January 2008
belated xmas →
Belle & Sebastian made a new song called “Are You Coming Over for Xmas” [myspace]. Brooklynvegan grabbed a copy while it was still downloadable. [bv]
December 2007
“Anderson’s films are all about cranking up the atmosphere to the point...”
– Dennis Lim, “How Paul Thomas Anderson sets himself apart from Hollywood’s other wunderkinds.” [slate]
there will be blood. indeed.
I suspect that KUOW despises the notion of anyone sleeping in past 9 am. Their programming at that hour—-the Weekend Edition “music” segment into Car Talk, and Weekday—-is consistently atrocious and not conducive to relaxation.
hello SEA →
Hi there, weird “seasonal” sea-tac decorations. I kind of like youbetter than the Xmas trees anyway.
Dear United, O’hare, Snow. We are not friends anymore.
things you learn while stuck on the tarmac →
There Will Be Blood appears to be showing only once in Seattle on the next week: Saturday, 11:55 pm, the Neptune. Put it on your calendars.
Bye AZO →
Oh, the Tarmac.
happy xmas →
Hello Chicago, Goodbye Chicago →
Not so foggy anymore, are you? Low ceilings or fogs or something like that made United cancel my connecting flight; so my dad had to pick me up in Chicago.
Once again, fog in Chicago is complicating my December.
iceland sounds like sigur ros, or vice versa →
Saw Heima last night. Iceland seems to have no shortage of above average looking children, people in sweaters, symbolic red kites, and gorgeous vistas. There also seemed to be a trio of sheep that followed the band around the country in their tour of the island. The interview with the band parts were cute and the performances, in a wide variety of settings, were really cool both from a scenic and...
Christmas is a secular holiday
We’re not taking the Christ out of Christmas, we’re taking the Christmas out of Winter Solstice, and that’s the kind of fundamentalism I can get down with. — jstn
“It was a time of wonders, an autumn of miracles, one of the best years in recent...”
– Roger Ebert : The year’s ten best films and other shenanigans
Apple Rumor Site to Shut Down in Settlement →
Mr. Ciarelli said his agreement with Apple constituted a clear statement about the rights of online journalists: “Speaking more broadly, I think online journalists can feel confident that they can assert their First Amendment rights, even when they run up against large corporations.” See also, “Think Different” [wiki]
From the sounds of it, that man seems to have a cat in his duffel bag.
more yorke vs. byrne →
you’ll see these links about three dozen times today, but here’s a quote from Thom Yorke about the environmental impact of taking Radiohead on the road:We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows. [wired] There is...
“The only reason we could even get away with this, the only reason anyone even...”
– David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music (via kottke)
silly daemons →
A combination of being between books, having the television schedule chewed up by the writers strike, and the approaching end of the year has left me wanting to see movies more than usual. Tonight I saw the Golden Compass. My expectations were low, but it was much worse than I’d imagined. The acting and special effects were fine, but to use an obvious analogy: it’s as if the producers...
recent consumption: dylan, panda →
Watching I’m Not There last night, I thought that if I was someone who loved Bob Dylan (or even liked Bob Dylan a lot more than I do), then maybe Todd Haynes’s biopic would be the most amazing thing ever made or something worth extreme loathing. As it was, I just thought that it was pretty. The Cate Blanchett Fellini knock-offs, in particular, were stunning and the Richard Gere parts...
songs, 2007 →
LCD Soundsystem — “All My Friends” [mp3] Peter Bjorn and John — “Objects of My Affection” [mp3] Radiohead — “Nude” [mp3] Beirut — “Nantes” [mp3] Bon Iver — “For Emma” [mp3] Grand Archives — “Torn Blue Foam Couch” [mp3] Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew — “F—ked...
“Journey sucks. They sucked in 1981, they’ll suck in 2033, and they suck...”
– Robert Christgau, (in “The best music of 2007” [slate])
at last, heima →
Hey Seattle — there’s a screening of Heima on Thursday at Metro [landmark]. I’m super-excited to see this, particularly since the DVD that I pre-ordered from Amazon never showed up.
