My cat's breath stinks. Actually it smells like cat food. Ralph Wiggum was prophetic.

I still can't find the cord to upload my photos from the AIDS Wolf/HEALTH show.

I'm currently listening to the Yikes EP that came out in September on Kill Shaman (It features that dude John Dwyer who was in Pink & Brown and Coachwhips and now is in OHSEES). I wish they had sent it to me a lot earlier...it's really good and I probably could have snuck it into Geek at some point. Now I'm not entirely sure I can even cover
+ 3
it.

That "+3" is the result of Peter "The Bandit" Cetera jumping on my lap and hitting the keyboard. He's jumped on my lap 5 times in the last three minutes and crawled up under the desk to attack my hand as it moved the mouse. Weirdo. Here he comes again. Attention whore.

./l n m

There goes Peter again.

I listened to a shitload of promos today, and not surprisingly didn't like too much of what I heard. I am, however, loving Future of the Left (ex-Mclusky). If only I could find my Ipod cord to load the album onto my Ipod.

Cords-a-plenty missing.

I'm currently reading Slaughtermatic by Steve Aylett, and although I really have no frame of reference for reading cyberpunk shit (especially Brit cyberpunk), I'm digging it. But my next purchases are going to be The Road and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Recently I've also been hitting up Ebay for some fun vinyl...such as Andy Williams and Bing Crosby Christmas albums and a few Bruce Springsteen albums. I haven't spent more than $5 or $6 on any of them, including shipping.

Hooray for screaming. I'm not sure how my tastes morphed from grunge to art punk and hip-hop, but it happened.

Other new additions to the family

The Apes "Ghost Games" rules. They got a new singer and they're just as good or better than ever. Think acrobatic circus-y stuff like Celebration with psyched out instrumentation.

Also, I bought the new Subtle record, "Yell & Ice" which features guest appearances from Why?, Dan from Wolf Parade and Tunde from TV on the Radio. Typically I wait to accumulate credit before buying stuff anymore, but I couldn't wait for this one...Satisfaction.

My I-Pod is getting too full. It's only a 30GB, but that helps me keep the collection focused. I have 5 more GB left...

There's no bigger bitch than when Itunes doesn't recognize the song titles of a CD.

I got a chance to see the following show on Friday night:

AIDS Wolf
xbxrx
HEALTH
Abe Vigoda

Other than xbxrx (who I've seen previously) I've been wanting to see all of these bands for as long as I've known about them. None disappointed.

Abe Vigoda were a lot gayer (literally) than I expected, but also a lot more fun. I was expecting a nastier band, but it seems as though they're going more in a "The Prayers" or "No Age" direction. I hate The Prayers and No Age though, so the fact I still liked what Abe Vigoda was up to turned out to be a nice discovery.

xbxrx played next and they killed it. I'm not a huge fan of their recorded output, but they're always an amazing kick in the teeth (literally and figuratively) live.

AIDS Wolf made me wish three things:

• That I lived in Montreal
• That I had seen them sooner
• That I actually had a chance to see Arab on Radar

There are few bands that actually make me lose myself in the moment, but AIDS Wolf forced me to feel what they were creating. The crowd surges equally felt like a part of the show, rather than a nuisance. I already can't wait for them to come back.

HEALTH were easily the biggest surprise of the night. I haven't listened to their new album in a really long time, and I had kind of forgotten what they sounded like. But even their self-titled debut couldn't have prepared me for their visual onslaught. They opened with the a cappella "Lost Time," which immediately made me realize I was about to see something on the special side. Alternating between noise, punk, hardcore and avant, the band seemed highly choreographed, but not especially contrived. It seemed as though they were painting a portrait aurally.

Or something.

I took plenty of pictures, but we still haven't found the USB cable that connects the camera to the computer after the move into our new house. I'll upload them at Jen's house in San Diego and then post a few here.

In other The Smell news: I was calling someone and didn't notice that I was standing under that wire near the building that's home to about 40 pigeons. The homeless dude who works the door/does security alerted me to this fact and I thanked him. He then asked me for money and I gave him $5.

.............

