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Me & Jon Langford: BFFs

By On July 19, 2011 · In As I Am Now

Over at The Awl, I have a Q&A with the lovely and hilarious Jon Langford. It was nervewracking, I must admit, because even though he’s certainly one of the most easygoing interview subjects I still felt like a total jackass.

Is there any sort of Mekons manifesto in 2011?

Not that you’d write down. But I think there’s a cloud of mass delusion that this is actually worth doing. [laughs]

I think sometimes, a lot of times in the Mekons’ career, the motivation, more than anything else, seemed to be like a big fuck-off to the world: “I will not be ground down into dust.”

Clearly, the longevity of the band must have something to do with that.

Yeah, I think it’s a sort of persistence. It hasn’t been financially rewarding for anyone.

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Pleased to Meat Me

By On June 16, 2011 · In Adipocere

Last night I went to the this book launch party with my friend T. There was a lot of meat, and even more meat-themed tattoos. It was fun. During the lecture/demo, I was standing next to a woman who had brought her sons with her, one of whom was conscripted to be a human meat model.

Jessica Applestone, one of the authors, asked us, “Does anyone know where the tenderloin is?” To demonstrate, she gestured to the boy’s back. “It runs along both sides of your spine. Right there–” she pointed “–and on us, that’s a pretty tough muscle, because it holds us upright. But on cows, who stand on four legs, it’s very tender.”

Naturally my immediate thought was, “I wonder what the most tender cut of meat on a 12-year-old is.” And then I felt vaguely monstrous.

The 12-year-old asked her, very carefully, “What would be the most tender cut of meat on a cow if they walked on two legs?”

“Hm,” she said. “That would be the brisket.” And she patted her pecs. He looked satisfied with that answer. I know I was.

So, basically, I am mentally a 12-year-old boy. But not as polished.

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Over at the runoff: The Ironic Combover

By On February 3, 2011 · In As I Am Now

I should just stop riding the bus:

The other day on the B62 bus (a line that wends its way through nearly all the hipster enclaves of Brooklyn) I saw a hipster guy with a giant ironic mustache and this elaborate Hitler-bangs-side-part hairdo, plastered low to his forehead with a prodigious amount of pomade. From the front it was, momentarily, bus-fascinating.

And then! He turned his head, revealing a large and partly concealed bald spot. The monument to vainglory and fixative resins. The Potemkin Coiffure.

In case you’re having a hard time telling them apart, THIS blog is where I hate people who deserve it. THAT blog is where I hate people who (probably) don’t deserve it.

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Oh yeah, the silo…

By On November 22, 2010 · In Memento Mori

I just realized that I forgot the second half of this morning’s post. More music!

This weekend I hung out with an old college friend (who did not, apparently, suffer the consequences of 11 pm Indian takeout) and we took an electronic trip down music memory lane on the iPod on Saturday night. (Not enjoyed by the others, I suspect.)

We spent a good part of our time together as roommates in a drafty, leaky house and I can’t help but believe that this had some influence on our musical tastes.* (Also, we drank a lot.) I was really getting into Palace and Son Volt too, and finally picking up on all the country and old-timey that I’d listened to as a kid and forgotten about/dismissed. So basically what I’m saying is that if death, damnation, and/or concertinas and fiddles weren’t involved, I wasn’t interested in listening to it.

So I dug these out this morning. I think Tarnation came after he’d already moved out west to learn glass blowing. But it’s still part of the overall theme.

16 Horsepower, Black Soul Choir
Scud Mountain Boys, Silo
Tarnation, Game of Broken Hearts [sorry, this is a big ol' AAC file -- too lazy to convert it]

*This roommate got the first cellphone I’d ever seen up close — it was one of those flip Motorolas. I remember how excited we were at the Best Buy because the phone came with 100 FREE MINUTES (with each additional minute costing 25 cents). Not per month. 100 free minutes, period. Anyhow, we used those minutes up really fast, mainly calling our friends from the bar to tell them we were calling from the bar. Then my roommate moved away and never paid the (stupidly and, IMO, unfairly high) bill and I got 8 am calls from collections agencies for months afterward.

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