You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2008.
it may surprise most of you that i am a huge john mellencamp fan (tho’ it shouldn’t, i like any music that is real and true and well done). ‘pink houses’ is one of my all time favorite tracks. the sound of a broken heart (it’s hardest i think when your country disappoints you) and the sound of someone challenging the status quo.
theres a black man with a black cat
living in a black neighbourhood
he’s got an interstate runnin through his front yard
you know, he think, that hes got it so good
nd theres a woman in the kitchen cleanin up the evening slop
and he looks at her and says: hey darling, i can remember when you could stop a clock
and before anyone comments that this is a pro-america (fuck yea!) kind of song, it’s not. mellencamp always gets a bad wrap for shit like that. his songs aren’t really the patriotic anthems some think they are. more often than not, they reflect the side of america i think most people forget about.
well theres a young man in a t-shirt
listening to a rockin rollin station
he’s got a greasy hair, greasy smile
he says: lord, this must be my destination
cuz they told me, when i was younger
boy, youre gonna be president
but just like everyting else, those old crazy dreams
just kinda came and went
pink houses is a beautiful tune that really reflects the change that was happening in america in the early 80’s (my god, is it really 25 years old?!) - the country had taken a decidedly major change to regan america. people on the outskirts were often forgotten.
well theres people and more people
what do they know know know
go to work in some high rise
and vacation down at the gulf of mexico
ohhh yeah
and theres winners, and theres losers
but they aint no big deal
cuz the simple man baby pays for the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill
mellencamp never forgets those people.
oh but aint that america for you and me
aint that america were someting to see baby
aint that america, home of the free
little pink houses for you and me
…. about mypost from yesterday about my birthday…. ummm, it has a post id # in wordpress of 666!
madonna has announced that the name of her upcoming album (released 4.2 
is “hard candy” and that the lead off single with be the justin timberlake co-write, “four minutes“. hmmm wonder what happened to the wildly bootlegged “candy shop” - everyone assumed that would be the first single.
source: nme.
38 = the atomic number of strontium
38 = the number of slots on an american roulette wheel
38 = the age at which sam kinison, florence griffith joyner, george gershwin and john f. kennedy, jr. all died
38 = the number of games that each team in the english premiership play’s in a season
38 = is the bill number that legalized same-sex marriage in canada
38 = number of years it took the israelites to travel from kadesh barnea to the zered valley in deuteronomy
38 = the 11th distinct biprime and the 7th in the {2.q} family.
38 = the sum of the squares of the first three primes.
38 = the largest even number which cannot be written as the sum of two odd composite numbers
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38 also equals how old i am today.
yay me!
do you really wanna know how i was dancing on the floor?
i was trying to phone you when i’m crawling out the door
i’m amazed at you, the things you say that you don’t do
lyric from the song ‘a&e‘
i’m still absorbing this new record… but on my initial listens it’s not the complete antithesis of their ‘05 release ‘supernature‘ that some of the reviews would have you believe. granted, gone are the thumping beats and pure disco ecstasy of that disk, but in their place are witty little synth lines (made with antique electronic keyboards - how cool) matched with subtle acoustic guitar, vocal multit-racking and arpeggios (in other words, fairly standard goldfrapp-fare). the beats are most assuredly there. they’re just not terribly obvious. but it’s definitely a toe-tapping album
many reviews are calling this the morning after for the disco hangover of ‘supernature‘, and that’s not all together wrong.
in my initial listens off of their myspace page, i was thinking this would be a perfect weekend morning album, and the more i listen, the more i think that’s true.
lyrically it’s terribly english - very witty. very drool. very obscure (umm, alison, are you channeling my beloved kate bush a bit?). but at the end of the day, these songs have already begun to find the nooks and crannies of my mind. the tunes are incredibly catchy. just in a quieter sort of way.
the lead off single ‘a&e’ is quite possibly my favorite lead off single in a long long time. and the video is just fucking weird enough that you can’t help but love it.
so james wasn’t having any of my “no opinion” - selections - he made me give a guess prior to the award (hence the changes reflected below).
all in all, i did pretty good. the green means i got it right, the red means wrong. 13/24 - better than half, not bad eh? really really proud of my hometown boys (the coen brothers) and girl (diablo cody); way to represent minnesota!
