Category Archive

today is the second anniversary of this blog. yay me! who’d have thunk it possible?

the traditional gift for the second anniversary is cotton. send prezzies

nwa and delta have announced that they are merging and will create a “new global airline“.  sounds good on paper/website, but we will have to wait and see….

i really hope my miles are safe.

in other news:  day 2 was just as successful as day one.  double yay me.

more news: hey, guess what - i’m packing.  flying to berlin tomorrow.

in even more news: michelle bachmann is a twit:

and no, this isn’t an april fools joke.  twit!

in a heartbeat.

from the studio briefing on imdb.com:

Australian media company Village Roadshow has disclosed that tickets for its deluxe Gold Star Cinemas will go for $35 apiece when the theaters open in the U.S. The Hollywood Reporter said today (Wednesday) that the company is planning to open 50 such theaters in this country over the next 5 years, with the first to open in suburban Chicago this year, featuring reserved seating (only 40 seats per theater), special parking, and “upscale” food service by waiters in the auditoriums. “It’s an absolutely different environment than anything else that exists,” Village Roadshow CEO Graham Burke told the trade paper. Village Roadshow has already opened some 100 Gold Class theaters in Australia, Singapore and Greece.

imagine, not rushing to the theater, not waiting in lines, not siting in a tight room like flying coach to singapore.  decent food - no lines - small crowds, i am so there!

firstly, i present you with the brand new portishead tune ‘machine gun‘ - from their upcoming album third. (hat tip to timo over at edited for television for posting the video first).

it’s not at all what i was expecting - but i’m seriously digging this tune. fucking dark and hard mixed with that voice. that amazing, wonderful voice. ummm… beth, geoff & adrian, why oh why did you have to wait 11 years since your last album? this is perfection.

now the bad news. portishead is playing berlin on april 3. that’s the day i arrive and i even have the night off. yay, right? no.

the. fucking. show. is. sold. out.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. i need a ticket for this show. the chances of them playing minneapolis are nil. i can’t go to coachella (ed. note, this in and of itself sucks. not only is portishead playing, but so are goldfrapp, m.i.a., mark ronson, love & rockets, metric and the breeders. double grrrr.) this year either. so this is my only shot.

i’m praying to the musical gods of the internet. somebody, anybody - get me a ticket to this show!!!!!!

ok, i realize this isn’t as bad as some of you suv drivin’ folks (that’s your problem for buying a damn suv).  but still it’s a lot of money for my little mazda 3. 

what.

the.

fuck.

i haven’t blogged much about this, but truth be told i hate where i live.  hate! 

the shortlist of reasons why:

• unresponsive management team
• loud (sexually generous) neighbor’s
• annoying neighbor’s who don’t understand if your going to live in a 100 year old apartment building you willhear your upstairs (me) neighbor’s tv
• bullshit response to vandalism by the management company
• maintenance company leaving my apartment unlocked for 5 days while i was out of town
• clothes/laundry detergent stolen from laundry room

now, true - most of these issues probably happen in most apartment buildings, but this has become such a horrible place to live - i can’t stand it.  add the list to the fact i’m in a neighborhood i don’t particularly love and you quickly figure out it’s time to move.  (plus my lease is up june 30).

besides, it’s all the rage, jason moved last year, cb moved last fall, alexander moved last month - i’m just keeping up!.

the shortlist of what i’m looking for:

• modern construction (the charm of 100 year old buildings only lasts so long - is it bad that i want a dishwasher?!?)
• (there are a couple of historic properties i would consider)
• loft or open floorplan would be nice.
• concrete floors (or really solid constuction for noise prevention)
• uptown minneapolis, downtown minneapolis (north loop included) or downtown st. paul
• underground parking
• laundry in unit
• no i’m not ready to buy. don’t remind me how screwed i am for not owning.

so let the great apartment hunt 2008 begin. 

i’m officially done with winter.  this was the scene this morning on my 50 minute commute to the office (normally 25 minutes max):

