February 29, 2004
This Week in Lists
1. Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen. If you're like me & you don't speak or read Japanese, then we'll just have to trust the Wall Street Journal when they say that it roughly translates to something like the International Snowball Fight Championships. Yeah, I know. You'd better go read the article. I'm really into the etching-style portrait above, too.
2. Method Man & Redman get their own Fox sitcom! It's the tried & true "fish(es) out of water" scenario. Bizarre.
3. Local Chicago weblog Gapers Block is pretty good but I really love their Ask The Librarian column. This week's column answers a question I've often wondered about. What's the deal with all those sketchy motels on Lincoln, up near Chicago's northern border?
4. Register to vote. "Down with W" as my dad says.
5. Arthur Magazine is among the best out there & it's free! You can even download pdfs from their website. Get to it.
6. Photographs by Mike Rhoades. Great guy, great photographs.
7. I can't remember how I ended up at the Fact Index but it was at a page explaining the different versions of Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door.
8. Sakaguchi Tomoyuki takes pictures at night with a digital camera.
9. Look at all the boxes of cereal at Imaginary World.
10. My friend Stephen reviewed the new Madvillain & it ended up on the Stones Throw site!
February 28, 2004
Loan me $100,000, quick!
Only 3 of the 4 Ralph Lauren/Polo customized Air Stream trailers left! I want the "Utility/Surplus". link via Arkitip Intelligence
February 27, 2004
February 26, 2004
Half-Filipino
My mom is much more like other Asian moms than I thought. Read effervescently meaningless' email from his mom & you'll get an idea of how mine thinks. According to my mom, just because I've set my sights on an MFA in photography doesn't mean I shouldn't take some business classes. "Wouldn't you like to be a salesman?" is one of her favorite things to say. link via Oliver Wang's indispensible Pop Life
The Illest Villains
Madvillain LP "Madvillainy" drops March 23rd. Can't wait, must download! Anyway, you'd think those geniuses could come up with a better title than that, huh?
February 25, 2004
Some Photography
Alex Soth had a show at the Museum of Contemporary Photography last year. The photographs were amazing, especially if you think about making them with an 8x10 camera. His pictures will also be in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Take a look at those Stephen Shore images from Uncommon Places again, think about lugging the 8x10 up to the counter to make a picture of your breakfast & then slap yourself on the forehead & go "jeez" or "dang".
Simen Johan had images on the cover of Aperture, maybe. Then he had a show at Yossi Milo Gallery in Manhattan. Mostly great, some just really good images of what-if scenarios involving children & childhood.
As an aside, I've been making an effort to say "dang" more often lately, I'm not sure why. And also...if any of you punctuation hawks are wondering why I keep putting the period outside of the end quotes I'd like to say to you that I think it looks better that way. (Unless I'm remembering wrong & that's the right way to do it but I don't think so.)
February 24, 2004
Didja ever...
Did you ever buy some sort of office supplies or hardware or something without having a specific use at the moment but with the faint idea that in the near future you'd put them to good use? I have. Last week I ordered some of the Jewelboxing cases that Coudal has been hawking lately. They came in the mail today & I still haven't even started thinking about what they might be for.
February 23, 2004
Pop-Up Windows!
Having not slept & instead spent time looking at the code to a website that I like, expect to see at least one of the above mentioned windows on the rumoured to be "in production" lomblad.net. It's like AP Calculus all over again. Me in the back, so proud to have finished some proof, looking up from my scribbling to discover that the rest of the class is on the next chapter.
What a great story.
February 22, 2004
I am lazy while others are not.
I meant to mention Jason Fulford when I was posting about Christian Patterson. Now I have. His photographs are really great in an Eggleston sort of way. Understated & so full of feeling at the same time.
February 20, 2004
Yes, please.
Can I add another thing to my list of things?
11. Leica envy. I've already had M6 on the brain for a while but now...I don't when I'm going to buy a digital camera but damn! The Leica Digilux 2. Yeah.
notifbutwhen
It never occurred to me that I would one day see a link to someone I knew at Arkitip Intelligence but there it is: Photographs by Brian Ulrich. Wow.
