Music Friday

In celebration of goofing off today, I've decided to share with you some more fun music picks from my collection.

Alive by Ima Robot
Scream by Ima Robot
I don't know of anybody who knows who these guys are and I think I found them through an iTunes suggestion. Do yerself a favor and listen to the rest of their album - it's awesome!

King Without A Crown (Live at Stubbs) by Matisyahu
I'm not a religious person, but this song is downright inspirational. The studio version of this song simply doesn't do ANY justice to Matisyahu's incredible talent and charismatic song preaching. Testify!!!

Tale of Five Cities by Peanut Butter Wolf
I found this song randomly while looking for Kid Koala music. It turns out that PB Wolf has an absolutely AMAZING album called My Vinyl Weighs a Ton. If you're into old school rap and DJ, this is the album for you.

Dosvedanya Mio Bombino by Pink Martini
I think this is the only song I've ever liked with horse clops in it. Seriously. This band is crazy unique, great fun, and sold out at all the shows that came to town! The entire CD is filled with great songs in different styles and languages. I've got to go see them live!!!

sorry, no blog today

So I finally caught that movie I, Robot starring Will Smith and I couldn't believe that it didn't suck! Sure, the story tried have some deeper philosophical meaning and didn't quite make it (what makes a soul, individual freedom, racial equality, blah, blah, blah), but the special effects and action sequences were most entertaining. I'd give it a solid 2.47 stars because I'm feeling generous, it's late, and I can't do any math right now (I base my ratings on a Mayan vigesimal algorithm).

But what I can do is entertain/torture you with this fun song from the hot little lesbian duo of t.a.t.u (don't ask me what the acronym stands for, why they are lesbians, where they are now, or what they do with robots, because unless they're on some d-list VH1 "celebrity" show, I don't know). By the way, the song is in some sort of Russian type language. Music PLUS culture! Don't you feel special?

Robot by t.a.t.u.

coolest video since OK Go's treadmill tango

Okay, so this isn't a super new idea, but it's done very well and the song is good to boot. I wish Mute Math the same success as the aforementioned OK Go :) Enjoy Typical!


The making of...

scrabble is a good game for OCD

I love this album cover :)

So now that I've been playing Scrabble on my phone, I'm starting to dream about Scrabble words and when I'm exposed to unusual or new words, I see if they have high scoring letters in them. I guess it's bound to happen when you get into anything... it's like when I started playing Halo - I would position myself from time to time in a good sniping position in the real world out of habit (given the horrific events at Virginia Tech, thinking about letters instead of head shots is probably a good direction to go in anyway).

Scrabble not guns! I wonder if it would catch on? Anyway, I have no idea how this entry started at triple word score and went dark, but let's end this on a happier note... please enjoy a fun song that I'm sure everyone already knows about but I've just discovered.

Here (In Your Arms) by Hellogoodbye

Schoompytown, USA. Population: 2

While I'm certain that Schmoopytown, USA has more than just us two in it, the denizens of Schmoopytown are required to think that only themselves and their schmoopy are the only two people in the world. It's just like a schmoopy to think like that.

For those of you who are fans of Rescue Me and cool bass lines, enjoy this ditty by the Von Bondies. Happy lazy Sunday to all!

C'mon C'mon by The Von Bondies

giant cristals!

Okay, I'm not really referring to the overpriced champagne, I'm actually referring to this article on some cool georrific giant crystals found in caves de Mexico.

Out on my bike ride today I saw a really old dude jogging. Well, it was more like sorta kinda semi fast shuffling, but he had to have been at least 85! I'm like, holy shit! If he's out getting healthy, then I certainly can at least go biking as often as possible. Other things I saw: two geese making lots of noise trying to get the attention of (what I assumed was) a female geese who wanted nothing to do with either of them (kind of like being at a club, but with more feathers and goose poop), graffiti, lots of old tires, and numerous flocks of birds.

A while ago, I posted a music recommendation for Wound Up by Office. At that point, it was being offered for free on iTunes, but I had no other way of letting people to listen to it. Since I've discovered the delicious thing... here it is!

