The Polyphonic Spree - PopMatters Concert Review

You know how I'm completely insane sometimes? And go on and on (on and on!) about the reason, that keeps me hanging on and on and on? Well, one of the reasons is The Polyphonic Spree.

And they're *coming* to Portland. (if I were my mom, i'd exclam that 14 times.)

Next Monday. And then on to Seattle the next night.

You. Must. Go.

I'm offering a 1/2 back money back guarantee on your ticket if you go and don't enjoy yourself. But if you do love the show (and yes, you will, you will, you will, you will), you have to buy me a beer.

The Mormon asked me once, "Miguel, so when you take ecstasy, what does that feel like?"

It feels a lot like a Polyphonic Spree show.

I dragged a whole bunch of folks last time, and I'm going to solicit their opinions and spam everyone on my email list. And then I'm going to do the same thing to all of my Seattle friends.

I'm really not kidding about this. Email me, and I'll send you a track.

Let me put it this way: I rearranged my flight plans to NYC, and now I'll be missing the Burning Man Decompression party in order to see them, and I don't regret it for even half an instance.

Go here for some music, and read a review below.

The Polyphonic Spree - PopMatters Concert Review: "Simultaneously original and wholly derivative, spooky and super-positive, clean (as in sober) and wasted in 1960s style bacchanalia, the Polyphonic Spree kick around in peak pop moments for five, six minutes at a time. Imagine your favorite Beatles moment, maybe a certain bass line, or a coda. Now imagine letting it ride 10 times as long. Deliriously dizzying, right? DeLaughter reaches for the heavens as he sings. He's like a cross between Joe Cocker and Wayne Coyme of the Flaming Lips. He's surrounded by a stage packed tight with stringed instruments and horns, a theremin, you know, the usual rock band trappings. There's a French horn player, a trombonist, two keyboardists, a flautist, a violinist, a trumpeter. There's 20 (give or take a few) human voices singing at the tops of their lungs and it sounds like hundreds and they're jumping around the stage like spastic flying fish. This is sonic and visual saturation. This is monkey mind overload.
Check your skepticism at the door. Most of the audience is shaking their ass, standing when they could be sitting, smiling when they could be frowning. It's hard, you have to really try, to keep a straight face, to resist the impulse to get up and dance. This is one of those live concerts where, if you breathe deeply, relax even the slightest bit, you just might feel a shiver pass through your body. It's irony-free symphonic mayhem.
The sound of hundreds of people singing, ecstatically, reminds us of every church service, every National Anthem, every sporting event, every Bic lighter encore we've ever witnessed. Think of a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Pet Sounds, and the ending coda of George Harrison's 'Isn't it a Pity [Version One]' from 1970's All Things Must Pass. Th"

"AUBERNICA" : WIZZNUTZZ.COM

A parody of Guernica, commenting on the hysteria around the Pacers/Pistons-RonArtest lunacy: "AUBERNICA" : WIZZNUTZZ.COM

Polyphonic Portland!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh. I'll be in NYC and will have to miss a 2 date NW tour of The Polyphonic Spree (with Stephen Malkmus opening, strangely).

Go see them, go see them, go see them. You won't be disappointed. In fact, you'll be filled with joy and light and sunshine and won't mind the darkness and rain for the next 2 weeks.

I'm seriously considering rescheduling my flight to nyc and missing decomp to go see these guys. They play the Showbox in Seattle the next night.

DOUBLETEE CONCERTS - Roseland Theater - Schedule

The Puddle :: View topic - On the salvational value of pornj

A most remarkable and inspiring post from a fellow disorienter on the value of orange fur, also known as pornj.

Which, I might add, is used on the cover of my portfolio.

The Puddle :: View topic - On the salvational value of pornj: "Two very intense pornj moments this past 2 days :

- At the MoMA, which thankfully just reopened in Manhattan, you might see the greatest piece of pornj ever put together. My contempt for this bastard of Andy Warhol notwithstanding, I have to say that his 'camouflage' series, which coats the walls leading to the museum's coat check, features the most amazing juxtaposition of hot pink and bright orange : about as pornj as it comes. Keep your eyes open next time, I think it's on the third panel.

- So tonight we were all quietly watching a movie at Martina's when Michelle and I decided to call it a night and stepped out into the November night. A wondrous, shiny, bristling piece of pornj fur had been awaiting lady Michelle there for quite a while, and the goddess had no sooner got it in her hands that she found the most appropriate use for it upon stepping out into a light rain: reaching into the bag, she carefully unrolled the fur and placed it around our shoulders and heads, as a shield against Zeus's whims - the slimy bastard having suddenly decided to shed droplets on us.

Equipped with such a magically pornj aura, Michelle was kindly walking me over to a subway station when her eye caught sight of a familiar silver cowboy hat : it so happened to be no less than Lonnie's, making its way home with its proud owner, just a few blocks away. Despite the uncanny character of the situation, it should come as no surprise to a Disorienter that pornj and silver should naturally pair up together and chat in the street - come rain, come shine.

The moral of the story is thus threefold : pornj protects from rain, brings friends to you, but most importantly one should always travel with a goddess. "

scenestars aka more adventures in mp3blogland

It's been a gazillion years since i've met someone that I know mainly through the Internet.

(Waiting while ya'll make your jokes.)
(Waiting.)

(Better now?)

But I was thinking how cool it would be to make friends in this mp3 blogger area. The people all are a) smart. b) like music. and c) well, we've talked about my boredom and loneliness.

Anyway, I like the sassiness exhibited here, but not in a Sassy magazine like way. I also like the selection of tracks. Most mp3 blogs are too cool to put up a U2 track. I don't intend to be but then again, to paraphrase some other crap: I'm not planning on being an mp3 blog. Just a blog that *happens* to be hosting mp3s. Kapice?

Oh - the last time I technically met someone from online would've been through disorient. (Claire Singletrack: Oh, you're magellan ). But really, everybody on disorient gets a free pass until proven otherwise. They're pre-screened. Nope, the last time I met people was through an early version of a Gator discussion board from AOL 2.0. We all met by the North End Zone entrance. It was really dorky. Sports nerds + early AOL members. Well, you can understand why it was 8 years before I ever tried something like that again. You can stay my cyberspace friend, thankyouverymuch.

Crap, I hate this mini-insomnia.

scenestars: "This song is dedicated to all of the guys I've been hanging out with lately. The ones that think that if we spend too much time together, I'm gonna fall head-over-heels in love with them, so they have to blow me off every now and then, just to make sure I don't get my hopes up. I was sitting in this guy's apartment over the weekend, when he busted out with the I'm not really into relationships right now talk. What I wish I would have said was, 'Stop. Look around at this place. Can this really be all mine? Do you really think that's what I want? You don't need a girlfriend, you need a mother and I'm not interested in cleaning up your life or taking care of you. So shut your piehole and let's make-out.'

For all those men who say, 'Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.' Here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage, why?

Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage...

