Is it weird of me to be all excited for Usher and his superlative first-week sales? I guess it's weird of me. I mean I figured he would do OK this time around, but dame.
So I guess I'm now an official elderly person, because we went out to the Best Buy so's Christopher could get his DM box sets all shiny and new on release day, and the hot new fresh jams I ended up with were a) Bob's Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Live 1964 and b) the Who's Then and Now. I had been resisting the thought of getting the latter since it's just greatest hits anyway, but it does have the two new songs on it and everything. And Vol. 6? I was right, Bob does look adorable in that booklet.
As if there were any doubt. I mean stop it???
If they could have gone back in time and gotten him looking like that in those Victoria's Secret ads, forget it.
I also got this magical work of art. Yeah you know, you know you want it too, yeah you know.
WOOO. Although the finished cover substitutes Karen Black for the creepy moustachioed Jack Lemmon (a wise decision) and spells "Concorde" correctly (a slight improvement). Slipcased, embossed foil-like finish, a very tasteful presentation. Now I've got eight hours of Airport movies and over 15 hours of Berlin Alexanderplatz sitting here waiting for me to watch them, and it's not even my birthday! How did I get this lucky? Thank goodness I don't have to work again until next week.
Did you know that the Figgs make a video for "Slow Charm"? I had no idea until I found it here. Also the new album cover, Palais, look how beautiful it is. I'm crying a little.
From pretty to ugly:
While it still brings no joy to look at, it's at least an improvement. I like to think I'm doing my part for the children.
R.I.P. Professor Weintraub. Since I refused to participate in the ritual of Sleep-Out on principle, I never took your class. Had I, perhaps I would have escaped the U of C without getting my crappy worst grade ever in winter quarter Western Civ (that would be a B-). You were a cool dude, or so the people who actually bothered to deal with Sleep-Out told me. Love, Kim
CHICAGO (AP) -- Karl Joachim Weintraub, a longtime University of Chicago professor who was so popular with students that they would sleep in line to register for his class, died Thursday, according to the university. He was 79.
Weintraub taught a course on Western history and culture for about 50 years. He died of a brain tumor in the university's Bernard Mitchell Hospital.
Each spring students would line up for hours on campus to get a spot in his class. The student newspaper once reported the annual event under a headline: "Waiting for Weintraub."
Although he was failing in health, Weintraub met with his classes until 2002. He had technically retired, but continued his teaching and refused to accept a salary.
His wife and colleague, Katy O'Brien Weintraub, said that was his way of protesting changing styles in higher education. The Western Civilization course was being downsized and changed by a younger generation of faculty -- except in the two sections the Weintraubs offered.
Weintraub was born in Germany to a Jewish father and a Christian mother. During World War II, he was hidden by a Christian family in Holland. Afterward, the Quakers arranged for him to come to the United States. He finished his doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1957.
Oh man oh man oh no oh man. So I got iLife last week, finally, and tonight I tried GarageBand for the first time and oh man, I am addicted. I am going to do nothing but make cheesy fake synthesizer funk jams for the rest of my life. Oh no, this is terrible. Terribly AWESOME.
Someone over on the W asked what I thought about American Idol and even though we had a taping mishap that prevented me from seeing Tuesday's show, I went ahead and gifted the universe with my genius, and then I realized I should have just saved it to put down here. So I'm putting it here anyway, you know, not like anyone will really notice or anything.
This dude deserved to get canned because he's a big grotesque ham who sucks. Canned ham. Aside from the fact that sweet sweet justice was served on Wednesday, the girls of America have their three non-threatening pretend if-not-borderline-gay boyfriends to choose from and fight for now, and then there's this big beefy dirty old man with rosacea? As if this WASN'T going to happen? The will of our great nation impresses me once again. U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A
She has been awful but she's sticking around because a) she's a hot piece of ass and b) the power of the Filipino vote cannot be DENIED. Give us a role model we can look up to already. Unfortunately, she continues to suck and everyone will give up on her soon enough. Even straight men are sure to turn on her when next she decides to butcher, say, the Coors Light remix of Tom T. Hall's "I Love" or some other song near and dear to their hearts. Poor thing. That doesn't mean I think she's any good, I'm just sticking up for my peoples, what up sister.
