The Sad Bear

Early adopter: I used Story Wheel to feature smores in Nashville

2012-01-24T18:31:00.004-05:00

I heard about Story Wheel on Monday — brand new that day — a cool web service that combines an Instagram photo slideshow with audio recorded by SoundCloud. I tried it out immediately, and on my first effort, I came up with a passable feature on the Bang Candy Company in Nashville, where we learned to make gourmet smores.

It's possible that my Story Wheel was the first "ever" to include a hint of reporting. We'll never know for sure. Here it is: Smores Class. And here's the Story Wheel home page, with other slideshows.

The Senator

2012-01-22T23:05:00.001-05:00

Because I can and because I'm bored.

Rejected Title: "Ski Yrslf Clean"

2012-01-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that SURF MADNESS! video to Ross McDermott. He sent this. All I should need to say is that the video lives up to the song.

(although I think the logo thing is rul cheesy... just me?)

New Wes Anderson Film

2012-01-14T20:14:00.003-05:00

I just ran across the trailer (uploaded to YouTube a few days ago). Anyone else know anything about this, or had heard about it? Looks pretty interesting.

EDIT: Also see The Turin Horse and West of Memphis

The New Year

2012-01-12T03:25:00.005-05:00

Have any New Year's Resolutions?

I have some three: Quit smoking (unlikely), read more books (that should maybe be "finish more books;" I started maybe 25 books last year that I put down and never picked back up) and save money. I am excited about attempting these things.

It is, then, unfortunate that I can't stop listening to an artist who inspires the exact opposite reaction in me. Kurt Vile makes me want to accomplish nothing other than sit in my living room, zone out and blow smoke rings (as the title of his album suggests).

It made my (mental) top ten list for the year. I realized this is the first year in quite some time that I haven't purposely sat down and made a list. Maybe I've come to the realization that I am not the amateur music pundit I've created in my own mind.

So I haven't made a top ten list. Until now. Here is a rough approximation, in no order, and off the top of my head:

Kurt Vile, Shabazz Palaces, Danny Brown, Wild Flag, Fleet Foxes, Wilco, TV On The Radio, Das Racist, Mastodon, Fucked Up, Smith Westerns*

Please discuss in the comments, I want to hear about stuff I missed.

*(See? I'm too lazy to even organize these, or bother typing out the albums' names. Damn you, Kurt Vile!)

Lyrics and Meaning

2011-12-29T22:30:00.004-05:00

I just read this here takedown of Bon Iver on Slate:

Is Vernon the worst poetaster in the history of popular music? Is he simply incapable of writing a lyric that makes sense—that tells a story, conveys a recognizable human emotion, in English or Elvish or any other language?

Dan Bejar often says that striving to deduce concrete meaning from his lyrics is a mistake. He wants his words to do something rather than mean something, to have an effect rather than to have sense.

I wish someone would inform Jody Rosen of this concept. Lyrics can be poetic and can often be read as poetry. Songs and albums can tell stories. But they don't have to, and reading lyrics apart from their musical context is inherently a mistake. Lyrics constitute a distinct form of art that cannot be judged by the standards of poetry or storytelling.

Best Fails of 2011

2011-12-19T23:25:00.003-05:00

So some of these might be cringe-worthy, but some of them also had me laughing 'til tears.

(Blatantly stolen from my friend Jane's Tumblr.)

Surf Madness

2011-12-18T03:58:00.003-05:00

I'm kind of obsessed with the music on this surf film right now (first song is kind of so-so, but after that...). Very entertaining video, especially if you're even remotely interested in surfing (I'm not, but still found it quite enjoyable).

Favorite song/sequence (minus the Handsome Furs) runs from 17:40 to about 20 minutes.

(Sterling Spencer, by the way, is the cousin of one of my best friend's back in elementary school. Ryan–my friend back in the day–has "Additional Footage" and "Special Thanks" credits.)

Identity

2011-12-13T20:23:00.005-05:00

I have a presence on Facebook, Google Plus (until HiveMined goes live anyway), my personal blog, two collaborative blogs, a collaborative tumblr, and now Twitter. I find this distressing.

Those of you with similar social-networking overkill: how do you decide what goes in each platform? Some of it is intuitive, but some of it still alludes me.

PS: I've changed my name, you'll note, to "Porter Perkins." I start a teaching job in two weeks and would like to make it slightly less simple for my future inquisitive students to find me.

#052

2011-12-13T00:00:00.002-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Get Away", Yuck
02. CHASE -- "Follow", Crystal Fighters
03. TONY -- "Northern Lights," Bowerbirds
04. ECON -- "Christmas Bop", T. Rex
05. KYLE -- "Whole Lotta Love," Led Zeppelin
06. DUNN -- "Melekalikimaka", Beach Boys
07. OATESS -- "Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song", Jeffery Lewis
08. MARK -- "Rhythm and Soul", Spoon

MWM #052 by Jack Hittinger on Grooveshark

Top One Christmas Movies of All Time

2011-12-10T21:13:00.001-05:00

1) Die Hard.

Puppets of destruction!

2011-12-05T16:02:00.003-05:00

I loved the new Muppet movie, but I think I love this music video even more. Short list for best video of the year?

The best part is when the big green puppet bashes the purple puppet's head with a rock.

United States of Documentaries

2011-11-24T17:12:00.008-05:00

Thanks to The Projector, I found this United States of Documentaries, a list compiled by POV on PBS. It lists one documentary movie for every state of the Union.

I've seen only seven of the 51 and have liked every single one. I'm planning on adding all the rest to my Netflix. I would also like to go through and document each one I see (as I see them). So look for that, if I ever get motivated enough to do it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Music Video Post

2011-11-22T16:12:00.002-05:00

In case anyone was interested, there were a couple of music videos released this week that I've run across. I liked both of them.

"The Shrine / An Argument" // Fleet Foxes

Also, Peter Bjorn and John released their newest video for a song on their recent album, Gimme Some. They decided to premiere it via Pop Matters (whose site design looks a bit like a drugstore site, in my opinion).

"Dig A Little Deeper" // Peter Bjorn & John

Also of note, our buddy Bill Arteaga, of Ampersand Posture, has released a new song. Check it:

Riding the Current - Single by Ampersand Posture

Four Years

2011-11-22T10:15:00.004-05:00

So there's been some interest expressed in learning how people find their way to this little internet oasis, the keywords they use and some of the Sad Bear pages they haunt. Alright. We can do that:

Popular Search Terms That Lead People Here:
* sad bear
* bare bellies
* belly shirts for women
* christ the redeemer rio de janeiro structured [sic] by lightning
* royal orchard castle afton
* comic sans it's getting louder
* map of meth
* world's crookedest street
* feist third man records video
* blue mustache dye
* hippo butt
* hippopotamus ass
* sexy girls bare midriff in jeans
* lost in the supermarket meaning
* the very sad bear psychology
* different types of scrabble tiles

Popular Sad Bear Pages:
01. Conservative T-Shirt Industry Must Die
02. Navigating in an Indie World
03. Wendy Peffercorn
04. Feist Plays Third Man Records
05. Grades and Ramps

Other Figures:
* 9% of our visitors stay for an hour or more o_O
* Most of our hits come from the Midwest. A few from Europe visit regularly.
* 95% of people find us through Google. 2% via Yahoo. 3% via Bing.

