snumbers

2009-10-23T17:41:00.002-04:00

February 25th, of this year:

"Some Motley Fool readers can continue believing that Americans want the security net of "ownership" (which I can relate to, but only in re: books -- I will never buy a Kindle), ... but the fact of the matter is that the model appears to be strong, and as it stands Netflix is in the lead."

October 23rd, same year:

WHAT THE WHAT. DO WANT.

2009-04-22T09:10:00.002-04:00

I've been itching to get a NAS setup, and last night I found one for a decent price. Buffalo 1TB NAS is on sale at Dell for $144, from $199. It's only one drive which is a little scary, but hopefully it will stick around for a few years. What does everyone else do with thier imporatant data? RAID storage? Thumb drives? Web-based storage?

2009-04-20T15:59:00.002-04:00

Is Tribeca Film Festival still cool? It starts up here in two days, and I've practically heard nothing about this year. How is there a big-name film festival in one of the cultural capitals of the world with no buzz? Possibilities: Smarter mainstream flicks (Doubt, Slumdog, Milk, I Love You Man, every Oscar winner in 2007). Nobody cares about documentaries on the plight of the Vietnamese rice farmer when we can't afford our mortgages. DeNiro is played out. Nobody hangs out in Tribeca. Tickets are so hard to get people like me stop trying after a couple of years. When you can get a ticket the ticket pick-up location is a thirty minute walk from the venue. Shitty marketing (I honestly didn't remember that this was happening until a friend gave me a booklet she was handed the other morning at 7am, coming out of Penn Station. Huh? This hardly an efficient use of resources.)

Who knows. At least maybe this year I will be able to get a ticket.

2009-04-07T12:33:00.001-04:00

Never Forget.

Looks like Grandaddy's Jason Lytle has a new record coming out on ANTI- in May, so that's cool. Bizarro world either works in bizarre ways -- I just decided to put Grandaddy on the iPod and put it on today at work which spurred me to do some Googling and finding this out -- or Someone Somewhere mentioned Grandaddy in the last couple of days which made me put it on my iPod -- because I guess the first single is on iTunes TODAY. Either way, crazy, huh? Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake is such a perfect song.

2009-04-06T15:22:00.002-04:00

Oh good, the free iTunes download of the week is John Cage's 4'33".

2009-04-01T16:10:00.002-04:00

Today I joined Hunch. It was probably a bad idea, but what the hell, I am already on Facebook and they know everything about me, and we are living in a world where our personal information lives on servers from your floor at work to some server-farm in Singapore. When I get busted for my seven-eights account I have no doubt that that one picture of me doing blow off of Nicole Richie's poodle will surface and the Daily News will report that my favorite movie was Spaceballs. Anyway, I'm totally suspicious about this site for a few reasons:

1) Too web two-point-oh-y. Sparse, not very intuitive, buzz-wordy, and no meat.

2) Whackass LAMP slash web designers are a dime a dozen, but statistical analysis is expensive and requires real software and can't really be done on the fly. I'm skeptical that we'll see real-time analysis of semi-qualitative information in our lifetimes. They could be running regressions in the background pretending like "Which video game console is right for me" is a question that can be answered using a quantitative method, but most of the time the answer they give you will leave you scratching your head.

3) User-created questions means that it will probably turn out like Yahoo Answers.

4) As of this afternoon 81% of the users were male (?). Weird.

Anyway, I could be totally wrong. I went back to TheSixtyOne a couple of weeks back and it's grown up in a good way. It's not a service that I am interested in (heart Pandora) but it's a lot better than it was a few months back. We'll see if Hunch can grow up similarly and find a revenue stream.

2009-03-18T13:36:00.002-04:00

I bet every person who works at NASA is so sick of hearing the "it's not rocket science" joke.

2009-03-11T15:53:00.004-04:00

OH BELIEVE IT.

They are starting a spring tour, and playing at Bamboozle Fest in East Rutherford on May 2nd, along with No Doubt, Rise Against, Taking Back Sunday, Sum 41, Billy Talent, Gwar, International Superheroes of Hardcore (NFG side project), Now Now Every Children, The Ataris, and "more to be announced."

Who's coming with me!? Real talk: Emo festival in the middle of Jersey. Does it get any better?

2009-03-10T11:38:00.002-04:00

A promotions company on the sidewalk outside of my office are giving out these Sunsweet Boosters drinks, apparently trying to gauge if people will pay $3 (2 for $5 at Pathmark. For real?) for fruit juice that has "booster" in the product name. The marketing geniuses behind rebranding prunes for Generation X (dude) as California Dried Plums (and presumably not behind their infinitely hipper cousin) I guess thought that if Jamba Juice can do it, so can they. Except that Jamba Juice is like, literally, just a bunch of fruit in a blender, made right before your eyes, and four hours after drinking a delicious Jamba Juice my insides don't feel like Chernobyl. I honestly can't get any work done because I am worried that someone is going to walk into my office and think that I keep a cache of decomposing baby birds in a drawer or something. Thanks, Sunsweet for a productive, heart-healthy morning.

I'm going home to eat leftover chinese food, which I'm sure will help a lot.

2009-03-05T16:51:00.002-05:00

Today after spending a couple of minutes on Google I discovered that there is no elegant, integrated way to disable (or, for my purposes, permanently enable) Numlock (without having access to regedit) in Windows 2000. So instead, I took the un-elegant route.

Screw the man.

Scroll lock, you're on notice.

2009-02-25T12:10:00.001-05:00

The Motley Fool wonders "Is Netflix Doomed?" Or, at least, their readers do. Tim Beyers tries to convince the wary that Silicon Valley is all talk until the tech is at the consumer's reach on a broad scale, and that the DVD-by-mail business is hardly dead.

Fortunately (for me), the technology is here, by and large, even if it's not being embraced as widely as the fringe would like you to believe. Streaming video is a Godsend for people like me who A) aren't hardasses about video quality, B) care more about timing and avoiding commercials than catching the latest episode and C) have the hardware on hand and know how to use it. Category C is growing leaps and bounds each day, as we're all well aware. As more people naturally migrate to hardware with the capability to use streaming video (broadband enabled televison, Xbox 360, etc), people will naturally migrate to using the services, just like they did with HDTV. Feedflix just released stats projecting 2009 to be the first year that streaming video overtakes DVD by mail at Netflix (note: you'll still have to take this with a grain of salt, though, because it appears to count individual episodes of sitcoms as a title, so when I watch all 24 episodes of Season 2 of 30 Rock, Feedflix reports that I watched 24 "movies").

So even if we assume that DVDs are and will continue to be alive and kicking for the next decade, the question remains, can Netflix survive the transition to a market that prefers streaming to receiving and returning DVDs by mail? There is obviously demand for the services. 10% of Netflix's subscribers have watched from an Xbox. What percentage will be watching from broadband enabled Samsung and LG televisions when every TV on the market has broadband? The rub will be if we see the dollars follow subscribers. One of the hurdles for on-demand media is licensing agreements which stipulate that fees are incurred each time a video hits a pair of eyeballs. Buying a copy of Groudhog Day on DVD probably costs $10, and each disc will last for, for simplicities sake, 10 rentals in it's lifetime. How much does Columbia charge Netflix in licensing each time I want to watch Groudhog Day? More or less than the $1 (plus shipping) that the DVD would have been? How many times do customers start to watch a movie and get five minutes in and decide that they don't want to watch it? Are there fees incurred here? Last night I started Radio Days and got ten minutes in before I was totally interupted by the Wife who wanted to talk or something. Did I cost Netflix money? In my opinion, cost is probably the biggest uncertainty in this equation when you assume (as I do) that the demand for this type of service is absolutely huge.

