"Belle and Sebastian are not snogging. Sometimes they hold hands, but that is only a display of public solidarity. Sebastian thinks Belle 'kicks with the other foot'. Sebastian is wrong, but then Sebastian can never see further than the next tragic ballad. It is lucky that Belle had a popular taste in music. She is the cheese to his dill pickle." - Jeepster.
It's just sort of dawned on me that I'm going to see Belle and Sebastian tonight with the New Pornographers opening up. I kind of want to go to the bathroom and rub myself. Something had to fill the gaping void that Big Country left in my life. My new camera will be making the trip (to the concert, not the bathroom), as will Nate, Tom, Janet etc - and I'll be sure to post some wacky related concert photos tomorrow.
I started listening to this band in early 1998 while I lived in England. Moynihan reccomended them to me over this new technology we'd discovered called e-mail. I ran down to HMV in Maidenhead and picked up the then just released 'The Boy With the Arab Strap' before quickly moving on to 'Tigermilk'. That CD would go on to join the Verve's Urban Hymns as the Hinds Head lockin CD, and it was a glorious time to be a 24-year-old. Pisshead.
My excitement over this band has been somewhat muted by age and time, but 7 years ago I would have burned off my own pubic hair with a magnifying glass to get a ticket. I have to get in touch with that young fanboy lad tonight and properly soak in the magnitude of the moment. But definitely try and talk him out of the whole pubic hair thing.
I've felt like I've hit a plateau lately. Head first from about 20 feet in the air. Dropped by the ankles. If I were a pool of water, I'd be so stagnant there'd be more tadpoles swimming around in me than in Paris Hilton's hair. Things can go from so exciting, to so stressful and stupid, so very quickly. Something big is about to happen - I'm just not sure what it is yet. And then there's that little thing called perspective that comes knocking...
But if I may be allowed to put down my own violin for a moment, my mother called me yesterday to let me know that her post-chemo tests are completely negative. She had a long painful summer, the extent of which I cannot imagine. Although I keep this site fairly impersonal, I know there's a lot of readers who will want to hear that news. Way to go, Mom. We love you. And I'm not just saying this because I'm moving into the trailer with you next week.
I have had penne with vodka sauce a few times recently here in the North End. Last night at Assagio's, for example. It's gosh darn tasty, and I found myself wondering what the heck it actually is after a few forkfulls. It doesn't sound especially good. I mean, vodka's great and everything, but in your red sauce? Here's what I discovered...
Apparently it's quite common. I found a ton of recipies - ranging from ham to salmon - and it's no misnomer. You actually have to fire in a whack of vodka while you're reducing the sauce. Usually 1-2 ounces. It's usually creamy, and always ridiculously tasty. Did Russian troops occupy Italy at the end of WWII and run out of chicken stock? I simply don't know.
Hey Dave, You Haven't Mentioned Squidoo In 5 Minutes.
The Sopranos DVDs are some of the best selling in history, so it's only fitting that I build a lens around them and make a play for some affiliate revenue. Actually, it was my coworker Sean who suggested it over a pint at the PushCart last night. I went home and built the Bada Bing, and it's one of my best yet, if I do say so myself. I might as well - no one else is going to. I'm really running the risk at this point of never sleeping with a woman again, and believe me, friends - I fully realize this.
Again, I'm not so much bragging about the fact that I make websites so much as I'm trying to get new sites indexed by search engines. I have more spiders crawling on this site than William Shatner at the end of that really creepy movie I hope I never accidentally find on TV and watch all the way through again. Is that better than the River Phoenix joke from last week? Or just a little more tasteful?
I'm going for a steak tonight, and I'm excited. Why do you people read this fucking thing?
Wednesday Wadio: The Tragically Hip's 'Nautical Disaster'.
"This is a success story that is unique unto itself, its country, and most definitely its band". - Matt Sheardown.
Yes, I know it's Friday. Many of you have have read me rant about this band over the years, and I've even dragged a few of you to their concerts with me. I wrote a decent piece about Gord Downie a few years ago, which is down for some reason - I'll have to repost it from my desktop backup at home - but this article that Nate just sent me is truly amazing. It's a comprehensive history of the band, written with painstaking detail and a lot of love.