(note, 4 lanes of rush hour traffic + mergeing to two lanes = fun)

(note, that’s gonna hurt) 

ok, in the back of my mind i’ve been keeping track of things i wanted to post, but of course, i can’t remember any of them.  ugg… getting older sucks - i’ve got to start writing things down.

so in the meantime - i had a pretty kick ass weekend….

on friday of course you know that cb and i saw the crap fest that was fool’s gold…

then on saturday i hung out with my friend stacey - we had a killer lunch and then went to northern sun.  if you don’t know about them - check them out.  they produce amazing bumper stickers and t-shirts and what not for the liberally minded folks out there.

saturday night james took me to azia for my birthday.  yum.  my favorite joint in minneapolis - i had shrimp crisprolls for starters and then my all time favorite  wasabi walleye.  yum.

sunday we just had a lazy day, the other boleyn girl movie, costco and dsw shopping.  followed by a chill night watching weeds… oh how i love my weeds.  check out my killer new chuck taylors, two shoes in one:

oh, and here’s my purchase from northern sun… a kick ass car sticker t-rex having a tasty fish dinner (hehehehe).   by the way his name is bocephus.  a bad ass t-rex, needs a bad ass name, don’t you think?  darwin would pleased.

…. about mypost from yesterday about my birthday….  ummm, it has a post id # in wordpress of 666! 

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

—

38 also equals how old i am today. 

yay me!

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))

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.

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.

yea, it’s an over commercialized forced holiday, but it is good to remember those you love/care for/want to bang until your both feeling like jello in a sweaty mass of sheets and wet spot.

cheers

look what i came home to:

 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.

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).

you know, someday’s you just need a little dolly to brighten your day:

unrelated, i just found out that i’m getting this as my new work computer:

mmm pretty.  and it’s not an hp piece of shite.  (jonathan ives, call me - i’m gonna need a private tutorial).

things you should know that have direct bearing on my mood today:

sometime between saturday evening and sunday morning, my work-laptop’s hard drive decided to commit suicide in a most bloody and gory manner (ok, not really, but i’m imagining a battle of epic 300 proportions happening on my hard drive).  it’s fried crispier than the colonel ever thought possible.

my companies mis team has thus far been unable to salvage anything.

what this means?  it means that i’ve lost:

• all current documents related to the 4 shows i’m currently in production on
• photographs of the last 2 years worth of shows and events
• banner idea’s folder for this lil’ blog
• 30 gig’s of music in my itunes folder

now, before you so politely ask me “why, oh why didn’t you backup your files” - well, yes - that would have been a good idea.  but you must realize i’m on the road about 70% of the year… i need access to my files and music on a fairly consistent basis.  thankfully, just in december, i moved most of my historical 2007 files onto our network so i have those in my back pocket. 

but still - fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck!

unrelated:

so last night, james and i went to see the new punk-rock musical/play “god save gertrude” (a modern take on hamlet). 

i had zero expectation for this (hell, until i walked in i had no idea what play we were seeing - we were there to support some of his co-workers who were doing makeup and playing in the band).  very much in a “hedwig and the angry inch” mode of modern musical theater - the story (let’s use that word loosely) is that of an aging punk rock poet-ess (think pattie smith) who is, as it turns out the queen of some country (assuming central europe/post soviet union, tho’ it’s never spelled out) on the verge of civil war.  she rehashes her punk past while juggling a second husband dictator and a son (wannabe rock star in the vein of his long gone father).  

the story and performances were quite good - as was the music.  it needs some fixing in the book department… like how did she become queen?  what happened to daddy #1?  how did dictator/daddy #2 come into the picture?  but all in all an fun night of experimental theater.

—

10.5 days until i’m in new york city.

—

star trek xi: 

as brought to life by jj abrams.  i’m beyond giddy-excited for this.  the cast looks spectacular & this trailer gave me chills.  time to get my sci-fi geek on.

—

paula abdul has a new song (written and produced by randy jackson).

come to your own conclusion.

