gack.

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.

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.

!

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.

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.

Rant.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Watch Me Now, Feel the Groove.

Kinky have a video for "Sister Twisted". Listen, this track is really cool, but the video sucks. I'm not even linking you to it (it's on the MySpace). It pains me to say it but seriously, the green screen shit is poorly executed. They better not do this to "Una Línea de Luz"...

This is a bit old and depressing, but still worth checking out. My answer was Radiohead.

Sometimes it's fun to read I Love Music. I agree with "Fragile" by Wire and "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" by the Buzzcocks.

Today my teacher told us that Lily Allen is some of the best stuff that's come out in years, or something like that. It pained me and I emotionally shut down from trying to understand how she could utter such lies into my ears.

I just watched the Gilmore Girls episode when Lane gets married. Yellow people who aren't Korean trynna speak Korean! LOLZ! Except I was enraged at the line where this girl's like, "You can't dance to Joy Division". It's like, hey fucker, try telling that to Ian! Second worst thing I've heard in my life, after "You can't dance to Wire". Fuck that!!!

I rewatched Billy Elliot during the weekend and I remembered how much I liked it and I'm also so glad Jamie Bell is old enough to fuck now. Also, the soundtrack was so good.

I borrowed out Pyongyang from the library! And Carmen Jones!!

Also, I submitted two new musicsecrets. Be on the lookout next week.

It's September 11.

Five years ago I was in my drafting class, and it was still very warm so this hugeass fan was on, and it was incredibly noisy, so even though we could faintly hear some announcement being made, we had no idea what it said. Later on, when we realized they kept making announcements, we decided to turn off the fan and we heard that both towers had been hit. I knew immediately that it was a terrorist act, but I didn't fully get what it meant, because I never went to the World Trade Center and had no idea how massive and full of people it was. I also didn't understand why we would stop classes over something that happened way downtown and had no relation to me. It was only after I saw a few kids crying and worrying over their relatives that I was like, "Oh shit." But mostly I was unaffected by this. Well, this day itself wasn't the end of my life, mostly I was confused. It was what happened after, like the paranoia and the jingoism and the unjustified war and so on, that really fucked up.

Anyway, I'm gonna go to work soon. I think I'm gonna miss most of the moments of silence because I'll be in the train. Maybe they'll conduct moments of silence inside the subway system anyway? I'm not sure.

Somebody Stop Me.

Oh god, I'm gonna screw up my Audioscrobbler charts for next week... I keep listening to this cover of "Big Time Sensuality" by THE STARTING LINE I swiped from Copy, Right? It's just... it's such an endearing, horrifying train wreck. It's hilarious that they could go so wrong on a song that's so fucking right! And it's like every other damn pop-punk song ever! I can't imagine this band being proud of this song, and I can't believe this was released. On the other hand, I totally understand that Björk is a difficult individual to pay tribute to.

I've been spending the last two hours downloading music from blogs. I got some sweet shit, like Blind Willie McTell's "Your Southern Can is Mine". I'm a happy camper, really.

Oh yeah, and I also downloaded a reggae version of "Karma Police", my favorite Radiohead song. And by "favorite" I mean I hardly listen to anything else, to be honest. Anyhoo, I don't think it's that great either, but shit, there's a whole album of these Radiohead tracks; it's a comp called Radiodread, cute, huh?

At school I got a promo copy of the Feist remix album. Haven't given it a full spin yet, though.

iLose, pt. 3

I found out Marisa Monte is dropping not one but TWO new albums on Tuesday. Well, they've been out in Brazil, but they're releasing them in the US on Tuesday. I'm probably not gonna buy them but it's exciting to know her stuff is being released in the US!

My iPod return went fantastic. The kid who helped me with the return was wearing an Edan shirt, so I knew everything would work out all right. I got a call when I got home from Citibank asking me about my purchases. They were worried that someone had stolen my card and bought all that stupid shit. By stupid shit I mean photocopied readings, textbooks, and that fucking iPod. The fabulous thing about returning the iPod, other than the Edan-shirted boy, was that he tested out the iPod and came back to me saying, "Dude, yeah, your iPod's messed up." I was like, "WTF?!" It was exciting because it was like he'd said, "It's not completely your fault." WOW! And all this time, when the stupid iPod was making sad faces at me, I thought I'd fucked up big time. I win!

Afterwards I picked up a Coke at a grocery store and sat around school, doing my reading. At one point I looked up and saw this couple, armed with cameras around their necks, and the woman in the couple directed her camera at me. I was like "Um...?" and I frowned but didn't look away. I decided that she wasn't really bothering me and so I proceeded to ignore her, but not before she got a bit closer and took a couple more pictures of me. I wonder who she was and why she chose to take a picture of me without asking me for my permission. I also had to think about why I didn't stop her. I decided it was because I was flattered. I just hope it wasn't some CIA agent or something like that.

My classes are going well. Sorta, I'm already behind in my reading. My Punk class teacher is absolutely adorable.

Like a Rocking-Horse Winner.

I was feeling shitty over this stupid fucking iPod (I'm gonna try to return it), and on my train ride to work yesterday my head felt like it was gonna explode. I was trying to read that postpunk book and I finally got to the Joy Division part, but then my CD player started playing "Ian Curtis" right as I read the part about Ian hanging himself. I shit you not, it was totally coincidental, but I couldn't deal, so I stopped reading and I skipped the song and I just cried on the train.

Highlight of my day: running over to Insound during my lunch break and fiiiiinally picking up the new TV on the Radio!!!!! I only downloaded "I Was a Lover" so listening to it right now is an absolute delight! I love this band! Oh, and I got my last stiped check. $40. I promptly spent them on a fucking schoolbook. It blows! But TV on the Radio, ILU!

Coffee + Music.

Starbucks Salon, lotsa cool kids performing starting today until Sunday the 17! FREE!

76 Greene Street (between Spring + Broome)

Tonite:
Eugene Mirman (8pm)
My one true love, Buck 65 (9pm)

Tomorra:
Lansing-Dreiden (7pm)

iLose, pt. 2

I just bought my first iPod eva. It cost mad money. Opening this fucking box has been a struggle.

Edit: I can't get it to work. I'm aware that it shouldn't be this difficult, and that's frustrating and I've been crying about it a lot.

Open Letter.

Dear Facebook team,

Please get rid of this "Mini-feed" shit. I know I can change my privacy options, but even then, I don't need all my friends knowing about my Facebook activities. The whole point of these profiles is to control how to present yourself to the masses. With this sort of mini-feed I lose a lot of that control.

Also, I could care less about the content of these feeds. Do I really want to know that my friend has just written on some other individual's wall? And where do you draw the line? Are you gonna reveal all the facebook crushes that people are stalking secretly?

On top of that, I just think it clutters the layout. Let's not turn this website into something fugly like MySpace, please. It's bad enough y'all are sucking up statistical information from us anyway.

Please reconsider your decision to add these mini-feeds!