"The music, though consistently solid, only tells us half the story of The Tragically Hip. Bands rarely become legends on music alone: The Beatles had LSD and Yoko Ono, The Stones had Keith Richards and Altamont, Nirvana had suicide and MTV Unplugged, and so on and so forth. The Tragically Hip have Gord Downie, and because of Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip have one of the most memorable live performance reputations this side of the 49th parallel. Sure, the sound is spot on, and the instruments rarely miss a step, but you can only hear them. The show isn’t in the instruments."
The article's author, Matt Sheardown, goes on to explicate his favorite Hip songs at the end of the article, and chooses 1994's Nautical Disaster to bestow the following praise: For my money, the single greatest song the band has ever made. The lyrics are sung paragraphs, and the memories they drum up are so vivid in their unsettling nature. Brilliant from start to finish. Since Matt's article inspired me to feature the Tragically Hip this week, I figured I'd abide by his opinion and use his favorite tune.
The Hip are proponents of all things Canadian, and their lyrics and themes often delve into obscure references that only select senior citizens in Manitoba may 'get' - but are important and fascinating all the same. Hip concerts around the world are flocked to by ex-pats, and they could sell out the largest venue in Toronto more nights in a row than any major act going. I'm talking to you, Jagger. Nautical Disaster is a great example of Hip Canadiana:
Few believe that the song is about a single theme, but it seems that one theme may be about the raid on Dieppe during World War II. Dieppe was a daylight, pre-D-day raid of a German held port on the coast of France. In the assault, carried out by Canadian troops, nearly 4000 men were killed out of a force of about 4800. The lyrics to "Nautical Disaster" are extremely close to these facts. Gord Downie himself has alluded to the fact that the song is one long metaphor for a failed relationship, but the literal meaning has ties to Dieppe."
I normally introduce people to the Hip via Bobcaygeon or The Darkest One, but Nautical Disaster is definitely in the top three somewhere. It is reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in it's imagery. It also reminds me of the scene in Jaws where Quint is describing what it was like to be on the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it was sunk: "So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks ttook the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb." Tragedies at sea. For my female readers (unveiled sexism) - picture the end of Titanic.
From the first line of the song, you know you're in for something quite horrible: "I had this dream where I relished the fray, and the screaming filled my head all day." It starts slow and builds to the line everyone loves to scream at shows "...off the coast of France, dear!" before it kicks into high gear. Have a listen for yourself by clicking on Radio Pye in the left column, and you can read some great fan explication here.
The play rehearsals have increased to twice a week, and I'll even be at Knights of Columbus Saturday afternoon painting the set with the rest of the cast. It's being built there and then moved over to the Improv Asylum towards the performance dates. I have been enjoying the experience, even becoming enough of a primadonna to actually try and change my lines to ones I think are better suited to my character (who you'll remember is a stupid plot-device cop with about 10 of them). Next thing you know, I'll be asking what my motivation is and blathering away naked in a dark room like Brando. Actually, I guess that's fairly unlikely. The blathering part.
We've taken on 4 new clients in the last two weeks at my real job, and although I'm excited by this, I don't know where I'm going to dredge up the time to handle it all. I have a lot to learn about Exchange servers, skateboards and lobby security software - and precious few waking hours in which to do so. The other actors have told me to learn my cues and try to thread conversations together. Maybe I can do the same here at work, and pretend I'm setting off a building alarm which is powered by a server because I did a Frontside 180 Powerslide through reception.
And then GoonBlog got mentioned in the frigging New York Times. They require you to register and login, so I've posted the best part of the article over at GB for easy reference. Big congratulations to my not-so-secret GB partner in crime, and PITF favorite, Detroit Velvet Smooth who does the majority of the writing and heavy lifting over there. You're famous, you bastard.
And a massive tool! Regardless, I am being interviewed by Squidoo and featured as a leading Lensmaster. I think I am currently #6 or #7 out of a few thousand. I am getting emails out of the blue from marketing professionals from all over the world, and I want to strip naked to the waist and rub Squidoo all over my chest right now. Anybody look familiar?:
Click here to see my profile and lengthening list of lenses. And this is my personal lens. I will let you know when the interview is live, and I'm going to try and make it funny without scaring off all of my new potential collaborators. I am such a nerd, I am actually steaming right now. I'm a nerd. But I know I'm a nerd. And that almost makes me cool.