Movies we hated

2011-11-21T08:18:00.003-05:00

In the short time we've lived in Nashville, we've overhauled about half of our list of least favorite movies (a loose mental list in written form below for the first time). We've seen a few gems too, like "Bill Cunningham's New York." But many weeks, it's felt like neither of us deserves the privilege of choosing the movie. In approximate order, the worst of the worst listed first:

Memory Keeper's Daughter
Arsenic & Old Lace
Benny and Joon
I've Loved You So Long
The Host
The Shipping News
Is Anybody There? (fell asleep x3)
Nights in Rodanthe
Happy Feet
Grumpy Old Men

Dishonorable mentions:
Morning Glory, No Impact Man, Ghost World, Shattered Glass, Sideways, Sex and the City 2, All the Pretty Horses, The Russian Ark, Valentine's Day, Biutiful.

If you have a worst films list, please leave it in the comments. And we dare you to defend any of these.

Katie's books debut at Parnassus bookstore in Nashville

2011-11-19T22:24:00.001-05:00

Nashville's newest independent bookstore opened this week with fanfare and big promise. Everyone is reporting on this, from The Tennessean to The New York Times (page A1, no less) and the alt-weeklies in there too.

This is especially cool because Katie's handmade books are for sale at Parnassus. Right near the checkout area, her books occupy one full shelf in a wooden display case. The store was packed during the grand opening, but the books should catch attention during normal hours. You'll notice in the photo that Katie included her golden "bling" notebook among the offerings. There are also some re-purposed blue suede journals.

Katie made the Parnassus connection at one of our favorite events (to date) in Nashville: Handmade & Bound, the city's first ever book arts festival. There were many awesome artists there (see a post about it here). But Katie's books must have stood out, luring Parnassus over to our table.

Hopefully we'll known soon how her books are being received. If today's grand opening is any indication, there will be many eyeballs on those books.

As always, Katie writes about her books at linenlaidfelt.blogspot.com.

Ricky Gervais to host Golden Globes again

2011-11-16T17:19:00.005-05:00

In celebration of that news (via Gawker):

I don't know if it's possible for him to equal that performance, but here's to hoping.

A nice time in Vancouver

2011-11-16T04:22:00.009-05:00

There's a singular reason why I'm concerned with the demise of the modern bookstore (and especially used bookstores). It's this:

I stumbled upon this thank you card in a book I found at The Book Nook in Mattoon, Ill.

(As a side note, if you want to know why used bookstores keep closing, visit this place: It's awesome. The first time I went in there I wasn't expecting much, because it's this little dumpy building in downtown Mattoon (which is Charleston's dumpy next-door neighbor without the state university). But they have a huge selection and everything there costs $5. Literally everything, including the big hardback collected works of Shakespeare I bought along with the book where someone had stashed this trinket. Both $5. As was a perfect-condition Chuck Klosterman book and a hardcover version of the Bob Dylan Chronicles Vol. 1.)

It's green and says "thank you" on the front in flowery little stationary font. The sticky side of the envelope is glued permanently to the card. It's addressed to Cheryl.

Your Thoughtfulness is Greatly Appreciated

Cheryl,
Thank you for letting me read the book. It was really pretty good. I finished it while we were in Vancouver. We had a nice time. Still working on getting everyone back to east coast time. Hope all is well. Everyone here sends their best.
Love,
Pam

Try finding that in an eBook. I hung it up on the fridge.

Swedes

2011-11-14T03:13:00.006-05:00

Few actors can match Stellan Skarsgard for pure presence. I want to nominate him for best supporting actor just for sitting there, and then give him the win for standing up.

Of course, the Swedish seem to exude presence from their pores. Odo Proudfoot was pouring drinks, and I half expected to see the Malfoys sitting at one of the tables.

And then there's Lykke Li. She's one of those people who employs a significant amount of natural dancing ability in looking vaguely ridiculous (see: Samuel Heisman, only without the "vaguely" part).

The real question: what's the Skarsgard-Li relationship? Husband-wife? (no ring) Lovers? Father-daughter?

The Spirit of Journalism circa 1940

2011-11-08T10:38:00.003-05:00

Found this during my regular perusing of my reader:

Post-Finale Withdrawal

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

Ever since the season finale for Breaking Bad came and went, I've been going through withdrawal. I tried to replace the void with The Wonder Years, but it wasn't the medicine I needed. Going after Deadwood next, I think.

In the meantime, while we wait patiently for season five to begin, I wanted to share this clip from the show. One of the best aspects of this show is that the creators really run with their senses of humor, not to mention, their willingness to use showtime to play out a little sideline montage like this:

Feist plays Third Man Records in Nashville

2011-11-06T00:08:00.008-04:00

Feist might be my favorite guitarist. And her Nashville show tonight, announced just a day in advance, jumped immediately to the top of Katie's favorite concert list.

I'd been obsessively listening to the new "Metals" album this week, finally getting into it, but I had no idea what was about to happen. I noticed a tweet around 6:30 p.m. from someone selling two tickets to her sold-out show. At that moment, I was thinking the person was referring to tomorrow's Atlanta show, 4 hours away. I hadn't heard about her late-breaking decision to play Nashville. Great luck! Ever since we saw Andrew Bird two winters ago in Richmond, we'd had Feist at No. 1 on our must-see list.

The show did not disappoint. Her crew absolutely stomped through most of her new songs on "Metals," including an epic rendition of "Undiscovered First," with Feist jerking around her guitar and the backup singers playing out a dramatic, synchronized tambourine routine. I've come to consider "Anti-Pioneer" a favorite, and decided tonight that I would happily listen to the opening notes on repeat forever (be warned, Grooveshark's "Anti-Pioneer" is falsely labeled).

One of the reasons I mention Andrew Bird is that he and Feist go to wild and wonderful places with their songs when performing live. Tonight, for example, she performed an initially unrecognizable version of "Mushaboom," and a jangly rocking version of "I Feel It All," in which the drumming actually brought to mind some old live clips of Neutral Milk Hotel.

Small note: the big sounds and backing vocals of "Commotion" were not cheesy live.

I'd also briefly mention that the set was interrupted (said harshly) partway through to allow a local fella to belt out some neo-soul song. Feist masterfully followed the wannabe barn burner -- taking back the show -- with "Comfort Me," a song that begins as an acoustic solo and mounts to a thunderous peak.

Here's an incomplete setlist (updated x3):

Commotion
Undiscovered First
How Come You Never Go There
Anti-Pioneer
Mushaboom
Graveyard
Comfort Me
The Bad In Each Other
My Moon, My Man
I Feel It All
When The Circle Married the Line
Caught A Long Wind
Get It Wrong, Get It Right
Cicadas and Gulls
Let It Die (slow dancing encouraged)

And here's The New York Times profile/review of "Metals."