-Andy Rooney"

A Little Yellow Dog: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley

Finished reading A Little Yellow Dog: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley tonight, with tim-MAH! the dog sitting next to me on the couch. I think his struggles and search for redemption whilst being tempted by, erm, previous indulgences kinda hit me and helped put me in this strange mood.

Btw, I'm a bookmarker. And a blogger. If I could (and someday I will, ohyes, I will) I'd blog the great sections of the book and put 'em up for your edification.

OK, I'll put one in the comments section of this post.

Anyhow, about the book: From the pub: November 1963: Easy's settled into a steady gig as a school custodian. It's a quiet, simple existence — but a few moments of ecstasy with a sexy teacher will change all that.

When the lady vanishes, Easy's stuck with a couple of corpses, the cops on his back, and a little yellow dog who's nobody's best friend. With his not-so-simple past snapping at his heels, and with enemies old and new looking to get even, Easy must kiss his careful little life good-bye — and step closer to the edge....


From someone else: "'Early 1960s black Los Angeles is alive in the look and talk of the book....Easy is a cool dude struggling to stay alive and make sense of his tough and tawdry world.' Boston Sunday Globe "

Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation

2 ladyfriends from other cities will be travelling here tomorrow. Perhaps they'll be groped. But at least The Terrorists Will Not Have Won.^TM
The New York Times > Business > Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation: "These women and a good many others, both frequent and occasional travelers, say they are furious about recent changes in airport security that have increased both the number and the intensity of pat-downs at the nation's 450 commercial airports. And they are not keeping quiet.
In dozens of interviews, women across the country say they were humiliated by the searches, often done in view of other passengers, and many said they had sharply reduced their air travel as a result."

again! again!

Location: Portland
Work prospects: Medium ¹
Drinks: 0
Drugs: none since really late Saturday. and hopefully none for a while.
Back: Not bad. Held up OK to stationary bike and stretches
Effort: Woke up at 12. But worked out. Give it a 3.
Engagement: previous 3 days - 1.7, today 3.
Loneliness: 2 (1 being alone in a fundamentalist city)
Newness: 1.
Percentage of self that believes that next year at this time I will be happy: 27% (+ 3%) ²
Brutally truthful answer to 'How you doin?': Finally better from the weekend. And lonely.
The only even prime number of weeks that it's been since they picked up the trash even though Jen the New Roommate asked him to call (also the only even prime number of times): 2.

Today's extras (randomly chosen).
NTIDFSE - Um. Nothing. I did nothing nice for someone else to today. Unless we're counting the dog. Tim-MAH!
Items knocked off to-do list - 2.
New magazine read on treadmill: Esquire, the Genius Issue! ³


1 - (books out at 2 new places, but no call back yet from one of the headhunters)
2 - it's a strange thing. sometimes when i stop and think about my crappy life for too long, it makes me think it'll get crappy enough for me to do something about it instead of just taking more drugs.
3 - I can't believe I'm that guy at the gym on the stationary bike with Esquire. Fuck. I really am close to rock bottom.
4 - Happy birthday to Sarah Stoebner. That was fun. If ultimately painful.

Word of a Free Concert, Next to an Oft-Sold Bridge, Spreads Quickly

Shout out to Joel Bloom and Liz King, now residents of Crooklyn.

Warm up the couch, kids. I'll be there in 2 weeks.

The New York Times > New York Region > Word of a Free Concert, Next to an Oft-Sold Bridge, Spreads Quickly: "2 played a not-so-secret free concert yesterday afternoon at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park on the bank of the East River in Brooklyn. For slightly more than an hour, with the Brooklyn Bridge overhead and the lights of downtown Manhattan as a backdrop, the band played songs from its new album, 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,' and a few older songs to thousands of well-behaved fans ready to shout 'Yeah!' or clap along at any cue from Bono"

Building a Brand by Not Being a Brand

Interesting article on American Apparel. If anybody's got a link to the huge NYTimes Magazine article about Pabst, I'd love to see the comparison. (Quick someone pitch a book idea. Tippingpoint. Tippingpoint. Tippingpoint.)

Oh, and I might be slow on the uptake, but lately I've been coming to the realization (see the last sentence) that Being Entertained doesn't equal Being Happy. You probably already knew that, though.

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Building a Brand by Not Being a Brand: "'Kids today mimic their parents at the same age, not just in looks and style, but in values,' Mr. Charney said. 'They want to learn something, they want to be happy. At the same time it doesn't feel good when their happiness is based on exploitation.'"

Sean.Keener.org: Caring vs. not caring

Many of you have met my non-advertising Portland friend (patent pending) Sean Keener. If you didn't know, he's got a blog, too. As well as a travel business. Anyways, I liked this post that he put up on his blog about having game when it comes to girls, and not having game, and not caring and so on and so forth. So I ranted away on his comments section. And I don't feel like blogging the whole damn thing that exists on his blog, so if you'd like, go read what Sean says, and then what I say. I'm looking forward to seeing what our friend Jen Leo says as well.

Sean.Keener.org: Caring vs. not caring: "'As long as you don't give a shit, they come for ya. The less I try, the more opportunities I get and it's all good.' is the jist of what I hear sometimes. And from the look of it, I can see that this 'strategy' works well for some.
Well, I've thought about this. And as I get older, I do care a bit less than when I was 13 asking out the girl in the seat next to me in class, but I would hardly call it 'not caring'. Just can't do it. I care. I wish the best for everyone, not just a girl that I am interested in. "

i'm with ricky

this shouldn't interest the non-sports fans of you. but my fantasy football team name started out this year as 'i'm with ricky'. i changed it a few weeks ago to 'ricky vs. Xtian jihad'. i mate change it now to 'i'm with ronnie'.

anyways, looks like ricky may be able to come back.

ESPN.com - NFL - Clayton: Williams' attorney paves way for return: "In the end, the terms of their settlement between Williams' attorney and the league are fair. He failed a drug test last December that made him eligible for a four-game suspension. Williams challenged the test, but before the challenge warranted a hearing, he opted to retire July 25. By retiring, his four-game suspension became a one-year suspension.
Williams traveled the world, from China to Australia, living in tents and in the wilderness. He didn't deal with his career or financial matters. The Dolphins sued him for breach of contract and he now owes the Dolphins $8 million."

FOX Broadcasting Company: HOUSE

Just got done watching "House M.D." on Fox. House is like a benevolent Romano from ER. But has a crutch like, um, that other doctor on ER. And a beard like Carter.

Not bad. I would recommend it. I couldn't find anything on Television Without Pity.

Anyhow, lot's of self-pitying and self-loathing crap to write if i feel like it after Law & Order SVU. FOX Broadcasting Company: HOUSE

Target : Wake Up Call

Holy crap!

You can have someone from Target's website call and wake you up. I swear to God this was a program we'd written at Voxeo, except that we would've had Mr. Perfect SAT Score himself, Tony Danza call you.

Target : Wake Up Call

RollingStone.com: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb : U2 : Review

The great thing about reviews about new albums from bands that have been around a while, is that the reviewer gets the chance to put the band's past, and therefore soul, in perspective.

