Yet another music meme

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I picked this meme up via MySpace bulletins, but since I'm philosophically against bulletin-spam, I figured I'd post it here and hide it behind an lj-cut.  So without further ado:

The basic premise is that you name a band and then answer questions using song titles from that band.  My band, obviously, is Stereolab.

Are you male or female: The Man with 100 Cells

Describe yourself: Surrealchemist

How do some people feel about you: Naught More Terrific Than Man

How do you feel about yourself: Need to Be

Describe where you want to be: The Flower Called Nowhere

Describe what you want to be: The Light that Will Cease to Fail

Describe how you live: Intervals

Describe how you love: Long Life Love

Share a few words of wisdom: People Do It All the Time

I found the hardest to answer was describing how I live.  Other possible answers to that would've been - Simple Headphone Mind, Exploding Head Movie, The Free Design.  Describing how I love could've also been The Emergency Kisses.

New TypePad Features

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Look how pretty my other blog is!

I need to get out more.

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I stumbled back onto Leonard Lin's blog earlier today. I have no clue how I came across it originally.  Today I explored his sidebar with the upcoming.org links.  I'd been aware of upcoming for a while - likely from the mt-upcoming plugin - but I'd never actually used it until tonight.  Hey, it's cool!

So I found the following shows that interested me in the SF metro area:

• 9/20 - Her Space Holiday
• 9/21 - Dead Can Dance (sentimental)
• 9/22 - Kronos Quartet
• 9/23 - Afrika Bambaataa (old school, yo)
• 9/23 - Mono
• 9/24 - Nouvelle Vague
• 9/26 - Blackalicious
• 9/30 - Acid Mothers Temple (can't imagine how awesome they'd be live)
• 9/30 - The Notwist (saw them with The Essex Green at the Knitting Factory, hot!)
• 10/01 - Sigur Ros (bound to be sold out)
• 10/03 - Four Tet (always a good show)
• 10/05 - Idlewild (Nick was telling me about them...)
• 10/05 - M.I.A. (turned on to her via BoingBoing. Galang video is well done.)
• 10/11 - Dirty Three (collaborated with Tortoise)
• 10/20 - Tortoise (in my top 5)
• 10/26 - Negativland
• 10/28 - Broadcast
• 11/11 - Chicks on Speed

So, yeah.  I'd have kicked myself if I'd missed some of these.

Hankering is a funny word.

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I've had a hankering lately to watch the short film "To Kill a Dead Man" by Portishead.  Anyone have it?  I'm thinking of buying the Portishead "Roseland New York" DVD, as the short film comes as one of the supplemental features of the disc.

Update: Here it is. :)

Can't make this shit up.

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Aaah, the power of marketing.

I subscribed to MLB's "spam me with notices and offers" mailing list to see how they would be marketing one of the first projects I worked on at Six Apart - MLBlogs.  I usually receive one or two emails per week plying me with their special offers of ball caps or jerseys or whatever.  Today was something different, something special.

"Vote for MLB Comeback Player of the Year, Presented by Viagra"

No shit.

continuum

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

"To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence."

The silliest conversation she'd heard

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

"I just want to know - we're going to save the earth, but are we going to save the people?"

"What people?"

"The people that live on the earth."

"Oh - those people," said Hagbard. "Sure, sure, we're gonna save everybody."

Bullshit Wisdom

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

"The elephant is a poem written in tons instead of words."

Final Fantasy: Advent Children

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Wow.  That was the best movie I've seen in a long, long time.  It shared aspects of Akira and the first Matrix movie, and was as much like Final Fantasy as Spirits Within wasn't.  It was so good.  The full cast of characters were there, the locales were there, and updated version of key musical themes were there.  The remade theme for Sephiroth was especially effective given the context of the scene.

Though I pirated this through a co-worker/friend, I don't feel a single iota of remorse.  This was too good to wait for.  Sadly, I've not been able to locate the soundtrack - which doesn't even come out in Japan until the 28th of the month.  Sigh.  I need that Sephiroth mix.

Update: ...one thing I meant to point out was how stylistically unique this film is.  This is a perfect example of what CG-animated films should be like.  I can only hope that this is the beginning of a trend.

And there was much rejoicing

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

One of the new Stereolab EP's is now available on the iTunes music store... I'm just settling in for a first listen.

