Currently viewing the category: "As I Am Now"

The difference between Atlantans and zombies, though, is pretty negligible

By On November 22, 2010 · In As I Am Now

I did not watch Sarah Palin’s Alaska last night. I spent most of the day laid up experiencing what might, in another context, be considered “cleansing.”* I attribute it to Indian takeout at 11pm the night before (and possibly the bloody marys earlier in the day — horseradish: nature’s Drano). I *did* catch Walking Dead, which is still gory enough to be enjoyable but getting a little silly, plot-wise. Grimes and his raggle-taggle gang head back into Atlanta to rescue a bag of guns as well as the racist and totally unhinged Merle** at the behest of his racist and totally unhinged brother, Daryl.*** (Because, naturally, that’s what rednecks are named, hurr!)

Speaking of lazy film tropes, I can forgive the melange of regionally incorrect Southern accents. But what was the deal with the fortress protected by the members of Suicidal Tendencies? It was like the costume designer bought a bunch of Vato Loco Halloween costumes, and the truth is that the gang life of Atlanta is considerably more nuanced than a Gang of Hats. And no, before you ask, I am incapable of willful suspension of disbelief.

Oh, and then, back at the camp [SPOILER ALERT!] everybody dies.**** The end!

*But not if you saw the toilet bowl. ::rimshot::
**Played by Michael Rooker, whose first speaking role was in Streets of Fire, which just goes to show that EVERYTHING can be traced back to that movie. EVERYTHING. (Side note: I love him and all but his tweets are pretty goddamned stupid.)
***Played by that guy in that god-awful movie Boondock Saints, which is probably best known as Every Racist American’s Favorite Film. Oh, and also, Willem Dafoe was in it, which only serves to bolster my Streets of Fire theory, above.
****Nah, not really.

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Kind of a Nazi attitude*

By On November 19, 2010 · In As I Am Now

Nothing like a Friday night spent elbows deep in the guts of awkward HTML and stupid CSS. It’s okay, though, because I have a bottle of Domaine de la Chanteleuserie Cabernet Franc from Vine and I’m not afraid to drink it. (Nor am I afraid to admit I’ve already consumed most of it already.)

This has been a week of music. First off, did you know there is nothing you can’t find on the Internet? IT’S TRUE. For example, I found two albums by Cakekitchen that I only ever had on tape. (Side note: I remember, in Savannah, my friend Dan and me wandering around a Media Play looking for music. Him: Isn’t this the record you were looking for? Me: No, that’s Cake. I’m looking for Cakekitchen. Him: Wait, is that different from Sea and Cake? Me: I have that already. Him: Oh for Christ’s sake. Get me the fuck out of here.)(I’m sure there are real record stores in Savannah now.) Picture Henry Rollins right now being all like IS THAT A FUCKING RECORDER? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Second, my office mate and I both love Streets of Fire pretty much more than anyone else in the world (aside from these folks, I suppose). I mentioned once that I dressed up as Ellen Aim for Halloween one year. He one-upped me by saying that he tried, unsuccessfully, to find a pair of the rubber/garbage bag S&M-style waders that Willem Dafoe wears. (For Halloween — or so he says.) He even went into various bondage boutiques in the West Village asking for them. No one knew what he was talking about, except for this one dude who was like, “Oh, from Streets of Fire? No, we don’t have them. But that would be awesome.” (Me: How is it you didn’t switch teams right there? Him: It’s the only time I’ve ever questioned my sexuality. Me: Imagine how lonely he is. No one likes Streets of Fire.) So we downloaded the soundtrack and have fist-pumped from our desk chairs for the past few days.

Third, there’s a subsection of Metafilter devoted to music. There’s this guy named bgm who goes by chococat and he produces the most beautiful songs.** Some are covers, some are originals. Part Elliott Smith, part Stephin Merritt, part Lee Hazelwood, part Jens Lekman…and a lot of originality. I like it a lot to listen to.