I may sound as puffy as Silicon Valley, but the day that almost everything you watch is available on-demand in your living room is right around the corner. Streaming everything available on network television is only an extension of the concept of an HTPC or TiVo, which is practically standard with any cable TV subscription (Time Warner charges $10/month extra). HBO is in talks with Netflix as we speak working out deals (fingers crossed) for preminum streaming content, and Netflix already streams limited Showtime and Starz content. Hulu, CNN, YouTube and others are already available in the living room if you're willing to fiddle with an AppleTV -- and we've all witnessed that the step from kids making smart shit into capitalist cash cow is a small one. Media delivery is in for a hell of a ride over the next ten years as broadband penetrates the long tail of consumers. With no content-specific boxes or cables necessary, the global potential is unlimited. Some Motley Fool readers can continue believing that Americans want the security net of "ownership" (which I can relate to, but only in re: books -- I will never buy a Kindle), or that somehow people dumping shares is a sign of inherent weakness in the business model (never trust a technical analyst, I don't see any dips since Nov/Dec 08, and it's picked back up to $32/share today), but the fact of the matter is that the model appears to be strong, and as it stands Netflix is in the lead.

*Also, what is going on with the love for Redbox? It looks like garbage: a Blockbuster in a vending machine is still a Blockbuster, and the DVD-by-mail model is lots more convenient, right? I'm a snob, though, so if I can't rent Breathless from your vending machine, you can kiss my ass.

2009-02-24T07:38:00.004-05:00

Spring mix for your ears. Later I realized that tracks one and two should probably be switched and it gets kind of slow towards the end, but oh well. Enjoy!

2009-02-20T15:45:00.002-05:00

Maybe a reason to buy Rock Band:

3:31 PM (2 minutes ago) Rock Band Weekly: Alt Country and Jimmy Eat World
from Xbox 360 Fanboy by Dustin Burg

Jimmy Eat World Pack (440 / $5.49)
"Futures" by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)
"Lucky Denver Mint" by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)
"Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)

Also: JEW playing through Clarity at Terminal 5 this in a few days SOLD OUT. At $35 a ticket! Who knew there were tons of underground JEW fans hiding out in New York? Scum bags on Craigslist (is there anyone else on Craigslist anymore?) are selling them for $75 a pop. Related mid-90's emo info: Blake Schwartzenbach's (Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker) new band Thorns of Life (some, like, Blake reference. Fucking dork) is floating around Park Slope playing a house party every few months (that I will never get invited to) so be on the lookout for them to break out any minute. They even have a Wiki page and some bad videos on Youtube already. Can you smell the anticipation?

2009-02-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Ben and Lindsey Tie the Knot. Yes, I jacked the Blogger html for the time being.

2009-02-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

Do not sleep on this. Obits (ex Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu) played their first show January 12th last year at Cake Shop, and they are finally getting around to releasing a full-length record (on Sub Pop) and going on a for-real tour in March. They will blast your face off. So so good. They sound pretty much exactly like Hot Snakes. "We're not into innovation as a band, I think innovation is overrated," said Rick Froberg of his band. Thank goodness.

2009-02-09T16:00:00.003-05:00

If you don't already have jjjound (caution: interspersed, tastefull boobs) in your RSS feed, why not, huh? Do it it's good and has helped craft apartment decorating skillz.

Serious lack of updates because: New apt in "North Chelsea" a.k.a. "South Hell's Kitchen" meant lots of headaches and shopping and cleaning and decorating &c &c. Christmas and New Years wore me out. Mom visits. Cold weather makes me apathetic. The internet is boring. Xbox and Netflix. There's live music, like, every night during the winter. Maintainance (and ill-maintanance) of interpersonal relationships. Drinking.

Maybe I will be back now and again? Who knows. If you used RSS it would make your life easier!

2008-12-12T11:19:00.002-05:00

I recently heard about a self-help program called Landmark Education. It's been called controversial, has been labeled as a cult in France, and has as many detractors as it does supporters. Apparently it is a weekend course in which you learn to eliminate mental barriers that keep you from seeing yourself as the rest of the world sees you, and breaks crutches that keep you separated from the real world. I'm not going to make any judgment calls about Landmark Education, other than to say that it sounds interesting. What works for each person is different, and surely this works for some people. I imagine that it leads many people (it did me, as a gut reaction) into the circular thinking of "if there is nothing wrong with me, I could take the course and be better knowing that there is nothing wrong with me, if there is something wrong with me, I could take the course and try to fix it," essentially instilling enough doubt about one's personality to at least be curious about the program.

In any case, I have no real interest of taking the course, but I did find the following (edited slightly to remove jargon used within the program) that now hangs on my office wall:

· Be Humble: give up being right, even when you know you were.
· Be Powerful: be straight in your communication and take what you get.
· Be Courageous: acknowledge your fear (not necessarily get rid of it) and then act.
· Be Peaceful: give up the interpretation that there's something wrong.
· Be Charismatic: give up trying to get somewhere. Be entirely fulfilled in the present moment.
· Be Enrolling: share your new possibilities in such a way that others are touched, moved and inspired.
· Be Unreasonable: in expectations of yourself and others beyond what you would think they are capable of.

I'm not generally into the whole self-help thing, but we all need goals, and these, I think, are good general ones.

2008-12-01T09:36:00.002-05:00

Indie rock personality test: What is your favorite Pavement album?

My first Pavement album was Brighten the Corners and it's still number two, but Slanted and Enchanted is easily my fave.

2008-11-19T16:45:00.003-05:00

Who is stoked to get home and play with Xbox 360 / Netflix? This guy is.

2008-11-18T13:39:00.001-05:00

I have listened to these two songs like eight times today so far. I especially like the idea of saving up your fuck ups to do it "spectacularly" all at once. I really need to keep up to date with Anti's roster because they have signed a bunch of new folks that I know nothing about.

Big Mistake - Tim Fite

More Clothes - Tim Fite

2008-11-13T15:15:00.001-05:00

Two of my favorite things combine to form one awesome thing: This Old House is renovating a house in Prospect Heights. Look for episodes to begin airing in January 2009.

2008-11-12T11:28:00.002-05:00

DO WANT.

2008-11-11T11:15:00.002-05:00

QWOP. I have not laughed this hard in a long time. I am going to get fired.

2008-11-04T16:05:00.002-05:00

Moral conundrum: The network that I usually steal wifi from because ours is awful started sharing his iTunes library, which is awesome. Should I share mine too, and reveal my presence? Or stay hidden and start mooching not just wifi, but music, too?

First world problems.

2008-11-03T11:45:00.002-05:00

Oh, shit shit shit. Ted Baker sale on Thursday, Jack Spade sale on Friday. See ya later, fiscal responsibility! Welcome back, Natural Light and spaghetti from a can!

2008-11-03T10:24:00.004-05:00

Is Carpetbagger like the single of the freaking year, or what? Also, who are these people talking shit about Elvis Costello on last.fm? They all deserve punches in the neck. As soon as you start bitching about Elvis Costello ruining a Jenny Lewis song you pretty much lose all credibility.

2008-10-29T15:11:00.002-04:00

BEN,

COULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE REASON IS FOR THE DELAY?

J M LONGO
973-xxx-0400 EXT 720
201-xxx-1675 CELL

Get outta here.

2008-10-21T11:59:00.001-04:00

This is to remind me of tickets I should buy and also how mad I am about not being able to go to half of these. I wish I had remembered CMJ was coming up. OH WELL.

