(please forgive the following for it's possible misspellings, grammatical errors, meanderings & gross factual errors. I have had something to drink.)
We just went to see Deerhoof at the Empty Butthole. It was almost my favorite kind of show. The one where you think there's a possibility that it could be awful or it could be amazing & then it's amazing. Deerhoof is one of those bands that when you hear for the first time, you're annoyed but the next time (or maybe the 3rd time) you hear it, you like it, you can't get it out of your head. They reminded me of US Maple who seemed to play live every other week for a time in the middle 90s. They were all at once surgically precise & threatening to fall apart or explode. Twin guitars playing what? the same thing, sort of. Someone kicks the drums down stairs & then yoyos them back up onto the landing. Everyone stops on a dime for a moment before everything dissolves into feedback & secret cymbals. This is sort of what Deerhoof is like but breaking up all that macho, music-major posturing (in a good way) is this tiny Japanese lady, Satomi Matsuzaki, who sings sing-songy, not unlike the Slits Ari Up, with the sort of enthusiasm that have you grinning instantly unless you're dead inside. And then she backs away from the microphone, focusing on her bass again, giving the chaos a backbone. Sheesh, it was good.
Also with them were the always enthusiastic Head of Femur & a Japanese band called 54-71 who's drummer had a rap-metal snare & who sounded like they could soundtrack the parts of 8 Mile where Eminem was riding the bus looking all serious but in a good way, a really good way. I'm sure they inspire much ironic fist pumping but they're really good.
Applefritter has instructions for how to customize your iBook. The white plastic cases are apparently just painted on the inside. Here are more images. link from Kottke
Does anyone remember the Warmers? Alec MacKaye (Faith,Ignition,Ian's brother), Amy Farina (Geoff's (Karate) sister & Juan Carrera (man-about-Dischord) play start/stop rock w/off-kilter drums, moans, yells & scratchy guitar, that throbbing fuzzy bass...IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!! After listening to the LP at work today I checked the Dischord site & discovered that they have some old recordings coming out in May. This is good news.
Did you see the trailer for Shaolin Soccer something like 2 years ago? I did. It finally came out in theaters, even though it's been available on DVD for awhile now. It was worth the weight. Kung Fu & soccer go together like root beer floats & Mike & Ikes. The fat guy, Small Brother, can walk on air. The goalie has to leave the final game with burns because a player from Team Evil kicked a ball so hard it caught fire! He gets replaced by Iron Stomach! The girl who makes steamed buns with shaolin saves the day! They win at the end!
Dodgeball stars Ben Stiller & Vince Vaughn. Yes, dodgeball. The annoying high school kid from Ed is in it too.
Hollywood ruins another good book. This time it's I, Robot.
Have you seen the trailer for Anchorman yet?
Donnie Darko - Director's Cut to be released theatrically.
Darren Aronovsky (Pi, Requiem For A Dream) may direct The Watchmen. (and maybe, Lone Wolf & Cub!)
Yesterday morning was the first of hopefully many Thursday Morning Skates. It's not really called that but we did have 6 old guys up early & riding skateboards at the Wilson skatepark. Everybody fell & nobody got hurt. Then some of us ate at Hot Doug's. It was a good day.
Take your Yankee hatred to the next level.
On a wholly different note, my friend Wilfred wrote another short piece for everyone's favorite Vice Magazine.
Me & two other record nerds are playing records at Sonotheque tonight from 10pm until 2am. If you're in the Chicago area stop by & sit down & listen.
Jim Jarmusch's Cigarettes & Coffee is coming soon! Small vingettes starring a host of great people including the one above with Bill, RZA & GZA?! Can't wait.
Joerg Colberg's weblog is devoted to photography links, one of which is "Ron" Lomblad's. You could probably spend days looking at images using this as your starting point.
One very useful link I poached from there was the weblog coincidences whose subtitle is "Discussions on the art & craft of photography, and other digressions." Good writing & links on photography.