@wnalyd ”all my friends” is song of the year if you’re over 25 and sweeney todd vs atonement depends on if you like narration singy or tricky
season of the list : outsourcing number ten →
I’m trying to finish my Idolator ballot and can’t decide what should be the tenth album in my list of favorites for 2007. This is what I have right now, in a possible order: Jens Lekman — Night Falls Over Kortedala LCD Soundsystem — Sound of Silver Radiohead — In Rainbows the Arcade Fire — Neon Bible Beirut — the Flying Cup Club Andrew Bird —...
Pitchfork Feature: Top 100 Tracks of 2007 →
many with downloads, others with streams or videos. LCD Soundsystem claims two spots in the top 10.
A crazy person dropped a bag of seeds and started a major turf war among the pigeons, crows, and seagulls of Broadway.
anyone want to buy a rock club? →
oh no. it seems very likely that the Crocodile went out of business today. [mb] There are plenty of nice clubs in town, but the Crocodile is the only one that has a real place in my heart. Of all the great shows I saw there, my favorite is probably the Valentine’s Day show with Carissa’s Wierd, the Prom, and the Decemberists. All of the bands dressed up and the encore had a lot of...
“Yes, in theory, words are words, but literature isn’t data.”
– Jonathan Franzen, sounding just astonishingly dumb on the Kindle, which has really brought out the hyperbolic preciousness among book fetishists everywhere this year, hasn’t it? [LA Times] For whatever it’s worth: I don’t have one because the current version is too expensive &...
"honest to blog" →
two movies this weekend: Juno and Margot and the Wedding. After suffering ten-thousand papercuts at the hands of Noah Baumbach, I sort of wish I’d seen them in the opposite order.
“The best way to make sense of the Second Amendment is to take away all the...”
– Clause and Effect - New York Times
Agoraphobic, fleeing Fremont and its lingering Santas.
xmas at mcleod →
looking dubious about half-naked dwarf elves, santas, and white elephants.
Seattle / Port Townsend →
Even though there’s really nothing to do there, just learning about the existence of a cheap, fast, passenger ferry to Port Townshend makes want to take a daytrip.
"I do not enjoy receiving email."
Adding that to my sidebar caused my incoming email to drop to about 1/4 of its previous level. — jakoblodwick I would guess that removing the e-mail address from his sidebar helped, too. For me, not setting up a personal voicemail message on my phone may have had a similar effect (I do not enjoy talking on the telephone, but I don’t mind receiving e-mail.)
losing track of whether drinking is offense or defense. also, was almost assaulted by seattle’s indie pornographer.
Anil Dash: Google and Theory of Mind →
is he saying that Google is dumber than a monkey? (“It’s the thing a chimpanzee has, which makes him hide a banana behind his back, only taking bites when the other chimps aren’t looking.”)
evolution of a hip ironic catchphrase →
tom the dancing bug on “don’t tase me, bro!”
idolator: worst album cover of the year →
I am really obsessed with this tournament. I had no idea that there were so many awful album covers.
“The Democrats have disenfranchised 366 delegates out of 4,362, or fully 8...”
– Whose nominee is it, anyway? - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine on Florida & Michigan’s role in the presidential candidate nomination process.
Digital processing reveals the final whisper in... →
or maybe this should be titled: “Digital processing” “reveals” … not especially credible. (via)
the fierce urgency of now →
Saw Barack Obama tonight at the Showbox (SoDo). I went in prepared to be enchanted by his vaunted public speaking skills; I left impressed but not really changing my admittedly fickle allegiance.
Wakerupper.com - Free Wake-up Calls and Telephone... →
“Schedule reminder calls on the web. … Get out of bad dates.”
The dark side of Narnia →
Philip Pullman on C.S. Lewis : “what matters is the Narnia cycle, and that is where the puzzle comes, because there is no doubt in my mind that it is one of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read.”
How Hollywood Saved God →
Hannah Rosin on the film adaptation of the Golden Compass: “Given enough time and effort, Hollywood can tweak and polish and recast even the darkest message until it would seem at home in a Fourth of July parade. In the end, the religious meaning of the book was obscured so thoroughly as to be essentially indecipherable. ” (I still want to see it, if only for the sure-to-be-awesome...