i'm having a hard time being productive at work today. it's monday, i'm exhausted from my study-free weekend (school's out, yay!), and i'd much rather be preparing for christmas and new year's than tracking revenue. needless to say, i've been the fish-eyed web-surfer today, and satan's laundromat has been my savior. it's a blog of some really terrific photos of new york. there's a photo taken in my town (carroll gardens) that i can't place for the life of me. web diversions, they're a good thing.

this site really has me wishing i had bought one of those yaschika cameras when they were mad cheap years ago so i could take a stab at photography. i would like to have more art and photography on my walls, but i just can't afford to pay for original stuff or good cindy sherman prints.

my cat is absolutely terrified by the street cleaner that goes down our block a few times a week. the vehicle makes this kind of low vibrating noise as it eases down the road at like, 5 mph, so there is a bit of a rumbling in the bedroom when it's outside. but dude, if you were a cat, and you spent 24 hours a day in the same relatively small area, i would think certain things wouldn't surprise you after a while. perhaps you'd come to certain conclusions, things like "the street cleaner is not going to eat me" and "the vacuum cleaner is not going to eat me" and "i am never in any sort of danger at all, i always have food, water, and comfortable furniture to sleep on, so i should stop being such a fraidy cat". this just will not do for no-alarms-and-no-surprises larry, good thing she's the cutest cat in the world. :)

in case you're wondering, even when you're older, there's nothing that brings out the hardcore procrastination techniques like having to study for a final.

as someone who plays videogames occasionally (like when it's cold and snowy outside) i often disagree with a lot of discussions about violence in games. although i tend to not play violent games (i prefer games like zelda where you figure out riddle after riddle), i don't think shooting games like doom or halo are going to give birth to a generation of sharpshooting trenchcoat mafiosos. the fun in those games is more of the have-fun-while-you-kick-your-friend's-ass variety. and, i was a huge fan of the controversial grand theft auto 3. it was simply an amazingly crafted piece of work, not unlike the sopranos, which is also noticeably violent. as long as this stuff is kept out of kids' hands, i don't have a problem with it.

however, the producers of grand theft auto have just released a new title that severely crosses lines of decency for any medium; manhunt. in manhunt, you play the part of a character that is for some reason or another coerced by a snuff-film maker into performing a series of very very sadistic murders for his videos. there is a six minute video of footage from the game circulating on the net now which i will not link to, because the visuals are simply too deranged. if grand theft auto is the sopranos, manhunt is faces of death. we're talking disemboweling individuals with a chainsaw here.

where's the fun in that?

so, the foo fighters have done a cover of prince's "darlin' nikki", and i really don't know what to think about it. well, first off, prince really wailed pretty well on this song, and dave grohl just can't cut it. i really can't believe my parents let me listen to lyrics like this when i was was nine, but hey, i turned out ok. (this song, by the way, was a huge focus of tipper gore's pmrc campaign in the 80's)

it's a shame what's happened to prince though. in the 80's he was so darn prolific he was giving away amazing songs to other artists; vanity (and appolonia) 6, the time, sinead o'connor, the bangles, sheila e. now he can't seem to release anything all that memorable.

this also seems to have happened to a lot of bands since the 90's, with the popularity of import singles and b-sides increasing. look at radiohead, some of their best stuff has been hidden away on b-sides that the average person will never hear. now with this new record they just sound tired and going-through-the-motions-ish. the same could be said for oasis and smashing pumpkins.

so the moral of the story is, if you're on a roll, be patient young jedi!

hey, wait a sec, what's the mary jane girls' "in my house" doing on that pmrc list?

good news everybody, new wilco in the spring!

i also don't understand why companies hold back on vpn. this is basically the jist of my story.

them: "we're going to need you to do some testing for us late at night and on the weekends to ensure the conversion goes well. here's your laptop, beeper, blah blah blah"
me: "ok, i have dsl at home, so this won't be too bad"
them: "well, actually, you'll have to dial in. we wont' be able to give you vpn"
me: "uh, but i have dsl, how can i do anything over a 56k connection"
them: "well, you can check your e-mail"
me: "but receiving and sending attachments is going to take forever, not to mention everything else that i'll need to do"
them: "...."
me: "so, basically, the laptop is worthless, and i'm going to have to come in on weekends now"
them: "..."