Haven't heard anything more than the 30 second song on that tv commercial, but I really love the way this review's written. I guess I'll have to get the album to see if he's right about the songs...

Btw, for those of you that are Chemical Brothers/Q-Tip fans, their new collaboration, the first single off of 2005's album of the same name, Galvanize is out on iTunes. Stomping.

RollingStone.com: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb : U2 : Review: "Halfway through the excellent new U2 album, Bono announces, 'I like the sound of my own voice.' Well-said, lad; well-said. Ever since U2 started making noise in Dublin several hundred bloody Sundays ago, Bono has grooved to the sound of his own gargantuan rockness. Ego, shmego -- this is one rock-star madman who should never scale down his epic ambitions. As the old Zen proverb goes, you will find no reasonable men on the tops of great mountains, and U2's brilliance is their refusal to be reasonable. U2 were a drag in the 1990s, when they were trying to be cool, ironic hipsters. Feh! Nobody wants a skinny Santa, and for damn sure nobody wants a hipster Bono. We want him over the top, playing with unforgettable fire. We want him to sing in Latin or feed the world or play Jesus to the lepers in his head. We want him to be Bono. Nobody else is even remotely qualified. "

McDiary

Location: Portland
Work prospects: Medium¹
Drinks: 2 1/2 glasses of Rioja (running to kitchen) ²
Drugs: none since really late Friday
Back: Not bad. Held up OK to stationary bike and stretches
Effort: Woke up at 11. But worked out. Give it a 4.
Engagement: 3-5.
Loneliness: 2.8 (1 being alone in a fundamentalist city)
Newness: 2.
Percentage of self that believes that next year at this time I will be happy: 24% (+ 2%)
Brutally truthful answer to 'How you doin?': Not as off as usual.
The only even prime number of people that I called to go see the movie "Hero" at the Kennedy School: 2.

Today's extras (randomly chosen).
NTIDFSE - Bought Hart lunch for his birthday
Items knocked off to-do list - 1.
New magazine read on treadmill: Giant³


1 - book at new headhunter whose got a lead at a cool shop in a cold place
2 - Conde de Valdemar - Crianza 2000
3 - Giantmag.com. They use footnotes up the yin-yang twins, too.
4 - Shout out to Adam for showing me how to do superscripts.

Yoshimi Battles the Hip Hop Robots

News (just now? why? where have you been, what drugs have you been doing and why haven't any of the people that have been with you told you about this before. now taking submissions for new friends: music fiend category.)

I'll rustle about for a download... Sounds great though.

: "I've had this sitting on my desktop in a .zip file for a couple of weeks now, and I have to say that I wish I had opened it up earlier.
If you haven't heard of it, Yoshimi Battles the Hip Hop Robots is an album of remixed altered reinterpreted seriously mashed and altered hip hop and rap tunes. And it is brilliant. I wasn't really a fan of 50 Cent until the first track ended.
The Kleptones have made this album freely availble for download here on their website, so I recommend you go and download it now before this gets crushed. Let's face it, you could probably put money on that happening in the near future.
This is very much an interesting album, along with DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album I think we're looking at two important and possibly influential albums for the future of hip hop. It might be an interesting couple of years coming up for the music scene.
of course, then again, maybe not."

Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team (2004)

I went to the gym today and did a round on the stationary bike. Maybe the crazy-ass endorphins have conspired to create the posts that are going on tonight.

Anyhow, have you ever looked at metacritic.com? It's a compiler of reviews of film, video and music (speaking of which is there a pornmetacritic? i need to know these things)

I was going to go to the Pitchfork review as my favorite, but there's another great quote and another and another... Even the worst review (at the bottom) makes it sound like a good thing.
Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team (2004)

The Go! Team

HTML put enthusiastic stuff about 'The Go! Team' here.

you can come and listen to The Go! Team, here: The Go! Team: "'The sampledelic Go! Team sound like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing Double Dutch' Q"

I just downloaded their cd today. I've been rocking out to 'The Power is On' for a few weeks. This is what the Polyphonic Spree's cousins listened to after they moved away from Austin and into Brooklyn.

Remember all that stuff about irony and how pure joy sans irony is one of the most beautiful things that music can give us? Yeah, it's fuzzy for me, too. Drugs, y'know. Where were we? Oh, yeah. Put the top down on your convertible, roll down the windows and go 45 in a school zone to your hearts content.

And then go and have an ice cream cone. A clown ice cream cone, if your heart so desires.

Oh, crap. I think I just giggled myself to tears. Go watch the video on the page on the link above. smile, smile, smile, joy, joy, joy. it's 10pm here. i think i'm going to go run my car into the plate glass at the local Baskin-Robbins and eat as many clown clones as i can before the cops come and arrest my happy ass.

Cokemachineglow.com - Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken

OK, this is the last gushing heap of gushing that i lavish on ms. case.

First, a chance to check out an acoustic performance at kexp.org which i think lacks the energy of the live shows i've seen in person.

And here, another review: in hypertext parlance .

Cokemachineglow.com - Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken: "A live release from Neko Case was just inevitable. Though on record, she has been---since her 1997 debut, The Virginian---expanding her sound into one of alt-country's most intriguing and versatile, her live shows have always remained a spectacle all their own. Never one to rehash her latest material with barely enough energy to exert the songs and a nonchalant 'thank you' or two, Case has become just as known for her genre-bending albums as her ability to pull it all off live with a personality---and voice, for that matter---that cannot possibly be accurately contained on record.

In fact, you could catch her shows on a regular basis, and still hear her perform something new with each one. Covers, from traditional to obscure favorites from Case's own trusted cannon, often abound, and when we do get an original, it's often revamped or performed with her supporting band (she's had several over the years, including the severely underrated, but now defunct, Local Rabbits) taking far more than a subtle background role. Like Neil Young, Case selects her backing groups with a certain sound in mind, and that understanding goes a long way in making her live shows what they are.

Enter the Sadies: a Toronto-based spaghetti-western rock quartet that, on top of touring with Neko earlier this year (Tigers' songs are culled from seven days worth of shows in three venues in Chicago and Toronto; it is not, however, Case's first time working or touring with them), backed up Rick White on the self-titled Unintended record and recently released their own new studio recording, Favourite Colours. On Tigers' few familiar moments, like 'Blacklisted' (the Sadies' Dallas Good played guitar on the studio version) and 'Favorite' (co-written by the Sadies in t"

sfweekly.com | Neko Case Is God | 2003-05-21

See, other people have fallen for her voice as well.

sfweekly.com | Neko Case Is God | 2003-05-21: "Neko Case Is God
OK, maybe we're exaggerating, but her daredevil voice takes her work into addictive territory
BY HIYA SWANHUYSER
hiya.swanhuyser@sfweekly.com

Call Neko Case whatever you want; just go see her.