Whatever

2011-11-05T12:44:00.008-04:00

Google Reader is dead. Long live Google Reader.

At least it's dead when it comes to sharing items, which was one of the primary functions for me. The sharing options transformed it into a tight-knit, and effective information sharing community. A place for swapping animated .GIFS, silly news, and serious journalism updates. Now it's just a utilitarian tool for keeping track of my internet habits. It kind of sucks.

My initial rage at the integration of Reader into the now cemetery-like Google+ died down about 24 hours after the change. But I feel my friends and I are going through the withdrawal stages. Seriously, I've had so many run-ins this week where I excitedly went to share an item, only to realize the buttons to do so have vanished. The really important things I posted to Facebook, which only made me feel kind of dirty -- that's not how I want to use Facebook. And Google+ sharing lacks the simple, intuitive functionality that I prefer.

So I'm resolved to feel this way:

Actually, that image is from a fun and recurring graphic series that's popped up in my Google Reader over the past few days. I love it. I would have loved to share it with you sooner. Sry 2 say, it's not my fault.
Regardless, the world moves on and I must adapt. Perhaps this means more posts for this blog, a sliver of optimism I can pull from the fallout of this mess. Here are some other items I found interesting:

Nicholson Baker, William Safire and ... Me?
Is this the future of punctuation!?
Justin Bieber's (probably fake) Baby's Mama
Vonnegut and All His Complexity
The SMiLE Sessions

They aren't all serious shares, after all, it's kind of tough to care that much about the Bieber news (and the ever-pissy Andy Rooney death news didn't make the cut). But still, it was that mix of silly!stupid and serious shares that made going to Reader multiple times a day so much fun. For a couple of days Google was dead to me. Then I realized the middle ground, that unlike other social networking websites, Google kept the same look for years. I appreciate that, and I'll weigh that when considering my loyalty to Google (not that loyalty even matters when it comes to Google, it's fingerprints are on everything I touch).

The landscape changes, I suppose. And now that we're in this post-apocalyptic, post-Reader world, where sharing items lives in the black market of random emails and annoying Facebook spam, my mind turns to this response:

>

#051

2011-11-04T00:30:00.003-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Ted Fucking Williams", The Baseball Project
02. CHASE -- "Apathy", Mikal Cronin
03. ECON -- "The Outdoor Type", The Lemonheads
04. EVAN -- "Knife Chase", Tom Waits
05. OATESS -- "Sing Me Spanish Techno", The New Pornographers
06. MARK -- "RE:Definition", Black Star

FYI and/or brazen cross-promotion

2011-10-28T17:39:00.003-04:00

Over at the tumblr I share with some fine folks most of whom most of you know (half of you half as much as you deserve, etc.) are some pretty awesome tracks. I mean, we are always good, no doubt, but the heavily electronic vibe of the past week tickles me good. We didn't plan it, but I have dubbed it SYNTH WEEK. You might be interested; you might not. You might find this plug annoying. No accounting for taste.

Fall

2011-10-27T01:48:00.003-04:00

Fall is a good time to stay up fairly late, drink Fat Tire from a large beer mug and read some crazy Japanese novel (in translation, of course) while listening to Van Morrison with the lights dim.

(I realize that this sounds fairly pretentious, but I did this same thing last night and thought, 'Damn! This is the perfect moment, right now.' Granted, it was 2 a.m. and I had already drank two beers, but I'm getting this same feeling right now. Try it sometime.)

#050

2011-10-23T17:37:00.005-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Kiss", Prince
02. TONY -- "One Piece at a Time", Johnny Cash
03. CHASE -- "L.A. Woman", The Doors
04. ECON -- "Street Waves", Pere Ubu
05. KYLE -- "Spike Driver's Blues", Mississippi John Hurt
06. OATESS -- "The Piano Has Been Drinking", Tom Waits
07. MARK -- "The Bad in Each Other", Feist

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: John Krudy -- "DNA", The Kills

#049

2011-10-15T03:00:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Begin The Begin", R.E.M.
02. TONY -- "Murderers," John Frusciante
03. CHASE -- "Turn, Turn, Turn," The Byrds
04. ECON -- "Jump Into The Fire", Harry Nilsson
05. KYLE -- "Leaving Home Ain't Easy," Queen
06. OATESS -- "Trust Us (Take 9)", Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
07. EVAN -- "Blandband", Dungen
08. MARK -- "Paradise Circus" (Zeds Dead Remix)", Massive Attack
SPECIAL GUEST KATIE ROSE MCENEELY -- "Rest," Parts & Labor

#048

2011-10-08T11:44:00.003-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", AC/DC
02. TONY -- "Who Do We Care For?", Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains
03. CHASE -- "Twin Peaks", Surfer Blood
04. ECON -- "See the Sky About to Rain", Neil Young
05. OATESS -- "Gardenhead", Neutral Milk Hotel
06. DUNN -- "San Francisco Fan", Cab Calloway
07. EVAN -- "Dog Song", Mountain Man
08. MARK -- "Born Alone", Wilco

#047

2011-09-30T01:37:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Crazy For You", Best Coast
02. TONY -- "The Desert", Benjy Ferree
03. CHASE -- "Vendela Vida", Dinosaur Feathers
04. ECON -- "Sound And Vision", David Bowie
05. OATESS -- "She's Like Heroin To Me", The Gun Club
06. DUNN -- "For Once In My Life", Frank Sinatra
07. MARK -- "Cold Milk Bottle", The Mountain Goats

Almost done

2011-09-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

It has been three years and a few months since graduation and I am officially a Ph.D. Candidate. ABD. I've finished my coursework and my written exams and my oral exams. I've spent most of the time between then and now reading about linguistics. I've succeeded mostly in expanding the category of things that I know that I don't know. And growing grumpier. I'm currently losing the ability to articulate the conventional pronunciations of English words. My syntactic competence was lost some time ago. I guess my point is that I thought I would understand something by now, but I don't think I do.

The good thing is that I now enjoy being stupid.

Covers

2011-09-23T01:34:00.006-04:00

My contribution to the latest mix comes from a tribute album of Is This It covers. There are a number of different ways to cover a song, and the collection displays a variety.

Covering the title track, Peter Bjorn & John write, "We didn’t want to do anything crazy or weird like turning the song into a acid jazz P-funk power ballad. We just wanted to play it as good as we could." Indeed it's the least radical cover on the album, but it remains interesting since it still sounds like Peter Bjorn & John. And unlike some of the others, they don't fuck up what was great about the song in the first place.

Owen Pallett took his inspiration from a Regina Spektor comment and a message board user "named Nabisco" who noted elements of classical composition in the Strokes. Pallett says he "re-imagined the Strokes as a piano quintet, and had us all playing hard, fast and mechanical." While quite different than the original, his cover of "Hard to Explain" sounds great.

The members of Real Estate were apparently a Strokes cover band in high school. They played at Cassie Ramone's sweet 16 party. Covering "Barely Legal," Real Estate deliberately set out "to not make it sound like the original." Their cover is nice but a little boring--but then I find Real Estate nice but a little boring, so.