Wound Up by Office

I guess I should by some XM stock

So I turned on the radio today for about 5 minutes and was greeted by GAWDAWFUL emo alt rock pop crap. It's no wonder everyone bought iPods, they're all trying to do anything they can to not have to be subjected to Infinity Broadcasting's banal, regurgitated playlists. I think their company name comes for what it feels like in terms of time to listen to their selection of music. So take five minutes out of your day and listen to something you might not have heard before! I've posted a song performed by one of my favorite singers and remixed by one of my favorite DJs.

The Gentle Rain by Astrud Gilberto & RJD2

ow my ears!

So lately I've been trying to figure out how to add some music to my little blog since I've always wanted to, and since many other people seem to be doing the same without difficulty. Apparently the answer was there all the time in the form of a del.icio.us java tag, but I'm still not entirely with Web 2.0 and I'm completely darrrrrrr.... clueless about what del.icio.us is exactly and why I'd want to use it (it turns out that I don't). ANYway... here's my first posted song. It's a little ditty from Simon Says that I heard during the end credits of Boiler Room (love that movie!).

Pharoah Monch by Simon Says [warning! explicit lyrics]

U-S-A! ... U-S-A! ... U-S-A! [repeat obnoxiously]

It feels like forever, but I finally got my passport application sent off via my local post office. So after a trip to the recorder office for my birth certificate, two trips to Costco to develop varying sizes of my own passport photo (on the second trip I noticed they offer passport photos for a mere $4.99 – d'oh!), three trips to the post office's passport room, a sworn statement (I had to raise my right hand and everything! Too bad there wasn't a Koran lying around, eh?), and two checks totaling $97.00, I have the pleasure of waiting at least 6 weeks for processing (that's only IF they don't find my huge cache of WMDs, enriched uranium, and cocaine which I hide underneath my global warming machine). Who knew leaving the country would be so involved? I actually would've preferred that they give me a Canadian passport all things considered. I wonder if I could convince the State Department to add a check box on the application...

On a completely unrelated but rant-lite note, I finally heard one of the more popular songs at the moment from some guy/band named Daughtry. Is it just me, or do we have enough bands that sound like Nickelback already?

It's easier to have their hearts and minds when you have them by the short and curlies

I haven't felt like blogging of late. I think the optimistic fervor I had for 2007 has passed and I'm quickly coming to the realization (yet again) that hard work is what gets results, whereas waiting around for a huge pile of diamonds with zero inclusions to fall in my lap is less likely to yield anything (though I'm still waiting if fate is listening).

In my continued support of Apple, I bought another batch of iTunes music. I've completed my collection of guilty pleasure listening by getting the last few Loverboy tracks that I liked but was "missing". Ahhh... 1985 how I remember you so fondly :)

In the category of music that might actually interest everyone else but me, here are some suggestions...

Stinging Sitars X 9 - Anjali (as featured in the Samsung Blackjack commercial)
New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley (old theme song to Dead Zone - lots of touching comments for him regarding his passing)

And for the music masochists... here's my list of newly acquired Loverboy songs...
Queen of the Broken Hearts
Gangs in the Street
Jump
D.O.A.
Always On My Mind
Little Girl
Teenage Overdose

Next big thing?

New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream

I can't wait for the remix versions of this song. This band is seriously awesome in the most 80s-ish way you can think of!

the trouble with trivial

Photos from a nice dinner at Bocca Di Beppo's. There's nothing like a nice BART car to yourself and a virgin mary-like figurine to watch over you whilst you consume mass quantities of carbohydrates (so... goood....) We also drank some sort of weird shots that tasted like kerosene mixed with propane mixed with gasoline mixed with mint and lime. It was yukky, but STRONG like bull and hit harder than G Bush looking for invisible weapons in a sovereign nation.

In random internet news, I found this really cool conceptual clip on YouTube that shows a guy named Noah Kolina who takes a photo of himself everyday for 6 years (he's a photographer, natch). The clip besides being very conceptually intersting is scored by an amazing piano performance by Carly Comando (yes, that's her name). I found her profile on MySpace and you can download her song there if you like.

captain taggart has SAVED us!!!