dude, check out the global rich list. it really puts things into perspective, and shows just how much we have to be thankful for this holiday season. but, how come i'm in the top .8% of the world and i can't buy a friggin' apartment?

south park has been absolutely on fire this season, and the best episode so far involved cartman's devious plans to get to some cheesy mexican restaurant. if you saw it, you may be shocked to know that casa bonita actually exists, cliff divers included! anybody wanna take a road trip to colorado with me?

news flash: network executives may make intelligent, obvious business decision.

family guy isn't the best show ever, but it's pretty darn funny. fox cancelled it because it just wasn't getting the ratings they wanted (this was after moving its time slot constantly, and ultimately leaving it to compete with survivor on thursday nights). rapid fire cancellations of tv shows seem to happen a lot though. those tv exec board meetings must be a hoot!

uber-cool it's-friday-and-i-don't-want-to-do-work-today distraction (courtesy of underground dragon); slow wave, a collective dream diary illustrated in comic book fashion. some of the dreams in the archives are great, like the sophia loren one. i'm also glad to find out that i'm not the only person who dreams about talking dogs. i have in fact dreamed about talking dogs twice. in the first one the dog was really smart, charming, and in a lesbian relationship with an old acquaintance from high school (i figured, wow, a dog this smart probably couldn't be in a relationship with another dog). in the other dream the dog talked but just wasn't as spectacular.

addictive web diversion of the day; the awful plastic surgery blog! this brings me to two points:
- i predict all female celebrities will be emaciated ghouls by 2015
-i always thought amanda lepore walked around with wax lips. there's no way she pumps them up with that much collagen!

so last night for dinner i made sauteed seitan with onions, a side of okra and portobello mushrooms with garam masala, and a salad. in the middle of it, i realized i was not stressed out in the least. a few years ago, the exent of my cooking was grilled cheese, pasta, and quesadillas. people that said that cooking was "relaxing" befuddled me. now i've become one of those people, and i think everyone should learn their way aroudn the kitchen. i owe it all to the food network, the best channel ever.

today i have seen no more than two people completey going to town picking their nose in public. i mean, this was well beyond a small tinkering on the down low. we're talking digging for gold, people. gold!

more crazy old recipes for you. dude, at what point between 1974 and 2003 did people start eating regular food? this stuff is just bizarre.

holy cow did it get cold this weekend! two saturdays ago i was strolling around manhattan with jeans and a short sleeved shirt on (it was like 75 degrees). this past saturday i was jumping in front of cabs begging them to take me in and save me from getting frostbitten. i have a feeling this is going to be a really cold winter, and i'm going to be watching a bunch of dvds.

the new york times has a decent article on the soon to be changing clubbing landscape in chelsea. well, none of these places appeal to me in the slightest, and i don't see how five clubs targeting the "a-list crowd" are going to succeed in the middle of a recession, but what do i know. four years ago, if you told me that i'd miss twilo greatly and regret not going there often i'd probably have called you crazy.

so, i'm doing some research for this year's christmas shopping, and amazon always seems to be the best place to do that. but, man, those customer reviews are like a tennis match. the first review is like "oh my god, i've had this for three years now, and it changed my life". the next review is "this thing is crap. it broke after a week and it gave my dog cancer". the thing is, it's like this for every product. the staff reviews aren't much help, as they're usually just "this is a good product and this is what it does". grrrr!

so, yesterday i walk into the gym and there's a spinning class going on. now, usually, spinning class looks like hell on earth to me. there's jersey shore "house" music pitched up to 160 bpm's blaring in the room and everyone looks like they're about to die, either from heat exhaustion, a heart attack, or too many drumrolls. but things were noticably more somber in there this time, and i realized they were spinning to "there there" by radiohead. when i got out of the locker room they were listening to "airbag". noone seemed to be in pain, or doing much heavy duty spinning for that matter, they were just kind of riding their bikes at a calm, leisurely pace. note to instructor: you might want to play something a bit more upbeat for your class next time.

post-millenium tension at its funniest. takes a while to load.

acid house is back, folks, so i now present the super-timely, super-cool download of the year; your own emulated 303! ok, so it takes forever to figure the darn thing out, but once you get the thing started, woo hoo! (if you get static, go to file-buffer and hit ok, as per the read me file).

