March 2006 Archives
We are putting down guitar hero long enough to throw a kick ass party.
Tonight! TONIGHT!!!
Golf Pros VS Tennis Hos at the Juggernaut Unlimited LTD
Socks. Skirts. Pleats. Cleats.
at Party O'Clock
950 Hart STREET, Studio 106
Take the L to Dekalb
Call one of us to get in, or sneak in if you are crafty. shoot me an email if you are confused.
So I got me one of those Namco Plug n' Play devices on eBay, and I gotta say, it makes for pretty excellent gamery. It's got five games, Ms. Pac-Man (how I love her) Mappy (if you've played this, ever notice that the music is suspiciously reminiscent of Super Mario Bros 2?), Galaga, Xevious, and Pole Position. I must admit, not a big fan of pole position. Love the sound, and the graphics are lovely, but it just doesn't do it for me (not a fan of aerial views, I guess).
Someday they will make one of me, with a guitar hero guitar in my rocking immortalized hands.
What with having nothing to say to anyone unless it's regarding guitar hero these days, a quiet american I am not (a totally hard rocking american, however...) But this guy who calls himself just that records, not totally sweet geetar solos, but the music of field recordings from Nepal, Vietnam, Fiji Islands, Burma, Cambodia, and others. Ever heard the rattling sound of a bamboo harvest in Nepal? Or the call of midnight vendors in Burma? The quiet american sure has, and he wants to share it all with you. There are about 5 hours of recordings on this site, and he's always adding.
If your fret hand wrist and your strumming shoulder and your bleary eyes need a rest, check out the Quiet American and listen to the sounds of other countries.
Got this press release today.... this is my only way to feel close to all of you...
Nutshell: GH hasn't even been released yet but is already sold out.
Also, Red Octane is working on a Country add on and a Metal add on.
Tired of this?
Now you can turn your SG controller WIRELESS, thus allowing you to pull off the jump-off-the-coutch-windmill.
NYPress's annual list of horrible shit heads who live with us is out. Check it out
I haven't been posting as much as I'd like to, because by day I'm stuck in a studio working on a shoot with no computer, and by night, I am slave to Guitar Hero. I don't normally spend a lot of money at the drop of a hat, but last night I went out and bought me a PS2 and GH, and now my apartment is dripping with hard rocking goodness. Even though it seems impossible to ever tire of GH, there are a few cheats to spice up the background. How about giving the audience monkey heads??! Or see your avatar rock star use air guitar?! Isn't that wacky? Also a few real cheaty cheats, like getting a 5 star rating every time you play, always being green in the meter of rock, or unlocking guitar hero. (but I don't recommend these because if you cheat, you'll never rock as hard as That's Plenty)
GH roxx0rs!
To help make me feel like less of a loser for playing 3 straight days of Guitar Hero, I checked that as a tag, on Flickr. WE ARE NOT ALONE. To the tune of over 1000 pictures. We are all Guitar Heros! UNITE!http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/guitarhero/
By the way take note that this kid was rocking so hard one of his socks flew off. Now that's rock and Roll!
This is no longer about heartwarming. This is now a clinical test to see if you have a heart at all. So you read the story about the math whiz, you watched the story about the Autistic Kid making a million baskets and were still like whatever, aint no thang.... Well then fine. Fine! Here is the atom bomb. If this doesn't warm the cockles of your heart, then you, my friend, are a cocklesless bastard.
www.cuteoverload.com
And while I am at it, I am gonna hit you with another schmaltzy "personal interest story". This one must have made the newscasters shit thier pants with how perfect a feel good story this was. It has all the elements these type of stories need: retard kid, sports, overcoming the odds. So here it is....
Do it kid!
They are making a movie about it. Its going to be called "ForestRudyIAmSamRockyGump". But seriously, this really did make me feel good. I can't help it. That kid was fucking rocking, and not just back and forth.
...is in fact true. My favorite Urban Legend detectives www.snopes.com have a sweet story about a kid who is late to class, mistakes two unproven statistics equations for homework and goes on to solve them, without knowing that he has done anything exceptional. It smacks a bit of a story your grandma would tell you, as a precursor to saying somthing like "its all about positivity" and pointing to a motivational poster of a monkey holding a bannana and giving you a thumbs up. But, whatever, I like my grandma.
http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp
So we mentioned before that we're all hooked on Guitar Hero here at That's Plenty headquarters. Tonight, as last night, we all rallied together at Juggernaut Unlimited Ltd. for a nice hot round of the best game of all time.
Now, you may be familiar with a certain facial expression known as Guitar Face. It is a phenomenon that has been scientifically documented
I took tonight's guitar hero roundup to capture the face... the GUITAR face of that's plenty.
My #1 favorite is published only in my brain, so don't bother checking the site for a post you may have missed. #2 is the first to be posted.
On my way to Juggernaut Unlimited Ltd. tonight, a pair of male albino twins boarded the subway car Karen and I were riding. They both wore bluejeans, a black nondescript winter jacket, and a black baseball cap. They held on to the pole in the middle of the car with their right hands, each facining opposite directions, each holding a white shopping bag in their left hands. They rode the train for three stops and got off. Their entire ride I stared at the one facing me and he stared back.
Well? Why does it? That was the freaking worst Mortal Kombat I have ever EVER played. You can't even throw stuff. And what's the deal with LoTR game? Why would you take an awesomely nerdtastic set of movies with an enormous market, and turn it into the most repetitive video game ever played? And why do they make you watch so much of the movie between each short (very short) level? If I wanted to watch the movie, you guessed it. I'd watch it. They should at least give you the option to skip it. But no. No no no. And how about Burnout? Okay, your competing to make the biggest car crash. Sure, that's cool, but what's not so cool is having upgrade just to do a different course or drive a different car. (I don't know much about xBox, do upgrades cost money?) I mean, come on, once you've played it two or three times, you can't even mess up because you've got the whole damn thing memorized! Why? Because Xbox sux my dix.
