's lots of other artists who represent the queer spectrum even more widely, but maybe that's for another post.

Can You Believe It?

2006-10-10T23:48:00.000-04:00

(1) Snow Patrol are now on rotation on Z100. What a fucking joke.

(2) That girl from Whale Rider is 16 and totally knocked up. However, I still think that Haley Joel Osment wins the 2006 award for Most Pathetic Thing a Former Child Star Has Done. Y'know, for crashing his car while he was high/drunk? EDIT: Crap, never mind, I just realized that Keisha Castle-Hughes was born in 1990, I mean, isn't it totally creepy that people born in 1990 are already having sex and getting pregnant?!?!?!

Listen Up!

2006-10-10T22:45:00.000-04:00

I got a lot to say:

First, Tower Records is FINALLY doing a clearance sale to FINALLY close their fucking 4th Street store, which means a whopping 10% on supercheap $18.99 CDs. YEah, you read correctly. I'm sorry, are they morons? If they keep this up their inventory won't sell out until, like, 2010. I get the feeling the Tower Records closing is gonna drag on longer than the fucking CBGB's "last shows" bullshit. HOWEVER, I still want to buy some vinyl from there.

I finally said something smart in my punk class today. Pat me on the head. Well I got so fucking pissed and I felt so embarrassed that this photographer lady came to talk to us about "punk fashion" and she didn't really know that much about punk at all. But my comment had nothing to do with punk per se, I was talking about how Mexican-American kids used the zoot suit as a "fuck you" to los gringos during WWII, long story, and a complicated one at that. Honestly, there's no point to this, other than to brag that I'm not entirely incompetent, though it may seem that way from reading this blog.

I should mention that the Bronx Museum of the Arts is hosting this exhibit on tropicália. What does this mean? Well, it means awesome music, artwork inspired by the movement, a lot of political talk, learning about Brazilian culture...

From the press release:
Grand Opening Celebration, Open House: Sunday, October 29, 2006, 2 to 6 p.m.
There's also a shitload of events (music, films, panels) to complement the exhibit, some of which are located downtown so y'all don't have to schlep yo' asses all the way up here. Actually, the museum's real easy to find, it's on 1040 Grand Concourse @ 165th Street, here's some directions for y'all. You guys totally need to go!

Another important thing is that Paul posted up videos of the Obsolete Units release party, and I'm feeling really sore that I missed Poingly's set. It looks amazing. I can't believe I missed it. Click the fucking link! I highly recommend it.

So... YouTube has been acquired by Google. Now what? I feel a bit strange knowing that such a big chunk of my (online) life is dominated by Google.

At least YouTube has shown me that New Kids on the Block were sort of awesome:

Or if you need something with a li'l more cred, YOU CAN BOW DOWN TO BETH DITTO!

Forgive Me, For I Have Sinned.

2006-10-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

Dear Chairs Missing,

Please forgive me. I take it back. I love you, I really really love you.

Regretful,

Elizabeth U.

_____

Bee tee dubs, how did y'all celebrate Native Peoples' Day? Was it good times? I went to work and this girl who works there and I gushed about the awesome that is Michel Gondry. She kept telling me to check out the Chris Cunningham DVD as well, and I was like, "Isn't it scary?" and she's like, "No no, it's not scary," but then she thought a bit more about the videos in the DVD and she's like, "YEah, okay, they're scary." And then my supervisor shows up and he's like, "Gael García Bernal" and we all gushed about how he's not just pretty, but talented as well. LE SIGH.

¡Él es un Adonis!

Even I Have My Limits.

2006-10-09T00:29:00.000-04:00

Brand New in NYC! YEAH!

Opening for Dashboard! BOO HELL NO!

At MSG! OMG SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS!

Conclusion: Brand New opening for Dashboard Confessional is more heartbreaking than finding out that Barbra Streisand is opening for Il Divo.

Tch!

I Wanna Sell Out, Too.

2006-10-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

Watched Tristram Shandy, Steve Coogan playing Steve Coogan playing Tristram Shandy as well as Tristram's father was not as charming Steve Coogan playing Tony Wilson, but I still believe he's awesome and the movie was so funny in that sort of pomo way.

I think it was Korean Thanksgiving? Either way we went to my grandma's house and I really didn't feel like going but by the time we got there the party was already over. I can't explain how fucking happy I was that everyone was gone and no one was bothering me and I didn't have to hear these suburban, normal kids talk about cars and church and top 40 music and shit.

I was watching the TV at my grandma's and this commercial came on and the song in it had a really familiar bassline and I was like, "Why do I like it so much?" It was THE OCCASION. THE OCCASION HAVE A SONG IN A COMMERCIAL. CAN I GET A WTF? KTHXBY.