the only thing worse than a long meeting is a long conference call meeting. sitting through an hour and a half of someone reading off a powerpoint deck is the perfect remedy for late night insomnia, not the after lunch slump.

here's something to either make you crack up or make you swoon on this wonderful friday morning; the morrissey animated-gif-a-thon page!

ok, this is a total shocker to me. elliot smith is dead.

egm has a hilarious article this month about kids playing classic games from our childhood (may take a few seconds to load). one kid's comment on the atari 2600 game of e.t.: Maybe another movie company that didn't want you to like E.T. made this game.

rolling stone actually has a good article this month about what happened to lauryn hill. you gotta feel bad for her, but at the same time how could someone fall for the religious fanatic swindle in this day and age? didn't you people watch what's happening when you were young?

dude, margaret cho has has a BLOG! best.comedian.ever!

people say weird things. like, why do people say "not to mention", then follow that by mentioning something? it just doesn't make sense!

while this is retarded, why don't these guys go up against all the hip hop artists that are propagating such stereotypes for monetary gain?

in 2003, the most rebellious thing you can do, apparently, is bust out to vanity 6 and beyonce in a bar. i really hope these guys make some headway soon.

ok, so it's time to come out of the closet; i completely adore everything justin timberlake has put out since going solo. i resisted it for so long but i just can't anymore, timbaland and the neptunes have brought out the best in this guy, and i don't think white 12 year old girls have enjoyed something this funky since michael jackson's thriller. oh yeah, and beyonce's "crazy in love" is the best song of the year. now go about your business.

radiohead rorschach, a pretty funny article about forcing fifth graders to listen to radiohead and draw. even eleven year olds know that kid a is their best album.

i know i've been away for a while, folks, but i am the bearer of very very good news today. you see, the pixies are getting back together!!!! my life will soon be complete :)

oh dear, i've become an irresponsible blogger again. right now, i'm on a short breather from school, and it feels grrrreat!!!

basically, this summer has sucked eggs. check this out!

-right around the summer solstice, my wallet got stolen at the gym, and $3000 worth of sporting goods and computer equipment got charged while i was benchin', curlin', and pressin'. i wasn't held responsible for any of it, but it took weeks for me to get all my identification and platinum purchasing power back.
-field day fest was $100, and it rained all day!
-it then rained every weekend in june!
-we got bed bugs! yes, bed bugs. because of some stupid hippychicks who've since left the building next to us, we're now paying $2000 a month for third world conditions. do you know what it's like going to bed at night knowing that something is going to creep out and suck blood out of you?
-the siren fest was a total letdown! the music was just not loud enough to overpower the sound of the cyclone and the stage wasn't high enough to actually see the bands performing. thus, you had a bunch of kids who thought they were the hottest thing since sliced bread for standing around in a trucker hat and acting as miserable as possible.
-i had one day of fun in the sun, and got the worst sunburn of my life! so for a week, i went to bed in pain while waiting to get the blood sucked out of me.
-we're converting from oracle to s.a.p. at work, so inbetween cramming for my midterms and finals (which in summer semesters, come every two weeks), i had to sit in on meetings everyday while trying to not nod off in a visible manner.

it hasn't been all bad, i've had a blast hanging out at the bars. as homer said, alcohol is the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems ;)

the people that brought you the study of the hungry man microwaveable heart attack breakfast are back with a less than flattering look at the mcgriddle. the pictures really take away any passing curiosity i had in this crazy thing.

hmmm, maybe drinking tons of red bull while dancing isn't such a good idea.

hold on to your horses, folks, this upcoming election is gonna get nastaaaay.

friday time waster alert: come out to brooklyn and play hipser bingo.

in less fortunate news, nike is buying converse, which is a bit of a double edged sword. on one hand, at least it'll be easier to get your hands on a pair of one stars, which i consider to be the sassiest darn shoes ever designed. on the other hand, get ready for the star-studded marketing blitz.

oh my fucking god, people, check this out! i mean, this is not even remotely close to confirmation of a reunion tour, but still, legend had it that kim and frank absolutely hated each other after the break-up. now they're jamming together? color me surprised!

some new ben folds news. these eps sound pretty cool. i'd like to hear his take on "in between days", and i hope one of the later releases includes his take on liz phair's "chopsticks", which is just hilarious.

