March 2009
1 post
when underage nutrinos make hardcore music...
…the result is surprising. i’m just now revisiting this band.
October 2008
2 posts
i don’t think that i’m the only working writer/editor/critic who reading their own work after publication is like chewing on their own arm. this doesn’t make it any easier. i got a good byline kick for a while when i was an intern at willamette week, and every few weeks now i’ll read something particularly snappy of mine and get that old feeling, but mostly...
bummer
glad all my money is in cattle.
August 2008
6 posts
oh, and then i got jumped
dunno. i was riding my bike on a trail around westport and got mobbed by a bunch of teenagers. i guess it was a bikejacking. one of them busted me in the face. i stayed on the bike and got away. i’ve never really been punched that hard before and it sucked a bit.
also: i guess it’s implied, but my foot still hasn’t fallen off. in fact, i can see my ankle bones again.
it’s pretty gross right now. the bite looks like it spawned its own megastrain of poison ivy, which has spread around my ankle. i guess that’s the infection. i have to take pills the size of my pinky for a couple of weeks and that should keep my foot from falling off.
once upon a time i promised to not write about riding, but this seemed like a safe loophole.
it did and it didn't
the toothache went away, or at least i got used to it, but in last weekend’s adventuring i managed to get my first poisonous spider bite. it looks like a cigarette burn and itches.
did i mention the poison ivy never went below the belt?
July 2008
4 posts
it could be (get) much worse, really
I have poison ivy. It looks like this bout—my second in as many weeks (many hours in the bushes lately)—could be a doozy. There’s a couple patches by my left eye (that would be one that had pink eye last week) and my arms, hands, and wrists are covered all over as well as a patch on one of my ears. I think the contact came at the start of a 30 hour non-bathing...
"crying is nature's gas station"
that is all.
OK, fine: Best of 2008, early edition
There isn’t much of a theme going yet.
In no particular order:
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual
Sascha Funke - Mango
Torche - Meandrethal
Daedelus - Love To Make Music To
Chloe - The Waiting Room*
Justus Kohncke - Safe and Sound
Valet - Naked Acid
Quiet Village - Silent Movie
I believe this was 2008 in...
Well, damn...
…that tape that I was kvetching about transcribing a few posts down—I put it off and off until yesterday, when I accidentally taped over the fucker. ______ ______ wasn’t thrilled when he found out the first interview was just a dress rehearsal.
June 2008
8 posts
Oddness
Because I tossed my paint pen into the Schoykill River a few weeks back and haven’t yet replaced, I have an impressive build-up of burned yet unlabeled cd-rs in my apartment. I haven’t listened or paid much attention to them in the past week owing mainly to a recent obsession with the gypsy death marches of Evolutionary Jass Band’s excellent What’s Lost. Today, with strep...
I Have Arrived
Dennys, yes the Dennys of Grand Slam Belgian Waffle Emergency Rest Stop fame, just called me on the phone. Something something about “one of their bands,” Taking Back Sunday.
I said “now that is a band I associate with Dennys.”
A Band Named Breasts...
“These Breasts all have beards.”
"bleep-bloop music"
[ELECTRONIC DANCE FUN] Generally, a techno show is a techno show is a techno show. But an Atole show is a different beast, with the Portland electronic pop collective acting more like a rock band than the short-lived old model of electronic dance performance (a dude holding down CTRL and Z on his keyboard). But I ain’t here to hate, I appreciate! Atole is so much fun that even a...
May 2008
5 posts
I Went To the Book Store Today
…and watched a middle-age, well-dressed white man take a copy of the National Review, shove it in between the pages of a dollar copy of the New York Post and, you guessed it, just pay for the Post.
I Watched the Black Kids Last Night
…and now I’m listening to Hazel on vinyl and it’s like Soma to my critic-brain. At some point tomorrow check City Paper’s music blog for an elaboration.
Underground Resistance...
….is starting to make me feel like a secret agent. In chasing this interview, I’ve so far gone through three intermediaries, and now I’m in the “wait for them to get in touch with you” final stage—hopefully. I’ll let you know what happens.
oh, and
It’s obvious I’m sure, but the prior post was written under the influence. However much seeing “ain’t never” in this space makes me wince, I’m going to let it stand. You just don’t fuck with a dude’s bike. To put it in context, this happened outside Sonar on Saturday night during an angry white guy hip-hop show involving graffiti styled sneakers that...
hugs to singer-songwriters
Every time—a literal always—I review a singer-songerwriter album, I get a thank you card in the mail. Compare to passive-aggressive online comments from not-very-good MCs.