Wed 10/22
8:30 PM The Slits, Nuuro, Todosantos, Made in Mexico, Los Fancy Free, Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!, Maniqui Lazer
Lit (CMJ)

Thu 10/23
7:00 PM Charlie Louvin, Oakley Hall, Justin Townes Earle, The Tall Pines
92YTribeca

Thu 10/23
8:00 PM Sam Champion, The Jealous Girlfriends, Mancino, The Silent League
The Bell House

Fri 10/24
6:00 PM Saves The Day, Kevin Devine and The Goddamn Band

Fri 10/24
8:00 PM El May, Circuit Parade
Monkey Town

Sat 10/25
8:00 PM DMBQ, Monotonix, Pre, The Mae Shi, An Albatross, Akimbo, The Apes, Sole and Skyrider Band, Yip Yip
Market Hotel

Sat 10/25
8:00 PM Delta Spirit, Justin Townes Earle, Luke Temple, Dri
Red Bull Space

Sun 10/26
12:30 PM Jukebox The Ghost, Wakey! Wakey!, Casey Shea
(le) poisson rouge

Looking forward:

Sat 11/08
8:00 PM The Mountain Goats, Kaki King, Larkin Grimm
Music Hall of Williamsburg

Mon 11/10
8:00 PM Team B (members The National and Beirut), Dancer vs. Politician
Union Pool

Wed 11/12
8:00 PM Mark Kozelek (acoustic), Neil Halstead
Music Hall of Williamsburg

Sat 11/15
8:00 PM Bob Schneider, Amie Miriello
Bowery Ballroom

Sun 11/16
8:00 PM Eagles of Death Metal, The Duke Spirit
Music Hall of Williamsburg

Thu 12/11
8:00 PM Bon Iver, The Tallest Man On Earth
Town Hall

Mon 12/15
8:00 PM Neil Young, Wilco, Everest
Madison Square Garden

Wed 12/17
7:00 PM The Night Marcher, Obits
Santos Party House

2008-10-21T10:13:00.002-04:00

I finally found a used paperback copy of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections on Sunday afternoon and I cannot put it down. It is uproarious. The reviews on Amazon are surprisingly negative (3 of 5 stars overall) considering what seems (to me) to skew towards an erudite reviewer base. It apparently got a shoutout from Oprah at some point, which may give an otherwise niche book some audience that might not be prepared for 600+ pages of serious (and seriously drawn out) prose, but that's no excuse for panning it if you ask me. So far (1/3 through) The Corrections is reminding me a lot of Wonder Boys (except darker, maybe a little less laugh out loud funny) and I just freaking love it. I've almost missed subway stops because the knots in my stomach refuse to go away if I can't find a place to pause. It's like eating a mozzarella stick that burns your mouth but it's so delicious.

Other news includes but is not limited to: The Bronx playing the shit out of Fontana's tonight, there are Red Pandas at the Central Park Zoo and I want to take one home with me, I need a new job and a new apartment, Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale FTW, I am going upstate next weekend to see the leaves change (tourist), and what should I be for Halloween? Elaboration will probably not be forthcoming because I am lazy.

2008-10-15T11:38:00.003-04:00

The JCrew website is the biggest piece of shit on the planet. That's what they get for bringing IT back inhouse. Focusing on core competancy is first year B-school material, and IT is clearly not one of thier strengths. Please quit it so I can look like a decent person this winter. Seriously, you owe me a kelly green sweater, a grey argyle sweater vest and a knit tie after that bullshit this morning.

Love,

B

2008-10-09T12:45:00.001-04:00

Yowza.

2008-10-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

Things that I have been digging recently:

Joanna Newsom and Fucked Up and Battle of Mice. Hale & Hearty. Catching up with people I've been neglecting. Sexy watches. Sweaters. Strong beers. College football. Corduroy. Hudson Baby Bourbon. Getting all emo about the fall.

2008-09-29T19:07:00.003-04:00

205 vs 228. Look, nobody wants to see what the end looks like, but this sure as hell wasn't Wall Street's savior.

Thank goodness.

I'm for real on vacation until Sunday.

2008-09-26T12:16:00.002-04:00

Washington Mutual, Inc. (WM)
Current Price: $0.16
Last Trade Time: 9/26/2008 9:30 AM
Open: $0.18
Previous Close: $1.69
Daily Range: $0.15 - $0.18
52-Week Range: $1.50 - $36.47
Volume: 102,085,526
Market Cap: $7.22B
P/E Ratio: 4.56

Huh. Something tells me that the folks over at 4 New York Plaza are not excited about this. On the plus side, they should be used to it by now. (MannyHannyChemicalJPMorganChaseBankOneBearWaMu?)

2008-09-26T09:27:00.002-04:00

What a strange week. It always feels funny to be 'single' again, but this week has been hill after valley. In the spirit of that, I'd like to share an essay that was supposed to be a speech meant to invigorate and to wrangle the latent potential out of new grads. David Foster Wallace's commencement at Kenyon, three years ago. Last week he killed himself. His 'magnum opus,' Infinite Jest, who's "Statistically Improbable Phrases" alone should make you want to read it.

2008-09-24T10:37:00.001-04:00

The Yellowshaded areas indicate dates when Mercury is retrograde. The Red Letter days are the most erratic, when Mercury is moving at its slowest, less than 1 degree each day. Plan even more carefully on Red Letter Days. The gray shadow areas are those called the Shadow Period. The gray shadow days mark the beginning and ending of Mercury's influence.

2008-09-24T03:12:00.002-04:00

That was not true. I was drunk. Carry on.

2008-09-15T14:10:00.002-04:00

LEH Lehman Brothers Holdings
Last Trade: 0.19
Trade Time: 1:54PM ET
Change: -3.46 (-94.81%)

Yikes. The Fed is staying out of it, though, like they said they would. Word is they are going to be helping out AIG, though, with capital for a 'bridge loan' collateralized by the subsidiaries:

"In many ways, this was predictable," [Gov] Patterson [sic] said. "Hopefully we have cleared the way for the federal government" to provide assistance as well, he said.

Also: This is worth about 10,000 times what a share of stock is worth!

2008-09-15T00:14:00.002-04:00

I can add little insight to the events of the past four days except to say that if you really thought that we were fucked (overall), then maybe BoA buying up Merrill at 80% premium might sway your opinion. The word on the street from the little people is negative, but clearly people with more info know more than we do.

Two quick stories: Walking home from a beer tasting on Wall Street, four obvious new-hires trying to look smart in front of their dates talking about how Lehman was seeking financial bailout from the Fed. Bad info, of course, but the point is that they are parroting the bears which spreads like wildfire. Two: The Wife discussing closing her WaMu accounts because she overheard someone on the subway talking about their instability. These both show how even people outside of the markets pickup this stuff just walking around the streets of New York.

Perception is reality, and in our 24/7 MSNBC/CNBC dominated world the media can and will influence the markets with bearish outlooks. I haven't watched the news tonight, but maybe we need have a little more discussion about how the Fed pretty much forced Frannie and Freddie hands into this situation in the first place with micromanaged legislation. Maybe we need to make it clear that Merrill was underpriced because of our misconceptions about the economy as a whole. And maybe we need to seriously start discussing the socialism creeping into our markets, one regulation at a time.

Just sayin'.