—

i’m off to spend some time with mom - still no word on the job situation.. but she does have an interview on tuesday - so do me a favor, send some good karma my mom’s way on tuesday.

psst… see that lil’ green box over there to the right?  the one that says “add this blog to my technorati favorites” - if you love me (and i know you do), you’ll click it.

go ahead and click baby.

i promise i’ll still love you in the morning.

there is a video making the rounds across the ’net - this year’s macarena if you will - extolling the virtue’s of gummi bears. 

to put it mildly, it’s a hideous piece of dreck that’s taking the world by storm.  i won’t post it (stop the madness people), but if you really want to experience it - go see jason, he seems to love it (no accounting for taste).

suffice to say, the only gummi bear song i’m interested in, is one that ends in auto-cannibalism:

this the harley davidson night rod vrscd.

this is sex on two wheels.

i want this bike so much i can taste it.

all matte black on black with just the slightest hint of chrome. 

that said, let me illustrate why i will never have such a work of beauty.

i would kill myself on a bike.

seriously.

but boy do i want one.

—-unrelated—-

as a follow up to my post about my day from hell yesterday, things went better today.  thank you for your private email’s and well wishes.  but none of you bitches commented on my day or my oscar pick’s in comments.  what up with that?  boo hiss. 

—-unrelated pt 2—-

as a follow up to my post about needing a copy of prince’s horny pony (which until this point was only released on vinyl and cassette), jeff over at jeff’s fancy blog came through with flying colors with a killer copy.  yay jeff.

fucking formatting isn’t doing what i fucking want it to fucking do.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  fuck.

i want nothing more than for this day to end.  it was an absolute bear of a day, one that makes me question the company i work for (which, trust me - does.not.happen.very.often.).  honest to god, all i want to do is crawl under my blanket and block out the world.

then to find out that heath ledger died.  fuck what a day.

so instead, i’m gonna concentrate on the only good thing that happened today.  the oscar nominations came out.

best picture - there is no question on this for me - i’m all about no country for old men. 

best actress - hard one for me ’cause i’ve only seen 2 of these films.  i loved ellen page in juno, but it’s not her year yet.  i’m going sentimental (for me) and giving it to cate in elizabeth 2.  yes, the movie sucked, and no she won’t win (see below for the reason), but i love my cate.  i hear amazing things about julie cristie & la vie en rose is on my netflix so i might change my mind.

best actor - no question at all.  daniel in there will be blood.  brilliant performance,

supporting actor - again, no question.  javier all the way.  (hal holbrook could be a dark horse/sentimental win, but i think it’s javier all the way.

supporting actress - i’ve not seen gone baby gone or michael clayton, but all signs are pointing to cate(plus the reason she won’t win above is ’cause she’ll win here).  i have a glimmer of home for saoirse as well. 

in the coming weeks i’ll cover off some of the other categories. 

but now i’m going to make my self a massivebowl of ice cream then hide under my blanky.

i was tagged by voenix risingin taking a lil’ trip down memory lane and re-visiting the car’s i’ve owned.  i should state most of these pics are not of the actual cars i owned - rather, they’re internet grabs.

#1. my first car, a 1972 dodge dart.  yellow.  not a bad starter car eh?  i only had her for a short time tho’ - the town i grew up in was doing a bit of road construction - the kind where they remove the pavement leaving the manhole covers sticking up a few inches.  i drove over one of the manholes and it ripped my axel off the car (apparently i had a bit of a rust issue).

#2. 1976 buick skylark.  nothin’ special about this ride, other than the fact it had a fast oil leak.  i went through so much oil the year i had her.  the engine finally blew a couple blocks from my house.  i left her there.

#3. 1980 plymouth champ.  again, my version of this car was yellow.  i loved this car.  it was quite the party car for me and my friends.  it had a moon roof and a killer cassette deck stereo.  unfortunately i drove her into the back of some massive truck that was stopped in the middle of the road over a blind hill.  bad bad bad day. 