Sincerely,
Elizabeth U.

OH MY GOD I OFFICIALLY WANT TO SLIT MY WRISTS LOS BUNKERS WERE IN NEW YORK JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO AND I TOTALLY MISSED TEHM OMYGIHATEMYSELF

WSN

I went to the first newspaper meeting of the year! The meeting took place in the hall because the University is supposed to be closed and we couldn't get into the actual offices. I didn't recognize anyone except for Vadim and the new editor, who I met briefly a few days earlier during an open house for WSN. Vadim is pretty much the same as before but I feel like I can tolerate him a bit better. The new kids seem nice, if a bit normal. We're writing about anti-suicide songs, and when I said, "What about that Third Eye Blind song?" a number of them piped up cheerily with "Oh, yeah!" in a totally sincere way. I'm not sure if I'll have much in common with these new kids because I didn't get to chat with them much today, but I hope they're cool.

I also got dibs reviewing the new Kinky album.

Anyway, I'm kinda bummed that most of the friends I've made in college are from the newspaper, because a lot of them are also studying abroad this semester. However, it's nice that they weren't around to scare off the new kids by being all pretentious and shit.

In other news, late last night my mind was blown away because they were showing TWO interesting movies: She's Gotta Have it and Rushmore. Dude, I'd never seen the former movie so I was pleasantly surprised to see some of it. I was primarily watching Rushmore, y'see. I didn't finish either because by 1:45 am I was getting way too tired.

The Tempest.

Be Your Own Pet lost their drummer. Congratulations, BYOP! You're officially a real band! Apparently he was to go to like, college and shit. I think it's a good thing.

I also can't believe that Robert X-gau got fired from the Village Voice. It's not that I like what he writes, but it's like, he's been there for like a million years!

So that post-punk book I'm reading? My future teacher is totally quoted in it. Haha! Weird.

By the way, if you ever encounter a British book called N.Y.C. Rock, don't buy it. In the bit about Interpol, he mentions that the drummer's name is Sam Foragino.

I bought some of my schoolbooks already, as well as Bitchfest, which collects essays from the first 10 years of Bitch. As soon as I saw it I got so excited and I knew I had to buy it but I'll get to it once I finish Rip it Up and Start Again. Shit, I hate having like a long queue of books to read. I'm such a slow reader and it feels like I'll never get to the next one.

Maria gave me this Manixxxxx CD called This is My Truth Tell Me Yours, and that is officially my first Manixxxxxxx album. THANKS! The album is shockingly outdated. I mean I like the songs, but you can obviously tell it was made, ahem, in the late 20th century. It just sounds like an ALBUM. It's cohesive through the entire thing, it makes sense that this set of songs is in this order from start to finish and that we should all listen to it from beginning to end in one sitting. It feels totally bizarre to do that instead of just making a playlist on your mp3 player with all your most favorite tracks from different artists.

VMAs 2006 (Delayed Reaction).

I don't have cable. So I am going to blog as I watch the VMAs online. Ooh. MTV Overdrive has been revamped. The color is nice. Apparently, Mac users can watch it now?

Justin Timberlake's performance was good. I still hate "SexyBack" and think it's dull, grating and pointless. That first song was easier to swallow. I think the greatest thing about this performance was that he answered the question "So you think you can dance?" with a resounding "FUCK YEAH!"

Jack Black's intro: not as funny as Conan O'Brien's Emmy Awards monologue, which was hilarious.

Last night, thousands of teens wondered what that Lou Reed dude was doing with Jack White's new band. I'm wondering the same thing.

Li'l Kim... looked sorta cute.

Oh my god! Kelis looked cute too!!

"My Humps" won? Oh my god. Daddy Yankee had the saddest look on his face. Like he was thinking, "¡Los gringos no me quieren!" Papi, I feel you. I mean, your song was mad annoying, but it wasn't as bad as the Black Eyed Peas' song.

Shit, whoever created that set needs to get shot. Or at least get fired.

UMMM SHAKIRA ILU. Except I found the whole Indian dancing girl weird. I guess Gwen's Harajuku possee was too expensive to rent out. I saw a picture of Shakira with Fall Out Boy on the red carpet and her dress was really nice! She looked all pretty and glowing, so in contrast her outfit here on stage was just tacky. But still, her voice sounded so bad and I just want to say thanks for actually singing instead of using a backing track. I truly appreciate that. I wish this song wasn't so wrong, cos then it would feel so right.

I don't think LL Cool J is capable of aging. It's frightening.

The Raconteurs suck.

Oh my god! MY FAITH IN OK GO HAS TOTALLY BEEN RESTORED!! If only their songs were good. I still like their first album a lot though.

I don't think Beyoncé was singing live. That dance bit was so dumb. Bitch needs some lessons from Timberlake. She's got great thighs, though, so she's cool in my book.

Jared Leto is a fucking joke. That whole speech was ridiculously dumb. Amy Lee was just looking at him like, "You're a douchebag." I think he's a douchebag too, because I've been saying his last name wrong and it's all his fault. You see, he's an artist now, so he makes everything difficult. He makes shitty music and says his name is leh-to instead of lee-to. UGH.

I'd like to thank the VMAs for finally telling me what that fucking annoying ass song I hate is by: Fort fucking Minor. Oh my god, that song is so painfully bad. I hate it so much. Okay, the end. Wait, no. All the "Ringtone of the Year" nominees were ridiculous, even if none of them were fucking Crazy Frog. I hate the fact that people have ringtones on their phones. I already hate phones and the fact that people have noisy, shitty ringtones makes things even worse.

I found it very weird that Fall Out Boy and Panic! were dressed like in B-movie version of Sherlock Holmes. I can't believe people are saying that P!ATD had a bad performance. NO SHIT. THEY'RE A BAD BAND. Just because you like them doesn't mean you should disregard how mediocre they are. I thought they sounded exactly as I expected them to sound live.

I wish Abigail Breslin was an anti-Dakota Fanning but I've heard Abigail speak and she's one of those precocious brats who's always telling people, "You should talk to my agent blah blah" to the point you wanna kick 'em in the face. But I think she's totally cute and I thought it was so sweet when she didn't know how to pronounce "Avenged Sevenfold". She also looked a bit scared that all those dudes came up on stage. Aw.

I'm glad I don't watch Overload that often (usually it's just "You Heard it First" features), because the ads drove me crazy. I wish they had more advertisers, because it's like the same five or six commercials and I find it irritating that they repeat so often.

Oh. My. God. Lou Reed was more full of shit than Jared Leto. I still love him, though, because when he was younger he was hospitalized and given EST for his homosexual tendencies. Oh, and he was in this little band called the Velvet Underground, but that's so beside the point.

Shit, I can't believe "Wake Me Up When September Ends" didn't win. C'mon, y'all! That video almost changed my life! When I first watched it I laughed! I cried! That is, I cried from laughing so hard. "I DID IT FOR US!! I DID IT FOR US!!!" The only thing that's made me laugh harder is that part in "Dance, Dance" where the girl is telling Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III that he looks handsome. PFFFT YEAH OKAY.