Another thing: There are two security shifts in my office building. The daytime guard, Robert, is a 50-something guy who makes incredibly inappropriate jokes. On paper, it seems odd that he still has a job, but in person, he’s just not the type of person you could bring yourself to dislike. And while the jokes he tells are horrible, they’re also so outdated that they’re almost nonsequitur. (His primary source material is the Truly Tasteless series, so there are lots of jokes about women’s libbers and Ed Meese.) It’s only on rare occasion that he crosses the line. (Him: Did you work out this morning? Me: No, I had a doctor’s appointment. Him: Trouble with your lady parts?) The nighttime guard is a nondescript guy, probably approaching 50. He seems to like reading the bible and listening to a small radio. One night I came down into the lobby, though, and he was listening to Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning.” I figured this is what they play on classic rock stations now. Then a few days later I came down and he was listening to “Radiation Vibe” by Fountains of Wayne (What.) which I thought was an unusual song to hear on the radio. And then the other night he was listening to the Lemonheads cover of “Mrs. Robinson.” So now I can’t tell: is there some special radio station that I don’t know about that he just happens to be accidentally listening to, or is this his jam? (Why do I care? I don’t know.)

Oh, yeah, and I downloaded Nicky Minaj’s new record. It’s not bad. I still think she’s an asshole.

The Cakekitchen, Silence of the Sirens

Streets of Fire soundtrack, Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young

*This has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that Roger Ailes is a fucking jerk.
**It doesn’t really matter where you start, but this and this are two of my favorites.

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All of my hobbies are addictions*

By On November 5, 2010 · In As I Am Now

I have a lot of flaws. Here’s today’s flaw:

You all know my musical tastes in general. Like, I like scratchy recordings of long-dead guys playing rotted-out guitars with only five strings and a broken neck or some beyond-esoteric British band that recorded an EP that was released on the same day they died in a tragic fiery wreck on their way to play a show in Wigan or something.

And if you do know me you also know that I have a ridiculous aversion to anything deemed hip or popular by, for example, Vice or Pitchfork. (I don’t think this makes me cool; I would classify it as another one of my flaws but am not sure you can consider “being an asshole” a simple flaw.) I can’t control it. When you see those people with Tourette’s Syndrome talk about their tics on the Discovery Channel they often describe them as being almost impossible to ignore, like an itch. And so when aforementioned publications are all excited about some band, I’m like, That band sucks and if you like them you suck too and I hope terrorists bomb their next show RAAAAAAAAAAAH!

So now I must shame-facedly admit that I downloaded the Salem album (off Mediafire, for free, if that makes it any better) and it is so completely anathema to me. I’m sorry. I like Salem.**

Tom*** says that there’s less than zero justification for this unless I’m dating a 15-year-old.

*True story: I said this to someone at a cocktail party, about five minutes after I’d met him, in response to, “So, what are your interests?” I don’t actually remember saying it, but he wrote it down and showed it to me at the next cocktail party I saw him at. I considered hiring him to be my factotum but I don’t really traffic much in witticisms anymore.
**Butt magazine interview. NSFW. I’m not linking to MySpace.
***Who is willing to forgive (and also relentlessly mock) my flaws. Let the record reflect, however, that he likes American Music Club.

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You done my brain in

By On October 26, 2010 · In As I Am Now

Binary Sunrise @ Trash Bar

I have this thing about meeting musicians/writers/artists I admire: I don’t like to. Because it’s crushing if they turn out to be jerks. Granted, this hasn’t happened all that much because the opportunity doesn’t present itself too often.* And I already knew that the guys from Binary Sunrise would be really cool. But it turns out they’re also so incredibly nice. And genuine. And brilliant. And fun! They are fun to eat lunch with at Veselka.**

They are also fun to watch onstage. They played a great show on Thursday night (see the lousy cameraphone pic above) and — I say this in all seriousness — blew everyone in attendance away. Super high-energy, really tight, and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

I think I saw some video cameras at the show, so hopefully we’ll find some footage soon on YouTube. In the meantime, here’s something from a show they played in Dallas earlier this year:

Really looking forward to their new album. In the meantime you should buy this one.

On Saturday Kenneth and I went to the WFMU record fair, where I bought three things and he bought like 20 obscure disco records and then explained each of them to me with utmost sincerity and authority. Coolest record fair ever.

***

Speaking of cool things, friend and in-house designer Tom Deja has launched a new design blog, Design/Destroy, where he highlights things he actually *likes*, a challenging endeavor for him, to be sure. Go check it out.

***

And one sad thing: RIP Gregory Isaacs, the prolific reggae star with the sweetest croon.

Gregory Isaacs, Philistines

*When I met Ray Pettibon, he was not so much jerky as strange, which I kind-of expected.

**Seriously, such sweet guys.
Me, pointing at the toast guitarist Steven ordered: What’s this? You asked for jelly and now you’re not even putting any jelly on it.
Steven: I just want to thank you so much for your support of our music, Dana. It means a lot to us.
Kenneth: That’s an interesting response.

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