- best picture; no country for old men
- best actor; daniel day-lewis / there will be blood
- best actress; ellen page / juno (yup, that’s right - i went there…julie christie’s got nothing on her… lol). marion cotillard won for la vie en rose
- best supporting actor; javier bardem / no country for old men
- best supporting actress; cate blanchett / i’m not there tilda swinton for micheal clayton
- director; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- documentary; sicko take me to the dark side
- documentary short; the crown freeheld
- animated feature; persepolis (haven’t seen it, but it looks amazing… & ratatouille is not even remotely pixars best work) ratatouille
- foreign language film; 12 the counterfitters
- cinematography; tough call, but i’m going to go with there will be blood
- original screenplay; diablo cody / juno
- adapted screenplay; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- visual effects; transformers the golden compass
- animated short; even pigeons go to heaven peter wolf
- live action short; the mozart of the pickpockets
- art direction; atonement sweeney todd; the demon barber of fleet street
- costume design; atonement elizabeth; the golden age
- film editing; no country for old men the bourne ultimatum
- sound mixing; the bourne ultimatum
- sound editing; the bourne ultimatum
- original score; atonement
- original song; falling slow / once
- makeup; la vie en rose
yup, it’s official. bronchitis. grrrrrr.
so far 2008 is off to a banner start…. the whole “dizzy”/inner ear thing that happened around new years, followed by a cold, then the stomach flu, then another cold which has morphed into this. thank you mother-fuckin’-nature. can you please go on vacation now?
on a plus side i had them test my blood last night whilst at the urgent care (which by the way took 2.5 hours to be seen, not so urgent eh?) - i was a bit nervous about this after the $1000 blood test last month - but i hadn’t had a straight up platelet count in a few months… good news back tho’ - i’m at 575,000 which is well above normal (but not dangerous like last year when it was pushin’ 900g). so all’s good on the blood front. ((for those not in the know, i have immune thrombocytopenic purpura. it’s fun to say real fast))
ralph nader is running for president again….someone make this man stop.
ignoring my post from here, these are my real predictions. we’ll see how i do tomorrow right?
- best picture; no country for old men
- best actor; daniel day-lewis / there will be blood
- best actress; ellen page / juno (yup, that’s right - i went there…julie christie’s got nothing on her… lol).
- best supporting actor; javier bardem / no country for old men
- best supporting actress; cate blanchett / i’m not there
- director; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- documentary; didn’t see any of the nominated films - can’t comment
- documentary short; ditto
- animated feature; persepolis (haven’t seen it, but it looks amazing… & ratatouille is not even remotely pixars best work)
- foreign language film; can’t comment as i haven’t seen any of them
- cinematography; tough call, but i’m going to go with there will be blood
- original screenplay; diablo cody / juno
- adapted screenplay; ethan coen & joel coen / no country for old men
- visual effects; transformers
- animated short; didn’t see any of them
- live action short; ditto
- art direction; atonement
- costume design; atonement
- film editing; no country for old men
- sound mixing; the bourne ultimatum
- sound editing; the bourne ultimatum
- original score; atonement
- original song; falling slow / once
- makeup; eh. no opinion.
this was the view outside the window nearest my desk @ work on thursday… two fawns grazing at the banks of the frozen pond….there were about 40 of us standing at the windows watching them graze. cute little buggers… kind fluffy looking in their winter coats…
nature is good people.
here’s the full shot:
in unrelated news, i think i have bronchitis… i’ve had this deep guttural wet painful cough for 4 days… yuck. is it so bad that i will kill just to feel normal again? it’s been weeks since i’ve been truly healthy.
in unrelated news pt 2 - i’ve been enjoying the new goldfrapp record ’seventh tree’ that is streaming for free on their myspace page. it’s subtle and quite lovely. nothing at all like their last ’supernature’. it comes out on tuesday - i’m thinking i may have a new favorite saturday/sunday morning record. nice and chill. oh, and hey - that’s alison goldfrapp making a visit to my banner up above… she’s awesome.
hat tip to my 2 cents for posting this first.
while it probably is nsfw, there’s nothing overtly dirty in it - i think it’s actually quite sexy and beautiful. check it out:
introducing iwood:
and yea, it kinda gives me wood. i want this so f’ing bad i can taste it. the iwood is a solid wood iphone cover made by the fine folks over at miniot. the one i love best is the fashioned from padouk. it’s sleek and sexy. only problem, it’s $115 bucks. grrrr… however, my birthday is next wednesday so if any of you feel generous, feel free
in other news, i’ve just discovered weeds.
this show is brilliant. i’m completely addicted. james came over and we watched 5 episodes. then i watched 2 more. i need more dammit. i need my weeds fix.
update. broken youtube link repaired. please enjoy lamb:
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hi all, sorry for the dearth of posts - been working an event the last couple of days which doesn’t leave me a lot of time to post…. this week will be better.
wanted to share this - it’s brilliant and sum’s up my mood right now.
if i should die this very moment
i wouldn’t fear
for i’ve never known completeness
like being here
wrapped in the warmth of you
loving every breath of you
still my heart this moment
or it might burst
could we stay right here
’til the end of time, ’til the earth stops turning
wanna love you ’til the seas run dry
i’ve found the one i’ve waited for
all this time i’ve loved you
and never known your face
all this time i’ve missed you
and searched this human race
here is true peace
here my heart knows calm
safe in your soul
bathed in your sighs
wanna stay right here
’til the end of time, ’til the earth stops turning
gonna love you ’til the seas run dry
i’ve found the one i’ve waited for
the one i’ve waited for
all i’ve known
all i’ve done
all i’ve felt was leading to this
all i’ve known
all i’ve done
all i’ve felt was leading to this
wanna stay right here
’til the end of time, ’til the earth stops turning
gonna love you ’til the seas run dry
i’ve found the one i’ve waited for
the one i’ve waited for
wanna stay right here
’til the end of time, ’til the earth stops turning
gonna love you ’til the seas run dry
i’ve found the one i’ve waited for
the one i’ve waited for
the one i’ve waited for…
if only ’cause i knew you were all waiting with baited breath for my thoughts on the siouxsie show, here you go.
