October 2009
3 posts
the robin williams / homicide - law and order...
if richard belzer’s character munch can travel between homicide: life on the street and law and order: svu, then robin williams’ guest starring, unrelated roles on both homicide and LOSVU would be impossible, creating a black hole of television continuity that proves i watch too much television. munch on the wire is even more paradoxical.
August 2009
1 post
“Auteur is French for unemployed.”
– a. o. scott - “spoon-fed at the cinema”
July 2009
2 posts
“…people who write to the newspapers are proverbially unbalanced.”
– Evelyn Waugh, Scoop (1937)
paul hemphill, author, rip →
a year ago i read, no, make that, devoured, hemphill’s biography of hank williams. you can read that piece here at the book review page. everything i have to say about his writing is in that piece, or it should be, but to be frank it was fantastic (especially considering that it was a biography, one that read like a novel). it’s terrible that his death only now leads me to seek out his...
May 2009
1 post
st. vincent, nyt's profile →
the new album is great, as is the video for “actor out of work.” early contender for album of the year.
March 2009
9 posts
the new dan deacon album, free stream →
thanks to the boys and girls at npr music. this is a really cool album, the mix of electronic and live instruments is captivating. some tracks make better use of it than others, but there are quite a few gems in here (“get older”). theres a word for this … polyrhythmics? is niiice.
on lever voting machines, nyt →
i was initially frightened and deeply skeptical when i moved to nyc and first encountered this arcane contraption. but the second time around i was very much won over. my hesitations were asuaged, and turning the big lever was a much more gratifying experience… it’s certainly better than the goddam punch cards and optical scans. long live the lever!
bogus machine →
listen to this.
new st. vincent track, “the strangers”...
“… everybody has probably got a reason for being where they are, even the...”
– Alan Moore, this interview.
drum machine! →
“i don’t envy them … stuck in book publishing.”
– charlotte, the last days of disco (1998)
February 2009
9 posts
from wired - comic book store employees →
i know this guy, this is my store. kinda neat.
i, recommend
1. Two Lovers - Joaquin’s “last role.” Set in “beautiful” Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, this movie makes living in Bay Ridge more, well, satisfying, and less awful. The story is a terribly unromantic romance, with Joaquin chasing his ideal, Gwyneth as his relapsing mistress of a neighbor, yet also pursuing the good Jewish girl who is fawning over him for insurance....
i love sixpoint beer →
wit and the homeless, a nyc story. →
the indispensable-to-somebody
is me.
from defamer’s take on the weekend box office/dvd rental haul:
FOR SHUT-INS: A sparse week of new DVD releases includes Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, a two-disc edition of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the good Dakota Fanning alternative The Secret Life of Bees, “deluxe” reissues of the first three Friday the 13th films, and the indispenable-to-somebody...
batman will fuck your shit up. →
actors….fucking love em.
next up on bale’s dockett, a film with david o. russell!
January 2009
4 posts
the presidential record collection →
nominees for secretary of updating the vinyl collection: me, justin thomas hargett.
dear mr. president,
gimme a couple grand and drop me off at jerry’s in pittsburgh. i’ll update with some choice 80s, 90s, and 00s LPs. Will think on this and get back to you with some examples.
-j.
the bush years →
just finished this great piece from vanity fair. an overarching, candid account of all the major events (read: disasters) of the bush administration, told from the mouths of those involved (axes to grind?). not terribly detailed, but a fine refresher course in idiocy and mismanagement 101.
“When I get to heaven, the angels will be playing not harps but Rickenbackers,...”
– New Musical Express, on Murmur (1984)
November 2008
1 post
i want a suburban home →
founding descendents member dies. go buy milo goes to college.
October 2008
1 post
“It has been held against this nominee that he is mediocre. Even if he is...”