Let's get this out of the way: Rolling Stone says she's country. Salon.com says she's not. Most other reviewers say she's altcountry. Neko Case says, 'I don't want to have to kowtow to the fact that the name 'country' has been taken away from the kind of music it used to be and given to something shitty. I like to think that I play country music, not a different kind, but the actual kind. I'm not alternative at all.' The fact is, like Patsy, Hank, and Elvis before her, it just doesn't matter. She's too good. Anyone who wants to discuss it further needs to go die.

Blacklisted, Case's third solo effort, proves that she's a genius -- no other word will do. Through her first two albums -- the super-countrified The Virginian and the unclassifiable Furnace Room Lullaby -- a lot of people thought she was just a weird girl with a really good voice.

This release, without taking away either of those impressions, has knocked listeners upside the head, left them head over heels in love. It's a Johnny Cash-grade album, the work of an artist with a perfect vision and, of course, that voice: the booming, pitch-perfect, sweet-and-sour snarl that likes to drive too fast and spit gravel.

We first fell for it in the early '90s, when Case revamped Wanda Jackson's "Mean Mean Man" by cranking it up to double time with her punk band Maow.

Blacklisted, apparently not a reference to the time she got kicked out of the Grand Ole Opry for taking her shirt off..."

Kutie Magazine

Lookie here, Indie SoftCore (TM).

But seriously. Even if she were butt ugly i'd go see her concert on the 29th at the Aladdin(but we'll never know if that's true, will we?). Such a huge fucking voice (it filled the Gorge marvelled The Crush once. Sigh.)

Just downloaded the new album 'The Tigers Have Spoken' from iTunes. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

I'm not willing to step up to Polyphonic Spree levels of half-back money guarantee, but I do think all of you in Portland should go. I think it'll be a good date concert. Or, it might be a good jealousy, low self-esteem inducing concert. Come find out for yourself.

Keener. The link to a Neko Case mp3 should go here. (hint, hint, hint.)

Kutie Magazine | D?lana: "Kutie caught up with Neko Case minus her boyfriends the day before she pulled up stakes and moved to Chicago. Lucky for us she was in a playful mood, because, friend, this tiger from Tacoma can be as fiery as her flaming red hair. Next time you slip one of Neko?s cds into the player and fall into the beauty of her timeless voice of heartache remember the woman you saw here ? full of fun, yet ever a misplayed eightball away from a mood to burn bridges!"

The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share. | Creative Commons

While we're waiting for Keener to hook me up so that this can be a semi-mp3 blog, here's 16 tracks by some really cool artists such as Beastie Boys, My Morning Jacket & more.

The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share. | Creative Commons: "The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.
These musicians are saying that true creativity needs to be open, fluid, and alive. When it comes to copyright, they are pro-choice. Here are 16 songs that encourage people to play with their tunes, not just play them."

Testing superscripts

This is the best idea¹ I've heard of. Now you come up with one!

¹ - using superscripts as suggested by Adam via email.

Yahoo! News - TiVo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers

Interesting article on TiVo figuring out a way to, depending on how you look at it, a) intrude into your tv watching and sell off your privacy for few shekels, or b) give advertisers what they've been paying for anyway.

The last paragraph, quoted below, reads strangely like a paragraph from an Onion story.

Yahoo! News - TiVo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers: "'Watching [an ad] is one thing,' TiVo loyalist Calogero says. 'Interacting with it is something that the consumer is going to need a little more reassurance that their information isn't being sold. I mean, TiVo knows how many times I rewinded to see Janet Jackson's breast come up. How much more do they know about me?'"

For O.D.B., Fun Was Too Much or Not at All

Love the observation at the end of this paragraph about the late Dirt McGirt. Side story. Just rented Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch's series of short films about, well, coffee and cigarettes. The GZA/RZA/Billmurray (one word, the way the Wu-Tang pronounce it) skit is hilarious. Go rent it, now. And pour out a little of your morning latte for the ODB.

The New York Times > Arts > Music > Critic's Notebook: For O.D.B., Fun Was Too Much or Not at All: "More recently, after a series of arrests (including one for possession of crack cocaine), O.D.B. was sentenced to two years in prison; no doubt some people who read about it imagined him as just another rapper in trouble with the law. But in life, as on record, O.D.B. was a hip-hop anomaly. For hip-hop stars, unlike rock 'n' roll stars, there is nothing glamorous about being out of control. O.D.B. burned hot in a world where stars are supposed to stay cool. "

again! again!

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. I've been all laid up with sickness.

Hey, does anyone know how to do superscript in html? i'd like to use footnotes.



"Location: Portland
Work prospects: Low (same as the past 5 years)
Drinks: none since Saturday
Drugs: none since really late Friday
Back: Been good until today. Today, got cranky.
Effort: free pass for being sick - but I did finally get my book out to the new headhunter.
Engagement: 2-4 with nyquil additives
Loneliness: 2.6 (1 being alone in a fundamentalist city)
Newness (things experienced/tried/attempted): 3.5.
Percentage of self that believes that next year at this time I will be happy: 22% (holding steady)
Brutally truthful answer to 'How you doin?': Fightin' off a cold. And boredom.
The only even prime number of times today I thought of telling my new roommate what a great laugh she has: 2.

Today's extras (randomly chosen).
NTIDFSE - Left an extra 40 minutes of downtown parking on those green meters
Items knocked off to-do list - 3.
CDs ripped into iTunes and then iPod ~ 9."

Astral Slide

Have (ahem, finally) made plans for the race to the finish of 2004. A strange year - the ups were downs and caused the downs that were ups and nothing met expectations and everything was utterly familiar and the same.

Sorry. It's either the cabin fever or the lack of drugs and alcohol for 4 days that are causing it.

Where were we? Oh yeah.

So, I bought a ticket to NYC to go to Astral Slide, the NYC decompression. I'll hang there for 2 weeks to interview - just like when I was there this summer, except this time i'll actually interview. And then down to Orlando for a week for Christmas. Then back here (Portland) for New Years. Or possibly, LA or SF. We'll see. So many variables.

Schedule:
Now-Dec 3: Portland (30% chance of a Seattle trip)
Dec 4- Dec 20: NYC (10% chance of Connecticuit, 40% chance of a sidetrip to Boston)
Dec 20-Dec 26: Orlando (97% chance of going insane)
Dec 26-New Years: TBD.

disorien4, as always, will have a full presence there as always. you can see the party at Two Boots here. Yes, that's our friend and (cue: ballad music) Secret Blogggeeerrrrrrrr. That's what you are... Kate. And friend Steph, who I'll be dining with for Thanksgiving. Joel Bloom! You are to meet these people. Or at least go to decomp.

Here's what the Astral Slide site has to say about that event.

: "We spent our time in the desert wandering among the stars, and now it is time to come down, to reenter our bodies. To shed cold space for warm contact, to trade the rhythms of planetary movement for the pulse of living blood. Welcome to Astral Slide- descend from the Vault of Heaven. "

The Onion | Nation's Poor Win Election For Nation's Rich

Leave it to The Onion.