Then there's Heems, aka Himanshu Suri of Das Racist. I'll let you listen to that one yourself. Everybody hates it. I like it.

---

I shared the Morning Benders' take on "Last Night." They could have just gotten out of the way of a great, catchy, universally recognizable track, as did Peter Bjorn & John. Or they could have totally revamped it. Instead they found a beautiful middle ground, tapping into the original successfully while changing it enough that you're interested in second, third, fourth listens. I thought Chris Chu's explanation of his process was pretty fantastic, so I'll let him have the last word:

Back when Is This It was released everyone was going crazy over how much The Strokes sounded like VU and Television and Iggy Pop. But to me, there first single “Last Nite” always felt like a Beatles song. The way the rhythmic elements always stay out of the way of the vocal, that one note guitar line a la George Harrison, even Julian’s vocal has that combo of snotty grit and melody that reminds of Lennon. But beyond all that, the reason it really feels like a Beatles song is the structure. It’s classic early-Beatles Lennon, and an approach to pop structure that still hasn’t really been tapped into. There’s no clear verse or chorus, just one main hook and melody. The only other section is a short bridge, that really just acts as a kind of propeller for the main melody, giving it the momentum it needs to come back over and over and over again. That’s good pop! And of course the middle eight is replaced by a guitar solo because, well, they’re the Strokes. For our cover we turned that structure on its head. The sections still occur in the same order, but we have re-imagined them. The main “Last Nite” melody/lyric becomes a proper verse, and the section that used to be a short bridge becomes the proper chorus/hook. At the end everything intersects with each other and we have a melodic party. Pretty fun, right?

[Download the cover album for free and read the rest of the artist explanations here.]

#046

2011-09-22T17:01:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Bones", Male Bonding
02. TONY -- "Second Song", TV on the Radio
03. CHASE -- "Floating Vibes", Surfer Blood
04. ECON -- "When I Paint My Masterpiece", The Band
05. OATESS -- "Surfin' Bird", The Trashmen
06. MARK -- "Last Night", The Morning Benders

Signs you are addicted to a television show

2011-09-21T01:05:00.007-04:00

Maybe it's because I'm actually following it as it happens, or maybe it's because I really believe it. Either way, here goes: Breaking Bad is the best show on television in the past 10 years. At least.*

*Yes. This includes the Wire. I'll admit that Breaking Bad isn't quite as dense as The Wire — David Simon is a master of creating beautifully interwoven plot layers that stack up and then come down so neatly. It lives and breathes a city. Breaking Bad is not that show, and I might argue it is better for it. Breaking Bad is about the plot, sure, but the characters are deeper. We know each and every one of them so much better.

Again, I am saying it is so good and that might be because I am watching it in real time. I get so giddy on Sunday nights when I know the show is going to be on. I didn't feel that way about The Wire, but that's because I was watching it all at once, and also because I cheated and looked up spoilers on Wikipedia so I could understand what the hell was going on.

On Sunday nights, though, I text people in real time about the show. (OK, I text one person.) Two weeks ago, I sent Econ this series of messages:

"Shit. Hank is on to something!"
"Walter's kind of an asshole sometimes."
"Gus is badass."

Then, this weekend:

"Oh goddamit. Walt made Skylar look like the bad guy again."

His response:

"Yeah, well she gave away $620k of cash to spite him, so... Well call it even"

Those don't make a lick of sense if you don't watch the show, and I apologize. But it says something about one's devotion to a television show when he is exasperatedly texting his friends about the goings-on of said show in real time.

That's the point of television dramas, I suppose, but if that's the case then why aren't more like this? And why have so many of them been relegated to cable?*

*No, I don't actually watch said shows on TV, but that's a different argument.

I thought I would throw that out for discussion. But whatever the reason, I know one thing for sure: I want to be like Mike.

And yes, you really WILL have to watch the show to even begin to understand what this means and why.

#45

2011-09-15T02:50:00.004-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Ready To Die", Andrew W.K.
02. TONY -- "Caribou", Pixies
03. CHASE -- "Moves Like Jagger", Maroon 5
04. ECON -- "Rolling Moon", The Chills
05. OATESS -- "London's Burning", The Clash
06. DUNN -- "She Blinded Me With Science", Thomas Dolby
07. MARK -- "Under the Knife", The Rural Alberta Advantage

Marcus Monroe

2011-09-12T19:36:00.002-04:00

I just re-ran across this video today and felt absolutely compelled to share it with an audience.

#44

2011-09-08T20:55:00.005-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Blue Line Swinger", Yo La Tengo
02. TONY -- "The Winter", CAKE
03. CHASE -- "Doldrums", Fungi Girls
04. ECON -- "Tune Grief", Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
05. OATESS -- "53rd & 3rd", The Ramones
06. DUNN -- "One More Saturday Night", Grateful Dead
07. MARK -- "A Stone", Okkervil River

'What is an Arcade Fire?'

2011-09-06T19:14:00.006-04:00

Does anybody know, or have they sensed (even if it's playful), a wider rift between hispters and mainstream/Top-40 pop types since The Arcade Fire won their grammy? Or did that fizzle entirely?

Popular photos

2011-09-04T23:51:00.002-04:00

In the past week, seven Flickr people have added this photo of mine as a favorite. It's a pretty straightforward perp walk of a woman I wrote a lot about in Virginia. You see, it's the perfect type of photo for Flickr hoarding as exemplified here by CuffGirls' favorite photos (NSFW, sorta, but they're only thumbnails when you first click).

It's not the first time I've been amused by Flickr's social manners. I got picked up by a couple snowplow groups during the late 2009 blizzard. The best, of course, was when my photo of myself throwing a frisbee at Katie in the pool got picked up by a collection of photos of girls on inflatable rafts.

More importantly, Errol Morris has his new photography book out now. NYT review here.

Thinking about judgy grandkids

2011-09-04T13:33:00.006-04:00

Early modern historians wrestle with a paucity of evidence and generally end up trying to say quite a bit with very little to go on. Historians of the 20th-century have the opposite problem. By many measures--not necessarily all--the amount of potential historical evidence created today outpaces that of entire centuries only a few hundred years ago. I think constantly about what kind of evidence we're leaving behind of ourselves, and how it will be interpreted by later cultures.

How much, I wonder, will survive and in what form? Though I'm no sign-waving apocalypticist (<---made-up word), I don't find the total collapse of our civilization an impossibility. It's conceivable that the digital world we've constructed could be permanently and irrevocably lost. When I entertain such thoughts, I find suddenly terrifying our digitizing of everything. In this potential future, some historian will no doubt pen some eloquent lines about our Eternal-Sunshine-esque erasure of worlds, our deliberate and orderly destruction of the evidence of our existence.*

*In this potential future of my invention, historians and the written word and a script of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will naturally survive. Not sure about journalism.

Aside from such grim thoughts, fertile possibilities of cultural foreignness abound. My mind meanders from questions of overarching moral legacy (human rights, abortion, Axe commercials) to Nicholson Baker details (bottled water, keyboard alphabets, Axe commercials). As a rule, I avoid going the easy "THEY'LL WONDER ABOUT THOSE DAMN LOLCATZ HAHA" route. Still, I can't help but wonder if historians and history students a century down the road will get "fuckyeah" tumblrs or gifs, seeing as I can't exactly explain what makes them great myself.

No doubt these future examiners will see certain elements of our culture as barbaric and patently wicked. After all, there's not a time period or a place in history where we don't find glaring immoralities to judge. There are some obvious candidates: nationalism, Fox News, OFWGKTA, hippies. Still, I place no faith in a progressive understanding of history (<---not a political statement), so perhaps they'll find representative government astonishingly uncivilized, the no-moral-of-the-story morality of the Wire horrifying, the narcissism of rock'n'roll disgusting. Or Tina Fey.

At the end of last year I wrote that Tina Fey's not-controversial-except-to-neocon-pundits joke about Mark Twain might actually be a brilliant anticipation of the totally unfair ways we'll be judged by our descendants. And it's that unpredictability--turning a prescient, humane condemnation of racism into racism itself--that makes me think worrying too much about our grandchildren's judgment is a waste of time. They'll probably have bad taste.

After Chase invited me to join the blog, I batted around a number of ideas for a first post. Most of them involved cheesy "tribute to ____" ideas (Tucson, my bike, the Sad Bear apartment, etc.) or ill-advised attempts to Think Deeply About Pop Music. My semester had just started, however, so I'm stuck with thoughts about history. Originally I composed a rather pompous piece of self-indulgence about the internal contradictions of writing "history from below" but decided no one really wants to read that. Instead you're stuck with the preceding pseudo-philosophical-historical gibberish. Anyway, I'm happy to be here and pleased to have been invited. -Mark

#043

2011-08-31T01:28:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Radar Gun", The Bottle Rockets
02. TONY -- "Stranger", Presidents Of The United States Of America
03. CHASE -- "Golden Sea", French Films
04. ECON -- "Crown Of Age", The Ettes
05. KYLE -- "Oklahoma U.S.A.", The Kinks
06. OATESS -- "Crackity Jones," Pixies
07. DUNN -- "Cowgirl In The Sand", Neil Young & Crazy Horse
08. EVAN -- "Splitter", Johnny Greenwood
09. MARK -- "Wonder Why", Vetiver

Status: Godfather

2011-08-29T21:14:00.006-04:00

This might come across as a little strange -- maybe even out of left field -- but as of this past weekend, I became the godfather to one of my best friend's first child. I'd been asked well before she was born, but even with the advance notice, I had no idea how delighted I'd feel actually becoming the godfather, for real. When I got the first picture, I melted. When I was consulted about the name, it only enhanced the honor. As you might be able to tell, I want to take this role seriously -- I have an open door to spoil this child as much as I want. So anyway, for anyone who's remotely interested, this is Lucy Abigail Palmer (daughter of Erin Palmer (Erin Murrell in a previous life)):

Important updates from Nashville

2011-08-25T21:25:00.004-04:00

We've been in Nashville almost two months now, exhausting the plethora of restaurant options all across town and hitting some of the entertainment options that even some long-time residents have yet to visit.

Most important are these updates:

* (White) linen pants get really wrinkly
* I wrote about extreme smoking this week
* I sinned by not seeing the Handsome Furs on Tuesday night at a venue literally out the back door of the newsroom
* The swing dancing here is intimidatingly good

#42

2011-08-24T01:15:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

01. JACK -- "Nutmeg (ft. The RZA)", Ghostface Killah
02. TONY -- "2080", Yeasayer
03. CHASE -- "Settle Down", Kimbra
04. ECON -- "Fright Night (Nevermore)", Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
05. KYLE -- "Memories of the Future", The Handsome Furs
06. DUNN -- "Take On Me", Reel Big Fish
07. EVAN -- "Divining", The Nels Cline Singers
08. MARK -- "Rainbow in the Dark", Das Racist

Odor Hunt

2011-08-13T15:52:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Vanessa and I experienced our first full-scale un-identified odor hunt in our apartment.

I awoke in the morning and was immediately aware of a strange smell, which in the half-waking haze of early morning seemed to be coming straight out of my pillow. This odor was so pervasive that, although localized in the kitchen, it was by no means confined there. I assumed it was the trash, so I promptly changed it and tossed the half-filled bag on the porch for later attention.
When I got home from work, I found the trash can itself standing on the porch next to the bag. Vanessa had just gotten home. The stench was still a present in the house. The hunt was on.
We searched high and low, in the fridge, in the cabinets, behind the stove, and everywhere, questioning each other as to every detail of our recent victualed past. With the trash can already outside, we were at a loss.
Back track one day. The morning before the hunt, I had reached for Max's bag of dog food and spilled its entire contents onto the floor as the bottom eagerly gave out. It was wet with water leaked from our poorly sealed faucet, caused by the extra pressure of a newly installed dish washer. The dog food was wet but, we thought, still usable. After all, it's only little bits of brown... stuff.
Now back to our story. Vanessa, having by far the keener nose, triangulated the alien smelled to the plastic grocery bag containing Max's salvaged food. That smell from inside the bag is unforgettable. Vanessa escaped to the bathroom, dryly retching. I carried the bag to the dumpster and never took a breath until it was inside. Even then, the smell lingered in the evening air, defying the efforts of the summer breeze.

Moral: Did you even know that dog food goes rancid? Until recently, I thought it was made from the same stuff as clipboards.

At any rate, the hunt is over and we are all safe.

Central Illinois Uber Alles

2011-08-04T02:22:00.006-04:00

We at the newspaper tend to notice when towns in our "urban area" (yep) make the national scene. This is why the existence of an alt-country band called "Neoga Blacksmith" so tickles my fancy. (If you knew Neoga, you'd know why. A fine little town, but emphasis on "little".)

But when cities in our coverage area show up in the national satire scene, it makes us even happier.

Exhibit 1: Man Has Derogatory Nickname For Every Neighboring Town (The Onion)

Exhibit 2: Central Illinois for peace (The Daily Show... their website is broken so I will link to the video when it is actually working. But, rest assured, Jon Stewart clearly mentions Effingham, Altamont, Shumway AND Beecher City.)

It might be stretching it to call a few of the communities mentioned "cities," or even "towns," but I'll give them a pass for including a place like Shobonier off the map. My theory is that there is at least one East Central Illinois native who became a satire/humor writer and has made it his life's goal to educate the world about the towns of his youth. Because, seriously, you don't just pluck Beaver Creek off a map, considering the fact that it has no post office and is not even on any of the maps I have looked at (aside from Google).

A noble pursuit, I must say. Although, I must say it's hard to give any more publicity to an area that already has Flaming Hearts and Wooden Shoes living right next door to one another.

Vanishing Point is visually exhilarating.

2011-07-31T12:48:00.003-04:00

Setting aside "Tree of Life" for a moment, the most visually exciting movie I've seen in a long time is "Vanishing Point," which is showing as part of a road movies series at the awesome Belcourt Theater.

From the very opening of the film, which provides relatively long takes of roadblock bulldozers inching into place on the highway in a small town, I knew we were in for something special. And that's not why we went to see a presumably fun action movie from 1971.

But the visuals kept on giving, whether showing distant cop cars wavering in the desert heat or a tracking shot -- tightly cropped -- on the face of a blonde riding a motorcycle across a field. There are also abstracted images of the lines on the pavement, color field-like images of flickering landscapes and shot after shot of Kowalski's rear view mirror; each mirror glance shows what pursues him, framed by the landscape ahead.

Perhaps these sound typical for a road movie, but I feel "Vanishing Point" has a different pace, whether lingering on an image a bit longer than expect or allowing a bit of camera shake (not in the modern, trendy way) to add some energy.

So check it out.

Summertime

2011-07-24T18:18:00.000-04:00

/YouTube

2011-07-19T19:07:00.004-04:00

Friends. I may never use YouTube for music playlists again. I know all the buzz lately is about Spotify, but my friend at work just turned me on to Grooveshark. I think you might like it, too.

An impromptu playlist for you: Easy.

This Is Not An Album Review

2011-07-16T17:23:00.003-04:00

In this gathering of individuals I feel that "album review" implies certain expectations. Therefore, this is not a review, just my own impressions of the Handsome Furs new album "Sound Kapital." (I will also not be mentioning anything about the full frontal nude album cover...when someone gets naked, it seems that's all anyone wants to talk about. Go figure.)

I love it. It's wonderful. Buy it. I must say, I wasn't thrilled with "Face Control." Although it does contain some great music, I think it lacked heart (I can say that because this is not a review), something I've come to expect from the Handsome Furs via their first album "Plague Park" (which might be all heart) and Dan's recent contributions to Wolf Parade. "Sound Kapital" fulfills everything "Plague Park" was looking towards. Together, "Plague Park" and "Sound Kapital" form a remarkably cohesive diptych; the first all angst and the second all hope.

In describing how I felt about the album to Vanessa, I used the phrase "sadness and inspiration." That is, as opposed to just sadness. It seems "Sound Kapital" has cast off not memories of home but only the anxiety, the nostalgia, and entered a new realm of significance. Songs like "Repatriated," in which Dan sings "I've seen the future and it's coming in low, I've seen the future and I'll never be repatriated" capture a vision of a shrinking world and the artist's endeavor to be a part of the greater "human race." Nations, it would seem, are out-dated. The statement also rings with a certain Faulkner-the-last-chapter-of-The Sound and the Fury vibe.

Despite the fact that I might disagree with the idea of a united humanity (not that it wouldn't be swell, I just don't think it's possible, though, as Jimmy Stewart quips in the film "Harvey": "well, we must keep trying, mustn't we!"), I intend to tell him that I think he's onto something if I get the chance at their upcoming concert in Detroit. He expresses something in this album which might be the beginnings of a contemporary romantic movement. I think Wordsworth would like it...but I don't think Dan would like Wordsworth.
Summary: "Sound Kapital" is Wordsworth without the daffodils.

Whenever someone starts talking about people living together in a community, I think they're onto something. Coupled with, to use another Faulkner reference, "the human heart in conflict with itself" in "Plague Park" (not lacking in the new album), I think/hope this music will go far.

Here's a clip, first track on the album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRQNEtcaIw&NR=1

Library loot

2011-07-05T23:12:00.003-04:00

Katie recently reminded me of how ridiculous the waiting lists were for new-release books while we were in Minneapolis. Some never became available in our three months there.

But today we got our Nashville library cards and then scooped up tons of great stuff. Among our take: TV on the Radio, Black Mountain, bookmaking books, Nicholson Baker's "The Anthologist," non-fiction like "TYPE: The Secret History of Letters," and reference like "Armed and Dangerous, a writer's guide to weapons" and "Modern Guns Identification and Values, fifteenth edition." On DVD we'll be watching, "The Puffy Chair," a road trip comedy; and "Circus Palestina," a strange foreign flick about a runaway circus tiger.

But the greatest grab of all was the B-52s "Anthology," which proves how absolutely rocking they were.

We love the inter-library loan system. We'll most likely get items from the main downtown branch, which sports amazingly huge and beautiful murals that depict the cityscape over the centuries, then return them at the small branch just 7 blocks from home.

So: Share some library thoughts in the comments.

Towards a New Aesthetics of Indie Rock

2011-07-02T21:04:00.006-04:00

It appears that, in the loudness wars, loudness won. Because loudness (not volume, loudness) degrades the aesthetic quality of the music in order to get your attention, and getting-your-attention isn’t itself aesthetic, I propose a new, formalist aesthetics of Indie Rock.

Loudness, as it has infected Indie Rock, means that all the frequencies are mixed up too high. Not only can you not hear dynamics, which have been eliminated altogether, you can barely hear the tone of individual instruments. Recordings of Bartok, Dylan, and Black Sabbath might have moved listeners; only now must we take movement literally. Because even superbly composed Indie Rock generally sounds like shit when you listen to the CD, we need a movement-based aesthetics—movement in a physical sense: change in place across time.

I propose that Indie Rock is aesthetically excellent insofar as, on some standard stereo equipment at some standard volume, it moves paper objects across flat surfaces. The type of surface and the distance between the surface (and paper object) and the stereo equipment will both need to be specified. We all agree that, when talking aesthetics, there’s no Good (full stop), but only good-at-this-or-that, taken as a single, multiple-place predicate. For instance, when talking about movies, we might identify some standards for composition and editing, and then say that this or that or Days of Heaven is ok, good, or masterful at meeting those standards.

To those skeptical of my approach, I answer: Because we know that the loudness wars have made Indie Rock songs sound like traffic noise with rhythm and melody, what’s better for them to do than to move paper objects across flat surfaces?

In order to develop this as a serious aesthetic approach, we will need both to recruit some persons who excel at making small paper objects, and then to determine which frequencies or frequency-patterns best move certain objects across flat surfaces. It would be patently unfair to use only paper wads. We should include paper swans, slightly crumpled receipts, and even pieces of cardboard boxes.

Work needs to be done; I don’t deny it. I support a wide promulgation of different paper shapes, and detailed study of the loud, acoustic properties that they respond to. As with formalist aesthetics generally, we need to determine what Indie Rock we currently call excellent before we can develop our aesthetic framework. What is important is that we recognize that, whatever the details, the best claim Indie Rock has to aesthetic excellence is its ability to move paper objects across a flat surface.

Goodbye, Waynesboro

2011-06-30T00:41:00.006-04:00

We're leaving Waynesboro today, Thursday, June 30, 2011. I have some things I'd like to write, but for now all I've got is this photo.

Update: I think I'm sticking with photos.

Hooch as metaphor

2011-06-18T23:29:00.001-04:00

At my amazing wife's incredible suggestion, we watched "Turner and Hooch" the other night just after another bout with various moving pains. It's been high stress lately.

But it turns out that "Turner and Hooch" is all about a man moving from a small town to the big city. That, plus moving boxes, plus mastiff, (minus Tom Hanks "tighty blackies) and I felt kindred with the flick.

It also taught me where all those classic movie montages go to get a clip of a wet dog shaking off.

Speaking of dogs, my final two stories for the paper were the culmination of a few weeks of kicking a really ridiculous story down the street before finally completing it as my ~~swan~~ dog song.

First, there's "A beagle named buddy," a story that came on the heels of a database workshop I attended in Washington D.C. It seemed like a good way to get some practice playing around with data. And it's about as fun as it gets reporting a small town feature. The people I called were bewildered and happy. As part of the dog package, I also wrote this feature: "Behind the doggles," which has been shared 132 times via Facebook (that's a lot for our little operation). It tells the story of a Harley-riding dog named Harley.

Otherwise, in the time since Chase left the paper, it's been mostly courts and breaking news at the paper -- a full-circle sort of thing, recalling to mind my early days with the paper. My most recent work is all here.

Next, it's off to Nashville to find a place to live.

Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy

2011-06-13T00:20:00.001-04:00

Sunday Stories

2011-06-12T15:01:00.006-04:00

On second thought, I figured it'd be best to just post these here.

There were some really exceptional stories in today's Sunday Times (not a surprise). I still have to go through the Arts & Leisure and Sunday Magazine sections, but if anyone is interested, I'd suggest checking out the following:

From the front page:

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors

"In an anonymous office building on L Street in Washington, four unlikely State Department contractors sat around a table. Josh King, sporting multiple ear piercings and a studded leather wristband, taught himself programming while working as a barista. Thomas Gideon was an accomplished hacker. Dan Meredith, a bicycle polo enthusiast, helped companies protect their digital secrets.

Then there was Mr. Meinrath, wearing a tie as the dean of the group at age 37. He has a master’s degree in psychology and helped set up wireless networks in underserved communities in Detroit and Philadelphia.

The group’s suitcase project will rely on a version of “mesh network” technology, which can transform devices like cellphones or personal computers to create an invisible wireless web without a centralized hub."

For the Executive With Everything, a $230,000 Dog to Protect It

"This 3-year-old German shepherd, who commutes by private jet between a Minnesota estate and a home in Arizona, belongs to a canine caste that combines exalted pedigree, child-friendly cuddliness and arm-lacerating ferocity."

Sports
The Mets’ Bat Whisperer
Clemente’s 3,000th Hit Was Muted Milestone in Ambivalent City
First in Mud at Belmont: Long Shot Ruler on Ice

“At the half-mile pole, I was hearing whips cracking behind me, and I could hear guys chirping to their horses, and all I’m doing is picking up the tempo,” said Valdivia, a 36-year-old from Peru.

A major drama was unfolding behind him with the Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, who was cut off out of the gate by Mucho Macho Man and became tangled with that colt and another one, Monzon.

24 Hours in Sports: One Reporter’s Quest

Misc.
Before Reality TV, Life in an Actual Bubble
Making Room for Art That Really Moves

--

Also, photos are emerging of Gabrielle Giffords, which seem to have been released sometime this morning:

In Facebook Photos, a Smiling Gabrielle Giffords (AP)
Gabrielle Giffords: First photos reflect Giffords' recovery (Arizona Republic)

Speaking of The Arizona Republic, they've had some great stories on the Wallow Wildfire that's sweeping across the eastern half of the state. They also produced this stunning map, which illustrates the spread of the fire day-by-day.

The map got mention on several national news outlets, as well as by Charles Apple, the former design editor of The Virginian Pilot. And I have to mention another shout out by Apple, who recently praised The Plain Dealer, in Cleveland, for their awesome front page package on Terrelle Pryor.

This is a tangent, but I've been pretty wowed by the design work going on at The Plain Dealer (See: this and this and especially this).

Florida

2011-06-06T01:20:00.000-04:00

I wrote this post two days ago and neglected to publish it to the blog. Then the Gonzalez' beat me to the punch.

It seems kind of silly that it took two weeks to finally get around to announcing this in a semi-official way, even more, while I'm visiting Louisville for the weekend.

I'm a Floridian.

Sort of.

When I wake up in the morning, I see palm trees. The oranges are fresh. The thunderstorms are intense, but brief. People organize massive dog weddings, mysterious donors save helpless people, and the governor regularly rattles his opposition party.

Just a regular day in Florida, I'm told, and I think I'm beginning to settle into the scene.

The beach is about 45 minutes away. The Tigers do spring training five minutes away.

There are several alluring museums nearby: Salvador Dali, Dale Chihuly, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc. Feel free to visit...maybe someone at the welcome center will offer a free bag of oranges.

Sadbear kitchen: Recent feasts

2011-06-05T19:57:00.003-04:00

We've entered much wiser into our second year participating in a local farmshare with JMD Farm. Less going to waste, more overall cooking, still more new recipes to try out.

Tonight was a simple affair, but a great use of the otherwise question-causing collard greens. Katie found an easy recipe for collard green pesto linguine, which was just like regular pesto, but a tad more nutty and olive-y.

We get tons of greens early in the season, so finding this new use for collards was great.

But last night was the real feast, clocking in at about 2 hours of prep.

We had:
>> Roasted beets with goat cheese
>> Swiss chard boules stuffed with lemon barley 'risotto,' with a
>> roasted red pepper and pinenut coulis (sauce)

The beets recipe came out of one of our go-to cookbooks, Cooking from the Farmers' Market. The second was an amazing find because we got to try out our swiss chard and use our remaining barley.

The roasted peppers and the blanched Swiss chard.

The sauce ingredients.

The meal.

Also deserving a quick mention is the awesome cake (with banners) that Katie made for Chase's going away party a few weeks back.

The beast will wear boots

2011-06-03T11:08:00.001-04:00

We're moving to Nashville!

Whereas I once would have settled for a city simply because it was home to a single record store (and even cities that didn't), we will soon find ourselves plunged into a place with Mexican popsicles! And other stuff!!! Katie actually knows more about the place than I do, thanks to the DesignSponge City Guide for Nashville, which vaulted her past the two times I briefly set foot there.

But (more) seriously (barely) we keep hearing from friends and Nashvillians that the city will be perfect for us, and just right for a budding bookmaking business. Nashville lured The Black Keys out of the Midwest, so it must be good enough for us too.

As the exclamations can attest, we're excited. With the move comes a new post for me at the daily paper and improved access to good coffee, beer meccas like The Flying Saucer, rock venues, arts, and pretty much everything else. I must admit that the Charlottesville Air Raid Juggling Club will be tough to top, but the crew from Vandy will give it a go with their twice per week club. We should get back into swing too.

We'll hunt down a small house later in June and move by July 1.

At work, we'll park under this bridge!!!

The nerdiest book

2011-05-19T23:02:00.003-04:00

After one week of voting on the nerdiest book owned by a Sadbear writer, the 30 votes have been tallied. Early voting pointed to a likely tie, but a clear winner emerged. The nerdiest Sadbear book belongs to Kyle, and it is: "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region."