"Can You Tell Me Where to Find Sex Street?"

2006-10-07T13:34:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, the way I remember, felt pretty shitty at first. Work was terrible. A fire alarm went off and the sound was horrifying, it just pierced right through you and the flashing light was no help, either. But then things changed a bit. I got a bit of dinner and just as I finished, I saw Gabs and she joined me on the steps of Weinstein, where I eat sometimes because I like people-watching.

Gabs was like, "You wanna dinner" and I was all like "I just ate but I'll watch you eat" and she even "paid" for my non-meal and I ended up cutting my class which is just as well because all I'm really learning is that major labels are soul-sucking machines and I don't see why anyone would want to work in such an environment. Gabs and I talked for a while and it was really nice, except for the part where I found out that this girl in one of my classes is totally the girl who was sort of talking shit about Gabs (IN HER XANGA OMG TACKYXCORE) and I was so surprised cos she really doesn't seem like that when I talk to her. And then I told Gabs about my girlcrush and she's like, "Oh yeah, I know who she is," LOLLLLL.

Anyway, after dinner we parted ways and I ended up chillin' 'round. There's this movie that was being shot near Tower Records; I thought I would look around from a safe distance, so I was about to go into Other Music when I saw Grumpy Jesus Guy looking out the door and I was like YIKES and I decided not to go in this time. I ended up going into Tower and when I went in, it was almost empty. I don't know what the fuck was going on, there were as many employees as there were shoppers. Except the music they were playing was pretty cool. In fact, this song started and I got a really warm fuzzy feeling inside me and then I was like "OH MY LORD IT'S 'THE WEEPING SONG'" and I was just so so happy that I could enjoy that song blasting through the speakers with no one watching my goofy smile as I pondered the sweet romance that Nick Cave and Blixa shared at one point in their lives.

And then when I got home: my mp3 player arrived. I only tried out the video feature yesterday and I was shocked. I wasn't even planning on using it much but now I'm totally sad that most of my videos are .mov because the quality of the video is incredible!! Maybe it's for the best, cos then I would use up all my space on all the stupid videos I have.

Either way, Wednesday ended up being pretty sweet. I don't remember Thursday very well. The only thing I remember clearly is that we were in class and this fire alarm light went off, but there was no sound. We were all "WTF?" and my professor was like, "I hope none of you are epileptic"... it really would have been bad news otherwise. At first a security guard came and said it was just a test, but then he came back five minutes later and was like, "I'm sorry, we have to evacuate the building because a construction worker got into an accident," and we all got scooped out of there and we waited for a while as the chilly wind blew by and these crazy NYU fucker kids were like playing bongos and trying to dance capoeira and shit and there had been this street party that happened at school but it was over by then and people were cleaning up and there were all these balloons and this clean up person was like, "Anybody want balloons? No?" so she starts popping them.

Claudia has a fear of balloons, she hates them. This was the first time--it will probably be the only time--I was happy she was an ocean away. The sound was horrible, even I felt sorta sick watching the balloons pop.

Yesterday we had a pizza party at work. In the morning we had a small protest because a military recruiter came to do job interviews with students, and since the military discriminates against the LGBT community, everyone was in a bit of a tizzy that someone was coming on campus.

Afterwards, Boogie-Down Nicole and I met with Maria, and then the three of us met with Christina Fairy and then after dinner the four of us met with Christina and Maria's friend Marie. The five of us gots snacks at Duane Reade and then we headed to the movies, to see Shortbus. I really loved it. Where do I start?

The music was great! In particular, they used this Animal Collective song repeatedly, even in really poignant parts. It's never been my favorite Animal Collective song, hence why I can't be bothered to even look up the name, but it was interesting the way it was used. Also, JD SAMSON TOTALLY SHOWS UP IN THE MOVIE AND SHE'S SO HOT AND I WANNA HAVE HER BABIES. After the movie Maria was like, "I totally forgot to tell you she's in it" and I was like "nonono THANK YOU" cos it was such a pleasant surprise. I gasped so loudly when she showed up on screen, I can only imagine how dumb I sounded, hahaha. Oh, and Bitch from Bitch and Animal is in it too, and featured quite a bit as part of the band that plays regularly at the Shortbus party. The music the band plays is really cool too.

I really liked the animation, the miniature city.

I thought the pacing of the movie was really good, the humor was refreshingly realistic. People were howling and we were all ZOMG together, it felt really nice seeing this in the theater. It's like everyone in the movie was so comfortable together and it showed.

I didn't care much for the sex, I really didn't get it and it didn't seem out of normal. Honestly, on occasion I felt it was getting in the way of the story! Well, there was this one great sex scene! It's a gay three-some, and it has the most hilarious, puzzling, thoughtful, and weird political message. It involves our national anthem. All I can say is, God bless America!