It's been interesting times lately... work has been great (knock on wood) so now I'm able to spend a bit of cash on home improvement. Rajan and Amit helped me pick up a shitload of lumber and supplies from Home Depot - who knew 2x12s were so freakin' heavy? Also, soon to be online is my long awaited uh... wait, for low voltage lighting in the landscaping area.

I just got back from camping at Salt Point SP. It never ceases to amaze me when I witness the sheer multitudes of beautiful things California has to offer at only a few (car sickening) hours away. The tidepools were fun to look into, the rock formations were unique, and I don't ever seem to tire of being near the vastness of oceans. (click on the image above for a treat)

Guess what's in the bowl? Mmmmmm.... crack snack.

For those of you are cool and know how to use the internet, here are some links for you to check out at your leisure.

Office
Wound Up (iTunes link)

OK Go
Treadmill Video (You Tube link)
Backyard Video (You Tube link)

Who you trying to get crazy with, ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

I finally did a photo dump (I said 'dump' - heh heh) onto my computer from my phone and found these fun images. I like the first one because the bottle looks giant in front of me and also like my head is attached to it. The second one is from waaayyyy back all the way to July 4 (well, only like 3 weeks ago). You can't see her, but Julienne is playing with a sparkler while Matt looks on, completely enthralled by the action. The most recent photo is from a local Chinese supermercado. We couldn't figure out if it was candy for people or snacks for your doggy, but I loved the packaging! Ah... whimsy that can seemingly only eminate from Japan. If anyone out there can read Japanese (I'm pretty sure it's Japanese, anyway) please let me know what the packaging says!

I recently re-watched Snatch and I'm still amazed how much I love that movie. I know it has it's detractors, but I think it's well put together with lots of energy and has a cleverly written script with a large and varied group of interesting characters. The soundtrack also reflects my high opinion of the movie. Do yourself a favor and lookup Mirwas - Disco Science, off the Snatch soundtrack.

My head is weak, my heart always speaks, before I know what it will say

So while surfing eBay, I came across this HUGE collection of legos for sale. The auction was astounding in its shear size and quality. Check it out here (I don't know how long the images will be hosted, though). I emailed the seller what the dealio behind all the legos was, but he/she nebulously replied, "yes there is a story, there always is.. hehe.. I would like to tell it but I will save that for later.. I hope you enjoyed the auction." Which of course made me feel even more curious, but I have to respect someone else's privacy. Dang! I don't know what the retail value of all that lego is, but the auction ended at $19,400, didn't meet the reserve, and I'm guessing probably didn't even come close.

I had lunch with my oldest of my two older sisters this weekend and it was great to see her. These days I don't really get to see my siblings unless it's a family event of some sort. It's really strange, but lately I've been feeling more "like an adult" or something. I'm starting to see all of my family as regular people leading their irregular lives like everyone else.

Of course they've always been that, but from my point of view as the youngest, I guess I've always assigned some weird expectations of infallibility to certain things about their lives. For most of my life, they always had all the answers, all the toys, and all the fun stuff to do. I guess maybe I finally feel more like a peer rather than the whipping boy. Weird!

p.s. The title is one of my favorite lines from the lyrics of "Crooked Teeth" by Death Cab For Cutie

Intergalactic Planetary

Here's a shot of me and Cathryn in Pontiki form hanging out underneath my computer. I was going to put in a sample conversation (written in screenplay form), like:

SQUARE: "Hi there! My name is Walter."
[says with anticipation]

EGG: "Ummm...hmmmm..."
[looks off into the distance]

...which is better than I used to do in real life. But I think it would be more fun to mad lib it yourself (let your imaginations run wiiiiiilllllllllddddddd!!!!).

In music news, the power of Google once again prevailed as I found out the cool song that's being played in the Jaguar XK commercial. The song is called I Turn My Camera On by Spoon. I think Spoon must be a cool band, because I did an iTunes search and they showed up on the OC and Veronica Mars soundtracks - two shows that I don't watch, but I know are popular with the kids these days (actually, I caught an episode of Veronica Mars once and it was pretty good - but I still think the OC sucks big donkey ass... or maybe it's just because I can't relate to trust fund whiny anorexic white chicks).