WTF, I kept thinking that "Iovine" was pronounced eye-oh-vine, not eye-oh-vin. Thanks for making my life difficult, y'all.

Al Gore got fat! If he was a rock star I'd totally wanna hit that! Except I'm not really into violence, so I wouldn't really hit him. It was a manner of speech...

Ummm is Brendon Uri(n)e the worst rock star ever? First of all he gets hit by one water bottle and he passes out, and then at the VMAs he gets the mic snatched right out of his hand by some loser who for some reason wanted a show on MTV. WTF? Of course I understand Brendon didn't wanna fight back for it. White Mormon Boy Wearing Make-Up vs. Irate Black Dude? Brendon had no chance. I can't believe J. Lo didn't smack the shit out of that dude. Ugh.

ALSO! I'd never heard Rosevest's speaking voiced so I LOL'ed quite hard when I found out it was deeper than expected.

Pale People.

Jack White

I'm sure this is very old news but I only realized recently that Jack White has a thing for redheads. I'd thought about his wife Karen and about Marcie Bolen. And then I remembered that he mentions red hair in some of his lyrics ("Fell in Love With a Girl"). Hm, now we know why Conan O'Brien showed up in that sub-par Gondry music video.

My Chemical Romance

I was looking at pictures of the new MCR video that's gonna come out soon and I laughed my ass off. Ummm like srsly? Qu'est-ce que c'est? What's with the whole cosplay get-up? Is this video set in an anime convention? ROFLXCORE.

Frankly, I think the new album is gonna be bad news. Conceptually, it just sounds like something Coheed & Cambria would try to pull, and I'm not happy with the marketing... it just seems very suspicious, like they're trying to create this big hoopla to make up for the fact that the music's not that great. Even more so, I hate that one of the first things that showed up on the Black Parade page was a picture of a t-shirt, which would only cost $7.99. Blatant money-sucking strategy. Plus, I would never want to buy an $8 shirt cos it was probably made by some 9-year-old girl in Bangladesh, if not by some Chinese sweatshop worker in the US. Plus, the fact that this album has some sort of concept that includes alter egos, that just sounds like the band is out of their minds, but not in a very punk rock way. More in a "I spend too much time online playing RPGs" sort of way.

I obviously take this band way too seriously. I decided if I got cast to their Fuse thing I wouldn't go. I do hope it shows up on YouTube though... sigh! At first I thought I would regret it, but it's like, c'mon. I'm 19 and have better things to do, like going to class the first day of school. What, what.

Nick Cave & PJ Harvey

This video gets me hot. Ah, such beautiful people!

"I Can't Groove When You're Playing Like This!"

ZOMG y'all? What the fuck is going on in this video? Did it blow all yo' minds like it blew mine? Holy muthafuckin'.

So, walking around work I see all these kids travelin' in packs. The freshmen have moved into NYU and taken over.

I've been all right. Highlights in the past week have included re-watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? and getting most of the historical references, talking to Rachel's Dad about Gorilla Biscuits and fucking Porcell, realizing I'm getting paid mad money for all the work I did last week, listening to the original "I'm Into Something Good" and deciding it may be one of the best and most joyous pop songs ever.



Not only that, I got to spend most of the week with Boogie-Down Nicole, got to see Claudia, and Maria, and Gabs, except I felt really sad after talking to Gabs cos she's been having a shitty time lately and I even though we're not like BFFs I wish I knew how to fix her problems. I also got to see the Walkmen for my first and probably last time ever. They sounded pretty good, but I wish the weather hadn't been so crappy. Also, there was this skinny-ass bearded dude who was like, Beckett's twin from the back and he was really distracting. LMAO.

YESTERDAY I BOUGHT OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE. AND CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP. IT COST ME A TOTAL OF $15. SWEET.

I also finally started reading Rip it Up and Start Again. Pretty good so far.

Hi Again.

I just doctored a recent Cat and Girl strip. I did a very poor job at it.



I am home. Tomorrow I will see The Walkmen. NYU Law's Early Interview Week (that is, the reason why I was missing for the past week) was awesome. Got lots of little gifts and ate a lot of snacks.

Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodby!

Hey kiddies, I'm off into the Village for the next week to help law students land themselves a job or two. If you have my number, call. I think this will be the best way to reach me. You can email me, too, but I don't know if I'll have access to computers very often. I'm sure there's nothing very important to tell me. Anyways, have fun, y'all. Maybe I'll see you at the free Ted Leo show, which I think is Friday, right?

Granfalloons, Among Other Things.

When I was younger and a bit smarter, I figured I should convert to Bokononism. I've forgotten everything about it now, except for three things: it's based on lies, it involves foot sex, and it speaks about these things called granfalloons. Now, I totally agree with Bokonon on the whole granfalloon situation.

So I was a bit irked on Thursday when I showed up wearing my red Insound shirt and was met with this girl pointing out that I was one of four other people wearing red shirts that day. See, yes, I understand it's odd that the ratio of people wearing red shirts to other-colored shirts was higher than usual, but c'mon, did she seriously have to tell everyone about this? Like did wearing red shirts make us BFFs, some exclusive and impenetrable club of red-shirt wearing office workers? Seriously. I just can't believe the random and pointless shit in which some people try to find meaning.

Anyway, I'd been briefed when I started work about this girl who uses the word "irregardless" several times a day. On Thursday I was talking to this girl about something and she used the word "irregardless". I was so shocked and I was trying so hard not to crack up right in front of her, and I couldn't look her in the eye.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG I WAS JUST WATHICNG ACCESS HOLLYWOOD HOLY SHIT so Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner were on and they kept having eye sex and shit and it was too much! I was laughing my ass off the entire time! I was like "STFU it's your fucking fault that shit like slash exists!!!"

I watched a documentary on Edith Piaf today; which was dubbed from the French. A waste of time, really. I feel bad because I'm very easy to please, but seriously, it wasn't really revelatory and it was mostly people reminiscing about how they dealt with her death. I did learn something important, though: I don't care for her music. At the same time, the live footage showed how charming and funny she was, and obviously, she had a great voice. I think what surprised me most is that she was pretty tiny. She's so revered that I thought that, physically, she'd be as big as her personality. Huh.

Here's a video of Björk and Steve Coogan. Brilliant.

A Few Videos.

Today I watched this documentary called The Search for Robert Johnson, which was just okay, except for the part where they showed a video clip of Son House playing "Death Letter". This was totally amazing. Ahhh. Especially cos I'd only heard the White Stripes version, and I thought it was one of the best songs on De Stijl.

A couple of days ago my dad and I were watching Carter Family videos on YouTube together (I know, ROFLXCORE) and I thought this song in particular was amazing:

I'm assuming Johnny Cash was still doing drugs, cos he's pretty skinny? Anyway, Anita Carter--wow! My dad and I were like, "Holy shit, let's make a mix CD just so we can put that song!!" Well, we didn't really say that, but I definitely thought it.