We bought two kitties. One is named Riley. The other is named Peter "The Bandit" Cetera. They're are terrified of the house (it's way bigger than the cage they'd been living in) and only let us pet them when they're hungry. But they're pretty funny and terrorize the house while we're sleeping.

xiu xiu

Why is Xiu Xiu so damn good, I ask you?









just sitting here listening to Women As Lovers.........................

ugh

Last night Jen and I watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

It was pretty painful except for the "hilarious" jokes centering around the word "Faggot."

I don't even know if I'm being truthful about that. Not even this could save it:

We also tried to watch Terry Gilliam's Tideland. It seemed as though he was trying to make a surreal John Waters film, which you could interpret to mean "Tim Burton purposefully trying to make you uncomfortable." It was lame.

I just woke up after sleeping for 12 hours. Guess I needed that...

thoughts

I'm sitting here listening to the Eels greatest hits collection, marveling at how much they (he) sound like Beck.

What the fuck.

Anyway, I've been pretty unimpressed with most of the new albums I've gotten, with the exception of:

Puscifer's V is for Vagina
These Are Powers' Terrific Season
Ring's Black Habits
Sightings' Through The Panama

That's about it.

Oh...and I interviewed that guy------>

Nick Dean is a son of a bitch

As requested:

The Premise: List 5 things that certain people (who are not deserving of being your friend anyway) may consider to be "totally lame," but you are, despite the possible stigma, totally proud of. Own it. Tag 5 others.

The List (in order of how I thought of them):

1.) Going to the movies by myself: When Jen's out of town or I want to go see the next installment of, say, Underworld, The Devil's Rejects, or 30 Days of Night and my buddy Sergio isn't around, I have no qualms with heading to the theater on my own. I don't get a snack. I don't get a drink. I don't sit near anyone. I just sit back and relax. It's really a glorious thing. For some reason, I also do this in the middle of the afternoon.

2.) Watching Iron Chef America: When I lived in Fredonia the summer after my sophomore year with Doghed and Ayaku, the latter constantly watched the Japanese version of Iron Chef, specifically when I wanted to watch sports or, well, anything else. It drove me up a fucking wall. And yet, when I stumbled upon the American version, I freaked out. I actually cheer for Mario Batali, call Bobby Flay a smug fuck, root against Cat Cora, and scratch my head at the strange creations by Morimoto. Excellent reality show.

3.) NHL Hockey: Most indie kids tend to be completely anti-sports because, in their eyes, sports are a manifestation of corporate greed, macho culture and gladiator-esque violence. Yet I can't get enough hockey. There's something so gracefully beautiful about watching the game unfold. People always say that hockey's difficult to watch because great plays happen so rarely, but as an avid hockey fan, it's the anticipation of those plays that keep me interested. I love watching how a goal happens from one end to another, how a player lines up another for a hit and feeling tensions rise to the point of a fight. Other sports seem too scripted.

4.) Christmas: Who cares if the holiday was invented in order to give the "new world" of Germans, Brits and everyone else some sort of identity, or whether or not it has become, like hockey, a symbol of corporate greed. Snow. Christmas trees. Ornaments. Tinsel. Cookies. Bailey's. Trains. Family. Gifts. Holiday-centric foods. Wreaths. Santa. Elves. Snowmen. My favorite time of the year.

5.) My uncanny knack for finding the WORST movie on TV at any given time and watching it for at least 15 minutes: I think this started the one night I worked Night Desk at Chautauqua Hall and Neil the Tie Guy and Kevin Sciretta came over and we watched Night of The Lepus in its entirety. Bones from Star Trek was in it. I can't even describe it further. Just watch it. Since then, a small smattering of amazing films I've seen parts of: BloodRayne, Vlad, Survival Island (A fantastic Billy Zane trilogy), Red Planet, 2001 Maniacs, National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 1 & 2, Blind Beast (the Japanese classic), Night at the Golden Eagle, Bound By Lies (Kristy Swanson and Stephen Baldwin), Alone in the Dark (Christian Slater), Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, Whore, Conan The Destroyer, Poison Ivy III, Wild Things II, etc.

Hopefully I'll update this bitch more often. Problem is, right now school is my life, and I can't really write about my psycho students because of confidentiality issues....

oh well.