The Onion | Nation's Poor Win Election For Nation's Rich: "Kaldrin was one of many who listed moral issues among their primary reasons for voting Republican.

Above: Bush supporters vote in Kendall, FL.
'Our society is falling apart?our treasured values are under attack by terrorists,' said Ellen Blaine of Givens, OH, a tiny rural farming community as likely to be attacked by terrorists as it is to be hit by a meteor. 'We need someone with old-time morals in the White House. I may not have much of anything in this world, but at least I have my family.'"

Bobby Bare Jr. on KEXP 90.3 FM - where the music matters

Live performances from Bobby Bare Jr. I'd recommend Adorable Beast.

KEXP 90.3 FM - where the music matters: "Bobby Bare Jr.
Comic lyricist Bobby Bare, Jr. brings an eclectic mix of sparse rock, loose pop and barroom Americana to a session of live songs off his album 'From The End of Your Leash.-M. Myers"

Sorry Everybody

When I used to make excuses at Miami Ad School or apologize, Ron would always browbeat me down to saying 'I'm sorry, there isn't any excuse.'

Kinda feel this way with the world. Again, how do we direct the terrorists at the red *counties* ? Posts from the MercuryDan Savage a'comin...

2 quick notes: 1, I'm posting a dream I had this morning later and I'd like to state for the record, that I wasn't currently on drugs. 2. tonight are Portland's Rosey awards. More on that later, too.

Sorry Everybody

Read the FAQ page, too. I actually find it more entertaining than the reg'lar page.

the michael knights' diary

again! again!: Miguel Caballero's Diary - news and more on the making of what would be a very dull movie, even for Lifetime: "Location: Portland
Work prospects: Medium (same as yesterday)
Drinks: 2 glasses of Rioja
Drugs: none
Back: Slightly crankier, but was able to ride the stationary bike
Effort: 2.5 (out of 10, 1 being no effort) - spec ads
Engagement: 3-5 (slept in, little engagement with other folks)
Loneliness: 3.2 (10 being spending an amazing weekend with someone)
Newness (things experienced/tried/attempted): 5. Putting this category encouraged and reminded me to try a couple of new eating spots
Percentage of self that believes that next year at this time I will be happy: 22% (up +1%)
Brutally truthful answer to 'How you doin?': About the same as yesterday, but rejoining the gym and getting some exercise and trying some new things hasn't actually made me feel better per se, but made me feel slightly more optimistic.
The only even prime number of a sequel my roommate has rented on DVD today: 2.

Today's extras as suggested via the comments sectcion of the previous mcdiary post.
#Mi.s@mESOL-txi-nwbz-/5h=0 (see previous similar posts comments.)
M. spent wishing i lived somewhere else - sunset til 8pm.
suggested/JLeo - Oracle Night by Paul Aster
hearing parts of Shrek2 from living room
It Is On! by United States of Electronica
NTIDFSE - Left a hopeful comment on my secret friend's blog
Hours awake 5:45-8:45, 11:45-present
Items knocked off to-do list - 2.

Copy, Right?

Where do I find music? In the mp3 section of the blogosphere, for one. This one features nothing but cover songs. An odd niche. Like dressing every day like you were going to a theme party.

Eventually, that's gotta get old, right?

Still love the stuff. I just couldn't do it.

Copy, Right?: "Where I belong, I'm right.
I wish I had more time in my week to point you all in the direction of covers on other mp3 blogs when they arise, but I just don't. Covers are immensely popular in blogland and they're everywhere. Still, I found a few extra minutes today, so here are a few that might interest you."

We Are All Dubya's Doormat / Newsflash for ordinary Repubs and born-agains: Bush doesn't care about you, either

More bitter and pessimistic and less funny than usual and most remarkable for calling this presidency 'Dubya Dubya II'.

I deeply want Bush to fail and the Republicans and Karl Rove to fail but I don't want our country to fail. I'm not entirely certain that these aren't mutually exclusive ideas. Ah, cognitive dissonance and insomnia go hand-in-hand like any God-fearing couple.

We Are All Dubya's Doormat / Newsflash for ordinary Repubs and born-agains: Bush doesn't care about you, either: "We Are All Dubya's Doormat
Newsflash for ordinary Repubs and born-agains: Bush doesn't care about you, either"

Television Without Pity ? FAQs

Came across this term in a review on a wrestling site. Many folks love the television without pity. You may, too. Me, all my TV watching is WWE, CSI or Law & Order, and it's not as if I'm losing anything on the last 2 by missing a show.

Oh, what's that you say? David Caruso's character Horatio was serious and intense but still cool about something? Man, I shoulda taped that episode.

Television Without Pity ? FAQs: "Anvil/anvilicious: Used to indicate obvious or heavy-handed writing that has no regard for the viewer's intelligence, thus bludgeoning them over the head with parallels et al. in the manner of Wile E. Coyote and his Acme Brand anvils"

Stay out the way of the Southern Thing...

The Drive-By Truckers, emblematic of a South that thinks, a South that's determined to both remember and forget its past, and a damn fine band to boot.

Side note: What in the hell happened to Zach and Sue that I met at the Drive-By Truckers show? Must call them.

Drive By Truckers: "Somewhere in Alabama, there are two towns with the same name. The neighboring communities were at war with each other and each bitterly claimed the right to the name. It was not a particularly fancy or memorable name, but maybe it was a matter of pride. At any rate, they sued... "

Miguel Caballero's Diary - news and more on the making of what would be a very dull movie, even for Lifetime

In a pastiche/homage/parody/blatant rip-off of Bridget Jones's Diary , I decided that I will start updating you with a few figures and notes that are the same every week.

Here's a problem. I've not read the book. I think that she writes down thinks like weight, calories, snogs, and shags. Drugs and alcohol, too, right?

BTW, please read the footnote to this one, especially if, you are a) a prospective employer b) a prospective romantic involvement or c) my mom.

So, here, is the inaugural edition...

Location: Portland
Work prospects: Medium
Drinks: 5-6 PBRs
Drugs: minimal.
Back: Not too bad.
Effort: 1.5 (out of a possible 10, 1 being no effort)
Engagement: 4-7 (hard to say with a Halo dominated day)
Loneliness: 3.6 (10 being spending an amazing weekend with someone)
Newness (things experienced/tried/attempted): 4. But the sequel to a video game really can't rate *that* high.
Percentage of self that believes that next year at this time I will be happy: 21%
Brutally truthful answer to 'How you doin?': Shut up, I'm playing Halo.
The only even prime number: 2. Still.

Feel free to submit a Statistic you would like to see. If we're lucky, or if someone's really bored, we might even learn how to create, save *and* post a pie chart.

Shout out to Jeff Alton.

Salon.com Books | "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell

And this partial review, too. But I don't have a Salon account. Maybe you do.