I picked up Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? again. It got really interesting with all the stuff about Johnny Cash and how he was madly in love with June Carter. Oh, boy!

Hey kids, Filter is giving away a copy of the new Kinky album! Enter here.

By the way, here's a cool interview featuring Fatrick and Trohman:


They're so cute. And geeky.

CMJ and Other Stuff.

Aha, just when I was wondering about CMJ, the first few bands have been announced. This year it's a bit later, a bit longer, and a bit more uptown. A lot of the bands as of right now I've heard of. Makes sense they'd announce those to keep the buzz going. Hope I can see The Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, maybe even the Knife though I doubt I could get into that show. And, uh, Hellogoodbye are playing, too.

If only Brand New would play. I know I need to shut up about them but GAWD! Do you know how stupid I feel for missing this most recent tour? I'm actually really looking forward to the new album, but totally nervous too!

Got my new glasses. They're pretty much the same except green! Yeah!

On Monday I started a new job, thanks to Boogie-Down Nicole who hooked me up. It's okay, I like it so far and the people are nice. I get paid to sit in front of the computer and to run errands.

Guess my number y'all!

Deerhoof.

Sunday was pretty awesome, except for the part where I went to fix my new glasses and I wanted to scratch out the eyes of the woman working there. Damn it, mujer! If I tell you the new glasses make me wanna barf, change them for me! Don't tell me to fucking get used to it!

Well, my parents drove me into Guillermoburg so that I could ch-ch-check out the latest pool party.

I waited a long time for Rachel and I reached a point where I was openly moping. This was not good because my QT former co-worker saw me and he was like, "You look so sad!" And I was like, "ZOMG YOU'RE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND SHE'S PRETTY HOT IHU CUTE DUDE!" Bee tee dubs, he totally added me on facebook. Now I can see more pictures of him with his hot girlfriend. Sigh.

It also took me about two minutes to spot Alfie again. The end.

Anyway, I did meet up with everyone eventually. I first saw Militant Vegan Emo Boy Adam who had a whole posse that included Boogie-Down Nicole, Gabs (back from OHIO!!), and uhhh this dude, Scott, from Tiny Mix Tapes!!! My first encounter with a real life Tiny Mix Tapes writer!!!!! LMAO.

I should also note it was my first encounter with the notorious ANGELA! She was ASSUM! We was like ZOMGZXCORE YOU LIKE MUSICSECRET SHUIT UP NO WAY ME TOO YO!!! And then we were like FATRICK IS A QT EVEN IF HE'S BALDING. It was great!

OMG! AND ?UESTLOVE WAS TOTALLY DJING TOTALLY NORMAL STUFF! It was great! My favorite tracks spinned: "The Whole World" by Outkast, "Crazy in Love" without Beyoncé and Jay's vocals (which is really how the song should have been in the first place, fuck them!), AAAAAND that funk song that is sampled in EEEEEEEVERY old hip-hop song and that every breakdancer knows*. That last one was really exciting, I'd been itching to hear that song, so it was a major relief.

Apollo Sunshine were meh. Maybe they were all right. I wasn't really paying attention, I was busy eating my $5 cup of Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream. It was almost worth it. I will probably get some more for the Walkmen pool party.

Beirut was aight. I don't think it was a good venue for him. Y'know, too many distractions and all. It was really great though, Angela was all like, "They're gonna play [laiueraoleiutawot]!" and I was like what the fuck is that? But then when they started playing the song I went apeshit and I was like YOOOOO I LOVE THAT FUCKING SONG**!!!! Angela asked me how I could not know how to pronounce the song title when it's in the lyrics? And so, Angela learned my poor lyric-learning skills. Oh yeah, I was really jealous of the tambourine dude on stage! I want that job. Getting drunk with a band and just banging on a tambourine. Yeah maaan. That's fucking rock 'n' roll!

So anyhoo, after that great finish, Rachel got some ice cream and we bid farewell to Angela and we stood a bit closer to the stage, except the sound was REAL FUCKING LOUD and I had no earplugs, so we were still a bit far. But I could see most of it. I found it a bit weird to have them as a 3-piece and a 4-piece, and I feel they sounded a bit fuller with 4 people. Satomi is so cute and tiny and she jumped around and I just wanted to hug her. And that drummer dude is fucking insane. And he towers over her. Like he'd go up to Satomi's mic to say "Thanks for coming" and stuff, but he had to bend in half hahahhaahaha I love this band so much and they played "Dog on the Sidewalk" yayayay. Shit and and and they played "Wrong Time Capsule" and I think "Flower" and they opened with "Gore in Rut" and it was so fucking adorable and I cheered "Hurrah, hurrah!" The end.

*Ah, that funk song is "It's Just Begun" by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. Shit, that song is so so good.
**"Šiki, šiki baba"!! Here, I only have the Kocani Orkestar version, from Said the Gramophone.

Say Hello To Ian "I Love Life" Curtis for Me.

Right now I am missing Todosantos. I know I kept hollerin' about how this band's hardly ever gonna get to be in NYC, blah blah, but seriously, I forgot, and when I remembered, I realized I was too tired to wait for the show to start. But I really do love Todosantos and I wish they was superpopular aquí en Nueva Yol.

Sonic Youth.

Yesterday I took a train to Guillermoburg. As soon as I got there, I felt totally uncomfortable. I just felt very disconnected from this place, the kids around here. I don't know how to explain it. Rachel had told me that YYYs were headlining and we decided that if this was the case, we weren't gonna stay. We got there too early and lined up.

Awesome Color were the opening band and they were hilarious. I think the music was aight, too, I just can't recall how it even sounded. They had this bassist who looked like an older version of Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle. They had a lot of their friends play with them... including some tall dude named Thurston. It was so cute, before Thurston got on stage to play with them, he had a camcorder, taping Awesome Color. The band also had a friend on vocals who had this crazy stage presence. He got really intense and would make a claw out of his hand, which he would wave around to the beat of the music. Hm, I'm not explaining this right. I hope a video of his performance pops up, because it made me laugh incredibly hard. The dude was wild. At one point he was screaming so hard that you could see the tightness of his neck muscles, and he was incredibly red in the face.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were good. I liked Karen's outfit, it came with a headpiece and everything. Apparently, it's Christian Joy's wedding day, so congrats to her. The band played "Bang" and "Y-Control", so I was pretty happy. However, there was a a point when they were playing these mopier newer songs, where I was sooooo bored.

Not only that, the acoustic version of "Maps" sucked. Like beyond belief. I'd never pay to see fucking Unitard. Gawd. And I thought it totally sucked that Brian was just sitting there instead of rocking his hot longer hair. Man, he's such a Hottie Hotbergsteinowitz. He was really good on "Turn Into", as well!