Our good friend Joshua over at Roadside PIcnic just put up another installment of his transcendent radio show/podcast. If you are in to good music you haven't heard, then this is for you.
Confused? Here is how it goes...
"A young boy—bookish, awkward, a dreamer—goes to see Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro, and falls in love with the idea. A costumed hero who masquerades as a timid milquetoast, then bursts forth to battle crime and injustice with superhuman skill! Plot thickens: the boy loses his parents, shot dead in a mugging gone wrong. The crime is senseless, random. The boy’s life is shattered. He vows revenge, not on the thug that did his father in, but on crime itself. He vows he will become…
Hold on. Here’s the part you might not know. The city is not fictional Gotham but real life Cleveland. The boy is not millionaire Bruce Wayne but working class schlemiel Jerry Siegel. His father Michel, who immigrated from Lithuania in the first decade of the century, was murdered while closing his Woodland haberdashery in 1928. The police never found his killer. Ten years later, Jerry Siegel and his high school buddy Joe Shuster wrote and illustrated the first true “superhero†story for Harry Donenfeld’s Action Comics. This is not Batman’s secret origin, it’s Superman’s."
More of this and other early comic book related goodness at http://www.robmacdougall.org/ Historians don't get nearly the Rock Star status they deserve. Rob MacDougall you are a historian rock star.
This past Friday, Dylan and I found ourselves amongst a furied sea of snobby art students, crotchey old uppersidians, couples in their mid-thirties, crying children, and massive guided tours on pay-as-you-wish night at the Whitney on the last weekend of the Biennial. It ended not a moment too soon.
I know, we haven't been posting as much. Even now, my fingers are almost too swollen and bloody to type. We tried, we honestly did...but an overwwhelming force of awesomness has taken over our lives, never to surrender them. What is it, you ask??? Mother Fucking Guitar Hero.
The last large mammal to be discovered (1901), it looks a bit like a cross between a Giraffe and a Zebra, sleeps only 5 minutes in a 24 hour period, has scent glands in its feet, has a one foot long blue tounge and can lick its own ears. It is also the emblem for the (now defunct) Society of Cryptozoology. I love you Okapi!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi
Sonic Youth "Superstar" 1994
It's Sonic Youth cover day here at That's Plenty. First up, SY's '94 cover of the Carpetner's hit, proving once again that the Carpenter's songs all kick ass plugged in. Maybe we'll have Carpenters day soon (You hear that McCool?!). Don't worry folks, my cover of Solitaire is just around the corner.
Wylde Ratz "TV Eye" 1998
So, in the late '90s Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Ron Asheton of the original Stooges, and Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth started a "RAWK" cover band called Wylde Ratz, recorded an album, put a cut (this one,covering the Stooges) on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, and promptly broke up. The album was never released...However, it did make it on to the Internet as things have a tendency to do, and promptly fell on to my hard drive. After listening to these songs, I think Sonic Youth should stick to covers...just kidding...kind of...
Ever stay up late at night, your brain spinning, trying so desperately hard to remember, what was The Thing's religion? Or Phoenix's? Well, worry no more. Here is a disturbingly long list of comic book character's religions.
The Religious Affiliation of
Comic Book Characters
Ah, and...
The Thing is Jewish
Phoenix is Episcopalian
Hey, did you know that this past December some scientists found out that the Narwhal tusk is used to detect changes in water temperature, pressure and particle gradient? Doesn't that seem lame? But I bet there's some badass narwhals down there that totally use their tusks as a skewer and make a delicious sea creature shish kabob.
The Chameleons (UK) "Paradiso" 1986
The Chameleons deserve as much credit for influencing the current post-punk sound (esp. the 8th note guitar sound) as the oft-name-checked-on-press-release-darlings Joy Division, Gang of Four, or Wire. If you are into this stuff check out their record Strange Times. Easily 70% of the kids at Interpol's first shows were wearing Chameleons Tshirts. This is my favorite song of theirs.
Echoboy "Telestar Recovery" 2000
Echoboy's other songs on, "Vol 1" and "Vol 2" have almost nothing in common with this sweet track; ie: they aren't sweet tracks. I wonder if Echoboy knows this. I wonder if when the Echoboy guy wrote this he was like "Man this is awesome...Oh well, enough of that, tiime to get back to my true passion: writing music no one likes." Seems to me like once you take the first tender steps down the road of awesome one cannot turn back. Maybe the the light of awesome was too blindingly beautiful and terrible to embrace, like when Frodo offered Galadriel the One Ring. I'm just saying.
Gotta love that Scottish humor. His work is best when viewed in bulk. His photographs are hilarious, his drawings are hilarious, and his animations are also, hilarious. In fact, you should just go out and buy his book, it's really the only way. Because you keep reading and as you see more and more it starts to blow your tiny mind at how very many ideas and weirdnesses he has.
I am aware that books are not free, so, if you must, here's his website:
www.davidshrigely.com
(I placed this entry under bad art because there's not category for good art...but I think it's good art, so please ignore the bad art categorization of this post...actually, this art is kind of good because it's so bad, you know, those illustrations and handwriting that are remeniscent of a 3rd grader at best...it adds to the humor...and some people might be of the opinion that humorous art isn't really art, it's more of a joke, in which case, they would call this bad art...in fact, I might venture to say that whether art is good or bad is pretty subjective, and depending on the veiwer, this may very well be a big load of bad art. So I apologize, profusely, for presuming that you will find this art, "good". (and what does good really mean, when you come down to it?)
So here you go. Just don’t go messing up my stamp collection when you are doing your twisty dance.
http://20-248-e.onlinestoragesolution.com/spikepriggen/public/The%20Tornados-Robot.mov
You liked that, did you? Then eat your heart out at http://scopitones.blogs.com/ where there is a whole bunch more crazy French music videos. They were originally made in the 60's for French Film Jukeboxes, which eventually failed, and many of the videos were lost to history. That is until a Blog came along to the rescue, and began bringing you these amazing videos through the magic of the information superhighway. So show some appreciation, you cantankerous little whippersnappers.
