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November 30, 2005
The Poor and the Fair and the Good
Whenever I see the title that "Tanglewood Numbers" song, I struggle to remember why it's so ingenious. And then it hits me. As someone on the Silver Jews board pointed out recently, the words correlate to grades (poor=D, fair=C, good=B), spelling out the initials of David C. Berman (DCB).
Posted by timothompson at 01:16 PM
Depraved Fangirls Interview with John Roderick
Depraved Fangirls Interview with John RoderickDFG: I get the feeling from hearing "Everything is Talking" that our whole information on demand, instant communication way of life these days is seriously compromising notoriously famous reclusive nature. Or is this another example of that famous Long Winters ambiguity? You're quite a visible presence on the band's message board and elsewhere about the Interweb, so it doesn't seem like you're too much of a Luddite. Is your relationship with technology a love/hate one?
JR: Technology is fine for me, as long as it's people driven. You know, I love to surf people's photo sites, or read their blogs, or catch up on my High School Reunion, or read their MySpace pages. What I fucking hate are when cash machines address me by my first name, or when I get auto-dialed, or spammed. That song is about the distance that's growing between people as a result of some corporate shit-for-brains thinking that a recorded message in a hip-hop dialect is going to make me forget that I wanted to talk to a fucking person.
Posted by timothompson at 12:04 AM
November 28, 2005
Peeing and Emotions
From a newsletter from The Grates on MySpace:
OK like I met a spiritual innovator on the plane on the way home from USA yesterday. Also on this plane, you would never believe it, this dude had 3 fits across from me that made him foam at the mouth. John, Alana and Patience just like sat there and did nothing, and I was all like "Can't anybody else see? This man has rabies! Hello?" and that's when this spiritual leader approached me. What he told me rang true again and again in my eras. He said "When women need to pee it actually takes use of a muscle to hold the pee in which is the opposite of men as it takes a muscle to let pee out. This is like my theory on human emotions. Women need work to hold emotions in where as with men it takes work to let them out."
Posted by timothompson at 12:40 PM
November 18, 2005
Truly Disappointed...
Donewaiting.com hosts a discussion of most disappointing albums of 2005 (not the most disappointing albums of all time). For me, I might put Beck and Teenage Fanclub on the list.
Posted by timothompson at 03:33 PM
November 16, 2005
Roger Ebert Explains How He Advised Oprah
At about this time, Oprah and I went out on a date. Well, actually two dates, but the one that made history began when we went to the movies. Afterward, we went to the Hamburger Hamlet for dinner, my treat.
"I don't know what to do," she told me. "The ABC stations want to syndicate my show. So does King World. The problem with syndication is that if your show isn't successful, you're off the air in three months. The ABC stations own themselves, so they can keep you on. Which way do you think I should go?"
I took a napkin and a ballpoint pen, and made some simple calculations.
Line 1: How much I made in a year for doing a syndicated television show.
Line 2: Times 2, because Siskel made the same.
Line 3: Times 2, because Oprah would be on for an hour, instead of half an hour.
Line 4: Times 5, because she would be on five days a week.
Line 5: Times 2, because her ratings would be at least twice as big as "Siskel & Ebert."
I pushed the napkin across the table. Oprah studied it for 10 seconds.
"Rog, I'm going with King World," she said.
Posted by timothompson at 03:51 PM
Memo: To Users
Go forth and generate content. Generate the fuck out of that content.
Posted by timothompson at 01:26 AM
November 15, 2005
Muppet Fan Halloween Parade 2005
Danny from Tough Pigs rolls out his fourth Muppet Halloween cavalcade (I guess last year's post linked by Boing Boing explains the ubiquity of Beaker costumes this year?).
Posted by timothompson at 02:10 AM
November 12, 2005
Shun GRRRREEED
When you hunger number one. It's no wonder under fun. Don't be mean to see the green. You get caught in the machine. You're caught in the machine.
-Deerhoof, "Wrong Time Capsule"
Video (created by martha colburn)
Posted by timothompson at 08:39 PM
November 09, 2005
Die, Hipster, Die
Someone in Philadelphia doesn't like the cool kids (thanks, Lee!).
Posted by timothompson at 10:10 AM
November 07, 2005
Concert Etiquette
So I get the feeling that people are a little perturbed by their fellow concertgoers lately. For the third time today, I've read a rant about how some idiot(s) at the show is (are) harshing the good times.