#4. 1976 ford f-150.  this one was falling apart before i got her.  parts of the floorboard was rusted through (fun in winter time).  there was no radio in the truck.  i had a lil’ cassette boombox velcroed to the dash.  pure class.

#5. 1989 chevy s10 tahoe pickup.  the first brand new vehicle i ever owned.  i wish i could have found a better pic of the truck.  it was white with maroon interior.  it was awesome.  it also had a cool as fuck steering wheel.  i loved that steering wheel.

#6. 1992 mitsubishi eclipse.  what a fun car this was.  pure fun to drive.

#7. 2001 chevy malibu.  what do i say about this car?  hmmm… well i bought it very spur of the moment.  you see i had just quit my job and got rid of the eclipse in prep for a new job i had in hawai’i.  but then 9/11 happened and hawai’i’s economy tanked and the job got put on hold indefinitely.  after 3 months of being on hold, i asked for my job back and had to get a new apartment and car fast.  hence the malibu.  it was perfectly fine as a car.  just boring as hell.

#8. 2005 mazda 3.  my current car. i love love love love this car.  of course i’ve written about it here.  it really is a sweet little car. 

shoot me now.

i watched e!’s sexiest vegas jobs.  then i watched e!’s top 25 earners under 25 (like i need to feel even more depressed that i’m decidedly over 25 and haven’t figured out how to make $30m a year yet?!).  currently, i’m watching snoop dogg’s ‘father hood’ reality show (also on e!).

i’m calling an intervention on myself.

question - why on earth do i want to see this:

with the possible exception of the amazingly hot/hunky/sexy paul rudd, there is absolutely no reason to see this.  ugg.

ok, just talked with CB, we’re going to target & then a movie.  the plan is to warm my car up for the next 20 minutes so it get’s warm and toasty while i take a shower and get dressed.  then i’ll park in one of the heated ramp’s downtown whilst we attend to our target and movie errands.

it’s either cloverfield or 27 dresses.  its a toss up.

cheers..

god my life is boring.

ok, it’s cold.  not really news around here.  it’s winter.  it gets cold (not nearly as cold as it did in the 70’s, but cold just the same).

here’s minneapolis; -25:

here’s bemidji (where i went to college): -32

and here’s new york (where i’ll be in a mere 18 days!): 29

wind chill is one nasty lil’ bitch.

in other news this happened outside my apartment this morning:

it appears that gray car ran a stop sign slamming into red car.  driver of said gray car, a 20-something chick was consoled by a hot, hunky blue collar dude.  couldn’t get a pic of him.  dammit.  red car guy was takin’ to the hospital in an ambulance.  stupid girl running a stop sign walked away from the accident. 

i’m thinking about bundling up and heading out into the cold to catch a movie (or two) - there’s so many to pick from:

the trashy: 

cloverfield, mad money, 27 dresses

or maybe the award fodder:

the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford, before the devil knows your dead, into the wild, persepolis.

it’s either brave the cold and see a movie, or stay at home and watch e!’s “sexist jobs in vegas”.  

ugg.

there’s a comment from my friend jeremy on the “you didn’t know i was a big homo?” post (you can read it here).  he points out that you can see what appears to be a belly button piercing showing under keira’s stunning green dress.  (by the way, is there anything more silly than a belly button piercing?).  

here’s the offending bulge:

as a big fan of movie and television acting (people who slag on tv, just aren’t watching the right stuff), things like the piercing annoy me.  simply put they pull my focus out of the show or film and distract me from the performance.    i’ll never be able to watch atonement again without looking for the bulge above the “coochieknot”.

the reason i found this interesting is i was just watching the new show “the sarah connor chronicles” (which by the way is terrific - the producers of the re-booted “bionic woman” should be taking notes on how to do it right), which features one of my favorite character actors; dean winters, as a love interest for the title character. 

dean, for those of you not-in-the-know, was on hbo’s “oz“ as bad boy ryan o’reilly.  and i really really loved him (and that show).