2008-09-08T15:44:00.004-04:00

My laptop finally crapped the bed this weekend. It is a two year old Dell M140 on it's factory Windows XP MCE install that I inherited from my mother last year because she didn't know what to do with it. I was too lazy to wipe it when I got it, so it probably needed a fresh OS anyway, but then last week Lindsey's nephew was surfing around on some skeevy .ru websites trying to find flash games with motorcycles in them and must have just clicked 'yes' everytime anything popped up. I downloaded AdAware and NOD32 and ran both and I really thought I was in the clear, but then I noticed hidden instances of Internet Explorer starting at random, looking for .ru ad-farm webpages, and/or a trojan in svchost.exe that NOD32 wouldn't fix. In it's last throes I managed to download and burn copies of TinyXP and Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) LTS and, since I didn't necessarily put a lot of faith in a 230MB copy of XP that I found on a torrent site, I decided to try Ubuntu for the first time since 2001. There are obviously pros and cons to switching to Linux, but so far I am moderately happy with the switch:

Pros:
It's free, and I don't have a legit XP CD.
Super easy install. No questions about partitions, no questions about FAT32 or Linux EXT or GRUB, every part of the machine worked out of the box incl. touchpad, wireless, display and even the multimedia buttons on the front. It didn't even mention a 'root' user.
iPod Classic as a HDD worked beautifully out of the box and saved my ass from having to burn like 10 backup DVDs.
No 'calling home,' like with Windows, though that's easy enough to circumvent
Seems to boot and shutdown very quickly.
Moderate performance increase (possibly due to the lack of background apps that I will eventually get around to installing Linux equivilents of?).
Possibly imaginary internet performace increase.
Debian package sites / Ubuntu repos make finding apps easy like a Sunday morning.
I have no idea how apt-get works with the internet but it's really cool.
Satisfaction of being a little bit dorkier than yesterday?

Cons:
Minimal iPod Touch support (wireless(!) sync using Amarok, but it sounds hard to get installed and working), zero iTunes App Store support.
Shakey iPod Classic support (using Amarok again, I might get used to it).
Songbird (best looking / functioning iTunes replacement) crashed twice in one day, froze whole machine both times.
Xbox 360 controller sounds like a pain to get working (though ZSNES works perfectly). Will try tonight.
Is there a "ctrl-alt-del" equivilent? Task manager? How do you kill a process?
Trying to remember terminal commands sucks.
I have no use for Quicklaunch or multiple destops, to the desktop is a little too bulky for my tastes.
I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I still refuse to 'make' anything that doesn't come in a package and the folder structure is perplexing.
The Wife doesn't believe in Open Source, she is still skeptical.

So basically my qualms and concerns are 1) pls support my iPods because I cannot live without them, which is actually sort of Apple's fault and 2) soon something will go wrong that I will not be able to fix and that will be the day that I have a deadline and I will wind up throwing this bitch across the room (yesterday I accidentally turned off my wireless and it took me 45 mins to figure out how to turn it back on).

2008-08-29T12:05:00.003-04:00

Will Sarah Palin getting the tap for Veep mean a refound attraction for Alaskan culture in American popular culture?

God, I hope so.

2008-08-26T10:43:00.001-04:00

How Not To Get Laid. How cute we all once were.

2008-08-22T09:30:00.003-04:00

Drive by Truckers and Hold Steady are playing two shows in NYC together during their "Rock 'n Roll Means Well" tour. I jumped the gun and bought tickets for Thursday night on presale, and now of course there are plenty of tickets for Friday, but at least it will give me a reason to take a three day weekend, or just have a very lazy Friday. Super stoked. This will def be one for the ages. I know it's early to get too excited, but my money is on them collaborating on at least two or three songs, and it will shake. The. Earth.

2008-08-19T23:42:00.003-04:00

SPOILER ALERT: X-FILES. Not like anyone is going to see this movie anyway.

Things I thought while watching the X-Files movie:

"Are you fucking kidding me? The song doesn't start with the whistle! It starts with the moog."
"Where's the moog?"
"Oh man, are you kidding me?"
"Is that Amanda Peet? Oh get the hell out of here."
"What?"
"1st whistle theme song, lame. 2nd whistle theme song, George W Bush?"
"OH OK I GET IS GWB = HOOVER."
"Since when are M & S doing it?"
"STEM CELLS?" pbbbtt
"Gun would not hit the ground three seconds before body hits the ground. I thought this show was SCIENCES."
"Love, blah blah blah, shut the fuck up, whurs the ghosts?"
"This movie would have been a THOUSAND times better if they had been running a baby factory for harvesting stem cells, explaining the missing limbs (baby mamas don't need arms to make babies) and tie in the lame stem cells crap."
"YES! EXPERIMENTS!"
"SCULLY SAID BALLS!"
"SKINNER!"
"Don't give up, cause there's a place, where we belong." YESS PETER GABRIEL. Am I the only one who heard the similarity?

Overall rating: 6/10 but that's mostly because of the franchise and the last twenty minutes, which actually got kind of awesome.

2008-08-18T13:38:00.003-04:00

Aug 26 @ Bowery Ballroom, Benefit for Frank Bango
Nada Surf
Richard Buckner
Sam Champion
&etc

This should draw some of the best talent in NYC, so hopefully it'll be a fun show.

2008-08-12T14:12:00.000-04:00

OMG!

2008-08-05T11:24:00.002-04:00

The new Ben Folds record is a freaking downer, man. I don't care if these are fake, or outtakes, or what, they are still really good, and I'm now trying to justify spending $100+ on a concert.

Is that the most exciting thing going on in my life at the moment? Clearly, yes, it is.

2008-07-31T13:13:00.004-04:00

"Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope..." ahWHAAA?

Come on, seriously? For one thing, this smacks of revisionist history and nearsightedness. The whole piece sounds like it was written by someone much too immature for a national audience. The writing style is hackneyed and there is absolutely zero analysis or commentary. For another thing, since when is dressing in skinny pants a fucking "counter-culture?" Is this journalism or just a C&P from a fat chick's Livejournal? It's obvious reading the "quotes" that Mr. Haddow has taken some poetic license, which, I'll grant, may be necessary when you're trying to write ten pages on a thesis as shallow as "Dude, like, what's up with hipsters, you know?" What's amazing is that your buddy, the one who rides fixed-gear and always has on a brand new 59fifty from Dave's Quality Meat isn't a hipster, but the dude across the bar with skinny jeans and a scarf drinking a beer(!!!) is. Or, if you like, the only people who are hipsters are the ones you're not friends with.

Wait a minute, this dude is the one rallying against hipsters? Is this a joke? Alright, boys, that's that last straw. Time to nuke Vancouver.

2008-07-29T16:43:00.002-04:00

Oh, you sons of bitches. Way to suck the fun out of the internet, Hasbro.

2008-07-23T14:02:00.002-04:00

Boast post: My casework group is just about finished with a twenty-five page analysis of a cement manufacturer in Mexico that is targeting the poorest consumers by offering microcredit and installment plans. We gave a 45 minute presentation on them last week and received a written critique just now and the professor focused in on three points and strategies that were all mine. Solid.

Also, next semester I am finally taking two courses that are my planned concentrations: finance and media management. If all goes well I can start building my five-year plan in the next six or eight months. Mostly it's just going to be wearing jeans to work and working with rock stars, though.

Finally, tomorrow I get to go to work in jeans (five-year plan five years early) for a meeting with IT and then I'm hanging out in the East Village with my cousin all day. Summer is shaping up!

2008-07-21T11:22:00.002-04:00

New late-night summer jams, Palms Out Sounds mixtape with one track from Alan Astor remixing Sta remixing Usher, uh, featuring Jeezy, or something.

2008-07-18T11:51:00.002-04:00

Insipired by an old blog post I found. July, 2005, I:

Thought that I would be leaving NYC in about three years.

Wanted a tattoo of a rooster.