speaking of liz phair, has anyone in the history of music made such a stir by putting out a crappy single as she has? the new album has been unanimously slagged by the critics and every interviewer seems to demand an answer as to why she's decided to become the 35 year old avril lavigne. this has all apparently been a bit too much for her, as she's lashed out at a poor review in the new york times by likening the journalist to chicken little. you can be a star, liz, just don't put out sucky songs!

vote for the sexiest vegetarian alive! why am i not on this list?

please welcome two blogs new to the wbsg cavalcade of stars; hektik's journal (don't believe anything he says about me) and why pigeons annoy me (check out the homestarrunner techno and trogdor links!)

do you like sigur ros? do you spend your days wishing you could conduct four horses to create your own post-rock masterpiece? well look no further, my friend, your web distraction of the day is here!!!! (link has been fixed if it didn't work the last time you tried)

speaking of coney island, the siren fest is coming soon. did i tell you it's free?

note to self: go see 28 days later.

something i find incredibly fascinating even though it bothers me to read it; a list of recent theme park accidents. it's surprising how many of these happen at the disney parks. i expected half of them to be from coney island (if you've been there, you'd know why)

josh wink's follow-up to one of the greatest mix cd's of all time is just around the corner. from the sound of things, it has plenty of that dense minimal tech-house that makes being in a dark sweaty club at 6 a.m. so darn lovely.

good news everybody, we might be getting money back!

so, i made it through the field day fest. first of all, it rained all day. second of all, what was supposed to be a sort of celebration of the leftfield (sigur ros were headliners for cyring out loud) and in the tradition of brittain's great reading and glastonbury festivals, ended up being pretty much lollapalooza at giant's stadium. the concert was truncated to one day and the number of bands cut in half (with some shady decisions in that department-spiritualized over sigur ros? ours and gemma hayes (who ever heard of them?) over royksopp). there was noone on the main stage that wasn't on a major label. while it's always great seeing the alterna-rock greats, there was only one electronic act on the bill (underworld, who absolutely rocked and woke the crowd up), and absolutely noone representing the new garage rock stuff that the kids seem to dig these days.

which is not to say the concert sucked, because it didn't. it was actually pretty fun, and would have been really great if it weren't for the cold raininess and numerous technical difficulties that the cold raininess wrought (not the least of which was a stage hand hitting beck in the chest with a metal pipe right before his set, causing him to rush to the hospital and cancel his performance).

by the end of the day, people were pretty much exhausted, uncomfortable, and a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. then radiohead decided to put on their best show in years. they were absolutely phenomenal, and by the end of their set the wet socks and five dollar ponchos didn't seem to matter so much.

with the rave act having passed the house and the senate just two months ago, it is already being used to squash political activity. please note that sasha and digweed were not going to play at this event.

interesting tidbit about the ancestry of the aids virus. kinda better than that "some guy had sex with a monkey" theory.

brace yourselves, folks. there's a live action transformers movie in the pipeline. i hope i get to play soundwave. some guy out there likes soundwave so much he wrote a story about him fighting the borg! how crazy is that?

hydrogen fuel cells might hurt the ozone. pretty discouraging news.

a pretty interesting look at bush's fiscal policy; The underlying strategy here is all too familiar: Instead of challenging popular liberal programs directly, the Republicans are creating fiscal conditions that make those programs unsustainable.

here's an article about trading spaces makeovers gone bad. watch the show all you want, just don't let these people in your house!

the field day fest will not be happening in riverhead. not unexpectedly, this is having a domino effect on the local economy.

i for one welcome our new synergistically enhanced media regulations. just think of how our nightly news reports will improve:
-guerilla journalism about the week's top 10 grossing movies
-shark attacks: the third summer is always the deadliest summer!
-going shopping can help you lose weight!

i just can't wait!

so i broke my mp3 downloading cherry this weekend (with soulseek down, kazaa is a good study break). sure, i've ummm, borrowed music before. but this weekend i said "aw shucks" and downloaded entire albums that i didn't want to plop down 15 bucks for and be disappointed (that means you, starsailor!). so i got both white stripes albums, royksopp, zero 7, avalanches, and kylie minogue. if i like what i hear, i will actually buy the albums. it's just good karma.