– Republican Senator Roman Hruska in favor of a Nixon Supreme Court nomination
September 2008
7 posts
Watch
shufflupagus
1. that good - devo
2. brian eno & david byrne - new feet
3. flaming lips - they punctured my yolk
4. dinosaur jr. - freak scene
5. pattern against user - at the drive in
6. what it means - mates of state
7. mighty mighty bosstones - nevermind me
Rating: To be Expected. I held off shuffling until the iPod got an infusion of new music. So stacked with The Specials, Leonard Cohen, the...
steubenville pride →
obama visits the ohio valley.
“Black Sheep” is on Comedy Central right now, how appropriate.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange
It is not whether the government was right or wrong in its treatment of Alex, though that certainly deserves discussion, but the fact of government’s nature for political oppurtunism. We’ll feed them a soundbyte and an image, see if they bite. Spin City, we know you well in 2008.
August 2008
21 posts
The VP Choice that Lost it for McCain. →
that rare emotion
tonight, barack obama is accepting the democratic nomination for president of the united states. at this moment, i have never been more proud of my fellow american citizens. i am a cynic by nature; for my first 2 elegible election cycles, not a single candidate i voted for in any national or significant state elections won their seat. ohio also passed an amedment to the state constitution banning...
Bones and a first five
august 26, 2008
1. st modesto - chris walla
2. astro zombies - misfits
3. own worst enemy - mary lou lord
4. how many mics - fugees
5. color bars - elliott smith
Rating: Uninspired.
***
Last night I had the pleasure of watching a screener copy of next week’s Season Four premiere of Bones. I’ve never enjoyed Bones. As a big Buffy and Angel fan, I tried to give David...
first five
august 25, 2008
1. ice storm, big gust, and you - tilly & the wall
2. swordfishtrombone - tom waits
3. murder the government - nofx
4. cemetary polka - tom waits
5. airplanes flying - metal hearts
Rating: NOFX playing Punk in Drublic at the DNC? Word. I caught the now-defunct Metal Hearts three years ago in the basement of the Ohio University student center. It’s a shame they never...
first five
august 21, 2008
1. song for bob dylan - david bowie
2. get better - mates of state
3. wear your love like heaven - donovan
4. breathe in breathe out - kanye west
5. sieve-fisted find - fugazi
Rating: relax, relax, relax, ANGST, ANGST. I thought this was going to be a really solid, 70s-love-in and quirk pop keyboardin/acoustic soulfulness shuffle…and then Kanye hit me. So I’m...
first five
august 20, 2008
1. looking east - jackson browne
2. just like anyone - aimee mann
3. clampdown - the clash
4. shake it out - tilly and the wall
5. big city - operation ivy
Rating: I Just Left Skatopia. A surprisingly cohesive collection of tracks here, starting with California acoustics and rolling into upbeat punk, ska, and quirk.
I’ve been listening to a lot of the Clash recently...
first five
august 19, 2008
1. don’t pass me by - the beatles
2. clan in da front - wu tang clan
3. big business monkey - daniel johnston
4. sayonara - mary lou lord
5. revolution 1 - the beatles
Rating: If You Must, Bookend Like You Mean It. Killer shuffle today. As much as I don’t like to see the same band repeated over the course of just 5 tracks, iPod pulled it off here. The country...
Watch“i think you’re just evil…fuck you, fuck you very very much”
first twelve (special muxtape edition...kinda)
august 18, 2008
so I was going to turn this extra excellent 12 track shuffle (ripe with regular first fivers, but still a gem considering the iPods propensity for failure with just 5 to choose) into a muxtape to share with all…unfortunately, muxtape shut down today. hopefully the assholes at the riaa will relent their assholiness. instead of the planned muxtape, here’s the tracklist....
Professional Bloggin' →
Here’s a post I wrote for the Oxford University Press blog last week, exploring the Music of Joni Mitchell
first five
august 15, 2008
1. arabesque 1 - claude debussy
2. the beast and dragon - spoon
3. meat grinder - madvillian
4. rangelife - pavement
5. sos - the breeders (beep beep beep eh static skip static eh)
Rating: TK.