April 2008
8 posts
the vibes in charles village are off the charts
thought you should know
slayed
and I’d do it again
boy, does this shit sound familiar
from a Wired interview with MySpace Co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfeasdf: Wired: Is MySpace Music open to giving equity deals to digital distributors such as The Orchard or Ioda? DeWolfe: We’re open to extending our equity deals to the right partners, but at a certain point, you can’t extend equity to everyone. What we originally set out to do was create a platform where every...
because not everyone here reads the City Paper...
here is a song you might enjoy: boomp3.com
comment, scumdogs!
Because you can, you know. Just click on the title of the post.
quick thought
You could starve yourself on a pickle diet and never know you were hungry. (for your trouble:)
reminder
since my ride to the Boredoms show is invalid: (I bought myself a my first Bmore club record, BTW…not that it’s indicative of anything)
March 2008
7 posts
haneke one, america zero
quick thoughts on funny games in america 1) someone was laughing in the theater. hysterically. like, not ironically or ‘this is so bad it’s funny’ laughing; just laughing. 1a) as i posted before, this means haneke wins. the movie snagged at least that one casual filmgoer that watched it as another torture porn movie and maybe, somehow didn’t get that they were being...
More Billy Bragg
this is probably a bit disjointed and, because it was written sporadically over the past week, I probably repeat a couple of points but maybe it makes sense. I’ll also be adding to this as I slowly remember the other ideas I had for it that arrived in the process of waking up or falling asleep… For almost the second time in a week, Billy Bragg has thwarted my attempts at not thinking...
apparently i was twitching
setting the tone of the weekend — massive inexplicable stress combined with alcohol enhanced fatigue — i spent my first day at south by southwest wednesday on appx 15 minutes of airplane sleep. things were kind of ok when I got to the airport at noon (the flight was at 5:45 am, hence the no sleep) and for the next few hours. got into the city and had lunch with simon and rabbit at a...
interneted
byrne on Let’s Go Outside Carl Craig
on third
i’m not so sure about what i said before about happy and #$%@. thinking on it, yes, it’s true but i realize now that what i really meant in this particular situation is that i’m aiming to distract myself. this isn’t the first time i’ve had to bang out some ridiculous shit like 6K wrds in four days, but this might be the first time i’m really thankful to have it....
on second thought
i do know that adrian chen makes me happy. that’s a start. DPP 2/28: “Roommate Confessions” from Adrian Chen on Vimeo.
moments like this
make me think that i’ve earned the right to be more proactive in being happy. i used to be pretty good at that. i blame the english department at wscoc. (i know it’s just wsc in abbreviation, but i happen to like the awkward “of colorado” tacked on to the formal spelling out. harvard of the $@#%ing west).
February 2008
17 posts
hey there
Also tomorrow (Wednesday) at Ottobar “Tensday” with Emily Rabbit. Free (but buy lots of expensive alcohol please). 10 pm.
memories
looking back, that ~year in which the virginia cafe was a regular part of my life was one of the best, for many reasons. Dear Virginia Cafe Family, Well, the time has finally come to say adieu to Park Avenue. It’s been a great 86 years here on Park Avenue and we are sad to say good-bye, but you can’t stop progress. All of us are looking forward to our new digs on 10th avenue, well...
comment away
i did something fancy to my blog and now it allows comments. bad ass.
are we elitist?
the vinyl solution
goddammit
i’m like a week off mentally. it doesn’t mean much; my scheduling runs on time span and not date (as in, this happens in two weeks, not this happens on March 7). but, this is not a good sign for anything.
whoa
funny games
i just rented the Seventh Continent which means I’m back in the Haneke cycle (in which i watch about three a week). it’s kind of a run up to the release of the shot-by-shot Funny Games remake, which i’ve been wondering an awful lot about lately. the movie was basically the thing that both predicted torture porn and was its first critic. what’s the movie going to mean now?...
poor lonley bastards
well sirs and madams, you should come to the depot tonight and meet (each other) and then have sex. and listen to dj bear ears, matty, and grayson play techno music for you. $NO. like 11 pmish.
apologies to the breeders in the crowd
i’m the sort of asshole that forgets his friends may have children, and those children are in fact quite rad.