I love my Super Nintendo. I love it so so much. When I was 10, and my best friend had one, there was nothing I wanted more. And then, after coveting this perfect console for many a year, I finally got one. In my humble opinion, SNES is the best of the video gaming. With more vintage gaming, I mean, sure, it's really fun. But for me there's not enough longevity there. And with newer gaming, there's just too many buttons, too many levels, and too many dimensions. I'd just prefer 2D myself.
Anyway, I'm not getting into this discussion right now (but you can bet I will on a post in the near future). What I wanted to talk about today is my quest for the best games for SNES, and I need your help.
Spoilers for V for Vendetta
First off, I liked V for Vendetta, the film.
Second, I love the comic/graphic novel/sequential art doo-dad.
Third, The Pist's LP was named after a great line from the comic.
Now, let's look at this movie. Please note that this is a rant. Or stream of conciousness. Or maybe bullshit.
Karen's tatto post got me thinking about the fine art of tattoing and its connection to the "lowbrow" art world. So in that spirt I have assembled some of my favorite low brow artists, some of whom are tattoo artists themselves. I would be proud to wear any of these guys art on my skin...
NOTE: There are some depictions of nudity and sexuality after the link so....you should probably look at them.
I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. It's embarrassing. It displays a total disregard for my braincells. It proves that if there was a fashion teen magazine in front of me, I would read it. It shows me that I am perfectly willing, eager even, to waste time just for the sake of it. I can't stop reading girl gadget blogs.
I have one tattoo in progress which I am rather fond of, but I refuse to have just any old tattoo artist finish it. (The tattoo parlor closest to my apartment in Bushwick seems to have a very different aesthetic than what I am going for.) If you're wondering why I've been walking around for three years with an unfinished tattoo, it is because I had my work done in Hamburg, Germany. And the reason that it wasn't completed while I was there? Because tattoos are fucking expensive. (Where do all of those tattoo-crazed hipsters get their cash for all that ink?) So, I'll have to go back to Hamburg, Germany to Tattoo Nouveau. The website is in German, but there's a handy icon of a British flag in the upper right corner that allows you to read the site in English. You should check out Robert's work, particularly page 3 of his portfolio. There you will find a meager portion of his awesome Alfonse Mucha work. Of course you will see some bad tattoos in the mix of things as you go through the gallery, but it's not the tattoo artist's fault that the clients have such bad taste. Don't even get me started on 9/11 memorial tattoos. One tattoo phenomenon that continues to baffle me involves portraiture of deceased loved ones. I have often seen men with a portrait of their dead child on their upper arm. I just imagine someone looking at one of those bad K-Mart portrait photos of their child that they had taken for a Christmas card the year before and thinking that inking his kid's face on his arm will keep the memories alive. I think it's more creepy than it is sweet. Speaking of sweet. Check out this guy's eyelid tattoos. I think I am speechless. Nothing could beat that. Other than finger mustache tattoos! I have learned this evening that this is somewhat of a trend that has taken the hipster world by storm. 
During my research on finger mustache tattoos, I stumbled across an image of a tattoo that was done completely in white ink at a tattoo parlor in Finland. (I am starting to think that all of the best tattoo parlors are in Europe.) I have always wondered if a white tattoo would be successful. Now we have proof. Perhaps I will be popping over to Lahti, Finland after my next trip to Hamburg, Germany. If you want to keep up on the current tattoo trends, you should check out InkedBlog and Needled. And, as an added bonus, you will come across many hot tattooed hipster girls. (Not that there's any shortage of that in NYC.)
While everyone else was wearing green, I and fellow CT exile Casey saw The Books at The Getty. It was free. Caliphone opened. They had a drummer AND a percusionist, which is always a good sign. The program made reference to James Joyce and John Cage. The Books used found footage music videos, not limited to mormons taking off hats. The guitarist in the books got married recently and revealed his bacheleor party conisted of watching videos from the national archive. He then showed a newsreel from the 1930s of a man who makes fart sounds with his hands to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Also, the Getty is nifty. You park and then take a monorail up to some elaborate villa while you look at poor ant people stuck on the highway.
As an added bonus, the row we were sitting in had the median age of 62, a mode of 74 and a mean of 42. Elegance.
This Saint Patrick's Day, 2006, men and women, children and fat depressed teenagers around the world stand up and say "No! We shall stay McSilent no longer!" Today we McFight back! And they need your help. Fill out the McForm and get McBack the Shamrock Milkshake.
Remember those news aggregators I posted about a little while ago? The ones that I was concerned might end up being lowest common denominator? One of the big ones www.digg.com, has ended up being used for even more nefarious purposes then I would have imagined.
http://www.siliconvalleysleuth.com/2006/03/digg_is_used_fo.html
It seems some stock brokers may be trying to manipulate stock prices by falsely linking to an unaccredited article about Google buying Sun. Luckily the self-regulation of these sites seemed to work as they were caught. It does make one wonder about what sources they can trust, and how often things like this go by unnoticed.
OOC any one have any insite into St. Kilpat's this year? Ya, know for old times sake..
Also, whacking day presents Snakes On A Plane trailer
I'm lying about the babies.
Plexi: Birds
So here it is...Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that
shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the
moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a
volume larger than all of observable space in less than a
trillion-trillionth of a second....
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/wmap_pol.html
What do you say to that? The size of a fucking marble? That’s hot. I wish I had a universe in a jar. That would be cool. I'd be all, "YO don't make me big bang your ass!" and they would all "Big bang my ass? Dude, that’s gross" and I'd be all... "Whatever, I'll do it."
Speaking of Big Banging, apparently that’s exactly what physicists were doing when they were uncovering this whole cosmic truth thing. "Schrödinger, Curie, Einstein, Feynman, Oppenheimer…the finest names of pre-Cold War 20th-century physics, some of whom gave us the most concise theories ever posited, form a roster of lamentable philanderers. Albert Einstein was completely “given to flirtation†and had legions of affairs. Caltech professor and bestselling raconteur Richard Feynman was probably the only Nobel Prize winner to befriend porn stars, claim a foolproof manner for bedding women and do his calculations on napkins in strip clubs. And it wasn’t just the guys: Marie Curie was relentlessly hounded by the press for seducing away her late-husband’s former student from his wife and kids."