Thought that I was wasting my summer because it was July already.

Did not eat sushi.

Never ate lunch.

Crossed my Z's and 7's.

Was trying to quit smoking.

Couldn't imagine my friends from high school getting married.

July, 2008, I:

Think I'll be living in NYC for about another three years.

Got it.

Think it now. Can you believe it's July?

Eat it. Spicy tuna @ Buddha Bar nom nom nom.

Go out to lunch every day with my lunch buddies.

Don't, ever.

Am currently trying to quit smoking.

Am engaged. OMGWTF.

2008-07-18T11:14:00.001-04:00

I wanna know what lunch is. I want you to show me.

2008-07-17T13:37:00.001-04:00

Ted Leo this afternoon on the beautiful, Battery Park City esplanade. Be there or be square, suckers!

2008-07-08T14:39:00.002-04:00

Things that have happened recently or will happen soon that are probably only important to me:

I picked up my contacts from my shady optician today and they look like the real thing, but they have Japanese writing all over them and direct me to acuvue.jnj.co.jp, if I need any information on them. Janky.

Somebody released Hold 'Em for the iPod Touch so now I take this thing everywhere I go. I mean everywhere.

The Avett Brothers are playing a free show tomorrow night and I'm going to miss it because I am going to be in class, like a sucker.

Before the summer is over I am getting The Wife's initals tattooed on me. Everybody tells me what a terrible decision that is and I tell them to shut it. You only live once.

I picked up a lesbian at a bar for a friend a few weeks ago and I was so smooth.

Quitting smoking sucks hard and I want to punch people in the mouth, but I guess it's better than spending $10 every other day for a pack. Maybe.

If anyone is interested in any of the following, I am planning on going: No Age, Breeders, New York Phil at Prospect Park, N Y Phil at Central Park, Spoon, Ted Leo (sorry, Brian), Deerhoof (I can't remember if I like this band), Siren Fest, Liars, Atlas Sound, Skatalites (YUSS!), Long Winters, King Khan, WILCO, or Aesop Rock. Also if there is something you would like to do, please drag me to them because I'm sure you have good taste, too.

I am listening to lots of business-geared motivational stuff on the way to work (You belong in the room as much as anyone else there! Plan, decide, delegate, act, judge!) and it totally works. Today I listened to Kevin Smith's SModcast instead and look at me! Jacking off and writing blog posts! Tomorrow, back to the grind.

2008-06-20T10:01:00.001-04:00

Verdict: Tastes like Chick-Fil-A. Nom nom nom nom nom.

2008-06-19T09:38:00.002-04:00

What sort of instrument is the crazy noise in lots of Latin American songs that sounds sort of like a cross between a dog barking and that squeaky noise you can make on glass with a wet finger? I was trying to listen to the new Sergio Mendes record (good, poppy, one or two stand-out songs) but I heard this sound on one song and now all I can hear is this squeaky sound in, like, every song, and it's driving me crazy so I'm going to have to turn it off.

Edit: Now I am def going to have to turn it off because Will.I.Am just said "rockin' this new ish" and I hate that radio-ready candy-pop allstars have just started TBS mid-afternoon Saturday movie-style censoring themselves. Yippie-kay-aye, Mothertrucker.

2008-06-12T16:55:00.002-04:00

I'm back on the patch (and, uh, occasionally this) starting last night. The best part about the patch is that you have these wild, intense dreams. Last night I had a dream that I lost my shirt trading corn futures (can you trade commodities on eTrade?) on the advice of the investments guy I work with. It was so lifelike that when I woke up this morning I started to apologize to the Wife. Then, when I realized it was a dream, I got really excited because, you know, what if I have The Shining or something. Turns out I would be a really shitty commodities trader if I was relying on Nicotrol premonitions.

Que sera, sera.

Two side notes: "Que sera, sera" doesn't actually mean anything in any language, and also apparently these patches itch like a bastard because I ripped mine off at some point last night and stuck it on the bedside table and then had a dream that I put another one on my ass. So this morning I frantically searched for the lost ass-patch that did not exist while the Wife looked at me like I was retarded. Cool.

2008-06-10T17:33:00.002-04:00

It was probably well after four when we finally got kicked out of the bar -- Mooney's usually stays open late for us, and I don't mean one extra round late -- though I was having so much fun earlier to took off my watch. We were sitting on the back porch drinking God-only-knows what whiskey (as the night gets older and wallets get empty, which whiskey you're throwing into your belly matters less and less) and having a good time not caring what anyone else thought. A group of yuppies started making fun of my neighborhood and we spent the next hour talking about rock music and how hot Jenny Lewis is (yuppies love Jenny Lewis and secretly love my neighborhood). When we all fell out of the bar and into the streets of Bay Ridge, instead of getting on the road towards our homes we went to the farmer's market and bought cherries and talked about horseracing.

There's a temptation to try to relive the days that we loved so much, especially, for me, during the summer. It's important to recognize that the way these memories are built is not by trying to recreate others. It's precious to hold and keep with you, and when you walk down that one street or smell the summer subway smell for the first time it kinda gets you, but I need to remind myself that there is only today. So I guess that is my goal for the summer. So far I am off to a good start.

Also: God dammit is that fucking sandcastles picture not the funniest effing thing you have ever seen in your whole life? No kidding I think I have looked at it, like, eight times today and I bust up every single time.

2008-06-07T14:09:00.001-04:00

2008-06-05T13:10:00.001-04:00

Ahahahaha.

2008-06-03T09:31:00.002-04:00

First: Best spam ever:

Subject: what a stupid face you have here ben.carver
Body: "Watch."

Also: Someone on the subway this morning was wearing Lucky. It makes my brain run in five different directions which just makes my hangover worse.

Lastly: I need a Bloody Mary and some sand between my toes, stat.

2008-06-02T13:52:00.002-04:00

I found this searching around for one of those eBay crawlers that helps you search better -- specifically for items that are about to end that haven't been bid on yet. This afternoon I am making myself a big sign and taping it to my wall that says "DO NOT EVER CLICK ON LINKS TO YAHOO ANSWERS OR YOU WILL WANT TO SMASH THINGS."

Yahoo Answers: Anyone know of the $1 ebay auction websites?
Dave F asks: "Anyone know of the $1 ebay auction websites where they have lots of items selling on ebay that have less than 1 hour to go and cost less than $1?"

Pattibcacl answers: "no sorry I don,t look on Ebay good luck"

2008-05-28T09:10:00.003-04:00

Is it ironic that I keep getting email forwards about shipping illegal immigrants to Iraq, about Barack OMGWTFHUSSEIN!! Obama being a stoner, and about Hillary being the spawn of the devil from a first generation immigrant in accounting? Or is it just depressing?

2008-05-22T22:28:00.002-04:00

FYI: New Hold Steady leaked. And it looks like a beautiful weekend. Couldn't ask for much more.

The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
The Hold Steady - Navy Sheets

2008-05-20T09:00:00.002-04:00

Do you remember when any fifteen-year-old could start a blog and an Amazon wishlist and dirty internet people bought them stuff for no reason? If there are any dirty internet people reading this blog, feel free to buy me this. PM me, I'll give you my address.

2008-05-19T15:49:00.001-04:00

Oh shit. Caught up on my stories last night. Did you guys see that coming? A couple of gays, some blow, and a murder. This is turing into Passions! Also, eff that dream about Jenny I had a couple of weeks ago. I don't like her anymore. It's like bizarro world. Dan is turning into a little puss, and Serena is such a dirty whore! Also, Nate and Chuck are, like, awesome now. Who am I supposed to have a crush on now, Blair? Oh, who am I kidding, Serena could do a whole football team and I would still be totally in love with her (after a shower).