If you've been singing at weddings in the greater Oakland metropolitan area and haven't electrified anyone enough to make it to the big time yet, then honey I'm sorry. Also, your stepdaughter looks about as old as you are. Honey, I'm sorry.
Substitute "on cruise ships" for "at weddings" up there. I felt bad that she was in the bottom three last week, I don't know why.
He's strangely appealing but I fear he will turn pathologically psychotic Clay-style (thank yew, thank yew). Also, keep in mind I liked Leah, therefore my tastes have zero logic these days. I've gone completely retarded. But when he sings non-loungey songs, he kind of reminds me of when Bobby Darin went all counterculture folksinger and stopped wearing a toupée and was super-earnest and I loved that. I'm not saying he's the next Bobby Darin, oh God no. Can you imagine this guy in Too Late Blues? Hell Is for Heroes? Hahahahahaha! Now that's a travesty. I've spent way too much time thinking about this.
She was already on "America's Most Talented Kid," I think it's about time she give up. GIVE UP. She is appealing only to people who are hot for teenage gymnasts, i.e. perverts.
Another creepy teenage gymnast, but at least she's less dislikeable than Diana. I realize it is also because she is Filipina-American, what up sister, keep it real.
boring boring boring boring boring
I like him but that doesn't necessarily mean I care if he wins or not.
I had to go to the site to remember who the last female was on the show, imagine that.
Jon Peter Mellencamp, the ghastly horror who must be stopped. Good Lord. Look at this picture, even. Did someone expand his nostrils in Photoshop? Who on Earth would want this man singing to their children? NRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZT I AM TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR MIND NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRMMMMM
This was like the expanded remix edition of my W post, well all right. Gotta love those bonus beats. P.S., hopefully work will not be a horror tomorrow so I can spend it catching up around here. The children deserve it.
Hey! I'm back. I was out of town, and now I'm back (and to prove it I'm here). I'm too pumped up on SUGARY COLAS to sleep just yet and I just noticed that this existed and I am itching to see it. Itching! Although the filmmaker sounds like something of an extreme douche. So let me get this straight, he needed some dork (some dork from dorkass Dramarama no less) to explain to him who Rodney Bingenheimer is? In 1997?
Dude what.
1997, that's a joke right. In case you weren't aware (and I'm certain you ARE), the G.T.O.'s are required listening for every human being, just as I'm With the Band is required reading for every human being. 1997 and this butt has no clue. This is American history we're talking about here. THIS oooh THIS BURNS ME UP.
Someone out there needs to prevent idiots from making documentaries, some sort of Nightmarish Ghoul who STEALS SOOOOULS as well as financial backing, although apparently having no grasp on a particular subject leads to a person really needing to study up on it in a big way, so why not film the course of education? Yeah I guess. Good Lord. I hate everybody. But I still want to see the movie. Although on third/fourth/etc. thought, that poster/soundtrack cover design is eerily reminiscent of SOMETHING.
Yes, please hang on Mike
while we lift your album cover design
And while we're on the subject, BOTH of these are, obviously, "tributes" to my user pic on Friendster. I can't believe I didn't see it before.
America's #1 source of inspiration
Oof, doesn't it just make you livid. People are so devoid of creativity that all they can do is take take take take everything. Maybe I shouldn't see this movie after all. I bet it's EXPLOITATIVE. Nothing's right I'm torn.
"Passions" finally has a Paloma Lopez-Fitzgerald. My God, I thought it would never happen. I hope the first thing she does is stab her sister to death in the face and neck area via many stabbing motions about the face and neck area with a large, sharp object.
While the Elleffs were getting ready to move out of the house today, I enjoyed Pilar's line about how they would never have enough time to pack up all their memories, m'hija. When did everyone on this show turn completely retarded? They've had that house, what, about all of two months in "Passions" time because their last house and everything they owned was lost in a fiery inferno? And during that time in the new house, did anything good happen to any of them, ever? Oh man. I've got to finally give up on this show, it's too much for me to take.