SONIC MUTHAFUCKIN YOUTH WERE AMAZING. C'est tout. Got on stage and immediately played "Teenage Riot". People went apeshit. Lots of Kim doing creepy vocals and cute interpretive dancing. She danced goofily, like she was some 14-year-old in her bedroom alone listening to her favorite records. At one point she danced over to Thurston and sort of held on to him and tried to dance while he was still trying to play the guitar.

OMIGOD! AND THEY PLAYED "100%"!!!!!!! MORE APESHITTING WENT ON!!!!!!!!! ;aoima0958mqjlnds8bpa093w5n2;8nap0659q86lrq

Oh by the way, this is where I should add, Sonic Youth aren't one of my favorite bands. Tch, and the show was not without harm. My mouth hurt cos I smiled through the entire set, and my neck hurt from looking up for so long. If you can't tell, we were on Thurston's side. Sigh! What a QT. Except I feel bad for ever lusting after him. I wish we could just be BFFs and jam together!! I'd let the motherfucker bleed on my drums if he so wished...

For the most part, the crowd was cool. I'd like to send props to the boy in the *Nsync shirt and his friend. They were obnoxious but in a really funny way. Also, ALFIE STOOD RIGHT NEXT TO ME AGAIN! And he has a girlfriend now, with whom he proceeded to make out in between sets. ::GAGGING NOISES:: Hahaha. I'm such a loser, I can't bring myself up to saying hi. I've now accepted that I'm gonna keep seeing him at shows but gawd, what am I going to say? Here's scenario for y'all to consider:

"Whoa, hey, Alfie, right?"
"Um, who are you?"
"Oh, you don't remember me. I went to Bronx Science."
"Oh... hey."
"Yeah... um, I had a crush on your friend."
"?!?!?!"

GAH. AWKWARD.

But Sonic Youth we wonderful, really beautiful, technically proficient (thank the Lord), very cute. Oh, and those drums were seriously awesome. They sounded fantastic. Man, I really have to retire on this concert shit, but this once, I'm really happy I was able to witness that show. I'm totally honored.

Random Notes.

Recently I heard this album by Blind Willie McTell which included that spoken bit at the end of De Dtijl (y'know, that where someone's like, "What's the matta, willie?"). It was such a revelation, because I could pick up where Jack White had learned his moves. It wasn't that obvious, but at certain moments you'd feel, "Aha, so that's why Jack sings the way he does."

Have I ever told you about my love for Aziz Ansari? I think the greatest thing about him is that HE'S NOT THAT FUNNY. I just think he's cute. Except he's this close to not being cute anymore, because he probably realizes people dig him. We'll see how things go.

I'm totally in deep shit! I forgot to renew my books last night, and I can't go to the library today. I'm gonna owe a shitload of money when I go tomorrow!

Watched Quadrophenia. Tch. It was so fucking emo. It was like Enid Coleslaw in boy form and more British. (I liked the movie, and the music was great!) Sting was laughable. The end.

Transition Stage.

Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live
Forever - Explosions in the Sky
The Stooges - The Stooges
The Tigers Have Spoken - Neko Case
Superwolf - Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
The Evens - The Evens
Congotronics - Konono No. 1
Tanglewood Numbers - The Silver Jews
They Think They Are The Robocop Kraus - The Robocop Kraus
Citrus - Asobi Seksu
Dividing Island - Lansing-Dreiden
Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes

-----

Quit my job today. Pretty bummed about it. Got a cupcake with yellow frosting and all those CDs and LPs. I went to Pop Burger with this really cute guy. Too bad he's madly in love with his girlfriend. I wonder what it's like to love someone! I realized that I absolutely adore Guy Picciotto. Worried about the start of school. I hope I make new friends. I hope I'm able to go to England and maybe even to Colgate. Scared about starting work at the office. I hope I don't get fired. The point of this post: I just want to make out with someone! Someone who isn't creepy!

Everything Feels Good.

On Tuesday I bought a box set of 60s girl group music, got a free CMJ bag, ate a smushed Klondike bar, found out there's a band called Gayrilla Biscuits (too good to be true!). Holy shit, it's my last day of work, and I haven't even decided on what to get. Daaaaamn. I'm just glad I pre-ordered the TV on the Radio.

SO! I WENT TO THE LIBRARY YESTERDAY! CAN I HEAR A "CH-CHING"?!?!

I finally got Quadrophenia from the library! I also picked up a school book, and... Nothing Feels Good! I know Rachel has it and I could have asked her to borrow it, but I didn't wanna be a bother. I'm glad I got the book right now because I wanna figure out what Geoff Rickly and Chris Carrabba used to teach back when they had real jobs.

Hm, Andy Greenwald should really write an addendum to the book. Plenty to write about, right? He could dedicate an entire chapter on musicsecret!

iLose.

I did it. I officially killed my mp3 player. I guess blasting "OMG I <3 Livejournal" was too much for my thing to handle. Tragic, really. I could try to fix it, but there's no point. The thing is ancient and it's time for it to rest in peace. We've had it for like two years, if not more. My brother bought it back in the days when mp3 players were still chunky and difficult to use. People always had a hard time figuring out how to use my mp3 player. The player was handed down to me when my brother won a free iPod in one of those online things. I dropped it a couple of times in its lifetime, which led to it being quite quirky. But you know how it is, like when a new mom drops her baby on her head: the baby's never the same but you still love it anyway. It behaved fairly well. At one point I learned that the music was only coming out the right side, and it was then that I accepted my mp3 player's days were numbered. I'll probably replace it with a shiny new iPod eventually. But for now, let's celebrate everything that my antiquated, clunky mp3 player was.

In other news, my second musicsecret was posted yesterday and I already pissed off someone! How exciting!!

Also, only a few more weeks until the new Kinky album is out! YEAH!

Warped Tour '06.

I can tell I'm going to write a lot, and I never take pictures, so you've been warned. I don't want any "tl;dr" comments on this post.

Yesterday was the Warped Tour. I was a bit hesitant about this trip because the night before I had this crappy dream and Trohman was totally in it and I was being a drama queen and he looked at me like, "You are so lame". I hate how I have dreams where people I like totally hate me. Anyway...

Since it wasn't at Randall's, we had to go to Long fucking Island, but amazingly enough, Boogie-Down Nicole planned it out perfectly (pre-gaming and all, lol!) and we had the easiest time getting around. There were a lot of kids getting on the train with us, and by the time the bus arrived we pushed our way on. We started queuing up once we got there but at a certain point we all realized that the gates could go fuck themselves and we didn't need to line up all nice and pretty. They hardly checked our bags so I regretted guzzling all that water + soda before we got in. At least I'd gone to the bathroom earlier so I didn't have to use the portapotties. Anything to avoid that stuff, y'know?