if you know “oz”, you’ll know that there was ton’s of really hot prison sex, along with the inmates generally walking around in various forms of undress (gay fantasy 101).  dean’s character was fond of tight muscle shirts, or shirtless (must have been awfully hot inside oz… everyone was shirtless all the time). 

as such, you could always see a tattoo of a steer skull on his shoulder.

i always thought it was a fake hollywood tat go give the o’reilly character some street-cred.

until he showed up on sarah connor the other night (again, shirtless… yum).  the exact same ink is on his shoulder - which means, that steer skull is all dean’s and wasn’t o’reilly’s at all. 

fuck.

now i can’t get past this and when he appeared on the second episode, i just kept wondering to myself “i wonder when o’reilly got released from prison, and isn’t it nice that he’s found a good woman and wants to settle down”. 

uggg.  fuckity-fuck.

someone call the makeup artist and just cover that fucker up with some nice concealer.  it’s not that big, wouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes.  easy-peasy.

memo to hollywood:  “stop pulling focus”.

p.s., jeremey get’s extra points for the use of the word: “coochieknot”

oohhh… you find the best stuff when your sleep deprived.  in my best oprah fashion, here are a few of my favorite things.  however, none of you are getting cars.  just deal.

the gutter twins myspace page.

yup, it’s like herpes, but you can’t argue with the power of myspace when it comes to new music.  my boy greg (and his boy mark) are finally ready to drop ‘saturnalia‘ - their debut as the gutter twins and as such they have two spankin’ new killer tracks on their myspace…. ‘the station’ (featuring my current favorite lyric: “i hear the rapture’s coming, they say he’ll be here soon, right now there’s demons crawling all over my room”) and ‘idle hands’ which is also available for download (thanks boy’s).

—

i’m completely addicted to the website ‘overheard in minneapolis’ - i check it like a hundred times a day.  it’s pure brilliance.  i’ve already posted one or two things and will continue to do so to prove the stupidity of people around me

—

a. i love eddie izzard

b. i love star wars

c. i love lego’s

put them together and you get one very happy kyle:

just back from seeing avenue q with cb.

all i gotta do is saw this show is fucking brilliant.  i’ve known the score for some time, but seeing the show finally just made it all ‘gel’ for me. 

oh, and the puppet sex in avenue q, makes the puppet sex in team america; world police look rated g.    even past the songs about puppet sex and porn - the show is actually amazingly touching and heartfelt. 

i wanna see it again.  right now!!!

so i was eating my dinner of tasty fishsticks (yea, i know - ghetto.  deal with it), and i was enjoying the tarter sauce when i thought to myself; “hmmm, i like tarter sauce - i wonder what’s in it that makes it so durn tasty” grabbed the bottle and didn’t make it past the high fructose corn syrup.  why does tarter sauce need to have high fructose corn syrup?

also, did you know ketchup has high fructose corn syrup too?

hmmm…

wishing you and yours, a very happy new year.  cheers to 2008.

cause i know you’ve been waiting for baited breath to find out about my favorite music from 2007, i won’t keep you waiting.   i will give you a surprise or two (such as, no britney on this list - she’s fun, but she ain’t great) i hope.  coming up with a fav’s list for ‘07 proved to be a bit of a challenge - not a ton of great music released this year (and a lot of what was released that i loved turned out to be covers of older tunes… sigh)…. here goes:

siouxsie - mantaray (album)

no surprise here i think, the woman is fuckin’ awesome and this record was woefully overlooked in the states.  i rather like how the village voice put it: “…mantaray, siouxsie’s blazing solo debut earns (those) accolades with no trace of fatigue, padding, or confusion, as on-it and of-the-moment as justin timberlake…”   the record itself is urgent and hard and sharp all at once.  equal parts pop/punk/rock and big band.  here’s to siouxsie’s solo career!  cheers.