Well raise my rent. Or the roof. Who ever thought you'd see a title like that here on PITF? Unfortunately, Gary Puppa is in most of the photos too. For example - please marvel as Fat Joe (aka Joey Crack) represents with Gary (aka Gazza, aka Hairdoo) backstage at the Toyota Center in Houston. Gary obviously taught him how to throw up Burlington crips signs, and the publicity will undoubtedly lead to scores of wannabe Eminem fist fights in front of Emma's Back Porch.
Anyway, Puppa - most recently of the dispicable and sacreligious Christmas Eve in Toronto fame - owns a pretty cool company which allows him to work for the NBA. You may remember three years ago when he was snapped bothering Beyonce. Then there was the time Nikki Hilton tried to goose him behind one of the beer carts. And how can I forget that party where Saget tried to scoop Pupp's peeler? Always the trooper, he was back again this year, and he's sent me a gallery's worth of new hip-hopping-hob-knobbing pics. Also of note, Gazza mugging with DMC and Mike Jones.
I want to quickly point out that Gary actually asked me to go with him, and I want to give him a quick shout-out and thanks. Houston is like my second home. If Joey Crack and I didn't currently have mad beef, I would have been there with Timberlands on. And what's up with Ronald McDonald? I thought Chris Penn died last month. Also in attendance - Nelly, George Clinton and you'll even see Ice Cube messin' around and gettin' a triple-double. Peep dis.
Alright so I'm trying to get another Squidoo lens spidered. So what? I've been working on this one a lot - chock full o' content and probably one of the biggest lenses out there. So please have a look at my new Red Sox Tickets page. Then rub yourself. Repeat.
It's shaping up to be a nice little weekend. A few laughs with the coworkers tonight, and a party at the Shit Disturber's in Charlestown tomorrow. And I'm sure you can guess what I'll be filling the rest of the time with. That's right - furious Squidoo lens building. I have a problem.
It's Funny Because They're Only Acting Drunk. Right?
Maxim has just released a "Greatest Drinkers of all time list, and I thoroughly endorse their choices. "E.T. is No. 9 on the list, while Bluto (John Belushi) from "Animal House" is one spot ahead of him." Blutowski is an obvious choice, but how many of us would have considered the scene from E.T. where he sneaks downstairs and drinks the shit out of a case of beer, causing poor Elliot to experience the same buzz while he's at school? He kisses the young girl, lets the frogs loose, gets an OUI on his Big Wheel, beats a homeless person to death, etc.
But it gets better, deeper, liquorder: "Other top movie drinkers include The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) from "Blazing Saddles, who comes in just ahead of the McKenzie Brothers (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) in "Strange Brew," and just behind Coach Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) of "The Bad News Bears." Kudos for remembering the Waco kid and the McKenzie's. The list just became bloggable.
But where the heck is Arthur, I asked myself. At #2, of course. And the #1 movie booze bag of all time? Frank the Tank. I think Arthur should have won the top spot, hands down. But still a well complied and humorous little collection of souses.
Unfortunately, it's not "sleeping with Angelina Jolie" or "crapping $100 bills" today. Rather, my silly little Trailer Park Boys Squidoo lens has reached #1 in the top 100 - out of several hundred thousand. It's kind of a big deal. Here's where the screenshot for posterity comes in. In your fucking face, 'Grandmothers Rule':
"Oh I'm fucking excited alright! There are probably all kinds of record company people there and I'm hoping if I sing some of my songs they might want to sign me to a record deal and I could become a big Country & Western star. Liquor and Whores is always a big hit down at the legion so you never know!" - Bubbles
Before the launch of the Trailer Park Boys 5th Season this time last year, the three main actors - Rob Wells (Ricky), John Paul Tremblay (Julian) and Mike Smith (Bubbles) did a nationwide promotional tour of Canada. At a radio station in Ontario, Bubbles offered to sing a song in the middle of an interview and it quickly became a cult classic. That resulting diddy is the focus of Radio Pye today, you lucky people.
"Liquor and Whores" is really one for the ages. The protagonist meets a girl while he's "drinkin' at the Legion" and the conversation quickly turns to marriage. Speedy courtships aside, our hero warns that before the nuptuals take place, there's something she really needs to know about him. Listen to the song to discover the shocking secret, and please try not to faint.
You can also watch Conky sing the tune in a truly disturbing Flash movie if you've got that much free time. Forget the booze and the loose women - If you're a fan of cigarrettes, dope, baloney or mustard you're in the right place. The Legion, apparently.