I was thinking about getting a new bike, one with gears, but after a nice ride home from work yesterday, I think I like the fixed gear too much. Besides, even if I sell my Bianchi I'll still have to save more money. So this afternoon I spent some time looking at fixed gear sites & ogling other people's bikes. Here are some of those links:
Old Skool Track - an all-around site with lots of info & links.
63xc - the off-road fixed gear site.
Sheldon Brown's site has lots of info on bikes, not just fixies. I read his Why fixed gear? article before I got my Bianchi.
Bicycle Habitat in NYC looks like a great bike shop. And they're apparently one of the only shops in the country that build Keirin bikes, which are Japanese track bikes built to insane standards. You may have seen Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro that had a scene at a Keirin track.
Look how dope this late 70s Raleigh track bike is!
I was doubtful because I never heard of it until the Commish won an Emmy for best actor whatever but the Shield is a pretty good show & Michael Chiklis is a great actor. I think I watch more tv on DVD than I do otherwise these days. I am lame.
The guy who played psychiatrist Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H, Allan Arbus, was married to Diane Arbus. I find this strange although it's really not. One of my favorite episodes from when I was a kid was the black & white one that was some sort of documentary about the life of a mobile army surgical hospital.
Article in the NY Times about Chicago eating, emphasis on hot dogs. Hot Doug's Doug Sohn is featured prominently.
As much as I like to read celebrity gossip, I try to refrain from spreading it. Buuuuuut...I heard from a couple of places that the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O is dating director Spike Jonze? Oh you famous people!
Also: Can anyone confirm or deny Karen O's half-Filipino-ness? I swear I read that in Hyphen Magazine.
Old news?
Stephen Shore's Uncommon Spaces - the Complete Works from Aperture is coming out pretty soon. 140 images instead or the original 40, with a lot more non-landscapes, portraits even. Photoeye has it for $45, Amazon for $35. Shore images here & here. You can also buy a print of one of my favorites from Aperture for, gulp, $3000.
The Simpsons Archive has perhaps more information than you could read in a lifetime. It has a Google search engine too.
Sorry, sorry. Let's jump right in.
I got a link from jimbus.org. It would be wise for you to take a look at his site if you get a chance. There's a nice variety or images. And if you haven't seen my old site yet or you want to make fun, go take a looky.
SFJ reviewed Madvillain in the New Yorker last week. My friend Matt (two t's) review went something like "it's fucking amazing on the headphones" but he admits to being "bombed" while listening.
Article about how people end up llistening to only 20% of their iPod, much like they used to listen to only 20% of their cd collection. Without thinking too hard I can believe that number although, at least at home, I make an effort to listen to things that I've just bought or haven't heard in awhile. Then again, I also have a "new arrivals" section in front of the turntable. When one works at a record store, it's unavoidable. Link from Pop Life.
I decided that the front page of my website is going to have a Lomblad crest of my own design. Big fun.
Mary & I watched Something's Gotta Give the other night & even though you know the outcome beforehand & how it's going to happen, it was good, mindless fun. I enjoy Jack Nicholson so much more when he doesn't just act like "JACK!". Diane Keaton was really great, too & is a really attractive 58 year old lady. Keanu Reeves is awful but that's no surprise.
Since Boston is nowhere near as flat as Chicago it's goodbye fixed gear, hello shifting. Maybe.
I'm not sure but I think I may have caught baseball fever. It's not contagious though. I watched a good portion of a special on "the Rocket's last season".
I'm part of a group show of landscape photography that opens tomorrow night in Chicago. The details are as follows...
Chicago Land/Space/Place
Glass Curtain Gallery
1104 S. Wabash
5-7pm
The show will be up through May 7th & if you can't make it, you can check out the website here.
A: No
Instead of actually doing anything constructive today like working on my "website" or building new record shelves or going to the post office to mail out eBay payments or even going outside, I've been watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force ("You sexual innuendo is killing me") & putting together a Kinja weblog digest. I can now waste time more efficiently. You can too.