mark ronson - version (album)

again, no real surprise (if you spent anytime reading this blog this fall) - but just the same, i’m still in love with this album.  it’s consistantly blasting from my car’s cd deck (which you could hear if it weren’t winter and i had the windows down).  mark deftly makes modern songs such as ‘toxic’ (britney), ‘the only one i know’, and ’stop me’ sound vintage and warm and old school.   retro never sounded so fresh.  and this is a great disk to spin at a party.

robbie williams - lovelight (song)

while the track is from this year’s (us) ’rudebox’ release (not his best - but there are a couple of really choice cuts from it) - “lovelight”is cover of the lewis taylor track from 2004.  robbie & co., turn this slick r&b number into a funky disco classic circa 1978 bee-jees.  sweet.

damien rice & lisa hannigan - 9 crimes (song) 

ok, ya got me - this one came out in ‘06… but in my defense i didn’t discover it till this year.  i remember giving rice’s ‘9′ album a cursory listen in a record store back when it came out and was getting all manner of buzz…. it just didn’t do anything to me that night.  i humbly admit i was wrong.  this song kills me.  this song just rattles me to my core.  it just might be my favorite song of the year.  ”is that alright, yea.” 

amazing - johnette napolitano (song)

ok, this one really is my favorite for the year.  johnette has been a constant companion this year.  while the album it’s from (scarred) is f’ing brilliant, this single makes me remember why i love music.  it’s beautiful and violent and passionate all at the same time.  a lullaby (?!) to love - love in the real world with all it’s agony intact.  nothing is quite like johnette’s voice when she opens up and lets loose.  ”angels among us, they’re not so far above us”

hold my hand - unkle (song)

hell wall of sound.  i loves me some wall of sound and since curve broke up and recoil’s latest is all blues and crap; unkle will have to fit the bill nicely.  which isn’t a slam at all.  ‘hold my hand’ is just bursting with power and noise and melody.  i love it.  and they got all buddhist and shit (hehehe) with their lyrics:  “are you really living / or do you seek loving / are you happy being / or do you search for meaning”.  if i could ever really do music, this is what i would like to do.

crazy - prince & shelby j (live track)

i wrote about this at length here, and here, so i won’t go on much more.  except to say, prince needs to release this funk (instead of his semi-interesting planet earth).  this is the shit & would blow radio and mtv away.

me’shell ndegeo’cello (live show)

tie

prince with wendy (live show)

these were my favorite shows this year - meshell & co. were insanely tight - nearly boiling over they were so hot.   and then there was prince reuniting with wendy at the target center & first ave shows last.  dreams really do come true

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ooh, another surprise - kate bush’s track for the golden compass isn’t here either… if only cause i refuse to buy the score in order to own it… i’m sure i’ll find it on ebay soon and can give it the real proper listens it deserves

2008 - expectations:

i’m looking forward to a couple of interesting things next year including:

• the new madonna record (title tbd)
• the debut of the gutter twins (aka greg dulli from twilight singers & mark lanegan from screaming trees)
• big blue ball project from peter gabriel & karl wallinger (the first single ‘whole thing’ is excellent (additionally rumor has it pg will release a proper follow up to the killer ‘up’ - not holding breath)
• seeing siouxsie in new york in february
• the new goldfrapp disk ’seventh tree’
• new basement jaxx (title tbd)
• new franz ferdinand (title tbd)
• new ladytrone (title tbd)
• new portishead - finally!!!!!  (title tbd)

ok, maybe not genius… but certainly, i kicked some musical ass tonight! 

very spur-of-the-moment, i popped over to my friends amy’s house tonight to watch a dvd with her and her girlfriend - now, amy is a musician/song-writer (and own’s a great little studio to boot) - and she’s been trying for eon’s to get me in the studio to record some stuff with her.

it’s been about a billion years since i’ve actively been behind a recording desk and as such, i’ve been a bit cautious to jump back in the recording game (especially with amy, she’s hella-talented).  so before the dvd, amy and i popped down to the studio to listen to a killer new track from peter gabriel (words don’t come close to describing how much i love this new song) - anywho, amy wanted my opinion on a track she wrote and in the process, about 3 hour’s went by and all of a sudden she’s insisting i take producer credit for her new track ‘beg crawl bleed’. 

how f’ing cool eh’?  it was so awesome working on new music tonight. 

looks like i might be spending more time in her studio working on some of her other tracks in the coming months.

very happy me.