Honestly I felt really freaked out by one line this dominatrix girl says she's scared she won't have enough money to live in the city and that made me cry because I'm scared about that too. I don't even know how to drive, where the fuck am I gonna go. I'm gonna have to learn how to ride bikes. That'll help, right? I don't wanna leave here but I'm gonna have to, aren't I. I also felt very worried when the blackout happens, but that's just me being neurotic.

Whatever, the movie was awesome, go see it, go with all your friends and have a good laugh and hug one another.

After the movie this guy came up to us and asked us where to find Sex Street, by which he really meant Essex Street. We pointed to the right direction and giggled about it.

Question of the Century.

2006-10-05T07:58:00.000-04:00

So when bloggers (Disco Nap, Stereogum's readers, etc.) say that the new My Chemical Romance single sounds a lot like Queen, is that a polite way to say that MCR are just rly rly gay?

"Homoerotic, us? NO WAI!!"

Yes, Elizabeth, There IS a Santa Claus!

2006-10-04T23:09:00.000-04:00

Ohhh shit. I got my mp3 player. It's amazing. It's so beautiful. I feel so powerful. And it was so easy to install and I didn't have to make no .m4a files SO FUCK YOU APPLE YOU CAN TAKE YOUR IPOOP AND FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET WHAT WHAT.

I'm listening to "The Message". HOLY MUTHAFUCKIN SHIT.

"We're down with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five!"
"What's that, a gang or somethin'?!"

Bad Things Happen in the Night.

2006-10-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

Last night I learned that Brooklyn Vegan sleeps late. I learned this because I emailed him at like 2 am and he wrote like right back. However, I doubt that he was busy writing a D-quality paper like I was. I'm sure you're pleased to learn a bit about the late night habits of your favorite bloggers. Anyway, for some reason I'm surprised he gave me proper credit for sending him the M. Ward show info. So I really appreciate it.

Some parts of today were really bad, including handing in said shitty paper and getting charged $1.29 for a 20 oz. bottle of Coke at St. Mark's Market. WTF. I USED TO PAY $1.18. Shit, you don't hang around the neighborhood for like a month and everything changes. What's next? I'm gonna go into Other Music and find out that Token Yellow Guy has gotten fired? The horror! But seriously, what the hell am I gonna go to St. Mark's Market now? Tch!

Also, one of my classmates came in wearing one of those rainbow-colored Unknown Pleasures shirts she probably bought from Urban Outfitters and I almost threw up in my mouth. Okay, yeah, that may have been THE low point of my day. Ian Curtis must be spazzing in his grave.

The cool parts:

- Got free pizza @ the Queer Office at school and we talked about whether there should be non-gender specific bathrooms. They showed us a documentary about the whole bathroom problem and one of the trangender individuals looks like a sort of effeminate version of Eddie Argos, bushy eyebrows and all!

- The girl in sitting next to me in Creative Writing was doodling in her notebook and on her notebook she had written "I'm not in love with the modern world". Can I get a LOL y'all? I <3 this girl!! Mostly because she actually speaks to me and shit!

- We had this journalist come into our class, Amy Linden, and she was too hilarious to be true. I couldn't stop laughing, especially when the teach put in this DVD and it scrolled the FBI/Interpol warning in multiple languages, so Amy goes, "Boy, this is like in every language except Wolof" and I cracked up and then I realized no one understood what she meant and I cracked up even harder. The end. Oh wait, not the end, cos she was actually there to talk to us about West Coast punk so we listened to X and I was so so happy.

Oh hey, here's a clip of Seu Jorge doing "Já sei namorar"!! Aww. He's serenading the babies. How adorable.

Poster Child for Abstinence.

2006-10-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

Y'know, I was thinking, and it's a bit of a horrible thought, but what with Lindsay Lohan fucking so many dudes (so many people?), I wonder if she's gonna get cervical cancer? Plz reply Y/N.

gack.

2006-10-01T21:21:00.000-04:00

got really mad at my dad today. he told me if i wanna see an opera i should buy a dvd. i can't explain how angry i felt when i heard that.

watched motorcycle diaries. there's one scene where they're in the south of chile and i gasped because there was snow. i heard there was snow in the south of chile but seeing it was really shocking. i didn't see snow until i was maybe five and only because we were in korea. oh the movie was good. nice to see che guevara before it all went wrong (or, if you're in that school of thought, before it all went right).

watched saturday morning cartoons yesterday. they must be cutting budgets on the children's programming because at one point it was all shit from my own childhood: babar, doug, and best of all, BEAKMAN'S WORLD! especially cos in chile we had no clue who the fuck bill nye the science guy was, i loved beakman's world so much. no offense to el señor nye, god knows any geeky scientist who plays a scientist on television who is capable of getting married is cool in my book.