Semi-infamous NYC graf-guy Neckface got 2-3 columns in last week's New Yorker. I meant to link to it last week but now it's too late. As a consolation prize, you can check out a fan's photo weblog here. The God Owes Me Money is one of my favorites.
Update: Wait, here's that link.
Cubs in first after opening day win in Cincinnati. Sports Illustrated predicts new Ice Age in circles 1-9. Knock on wood.
I've been watching a little of the NCAA Men's B-Ball Championships & they showed a Miller Beer for President commercial starring Bob Odenkirk. I have no sell-out qualms but it still seemed weird. Look in the TV Ads section of their website.
Blonde Redhead - Thumbs up.
Secret Machines - Thumbs Down.
The new BR songs on Misery is a Butterfly are decent but when they played the older songs the new ones paled. The old songs were looser & angrier where they sexual/sensual before. Maybe they're just making another kind of music these days. Getting kicked in the face by a horse will probably change your perspective, I guess. All I can say about the Secret Machines is that I was glad when they were finished.
Have you ever seen Cat Power live? Her voice is undeniable. It just grabs your gut & holds tight. Her old problem was her crippling stage fright. I saw her start the same song 6 or 7 times at Schubas a few years back. I think her solution was to drink a lot. Not necessarily an original idea but it works. Sort of. Mary & I saw her at the, um, Estrojam, last summer & she got through songs just fine, great even. The new problem is rambling & forgetting the lyrics. Sheesh. When I saw the above picture at Amy's Interweb of Radness I was reminded.
What a great entry.
I used to buy Mike Mignola's Hellboy religiously, even though it wasn't really published that regularly. Way back in the 90's my good friend Carlos (who's a boat captain!) used to go to Chicago Comics & blow all of our money before seeing Mudhoney or whatever at the Metro. Now, after many years of speculation, they've made a movie from it. I was worried about it, even after I saw the trailer. But after reading this review & discovering that it's directed by Guillermo del Toro, who made Cronos, the ultra-creepy Devil's Backbone, and, um, Blade II, I'm looking forward to it.
UPDATE: If anyone was confused, they've made a movie from Hellboy, not from mine & Carlos' tame-scapades in the early 90s.
I'll admit to trolling the year-end lists of my favorite critics to find something to listen to when I'm feeling lazy. It's probably not something to be embarrassed of but...whatever. My point being that there are some albums that I'm glad I was pointed to. The one I'd like to re-point out tonight is Ellen Allien's Berlinette on Bpitch (her label). I usually catch dance records late in the game. I may be more interested than your average bear but there's just too many records. This one snuck up on me. I listened to it a couple of times & wasn't that impressed, at first. All the typical elements are there: cool, detached drums & keyboards, processed vocals, etc. Over the last week though, I've really gotten into it. I even like the semi-remix of one of the tracks. I guess I'm saying that if you like any dance music you should check this out. I apologize for my lack of evocative adjectives. Descriptive critique is not my forte.
Against my better judgement (like many things that find my fancy) I think that I'd might purchase one of these Canon Powershots. The time for a digital camera may be here. Not for more "serious" use but for pointing & shooting etc. Please note that when I say "serious" I'm merely suggesting that to make the files I'd like to, digitally, I'd have to invest some serious cash in one of these tough guys.
My friend Mat got me all hyped to go skating the other night at the TVOTR show. He was all "Monday morning, 9AM, Wilson...blah blah blah". Then we didn't go & it's cold outside & I'm reading dumb websites & watching skate video trailers. I wish I could say that it bothered me more but I'm an awful skater. Jay told me that since he broke his ankle last year his new motto is "All Four Wheels On The Ground & Nothing Steeper Than 45 Degrees". Anyway, I don't have a choice in the matter. I'm all about push, push, coast & no "pop" whatsoever. I'm getting old & I don't have any insurance or savings, either. And on that note, here is a pirate joke that I read somewhere.
Q: How did the pirate quit smoking?
A: the Patch