I saw Ironman on Friday and it was surprisingly good. I don't usually fall for these comic book movies, but Robert Downey Jr. was really good. Is anybody in real life that witty anymore? The British used to prize wit, right? It's gone now, more or less. Now we just have fart jokes. Anyway, it was a decent flick, and it was actually pretty funny. Also, I know it always comes back to this, but Pepper Potts is hot! I know! Pepper pot! Hot! It's so cute.

Also trying to get through a few books in the next few weeks. I finished The Inheritance of Loss and it was interesting. I don't know how it did so well commercially -- it's fractured and more poetry than prose -- but I enjoyed it. The only thing that I didn't fully grasp were the cultural differences that you have to keep in mind the whole way through. Trying to remember what part of India are we in now, or wait now it's Pakistan, and is that word a food or a piece of clothing or a caste? That part was tiring and distracted me from the nuances of her (his?) writing. I started Good to Great by Jim Collins, for a management course I'm taking. Everybody in my class who has started it is raving about how great it is and supposedly the companies profiled in the book beat the NYSE and NASDAQ by something like 15 points over the past fifteen years, and Collins is well respected in his field. Unfortunately, it sometimes is a field more infatuated with buzzwords and shortsightedness than science and long-term results. I will report back. I'm also reading Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon. I'm not far enough in to say much about it, but I think it's an "alternate future" book where all the European Jews got sent to Alaska in 1948 instead of Israel. Whatever, it's Chabon, I'm sure it will be decent. If anyone knows how to pronounce Chabon please let me know. Shay-bone? Shi-bone? Finally, on the subway and at my desk I am listening to Ender's Game. Yes I know.

That's a lot of media consumption! Next post I will go back to stories about beer and yelling.

2008-05-02T08:47:00.001-04:00

OH SHIT who is stoked for Bouncing Souls tomorrow night? THIS GUY.

This isn't even a blog anymore.

2008-04-29T11:12:00.003-04:00

Last night I had a dream that I was married to Taylor Momsen and it was just precious. New ep Tivo'ed for tonight, suckas!

2008-04-24T18:59:00.000-04:00

2008-04-23T13:21:00.001-04:00

After being a sad-sack all Sunday last week, I carpe diemed the shit out of this weekend. Here is what I did even though nobody cares:

On Saturday I woke up crazy early (10:00am) and my roommate and I walked over to Soundfix to meet Regina Spektor. I really had no idea who she was outside of that one song that was in an Apple commercial or something. It was not exciting at all for me, really, but Joseph was stoked and he yelled at her and videotaped her cute little face and her cute little itty-bitty hand waving at him. Seriously I think that she is four feet tall soaking wet, but I feel super awkward standing around staring at some girl I don't know just because she is famous and really effing cute, so I didn't, you know, go up to her with a yardstick and measure her or anything.

After that we ate breakfast and drank wine at Relish which was maybe a little expensive for breakfast, but it was still really good.

Then I broke down and dragged Joseph into Built by Wendy with me (I know! It's like role reversal, or something) and I accidentally bought some pants and a shirt that was actually made in Macau and not by some hipster named Wendy in Williamsburg.

After killing the rest of the afternoon drinking beer outside and finishing Cavalier and Klay, Betty came over and we walked around the neighborhood and grabbed a beer and she went though people's trash (shocka!).

After a tense text-message frenzy, Arthur scored tickets to the Wakey!Wakey! show of the decade in a garage-turned-recording studio in Scarytown U.S.A. a.k.a. Bed Stuy, right by the BQE and the Chicken Express (effing incredible, and $4 for a chicken sandwich, fries and a Coke!). It was awesome and the cops showed up, so you know it was awesome. Four people played and one guy covered an Ani song which made me happy. Also this black couple told me I looked like Spiderman and I was so close to trying to joke around and say something about how the guy looked like Will Smith (he did not look like Will Smith), but I bit my tounge hard because I think that maybe joking around like "ha ha, all black people look the same" might still be taboo. Who knows.

Theme: What a great fucking day. What a great season. I don't know how warm it is outside right now, but I know that two weeks ago I put my winter coat in the way-back of my closet so that I don't have to look at it anymore. I know that the weather is making me think about the next few months in concrete terms, making concrete plans, which is something that I have a hard time doing during the winter. And I know that it's making me regret some decisions that I've made in the past few months that I've tried to play down, and that I will do my best to keep in mind going forward, even if it's too late to do anything about, now.

Happy Spring, bitches!

2008-04-13T12:39:00.002-04:00

When your laptop dies because all you've done all morning is sit in bed watching 30 Rock and yesterday's SNL, you should take it as a sign and get up and take a shower and call your friends back and carpe diem.

But instead you'll probably stay in bed laughing at "Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, ACK!"

2008-04-07T21:48:00.000-04:00

Best or worst commercial ever. I'm still in shock, but it's definitely one or the other.

2008-04-02T08:16:00.002-04:00

I guess we should have seen this coming. Even after Citigroup upgradeed Lehman to a "buy" late last week, the Fed announced that they want more power and a new role as the mortgage police. Because, obviously, the Fed saw this coming from miles away, and, uh, totally helped squash the mortgage crisis. Didn't Greenspan's policies convince all of these middle class Americans making $70,000 a year to buy half-million dollar homes in the burbs, or have we already relagated our fiscal policies of the past ten years to history and "post nine eleven" mentality? Has everyone really already forgotten about 3.0% 80/20 mortgages, directly a result of Greenspan's economic ideals?

At least we have Barney Frank and the House of Representatives to bail everyone out with a $300B prop, so we can all live comfortably above our means.

Bernanke is set to speak before congress, this afternoon. Stay tuned!

2008-04-01T17:29:00.001-04:00

Kingswood
121 W. 10th St New York NY

Rated by: Becca S.

3/5 star rating

02/18/2008

The Kingswood is like that boyfriend you had in college who you knew you should just dump, but somehow kept coming back to, over and over again.

He ignores you ("are the people here bringing us food or what???!!!" my friend cried out after 20 minutes had gone by without even getting our drink orders taken). He makes ridiculous excuses ("your burger IS medium rare, it's just that they treat the meat in a way that makes it brown" our waitress explained to me with an impressively straight face. Um, is that "treatment", by any chance, COOKING? ). He is not even all that interesting (mushroom risotto....eh).

But then he gives you truffle fries. And cute bartenders with Australian accents. And a really beautiful space. And all of a sudden you're giving him 3 stars, when he probably only deserves 2.

Ahahahaha sounds like my kind of place!

2008-04-01T16:30:00.004-04:00

I've come up with an idea for the next revolution in internet browsers. Googling "U breathe," which, as I understand, is a technique where one breathes out of the mouth while simultaneously breathing in through the nose, brings up five bazillion matches with "u" used to mean "you," making it impossible to sift through the matches for R'n'B songs about "The way u breathe make me luv u 4ever" and tons of bitches in Jerz who think that their totally deep poetry about "you're breathe on my neck makes me shutter lol." Surprisingly (or not), millions and millions of annoying shitty teenagers who will one day rule the world believe that it is fine and dandy, and efficient even, to truncate a three letter word. I could probably ramble and get worked up for hours on end about what a waste of space everyone under the age of 18 is, but that's not the point today.