on friday during lunch break boogie-down nicole and i spotted maria and we was like, "what you doin here" and she's like, "i wanted a cream puff" lolllll too good to be true.

i watched the new episode of girlfriends. it was... weird. cos you know one of them dropped out of the show? it makes me sad, i thought the four-some worked well. the tone seemed different, but we'll see how it pans out. hope it's less disappointing than grey's anatomy, oh boy that one is turning out totally mediocre.

i'm tired. and by tired i mean depressed. yesterday i learned that i may be a pomosexual.

here's something from when i was little:

and here's something else from when i was little and when gael garcía bernal was little too:

Fea.

2006-09-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

I just checked out Stereogum and he put up the video for "The Black Parade", which I obviously watched. I want those five minutes of my life back. WTF, I was TOTALLY RIGHT. It's like an ad for an anime convention. Actually, the lyrics to the song are taken pretty literally in this video and it makes me sad that they didn't go crazy with a concept. I mean, it's a weird song, it's got a weird structure. The video totally makes me dislike this song. Like most of the video was Gerard on the camera and y'all gotta understand, I love Gerard but there was so much more to love when he was a fatty, y'know? Ugh, what a waste of a budget. I was expecting "Wake Me Up When September Ends": a lot of laughin', a lot of cryin', and a lot of cryin' from laughin' too fuckin' hard. The only thing that made me LOL was when Gerard is all like, "I'ma smash this mic stand!!!" I was like, yeah, okay. Shit, even a video of "Snakes on a Plane" quality would have made my day. Sigh!

Great news! My Bowie secret finally showed up!! I made one about Stuart Murdoch too, but they must have taken it off... I understand cos it was a total wank and I really honestly did submit it just to piss off people. Hee...

I watched the premiere of Ugly Betty today and it was really cute! It doesn't take itself very seriously and the cast was hilarious. OMG and the clips with Salma Hayek in them made me laugh even harder. I dunno how long this could go, I really feel like it should be like a real telenovela and just go one or two seasons... Then again, I get a feeling it's gonna get cancelled. :/

I went to the library today and found out there's DVDs of the original Degrassi series.

-----

Class went as badly as I imagined it would. Bummed me out a bit, more so that I had to workshop a poem that even I hated! I feel bad for the rest of my classmates. :( Actually I was lying, it's really depressing me. I got so frustrated during class that this one girl was like, "Well at least you tried." Word.

I may or may not be making friends. And by "friends" I mean people with whom I exchange banter about Lydia Lunch and Love and Rockets and America's Next Top Model and David Cross and Our Band Could Save Your Life. It's shocking the amount of namechecking I've committed in the past day and a half. I hate myself, hahaha.

!

2006-09-26T23:39:00.000-04:00

ohhh my god, i just bought an mp3 player. i hope it works okay and doesn't get damaged on its way to my home.

School is Cool.

2006-09-26T20:10:00.000-04:00

Coño, y'all! When are my fucking secrets gonna show up?!?!

I heard the coolest song today in class! It almost beats the time I heard "Hey There Little Insect" in my previous music class! A note about the Richman song: my VH1-talking-head teach was all like, "LAWLZ RICHMAN IS SUCH A SQUARE" but when I heard that song I was like, "WASSUP GENIUS", etc.

Anyway, this is a reggae song called "Don't Call Us Immigrants" by Tabby Cat Kelly (yousendit link).

Class was pretty amazing, mostly because my teacher told us this crazy story about how she went undercover to report on a National Front rally and how Skrewdriver, the most famous racist Oi! band played at said rally. The National Front was (is?) the fascist, racist political party in Britain. Very conservative. Anyways, you guys don't know her name, but she's got a sorta Jewish name. So she goes to this rally and this racist dude is all like, hitting on her. She wrote about this rally in like Melody Maker I think, but I'll tell you the rest: so for the sake of her undercover plans, she's like, sure, take me for a drink, and so she and the racist dude go to a crowded bar and he starts spewing all this racist bullshit. And she was all like, "Um, yeah, so before we do anything else, I gotta tell you I'm Jewish" (!!!). And the dude is like, "Whoa". But then he thinks about it and he still wanted to hang out with her!!!!! HA.

I heard another song during the weekend, which angered me because I liked it so much. To elaborate, it's by some sensitive Swedish singer-songwriter chick and it's got cheap electronic beats in the background and it's less than two minutes long. And I TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. I don't want to talk about what song it is, because (1) it could go terribly wrong and everyone might hate it and be like, "Gawd Elizabeth you are a moron" or (2) everyone might love it and it might get popular to the point of ohhh maybe ending up on Grey's Anatomy or The OC or the next movie Zach Braff makes, cos it's that type of song. SIGH! It's a futile effort, as you could very easily go to my audiocrobbler and find out which song it is.

