maybe it's just me

Sunday Night Link Dump

photographs by Tod Seelie.
photographs by Pat Graham of DC/Dischord fame.
really great photos of Hong Kong & China by Michael Wolf.
Philip Johnson dead at 98.
a thoughtful appreciation of Robert Polidori at Design Observer.
10 Lumiere shorts.
illustrations by Omar Lee.
illustrations by Marcel Dzama.
illustrations & paintings by Brendan Monroe.
illustrations by Graham Roumieu.
the saga of Bloodninja.
Smithsonian Folkways recordings available a la iTunes Music Store.
buy pants from Logan's Run at Screen Used.
maybe every Francoise Hardy magazine cover ever.

Check out the deals now!

I was looking for chili recipes & I found 'new & used ground beef'.

Death Star For Cutie

Watch the new video for We Will Become Silhouettes directed by Jared Hess, the guy who did Napolean Dynamite. The 80s suburban scene includes a weird field-trip in Star Wars-ish gear on bikes to watch the sunset. Also take a look at some pictures by Aaron Ruell who did stills for the video & Hess' movie.

And of semi-related interest, if you really like Star Wars you can buy one of these plush Jawas and if you really, really like Star Wars you can buy a Mr. Potato Head Darth Vader and if you really, really, really like Star Wars, you can buy yourself one of these Tatooine-ish land cruisers.

And using the word "Tatooine-ish" does qualify as another point on my nerd license.

My dad has a weblog

I got my dad a TypePad weblog for christmas. Go there now & look at a picture of me with my parents from a couple of weeks ago. My mom said I looked like a Mormon but I think she meant Amish.

Snow!

I was listening to Weekend Edition in the shower & during the news break, the WBUR people came on & said that we're expecting 2 feet(!!!) of snow this afternoon & evening. An ominous-sounding "Blizzard Warning" takes effect at noon, in 37 minutes. I plan to be outside & wish that it would all fall at once, transforming the landscape all at once into smooth, clean, snowy whiteness, if only until the 39 bus screams by & ruins it. (Please do not extend the previous sentence into metaphor). Despite my giddiness, I can fully understand J. Hopper's mid-winter, Midwestern doldrums, having lived through at least 15 such periods since I was 13. My East Coast malaise has been very similar except that the early rumblings of the new semester has begun to draw me outside & playoff football has proved to be essential in rekindling friend-ly connections that have cooled since summer.

I'm also reminded of how, at breakfast a couple of winters ago, my housemates & I decided that as long as the weather was keeping us inside, what would be better than writing & recording an album? The twin highlights being our cover of U2's "With or Without You" which we couldn't remember all the words to & Bobby's original "Snow", a slow-metal dirge about snow removal.

How Things Work

Neighbor Rob & I went ice skating for a while the other day & had a conversation about Zamboni technology while watching one do its magic, both of us having only a vague idea of its inner workings. This afternoon I found the answers on their website without even breaking a sweat. They've got history & all the different models & action photos & you can even order Zamboni wrapping paper!

Forgive me for that second sentence below.

Taschen releases $200 Kubrick book. Film nerds get boners.

Colette

Although the chances of me shopping there are so small as to be non-existant, I like the idea of the Colette store. They carry only things they like, keeping the shelves stocked with small quantities of cool, expensive & often exclusive objects, naturally. You can also download pdfs of their little magazine which is in French & therefore can only be read by the ubercool but has pictures for the rest of us.

Old Skateboard = Big $$$

The guy who runs Sessions is auctioning off a Hosoi deck c. 1982 on eBay.

All Apologies

Somewhere in the depths of my New Year's Eve stupor, a sober one in fact, I had a thought about making an effort in 2005 to do a better job. At everything. My one sort-of typical, exercise related resolution was to do push-ups. I know it sounds weird but I was home alone with the cat, Mary was in Pittsburgh & I'd stayed up late reading this book, a really long book about magicians that has footnotes. The date above this entry is something like the 16th of January, I think. Push-ups done so far = 0. I did have a chance to go home to Chicago for a week, which was just about enough time. I had a show opening & although I left Boston with only $40 & no frames for the pictures, everything turned out in the end. Things accomplished = 1. Things I appreciate about Chicago now that I've been away for some months = many. Including...people I know & miss, an elegant gridded city plan, efficient comprehensive public transportation, cheap diners & probably 100 things I'm forgetting because I just had my first cup of coffee.

And speaking of lists...After digesting countless lists from others I realized that having spent no time thinking about my own list in the last 12 months might be a detriment to making one today. And then I decided to make one on the fly. So here it is; some things that I can remember being awesome in 2004, more or less.

(In no particular order, of course. Numbered for ease of use.)

1. Mastodon - Leviathan. I read somewhere that this record is all about Moby Dick. That's really nice but I don't care. The heaviness is most welcome, gets the blood rising & soothes at the same time. Why is that?

2. Hot Doug's - Chicago's Sausage Superstore. Newly re-opened, bigger & just as mouth-watering. On my recent jaunt home I ate there twice in three days. The BBQ Hot Link is the dog of my dreams.

3. Leo's Lunchroom - Chicago. There's new owners, the prices are slightly higher & now the menus are yellow but staff seems the same old friendly bunch & the Reuben (on wheat, thank you) made my day (which was already going pretty good).

4. Fixed Gear Gallery. This is the stuff dreams are made of.

5. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow.
6. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow.
7. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs.
8. Black Dice - Creature Comforts.

