The Contrarian

GTA Comes Alive!

Note: click here for the clip.

Our friend MFK lives in Boston, more specifically, Allston. He just sent me a video of an amazing hit-and-run car crash straight out of Grand Theft Auto. He thankfully avoided the pandemonium by randomly taking an alternate route to work this morning.

Srsly, this shit is cuh-rayzee. We're talkin' full-on 'splosions and everything.

Here's a Flickr stream with some good closeups of the vehicular carnage.

Life These Days.

 

Garamania!

Watchoo lookin' at, kaiju?

Nerdstrom, a.k.a. Mondhexe, a.k.a Weird Mike (the latter alias is my own invention) has a new blog celebrating the Japanese toy-creature-cultural obsession Garamon (a.k.a. Pigmon). It's called, somewhat unsurprisingly, Garamania.

What ever happened to stamp collecting?

All Day Conference.

Going to this Arts Advocacy thingie all day, so no blogging from me. I'm torn abut attending; I have tons of *real* work to do before I head to Utah. At least the conference is just down the street from my office.

So I'll leave you with this: Stuff White People Like #93 — Music Piracy.

I still think that site is funny, but I'm wondering — where's my book deal?

I Love My iPhone, But Not Enough to Take a Bath With It.

Probably because I'm not Japanese.

Breathing.

So I'm not as stressed out anymore. Still a million things going on, but I'm gonna take a breather this weekend (and rehearse with Mark for Utah). Just chillin' out, maxin' relaxin' and. . . um. . . God, I can't believe I just typed that.

Then it's a crazy, Monday, Tuesday. . . and a flight to Austin on Wednesday for SXSW. I'm still trying to figure out my showcase schedule, which is part of what's been stressing me out. I'm gonna be handing out fliers and handbills for FMC's Rock the Net campaign, which is about the importance of net neutrality to musicians. Hopefully it'll go OK.

I'm frankly more excited for some of the panels, but that's just me.

Got a small handful of Valium (like 4 pills) from a doctor, so I can survive the flight. You might know how I feel about planes. Not particularly comfortable. And now there's all this stuff about Southwest Airlines flying unchecked jets with cracked fuselages. Not designed to make me feel good. At least I'm flying United.

This Sunday is the final episode of "The Wire." I'm pretty bummed about it, but at least if my plane crashes, I'll die knowing how David Simon's tale of dirty B-more wraps up.

OK. Back to work.

Chortle, Snort, Snicker, Guffaw. . .

Two funny things, if that's what you're into:

Should You Watch the Grammys? [NY Mag]

Sarah Silverman is f*cking Matt Damon:

I Just Joined a Washington, D.C.-Based A Capella Group Called "Dept. of Just-Us."

Kidding.

But wouldn't that be effin' hilarious?

Embedded in Bed.

Me and my nurses.

Home sick, working on a press release and some policy documents. Tomorrow is a big writing deadline day. I need to bust out that King Crimson piece, as well as notices for Jesu and Dead Meadow.

Other music I'm slated to poop on write about:

Nordic Nomadic
Dengue Fever (yay!)
The Mars Volta (sheesh)
Dax Riggs
Susumu Yokota (yay!)

Some of you may have seen my review of Black Mountain, which ran over at Dusted today.

Looks like I'm going to SXSW this year. Should be. . . um. . . fun?

Washington Post recently published one of those cutesy pieces about candidates' theme songs. It's about how the lyrics are usually inappropriate or ill-considered for campaigns. Every major election cycle brings at least one of these articles. It's like the "historical Jesus" stuff that runs during the holidays.

CNET on Reznor/Radiohead: "musicians aren't merchants." Dude, tell that to Ian MacKaye.

Might go see Cloverfield, if I feel better. Reviews have been somewhat encouraging.

Cat's name might just be. . .  drumroll . . . Cornelius! "Corny" is just too good a nickname to pass up.

Weekender.

Cartoon *borrowed* from Toothpaste for Dinner.

Sometimes you just gotta listen to "South Side of the Sky" by Yes, and dig on Bill Bruford's slippery snare action and Steve Howe's staccato ascending guitar runs.

'Cause it's fun.

Finished my Magnetic Fields review. Now I've only got Black Mountain, King Crimson's Great Deceiver reissues, a Kaada/Patton DVD, Jesu, Dead Meadow and Richard Swift left to go!

There's no good movies out this weekend. And I'm in the mood for a picture. JJ Abrams' hush-hush, giant monster flick Cloverfield hits theaters next week, but it's hard for me to get that excited. The previews look like the '90s Godzilla remake with Matthew Broderick, but shot with shaky handheld cameras for added "realism." And the cast of unknowns remind me of annoying NYC hipsters, or at least the Central Casting equivalent. But  hey, JJ Abrams? Right? Right?

It's a foggy, rainy evening here in the District. I think it might be a nice night to kick back and read. There's an article about "The Wire" mastermind David Simon in the new Atlantic Monthly that I'm psyched to finish. Of course, I've always got my massive CIA book to try and plow through.

I have one last song to finish on my new record, but unfortunately it's just the vocals that are left. For some reason, I just can't seem to get up the steam, even though I've already written the core melodies. Maybe I can get to it tomorrow.

Sunday, I'm off to Mark's house to rehearse for our appearance at the 2008 National Conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States, which takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah in March. Whee!

What are you guys up to?