In other news, apparently yesterday there was a whole "free day at the NYC Opera" dealio. I almost died when I found out. I would have cut work for that shit!! I've only gone to the opera once in my life and I really wish I could go!!!

I had to hand in a poem for my creative writing class today and it was horrible. I almost cried in the middle of class because the workshopping on Thursday is gonna be total bullshit. We're supposed to say good things and bad things, but honestly in my mind this piece is no good, I wanted it to be one thing and I failed to bring these goals to life. It makes me feel like such a human with like, FLAWS and shit. UGH. The only thing is that at least I tried. It's a great failure, I think. And I would have been angrier at myself if I HADN'T tried to make it totally over the top.

Woohoo, I'm doing research on Touch and Go. Time to whip out my very own copy of Our Band Could Be Your Life. Oh boy, that was exciting to type. This book makes me so happy.

Bee tee dubs, I keep forgetting to mention that I watched Anna Christie in English. It was fucking great. It was my first time watching a Greta Garbo movie. She's so beautiful. The whole movie was so angsty. I loved it.

It's Hard to be a Baby.

2006-09-24T23:20:00.000-04:00

I wasted away most of my Sunday reading blogs, and this one post from Gorilla vs. Bear linked this video by this little QT3.14 named Maya Bond.

I'm very torn about how to feel about this girl. The video made me LOL a lot cos I was like, "When she grows up, instead of running away and joining the circus, she's gonna join Afrirampo!" (See below what I mean.) She's so adorable. At the same time, it's like, "Couldn't she at least lose all her baby teeth first? What, are Smoosh getting too old for us now?" Of course, it would sorta help if the new Smoosh album was, y'know, good. I can't decide whether it's good or bad that Maya Bond seems to be a noise-punk Jordy.

Two pop-related matters you may or may not care to read about:
(1) I REALLY LIKE THE NEW HILARY DUFF SINGLE! IT'S SO NOT SHITTY! I'M SO IMPRESSED!
(2) The Sugababes are releasing their greatest hits album in the UK in November. The first single for it is "meh". They re-recorded their singles from their first album, which is sorta annoying, cos they're actually two of my favorite Sugababes songs. But I think they're leaving the rest intact. I hope they release it here! It's gonna be tops!!

Um also I spent hours on Wikipedia reading up on Henry Darger, Edward Gorey, Amish culture and rumpsringa, Roald Dahl (who knew he was an anti-semite!), and Tristan Egolf, among other subjects.

UGH there's only 6 copies of the Entourage first season and 124 holds for it?! WTF?

Rant.

2006-09-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Check out this fucking douchebag.

Why is he a douchebag? Because
(1) He doesn't write anything that hasn't been mentioned already. I mean, hey, The Hipster Handbook mentioned most of what's discussed in this Op/Ed like 4 years ago, and said it in a wittier manner.
(2) He doesn't get the difference between Indie as a genre of music and Indie as an easily-packaged marketing term used to sell shit to people.
(3) Because he writes as an outsider, who doesn't even bother to learn what Indie kids are like before writing about them as an authority on this subject, which, in turn,
(4) Proves that even though he lived in the same apartment as Claudia and Steve for almost a year, he hardly bothered to even acknowledge their presence and to learn about their lives.

He can go choke on a cock.

(Props to Boogie-Down Nicole who alerted me to this Op/Ed.)

Bollywood Madness.

2006-09-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

Dude, look at this awesome very polyester-happy Bollywood video:

The woman is Helen. Her schtick was her dancing. She was a huge, huge star, and her singing was usually done by Asha Bhosle. Here's another by Asha Bhosle, maybe my favorite of hers, "O Mera Sona"

God bless for YouTube; I missed America's Next Top Model. I feel like the girls this season are easier on the eyes than the previous one.

I was passin' by the IFC theater and they're showing Y tu mamá también this weekend!!!!! AND! THEY'RE GONNA DO A RUN OF 49 UP SOON!!!!!

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, Iggy Pop is doing a campaign for John Varvatos. I'm not used to seeing so little of Iggy's skin, lol.

Revolution Girl Style Now!

2006-09-21T08:21:00.000-04:00

Hey dudes and dudettes, to coincide with the release of Bitchfest, the women who edited the anthology are doing a book tour. Supposedly they're visiting Barnard tonight, but there's also one tomorrow night. Here's the info:

Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street
New York NY
9/22/2006 7:00 PM

And it's FREE!!

http://www.bitchmagazine.com/

Totally Pointless.

2006-09-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

Omaigá!!! ¿¿Por qué no me dijeron que el video de "No Hay Igual" tiene Calle 13??