Salon.com Books | "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell: "'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell
From 19th century seafaring yarn to nuclear-power muckraking to a cloned servant in the cyberpunk future, this dazzling series of interlocked narratives is one of the summer's biggest books.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Laura Miller

Sept. 2, 2004 | David Mitchell is a spookily protean writer. His favored technique -- he used it in his first novel, 'Ghostwritten' -- is to build a long narrative out of shorter ones, stories told in vastly different voices and styles, then cinch the whole patchwork together with some supernal device that reveals their underlying connections. In 'Ghostwritten,' he couldn't manage to pull off that final, unifying gesture, but his third novel, 'Cloud Atlas,' is far more convincing, a genuine and thoroughly entertaining literary puzzle. "

The Village Voice: Books: Only Connect . . . and Connect . . . by Jessica Winter

Enjoyed this book, Cloud Atlas, a random pick-up at Powell's City of Books. The sequences within sequences work a delight, if you trust that they will reward you.

The review comes from the Village Voice via the site ReviewsOfBooks.com .

The Village Voice: Books: Only Connect . . . and Connect . . . by Jessica Winter: "Only Connect . . . and Connect . . .
by Jessica Winter
August 17th, 2004 11:10 AM

David Mitchell echoes Sterne, Melville, Huxley, Waugh, Bradbury, and Amis fils.

Cloud Atlas
By David Mitchell
Random House, 509 pp., $14.95

'As an experienced editor,' proclaims down-at-heel London literary agent Timothy Cavendish, 'I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.' Woe betide Mr. Cavendish, then, were he to discover that he's a character in Cloud Atlas, a veritable gadgetorium of narrative contraptions. David Mitchell's third novel is so tricked out, in fact, that advance proofs came with a disclaimer from the publishing director of Random House, who confesses that he thought pages had gone missing from his manuscript when it vaulted mid-sentence?mid-word, actually?from the South Seas diary of a 19th-century notary to the epistolary plaints of a penniless composer in 1931 Belgium. The epic unfurls as no less than a journal within a series of letters within a mystery novel within a movie (or, perhaps, a lovingly detailed description of said movie) within a convict's last interview within an old man's reminiscence. Each new narrative irruption opens a fissure in the preceding groundwork (usually leaving behind a cliff with a protagonist dangling off it) until Mitchell hits his novel's deep-earth kernel?a futurist folktale of sorts, spun 'round the campfire in a Twainian vernacular?and then tunnels back out again...

Indeed, once Cloud Atlas reaches its halfway point, it begins falling into sixfold lockstep with the generic demands of third-act resolution—each strand eventually ties itself into a neat bow of explain-it-all confrontation and/or death-defying great escape. (Two denouements in particular could have been processed at the Robert McKee factory.) But so long as the heads are still popping off Mitchell's Russian doll like champagne corks, his novel glows with a fizzy, dizzy energy, pregnant with possibility and whispering in your ear: Listen closely to a story, any story, and you'll hear another story kicking inside it, eager to meet the world. "

Herald.com | 11/08/2004 | Where's the morality in Bush's policy?

More on faith, and Jesus, and lying with prostitutes and lepers.

Back to Halo2.

Herald.com | 11/08/2004 | Where's the morality in Bush's policy?: "have to thank Jimmy Carter for saving my sanity.
Granted, his was not a presidency one looks back to with fondness. Gas lines stretched forever, Iran took our people hostage, and there was disco, besides.
But Carter's ex-presidency has been a model of that unofficial institution. He has built homes for the poor, mediated wars, helped feed the hungry in Africa, fought disease in Latin America. In so doing, Carter, a deacon of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., has obeyed a directive that Jesus issued one of his disciples.
Do you love me? He asked Simon Peter.
Peter said Yes.
Feed my sheep, said Jesus."

Blazer keeps Muslim faith

great article.

when you look at the things he says about his faith and what his faith teaches him, you realize that the ahem, moral values set has its head up its collective ass. (event though that's sodomy, and they don't support that kind of thing.)

ok. back to the escape of Halo 2.

Blazer keeps Muslim faith: "Abdur-Rahim, a devout Muslim, is in the midst of a monthlong fasting period when Muslims concentrate on their faith and spend less time on the concerns of their everyday lives. Ramadan -- named after the ninth month of the Muslim calendar -- ends next Monday. ...

Since Oct. 15, Abdur-Rahim has abstained from food, water and sex during daylight hours, while spending longer hours reading the Quran. All while doing his normal five daily sessions of praying to Allah.

There are several purposes for fasting: reminding one of the suffering of the poor; self-control; and cleansing the body and mind. But the Quran says the good acquired through a fast is destroyed by five things: Telling a lie. Slander. Denouncing someone behind his back. Taking a false oath. Or greed. "

Fuck the South

Blah, blah, blah, values. blah, blah, blah.


Fuck the South: "Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

..
Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.

But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes.

"

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Take a Ride to Exurbia

Ah, the land of Outback Steakhouse and TGIFridays. My homeland. Worry not, fair I-4 corridorland, the prodigal son will one day return.

Two side notes: 1. Since I've been home, I've been sleeping with my laptop. (Insert your own Internetporn joke here, or if you'd like, in the comments section.) and 2. These people scare me. It's like the exact opposite of Portland living. Or Manhattan living.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Take a Ride to Exurbia: "rlando, Fla.
About six months ago I came out with a book on the booming exurbs - places like the I-4 corridor in central Florida and Henderson, Nev. These are the places where George Bush racked up the amazing vote totals that allowed him to retain the presidency.
My book started with Witold Rybczynski's observation that America's population is decentralizing faster than any other society's in history. People in established suburbs are moving out to vast sprawling exurbs that have broken free of the gravitational pull of the cities and now exist in their own world far beyond.
Ninety percent of the office space built in America in the 1990's was built in suburbia, usually in low office parks along the interstates. Now you have a tribe of people who not only don't work in cities, they don't commute to cities or go to the movies in cities or have any contact with urban life. You have these huge, sprawling communities with no center. Mesa, Ariz., for example, has more people than St. Louis or Minneapolis."

Xbox.com :: Halo 2: Store Locator

OK. I didn't go to Halo 2 Midnight Madness to pick up my (pre-ordered) copy of the game. Possibly because I'm in a do-nothing answer-no-celcalls barely-leave-the-house, don't-deal-with-anything-new-or-related-to-the future mode.

Or, possibly, I'm just really tired from too much partying and freelancing and taking a well-deserved break.

Next up: sitting in my room playing Halo2 online and becoming more and more like Gollum, but for reals.

Xbox.com :: Halo 2: Store Locator: "Halo 2 Midnight Madness!

Did you know that more than 6,500 U.S. retailers are opening their doors at 12:01 A.M. on Tuesday, November 9, to sell hot-off-the-presses copies of Halo? 2, Xbox video game systems, and Xbox Live? Starter Kits?"

Xbox: Halo 2

I sprung for the whole Xbox set-up today and for Halo2, which, in the geekiest thing i have ever will have done, i will go to the mall at midnight tonight to go get it.

yeehaa!

now I can move somewhere and not have a social life to my heart's content.