Whoops! I gotta cut down on the vitriolic commentary... since Jack Johnson just started playing on my iTunes I feel instantly more peaceful. Not that I'm a fanboy, but after finding out about how he got started and listening to the calm nature of his music, he's a performer that's easy to root for. Speaking of peaceful music, I've noticed lately that not only 80's style music has come back, but so has its happy poppy lyrics. Happiness is a good thing :) Next purchase hopefully: The Lovemakers Times of Romance.

Food makes the poop

So... I'm having trouble expressing myself through words lately. Or at least I think so. I probably normal, so I appear, to people mostly. Damn. I'm sure you know what I mean. But it's like that. Maybe my brain is waterlogged. I mean, I enjoy the rain as much as the next mushroom, but fuck! Enough with all the rain all in a row with no sun and warmth already! There is an upside to all of the weather, though. My lavender is growing like crazy and the jasmine vines are pretty happy too. I think I'll plant some ferns to see if they'll survive the summer.

Oops, sorry for seguing into a boring suburbanite! How about talking about my latest fun ebay score? I bought some JBL Creature Speakers for a mere $45 buckaroos and now I'm jamming with a nice bass thump while I work :) I never invested in computer speakers before because I thought of them as being too much of a luxury item - but seeing as I'm pretty much chained to this thing day in and day out, I've been pretty happy ever since! Aenema never sounded more like the energizing anthem that it is (that's music that MUST be listened to at the loudest level tolerable).

Speaking of which, I was out this Saturday eve to catch Kid Koala at the Independent. He was very good, but the DJ before him, Mike Relm, was AMAZING! Some of his stuff went on a bit long for my taste, but his syncing up of his scratching with video was nothing short of brilliantly entertaining

{ This photo taken on Divisadero in front of a convenience store. We bought Chicklets, Listerine Stripes, and Peanut M&Ms before the show. }

I break, you fix. Thank you!

In honor of the upcoming All Hallow's Eve, here are two fun images for you! The first is a spider that has chosen my front porch as her new home. And check out a this sneak peak at my contribution to Amit's giant Halloween project. It's still a work in progress (obviously), and I'm hoping it won't be crap when all is said and done. I finally got to use my glue gun, and I gotta say that I can totally see myself becoming addicted to using it! After I got the hang of how it worked, I found myself looking for stuff to glue together (Hello, buttcheeks!). I had always hoped that there was a little bit of an industrial designer in me. Now if I can only fall in love with modeling foam...

I usually don't go on and on about new music (too much - heh, heh), but I just saw the new video from Madonna for the song "Hung Up" kicks so much ass, it is not to be believed! This song is just begging to be turned into a club friendly 12" mix, and if the rest of the music from her new album is of this caliber, expect to be inundated with her songs for a while.

Getting back to addictive things, I just ate a bunch of nacho flavored Doritos while drinking Pepsi. I was literally giddy with happiness after doing so. How can so much happiness come from a bag and a can? I don't know, but I wonder if there's a support group out there for what I have.

Happy as fuck!

I just love how the flash picked up the falling snow in this shot. I believe this was from unValentine's day 2005. This was definitely good times. After taking this shot, I retreated into the warmth of the cabin and ate potato chips and drank Pepsi. Fuckin' A, man – fuckin' A.

So I cut my hair and the snazzy helmet fits like a glove (ha ha). But my head got used to the extra warmth that was provided by the 1/2 growth. So now I'm walking around and my head is cold. Damn. I guess it's back to knit hats for me. Maybe it's just getting colder. Isn't it almost October or something?

Recently I survived having a small meal of Popeye's Chicken. Mmmm... I ate a wing, a thigh, a bunch of 'cajun' batter fries, and an oily buttery biscuit. It was delicious to be sure, but I seriously think I dodge death every time I consume that stuff these days. I think my body became incapable of processing that much oil and grease after I turned 30. Again. Damn!

One last thing, the song Stay by Oingo Boingo has been looping in my head. I forgot just how good it is. I love rediscovering stuff. I was reminded about that song because it was in Donnie Darko. A seriously fucked up, disturbing movie! I highly recommend it.