The point is, I started thinking about how nice it would be if we could shape our online behavior with an intelligent, self-censoring web browser. What if Firefox had an extension that added a button labeled Flag as retarded? Clicking on it would add the content of the page to a database which would filter Google hits, forum posts, YouTube comments, and even entire Geocities webpages. I honestly think that it would make for a much more enjoyable (though maybe a little delusional) online experience. It could be programmed to learn to avoid grammar-free zones and promote those pages which are most likely to satisfy your needs, sort of like Tivo. It would have to be pretty robust to distinguish the difference between the correct and incorrect uses of their and they're, but, Gentlemen, we have the technology.

Related: I should totally get one of those mosquito-repel things that makes a high pitched noise that only teenagers and mosquitoes and dogs can hear and take it to every all-ages show I go to. Man, that is such a good idea.

2008-03-26T15:14:00.003-04:00

The next person that asks me to ask someone else to do something is getting punched in the effing mouth. THIS PLACE GIVES ME HEADACHES. I NEED A DAMNED DRINK.

2008-03-25T11:37:00.002-04:00

Connections in brains that have been awesome recently: First, the Kate Bush/Kate Nash thing last week that made me remember the song Don't Give Up (which Kate Bush sang on) which made me start listening to Peter Gabriel again. Second, everybody hating on Vampire Weekend with this "Oh look how cute they remade Graceland" trash talk got me to listen to Paul Simon again and he's so much cooler than I thought he was when I was ten and only wanted to listen to En Vogue and Aerosmith. Third, I guess since it was Easter I started thinking about those big stone heads that people think aliens put on Easter Island, which reminded me of this huge Talking Heads display they had up in the Camelot music store by my grandparents house like a million years ago, so I downloaded 77 and I'm currently blasting it and I'm obvs the coolest dude in my office.

2008-03-24T17:01:00.002-04:00

Brooklyn is the place to be in the spring. Drinking outside, hipsters taking their clothes off, walking in our beautiful parks and outdoor concerts all come to a head when the weather hits 65 degrees. Unfortunately, it's still 50 out today, but at least it's sunny and it's not snowing. Fortunately Brooklyn also has lots of indoor activties to offer while we wait for the weather to arrive. This week is Brooklyn Restaurant Week. $23 gets you three courses and a wonderful evening of intrigue in one of Brooklyn's quirky, unique neighborhood eateries. A couple of highlights: Bar Tabac in Cobble Hill, applewood in Park Slope, Blue Ribbon Sushi, also in Park Slope, or Five Front in DUMBO. Also, a newer one, DeStefano's, right around the corner from yours truly, boasting one the best steaks I've had in NYC hands down. $23? Seriously, that's like a meal at Wendy's. Def make some time in your week to try a couple of new places.

In other news, the Easter weekend wore me the eff out, so tonight it looks like it's takeout and the couch. PEACE OUT.

2008-03-19T12:11:00.002-04:00

Check.
Check.

On the plus side, I am going to four or five shows in the next couple of months that I wouldn't have gone to if I hadn't been wasted last night, and I must be really popular this morning because I have like twenty messages today that I can't check because work blocks Facebook and Myspace! Whoever introduced me to martinis is getting a nice Hawaiian punch.

2008-03-18T17:18:00.001-04:00

HEEERRREE WEEEEEE GOHEREWEGOHEREWEGO, HERE WE GOOo HERE WE GOOO HERE WE GOO!

Saturday, May 3 at 6:00 PM
Scenic presents Rocks Off Presents : The Bouncing Souls / Tim Barry / Gaslight Anthem
at Europa, New York City
$18.00

2008-03-17T13:40:00.003-04:00

Wow! What a day! Just last night, sitting down around a dinner with friends, we were discussing how terrible the dollar is, which is my excuse for not going to Europe this year. Today gold jumped again, higher than $1,030, and oil is at $111. The Fed cut rates another 25 bps and three month T-Bills are returning less than 1%. They are barely worth the paper they are printed on. Europe is looking further and further out of reach for a poor old American.

Bear Sterns news is bad for everyone, including European and Asian markets today, but I hope that we will get some more information about the deal in the coming days. For those of you who don't know (or care), JPM is buying 140 million shares of Bear Stearns stock for about $2 each, a whole $28 dollars less than it closed at on Friday, and about $120 less than the 52 week high, through a stock swap. The Fed will be covering JPM on the liquidity because of the risk of buying the CDO heavy, leveraged-to-their-tits Bear with only two days of due diligence. On one hand, that's crazy, and clearly there was some reason why JPM is taking on the risk, right? I mean, either they know something that makes the deal profitable or there was some pushing from the Fed. On the other hand, they only paid $250 million for a firm doing about $2bn in profit per year, plus the building downtown worth an estimated $1.2bn. Freels? If the Fed had helped me I'd have bought it, too.

In any case, lets hope that we won't be wallpapering our living rooms with greenbacks and JP Morgan stock certificates in the coming months, because I'm totes gettin yelled at if I try to put Europe off another year.

2008-03-16T13:31:00.002-04:00

For the past five or six years I have avoided this particular website, even though it is quite popular. So loved, so frequented, in fact, that it comes up in conversation at least once a week these days. It's popularity has been rising exponentially, and I think that, just from observational and speculative evidence, it may have finally eclipsed it's monolith of a rival. This weekend, after seeing my dear roommate play with this website for hours (it seems) beside me on the couch, I registered for Facebook. May Lord have mercy on my soul.

But seriously this shit is addictive like heroin or Bejeweled.

Also: Four fucking days until spring. YA HEARD! This will help you get in the mood:

2008-03-05T21:25:00.006-05:00

Drunk blogging FTL. It went something like how I thought Kate Nash was Kate Bush (she is no Kate Bush) and my roommate made me listen to it and I was totes disappointed even though she is getting lots of buzz right now, so instead I downloaded "So" and pretty much every good Genesis album and yacht-rocked out all night.

Also for some reason this:

I promise if my posts on this blog do not get better soon I will quit.

2008-03-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

Nola, a four-piece from my adopted hometown, Raleigh NC, plays dreamy alt-country with enough soul to remind you how country music is supposed to make you feel. After a long while with no updates to their website, it looked like they might have called it quits. Fortunately, I just got a message on Myspace with good news: they just finished their full length that we have been waiting a year and a half for, and so far it sounds like it was worth the wait. Nola had a little help in the studio from their friend Bon Iver, who you may also be familiar with. The best part is that they just put the whole thing up for download on their Virb page.

2008-02-25T16:59:00.001-05:00

2008-02-22T11:16:00.007-05:00

Things, now:

Anticipating Travis Morrison on Saturday

Wishing I was not at work

Dreading walking home in the snow

BLAKE'S! GOTANEWFACE!

Disappointed that my BFF / work-wife is stranded in SI

Missing the hell out of folks in NC, IL, etc

Wishing I had not gotten that Arizona tea this morning

Contemplating cleaning up my desk

Not doing it because I am sofa king lazy

Important updates! I just put on Drums and Wires and it is already making coming into work today infinitely less terrible! Hooray!

2008-02-19T15:44:00.003-05:00

In addition to the myriad of pastimes and obsessions that I have been neglecting and letting fall into dilapidation of late, two of the things that I once held most dear have sadly fallen off of my radar: The Onion's crossword and upcoming shows lists. Thankfully I still subscribe to their weekly email which pointed me in the direction of Travis Morrison's new band this morning, and fortunately I only listen to bands that were cool five or ten years ago. This upcoming dance-party-2001 hasn't sold out yet, so as soon as I get home tonight I will be purchasing tickets and streaming the new(ish) record and then cranking The Ice of Boston til the neighbors' eyeballs fall out of their sockets from dancing around so much.