Xbox: Halo 2: "It's here. The long wait is finally over, as Xbox owners will be able to stroll into their local game shop on Tuesday to pick up what might be the most highly anticipated game of all time. For the last three years, speculation and rumors have been all over the internet, every screenshot and video has been obsessively analyzed, and still people want to know more about Halo 2. The game's developer, Bungie, has done a masterful job of teasing the audience, offering up just enough information to keep them clambering for more. Now that it's finally here, there's one final question: was it worth the wait? In a word, yes. In two words, hell yeah!


For those of you who have just awoken from your coma, Halo 2 is the sequel to the most popular Xbox game of all time, which launched with the system and went on to redefine what gamers should expect from a console shooter. In some ways, though, calling Halo 2 a sequel lessens the importance of the game, which will undoubtedly stand as the greatest Xbox game of all time. Like the films 'The Godfather 2' and 'Aliens', Halo 2 is superior to its predecessor in many ways, impressively building on the universe introduced in the first game. Although most of the talk on game forums is about dual wielding, vehicle jacking, and other additions to the gameplay, nothing is more impressive than the game's story. "

Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken: Pitchfork Review

Go buy a Neko Case album right now.

Really. I'm not joking this time. Don't come back until you've at least listened to some of her songs.

Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken: Pitchfork Review: "At the end of 'Train From Kansas City'-- a track on Neko Case's new live album, The Tigers Have Spoken-- a lone voice, low and slightly garbled, yells 'We still love you!' It's unclear what Case had done to warrant the 'still'-- perhaps a gaffe earlier in the show-- but amid the between-song chaos this declaration goes unanswered if not completely unnoticed. It's difficult to believe that Case isn't used to such public pronouncements of affection and devotion by now; you could tape any of her live shows and probably hear someone scream something similar."

Red county, Blue county

An electoral map based on 2000 and 2004 voting by county.

America really isn't as divided as it seems.

I still say that the Bush camp cleaned up on votes by men & women over the age of 25 that have had sex with less than 3 people.

USATODAY.com

Red county, Blue county

An electoral map based on 2000 and 2004 voting by county.

America really isn't as divided as it seems.

I still say that the Bush camp cleaned up on votes by men & women over the age of 25 that have had sex with less than 3 people.

USATODAY.com

Blogger: Your Comment Has Been Saved by tthe Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour

I'm just trying to curry comment fervor a few notches higher. Today, I'm announcing guest Again!Again! blog editors on Fridays.

Who's first?

Blogger: Your Comment Has Been Saved by tthe Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour

I'm just trying to curry comment fervor a few notches higher. Today, I'm announcing guest Again!Again! blog editors on Fridays.

Who's first?

MORRISSEY ? ( Interesting Drug Lyrics )

I've thought it was "there are some bad, bad people on the right..."

gosh, i was wrong.

so, there's 25 year olds with no idea about Morrissey or The Smiths. we're even failing the Blue States these days...

MORRISSEY ? ( Interesting Drug Lyrics ): "There are some bad people on the rise
There are some bad people on the rise
They?re saving their own skins by
Ruining other people?s lives
Bad, bad people on the rise
Young married couple in debt
- ever felt had ?
Young married couple in debt
- ever felt had ?

On a government scheme
Designed to kill your dream
Oh mum, oh dad
Once poor, always poor
La la la la la
Interesting drug
The one that you took
Tell the truth - it really helped you
An interesting drug
The one that you took
God, it really really helped you
You wonder why we?re only half-ashamed ?

Because enough is too much!
...and look around ...
...can you blame us ? can you blame us ?

On a government scheme
Designed to kill your dream
Oh mum, oh dad
Once poor, always poor
La la la la la
Interesting drug
The one that you took
Tell the truth - it really helped you
An interesting drug
The one that you took
God, it really really helped you
You wonder why we?re only half-ashamed ?

Because enough is too much!
...and look around ...
...can you blame us ? can you blame us ?"

ESPN.com: Page 2 - The rest in the West

This was like reading that book translated from the Spanish, where the similes and metaphors made no sense other than the sense that they made, if that makes sense. Anywhat, I was laughing as soon as he started the comparison.

I puked in my mouth twice tonight.

ESPN.com: Page 2 - The rest in the West: "Still, I was thinking of Joe when I typed the following paragraph last night: 'In the National Basketball Association, the East and West conferences are like the Hilton Sisters. Maybe they look alike, and maybe they're both overrated products that receive far too much hype, but one of them is ten times more interesting than the other. And in this case, the West is Paris Hilton.'"

Badger Badger Badger

In honor of the newly infected Joel Bloom and an episode of Seinfeld which I'm calling 'sweep the leg, Kramer', :
Badger Badger Badger

ps, you must look at this everyday for 16 bars.

goats: the store : t-shirts

Saw this bumper sticker today:

Republicans for Voldemort.

I'm sure as long as he was Christian, he'd win.

goats: the store : t-shirts

ineradicable stain

Met a couple of really cool women down in LA, Kelli and Valere (sp?). Both are burners, i think, camping with Homeslice.

Anywho. Kelli had a tattoo on her back which said simply "Its".

When asked she launched into a whole cool story, which i'll not recount entirely, but let the blog entry below help.

Think it's pretty amazing.

And it just occurred to me tonight that this might be the tattoo. Here's the comment currying question, since that's been quiet and i'm feeling lonely: what would be the ideal word for me to have tattooed, if you could choose? what would you choose for yourself?

Also, Kelli had a tattoo on her forearm designed by an ex-boyfriend/friend, who was paralyzed in a surfing accident, and then subsequently died. Man, that's a short form on his life. Kid sounded awesome, and I wish that I've had known him. Especially based on the wonderful people that he affected and talk so fondly about. Same with Hawthorne. Bless both your souls.

Oh, the tattoo on her forearm said "Believe".

Peace be unto you.
m

From The ineradicable stain

"bWriter Shelley Jackson invites participants in a new work entitled "Skin." Each participant must agree to have one word of the story tattooed upon his or her body. The text will be published nowhere else, and the author will not permit it to be summarized, quoted, described, set to music, or adapted for film, theater, television or any other medium. The full text will be known only to participants, who may, but need not choose to establish communication with one another. In the event that insufficiant participants come forward to complete the first and only edition of the story, the incomplete version will be considered definitive. If no participants come forward, this call itself is the work.

Prospective participants should contact the author (shelley@drizzle.com) and explain their interest in the work. If they are accepted they must sign a contract and a waiver releasing the author from any responsibility for health problems, body image disorders, job-loss, or relationship difficulties that may result from the tattooing process. On receipt of the waiver, the author will reply with a registered letter specifying the word (or word plus punctuation mark) assigned to participant. Participants must accept the word they are given, but they may choose the site of their tattoo, with the exception of words naming specific body parts, which may be anywhere but the body part named. Tattoos must be in black ink and a classic book font. Words in fanciful fonts will be expunged from the work.