To be honest, the video is lackluster, but whatevs, Calle 13 dude seems to be havin' fun. Can't say the same about Nelly. Well, I think the rappin' sorta cuts the flow of the whole "party hard" vibe, but at least he keeps things interesting, plus I do like his bit at the end.

Okay, agora I go to work. Wait, before I go, here's the video for "Atrevete-te" that Calle 13 did. WARNING: LOTS OF VIDEO HO'S IN CUTE SKIRTS. Okay, ¡bai!

12XU.

2006-09-19T18:48:00.000-04:00

This list is dumbfounding, if only because it leaves out Our Band Could Be Your Life, which is one of my top 5 books EVER. Also, I can't believe that High Fidelity was counted in. Moreover, I wish this list wasn't about "Rock n Roll" books, cos they include Yes Yes Y'all, Can't Stop Won't Stop, and the Ego fucking Trip Book of Rap Lists. But I should mention that all three of those books are amazing; I was thinking about getting the Ego TRip book, cos even though I know nothing about rap, it's REALLY interesting!

Last night Boogie-Down Nicole, Notorious Angela and I went to a free screening of American Hardcore at school. It was pretty good and done with sincerity, but definitely disappointing in its delivery. It wasn't very enlightening about hardcore's significance; like, it was telling me a lot of things I already knew. Y'know, how it branched out from California and over the years the touring network was established and how different scenes developed their own sounds. Well, no shit!

As a documentary, I didn't feel like it was interesting visually. The editing was a bit weird. And this is totally off-topic, but the movie had weird "cigarette burns" (see 2nd definition, or watch Fight Club). Like the movie was shot in mini DV, I thought digital shit wouldn't have crappy cigarette burns in the corner? Like in real movies they have really slick cigarette burns, but these were a bit crummy. I can't believe how hung up I was about it, but after watching Fight Club I've never been able to get over it.

Anyway, the cigarette burns were still significant. Cos about half an hour into the movie, THEY MISSED THE CUE FROM THE CIGARETTE BURNS. WTF! So the movie just stopped and everyone's like, "That's so punk rock" and I was like, "Bitch, please! That's not punk rock at all! That's just fucking ghetto!!!" And it took them like two or three minutes to actually fix the stupid reels. I mean, what the fuck was the projector person doing? If you see the first burn, you have to get ready for the fucking second one! C'mon!

Back to the movie. The only things I pretty much knew nothing about: the music itself. Ha. So... it was sort of the first time I ever listen to Bad Brains and it was sort of really amazing and I can't believe I didn't check them out earlier. Hey, sorry hardcore didn't change my life and I'm a total retard about it.

I really don't understand why certain hardcore bands were mentioned but not others, y'know? Since I don't know that much about hardcore, it all sounds like shit to me, to put it kindly. So even though seeing all this old footage was nice, it makes you wonder about all the stuff that was left out. And Moby's one of the talking heads, how relevant was he to the scene? They even got Jesse Malin. (I guess Peen Wentz was unavailable.) Actually, the interviewee that annoyed me most was Jack Rabid. As soon as he showed up, Nicole and I groaned loudly.

It was interesting the way they tackled certain subjects. One thing that was cool was that there were plenty of people of color. One surprise was that there was some dude named Inouye, which sounded really familiar, and then the dude's like, "Yeah, my dad's a politician" and I was like "Ohhh that's right!" Anyways. So it was nice to see some black and Latino punkers and shit, but it was weird that only the women seemed the tackle the "women in hardcore" issue, or how only Ian MacKaye and this dude named "Straight Edge Hank" seemed to talk about sXe. I think only Ian talked about how dumb the violence in hardcore was.

I feel sorta geeky, you know you've read up on too much about Ian MacKaye when he starts telling a story about the good ol' days and you're like, "Oh, yeah, I totally know that story." Yikes. The hilarious thing, of course, is that I'm totally Team Picciotto and less Team MacKaye, and it's just cos Ian doesn't fucking shut up so of course you end up knowing everything from how he came out of his mom's womb and how ripped his own umbilical cord up to what he had for dinner last night. Hahaha. One really shocking thing about Ian in this movie: they show pictures of him with hair! And it really is toooootally curly!

I didn't realize how funny everyone's accents sounded until the New Yorkers showed up on screen (LOL!), but even then, hardly any time was spent on New York.

The really good thing about the movie was the people interviewed. So many people participated and most of them were pretty funny. Like that Straight Edge Hank guy, he's like a priest now, and he actually was interviewed saying "jackass" in church. AHAHA.