Exhibit A (Craigslist. I think I linked to a version of this before):
Yes, you in the pink Killers shirt. You must be a big fan. I know this not because of your attire (although that was a pretty good clue), but because of the way that you raised your hands and rocked them back and forth wildly in my field of vision for the entire show. At first, I admit I was annoyed by the distraction, but soon enough my annoyance turned to curiosity as I began to notice what you were doing.
It started off slowly. There would be a lyric saying "come on" or something similar and your raised hands would beckon slightly. I figured that you were kind of in the moment and perhaps dreaming about beckoning the dreamy midget lead singer to come ravish you in front of your meathead boyfriend. Fair enough. But then a few seconds later, there was a line saying "you shouldn't do that" or something similar and I noticed that you reverted to a wagging finger like Dikembe Mutumbo used to do after blocking a shot.
Exhibit B (mihow.com):
Toby Joe almost got into a fight with the entire O.C. Fan club. The two girls in front of us spoke about emailing boys the entire time AMC was on (the band I most wanted to see) and would clap wildly between songs. Pretty arrogant of them to clap at their own conversations. The sound at The Warsaw leaves a LOT to be desired. But, man, they have one kickin' disco ball.
I have said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, I really have to give *some* of this crap up which is why I left during Spoon's fourth song.
People don't talk during piano recitals, do they? Missy told us that doesn't happen. Why do folks feel the need to do so during other music shows? What happen?
Hey music-goers everywhere: SHUT THE HELL UP.
Exhibit C (Craigslist):
You suck my ass!
I shoulda punched you out first thing straightaway - then maybe your spastic gyrations and off-key yelling of song lyrics wouldn't have annoyed everyone in your general vicinity. Trust me - you are hated by all those who stood in front of Chris Walla about 20 feet from the stage near the stairs. The nice mother next to me wanted to beat your brains out with a rock...
Thank you sooooo much for ruining a perfectly lovely experience. Nobody paid $30 bucks to watch your lame ass flail and listen to you butcher the vocals. Speaking of your ass - that thing was outta control. A word to the wise - other people don't want your ass on them. Ever. Period.
Perhaps you missed that turn that would have taken you to the Bon Jovi concert or some equally inane rocker show where you could have done that cool backwards high five with your idiot pals. Who does that? Did you guys totally make that up all by yourselves?
Hell - even the girls you were with were annoyed. And when you tried to pick that one up - ah well, you shouldn't ever try to pick up a fat girl. Everybody knows that.
Please self-abort immediately if not sooner.
People are getting annoyed. Is it a generational thing? Is it people who like the OC versus the rest of the world? And why the intense hatred? Are people extra-sensitive? Is the music quieter?
Update: Michele from mihow.com emailed me a link to her earlier concert rant.
It made me think of a new solution to concert disturbances. Perhaps you could have concert zones. You could have the singing/drumming/air guitar zone, the text messaging zone, the marijuana smoking zone, the unlimited talking zone (somewhere in the back third), the sweaty zone, the drunks zone, the tall guy zone and the dancing with myself zone.
Posted by timothompson at 10:38 PM
Sam Bisbee: Music Licensing King
Went to Stereogum and learned that Cat Power had covered the Nerves'/Blondie song "Hanging on the Telephone" for a Cingular commercial. Looking for it on the Matador board, I then discover that Sam Bisbee produced it. According to his last news update, he's now licensing or releasing songs with MTV/Acuvue, CVS, Sundance, and GM in addition to his Cingular gig. And he doesn't even have a label. This guy could teach a course in the music licensing business.
Posted by timothompson at 02:42 AM
November 04, 2005
Flying Spaghetti Monster Halloween Costumes
After seeing somebody post a photo of a FSM Halloween costume on Flickr, I found a couple others and a photoset detailing how somebody made his costume. Wow, there's an even a Flickr pool for those geeks. Pastafarians unite!
Posted by timothompson at 11:26 AM
November 01, 2005
NaNoWriMo Spin-Offs
It's great how NaNoWriMo has encouraged new limited-time ventures for other creative genres. Lacunae is doing NaSoAlMo (record a solo album in a month) again, and now Defective Yeti has started WriAShorStorWe (write a short story in a week). There's Art Every Day Month, National Novel Editing Month and probably a few others I'm missing. Now if I could only get off my ass and complete one of these projects...
Update: A blog search found NaDruWriNi (National Drunk Writing Night). Now that I think I can handle.
Posted by timothompson at 02:06 PM