The first band we went to see was The Academy Is... I was already wary of the many fangirls (and surprisingly, fanboys!), but then this girl right near me started moaning about how she didn't feel so good because of the heat, and then some dude was like "Drink some water" but she was all like, "Nah, I'd rather not", and she wouldn't even get out of the huge crowd. But eventually she relented and had some water, only to throw up seconds later. Like right in the middle of all these peoples. It must have been one of her first shows ever. Well, at first I tried to be polite about it and ignore the barf. After all, we've all had embarrassing vomit experiences, right? But she didn't seem to get it and want to get out, and I figured she'd throw up some more, and the barf started stinkin' up ridiculously bad and since the ground wasn't completely level, it sort of started puddlin' up in my general direction. There was some brief soul-searchin' involved--"Is William Beckett's delectable, skinny ass worth it?"--before I decided to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE.

I sat against the gate right near the stage, so I heard most of it. I was shocked it wasn't too bad. At times I would crane my neck and try to get a glimpse of the stage. I could see Beckett at times. He's... quite skinny. Seemed to be getting a good reaction from the crowd, and even crooned a bit of "Crazy". Obvz, it didn't sound as amazing as Mr. Cee-Lo Green, but it was the only thing I did recognize from their set, so I'm not complaining. It was really interesting, they were one of the first bands playing and not as many people were in the parking lot by that point, so as the set went on, a shitload of people gravitated toward the stage. A girl sitting near me wore a "Feed Beckett Foundation". I think she went into the crowd afterwards.

The report from Boogie-Down and Rachel was that the crowd was crazy for the band and that they almost got killed. I think it was a bit of a shock for them to witness a crowd that was actually reacting to the band playing on stage. Spoiled little hipster girls, haha.

After The Academy Is... we reunited and ran over to see The Sounds. It was really fun! Maja had this retarded haircut and their keyboardist had massive pirate earrings that made me lol. They played "Seven Days a Week" but they didn't play "Mine For Life", which I think is my favorite Sounds song. It was mostly the new stuff, which makes sense. There was this really enthusiastic girl who literally jumped with joy when Maja announced the band would be doing a signing. I danced to the music. It was fun.

We went over to see Hellogoodbye but we got distracted when we decided to go track down The Academy Is... for a signing. It was mostly for Rachel and Boogie-Down Nicole so that they could LOL about Beckett n00dz and shit like that. I dunno. When they start talking about TAI I sort of zone out. I didn't know there was a TAI booth so I thought the signing was at the Fueled by Ramen booth but it ended up being at the fucking AP booth. The problem is that we're morons and we couldn't figure out where it was and we gave up and caught the last two minutes of Hellogoodbye. As soon as I caught a glimpse of the stage I regretted that we left in the first place. They seemed so cute and cuddly and funny and they were all wearing these crazy costumes. I appreciated the effort, you know? And the music wasn't bad at all!

After that we had a good while to wait before Thursday came on, so we just sat around people-watching and hydrating ourselves under the merciless sun. Eventually we parked our derrieres against the gate with a view to the Main Stage allll the way across where Thursday were gonna play. Unfortunately, Motion City Soundtrack were playing, and they weren't all that. Even worse, we thought they were ending their set, but they kept playing on and on and we're like, "C'mon, let Tone Geoff play already!!"

We spent a few hours during the day sort of just sitting and trying to bear the fucking heat. It sucked pretty bad. That middle part of the day was rough, but once we got through it things got a lot better.

Eventually, Thursday did get on the stage but we really had no energy to get up, so we watched from the gate. I think I would have liked them more if they hadn't played in the daytime. The stage was far away, but I detected quite a bit of flailing arms courtesy of (I assume) dear Geoff. The banter was, for the most part, awesome; I think it was the best I heard all day. I think he actually told people to go home and download their new album, and he also told this story about being on a plane and how the plane was going down and I really can't remember how the story ended, cos I could only think of that Bright Eyes song with the creepy intro.

The only thing that really annoyed me was that Geoff told all the kiddies that they were all "alternative" and fuck commercial radio and blah blah. Hello? That was not the right audience to hear this shit. These were the kids who paid $45 on their tickets, about $20 on food for the day, plus an average of like $50 worth of purchases on merch. And the merch probably wasn't CDs because all these kids probably have iPods and have already downloaded the music from all the bands at Warped. My point is, these are the kids who think that you can buy your way into being "different", but there's just as many kids who sincerely love this kind of music and couldn't make it out to see these bands because they couldn't afford the transportation and the ticket and the meal money. I don't know if his spiel was (a) because he is unaware, (b) because he is in denial, or (c) because he's a fucking dumbass. I was like, "Dude, don't encourage these kids, because they don't understand what you're talking about."

ANYWAY. The set was still pretty good. It's not necessarily my kind of music but I think if I'd been a bit closer to the stage and gotten wrapped up in all the mob mentality, I would have been perfectly content. After that we checked out Saves the Day, who were a bit of fresh air. There were so many bands with more of a metal-punk feel and lots of screamy vocals, so hearing all this straight up pop-punk stuff was a sugar rush for me. Except holy shit, Chris Conley's voice is really annoying, yeah? Wow, and we were pretty far from the stage, but Chris's hair was flaaaaamin' pink.

We left STD to catch Joan Jett, who had already started her set! Goddamn! Whatever, we caught most of it anyway. Musically speaking, I think the Blackhearts were the best. I guess it helps that Joan Jett has been playing the guitar since most of us were born. I found it odd to have her sing "Cherry Bomb". And I didn't like her newer material which was all "Fuck Bush". It's just that I've never cared for political lyrics (or any lyrics for that matter!). It was amazing to see all the older people show up for her set.

Oh, and there was this hysterical dude wearing a Spider-Man costume who crowdsurfed twice during her set. Even the security people thought it was hilarious. I think the greatest thing about the Spider-Man dude was that there was this dad in the crowd holding his kid up, and the kid was pretty stoked to meet Spider-Man! He's never been one of my favorite superheroes, but I have to admit that he was awesome yesterday. Hahaha.

She played "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". It was so dumb and so cool to see everyone spouting the lyrics right back at her, exactly like in the video!!!

Following her set we watched Gym Class Heroes. They were okay. I don't know, I think the rapper dude is really cute but the songs themselves seemed same-y. Beckett came on for a song. Also, the band totally teased everyone by playing the riff for "Dance, Dance". People got really excited about that! Including me! I wish they'd played the song. It would have been ASSUMXCORE! I liked the MySpace song, and the one where Fatrick sings was cool too.

There was this girl watching the Gym Class Heroes set whose shirt said, "SUGAR, we're deffinately going down!" I was horrified and amused to pieces.

In the stage right next to Gym Class Heroes, Saves the Day were scheduled to play again, but this was for an acoustic set. I'm so glad the stages were side-by-side, cos by that point I was tired of schlepping my ass from one corner of the parking lot to the other. Call me lazy, I don't care. The acoustic set was AMAZING. They were seriously really good, the choice of song was excellent. My favorite set of the day. Actually, I was just like wishin' and hopin' that they would play "You Vandal", and they played it first, so when it finished I turned to Boogie-Down Nicole and Rachel and said, "That's all I wanted to hear, we can vamoose from here now", but Nicole was like, "It's cool, let's stay", and I'm so glad because they did "Freakish" and I hadn't heard that song in years! It was the only time all day when I happily sang along.