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/03/getting_physical.php
So here’s to the big bang, both cosmic and personal, may they be ever expanding, explosive and plentiful.
From the desk of Julie Lou,
Holy shit, the father of modern chicken died on Monday, and the NYTimes has the funniest obituary I've ever read. Goodbye Robert Baker, your pioneering in the field of poultry will not go unnoticed... Read the obit.
I don't know if you guys already know about Abebooks, but snap! you should because it's so hella-cheap. It's new and used books, textbooks, out-of-print, and rare books. I just bought a book for $2.00. They've got a gianormous selection. Now you can skip the Strand and be a lazy bum.
Q Lazzarus "Goodbye Horses" 1988
A friend of the Juggernaut family was over last night, and somehow this song came up in conversation. The song has some sort of magical essence in it, I'm convinced. It first appeared in "Married To The Mob" in 1988, but didn't really reach anybody until its appearence in "Silence Of The Lambs" in 1991. Much to music fan's annoyance, it was not featured on the soundtrack, but apparently the band released a single to capitalize on the movie. Anyway, the band broke up. This, as far as anyone knows, is the the only song they ever made. It's incredible.
Gerard McMann "Cry Little Sister" 1987
Speaking of awesome songs in movies, LOST BOYS MOTHER FUCKER. If you have ever been to a bad goth night anywhere, then they probably played this. That doesn't make this song less awesome though.
Friends and contributors will be interested to know that, up from #3, we are now the #2(!!) google search result for 'that's plenty'. (And also #2 result without the apostrophe.)
We are the #1 google search result for "That's Plenty". (You know, in doublequotes.)
This American Life, if you haven't heard it yet, is the best radio show to come along in quite some time. I mean, that's not necessarily saying much. With Sirius and the Internet and, well, you know, television too, radio has seemed like a dead format to a lot of people for a long time. So let me put it another way: I listen to This American Life as religiously as I watch The Daily Show.
Though I often miss it because I'm busy, asleep, or crazy on Sundays. It's one of my days off. So I do what I want. I don't watch the clock. But today I've been listening to the one I missed this weeked, Habeas Schmabeas, an hour long special about the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
I don't want to ruin it, but it's even worse than you thought it was. Aside from the shocking expose style stuff you might expect about the abortions of justice, there are long interviews with prisoners that have been released.
Everyone should hear this. (You need realplayer.)
I'm not looking forward to our children asking us "Why didn't you do anything?" when they learn about this war in history class 20 years from now.
Quest alone and die
No fun for soloists here
Warcraft is better
And not that stuff Joe was working on for Koons. I got this flyer from one J. Morrison who makes my favorite sort of shirts: people asphyxiating each other. He also did a Xiu Xiu cover. So if anyone goes (it's free) tell me if there are any people choking each other or other cool things like toilet paper that insults your self image. And look, it's free. Maybe they have food. Sam, you should really be eating more..
Biggish readable flier/flyerwithin...
http://reddit.com/
This is probably the best of a number sites that are doing a sort of news aggregation based on link popularity...
"A source for what's new and popular on the web -- personalized for you. We want to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it. Your votes train a filter, so let reddit know what you liked and disliked, because you'll begin to be recommended links filtered to your tastes. All of the content on reddit is from users who are rewarded for good submissions (and punished for bad ones) by their peers; you decide what appears on your front page and which submissions rise to fame or fall into obscurity.... I really like this idea, its like a living dynamic creature. A feedback loop of readers and voters all with a hand on the wheel. It seemsto me this is going to be the direction that certain blogs and news sites are going to take. True democratic shaping of information. It begins to beg the question that if people control the news content that they see, where will it take them? Once the ball is rolling won't it reinforce itself in whatever path it is going on? It kind of comes down to what you think about humanity, are we good, do we seek out the truth, or will it end up being a blog of comedy and porn links? Anyway, as it stands it has some awesome news stories on it right now. I hope that it only gets better over time.
You know how rich people all have sub zero refridgerators, a kitchen island with a second sink, TeeVo, and spare bedrooms? Well now they can all have this to keep their many wood floors tidy without having to bend over. I mean, without the help having to bend over. You know, when their Roomba isn't working.
Question Please tell me about your gentle mugging. I believe Sam, Dylan and Eric have all been mugged, ever so gently. Steven, have you? Is Milstein reading this? I think she may have coined the phrase.
Reply via comment or blog entry with appropriate montage theory of stolen images.
From a BBC article...
A woman said she thought she was in heaven when she turned on the kitchen tap to find a plentiful supply of beer. Haldis Gundersen was planning to do the washing up when she made the unusual discovery at her apartment in Kristiansund, west Norway.
But two flights below, workers in a bar faced the more disappointing realisation that water was flowing from their beer taps.
A worker had connected a beer barrel to the apartment water pipe by mistake.
"I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks, and beer came out," Ms Gundersen told Reuters news agency. "We thought we were in heaven."
DAMNIT, you already live in Norway, and now beer comes out of your faucets? This world just isn't fair.
Now you can freaking Google Mars
Fellow Blogger Dylan and I took a trip to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens this weekend, and it's totally the kind of place that makes you excited to have kids, so you can take them there and watch their little faces aglow with delight. I'll admit, Dylan and I are both video nerds, but there's a ton of fun interactive stuff to play with if you're not into looking at old cameras and archaic editing equipment. I'd like to especially suggest the make-your-own-10-second-stopmotion tables. And once you're done walking through the top two floors, spend the rest of the day on the first floor, playing old and new arcade games, including Tron, Katamari Damacy, Space Invaders, Donkey Konga and Flow, which is like the hiphop version of Dance Dance Revolution. Plus, there are old movies screening throughout the day, and a movie ticket is included in the price of admission. If you have your old student i.d. (you trickster you) it's only $7.50 to get in, which means $7.50 to see an old flick and then play unlimited video games till closing. ($10 without i.d.) I think I may have found my new hangout.