10 or so for the week
1. TiVo envy.
1a. iPod envy (not the ugly mini, though). You may not know the story about how I broke mine by throwing it at the cat but if you ask, I will tell you without blushing because as part "Pacific Islander" I seem physically unable.
2. Yale rejection letter. I didn't want to go there anyway.
3. Kanye-fever. He's everywhere. Articles by SFJ & Hua Hsu. You can check out his production credits at kanyewest.com, handy if you're putting together Kanye compilation. (I tried thinking of a clever way to put those two words together but I couldn't. "Kanye-lation" sounds real weird.)
4. The Walkmen's Bows & Arrows. I still haven't found the time to listen to it all the way through but I really like the first half of it. Having freshly downloaded the whole shebang last night, I will remedy the situation immediately. The album has it's own website at which you can watch the new video for The Rat.
5. Paintball. Not only does paintball have a governing body, the NPPL, but you can even watch it on cable, as I did at lunch yesterday. I have been "paintballing" twice, once at a bachelor party.
6. Modest Mouse has a new record coming out. If you had any doubts about their decline, check out this footage of them on the insipid Carson Daly show. Somebody said that Isaac Brock looks like John Belushi. I think he looks more like Jim but I just like the idea that he's fatter than me.
7. Discount Valentine's Day candy. I like stale Necco Hearts. Is that weird?
8. Belated Christmas presents like Shakey the Neil Young Biography. So much information. One of my favorite tidbits so far is the time that Neil & Stephen Stills, fresh to L.A., find a roach on the sidewalk, smoke it & get more fucked up than they bargained for. Young says, "We didn't know what it was..."
9. The term "get lifted". As in "Curtis is going to go home & get lifted".
10. Having money in the bank. It's weird.
From left field:
Does anyone else think that Roger Taylor from Queen looks like Catie who just got kicked off America's Next Top Model?
February 18, 2004
February 17, 2004
You can read Boondocks for free Should You Really Shake A Polaroid "like a Polaroid picture"?
The short answer is NO. from kottke.org.
February 16, 2004
Swords & Robots & the Future & who knows what else...
I'm not sure what this movie Casshern is about but, from the looks of the trailer, I'd go see it in a second.
Way better than Pootie Tang
Home Vision Entertainment, the company in charge of the Criterion Collection, recently released 3 more movies by Seijun Suzuki, director of Tokyo Drifter & Branded To Kill. Of the new ones, I've only watched Underworld Beauty so far but I think it's pretty amazing how Suzuki goes from making pretty straight-ahead gangster movies in the late 50s to insane thriller-parodies a decade later.
Obnoxious AND Dull
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from the Conan O'Brien show pisses off Canada. Among other things, he tells a rather rotund Quebecois separatist that he needs to try separating from some donuts first. I laughed but I'm not Canadian.
February 15, 2004
I had the pastrami.
Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? Last time I was there I had one of these with my friend Noah.
HOLY SHIT!!!
Knitters take notice. Michel Gondry made a new video for a band called Steriogram. The music is pretty much crap but THE VIDEO IS FUCKING AMAZING!!! Is there some kind of award that we can give this guy for being a genius. I'm sure he makes $$$ but I'd just like to give him a pat on the back & say "Good job buddy, good job." Link from k10k
While My Sampler Gently Weeps
Having trouble finding Dangermouse's Grey Album? Illegal Art has it here.
Mista 'Enry 'iggins
If you're missing Neutral Milk Hotel as much as I am than you'll probably want to check out the newish record by the Decemberists "Her Majesty". This is the part where I tell what it's like but I'm hungry & so going to Huck Finn to get a Veggie Skillet. Yum.
Oh & I think I joined a Lungfish cover band last night with Drew Wilson & some other dudes. It'll sink or swim on the strength of Drew's beard. We'll see if it happens.