It pains me to say so, but I must confess, I was sort of touched by none other than Henry "No Neck" Rollins. He was just talking about how he auditioned for Black Flag, and how he wasn't sure whether to join, but he talked to Ian and Ian was like, "Yeah dude, join, you're gonna do great," and that's why Henry said aight, cos he just wanted to get Ian's approval on it. I was like, "Wow, they really are good friends, huh?" But then I almost threw up in my mouth when Kira Roessler showed up on screen and mentioned that she and Rollins had had a "thing". ICK!!! Even if I'd already read about this, I must have totally blocked it out of my mind, so I almost shit myself from the horror when I watched her say that... can you blame me?!?!

Anyway, don't pay to see this movie or read the book. Just borrow them out of some place or other (cough). The director (Paul Rachman) and the author (Steven Blush) were there, and you could tell they had the best intentions, but seriously, not the type of movie that would rock anyone's punk world.

To me, this is hardcore:

Oh, shit, here's a bonus vid, just cos I can't help myself, "Vowel Movement" by the Evens:

This is the Link to the Obsolete Units page.

2006-09-19T08:02:00.000-04:00

Sheesh, bitch can't stay calm for one minute just cos I decided to actually go to sleep instead of linking his page or even proofread my last post.

HERE. THIS IS THE PAGE FOR PAUL'S LABEL, OBSOLETE UNITS. GO THERE AND CHECK OUT SOME TUNES.

Oh, the demands of blogging! Paul better not say I never did nothin' for him.

Another word about the parties: at Scott's we heard this mashup of "My Humps" vocals + "Heartbeat" music. I think it was Girl Talk. My heart sort of broke when I heard this abomination.

And while we're at it, here's a video:

I think I'm gonna have to get the mp3 for this. I forgot I liked the song so much.

Weekend.

2006-09-19T00:03:00.000-04:00

A little recap.

Thursday I went to the Queer Office at school and we had pizza and this real cute dude from The Advocate came and the conversation was really interesting, a lot of it was about money and advertising and the internets and the direction the magazine was thinking of taking in the future and uh... Lance Bass. So it was pretty much like Gawker, but just a bit gayer.

Friday was brutal. I was a retard and went on an errand that involved a lot of walking while it was pouring a shitload. Grrreat.

Also, I feel like my allergies have flared up all of a sudden? I dunno what to do.

Yesterday was awesome! My parents are dorks and I was like "I'm a go party" and they were all like, "Dress nice" and "Are you sure you don't need to bring anything to the party" and I was all like, "Whateva". Also, I didn't tell them I was going to two parties instead of one because they would have asked even more questions like, "Who's house is it?", "Why does this person live in Brooklyn?", "How do you know this person?", "Are people going to be drinking?" and my favorite (NOT), "Are there gonna be boys there?"

They also tried to tell me what parties are like, to watch that nobody touches me the wrong way or steals my shit. Yeah, okay. I love how they don't know I've been to parties before. At least they care enough to ask me about it and pick me up, which is what my dad did after Scott's party. LOL.

Anyway, so I called up Maria and was like, "Come to Scott's party" but she wasn't sure how to get there so I was like, "Uh you can come with me to Paul's noise party if you want" and she accepted and then we had to figure out how she would take the train but finally we figured out she could take the R and then switch to the F and funnily enough we ended up on the same F so we found each other at the platform and it was quite the joyous moment.

So here's the deal: I know nothing about noise music. But Paul started his own little CD-R label, Obsolete Units, and to kick off the label, he threw a party-slash-band showcase, so I decided to go and show some support. About 6 months ago, in the spring, we had to review demos for this little Battle of the Bands events at school, and Andy and Jordan #2 submitted a demo under Totally Dad. The first Obsolete Units release was the Totally Dad demo, and now there's also a second release for Oubliette.

Anyway, I think Maria and I showed up right as the first band was starting. It was all very abstract, and I didn't quite "get it". Though I have to say, some parts I really liked. Like the process of making all these sounds seemed pretty interesting. But I sort of regretted not wearing earplugs when the high-pitched shit started. Also, I thought it was totally hilarious because from where I was standing, I could see a lot of the neighbors who'd be peeking our way. One individual in particular looked out his backyard, turned away, and when the noise didn't stop, he came back to close his door. AHA. I'm really shocked the police didn't come, especially during this first band's set. I didn't catch their name.

The second band was Archaeopteryx (sp?), who were just a bassist and drummer but I really liked them! They were totally aggro and shit! They seemed a bit needy emotionally (they kept asking the crowd watching from above to please come down into the "audience"), but overall they seemed like cool dudes and they totally delivered a big sound.