Coming up next weekend (starting Friday, March 17th), they begin screening the "Fist and Sword: Martial Arts Classics" series. Seems like a good weekend to go.
If you are like me, then you are sad that both the Myspace secret tracking sites, Spyspace and Whospyme, no longer work. It was a lot of fun seeing who viewed my profile everyday on myspace. But just when that forbidden knowledge was beginning to corrupt my very essence, that old shit head Tom (pictured) and his bastard underlings ruined our fun. I would have posted about it earlier, but secret tools must remain secret to be effective.
However, it appears Spyspace is evolving into something else....
Lou Reed "The Kids" 1973
Many VU fans have yet to pick up Lou Reed's Berlin, because of song over lap or poorness. Well, pick it up. It is his best album. Whats that you say? Transformer? Oh, I think this track begs to differ. From AMG: "...To ensure that the horror of the song truly hit home, producer Bob Ezrin set up a tape recorder in his own home then, when his children returned from school, told them that their mother was dead. At least, that's the legend, and the uncontrolled howling with which the song ends, fading in over the skeletal guitar and boiling percussion, certainly does not contradict it."
Banbarra "Shack Up" 1975
Sorry to bum you out with that last track. Don't cry children, the funk starship just landed!
Last Sunday I read a review of Counting Heads and semiswiftly ordered it. I got it this Thursday and finished it today, Sunday, on a subway in Los Angeles. (There may be a subcon point of this entry to relay the fact that Los Angeles has these quaint little subways.)
Spoilers?
I noticed there's a Victoriana Catergory over there on the right, and it reminded me of this awesome site, Madam Talbot's Victorian Lowbrow. It features the work of Ashleigh Talbot; hand-illustrated pen-and-ink artwork that is just incredible. There is tons of work on this site, subjects ranging from vampires to Lizzie Bordon to sidehows to devils to tombstone art to witches to folk tales to skeletons. Every illustration can be purchased here in poster form. She's also got creepy little dolls she made and sells creepy old stuff, like vintage doll eyes, books about magic so old they're falling apart, and a stuffed and mounted piranha. A bit comic booky, a bit Edward Gorey, and bit graffiti artist, her stuff is exquisite. I'm totally jealous.
http://www.madametalbot.com/
After an intense session of Tetris Attack, I'm always left feeling completely mentally drained, as if I'd spent a long night studying the finer points of quantum physics or working out complicated trig problems. If you've ever had your heart touched by such fine gamery as the ever colorful, ever adorable, ever cutthroat Tetris Attack, you probably understand the feeling. If you've got the m4d sk1llz and can totally pwn n00bs and h4x0rs alike, then you know how addictive such games can be. Which is why I wondered to myself tonight as I aligned boxes of like shapes and colors into stacks and chains faster than I can read printed words, am I really getting anything out of this?
Do you ever get the feeling that just a few dudes own all the stuff? Well you're right, and here is a map of where they all are.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/08/hometowns-networths-worlds-richest_06billionaires_map.html
On the plus side according to Forbes " In our inaugural ranking of the world’s richest people 20 years ago, we uncovered some 140 billionaires. Just three years ago we found 476. This year the list is a record 793. They’re worth a combined $2.6 trillion, up 18% since last March." Listen to that! Why that's one billionaire for every 768 million of us! At this rate we all be billionaires soon. Right...right...guys?
For more depressing news about how "easy" it is to become a billionaire these days check out the article.
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0327/111.html
One interesting sidenote is that China only has 8 billionaires...total. Wierd, right?
This is what happens when baby boomers have too much time on thier hands. Look at it. It's not pretty.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640
check out the armory show, most of it's a garbage dump but there are a few gems, and worth a few hours of your sunny day, check out the goat and sheep video at peer 50. if you can't pay the $20 to get in just stand outside and ask someone exiting for their wristband. they come off preety easily and the guards can't tell the difference
Don't be sad Steven, it's not going to get easier, but maybe it can get better.
I'm sick of this constant work/fear cycle also. I have the dream blue colar job that makes a enough and I only have to work two days a week, "New York City bartender with 5 years club experience", so I theoretically have a lot of time to make art, but it's still a constant compromise that I have to justify. I don't make "small women's works on paper" and am a little insulted by the idea. I want to make huge installations using multiple mediums that I have to buy, work in a studio that's larger then 4'x5', go to the darkroom, buy a computer, use a scanner. All that costs more money then I can make in two days, and how long can I do these jobs. five years? ten years? and then what? I apply for grants, but so do hundreds of others.
This week I shall be seeking employment anew. As most of you are no doubt aware, I am a musician with a music degree, and without any practical skills....Or am I? This is the question that shall be answered over the next month as I try to find someone or someones to pay ME for WHAT I KNOW.
This is what my commute looks like.
Its real nice
I've been sitting in front of this computer for hours raking the internet for some makeup resource gem that I must keep missing. But no. There is no such gem.
These are the things that you will find if you search for makeup artistry on the internet:
1) Sephora (I know it's hard to believe, but most people who work there have never done makeup artistry prior to their employment at Sephora.)
2) web pages for bad makeup artists
3) makeup schools offering $10,000 courses that last a few weeks (I wish I was kidding.)
4) makeup forums filled with people who think they're makeup artists (But they're not.)
It's all a load of shit. Is there no place that provides real collaboration, advice, and networking for people who are talented and serious artists?
Don't even get me started on finding real makeup jobs. The only makeup jobs posted on the internet involve selling makeup to old ladies in department stores. It's like being a therapist in an old folks' home except you get the added bonus of convincing some shriveled old lady that spending hundreds of dollars on makeup will magically restore her youth to the likeness of a Hollywood starlet.