i also went temporarily insane and downloaded the greatest hits of expose and the cover girls. "funk boutique" rules!

you gotta love how futurama and family guy, two shows that fox has cancelled due to poor ratings, are flourishing on the cartoon network. i really hate when networks do retarded things, like put futurama on at 7:00 on sunday, or family guy on thursday directly against survivor, and then go "oh golly gee willickers, nobody's watching, we have to cancel these!" now they're beating out jay leno and david letterman in the ratings.
at any rate, i'm hooked on both shows now. futurama rocks (the writers from the golden age of the simpsons write and direct the episodes, and it shows), and i'm getting into family guy after resisting it for a while. these shows are so funny that i don't mind them keeping me from watching the bbc news at night.

so, there is a huge chance that the field day festival will not happen after all. why is this coming about a week and a half before the event is to take place?

so, why haven't i posted to my blog for the past month? well, i did have finals from hell and a vacation, you know. but also much of my web time has been spent on friendster. it's just really fun seeing all the whacky people your friends of friends of friends are.

this is one of those things that make you go "jeez, this guy has a lot of time on his hands", but then you're kind of glad he did it.

what was that about freedom of speech again?

i've at work much too late by usual monday standards. my "key deal points report" looked like "kelly deal points records" for a second. i need to stop drinking so much on the weekends. :)

wilco have done and incredibly kewl thing. after cancelling the release of their new e.p., they're putting the material and cover art up for free on their website, which you can download as long as you have the original yankee hotel foxtrot cd. man, if only broadband was around when i was hunting for and spending way too much dough on all those nirvana and radiohead b-sides.

also of note is ween's cheese song, which must be listened to three times in a row to fully appreciate. here's their fascinating story on the whole thing (from ween.com):

Earlier in 2002 we were hired by the largest advertising firm in the country to write music for a Pizza Hut commercial. Pizza Hut had hired them to come up with a whole new image to promote their new Pizza, "The Insider" which had all the cheese inside the crust. In keeping in line with their new cutting edge image, the agency hired Ween to do the music, and we delivered in a big way. Unfortunately, they didn't like a single piece of the 6 tunes we submitted and they had us rewriting the song every day for a couple of weeks before they hired someone else. In my opinion, it is one of the best tunes we wrote all last year.

there's also a version unsuitable for work here, but it's really just a bit sillly.

sometimes my life feels like its spinning absolutely out of control and i don't know what to do. it kind of feels like i'm going too fast and i've got no brakes on my roller skates, you know? ok, maybe not, but do yourself a big whopping favor and check out hot skates 3000 and their fabulous new tune (click soundclips at the bottom of the page).

keep your eyes on the field day music festival, which, if preliminary reports are true, will have just about the greatest music lineup for a festival ever (radiohead, beasties, interpol, flaming lips, beck, sigur ros, liz phair, blur, underworld, belle and sebastian, sasha and digweed, the strokes, nerd, the rapture, ben lee, etc.). yee haw!

apple is in talks to buy vivendi/universal music. could this be the move that reinvents the music industry? after using one just about every day for the past four months, my slogan has become "thank god for the ipod".

also, please note that once again i have predicted the future in my blog postings. for a relatively small subscription fee i will launch a blog spinoff titled "who wants to be a space girl?", where i will correctly predict winning lottery numbers and the latest stocks about to go through the roof.

is my blog this boring?

today, the monday gods are really trying their hardest to make me hide inside my apartment for the rest of the week and not come out. it's snowing. in april. my shoes are soaked and freezing. i'm very very tired. is tomorrow friday yet?

ok, i must clarify that when when i say i hate "an" and h words together i mean those words where the h is not silent. for instance, one would of course say "an hour". but why in the more upscale press are people writing things like "an humble individual"? i'm still really angry about this!

by the way, when did people start using "an" in front of a word that begins with h? it really bothers me. "an" is for when the following word begins with a vowel. h ain't a vowel, so i isn't gonna say it.

as the year goes on it looks like this will be the year that we really begin to see major shifts in the music industry. i'm realizing that every album i'm anticipating will be available for download weeks, if not months, before the actual release date. case in point; radiohead. the new album isn't due until june, but it's already being traded in its entirety all over the place.

the up side to this is that lately when leaks like this have happened, the record company will throw in a bonus cd of b-sides (which would be great since i'm sick of buying those 2 part uk import singles) or a dvd with random material. people like me just can't get enough radiohead anything.