My beloved sister just sent this image to me, as she knows that nothing touches my heart quite like the underground Thuggee religion. Touches, tears from my chest and ignites, to be exact. A sincere and heartfelt happy Valentine's day to all of my readers - real and imagined. The love, and narcissism, conquers all.
I was a Squidoo beta tester, so I got to stake claim on a few pretty good lens topics. In the interest of getting them indexed by search engines, I'm going to share them with you now. Please click through and learn a little bit more about marketing guru Seth Godin's latest project.
Boston, Massachusetts: This lens features a map, a few links, an RSS feed and some other tidbits about our fair city of Boston. I hope to spend some time on this and really turn it in to a great resource. Perhaps one-day people will pay me to post their links there. Dare to dream.
Hockey Fights: This lens is designed to go hand-in-hand with, and drive traffic to, the revered and almighty GoonBlog. GB is quite popular, but DVS and I haven't quite found the revenue stream yet. Every little bit helps.
Pixies: This is just a labor of love and the lens on which I've spent the most time so far. Pretty long list of links, and I found a Rolling Stone RSS feed that often has relevant info. I think it will catch a lot of fanboy traffic one day.
Happy Mondays: Another musical-related tribute to one of my favorite bands. As the Mondays fade farther into history, their fansites diminish and I wanted to set up a permanent time capsule via Squidoo. Not much competition here - should corner the traffic market.
Company Culture: This is the first one I built 3 months ago, and I'm not quite sure where I'm going with it yet. I have the domain cultureforge.com which I think is really cool and I want to develop it into an HR-related blog. I just put the cart before the horse in this case.
The Rat Pack: Rat Pack history is a bit of a hobby of mine, so I thought I was cut out to run their lens. This will be quite detailed - breaking down links for each of the 5 main pack members as well as providing detailed discographies and bios.
Eric Bana: I've been a fan of this guy for about 5 years, and am very happy at his recent Hollywood successes and his amazing performance in Munich. I wanted to do a lens on someone who isn't yet flooded all over the net - so here's a little Bana fo yo ass.
Robert DeNiro: You know I had to fire up a lens for my boy Bobby D. More of the same here - links to everything I'll be able to find. I expect this one will generate a lot of traffic do the lack of good DeNiro fansites on the web.
SNL: This will be my homage to Saturday Night Live. Another informational resource that should be easy to compile and maintain. The focus here may be to sell those "Best of" DVDs that are so popular right now. Like Hansel.
Dog Sweater Patterns: This lens will supplement and drive traffic to DogGoneKnit.com. In a perfect world. In a perfect world, however, I wouldn't have the obsession with developing this site that I currently endure.
Search Engine Marketing: I'll be compiling a list of the SEM related sites and tools which I use on a daily basis. I am also helping to develop an SEM blog, so this will help to drive traffic and vice-versa.
Trailer Park Boys: This guilty pleasure of mine is in no danger of receding, especially with the feature film being released this coming summer. How much related crap is out there on the web? I dunno, but I'm going to find out.
And there you have it. Keep an eye out for Squidoo - it's bound to become a Google favorite, which in turn will trickle the traffic, and the love, down to my ridiculous, hair-brained schemes.
Shark The Herald Angels Sing: Farewell To Benchley.
"Peter Benchley, whose novel Jaws terrorized millions of swimmers even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died, his widow said Sunday. Benchley was 65."
Jaws was the second DVD I ever bothered to purchase (My first was Jurassic Park - a gift from Hegarty) so my first digital video forays involved an inordinate of humans being snacked on by scary monsters. No gay cowboys to speak of. Benchley wasn't entirely happy with many of Spielberg's choices - he saw Redford, Newman and McQueen in the roles of Brody, Hooper and Quint - but ended up being very satisfied with the finished result. The difficulty of the production is legendary, and most who worked on the film think it's a miracle that it was received as well as it was. It's ongoing popularity is just as amazing.
Thank you, Peter, for penning the tale that would lead to one of my favorite flicks of all time. Thanks not so much for Jaws 4, in which a dreadlocked Mario Van Peebles ran around doing a bad accent for two hours sounding something like Sean John with a speech impediment.
"Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies / Farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain. / For we received orders for to sail back to Boston / And soon never more will we see you again." - Quint.
Timmy's habit of falling down the well grew tiresome for Lassie, who struck off with her brothers to form Dunkin' Dounuts, McDonalds, Burger King and Nabisco. Not many people know that.
Cocky rap star Kanye West is calling for a revised edition of the Bible, because he thinks he should be a character in it.
