Thursday, January 31, 2008

Still Alive

Just busy. I'll post later, better, faster.

Monday, January 28, 2008

oh god wonderful things keep happening to me

Got this from Metafilter, possibly one of the best pieces of audio I've ever heard. Sean Landers, doing sort of a Neal Pollack "I am the greatest living artist of our time" thing. Also, from Gmail ads, a pretty reliable source of hilarity:
All About Goats - goats.hybinteractive.com - Awesome goat site with history, lessons, pics & vids.

The website is even better. It tells it like it is:
"You should stay informed of the latest goat information."

Yes. Yes indeed.

TUBEDUMP

NOTE: If you're looking at this on Facebook, do yourself a favor and click the link to the original post- embedded videos never show up, and that's basically all this is.

Tonight, watched some experimental film in preparation for my Canadian cinema class. The sad part was, we started with some really awesome Norman McLaren shorts:





But then we watched some contemporary experimental film, which I found...less interesting. Especially a really long "zombie" film that made the heavyhanded connection that, dude, like, businessmen, capitalists and consumers are TOTALLY just like ZOMBIES, a conclusion that every other zombie movie since Dawn of the Dead apparently DIDN'T GET. Also, presenting a homeless character as a shambling, drooling zombie tends to obviate any sort of revolutionary message you might be trying to present, since the presentation of homeless persons as such is a specifically reactionary trope YOU ASSES.
Sigh, I'm going to the angrydome.

While searching for this sequence which I can't embed (yes I know King Crimson I hate myself too), I happened upon this, which is a pretty good (and academically credentialed!) examination of some of the stuff I really liked about Children of Men:

P.S. Zizek sounds like he's eating a juicy peach at all times.
Finally, Spike Jonze's intro for the new "Fully Flared" skate video:

Which I wish wasn't so EXPLODEY, because Jonze's intro for the "Yeah Right!" skate video is an amazing piece of art that highlights the physicality of skating in a really amazing way:

As Prof. Thain said today, in an oddly candid moment, "Too many good movies to watch, too little time."

St. Joseph's Baby Aspirin, Bartles & James


As the pictures should have indicated, yesterday's Jar Party turned out pretty awesome, with jars for everyone and gallons of alcohol for my body to attempt to process. It didn't actually get to all of it before I had to get up for Kristin's brunch, so I ended up being an hour or so late- mainly because I was stumbling everywhere and thinking without any real structure. It's very much how I sometimes think just out of bed, and usually I can blast it out with the shower or coffee. This morning was pretty awful, though, and I had to fight back all the cobwebs in the shower, microwaving some old coffee (couldn't BEGIN to deal with the coffeemaker this morning), piling on my layers and smoking a cigarette on the way over to Kristin's, just repeating her address under my breath until I got there. But it was pretty awesome too, a kitchen filled with homies and soon-to-be homies. Also there were crepes and pancakes and cookies and tea, good god, tea. All stuff I needed, in increments, and good conversations. Big plans were made- it turned out that everyone in attendance had a pretty big love of Douglas Sirk and attendant melodrama, and also dinosaurs? So there is a Melodramatic Dinosaur party in the works, as well as Serge's pajama party.
Afterwards Lily came over to finish off watching Sands of Iwo Jima, a movie that totally failed to make a case for war or killing or actually getting out of bed at any point. The rest of the evening was spent walking around in the cold and losing feeling in my face.
I've been trying to keep up with Louisvilleness through the Bejeezus blogs- you can check those out, but like a lot of blog projects, it looks like there's not a whole lot of updating going on. I've also been reading Erin Keane's blog. Any other good Louisville or Kentucky blogs I should be aware of?

postscript- as I use this blog as a linkdump so that I don't forget about things, this stuff is just really damn awesome.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

It Became a Commodity, to be Bought and Sold Like Rock and Roll

PICTURE POST- CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK, JAR PARTY



A cat that loves laundry.



Also, sleeping.



David Byrne Grocery.