and how is the album? some stuff is really amazing, some other stuff is just too wierd for me to have an opinion on after a couple listens.

kurt and courtney seems to be on the sundance channel this month, and it is such a bizarre film that i highly recommend anyone watch it. when two of the people this guy interviews flip out on camera, a handful are too drunk/high to talk in cohesive sentences, and another one gets hit by a train days after getting interviewed, you have quality journalism on your hands.

you can download "march of death", the new single by zach de la rocha produced by dj shadow. not bad, hella better than any of that audioslave stuff.

here's something pretty interesting; a documentary on press your luck. the best part of staying home sick from school was always the game shows, and press your luck was my favorite when it was on. i guess i figured there had to be some sort of pattern to the board, but with all the flashing signs and that "do do do do do" noise i got distracted. then again, if i was an unemployed ice cream truck driver from ohio i guess i would have had more time to memorize the darn thing.

okay, you really have to check this thing out. besides the frozen green beans and garden burgers, most items in the frozen food section completely baffle me. but, i know they're convenient so what the hey.

but, man, this thing is just crazy! first of all, breakfast has got to be the quickest, easiest meal to make. say it takes three minutes to heat this thing up in the microwave. for two extra mintues you could have the real deal! and you won't have a heart attack within an hour!

dk might be enjoying going back to school, but i feel like i'm walking around like arnold schwarzenegger in t2 when they're in that crazy molten iron building saying "i need a vacation". i made the mistake of taking an intense mini-semester class over christmas break, so i've been going full steam since last january (that whole gmat thing). between my new duties at work and my professors that teach with a cat o' nine tails ("you didn't amortize for this year's depreciation!" *smack!* "no weekend for you!"), as that lady said in airplane 2, the pilot's turned to jelly.

so, my only break from the land of numbers and economic concepts has been a few head-clearing minutes here and there with super mario sunshine. that's right, mario. i traded in my ps2 for a gamecube, and the half hour i spent at gamestop while they checked everything out was one of my most bizarre shopping experiences ever. kevin smith should do a sequel to clerks, and instead of the two protagonists working in convenience and video stores, they should work at a video game store. the socially inept critters that dwell in these places boggle the mind.

por ejemplo:
-i've been in this particular store twice, both times there was this one guy trying to chat it up with the guys behind the counter. this last time, he sees that i'm going to be there a while and starts chatting with me. he is dressed in full army gear for absolutely no reason. he owns no video game consoles but spends half his time hanging out in this store. dude, you're in new york, there's stuff to do!!
-then, some random teenager comes in off the street:
kid: "did you get any new xbox games in?"
counter guy: "yeah, just (blah blah blah)"
kid: "how is it? have you read the reviews?"
counter guy: no response
kid: "i hear you don't identify with the characters and the tasks become menial and repetitive" (okay, wtf?)
counter guy: no response
kid: "oh... ok, thanks" he then, literally, walks out the door backwards, trying to get some ackowledgement from counter guy.
-3 middle aged women came into the store to buy games for themselves. who knew?

motto: stay away from these stores like the plague!

the village voice's pazz and jop 2002 poll is online now, along with a good article about the neptunes, also known as the guys that made britney and n-sync sound good.

it's also fun to look back at the lists from the past 25 years. it's amazing how many of the top albums were on major labels compared to now. have music freaks gotten that much geekier, or have major labels completely switched focus from artist development to quick flash-in-the-pan moneymakers?

when i first heard johnny cash's cover of depeche mode's "personal jesus" i was like "hmmmm.....this is pretty good"
then i heard his cover of u2's "one" and i was like "that's quite nice as well"
then last week i heard his cover of nine inch nails' "hurt" and i was completely blown away. it's truly amazing.

i believe you can see the video here.

ahh, a site dedicated to old cook books. we have an old chicken cookbook on our shelf that just defies logic. first of all, the photography is horrible. the chicken looks purple no matter what the recipe is. then, the "recipes" are basically "put chicken in oven. serve". for an added twist it's "add three sticks of butter, put chicken in oven, serve over pasta!"

there's odd stuff here too, like jello, the delicacy of the rich and famous or add that extra twist to your "stag" party by serving franks and beans in the most peculiar, suggestive way possible. and what on earth are these?