When the work has been completed, participants must send a signed and dated close-up of the tattoo to the author, for verification only, and a portrait in which the tattoo is not visible, for possible publication. Participants will receive in return a signed and dated certificate confirming their participation in the work and verifying the authenticity of their word. Author retains copyright, though she contracts not to devalue the original work with subsequent editions, transcripts, or synopses. However, correspondence and other documentation pertaining to the work (with the exception of photographs of the words themselves) will be considered for publication.

From this time on, participants will be known as "words". They are not understood as carriers or agents of the texts they bear, but as its embodiments. As a result, injuries to the printed texts, such as dermabrasion, laser surgery, tattoo cover work or the loss of body parts, will not be considered to alter the work. Only the death of words effaces them from the text. As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died. The author will make every effort to attend the funerals of her words.

"

Shins' Success No Longer 'Narrow'

This bit at the bottom of a puff piece in Billboard magazine.

Which puddletownees want to go?

Shins' Success No Longer 'Narrow': "Mercer will play a rare solo set Dec. 10 at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Ore., in conjunction with a screening of 'Towlines' and other McCormick films. For ticket information, visit the center's official Web site."

The New Christian Jihad

Ugh. I think I just threw up in my mouth again.

Had once jokingly said that I wished that the terrorists had attacked Utah during the Olympics, just to see what a mormons vs. muslims battle would look like. Sorry to be so vitriolic.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: The Day the Enlightenment Went Out: "This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution."

Oregon Sporting Clays - Skeet Shooting - Trapshooting - Gun Clubs

To celebrate being part of the red state nation (tm, halliburton), I went out and skeetshooted with Mark Haven.

To be honest with ya (and am I going to tell ya when I'm not being honest withcha, no), it was a lot of fun, and a lot like bowling, except the pins are flying around before you hit them.

And if/when, I decide to shoot the president or myself, i'll have a lot more practice.

Oregon Sporting Clays - Skeet Shooting - Trapshooting - Gun Clubs

Edwards/Obama > the Angry Left | CafePress

Why 012? why not 08?

Edwards/Obama > the Angry Left | CafePress

Democratic Values - How to start winning the red states. By William?Saletan

Erm, hope is like a cockroach. A really responsible cockroach.

Democratic Values - How to start winning the red states. By William?Saletan: "Go back to being the party of responsibility.
I'm not talking about scolding people. I'm talking about rewarding them. Be the party that rewards ordinary people who do what they're supposed to do?and protects them from those who don't.

When leaders betray troops through bad planning and false pretenses for war, that should be your issue. When Republicans cut taxes for the rich while the nation is at war and the Treasury is empty, that should be your issue. When soldiers from poor families die while corporations skim from the war budget, that should be your issue. I've heard John Kerry talk about each of these issues separately, but each time, he sounded opportunistic. To be powerful, they must flow from a common message. That message is responsibility.

All the issues Democrats like to run on—education, the environment, the deficit, energy independence—would be vastly more powerful if united under a single theme. Clean up your mess. Take care of your children. Pay your debts. Stand on your own two feet. It all comes down to responsibility.

The Democrat who talks this way most naturally is John Edwards. (I know, I've got to stop advertising for him.) He's the one who frames every issue in terms of values. He's the one who argued during the presidential primaries that Republicans were favoring unearned wealth over work. He's the one who connected Republican tax policies to make the point. You don't have to teach him the language, because he learned it growing up in one of those red states."

Wallow In Chaos, And Laugh / A pro-Bush outcome and one enormous bitter pill and you without your vodka

Here's one thing you can do: Sign up for Mark Morford's newsletter.

Good Christ. Do I have to get out of bed today?

Is it okay to direct the terrorists to attack the red states and/or certain evangelical churches?

Not that I hate Christians, per se, just that I hate their smug attitude of intolerance and sexism. Has anybody out there been to a wedding where they included the 'wife must obey the husband in all things' line?

Can Jesus come back now?

And shit, this is *not* going to help me ease up on the drug intake.

Anyways, here's Morford. Very funny, and doomed to be very bitter for 4 years.

Wallow In Chaos, And Laugh / A pro-Bush outcome and one enormous bitter pill and you without your vodka

Clinton/Obama 08

Erm, yeah. Go Goat Herds!

fucking mormons

nothing to post about this really. just wanted to say so.

and measure 36 passes

we didn't even get to see if our commercial might help. not that it would've swung 5% of the vote, but jesus, it couldn't have hurt.

i think i've got to move.

please, no, not again! again!

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

mutherfuck.

is there a permutation of my sleeping pills that will wake me up in 3 years and say, 9 months?

in the immortal words of Beavis, "This sucks! Change it!"

Ofoto Halloween at Lake Quinalt

Me as Gollum.

Ofoto Halloween at Lake Quinalt

What Bush Threw Away (washingtonpost.com)

Anxiously awaiting 4pm PST, when results start pouring in.

Voted yesterday via written ballot (the Oregon system). Dropped the envelope off at the local library branch. No lines. Felt strange to just walk in and put the ballot in the basket without signing anything at the time or identifying myself.

The box looked like a blue recycling box with a ducted tape on lid and a whole cut out of the center. It was placed at the entrance of the library, just past the shoplifting sensors.

It would've been remarkably easy to run in and steal the ballot box. Half of me wants to drive out to rural Oregon and start taking away evil evangelical votes. I know it's wrong, but still...

What Bush Threw Away (washingtonpost.com): "George W. Bush once had a chance to be looking forward to a landslide victory today and a nation committed to standing together in defeating terrorism...

In the days after Sept. 11, Democrats put aside their suspicions of Bush and rallied to his side. "We will speak with one voice," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle declared on that awful day. "All of us stand with the president," said Sen. Joe Biden. And stand with the president we all did...

For several months, Bush, too, stood above party. In assembling both a domestic and international coalition to wage war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the president put aside his critiques of unilateralism and "nation-building." As I wrote at the time -- yes, even I admired Bush that fall -- the president "grafted the language of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman to the martial rhythms of Ronald Reagan." He sought broad support, not narrow majorities, for the Afghan war and his emergency spending proposals...

Back then I thought Bush had an enormous political opportunity that matched the nation's interest: to build a wide, sustainable, Eisenhower-like Republican majority. The country was waiting for a call to service, sacrifice and solidarity. It didn't want the old ideological politics...

But Bush interpreted his prodigious approval ratings not as an opportunity for something new but as a chance to push the same ideological agenda he was pursuing before Sept. 11...


It's a shame, really. Bush could have been a great president. He was for several months. He chose instead to be the leader of a party and a faction. However this election turns out, that's what he'll still be on Nov. 3."

Real Meaning of Life Project

I haven't read any of this yet. You can, if you'd like.

With Liz leaving town, my friend Kate trying to figure out life, and me about to embark upon another new beginning, I suppose this might help.

First thought though, The Meaning of Life does not mean that "That you are alive means that your parents loved EACH OTHER."

It means my parents fucked. Has the author loved everyone that they've fucked? I didn't think so.

Real Meaning of Life Project: "Let's start with you. What does your life mean?"