Saturday, February 23 at 8:00 PM (8:00 PM doors)
Travis Morrison Hellfighters plus A Sunny Day In Glasgow
$10.00
Ticketweb
BAM - Brooklyn Next

"AND I THOUGHT, OH GLADYS, GIRL I LOVE YOU BUT (OH) GET A LIFE!"

2008-02-19T12:54:00.005-05:00

Hopefully this songza thing works. I won't even bother to put up an MP3 because I know that all of you own this record.

One of my favorite things in the world is putting the iPod on shuffle and hearing songs I haven't listened to in months or years. I am not even kidding you when I tell you that I almost started crying when this song came on this afternoon. What a fantastic song. And very apropos, for me, right now, when work and school and the winter and my craziness seem to be crushing the life out of me and my relationships, to be reminded of the highs, and in turn that those feelings will eventually return.

Okay, enough Livejournal. Remember, 30 days til spring!

2008-02-11T11:58:00.000-05:00

vinylbandit
Tanya Donelly
25287 Posts
user info
edit post

what part of "growing up" involves selling your records?

i mean, if you need cash, just say so, but life is pretty much based on food, sex, and music

2008-02-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

I have an alternate email address at Gmail for spam and shady websites. It's not my name, but it's close. Every time I go in to check it I would notice emails from people who thought that they knew me -- I got invitations to parties in Harlem, resumes, and lots of "networky" emails that would just say "good to meet you." This has been going on for over a year, so it's not like the poor dude hasn't had time to figure out where all his emails are going. The weird part is that we seem to be leading slightly parellel lives. These are similarities and differences that I have garnered from the email:

Similar:

We both live in NYC

We were both in fraternities

We are both in business

We are both persuing an MBA

We both know people who work at the same East Harlem hair salon

Dissimilar:

He's black

I know my email address

Crazy, right? I think I should email him and go get a drink sometime.

2008-02-07T11:30:00.001-05:00

Update: Sold out! WTF! D-bags on Craigslist and eBay are selling them for $1000 a pair. Freel? How about I pay you $1000 to hit you in the face with a pipe? That would be more rewarding.

D-d-d-d-d-damn. This was the first band I ever saw, ever. I think it was seventh grade. I made out with my forever-girlfriend in some dorm lounge at UNCC and then went to Shoney's and played footsie with her all night even though my mom was totes sitting right there. I am a rebel! I know!

Also, wait, what the fuck now that I am recounting this again I just remembered that she told me to be quiet when I started belting out "Anna Begins." Screw that this time I am singing like whoa.

No seriously, let's fucking go. Mass emails have been sent. Get on the ball (so-called) friends. Does that mean that I am not friends with you if you won't go see Counting Crows with me? Possibly. Hop to. Post haste. If you don't I will go alone and stew in my displeasure, I swear it.

2008-02-06T09:40:00.000-05:00

RIP Smooth Jazz. Long live 101.9 RXP. FYI: Just now Major Tom -> some Foo Fighters song -> R O C K IN THE U S A.

edit: Now playing Social Distortion. I heart the radio again.

2008-01-31T12:18:00.001-05:00

What the shit I've been working for this hosptial for thirty seven months and I didn't know the accountants have a pizza party every month. I want a pizza party. I'm organizing a Treasury Department pizza party next month and we're going to have hats and a raffle and rub it in accounting's face.

2008-01-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

You know what sucks? When you finally start getting some work done after lunch and the phone rings and you pick it up without looking at the number and then see who it is and realize that it's a vendor who we owe lots of money to and who's call I skipped out on Friday afternoon, and in like point-one seconds you go "OH SONOFABITCH" and try to start thinking of excuses and then instead of getting back into your groove after the palm-wringing phone call, instead you go bitch about it to the internets. Oy. 15% Productivity Monday Blues.

2008-01-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

Our first big kid's vacation was this weekend, upstate in Skaneateles, NY.

Yes, we're fucking yuppies. Yes, I wore collared shirts and loafers all weekend. No, it was not quite this pretty, but we are notoriously bad picture-takers (that is, we forget to take pictures, not our pictures are terrible), so these are Google-imaged. It was beautiful, though, and even for off-season we got chili-cookoffs, beer and wine tastings, sled dogs, ice carvings, incredible breakfasts and fancy dinners, and lots of people who talk to strangers. Maybe next time we will head up during the warmer months and go sailing and pretend we are retired stockbrokers.

2008-01-24T16:30:00.000-05:00

Somebody please help me out with "No Country for Old Men." It was a damn good movie, possibly better than Fargo, but I took little away from it the first viewing.

What I can get out of it so far is maybe that your decisions, especially the ones you know might haunt you ("What are you going to do?" "Something dumber than hell, but I'm going anyway."), will continue to follow you. I also think there's a really humbling message about the inevitability of following our fathers to the grave. You might not think that that necessarily needed to be said but I, at least, tend to forget it, and it was one of the most emotional parts of the movie for me.

Anyway, it was very good, and surprisingly Coen-y even though they lifted most of the dialouge from Cormac McCarthy's novel (supposedly). I will also need to check out Cormac McCarthy, who I've to this point avoided because I always thought that he wrote the Wally Lamb book "I Know This Much is True" and I refuse to read that shit because this hippy I dated in high school used to rave about it. I know that doesn't make sense. Wally Lamb wrote a book, hippy girl loved it, dust jacket looked the same as "The Road," and they were both Oprah picks, hence I hated Cormac McCarthy. Get it? Ya.

So, it's cold here still and my classes are mind-numbingly boring. But on the plus side there is hot apple cider around the corner at Pete's and I've been mostly staying out of trouble and I'm getting a raise at work. Oh and also I just finished The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen and it was incredible, and I am reading some more Murakami (Kafka on the Shore) and even though the translation isn't that great the story is pretty intense. Also look what I found:

PEACE OUT!

2008-01-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

Fun fact! What do all of these bands have in common?

Air
Aqualung
Band of Horses
Beck
The Bravery
Dashboard Confessional
Feist
LCD Soundsystem
Lucinda Williams
The Mooney Suzuki
OK Go
Peter Bjorn and John
Pinback
Vampire Weekend
X
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Answer (highlight): They have all been featured on Gossip Girl. I am not kidding. Apparently I am not the first one to notice. Nor should the indie-pop vibe come as a surprise, considering the music supervisor. Some of the choices are definitely risque, though (X?!). CW11, Tuesday nights, dudes. Set your Tivo.

Anyway, considering the weather and my lack of sleep, I should probably be spending the next few days watching tv on the couch, but instead it's going to be four days of dinner parties and house warmings and rock-and-roll sing alongs and maybe some burlesque, if I can still stand up. If you're busy doing what I wish I was doing (anything involving blankets and being under them) you should probably watch this movie (free, possibly copywrite-infringing streaming video) called Rocket Science because it is probably the best movie that I didn't hear about in 2007. I've never even heard of any of these people. But the lead girl is really hot in that "your sister's best friend" kind of way. Also this is everything that I wanted Napoleon Dynamite to be, if it hadn't been so fucking lame. Do it, you won't be disappointed. Also FYI I am not comparing that trainwreck Napoleon Dynamite to this movie.

2008-01-15T14:25:00.000-05:00

Five minutes of thought progression during an average Tuesday afternoon:

1) Hey! You should draw stuff in Excel and put it on the internet. It would be a little mind exercise plus you get to play with Excel which is your favorite thing to do! You could do little borders and cell shading, and maybe even conditional formatting to make it interactive!
2) Oh man this is going to be awesome.
3) Maybe I should Google around, first, just to make sure nobody has done it already.
4) Dammit.

FIN

2008-01-14T17:08:00.000-05:00

Oof. Haha.