The Jesus Walks hitmaker, who picked up three Grammy Awards last night, feels sure he'd be "a griot" (West African storyteller) in a modern Bible.
"I changed the sound of music more than one time... For all those reasons, I'd be a part of the Bible. I'm definitely in the history books already."
Kanye. Buddy. That's just fucking ridiculous. Please die in a backstage rap awards show knife fight during which you're stabbed with your own broken pair of giant sunglasses or starched collar immediately.
Friday's Quizzlet: Marky Mark And The Drunky Bunch.
Appetizer: What was a class you took that was a total waste of time? It's all good practice. Although I imagine silk screen printing with Mr. Fratto could have been put to better use across the hall in the auto shop. This one time, I mistook my engine's dipstick for a fondue spear.
Soup: Who is the tallest person you know? Marky Mark Tonizzo. The guy makes me look like a dwarf infant with polio. The Richard Simmons hairdo adds another good foot, too. The guy can, however, make a hell of a Pilly Packer.
Salad: What's your favorite midnight snack? Ambien.
Main Course: Have you ever found money somewhere? I usually find 10s and 5s in my pockets after heavy nights out on the razz. That's 1.5 rocks of crack, if anybody's keeping track. Can you guess how I know whether or not I stumbled into Chinatown the hazy night before? By the bye, I hope this Boston Interior Designer site gets indexed soon.
Dessert: Where would you like to retire? My parent's place on the Rideau. But they constantly warn me they'll have to sell it and move into nursing homes some day. So I am hoping I become rich very soon so I can buy it and let them live there. But honestly - if their boat had brake lines, I would have cut them last summer.
I will settle for the new 'middle-of-the-road' over the former Canadian Government, anyday. But then, I will settle for a 3-day-old piece of rodent-family roadkill covered in liquified batshit over the former Canadian Government, anyday. Go, Harper.
"Canada's new Conservative government is condemning the violence over incendiary editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, while also advising that freedom of expression be used responsibly."
How is this refreshing? Thanks for asking. Paul Martin's response would have been somewhere along the lines of: "Come to dis country, our completely non-dongeeerous rioting friends - just show a hand-drawn cartoon of yourself for hhhhhI.D. at de bordaire - and show dose hhhhhAmerican cawksawkeeers dat eeef dey make fun of Muhammed, dey make fun of Canada!" Or something.
I will miss the Pinko Panther. Did I just coin a phrase there? That's a good one. It's still OK to make fun of white, French Canadians right? Just checking. I love our little talks. No more politics, David. There's a good lad.
Taz hasn't chimed in for a long, long while. I love the way the man writes, and his knowledge of 80s/90s indie rock makes me look like a Menudo fan, so I wanted to share. I added a few hyperlinks for the uninitiated:
"Imagine my delight as I had my first proper shufty of the year at The PyeMan's magnificent Blog (been on holiday in Thailand for 3 weeks folks, so that explains the neglect of this otherwise essential source of info for the Hamid Zeitgeist...) when I saw that 4AD post-Pixies Great White Hopes, LUSH came into the focus of the red hot laserbeam of impeccable taste that is Pye In The Face!
It warmed the cockles of my retro-indie loving heart! Took me back to days as a black denim 501s, trenchcoat and suede brogue wearing grad student in the early 90s and the late late nights wallowing in Lush's dreamy soundscapes from the 'Scar' mini-LP and their first 12" EP featuring De-Luxe, Thoughtforms, etc. Shoegazing was indeed a much maligned sub-genre of a great time in underground Brit popular music. The pioneers were the peerless My Bloody Valentine and the groundbreaking dronesters-par-excellence Spacemen 3 but the torch was then manfully carried into pastures newer and poppier by Lush, Pale Saints, Chapterhouse, The Telescopes, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel and many many more.
Some fell by the wayside, some enjoyed a modicum of success... ALL were interesting and worthy of both fiscal and emotional investment! These were heady times for guitar-driven bittersweet bedsitland indie-rock, and like Dave, my iPod still has a corner occupied by classic albums by the above, plus the other subsequent bands who kept the dream alive like Spiritualized and Low.
The great thing is, Shoegazing has now morphed into 'Newgazing'. Check out my favourite exponents of this artform for the enlightened, NYC's very own Ambulance Ltd. Their debut album is magnificent in it's own right but will have you clued-up indie-kids digging out your old Lush and MBV albums with a wave of nostalgia. Respect to you PyeMan... once again your cultural barometer is giving all the right readings and the calibration is faultless! De-Luxe indeed...Taz, Frankfurt."