3 words: shiny. happy. siouxsie.
i have never seen siouxsie so flipping happy at a show. where’s my tortured diva? apparently, gone the way her marriage to
budgie has gone. and i for one, loved every moment.
siouxsie was fun, playful and flirtatious. it was freaking awesome. at one point she said “tomorrow i’m flying to san francisco, i can’t wait to tell them that i left my heart in new york.” how weird is that? awesome!!!
the set list was heavy on material from her new mantaray album, but there were some awesome old banshee tunes thrown in like “hong kong garden”, “night shift” and “dear prudence”. conspicuously absent were anything from her creatures days with budgie or the hits such as “peek-a-boo” or “christine”. given the strength of the show, they were not missed. oh, and when she sang “hong kong garden” she introduced it by saying it was the song’s 30th birthday. 30! wow. time flies with brilliant songs.
the absolute highlight for me was her hard as nails version of mantaray’s “into a swan” - it rocked harder and heavier than the album version - let me just state for the record this needs to be released on cd - pronto!
she was stunning in a silver catsuit with funky/punky 70’s shag (radar called it: “emma peel-meets-wonder woman spacey silver catsuit”). she danced and twirled and interacted with the audience - and her voice was in spectacular form. i’ve never heard her sound this strong.
the venue was incredible as well. the fillmore at irving plaza only holds 1000 people - landry and i got a primo spot right on the balcony with an unobstructed view of the stage. doesn’t get much better than that. oh, and i’m 98.53% positive that johnny rotten from the sex pistol’s walked by me on his way into the vip area - there’s nobody that quite looks like that man. (i’m choosing to forget the moment when i was too busy texting ray to notice siouxsie herself walk right by me. grrrr)
i did sneak my camera into the joint - the above pic is from me as is the lil’ you tube video down below. i’m pleased that it’s a fairly stable shot - it’s short (i thought that was best), if you want some longer vid’s - just search you tube…they’re out there. but i like mine best. it’s part of her tune “if it doesn’t kill you”. check it out:
i promise i’m done with siouxsie for a bit…(do i hear sigh’s of relief?)….. but i do have the upcoming gutter twins show to get psyched for…
luckily nothing was stolen (my gps unit was right in the arm rest). just one more reason i hate where i live and will be moving this fall at the end of my lease. apparently there have been a rash of “smash and runs” in my neighborhood this past weekend. the fuckers.
i take the car into the glass place tomorrow at 8am to get the replacement window.
3 things you need to know:
1) i’m coming home tonight
2) on friday i got the worst case of the viral gastroenteritis ever. the nasty fucker is weaving it’s way around new york (landry and her gf had it before me as well) - as such, all of friday, i was very close with landry’s bathroom floor. ugg. fucking bug.
3) i was well enough to attend siouxsie last night. fucking brilliant. one of the best shows i’ve seen her give (truly!). more on her later (including illegal pics), but for now, i’m off to brunch (i finally have an appetite) and then i make my way to laguardia for my plane home.
note, there will be a photo essay documenting the forthcoming points following said points.
a) i’m on a plane to new york tomorrow morning at 7am minneapolis time. this will be my first proper vacation in over two years (oh, if your wondering, i don’t consider vacations tagged onto the end of shows or aids rides as “proper” - so therefore, this is my first proper vacation in over two years). i really really really am ready for this vacation. and i am not bringing my computer with so unless i use landry’s computer, you won’t get any updates from me until next monday <gasp!>.
b) i voted. i’m part of the machine. dammit people, it’s time for change!
c) it’s finally for real (i.e., plane tickets are booked) i’m off to berlin (work) & prague (vacation) in april. very happy/excited.
d) fucktards who drive escalades with eco-plates need to be anally abused until they realize that spending the extra $30 a year for “natural habitat” license plates does not negate the detrimental effects their vehicles are doing to the planet. oh, and to anyone driving any varient of an suv - when was the last time you actually took it off road? oh, and the safety thing? it’s a myth. least you can do if you own one of these monstrosities is to offset your carbon footprint.
e) oh, did i mention that landry and i are seeing siouxsie sioux on saturday night in ny? mabye i forgot to tell ya’ll that.
f) j made me very happy last night. dopey grin on my face all day (no photo essay for this one).
freaking brilliant!
this is fantastic. yaz featuring alison moyet & vince clarke are reuniting for the first time in 25 years.
go here to read all the juicy details. the sad part, it’s just in the uk. the cool part is the issuing of a box set with remastered disks and rarities. mmm yes please.