Then there's MAC. What once was a pro MUA line, turned into a consumer brand posing as a pro line. I don't mean to say that the pro artists who work for MAC don't do amazing things, because they do. And, in case you're wondering, MAC's pro artists don't work at their stores; they're the ones that get hired to do really well-paid shit for famous clients all around the world. It's just so depressing to see 45 year old women with their 12 year old daughters sporting the same porn-star-meets-drag-queen-meets-Long-Island-girl makeup when they leave the MAC stores together.
So you took a look at the art kick. You were amused, maybe even interested, but you couldn't help but think that it was missing somthing. An edge. You want your art with a dash of danger, a pinch of illeagle. Well then I have just the thing for you. Welcome to http://www.woostercollective.com/ a blog of great street art and graffiti. A blog where the art all comes with a side of "fuck the man".
If you get so inspired by the wooster collective that you go out tonight and hit the streets, here is a little pre game reading on how not to get caught. God knows I should have followed these rules when I was 15.
http://www.powderbomb.com/articles/getcaught.html
Oh, and if people want to slightly contribute to me not getting fired, subscribe to the 2 Cinematech podcasts:
Itunes One Click For Cinamatech: NE: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=97971180
Itunes One Click for Cinematech: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=93637111
If that doesn't work, there's more subscription info at the two homepages.
Daily video game clips.
Einsturzende Neubauten "Alles" 2000
If you are already down with the Neubaten, skip down to the next song. Alright, yes their name is really german, yes many of the songs are in german, and yes they build their own instruments. This band has been around for so long and has consistantly broken barriers and evolved that I think they should get some kind of award. If you are in to good music, check them out. I can't say enough good things about them. Basically if you start a band and make all the right decisions for 25 years you end up as Einsturzende Neubaten.
Cordel do Fogo Encantado "Na Veja" 2001
I know next to nothing about these guys, aside from that they are from Brazil and their album is awesome.
Sometimes in life it's hard to keep your eyes open. You walk in small concentric circles starring at your feet, and wonder why everything looks the same. You ball your fists into your eyes and say "but I can't see anything inspiring". Its time to quit being such a baby. Pry those little fists away, blink, and look up. Its time for an ART KICK! This means it's time to go look at other peoples art. Really look at it. Get jealous. Get excited. Here are some good places to start your ART KICK IN THE FACE!
....
György Ligeti Lux Aeterna 1966
I hate 20th century composition, as well as so called "new music". If you aren't familiar with this particular genre, you'd best stay clear of it, which will be easy because, by design I might add, the only people who like it are academic musicians. They like it, but even they don't listen to it. This piece however is straight amazing. Sung by a mixed 16 person chorus. Somedays I think its beautiful, other days terrifying.
Brian Eno "The Big Ship" 1975
I couldn't find the John Cage cut I wantedto put up today, so here's some brian eno. Who doesn't love Eno? If you aren't in to Eno, then think of him as the guy who made up all that stuff that radiohead got credit for in 2001.
Holy shit! That video of Karen dancing to Mr. Pop was linked on Gothamist! Now all of New York loves you Karen!
Hi, this is Michelle, Dylan's gfriend, blogging on his name. He said I could. From time to time, this will probably happen, because dangnabit, I want to hop a car on this crazy train called blogging. Anyway, today I wanted to direct you to Sarina J. Brewer for all your animals-in-jars needs. She's a member of the Minnesota Rogue Taxidermists, who I totally knew about before boing boing boingboinged them. Anyway, I've made a few purchases from her before (a squid in a jar and a chick in a jar, and a kitten skull) and she's totally awesome, and if you look on her website, you'll be delighted to see she's a babe as well. Now, before you start being a whiny girl, all of her specimens are already dead when she gets them, mostly roadkill or animals that died of natural causes. She also sells studio leftovers in bulk, and 2 dozen squirrel feet will only set you back $28.
So.
Right when I've hit a low re: the inevitable end of everything good, the hoplessness of creating something genuine, true, good, worth seeing, etc. against the all-consuming powerful market forces that propel our culture, our very world, towards Purchasing Goods and substituting Consumer Decisions for happiness, love, joy, interaction, and how no matter what we do to resist and circumnavigate the Choad, we have to pay the motherfucking goddamn landlord at the end of the month and however sad and difficult and unbelievable it may be the fact remains that joy, love, community, etc. are not feelings or events that generate the money needed to pay said motherfucking goddamn landlord, and yet somehow all of the things that dehumanize us as a race, the things that divide us and commodify us, change us from people into 8 hour chunks of Work Units to be used up and distributed and fed, housed, and clothed just enough to return to the workplace the following day to become once again Daily Work Units in exchange for just enough food and warmth and fashion to encourage us to return the following day but never enough to permanently or even temporarily free us, those are the things the somehow Generate Income.
Right when all this is crushing me, emotionally, inside, and causing me to seriously contemplate returning home, going back to Massachusetts or perhaps Los Angeles to live rent-free with family members while I continue to try and sort out why I'm here on this wretched ball of dirt infected (the ball of dirt is, not me) by a virus with shoes determined to turn every river, tree, and emotion into a dollar until, ultimately, there is nothing left on the planet but money and the bones of the virus that struggled to horde it...
Well.
So. Right then.
Echo & the Bunnymen "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue(Live)" 1985
One of the greatest bands ever play one of the greatest songs ever. It really doesn't get much better than this. Echo has been easing its way deeper and deeper into my heart for the last five years or so. If I had to make a top three list right now I'd put them right below Bowie and Joy DIvision...I know you guys are keeping track.
The Human League "Seconds" 1981
No other song about assasination gets me this juiced. Play at maximum volume. I highly recommend this for city-walking music. Oh, and pick up Dare! if you haven't already. Its got a bunch of songs on it you like.