PUPPY



JAR PARTY PHOTOS:


























No photos from the delightful brunching this morning, sadly- too hungover to remember the camera.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

On Shaving and Yeti, but Not on Shaving Yeti



So, if anyone out there is wet shaving with an old-fashioned safety razor (where you actually use razor blades for shaving instead of cutting cocaine or elective surgery), you should really experiment with the angle that you're keeping your blade at. Set the top of your razor (mine is curved, yours probably is as well) at a 90 degree angle to your face and slowly, every so slowly lower it. Basically, you want the handle at like a 30 degree angle, just keep it up there, because the lower the handle gets- the more acute the angle between your face and the blade- you're going to get less of a clean shave, and more cuts, burn, etc. I could probably do a whole rant here about using an old-fashioned safety razor vs. some 5-bladed Gilette crap...so I will. I personally think the whole multi-bladed razor craze is bullshit; they say that, by having more blades, you can shave in fewer strokes. But each stroke that you use with a multibladed head drags 3-5 razor blades over your skin. In comparison, using a single blade, I can get as clean of a shave with one stroke. Using an old fashioned safety razor means that I don't have to press (the metal body of the razor is heavy enough on its own). Finally, a pack of razor blades costs me $3. Of course, the savings are offset on the ridiculous shaving affectations I'm now addicted to- badger hair brush, pre-shave lotion, shaving bowl, cream jar (thankfully all gifts)- but I'm now slightly addicted to shaving.
In other news- if you're reading this on facebook, and some of the past posts have little leads to things that don't seem to be there- like a "watch this:" with nothing below it, that's because facebook doesn't import YouTube videos, so go to the original blogspot posts if you want to see the ridiculous crap that I like.
Speaking of stuff I like: the Abominable Charles Christopher is pretty much the best comic with a yeti I've ever read, and I am a man who knows his yeti. Nobody Scores is pretty fun as well.

Sad Terrible Brilliant

Heard about this in 2003, could only find the trailer, which I loved for both the aesthetic and the strange, oud-like music it had. Finally found this today- sadly, the music isn't actually in there.
In any case...

Notes from the Underground

Or rather, emails. Got back from sort of band/Sega Genesis practice to find some emails and messages that I just wasn't really prepared for. Not that I'm not happy to get them, just in that I'm sort of....maybe not overwhelmed, but I opened my email, looked at things and then just closed it and spent a few seconds doing slow breaths.
Photobucket

Friday, January 25, 2008

Ex-Con


Wow, I didn't realize that Tia Maria was a coffee liqueur until moments ago. I stopped in at the SAQ to pick up "coffee liqueur" for Giada de Laurentiis's Panettone Trifle, the manufacture of which I am undertaking as a SECRET SURPRISE. In any case- I was in there, and the only stuff I recognized as coffee liqueur was that bullshit Starbucks shit for like $30. The damn I'm buying hooch from Starbucks, man.
But today was a day of bigos! Actually, today was a day of being late to dentist appointments and pissing off an entire classroom of people by making fun of the Matrix (seriously? The Matrix? I have to fucking THINK about the Matrix again? Middle school was a long time ago!). But I did stop by the Polish deli/cafe/video rental place, which makes a hell of a good bigos for $4. You can't beat that with a hammer. Now Lily is on her way over so we can wash my terrible, demonic cat.
For entertainment today, how about this delightful list of all of the ways Bruce Banner gets angry in the old Hulk TV show?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Kentucky Waterfall



Anyway.
Things that I greatly enjoyed today- on the way back from school, doing some grown-ass-man style errands, getting off the bus at Laurier, getting Adam's Rib, Sands of Iwo Jima and Les Triplettes De Belleville, for 50's film (well, the first two were- the third was just so that I could take advantage of the Boite's 3 for 2 deal). I was going to go buy fancy outdoorsy socks but, well...I got intimidated by all of the stuff on the doors of the Yeti wilderness supply place, and a dude walking out with skis didn't help. I walked up a block on the Main and bought a heaping helping of tortillas des mais and a taco, before going up to St. Viateur and considering whether or not to get bigos from the Hungarian cafe. But then to the hilariously misnamed "Latina" grocery to get what is not, but what could be considered, a panattone and mascarapone cheese for Laine's birthday. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Lily came over to watch Adam's Rib, which was confusing and terrible, and to eat some pretty tasty foodstuffs.
Man, I forgot how awesome the charicatures in the Triplettes are- of Glenn Gould and Django Reinhardt in particular.
But I still need bigos, my boots fixed and to finish the Pope Lick Monster story for steps. And somehow scam this t-shirt:



Night

Egyptian Grammer

It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.
The other night, I was up late, drinking all kinds of wine, rocking the "Next Blog" button up at the top of this very page, and I was stunned by the sheer number of extremely happy, positive blogs I kept running into. I guess nobody else is as relentlessly dour as I am. So, based on that, I've decided to start a positiveish journal. About 50% of every day goes pretty well, so I'll focus on that.
Also, this: