Friday, February 27, 2004
I don't get it 5
5 bands playing Noise Pop that I just don't get:
1. Denali. Goth be gone.
2. The Locust. Yes, you play fast and loud. So do lots of other people. Oh, costumes.
3. +/1. Equals nothing.
4. British Sea Power. More costumes. Trees even!
5. The Stills. Um, be still? Even better, be silent!
And some good stuff:
1. All Night Radio. More like, all riiiight, radio -- especially if you're from Brazil and a freaky hippie.
2. Electrelane. What kind of band decides that church hymns mix well with indie rock? The good kind, I guess.
3. Vitamin D, "No Good." Soon we will all be sick of helium-voiced samples just like we're sick of Diwali riddims and Bollywood vox, but until then, this rules.
1. Denali. Goth be gone.
2. The Locust. Yes, you play fast and loud. So do lots of other people. Oh, costumes.
3. +/1. Equals nothing.
4. British Sea Power. More costumes. Trees even!
5. The Stills. Um, be still? Even better, be silent!
And some good stuff:
1. All Night Radio. More like, all riiiight, radio -- especially if you're from Brazil and a freaky hippie.
2. Electrelane. What kind of band decides that church hymns mix well with indie rock? The good kind, I guess.
3. Vitamin D, "No Good." Soon we will all be sick of helium-voiced samples just like we're sick of Diwali riddims and Bollywood vox, but until then, this rules.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
in defense of (gay) marriage
It seems stupid to write about gay marriages here, considering how I figure everyone who reads this blog probably agrees with me. But maybe not. Just last week I was arguing with Elka about whether it was possible to be friends with people who believed differently than you. Or whether it was right to not patronize businesses whose owners professed different beliefs than your own.
When I first moved to my current apartment 10 years ago, there was a video store down the block that we'd go to. The owners seemed like some primordial ooze family that crept up through the sewer from Vallejo. The dad was a constant chainsmoker (in his store, naturally) who looked 20 years older than he was, the mom had painful looking burn marks up and down her entire arms, the sister seemed partially retarded, the dog was a huge saint bernard that would lunge over the counter at customers, the son died of AIDS soon after I moved there (which didn't seem to have any effect on the dad's politics).
Anyway, the guy started putting up endorsement signs for ridiculously right-wing candidates, so I decided to stop shopping there. It wasn't hard to do; it just meant walking a few more blocks for a movie. But I regret not telling him why I was taking my business elsewhere. Because a boycott only works if the boycottee knows about it.
I want to boycott George Bush, but I don't know how. Obviously, I'm not going to vote for him. But I don't want any of my money to go to him. Laura says that every year the Quakers put forth a bill that would implement a Peace Tax Fund, where people could earmark their taxes for non-war tasks. And every year the bill gets shot down.
Bush says gay marriage threatens "the most fundamental institution of civilization." Come on, how are such marriages going to threaten the World Series?
Really, Bush swears he wants to debate these issues with "kindness and goodwill and decency." And if you don't agree with him, well, that's too fucking bad. You can take your goodwill and decency and shove it up your ass -- unless you like that kind of thing, in which case you can't.
Perhaps he should debate them with Rosie O'Donnell, who earned my everlasting respect by coming forth and getting married in S.F. today. None of this pussyfooting around, none of this Barbara Boxer/Dianne Feinstein liberalism, in which you quiver in your boots and say it's not time for this kind of action, that this isn't a majority issue to tackle in an election year. Hey, the civil rights movement didn't start as a majority issue either -- fuck, it still may not be one -- but that doesn't make it any less righteous and necessary.
The best thing O'Donnell did was call Bush's comments "vile and vicious and hateful" -- no pandering, no qualifying, no mealymouthing. She told it exactly the way it is: Bush is trying a bait-and-switch in the hopes that the public will stop thinking about Iraq, the MWMDs, and the worst job loss since Herbert Hoover.
Even more amazing than the Democrats wishywashiness is Patrick Guerrero, of the Log Cabin Republicans, who says they'll have to do a lot of "soul searching" about whether to endorse Bush. Wow. Must be hard deciding whether to back someone who wants the constitution to discriminate against you. Well, okay dude, you think about that for a while.
Anyway, there are probably 5 zillion petitions going around about this issue, but if you feel like signing another, here's one.
And Elka came around after a while. Sometimes you can agree to disagree, and sometimes you can't.
When I first moved to my current apartment 10 years ago, there was a video store down the block that we'd go to. The owners seemed like some primordial ooze family that crept up through the sewer from Vallejo. The dad was a constant chainsmoker (in his store, naturally) who looked 20 years older than he was, the mom had painful looking burn marks up and down her entire arms, the sister seemed partially retarded, the dog was a huge saint bernard that would lunge over the counter at customers, the son died of AIDS soon after I moved there (which didn't seem to have any effect on the dad's politics).
Anyway, the guy started putting up endorsement signs for ridiculously right-wing candidates, so I decided to stop shopping there. It wasn't hard to do; it just meant walking a few more blocks for a movie. But I regret not telling him why I was taking my business elsewhere. Because a boycott only works if the boycottee knows about it.
I want to boycott George Bush, but I don't know how. Obviously, I'm not going to vote for him. But I don't want any of my money to go to him. Laura says that every year the Quakers put forth a bill that would implement a Peace Tax Fund, where people could earmark their taxes for non-war tasks. And every year the bill gets shot down.
Bush says gay marriage threatens "the most fundamental institution of civilization." Come on, how are such marriages going to threaten the World Series?
Really, Bush swears he wants to debate these issues with "kindness and goodwill and decency." And if you don't agree with him, well, that's too fucking bad. You can take your goodwill and decency and shove it up your ass -- unless you like that kind of thing, in which case you can't.
Perhaps he should debate them with Rosie O'Donnell, who earned my everlasting respect by coming forth and getting married in S.F. today. None of this pussyfooting around, none of this Barbara Boxer/Dianne Feinstein liberalism, in which you quiver in your boots and say it's not time for this kind of action, that this isn't a majority issue to tackle in an election year. Hey, the civil rights movement didn't start as a majority issue either -- fuck, it still may not be one -- but that doesn't make it any less righteous and necessary.
The best thing O'Donnell did was call Bush's comments "vile and vicious and hateful" -- no pandering, no qualifying, no mealymouthing. She told it exactly the way it is: Bush is trying a bait-and-switch in the hopes that the public will stop thinking about Iraq, the MWMDs, and the worst job loss since Herbert Hoover.
Even more amazing than the Democrats wishywashiness is Patrick Guerrero, of the Log Cabin Republicans, who says they'll have to do a lot of "soul searching" about whether to endorse Bush. Wow. Must be hard deciding whether to back someone who wants the constitution to discriminate against you. Well, okay dude, you think about that for a while.
Anyway, there are probably 5 zillion petitions going around about this issue, but if you feel like signing another, here's one.
And Elka came around after a while. Sometimes you can agree to disagree, and sometimes you can't.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
openly bad vs. openly bald
You know what's missing from this blog? Besides kittens? A good flame war!
Well, here ya go. See, there's this band that pretty much sucks that I wrote about in the SF Weekly. I guess they didn't like being called histrionic, tiresome, or dumb. Go figure. So they sent me an email, saying, "Give me a break, you took us down like we were some overhyped, tired scenesters. ... What ever [sic] happened to giving young local bands a chance to get up and running before chopping off their legs? Enjoy your career, and thanks for making the beginning of ours so memorable."
If only their songs were memorable.
I guess the email wasn't enough, though. So they Googled me and put as much "embarrassing" info as they could find up on their web site, www.luxxury.com. (I'd rather not link to them, since then they might trace it back here and start inundating me with lame comments or song lyrics.)
On the site, there's a picture of me linked to the phrase "openly bald SF music writer." Since when is it uncool to be openly bald? I'd think it would be worse to wear a hat all the time, like Mark Eitzel. (No offense, Mark!) Besides, I'm discovering that a lot of women dig the baldies.
Let's see, they also go to a web page from 1997 and mistakenly suggest that Ruxz and I are still the music directors of KALX (while positing that it's not cool to do such things after you're 22). Of course, even a 19-year-old kid could realize that Lux's music is a crappy retread. In fact, the current station MD sold back their CD in about 2 seconds.
The band's hit piece goes on to say "aging hipsters never die, they just desperately cling to their last shreds of cultural relevance." They must be studying Robert Christgau's writing, because that statement makes little to no sense.
As for recently "taking up DJing," I've been spinning since 1986, back when the L boys were cumming on their Duran Duran albums the first time around.
See, isn't this fun?
Well, here ya go. See, there's this band that pretty much sucks that I wrote about in the SF Weekly. I guess they didn't like being called histrionic, tiresome, or dumb. Go figure. So they sent me an email, saying, "Give me a break, you took us down like we were some overhyped, tired scenesters. ... What ever [sic] happened to giving young local bands a chance to get up and running before chopping off their legs? Enjoy your career, and thanks for making the beginning of ours so memorable."
If only their songs were memorable.
I guess the email wasn't enough, though. So they Googled me and put as much "embarrassing" info as they could find up on their web site, www.luxxury.com. (I'd rather not link to them, since then they might trace it back here and start inundating me with lame comments or song lyrics.)
On the site, there's a picture of me linked to the phrase "openly bald SF music writer." Since when is it uncool to be openly bald? I'd think it would be worse to wear a hat all the time, like Mark Eitzel. (No offense, Mark!) Besides, I'm discovering that a lot of women dig the baldies.
Let's see, they also go to a web page from 1997 and mistakenly suggest that Ruxz and I are still the music directors of KALX (while positing that it's not cool to do such things after you're 22). Of course, even a 19-year-old kid could realize that Lux's music is a crappy retread. In fact, the current station MD sold back their CD in about 2 seconds.
The band's hit piece goes on to say "aging hipsters never die, they just desperately cling to their last shreds of cultural relevance." They must be studying Robert Christgau's writing, because that statement makes little to no sense.
As for recently "taking up DJing," I've been spinning since 1986, back when the L boys were cumming on their Duran Duran albums the first time around.
See, isn't this fun?
things i learned this weekend
You're never too old to learn stuff. Like:
1. Elka is really stubborn. She says she hates lists and then she makes some. Only, she doesn't call them lists because she doesn't use numbers. She says they're "collections" of things. Hilarious!
2. Elka doesn't like to lose. Like she wanted to bet me that the recent Crispin Glover movie about a rat was called Rat. I said it was called the name of the rat. So we bet. And then, when she realized she was wrong, she tried to pass it off as a miscommunication -- that she'd thought I was dumb enough to think the movie was entitled The Name of the Rat. You know, like that bad Umberto Eco adaptation with Sean Connery? Also, hilarious!
3. Elka looks good with shiny hair. Um, hilarious?
4. Lone Star remains a great film, even after 5 viewings. I love that line, "it's always heartwarming when a prejudice is defeated by an even deeper prejudice."
5. Vomit really stinks, especially when it's spilled on two different places in a Muni car. At least I didn't step in it, like that other guy.
6. You can make a living (or at least pay for drugs) by selling cassettes. Just ask this guy at Amoeba on Saturday. He looked like a cartoon, with his baseball cap pulled way down low and his hoodie tugged tight around his head. There was about 2 square inches of face showing -- he had to tip his head up to peer out -- and he'd apparently been there the day before, trying to tell the buyer that the tape he'd bought was broken and he needed a refund.
7. Just because you're a Stanford undergrad, doesn't mean you're smart.
8. Cory's blog is amazing.
9. The Go Game is a good way to get chased by giant rabbits.
10. Elka and I had similar dreams on two different nights -- dreams that took place in the same locales, with each of us in them. This is pretty weird, so I decided to change the water filter in my Brita. I'm kinda hoping that it doesn't alter the dreaming, anyway.
1. Elka is really stubborn. She says she hates lists and then she makes some. Only, she doesn't call them lists because she doesn't use numbers. She says they're "collections" of things. Hilarious!
2. Elka doesn't like to lose. Like she wanted to bet me that the recent Crispin Glover movie about a rat was called Rat. I said it was called the name of the rat. So we bet. And then, when she realized she was wrong, she tried to pass it off as a miscommunication -- that she'd thought I was dumb enough to think the movie was entitled The Name of the Rat. You know, like that bad Umberto Eco adaptation with Sean Connery? Also, hilarious!
3. Elka looks good with shiny hair. Um, hilarious?
4. Lone Star remains a great film, even after 5 viewings. I love that line, "it's always heartwarming when a prejudice is defeated by an even deeper prejudice."
5. Vomit really stinks, especially when it's spilled on two different places in a Muni car. At least I didn't step in it, like that other guy.
6. You can make a living (or at least pay for drugs) by selling cassettes. Just ask this guy at Amoeba on Saturday. He looked like a cartoon, with his baseball cap pulled way down low and his hoodie tugged tight around his head. There was about 2 square inches of face showing -- he had to tip his head up to peer out -- and he'd apparently been there the day before, trying to tell the buyer that the tape he'd bought was broken and he needed a refund.
7. Just because you're a Stanford undergrad, doesn't mean you're smart.
8. Cory's blog is amazing.
9. The Go Game is a good way to get chased by giant rabbits.
10. Elka and I had similar dreams on two different nights -- dreams that took place in the same locales, with each of us in them. This is pretty weird, so I decided to change the water filter in my Brita. I'm kinda hoping that it doesn't alter the dreaming, anyway.