Tomorrow: My only foray into 20th Century composers this site will ever see
Hey, I haven't played it yet, but this looks to be a RISK+Settlers of Catan MMO game. check it out: http://www.travian.com/
I love 3-D. I follow the new tech, I read about the history, I love 3-D. Yesterday I went to see Deep Sea 3-D and here's the thing: the 3-D was awesome but the narration/plot of the documentry was friggin boring. They always are. I don't think I have ever seen a truly exciting Imax 3-D movie. So I'm putting out a call to all filmmakers (myself included, I am currently writing a horror script intended for Imax 3-D). MAKE SOMTHING AWESOME FOR IMAX 3-D. I know it's expensive, I know it's not very practical, I don't care. DO IT. I am tired of sitting through crappy, boring 3-D "educational" movies. Make it rock and do it now. If you just want more info on 3-D stuff check out the awesome Ray Zone (real name) at www.ray3dzone.com who covers a huge amount of territory. Or if you want to see where the future of 3-D is headed amble on over to www.reald.com and be amazed.
Postscript: On the plus side, I saw a trailer for "The Ant Bully" which looked like it could actually be cool.
Now, I've been reading TF off and on for the last 4-5 months, and I just love the hate and the birthing of a subcounter-culture. The writing isn't excellent, but there are weathered old people here, spinning yarns and bitching about record reviews, and trying to cull bands and albums that Pitchfork hasn't absorbed into its omniprescence.
At this point, I think I'd see Sharron giving slight accolades to TF, if that weighs in at all. Also, at this point, the only thing I read on PF is the news and the number reviews. The text may have become insipid, but spit a lil fuzzy math on the numbers and you have a diving rod to some stuff you like (Sam, Clap Yr Hands may have to get back in line, but they have cuts.)
Anyway, its TF first birthday and they reposted their first, spiteful lampoon, and it's almost enough to make me go out and buy some zines.
This is an article about the neighborhood we all live in.
If you don't have an ny times account, sign up. You have to to look at it, but it's free and you get a free electronic edition of the paper in your e-mail every day.
Psychic Ills "January Rain" 2006
Psychic Ills play the kind of stuff that, no offence to them, is great background music. Their new album is a great background album, joining the ranks of Music For Airports, all the new Einstruzende Neubaten records, and every Godspeed album ever. I like it. SIDE NOTE: Brooklyn gets a lot of pats on the back for having the awesomest music scene around. That's most of the reason I moved here. However, most (99.99999999%) of the bands I see here I don't particularly like. This may seem like a pretty low regard for our music scene, but keep in mind there are, by my last count, about one hundred trillion bands in Brooklyn, so that still leaves around around 100 good bands here, including Psychic Ills, the Bellmer Dolls, TV On The Radio, The Rapture, The Liars, all of DFA Records, and every band that I am in (Not so fast there Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, get back in line). Does your town have one hundred good bands? Shut up Montreal.
Antarctica "Absence" 1999
If Antarctica could have held out for another few years until post punk and New Order got cool again then they could have gotten the respect, acclaim, and piles of money they deserved. They'd be on MTV2 and Volkswagen's cash would be buying their girlfriend's drinks. Oh well, at least they got that one sweet album off. This is the first song on that album and is also mixtape gold.
So no one seems to think that I will ever blog. Some even question my existence. But tonight is the night that I prove everyone wrong.
As it is Sunday night yet once again, I am pondering my devotion to my office job as Monday morning draws nearer and nearer. Last Monday I called in sick. I wasn't really sick, just sick of my job. Besides, who's to say that a job can't make you legitimately ill? In fact, my boss has caused me to roll my eyes with much more frequency than is natural. Surely that is a sign of some sort of fatal disease. Which means that I must flee from my job as quickly as possible. But then there's that whole money issue.
But I won't elaborate on that topic for fear of reiterating Stephen's points in his "I hate money" post. You may just refer to his post at this point to touch on my sentiments.
As for my grand plans for this blog, I'm not sure what my angle is going to be yet. Clearly, Sam is the music-blogger. Then there's Ryan who is the tech-blogger. Dylan is the pop-culture-blogger. And Stephen of course is the writer-blogger. What do you want to hear about? (I'm very good at complaining. Bitchy-blogger?)
I'm not really interested in money. I don't care about it. When I was a bartender, for months I had a hard time taking tips from customers. I just don't like money. After I had to bug my dad for money a few times to help pay my rent, I ended up working extra hard at the bar to make sure I was earning all the tips I got, but I never got lazy on people.
I would work just as hard as I do now, maybe harder, even if I didn't get paid. I love my work and I love working hard and I'm good at what I do. Long nights working on shoots is quite a rush for me.
I'm wandering. Excuse me.
Okay. So this is my point: The entire world, specifically America and specifically New York city, is focused, more or less, on the dogged pursuit of money. Often, the most efficient ways of gathering money involve deceiving or hurting other people.
Non-participation is impossible at worst and a failed endeavor at best. Because, eventually, you're going to have to buy food or pay your rent. Even if you live on a commune where you grow your own food, you're going to need to buy the gasoline to power your farm equipment, pay for the electricity to keep your refrigerator going, pay for the water that keeps your crops going.
Even if you use modified diesel engines and vegetable oil to power your farm equipment, keep your fridge up with solar power, and rely on rain and irrigation, you're going to have to pay property taxes on your land.
You cannot live without money unless you are a homeless scavenger, living off the fat of the land.
Which, you know, is possible, but not an altogether pleasing existence, if you judge by the smell. Which I do. I don't ever want to smell like the homeless people that make entire train cars smell like morgues suffering from week-long power failures.
You know that whole thing Dylan is talking about, with the fun and pressumo and Jim and everything?
Well, I've been dying to see Jim too. It's been so long! He even wrote me these sweet, like, LOVE letters on friendster about how much he missed me and how much fun we were going to have when he got home.
But between winter sucking all the juice out of my body and my dog turning me in to a morning person, I went to bed at 8pm last night.
EIGHT PEE EM ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. BECAUSE I WAS TIRED ENOUGH TO FALL ASLEEP.
I woke up at Seven this morning. Check out the time of this entry. I'm not even fucking lying to you.
Will someone pick me up so we can take my dog to the pound together? I should be waking up at noon for chrissakes!
7am! On a Sunday! FUCK!
I don't wake up this motherfucking early on workdays! Do you understand how upsetting this is?!
Do you!?
This is GOATSE upsetting.