Totally Dad went last and I was pleasantly surprised. I was hoping they wouldn't suck--and they sounded great! Jordan #2 and Andy were on guitars, and they had a drummer dude named Eddie. The drummer dude was awesome! Except for the fact that multiple drums fell, he kept beating on them anyways. I feel like Totally Dad still have a lot of room for growth; I'm excited to see what they put out in the future. At times it felt a bit sloppy in the edges in a very Jandek-y way, but when it gelled, the music was awesome and sounded a bit Deerhoof-esque. Also, Jordan #2's vocals were weird, in a high quivering sorta way in the great tradition of Jamie Stewart and so on.

Apparently, someone from Magik Markers showed up to the showcase, and Paul was toootally geeking out. Aw, what a nice dude. He looked like a proud father as he watched Totally Dad do they thang.

Honestly, the best part was hanging out with Maria and seeing all my sophomore buddies and especially witnessing Totally Dad live. I'm not big on noise but this was totally worth it and I can't wait for another party, cos the place is pretty sweet. And I loved seeing Paul and hearing all this gossip gossip. Some of it was so shocking that, uh, I made sure to regurgitate the information to Rachel, and believe you me, her jaw dropped when I finally told her.

But yeah, I left the party feeling good and very happy that I went to this even though I have no idea what's good or bad in terms of this genre of music. After a few hugs and parting words, Maria and I left for Scott's. When we showed up we were greeted with Scott telling us we were guests number 4 and 5, and Gabs was all like, "Yeah, I'm not expecting a big turnout". Well fuck, the party was rockin'! Gabs looked really pretty, her outfit was cool. Rachel, Boogie-Down Nicole and Notorious Angela didn't show up until around midnight, unfortunately, but dancing to normal music with Gabs and Militant Vegan Emo Boy Adam and Scott was awesome!!!

For the most part Maria and I talked, though we also talked to (1) Scott about the underrated genius of dark chocolate M&M's and (2) this pale dude came up to me and Maria and was like, "Do you know Diana?" and I was like, "Sorta" and he's like "I'm her brother" and I was like, "Oh I think she's really pretty but don't tell her that cos I'm not really supposed to know who she is and she might be creeped out that some girl she doesn't know thinks she's pretty" or something like that. Anywyay, said brother of Diana's ended up being TOTALLY AWESOME. I mean, he danced his ass off!!

Oh, also, these two siblings showed up, they were so cute and seemed very sweet. The sister was all like, "I want to dance, but I don't know how" and I was like, "It's aight if you don't know, nobody here can dance well anyways" which was especially true because Kareem hadn't shown up yet, haha.

The one other notable thing that hilariously relates to Diana-the-pretty-girl-I've-never-spoken-to is that The Twat showed up. Now, I feel sorta bad about calling him The Twat because Boogie-Down Nicole reported to me that he's actually quite genuine and nice. But to justify my actions, I have referred to him as The Twat cos whenever I would bump into him around school, he'd be sporting these obnoxious aviator shades and he had his hair parted at an angle and whenever he walks he sorta swaggers in a wankery manner. ANYWAY. So he shows up and I was really surprised, cos I didn't get who'd show up at this party to bring him along. Except then I remembered that I'd seen Diana and The Twat walking together a few weeks ago, so I assumed that they're going out (this was confirmed to me laters).

To make things better, as I was getting ready to leave, I kinda encountered him in the hall looking all confused and we exchanged the following words:

The Twat: Do you know where the bathroom is?
Elizabeth: Um... I think near the entrance maybe.

It was a conversation for the ages, I tells y'all.

So I left soon after but I had a lot a lot of fun and people were very nice and it was a relief that it wasn't a 100% NYU kids deal. I hear I missed out on a lot, like a remix of the Futureheads' "Hounds of Love", and Scott whippin' out some rejected bottles of vodka from his company. LAWLZ.

Cos the Car Commercial Thing's Been Overdone.

2006-09-16T16:09:00.000-04:00

Um, I was watchin' some show this morning and this car insurance commercial came on for Geico. There was a song playing and I'm preeeeetty fuckin' sure it was the voice of Erlend Øye. Could someone please verify this for me?

They showed this documentary (Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Story) a couple of nights ago on music from the Bronx and how much Latin music influenced shit. One of the talking heads was Charlie Chase and I almost died from the shock to see he's like, fat and a bit old. Oh my lord. From the pictures I'd seen, he seemed mad cute, y'know? So just to see the older version of him... It was a bit traumatic.

I also watched Breafkafst (!!) at Tiffany's for the first time ever. It depressed me quite a lot. Well, more than I already am, haha.

Plans.

2006-09-14T00:26:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow:

(1) I will be unprepared for every class I have. Wish me luck.
(2) The queer office is having free lunch and someone from (I think) The Advocate is coming in. That should be fun.
(3) I need to watch Carmen Jones, Breakfast At Tiffany's, and that Greta Garbo movie I borrowed out of the library.