February 13, 2004
Making or Taking, whatever
I just remembered a link from my aborted first try at an MT weblog. This guy Christian Patterson is making some great photographs. He works for William Eggleston somehow. Speaking of Eggleston, I was looking at his book Los Alamos this afternoon & I was thinking that I need to get out there & make some new pictures. After putting that back on the shelf without buying it I took a look at Philip-Lorca DiCorcia's A Storybook Life. There isn't any text unless I missed it so I was left wondering where Eggleston fits in to the pictures DiCorcia makes. They're not entirely dissimilar. One in particular, of the insides of a freezer/refrigerator seems to be a riff on Eggleston's bluish freezer picture. Maybe it's just me.
February 12, 2004
Gimme the rock
I've begun to take breaks at 5pm on purpose, not for the Simpsons, but so I can catch back-to-back episodes of the And1 Mixtape Streetball Tour on ESPN. I wish I had cable at home. Wait, no I don't.
They make french fries with a water cannon.
There are some books that you buy & start reading on the bus on the way home. Then there are other ones that get put on the to-be-read pile & languish there, the eyes being bigger than the brain so to speak. My particular weakness is non-fiction. I bought Guns, Germs & Steel more than six months ago. I made it through the lengthy foreward on the first day & then put it on the pile. It got put in my bag without being opened several times over the next couple of months. Last week I reread the foreward & today I got through to the second chapter. I am so proud of myself. Another non-fiction book collecting dust with only a few pages read is No Logo. I rolled right through Fast Food Nation & I thought I could keep going but no such luck. The pile grows.
Go Shorty, It's Ya Birfday
Pazz & Jop Critics Poll results, essays & comments.
Worth at least 30 mins. of your time. I should be in bed instead of skimming this record-store/watercooler fodder. Has anyone ever thought that the snooty record store clerk/annoying music purchaser conundrum was a vicious circle? This clerk has. Chicken or egg? Today at the shop I got called bro without a hint of irony. Same customer "stormed out" after I told him I couldn't recommend anything like the cd he had chosen because I hadn't heard it before or even seen it before. Some people seem genuinely surprised that you, the person behind the counter, is not familiar with all 50,000 whatever titles in the dang place. Somebody call somebody. I should be in bed instead of on the couch enjoying the luxury of 21st century wireless technology.
Norm
There should be a picture of Norm Abrams above this text. No link or anything I'm just flexing some new muscles.
This MT software is pretty cool.
Almost Famous
Jessica Hopper has a weblog called tinyluckygenius aka the Unicorn's tear. She writes like I wish I wrote sometimes. I kind of imagine her dictating dramatically to the computer & it magically appearing on the interweb. By some coincidence she also mentions both the Band & the Last Waltz documentary in her most recent entry.
In the song "Last Night" Justin Timberlake sings "In your eyes I see a second chance/maybe I should take another dance/but for now I'll wash my hands cause I love ya baby..." I don't know what that means. Much better is Twista's "let me get ya sheets wet/listenin to Keith Sweat" AND one time when he rhymes Vandross with take ya pants off from Slowjamz w/Kanye West. Kanye's College Dropout, um, dropped on Tuesday. The cover makes it look like a MC Paul Barman LP but in a good way & the booklet has HS yearbook photos of Kanye plus people involved like the aformentioned Twista, Mos Def, Jamie Foxx & J-Hova hisself. Lyrics include "There's been an accident like Geico/They thought I was burnt up like Pepsi did Michael" I'm for it.
The last song on JT's Justified fucking sucks like you wouldn't believe. No more sensitive classical guitar! Isn't that rule written down anywhere?
Baby I'm a Millionaire but I Feel Like a Bum
Sasha Frere-Jones of UI wrote an article about the Va. Beach, Timbaland & the Neptunes in the NY Times. Go check out his (SFJ's) weblog if you're interested. I read it.
Comments
If you're reading something here & want to make a comment, you can do so by clicking on the "comment" at the bottom of the entry. If someone does it'll make me feel nice inside because it means that someone actually reads this.