EAT THIS, FUCKERS!
It's nice to finally have some time to just hang at home. I am a freelance editor/animator/general random film crap guy. Lately I spend most of time working with a stop motion animation director by the name of PES, www.eatpes.com, which so far has been an awesome experiance. I spent this last week on the set of a Nutri-Grain commercial production. It was the funnest of all the on set experiances I have had so far. But even so, the days were long, and it's nice to have a chance to chill out. My friend Jim is back in town after having been in Scotland for almost a year. Plans tonight include drinking alot of Scotch and playing a game called pressumo. This game was made up by a Scottish band called the Delgados ( who have since broke up apparantly), involes two combatants, both in push up position, trying to knock the other one down by pulling their opponents hand out from under them without falling down themselves. I can't wait.
Turns out so is Wil Wheaton. So show a little support for all the exiled peeps and check out
http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/ before they stop being in exile and become in ex-exile. God I'm a dork.
28 Lay Later, A Night of Giving Head, Army of Dickness (okay that one is kind of dumb...)
More pics and video links inside.
Scrotal Recall. HA!
![](http://www.linusland.co.uk/linuzine/ps.jpg")
Pete Shelley "Telephone Operator" 1983
Not alot of Buzzcocks fans like to talk about Pete Shelley's solo career following the breakup. Its a sore subject. Punk rock legend turns New Wave; it makes purists uncomfortable. So, it isn't surprising to learn that not alot fo people know just how good at new wave Pete Shelley was.
Macha "No Surprise Party" 2004
Good production and instrument choices can make a good song a great song. Just ask Eno. I love this song alot, its the kind of album closer that brings the house down.
Here is a good way to pass the time. Take movies and rename them as pornos. Your mind kind of freezes up at first, but start simple with somthing like, Star Whores, Citizen Kane Me, and Scooby Goo and slowly move up to more complicated ones. The girl with the Pearl Necklace, Good Will Cunting, Last of the Ho-Freakins. Finally, move on to doing entire Directors catalogs. Tim Spurtin is the Director of such fine films as Planet of the Gapes, Big Fist, and Willy Wanker and the Cocklet Fucktry. If you find this to be more tedious than waht you were doing before... well then just go here http://justincone.com/tween/. Its got puuurty moovies on it.
It's visionary architecture week over at my one of my favorite wierd historical blogs, http://kirchersociety.org/, and boy are they posting some bad ass stuff. Be sure to check out the post on insane french architect Jean-Janques Lequeu. Check out the rest of the stuff too becuase, well its all frickin awesome.
"Tell me a story."
The camera operator had sat down on the weathered wooden bench that rested on the balcony, thirty-eight stories up near times square, that we had come to in order to get a quick establishing shot for a new TV show. He had two magazines to load and a while to wait after that. We had a good half-hour or so before the light would be good for the shot. He was older than me, but wanted to hear one of my yarns. I tried to oblige him, but needed to warn him. I was a pretty reserved and unadventurous fellow. Except in one category of my life.
"They're all stories about women," I said.
He smiled. "Perfect," he said. "Those are the best kind."
I started with the one that gets the quick, easy laugh out of most people.
"This one time I got dumped for my sister."
I went and took a look at James Jeans blog, http://www.processrecess.com/, James Jean is a unbeliavable comic book artist, who pretty much blows my mind everytime I look at his work. Although in a way, it sucks becuase he is so good you end up feeling like you draw with the skill of an autistic toddler. So You are pretty much damned if you do, damned if you don't...but you are definitly damned if you look like Steven Seagal. Fuck.
So there's this site www.myheritage.com that lets you compare a picture of yourself to a database of over 3000 celebs and then tells you who your face most matches. Sweet right? NOT SWEET. I did this so called "test". The computer thunk on it long and hard, even showing me a little 3D face vector to indicate "futuristic computer magic is happening" and then it came back with my results. STEVEN FUCKING SEAGAL? Of 3000 celebrities I look the most like Steven Seagal? I am apparantly a dead ringer for the prince of zen ponytails...Did I click the sarcasm button on this thing? Is there some hipster bastard on the other end, peeing himself with laughter as he matchs people up to Jean Claude Van Dam and Cory Feldman (I would actually be okay with either of the cory's). So if you feel like hurting your own feelings, take this test. Maybe you will even get a Chuck Norris.
POSTSCRIPT: AHHHH, I did it again with a different pic and this time I got Slobodon Milosovic! Why don't you just throw in Hitler for good measure. This thing is an asshole.
Gross......and grosser.
http://www.icdsm.org
http://www.xoxide.com/lightning-bolt-asian-experiance.html
I highly recommend finding people you went to high school with on myspace. Every now and then they will make bulletin posts that are comic gold. Submitted for your approval, I call this piece "fuck georgia", llifted directly from myspace. Read every item, and be glad you no longer, or never have lived in the south. My favorites are:
"20.fuck shows my mom doesnt let me watch but i watch them anyway x___x"
"47. Fuck whoevery doesnt listen to z100 on the radio"
"53. FUCK cancer&&disease"
"172.fuck snakes"
and who could forget
"17.fuck books"
enjoy:
Welcome to March, That's Plenty! As a march 1st treat, two of my favorite bands "leaked" their new albums to the internet...
TV On The Radio "Province" 2006
Yes Virginia, that is David fucking Bowie singing on this track. I honestly don't know who I'm more envious of, Totr for getting Bowie in the studio, or Bowie for getting to hang with these guys. My roommates already know how big of a totr fanboy I am, but let me tell you: whenever I see Dave, Tunde, or KIp out on the town I make a complete fool out of myself. Just imagine that girl or boy you had a crush on in 5th grade, and how you approached it. Its that bad, and the new album isn't helping me get over it. (its great).
The Black Heart Procession "Not Just Words" 2006
Don't worry Black Heart fans, the new album is pure BHP...except this one, which my personal jury is still out on. Is it really ok for these guys to write this kind of song? I mean, I'm sure they really really wanted to, what with all the gloom. I guess its ok.