Saves the Day were almost all that Warped is about: whining, angst about growing up, pure pop disguised as "emo punk". It was an absolute delight.

The Pink Spiders were the last band we checked out. We didn't stay too long, only long enough to verify that they are indeed very hot. To be more specific, as soon as they came out, I just didn't give a shit what their music sounded like (I recall it being pop-punk), I just wanted to stare at them. Sizzle, sizzle!

We were pretty pooped so we skipped out on the rest of their set, and out of the hellhole that is Long Island. But I'm telling you, the trip was almost worth it! Especially the later half of the day! I really wanna go again next year... but only if it's at Randall's and/or some big bands play. I'm looking at you, Brand New!

Some more random things about Warped:

(1) I felt really old! And pervy for checking out the little 13-year-old skater boys! Oh my god, there was the cutest boy with a Tsunami Bomb shirt on! I was like ILU!!
(2) Most indie rock t-shirt sighting: The Fall.
(3) I saw three trash bins all day, not counting a makeshift one that someone made just from an empty cardboard box. It was ridiculous. I did see two people from the recycling crew who were carrying around bags with plastic bottles and stuff, but most of the trash just went on the floor. It was an absolute pigsty by the end of the day.
(4) I considered buying a Gorilla Biscuits album from these people, who I'm only plugging for because they were kind enough to sell us water for $2 instead of $4. I decided against buying the album, but now I'm bummed because I listened to them today and they're pretty good. The good thing about it is that I almost bought the "bad" album instead of the "classic" album, so maybe it was for the best.
(5) There were a lot of kids wearing Underoath shirts and I felt bad for them.
(6) The Volcom booth had a sign that said "AFI AREN'T EVEN AT WARP [sic] TODAY! And if they weren't they wouldn't be at the Volcom table". LOL!
(7) We did find the AP booth eventually. It was about 3 or 4 hours too late for the TAI signing. They didn't even have free copies of their mag! Pout. But they did have the official program, which oddly enough, is just as shitty as AP!
(8) People, particularly the scantily-clad ones, have no sense of personal space. You fuckers need to stop bumping into every fucking person near you when there's plenty of walking room around. I don't care to touch your sweaty bodies and your kind can just choke on a cock. KTHXDIE.

Important Facts.

So! Bought my ticket for Warped. Found out DJ Shadow is white. My first musicsecret showed up--guess the number!

Quit Your Meanness!

Goddamn, this is like the third or fourth time I've wanted to buy something at work and it's been bought by someone else instead. This time it was a John Coltrane album. WTF y'all. Last time it was the new Asobi Seksu, and the time previous it was a DJ Shadow album. Sigh.

I'm nearing the end of Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone and I'm shocked by how bummed I'm feeling. It's a great book, seriously. I'm a slow reader and I just get so attached to whatever book I'm reading at the moment, so when I'm about to finish a book it pains me. But with this one, it pains me even more.

In other news, I got a new job (yay), so I'm quitting my current one and I'm sorta sad I'm leaving so early but I'm in need of some money. I have to calculate how much store credit I have. I can only hope that all the things I want haven't disappeared from the shelves by Thursday, when I quit.

G. Davis is Innocent.

At work Damian said somebody had to go make a run to the DFA offices to pick up their mailorder shit and I didn't wanna go so he's like, "Well if you don't wanna go I can send out Sasha" and then I felt bad because Sasha had the brilliant idea to wear a black shirt in this heat so I was like, "I don't think ANYONE should go outside today"... in the end, both Sasha and I went. It actually wasn't too bad. It was only five blocks of walking in the horrible heat and when we got there they were really cool, they gave us all these Hot Chip promos and we went into the office and it was a bit small but still quite charming. So I guess it was worth walking 5 blocks back and forth so I could get a free copy of the Hot Chip album (ha).

Yesterday I got some Tigerstyle CDs: James Chance, American Analog Set, and the Album Leaf. Haven't listened to them yet.

Also, I'm really shocked at how many nominations Panic! At the Disco got for the VMAs. And they haven't even hit puberty yet!

Bathroom Break.

At work yesterday, there was this one 10-minute period in the day when it seemed like everyone at work needed to use the bathroom at the same time. It was totally bizarre.

Last night I waited for NBC to show Project Runway and they showed some game show thing instead! I was so angry! Also, to NBC: not a good business decision, fuckers!

PWNED.

Great news, even though no one really cares! Todosantos are comin' over to NYC! I'm really excited about this and I really wanna go! I'm considering not going to Warped just so I can save the money and go see this band instead!! Yeah!! Listen... we don't get a lot of Venezuelan, Ian "I Love Life" Curtis-namechecking bands comin' round to the city, do we?

"As a safety measure, Facebook is requiring everyone to indicate their birthday." I haven't and I wonder if my account will get deleted or something. God willing, haha. And apparently MySpace went apeshit yesterday? LOL! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT SPYWARE ON YOUR ADS YOU FUCKERS.

I was lurking around Antville today and it was really fun, really interesting. Like this post on online petitions (and Beyoncé). Also, I learned the dark side of Marc Webb... like he's made a lot of shitty videos. A LOT. It's like he got lucky with a few of them, and they happened to be videos for My Chemical Romance and for BRAND NEW!! I didn't know he made "Sic Transit Gloria", that was superexciting until I looked at the list of videos he's made... Ugh, I still dig him, though, those videos are seriously awesome, plus he did that one with the All-American Rejects which I finally watch in its entirety and was very good. Tyson Ritter is incredibly whiny, but you can't hate the dude because he used to be a fat kid and now he's like way hot.

Finally watched Cidade de Deus. A lot of blood. A lot a lot of blood. It's like hundreds of people die in a slum war, and we see only one person succeed, the main character. That's so depressing.

Oh, bee tee dubs, is this hilarious, or is this hilarious?!?! I was in heaven reading that.

Joint Venture.

Before I shut up about Brothers of the Head once and for all, I forgot to tell you that one of the characters was a female music journalist (LOL) who fucked one of the conjoined twins (DOUBLELOL). Hello, cliche much? Well, my most favorite parts of the movie were when the twins would start arguing and start slapping each other. It really made me laugh simply because neither brother could get away from the other when they were fighting. Damn, hot twins. So hot. Okay, yeah, I'll be quiet now.

Yesterday Rachel and I bumped into so many people we didn't even have a chance to hang out at Etherea. Apparently, we're totally down with the owner now. By this I mean that Rachel totally got the "Friends of Etherea" discount from the owner the last time we went. While we bummed around the neighborhood and waited for Boogie-Down Nicole to get out of work, we met Steve and Alison (I think) and Jennalise. We went into the grassy area at the Junkie Park and there were a lot of crusties and the area seemed nothing but uncouth but they were like, "Let's go to the park and sit in the grass!" so I tried to imagine that there weren't a lot of bugs around and that the sun wasn't beatin' on us and that there weren't lots of shifty-lookin' crusties around. When the situation started getting too sketchy and unsanitary for us, we exited the park.

Rachel and I parted ways eventually and we ended up at Kimmel waiting for time to pass. High On Life Dan showed up at Kimmel and reported he'd be going to the Danielson show. He guessed there was a 60% chance Soupjam would be there. Then it was time to meet Boogie-Down Nicole who is responsible and actually works a full-time job unlike us. It had been weeks since I'd seen her! We wandered aimlessly until it was time to go see the movie. Can I just say, there's nothing like a free movie to get your spirits up. That and hot twins.

I got stuff at work today! Yay, yay!!
- 2 really cute t-shirts that are probably too small for me because I'm totally delusional about my body image and really convinced myself I could fit into them
- pre-ordered the new TV on the Radio
- the old Vashti Bunyan on vinyl
- the most recent Ladytron album on vinyl
- the "Hard to Explain" 7-inch
- a PGMG 7-inch
- this Bishop Perry Tillis CD, which I hope is really good but I'm pretty sure it is

Peas in a Pod.

Watched Brothers of the Head last night. The directors and the twins who played the conjoined twins in the movie were there to answer a lot of stupid questions. The twins are really hot. I liked the movie okay but it's more of a "borrow from the library" movie than a "spend your lunch money for a ticket at the theater" movie. However, I should mention it was my very first time at the IFC Center and it was an A- experience! The bathroom was amazing, especially the sink! The sound wasn't absolutely blaring in the theater and the temperature was just right.

Oh yeah, the movie, it was good but as I schlepped back home I realized I had A LOT of questions about what was going on. I thought the actors were good, but I suspect it was the flow of the story that had problems. Rachel noted that this movie didn't know what kind of movie it wanted to be, and that definitely complicated things. Maybe it's because the movie had two directors. At moments it was very art school, at others it was very punk rock biopic, for the most part it was supposed to be a documentary, but they also had bits of a fake fictional movie that was based on the conjoined twins' lives, and on top of that Brothers of the Head itself is described as a mockumentary in all the reviews and blurbs in the press but there's not much mockery going about except the fact that everything about this movie is VEry VERY British and it made me LOL. Was that confusing enough?

Right. If you watch the movie, just watch it for the hot twins. And the music. I was shocked that the music wasn't bad at all. During the Q&A we were told that the more rebellious twin was influenced by Iggy Pop, but I feel that the music was more British proto-punk via glam rock. You know, descendants of T. Rex, Bowie, etc with a good dose of DIY feelin'. Wow, okay, I'm gonna end this post before I get even more pretentious.

I'm a Moron, Etc.

(1) I've got two Panic! at the Disco tour posters to give away. It's for their current tour, with the Dresden Dolls. OK Go and the Hush Sound are mentioned as well. Anyway, just email me (gmail: cuddleworthy) with your address if you want it. I definitely don't want them. No, I won't sell your address or anything like that.

(2) I found out why I couldn't log in to my NYPL profile. I lost my library card. I didn't cry about it. I came close to, but I didn't really! I got my new card as soon as I realized, and what with technology bein what it is, my old account got transferred to the new one, so I can still pick up that Selena DVD I put on hold and I still have an overdue graphic novel. Hurray!

(3) So apparently I'm going to a ~*SPECIAL*~ screening of Brothers of the Head tomorrow night? I hope the info my fellow intern gave me was accurate and true? Because I really wanna see this movie? Cos those conjoined twins look way hot? I'll stop writing with question marks at the end that cause my inner voice to raise at the end of the sentence?

Edit: (4) Okay, officially supermad that I wasn't at this stupidass SF Comic Convention. Shit. Did everybody and their fucking mothers have to be there except for me?!?!

Frustrated.

YAUUUKGHHHH!!!!! WHY WHY WHY CAN'T I LOG IN?!?! OMFG THIS ISN'T FUCKING MYSPACEW YH ISN'T THIS SITE WORKING I LOG IN EVEY DAY AND I JUST WANT TO PLACE A FUCKING HOLD ON TRISTAM SHANDY WHICH IS APPARENTLY ACTUALLY CALLED TRISTRAM SHANDY AND THAT FUCKING PISSES ME OFF TOO!!!!!!! DON'T TELL ME MY PIN # IS WRONG YOU FUCKERS! DIE NYPL WEBSITE DIE!!! SEE IF I CARE!

(tch. i obviously do.)

No Future.

Yesterday I told Rachel that there's nothing interesting in Indie music right now, that there's no point in reading music journalism because it's all boring or uninteresting or plain old news. But that's a lie, it's an absolute lie. Believe me, there's tons of awesome stuff out there. I just found it easier to say that because she doesn't care that much, you know? She already knows what she likes and she's happy with it.

Me... I'm not very happy about this. It's like I'm losing hope about everything else in my life, couldn't I at least have the music? Is it too much to ask for? At least I'm not as stuck as I was last night. I've been thinking about it really hard. It's just a matter of which direction I want to pursue. I've been worrying about it a lot recently. It's just that I've invested all this time and effort, and it wasn't to waste, but I can't linger on it forever when there's only so much music you can listen to in your life. I'm just so confused about where to go and how to go about getting into it.

I could go backwards. Get more into older stuff, I mean.

I could forget about popular music, just go into classical.

I could go more into electronic stuff.

I could abandon American pop music, just get into all sorts of stuff all over the world. All these nations, why should the US dominate them all culturally? I seriously think that we should all be watching out for Brasil. Their fuel is more efficient (I think) AND they've got a bitching music history.

I feel like I'm being so impatient, I feel like I'm itching to move on while the rest of the world is just wasting its time on the next "The" band or whatever. I'm sorry for the "The" band reference, I know it's very 2003. But I feel like I'm right and everyone else is wrong for not pushing outside of their musical comfort zones. It's just like people sit at their blogs and refresh every other minute only to watch the dick-sucking tradition of bloggers linking one another. Or they just wait for Pitchfork to release something that's above 7.5 so they can order it from that fucking Neighborhoodies music store.

C'mon, y'all! We've got this whole musical world ahead of us! Let's not be satisfied with what's handed to us! There's so much to be discovered out there!! Oh, and if you've got suggestions for new music, hell yes, I wanna hear about it. My gmail is cuddleworthy. Now off you go, seize the music.

The Internets Killed the MTV Star.

Remember that list of videos Pitchfork made? Stylus made one too. And they did it better. I guess it helps that they didn't rule out any of the big directors (Gondry, Cunningham, etc.), but I really feel that Stylus were more successful because they were going for iconic, whereas Pitchfork seem to be going more for just odd or interesting images. I'm not saying the Stylus list is perfect, but I'm much happier with it.

In addition, I'm happy to report that Purpology is sort of back! Let us rejoice!