9. A Very Long Engagement - Jeunet hits all the right buttons & Audrey Tatou is still really cute.

10. Deerhoof - Milk Man & Live.
11. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes & Live. I didn't go to a lot of shows in 2004 but both of these bands had my face hurting from smiling so damn much. The LPs are decent but only partial evidence of their amazing-ness.

12. Slint Reunites! - Am I dreaming? My friend Matt Jencik tried out for bass & got 3 callbacks but didn't make it.

13. Oneida live in Boston. My one & only musical outing here so far. I was someone's plus one & I got a ride & someone bought me a drink. And then Oneida dropped rock bombs, keeping on even after wimps left to catch the T. An almost perfect night out.

14. The Arcade Fire - Funeral.
15. Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days & The Creek Drank the Cradle. I caught on way late but both were helpful in shutting out the early morning commute noise & defining the annual winter doldrums.

16. Ted Leo & the Phamacists - Shake the Sheets & Live. He can do know wrong on record. The live performance left me speechless, all goosebumpy when they covered Springsteen & Stiff Little Fingers for an encore.

17. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand. Undeniable.

18. The Decemberists - Her Majesty & the Tain EP. The most suitable inheritor of Neutral Milk Hotel's crown of sea shanty, wheezy, kitchen-sink Pet Sounds genius & whatever

19. The Walkmen - Bows & Arrow + Live. My most listened to of 2004. Look here for my thoughts on the show.

20. Madvillan - Madvillainy. Most anticipated & most worth it. Doom & Madlib collide & make weird hip-hop babies. (I'd put the new Doom on here too but I only just heard the whole thing this morning.)

21. Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album. Tush was the dirty hook that kept me coming back until the rest got caught in my head. Thank goodness for Ghostface.

22. Eccentric Soul - The Capsoul Label. So many semi-undiscovered gems from one tiny label.
23. Midwest Funk - 45s From Tornado Alley. Look no further than here to swell your mid-continent pride. Dante Carfagna does the homework.

24. Wax Poetics. If it doesn't get your fingers itching to look through some saggy, cat peed LP racks then you're dead inside.

25. Garden State - Zach Braff directs upper-Middle Class, mid-20's anchorless-ness that makes me happy regardless of personal shoulder chips & that cringe-worthy sequence involving the Shins song.
26. Scrubs. Along with Arrested Develoment below, one of the only worthwhile sitcoms on TV.

27. Arrested Development. The resurrection of Jason Bateman. One of the weirdest & best shows on TV. Who knew that Ron Howard had it in him to be involved in something like this? Jeffery Tambor!!!

28. Mythbusters. Although our less than basic cable leaves out the Discovery Channel, I will gladly wait out daylong BitTorrent downloads to watch them try to raise a sunken ship with ping pong balls on a tiny screen.

29. Beautiful Losers.
30. Morning Wood. Both recent books bring together hugely disparate artists all related by skateboarding, surfing, graffiti & other "marginalized" cultures. The work is fucking good.

31. Stephen Shore - Uncommon Places: The Complete Works. It's like the unexpurgated Bible.

32. ReadyMade Magazine. Even though we've yet to make anything from it's pages, it sure is inspiring.

33. The Boston Public Library. The Chicago Public Library & I got off on the wrong foot several times. Both of us felt it best to leave the other alone. Starting with a clean slate in Boston has allowed a new & fruitful relationship to blossom. Aside from the lack of magazine reading room (Am I missing it? Where is it?), I like everything about the library. It's so nice to be back in the comfortable, non-late fee owing bosom of public bookdom.

34. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger. I know I read some good books this year but this is one of the only ones I can remember. That must mean something.

35. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Michel Gondry. Is there anything better than seeing a great movie for free? I liked it so much I went back with Mary the next day & paid. I hope there's more forthcoming our favorite French video director.

36. DVD burning software. I still can't believe that it's as easy as it is.

37. M. Hulot's Holiday.
38. Mon Oncle - Jacques Tati. Criterion got around to reissuing these finally. No word on Playtime, though. Check out the Tativille site, too.

39. Jeffrey Brown
40. Anders Nilsen. The kids at the Holy Consumption of Chicago are alright.

41. The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone.

42. Huck Finn. The restaurant. How I miss thee.

43. Pittsburgh. They got bridges & Heather White.
44. Primanti Brothers sandwiches. Pittsburgh has these, too

45. Kanye West - College Dropout. I wore it out.

46. The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl. I believe I am a fan of historical fiction.
47. The Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson. I'm only 1/3 of the way through this trilogy that deals with math & science, vagabonds & pirates, natural philosophers & the church, the origins of modern banking & the stock exchange. and intrigue among European royals plus some other stuff.

48. Taking Pictures LP - Someone needs to put out this record.

49. 2046 - Wong Kar-wai. I just saw it on dvd in Chicago. I can't say much besides I want to see it again.

50. Graduate School. Worth all the trouble, so far.

For Real

It's not a joke. Brigitte Nielsen & Flavor Flav star in the "Surreal Life" spin-off "Strange Love".

A Lover & a Friend

The Home of the Groove audioblog has one of my favorite funk/soul tracks of all time up for download right now. It's the song that will draw me magnetically back to the dancefloor no matter how sober I am or wallflower-y I feel. Get it, get it!

Some lists

Feel like making your eyes hurt? Have some time read about all of the music that you 'missed' this year? People went crazy with their year-end lists! S/FJ's Top 50 albums + 150 singles! A triple MP3 CD from Michaelangelo Matos!? There's a nice long list of movies here or you can read the email discussion between some heavy hitters on Slate's "Movie Club". I'm gonna make a list of something here in a second.

Oh and here's a whole bunch of lists from the crew at WMFU.