Looking back at all the musics I got into as a young youthful child, you'd think that I would have been a Stranglers fan, but the truth is that the Stranglers always seemed to me to be big, creepy perverts. Speaking of which, how about that R. Kelly Florida deal. That's just great. I had a theory about Martha Stewart and R. Kelly's respective legal outcomes and it's looking like my worst fears are all being confirmed. The world, it baffles me. At least there was some good news today:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Without a Trace" star Enrique Murciano is ready to make his mark on the big screen, signing on to star as Sandra Bullock's love interest in Miss Congeniality 2.
Excellence. If there was only one thing that Miss Congeniality was missing, it was a capacity of awesome smirking.
It's not that there's been a lot going on, it's just that there were things to do and that somehow magically took me away from the computer.
On Friday or perhaps Saturday, we saw Starsky and Hutch. Oh! What a delightful cinematic romp. I have to say that if I were to make the inevitable comparison to Zoolander, I thought that Zoolander had more moments that were insanely hilariously awesome beyond belief, but Starsky and Hutch was the more consistently enjoyable cinema experience. I skip through big chunks of Zoolander a lot. I mean a LOT. Starsky and Hutch clearly succeeds because when you include more scenes that involve Owen Wilson, or when the scenes that don't involve Owen Wilson usually have something to do with characters thinking about Owen Wilson, you will be well taken care of. And then there's also Snoop and Juliette Lewis, who themselves should make movies together. I also acknowledge that it was a great sacrifice for Christopher to go with me as he has something of an anti-Stiller gene. But he seemed to like it, or at least like that I liked it so much. And honestly, isn't that what's important? He still refuses to watch Zoolander, though.
Sunday was WRESTLEMANIA XX WHERE IT ALL BEGINS ... AGAIN. This was a good time although I drank too many of my double dirrty martinis and proceeded to pass out during the main event. I caught it on the encore but oops, I kind of missed out on experiencing the magic with the rest of the world. But I was tired and the booze was so so good, so I feel I made the right choice. Then I sobered up enough to win an auction for a copy of Pamela Moore's Chocolates for Breakfast for the opening bid of a single solitary pound (plus £2.49 shipping). I'm so excited for it, I can't even explain.
Monday, something probably happened that I can't remember. I put some more stuff on the iPod, most notably my Steely Dan, Bobby Darin and Velvet Underground box sets. We're taking a trip later this week that will involve some driving so I'll be playing mixmaster. Also everyone is up Franz Ferdinand's butt now, when did that happen? Oh! And I took a Design Within Reach survey and they sent me a $25 discount promotional code, which is hot! Although I can't exactly afford to buy anything from there.
Tonight was "American Idol" and I am at a loss for much to say about it. My girl is going to get CANNED on her ASS. Which is fine because now I am certain that it's not that she's interestingly weird and fascinating, she's just plain horrible. I know you knew that all along, but I thought I saw something there for a sec. Everyone was so boring. Boring boring boring. And like they're singing at a pep rally or some crap. I don't share these kids' school spirit. I thought George was OK though, like watchable and enjoyable or whatever and much better without the moustache. I can't muster up anything to say about anyone else. Boring.
What else is boring, and yet ... not boring? Zero 7. I am now firmly into the Zero 7. It's enjoyable faceless chillout music that is easy on the ears of old ladies such as myself. They do Air better than Air have been doing themselves. Who told them it was a good idea to sing all their own songs? I mean really.
iTunes has Bob's Bootleg Series Vol. 6 available two weeks early, but I can't justify getting it if it's not actual physical merchandise. Plus he's going to look so cute in that booklet, you know it.
Oh! So I got a bee in my bonnet (and a tiger in my tank) for finding Intaferon and Simon F songs online, because all the ones I have are on cassette. Although I do have "Baby Pain" on 12", which is actually credited to Intaferon though it wound up on the Simon F album, blah blah, I guess it's all the same anyway.