(this is part of amy’s studio; studio 8)

hmmm, we never did get around to that movie… lol

….and to all a good night.

to my friends and readers all - happy holidays!

now where’s my eggroll?

when my mom and dad were married, we moved around a fair bit… after the divorce, we moved around a lot more - whenever the rent was raised, we would move… bounced all over the place.  when i entered 6th grade, mom decided i should have some semblance of normalcy (i guess 5 different schools in 5 years may have been a bit much)…. so we stuck to columbia heights, mn (not to say we didn’t move when the rent went up, we just stayed in the same city.

saturday morning while i was driving errands, i found myself in the heights and i took a trip down memory lane.  here’s a pic of 6th street in columbia heights, mn where i lived.

we (it was just mom and me) lived in two different places on 6th street… the first was a lil’ house we affectionately called the crackerbox (my bedroom was 11′ square) - it was teeny.  then we moved up the street 6 blocks and rented the second floor apt in a duplex.  that lasted about a year and then we moved back to the crackerbox when the landlord asked us back and finished the basement so i would have a proper room.  it was friggan awesome.  we stayed there till my 16th birthday when we moved into a house that my mom bought (still in the heights).  the first house she ever owned.  that too was friggan awesome.

awww memory lane….

on friday night me and a bunch of mates went to the walker art center’s annual showing of the british television advertising awards(this is year no. 5 for me; it’s become a downright holiday tradition).  the brit’s just seem to do advertising better than we do (truth be told, they seem to do an awful lot better than we do)… and this year was no different.  i’ve culled a couple of my favorites for your viewing pleasure.  here they are, the best of the best:

first up, the commercial for tango clear titled ‘bravo’; an obvious spoof on last years amazingly successful sony bravia commercial.  i rather like how this one ends tho’.  this one won in the ‘diploma’ category:

next up (still in the ‘diploma’ category) (and prob one of my two favorites) is an advert for guinness:

wanker! indeed.  not gonna say much about this one, want you to watch the whole way thru to find out what it’s for:

skipping right over the ‘bronze’ category, we arrive at ’silver’ with xfm’s ‘roadies’ advert:

into the ’gold’ category we have one for bbc radio 2.  seamless editing here:

and now the thinkbox award for the best television commercial of the year - i do quite like what they did… really beautifully done: sony bravia ‘paint’ (i do really love the random clown bit.. hehehehe)

the pantone color institute has announcedthat the official color for 2008 is #18-3943 tcx aka ‘blue iris’.  did you know the world had an official color?  yup, me either.  did you also know the color for 2007 was ‘chili pepper red’? 

people, this is information you need to know.  your world is better for it.

there’s also something called colorstrology.  according to the pantone colorstrology site, my color is violet quartz.  who knew? 

apparently, people also find me “easy to be around” and i have an “understanding of human nature that is both perceptive and compassionate” - which means all of you should spend more time paying attention to what i have to say.  i’m very perceptive damnit.  (by the way, cb is “coral gold” - sounds butch eh?).

so there you have it.  you can now safely plan your decorating for next year. 

like i said, this is very important stuff people.  pay attention.

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in my haste to blog this last night i forgot the best part…  pantone spokeswoman leatrice eiseman had this to say about the choice for color of the year: “blue iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast.  emotionally, it ancoring and meditative with a touch of magic.” 

seriously.  i wonder if she said that with a straight face.

she went on to say this about the selection process: “with blue iris, we felt that it answered several needs, hopes, desires, that kind of thing.”

wow.  like i said - important stuff here.  i’ve always been looking for a stron blue color mixed with a purple cast that had just a hint of magic.  hogwart’s colors should be changed from red and gold, to blue and purple. 

the end of the year is nearing and as