by the way, lollapalooza is coming back. so far the line-up doesn't look too exciting, but i guess nothing can match the beastie boys at lolla'94. as information society would say, it was "pure energy".

will someone please run over ja rule with a bus? i mean, how do people buy this guy's records? he sounds like he just got his appendix taken out. while you're at it, rub out everyone else on that murder inc label. it's a dumb name for a company and you know it!

nobody beats the wiz? sounds like circuit city and best buy did, and so the place where i bought just about everything electronic in high school is now gone. if they had just gotten biz markie to do their commercials this would never have happened.

this is both a good thing and a bad thing.

it's a good thing because both sound factory and exit were, pretty much, crack houses. these were afterhours clubs where an "early night" was generally considered to be when the last song was played well into sunday afternoon. to look onto a dancefloor of thousands of people cranked out beyond belief, trudging back and forth, speaking complete nonsense, and being bombarded with 140 bpm noise is really depressing. it's a bad thing because, just like when twilo was shut down a couple years ago, the better parties are now going to be bombarded with tweakers. vinyl is finally recovering from the last onslaught, i shudder to think about what it's going to be like for the next couple months.

once again the media completely misses the heart of the problem here, which is the crystal meth epidemic that's taken hold of the afterhours party. designer drugs are not what's fueling the 48 hour partier, or causing an alarming increase in the spread of hiv, or any other completely ludicrous behavior.

grrrrr!!!!

it's always a bit uncomfortable seeing that guy at a party who is obviously gay, i mean like no bones about it gay, richard simmons gay, and then meeting his wife. i generally try to send messages through my spidey sense, like "you're whole life is a lie!" and "dude, it's 2003, nobody's fooled". i suppose that's probably a silly thing to do.

i suppose i have to admit defeat, after years of denial it must be true, i am a geek. when i see a t-shirt design like this and go "ooh, that'd be cool!" i need someone to just give me a good, hard slap.

if you can answer the following questions, sorry, you're a geek too.
a) what does this t-shirt refer to?
b) what character is portrayed in this t-shirt?
c) what two other feats can this character perform?
...and, for ten bonus points
d) what does shoryuken mean when translated into english?

sarah mclachlan is so condusive to working that her cd's should be constantly piped through the p.a. systems of offices around the country.

yesterday's "where did that come from?" song stuck in my head was queensryche's "jet city woman". i am living proof that studying while watching mtv in high school is bad for your health.

nyc yuppies have odd habits that really anger me more than they should. they've really taken conspicuous consumption and gone to town with it. the one tick that always makes me go "who you kiddin?" is the carrying around of the used shopping bag from the meso-upscale department store. who knows what they're carrying around; gym clothes, leftovers, cd compilations of perfect dinner party music? it doesn't matter, the statement is always "oh, i was just running so late this morning and this large bag from tiffany's was just the only thing i could find!"

so, some old gaudi plans are being considered for the wtc site. cool right? but dude, look at the design! i know what you're thinking, you filthy little monkey.

and in a case of eerie coincidence, i've had def leppard's "rocket" stuck in my head since watching jamie oliver's show on the food network last night. i'll never get used to them calling arugula "rocket".

i am 35% emo. how about you?

i refrained from posting this earlier because i was a bit skeptical of its validity, but apparently it really is true (courtesy of kreblog). if you know me, you know i'm worth more than a $20 settlement from all the records and cd's i've bought over the past few years, but i'll take it anyway, and i strongly suggest you sign up too. what'll i buy with the money, you must be wondering? the new mcclusky cd :)

a release list of what's going to be showing up at your local cd store this year. oh.my.god.people. look at march 25th. new radiohead and portishead on the same day? catch me, i'm falling!

here's hoping portishead new one goes back to the soulful sound of "dummy" and is less ummm... disturbing than their second album. oh, and massive attack's new one finally drops on feb 11. i've heard a couple tracks off the album and they're sublime, but very much in the same vein as mezzanine, so don't expect another "safe from harm" or "protection".

japander is a site hosting quicktime videos of some of those crazy japanese commercials that our beloved movie stars take the aftertnoon off and make some money for. the simpsons ones are actually pretty good!

i know it's only 2003, but you really must believe me when i say the future is here now!