Update: The first half of the album is very evocative of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack by Philip Glass.  The second half is sounding more progressive, like Stereolab's normal evolution between albums.  This EP is also a bit of a throwback to an earlier EP of theirs - First of the Microbe Hunters - but I can't quite place why.  Listening to new Stereolab always makes me feel like I've come home again.

Further update: After some digging around, it seems that the EP on the iTMS includes all the songs on the 3 EP's that were to be released.  So for a slick $5.94, I've got all the new Stereolab tracks.  Joy.

Crisis Management, Ben Stiller-Style

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

The fire alarm went off in my apartment building tonight.  It was very, very loud.  As I pass the elevator toward the stairs, Ben Stiller's voice comes to me: "no elevator! this is a fire!"

When I get outside I think "shit, I forgot Buckley" - then remembered our complex doesn't allow pets.  Bummer.  Anyway, it was a false alarm.

Underscoring the Lazy Zen Attitude

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

A long, rough work day behind me, I settled into my usual corner table at a restaurant near the office.  Pulled out the novel I've been re-reading, though lately I'd not found any inspiration in the wild and free philosophy espoused within.  This particular evening I was cursing my awkwardness, cowardice, and inability to vocalize certain thoughts.

I take that back, I wasn't actually lamenting the situation I'd created through inaction - merely over-analyzing it.  Even on my way to the restaurant I had been thinking of ways to right the situation.  But then, halfway through the entree, the Nick Drake song came on over the satellite radio.  I almost lost it.  I hadn't heard it since...

It brought some clarity to the situation, in a sort of gut-wrenching, soul-searing way... and now I must listen to this song over and over again until it sinks in, or at least until I become numb to it.

Regardless, the lazy zen attitude requires no work, it just comes to you - and hopefully the answer to this dilemma will come to me.

More importantly, a happy birthday greeting to haloform, and a bon voyage to cameo.

Confessions of a Madonna Hater

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I hate Madonna.  Yep.

At first I thought it was my instinctive distaste towards things-mainstream, but it's deeper than that.  It slowly dawned on me that her much-touted "reinventions" were merely attempts at staying where the money was.  She was late to the electronica party, she latched onto the second Austin Powers flick, and it appears that now she's going to be in an "iPhone" ad.

I'd go so far as to correlate the trotting out of Madonna with a product's "jumping the shark."

I had high hopes for the iPhone, but now I worry...

Countdown

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

13 days until 3 new Stereolab EP's are released.

For the first time in memory, I'm not sure which file-sharing app would be the best bet for finding these before they're released.  If you're "hip" to the pirate "lingo", hook me up.

Yesterday's lesson

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

...as applied today:

Do zen masters do effectively nothing or nothing effectively?

Cheat Codes

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

If real life had cheat codes, I'd use one that would give me a fucking bazooka to blow up the fucking construction equipment that made a fucking racket at fucking 8am and fucking woke me up.

Don't Do Drown?

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Eloquent as always, we get this pearl of wisdom from brother Jeb: "'We ask people to use common sense after a hurricane.  Turn around don't do drown is our motto the day after the storm,' Bush said."

WTF?  Sad part is, he's likely to be president on day.

Celebrating Ezra

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

No, he didn't die.  He's just leaving us to follow his dreams.  Tonight was the third send off I've been to for the guy - SF just loves him that much.  It was also a sort of housewarming for Anil, who's moving in just down the street.  In a way, I'm proud of myself for coming out and making an attempt to be social.  It's underscored my need (desire?) to get over the insecure feeling that I'm simply not fabulous enough to be hanging out with these people.  I suspect that my self-imposed introversion is beginning to do more harm than good, and it's something I plan to work on.

Working with Ezra was one of the main reasons I wanted to work for SixApart.  The irony being that we never got a chance to work on the same project at the same time.  Perhaps someday that will change, one can only hope.

Pick your battles.

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

This, is retarded.

But I don't think anyone should waste time trying to fight it.  The changes that this country needs are, IMO, too large to allow ourselves to be distracted by these little things.

Public Relations

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I just spent some time touring the major news sites to read about the death of Peter Jennings.  They all reported that he had died of lung cancer, but the only one that acknowledged him as a "longtime smoker" was foxnews.com.  In all the other articles, smoking wasn't even mentioned.  How can you report on death-by-lung-cancer and not bring up smoking?