Oh man, the Simon F album, by which I mean Gun, because apparently he put out another one that I don't know anything about? I LOVE IT. I only found a couple of reviews of it online and oof, people hate it and hate him. Why? It's a great album! I LOVE IT. I wish I had an actual copy of it instead of the one I taped off my brother. A) Gun and B) Strawberry Switchblade, it's like the greatest tape ever. I couldn't remember what the cover of Gun looked like until I saw that one single solitary generous soul had a really crappy image up online.
Thank you, whoever you were, I went ahead and took the image without thinking to thank you proper. It was like buddy icon size anyway and at least I'm not stealing your bandwidth. So! This got me thinking how I want to scan the tape, because it's just a very potent image in my mind, but all my cassettes are in storage. So I tried searching for a picture of the kind of tape it's on, and I ended up finding one that far surpasses even my wildest dreams.
That even sums up how I feel about the Simon F/Strawberry Switchblade pairing, come to think of it. Although to be specific it's on an XL-II, which is more gold looking, instead of an XL-II-S, which is more bronzey. I saved those for like Robyn Hitchcock and stuff, you know, the things I really wanted to preserve for archival posterity. Little did I know the Simon F album would vanish off the face of the earth. (I did find a sweet Japanese reissue of Strawberry Switchblade, however. The Japanese, they're so wise.)
While I was searching for the Maxell image, I found a whole bunch of other awesome cassette-related stuff that I'll have to get to later, as they're trying to make me work right now. Bleah.
So you know how much I hate creepy, disturbing banner ads. I was at the CNN site yesterday when I saw this monstrosity.
I figure it's shrunken enough so that you can get the gist of what it's all about, which is a diet plan. OK, great. But what I cannot comprehend is that picture. That picture!!!
Dude, why why why. What is that thing.
A man?
A woman?
A corpse?
Miss Jane Hathaway, Nancy Kulp?
Character actor Sean Whalen?
If that's what this diet plan is promising, I'm sorry, I really don't want to look like that. Nor do I want anyone who looks like that gaping at me in sinister appreciation upon completing said diet plan. What went on in whoever's mind while they were making that? I don't understand.
Not just of the Banshees, but also Visage, Magazine and P.I.L. :'(
What's up dawgs. I know I said that I would not get emotionally invested in "American Idol" this season but I swear this isn't emotional investment. I just got a bee about this Wild Card show. First of all, they must have dug up something on Erskine or he must have told them to suck it or something, because I cannot believe the losers they threw into this round over him. WTF, he was a cool dude.
And then, there was the show.
This guy scared the crap out of me. I couldn't even watch the TV, it was so terrifying. And then when I would venture a look up at the screen, his face was twisted in this psychotic rictus that made me think he was either going to shoot Deadly Lasers from his eyes or make everyone's heads explode like Scanners. Traumatizing.
She was good in the audition shows but man, she is dull. Which is sad, since she was good in the audition shows. I've got nothing else here.
Hey dimestore Kim Novak, what's up. That was a ghastly insult to Kim Novak, I'm sorry. Have you ever noticed how combining "terrible" and "horrific" makes "terrific"? I just did, because I almost wrote that she was terrific. Someone should have just walked up out of the audience and tazered her, although she probably would have done some more of those herky shoulder things. Oh God, she has got to go. There's a press release that says "she most identifies her own style with that of Beyoncé." BZZZZT ZAP TAZER TAZER TAZER
This dude is a little too ... giddy, but a) he's the only one in this group whose name I managed to learn somehow and b) I got up from my computer to watch him once he hit the chorus, so I guess that counts for something. But before that chorus, whoo butt. Enunciation, use it wisely, I thought he was having a seizure. And his sister in the audience, is she 47? Is he 47? He and the football dude can get together and reminisce about the Bay of Pigs and the golden era of Rod Laver.
I like her OK, probably due to our (wild guess) Shared Heritage and all, what up sister. If a white girl sang like that, she'd already be in the top 12. Just saying.
Tonight, on a very special episode of "The Heights." As much as I despise Lady Nosejob up there, that is nothing compared to how much I hate this guy. I actively hate him and everything he stands for. Why? Other than that he sucks, I really don't know, but just look at him. I will buy that girls are hot for John Stevens IV before this guy. He wouldn't even pass open mic night at Sidewalk Café. I mean, if John Waite had not sung that song before he did, would he even have known how to sing it?! If it had been Stuart Murdoch, would he have sung it with a lisp?! Good Lord. You get the picture.
I really really really really like her, and I can't possibly say why since she's not particularly good and tonight she was awful. What in the world was she wearing? She looked like Yasmine Bleeth in Babe. But I really like her. She's just implacably strange and weird and fascinating and I hope she stays around until I can figure out why I shouldn't like her anymore. I'm not getting emotionally involved.
Lady has got to stop crying all the time, I was tired of it four weeks ago. And those faces she makes while she's singing: Ooh! Oh! Ooh! like she's being goosed, it's creepy. But most of all the crying, it has to stop. No more drama. Or Pepto pink dresses.
I haven't had click-to-enlarge picture fun up in here for a while, I need to bring that back right now.
So I could have watched the Grizzlies/Warriors game yesterday afternoon on FSN or something (meanwhile the Kings games are only on NBA League Pass, what, P.S. I hate college basketball) but instead I was sleeping as I had been up all night watching 24 Hour Party People and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos IS Femme Fatale. Apparently J-Will had himself some kind of crazy awesome game or something, so I probably should have watched it, but I didn't! This is all a preamble for this picture from the game.
Yes, "towel3" means I do in fact have two other pictures of him with a towel over his head. Shh. And then there's this one, a classic.
Aww man. Remind me to grab my O.G. J-Will/C-Webb autographed picture out of the living room to scan here. It's not as awesome as a hug from Vlade, but it's close.
... although it's pretty darn close to last time, anyway. For lack of anything else to write about at the moment (working```) the top 10 all-time most played songs on my iTunes as of today are:
1) "False Alarm," Sloan
2) "Gimme That," Sloan
3) "Rosetta," Georgie Fame and Alan Price
4) "On a Saturday," Keith West
5) "The Rain, the Park and Other Things," the Cowsills
6) "Ebony Eyes," Bob Welch
7) "Wrapped Up in Books," Belle & Sebastian
8) "Get Away," Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames
9) "Who Got the Number," Pigmeat Markham
10) "Telephoning Home," Wreckless Eric
This is an important uh sociological experiment. (No it's not.)
Oh man, a bad day. Convicted Martha and dead Stephen Sprouse. I think I should go back to bed.
There is nothing going on other than the rent. Time to list another big batch of stuff I've managed to suck up off of CDs and import to the iPod over the last couple of days. Sucking in Stereo? Why yes.
The Figgs - Low-Fi at Society High, Banda Macho, The Figgs Couldn't Get High ... , For EP Fans Only, Sucking in Stereo, Badger, Slow Charm
The Gentlemen - Ladies and Gentlemen ... the Gentlemen, Blondes Prefer the Gentlemen
Thrush Hermit - The Great Pacific Ocean, Sweet Homewrecker, Clayton Park
Phil Ochs - American Troubadour (2 discs)
The Auteurs - New Wave, Now I'm a Cowboy, µ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs, After Murder Park, How I Learned to Love the Bootboys
12 Rods - Split Personalities, Separation Anxieties
The Olivia Tremor Control - Music From the Unrealized Film Script "Dusk at Cubist Castle," Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One, John Peel Session 18.3.97, Presents: Singles and Beyond
The Guess Who - The Ultimate Collection (3 discs)
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
The Alan Parsons Project - The Best of the Alan Parsons Project
America - History: America's Greatest Hits
Hall & Oates - Rock 'n Soul Part 1
The Association - Greatest Hits!
Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
The Monks - Black Monk Time
Margo Guryan - Take a Picture
Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day
Marmalade - The Definitive Collection (2 discs)
Lee Hazlewood - The Cowboy & the Ladies
I think I've got about 10 GB to go. I should fill that up pretty easily. I was excited to discover that 12 Rods are still kicking around. Utterly fantastic, that.