There are worse things to have in your inbox first thing in the morning, like animated elf porn. Wait - did I say "worse"? Good to hear from you, homesnake!
"Repeatedly described as shambolic stoners in the press, as if their music was the result of some serendipitous sensimilia incident rather than hardwork and talent, their importance was consistently exaggerated while their talent was dismissed. You think the trumpet at the end of “Dry The Rain” was an accident?" - Stylus
I'm cycling this diddy back through the lineup. It's been live on Radio Pye for a while now, but I've never written anything up on it. Is this a cop out? Nah - It's a lot harder to write about something than it is to simply fire it up on a server. Besides, it's long overdue and practically buried now with over 50 songs and 6 months worth of tuneage jammed into my little corner of the ether.
Most of you probably know Dry The Rain as 'the song from High Fidelity'. You remember - John Cusack makes a claim to his record store co-workers that he can sell multiple copies of a song immediately, just by placing it on the store's sound system. "I am now going to sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band." All of the patrons start bobbing their heads to the music like Romero zombies before lining up at the cash register to start their unhealthy obsessions with The Betas.
I met a girl recently who told me a story about spending a night drinking with the Betas here in Boston at Bukowskis. The band hasn't recorded together in a couple of years, and I never got to see them live, but her description of the silly fat little Scottish troupe had me laughing - she thought they were completely winding her up until finally someone else recognized them too. They were like the Wizard of Oz and Phil Spector, rolled into one anonymous lump behind a lush wall of sound - so complex that it takes 100 listens to catch all the nuances. Dry the Rain reminds me of There Goes the Fear in that respect. I would have therefore bought them around 657 rounds. Another song I just cannot get tired of.
"The Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" achieves a level of pop euphoria rarely reached since, well, "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" by the Velvet Underground."Audio-Ideas
If you can catch the cowbell, washboard and rain stick by your first listen, you've probably also noticed that it's about 3 separate songs jammed into one. First the drums pick up intensity about 2 minutes in, turning it from groovy to downright danceable. Then, for the last 3 minutes, it completely changes pitch and a new sing-song chorus assures you "I will be your light" and rounds the masterpiece out. If you've never listened to me before, listen to me today - listen to this fucking song.
There's that famous story about the little Russian boy who gets all kinds of overzealous with the wolf sighting claims. I feel a bit like like that panicky, potato-eating pest right about now - because I'm about to do it again. Yes, folks, I'm announcing some immediate and most unfortunate lifestyle changes.
It snowballed. It was just too much packed into one weekend. Thursday I went out for beers after paintball. Friday I went to a birthday party. Saturday I was invited to a co-worker's day BBQ at his new house in the burbs, and then last minute was invited to Central Square for someone else's going away party that evening. Sunday morning someone poured me in the direction of North Station for an early Bruins game before sufficiently Superbowl Sundaying the shit out of myself until about 10pm. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat that looked like a python vivisection, and called in sick. Not good.
If you take my list of weekend activities and look at them each separately, it could all come across as good clean fun. I held a baby. I rooted for the home team. I played with a dog. I went undefeated in a sporting event. I cooked burgers, ribs and steak for 10 people. I saw some folks I hadn't seen in nearly a decade. But you have to understand, with the exception of the first 5 minutes of my being in the same room with the baby, all of these events were soaked with enough booze to make Courtney Love stop and suddenly scream "Now just hold the fuck on for a minute here people".
I have had a great life, and my friends are the most important things in my silly existence. Many would kill to run in the circles I've developed over the years. But I can't keep up anymore. I'm going to be that creepy guy who comes to the party and doesn't drink, making everybody else extremely uncomfortable. I may also be employed - which is really where this whole diatribe stems from.
The inhabitants of the Mars Lander upon its return to Earth after a 7-year mission were considered 'adorable' until they used eye lasers to eradicate all human life from Cape Canaveral.
Appetizer:On a scale of 1 to 10 (10=highest), how sociable are you? I'm a solid 8 I think. People think of me as a connector, but I can be quite the lone wolf, too. The addition of Tivo to my bedroom understandably has not helped this. If I'm not alone for a little while each day, watching true crime shows, I can't think straight. Or rub myself.