Discuss amongst yourselves
France's National Assembly passed a bill that bans any "ostensibly religious signs" from public schools. This includes Muslim headscarves, "large" crosses, Jewish skullcaps & more. Racism disguised as separation of Church & State or a thoroughly misguided solution for keeping the peace among different student groups? Maybe neither. Read the article here.
South Korean scientists create human embryo from cloned cells. Article here.
Oh, and there's still a war happening.
The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore
I finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's novel Hocus Pocus today. I've been wary of his more recent novels since my friend Jon Hawpe told me that Timequake was weird. I'm not even sure that he meant it in a negative way but that's besides the point. I realized that one of my favorite things about Vonnegut is his seemingly random details about peripheral, not-even characters & their various substories. My favorite bit from Hocus Pocus is about a guy named Abdullah Akbahr who our narrator, Eugene Debs Hartke, encourages to write short stories while teaching English at the Athena Correctional Facility. I will quote from the book:
"One, I remember, was supposedly the autobiography of a talking deer in the National Forest who has a terrible time finding anything to eat in winter & gets tangled in barbed wire during the summer months, trying to find delicious food on farms. He is shot by a hunter. As he dies he wonders why he was born in the first place. The final sentence of the story was the last thing the deer said on Earth. The hunter was close enough to hear & was amazed. This was it: "What the blankety-blank was that supposed to be about.""
I should mention that the narrator refrains from uttering or, indeed, writing profanity, even other's. If anyone bothered to ask me about swearing, I would tell them I enjoy it. If anyone asked me what my favorite Vonnegut novel was I might say Player Piano but maybe not. Also, in related news, the straight-to-video film version of Breakfast of Champions starring Bruce Willis is actually worse than you think it is. Really.
February 11, 2004
Two Days in A Row!
Tonight at the Metro I was thinking that if I squinted & didn't listen to the music, the blue & yellow & red lights made Head of Femur seem like the Band performing in the Last Waltz documentary.
Star Wars Trilogy comes out on DVD in September according to the Washington Post. You may have to register to read this article.
The new Destroyer record may or may not have been co-written by, for & about the Faerie minority. It's pretty darn weird.
The new Quiznos commercials are fucked up. I wonder if they're done by the guy who did the Flash music videos with the cats. I can't find the Led Zeppelin one but the White Stripes one is great.
This post was longer until Safari quit unexpectedly. Oops.
February 10, 2004
fucking finally...
For those of you paying attention, that was more than 2 months of no weblog. I know, we can all exhale now that everything is back online. Big thank yous & six-packs of beer to the young Walker, who made it possible. So, without further ado, here are some links & some short comments. In the future, there will be longer comments & a group weblog that other people will obviously contribute to.
You can look at a lot of work by Magnum Photographers here. If you haven't seen the documentary "War Photographer" about James Nachtwey yet, you should.
This guy gives new meaning to the term "low budget". He made a movie for $218.
Unsurprisingly, I've only been mistaken for/confused with 2 other guys in my whole life. The more famouser (not a word) of the two, Fred Armisen, lately of SNL, is in a really crappy-looking teen movie that's coming out soon. The trailer is here. I'll probably go see it. Bleh.
I know the throwback jersey has been the shizz for awhile now but I'd rock a Chicago Hustle t-shirt even if it wasn't cool.
More lists of five things than you've ever seen in your whole life.
You can watch the video for the song ALL CAPS from the not-coming-out-soon-enough Madvillian LP at the Stones Throw website.
Although I'm still undecided about Calla's LP, the video for the song Strangler is pretty awesome. In related NYC band news, the new Walkmen record "Bows & Arrows" is out, go buy it.
I can't wait to see Starsky & Hutch, can you?
Help Computer! Those GI Joe PSAs were the hit of the Taking Pictures tour van last summer. Have you seen them all?
And finally, I poached the link to this weird NutriGrain Bar commercial from kottke.org.
More to come