Soup:Name 3 DVDs you currently own. I have about 300, so this is a little moot. I will name the 3 most embarassing ones, how's that? I simply don't know how I ended up with Rush Hour 2. I will also openly admit to owning The Black Hole and A Nightmare on Elm Street. And the fact that I have obviously never truly learned the value of a dollar.
Salad:If you were to win a superlative award now, what would it be? The same one I won when I was a senior at Vermont Academy - "Talks Least, Says Most". I would have also appreciated the class clown one, or "Most Pranks Played on Rest of Campus". Considering we were at a school you could have been thrown out of for belching, we sure frigged around a lot.
Main Course:What is your favorite radio station? I am all about the Podcasts these days. My favorite has to be Ricky Gervais - and it also happens to be the #1 podcast in the world right now. If you like the American version of The Office, which I know you do because it's incredibly awesome, have a listen to the guy who created it. Most podcasts are ridiculously bad, but if you sniff around long enough you'll find some doozys.
Dessert:Complete this sentence: I believe _______ because ________. I believe I can fly, because I believe the children are our future. I also believe that fallen R & B singers deserve a bit more sympathy. And crack.
I've played paintball several times. And I personally think I'm quite good at it. Why then, was I riddled, tatooed, welted and swiss-cheesed last night? Don't get me wrong - it was a heck of a lot of fun - but there were so many people on the field. There wasn't room to move, duck or anything else. Because it was a special event, they loaded up the teams so everyone would get to play and it was just too much. So I made a little animation last night when I got home which pretty much sums up my recent paintball propensity.
A great laugh, and I met some great kids. My crew did pretty well, and I have to mention that my team - R1 (Republicans 1) - went completely undefeated, even if I have more bruises today than Rodney King with a broken tail light. Have a look at the rest of the ridiculous paintball photos here, and please send ice.
UPDATE: Here is an article about the event from the Crimson.
We're off to the wars tonight somewhere in Somerville for a paintball tournament that my company is sponsoring. A little brand-recognition, a little intern recruitment - and a lot of oozing welts. It's mainly Harvard students, with a few outsiders like myself thrown in, and the theme is Democrat vs. Republican. So basically I'm going to try and make as many of the little bastards cry tonight as I possibly can. Peden shot me in the neck from two feet away once, and I know first hand where to aim for maximum damage to smart-overpriviliged-twats.
I don't know what team I'll be put on, but if I get to choose I'll be gunning for Moonbats like my name is Van Helsing and pretending they all look like Carolyn Parrish. I'm bringing my new camera, which is probably extremely ill-advised, and I hope to post a few good shots up here tomorrow. I look forward to lots of pizza, beer and post-traumatic stress this evening. Suppress, move, flank and goon.
"In a sense, the beginning of Lush was as inevitable as its ending was not."
This song is senior year at Concord-Carlisle for me. So many memories surrounding it. Lush opened for Jane's Addiction that year at the Wallace Civic Center in Fitchburg. We rented a bus, filled it with our best buddies (and underclassmen girls), before having one of the best times of my life. The whole shebang kicked off at PJ's with kegs. We filled 2 litre milk jugs with beer and moved the bender to the bus. The show was amazing, and in between moshing with Mike Duffy - and watching Tombeno get thrown out and sneak back in 3 times - Lush rocked the rink with this awesome tune.
"When I sat down to listen to Ciao!, it had been at least seven years since I'd last listened to Lush, and probably five since I'd even thought of them. But by the end, I was digging out the old discs again-- not out of an obligation to research and refresh, but because I wanted to relive and remember." - Pitchfork
Lush has long since gone the way of the do-do (the drummer even killed himself), but they released 3 solid albums in the 90's and I have every one of them on my iPod. They're considered to be part of the "shoegazing" genre - Shoegazing is characterised by the use of distortion and the fuzzbox, droning riffs and a Phil Spector-esquewall of sound from the noisy guitars. You'll understand the classification when you hear 'De-Luxe', which was their breakthrough hit in America. 'Ladykillers' fared better a few years later, but it isn't anywhere near as cool as this etherial little ditty.
This song also reminds me of driving to a party in Carlisle at Sarah's house with Triconi in my '84 BMW 318. We videotaped the party, and you can see Doug and I singing along to De-Luxe as we navigate the windy dark roads. We still sing that song to eachother, and it's admittedly extremely gay to be doing so. Enjoy the song - it's a great little timecapsule.