This treasure raked in 7 votes (23 percent).

Paired with Kyle's other entry, "Blade of the Immortal" (Ten installments of Japanese manga), he was the runaway nerd book owning champion. "Blade" landed in a five-way tie for second place. Those in the tie, with 4 votes each, included:

:: "A New Introduction to Modal Logic" (Goat)
:: "Intro to Logic and the Methodology of the Deductive Sciences" (Goat)
:: "The Road Ahead" (Econ)
:: "The Three Musketeers" (Leonardo di Caprio on cover) (JDunn)

No other book mustered more than one vote. Rounding out the submissions, paired with their owners:

1 vote
"Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century" (Jack)
"Atlas of the World’s Deserts" (JDunn)
"The Many-Splendored Fishes of Hawaii" (revised and updated) (Tony)

0 votes
"The Silva Mind Control Method" (Chase)
"The Writer's Complete Crime Reference Book" (Chase)
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Econ)
"2003 Driver License Booklet For the United States and Canada" (Tony)
"Making and Breaking the Grid" (Katie)
"365 Ways to Save the Earth" (Katie)

Stay tuned for more future polls, and perhaps some writings of substance.

** Apologies for recent blog problems. Blame Blogger.

His stories live on

2011-05-15T22:19:00.004-04:00

CP may be lounging in lawless Florida now, but his stories will live on in the Virginia.

Some curated highlights:

His first story: Trolley injures elderly man
The story no one else would write: Lost pigeon perishes

When the call broke over police scanners in the late morning on a tough and dreary Thursday, Waynesboro Animal Control Officer Dee Price didn’t waste a minute.

Price drove to the second-story balcony of Waynesboro City Hall, observed the situation, then made the call.

“I’ve got a 10-45,” Price announced into her radio.

An animal carcass.

The Scoop: Interpreter's actions raise rights question
The hustle: Police chase leads, friends can't believe
Due diligence: Covering death
With a wink: Enjoying treats in the heat

STUARTS DRAFT - Hidden behind a cheery disposition and plastered-on-smile, Joey Wright sweltered inside his dancing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup costume.

Above him, beaming on the hundreds of people who attended the Sweet Dreams Festival on Saturday at Stuarts Draft Park, an oppressive sun rocketed temperatures into the triple digits, according to Heather Sheffield, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
Sheffield said the sluggish heat wave lumbering through the Shenandoah Valley would push the mercury past 105.

His last story: All eyes on the eaglets

Vote: Who has the nerdiest book?

2011-05-12T00:59:00.000-04:00

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Voting will be open until Thursday, May 19, with results and book owner IDs to follow.

#041

2011-05-01T01:22:00.005-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "Can't Stand Losing You"
Artist: The Police

Once, a long time ago, Noah Kerr got angry at a bunch of us at Saga for ripping on Sting. My argument was that he's a sumg asshole. I still think I'm basically right (see here for all your Christ-complex, adult alternative needs), but once upon a time he could actually write a hook and still sound cool doing it. Also, the rest of the band was not nearly as douchey. (FACT: I have more Police albums on vinyl than I do Bob Dylan albums... Maybe I shouldn't be saying this in a public forum.)

CHASE:
Song: "All Apologies"
Artist: Nirvana

ECON:
Song: "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)"
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators

KYLE
Song: Bargain (I couldn't find a video with moving parts, so enjoy the album's brilliant cover art.)
Artist: The Who

I chose this because, gearing up for a summer-long writing spell, I've been thinking a lot lately about love. I caught this song on the radio recently and was struck by this line: "To find you, I'm gonna drown an unsung man."
I thought of T. S. Eliot: "Death By Water," part four of "The Wasteland:" "Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you."
Consider Phlebas; Eliot sings his song. What does it mean to drown unsung? And to call it a bargain, the best you've ever had.

DUNN:
Song: "The Impression That I Get"
Artist: Mighty Mighty Bosstones

I listened to this song a lot in the late 90s.

OATESS:
Song: "For Charles Bronson"
Artist: The Mountain Goats

MARK:
Song: "Sandwitches"
Artist: Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All (Tyler the Creator and Hodgy Beats)

OFWKTA are getting (and perhaps starting to earn) comparisons to the Wu-Tang Clan. This is a pretty ridiculous performance. I've watched it many times over. Some you may already have seen it when I posted it in my reader a few weeks ago.

After you've watched that, check out Tyler the Creator's "Yonkers" video. It is sick (by which I mean it involves illness, has disgusting lyrics, and is also straight badass), and mesmerizing, and creepy as hell.

The Beauty of Maps

2011-04-24T20:34:00.004-04:00

Ran across this a couple of days ago while rummaging through my overflowing Google Reader. There is some repetition in this series, but overall it was pretty interesting, especially the comic maps explored in the fourth part of the series.

Check out the rest of this BBC Documentary over at Visual News.

Maurey in Modern Art

2011-04-24T00:05:00.005-04:00

You should probabaly follow this blog. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, but also hilarious. My brother Jim and his girlfriend Julia have way too much time on their hands. While you're at it, follow their real blogs, too. They make cool art.

Pictures of Maxwell Heinrich Janke

2011-04-22T23:20:00.003-04:00

Max is an Eagle Scout,

Who doesn't like being left alone,

But looks good on a backdrop of unpainted wood.

The pillow on the chair behind Max reproduces a painting by Toulouse Latrec. Latrec had a disease where his legs didn't grow past the age of nine or something like that. He's Max's hero.

Max is a two year old long-haired Dachshund, a "red" as they say. He's got himself some goggly peepers and he's quite licky and often.....imposes on intimacy. But he's a keeper.

Whistling

2011-04-20T12:39:00.002-04:00

Put Your Lips Together and Blow? Not Necessarily

Luke Janssen wants to make whistling cool again.

Sitting in a chair in his Williamsburg apartment, Mr. Janssen, who is from England, whistled along to a blues song as he strummed his guitar. But his is no ordinary warble. In fact, Mr. Janssen, 35, is considered one of the world’s best whistlers. And he may also be one of the more controversial.

The palate style is a rarity, and Mr. Janssen’s almost freakish ability to make notes soar and tremolo has earned him respect among many of whistling’s cognoscenti. It also won him a big-screen TV in his first ever whistling contest in 2005 in Sydney.
...
But the style also has its detractors among purists who say it doesn’t belong where the pucker style has long prevailed.

See the story and a sweet video feature over at The New York Times.

Walrus

2011-04-18T23:45:00.005-04:00

Add this to the epic walrus file:

Surfrider: Walrus by hourigan

#040

2011-04-17T21:04:00.003-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "Timebomb"
Artist: Old '97s

I can't think of a better encapsulation of Texas craziness (think Slacker) and punk rock. Killer guitar intro and those howling, pseudo-rockabilly vocals really sell it for me. Really, I should have been into these guys earlier, considering my already-established interest in alt country/cowpunk. Glad I finally came around and bought this album.

TONY:
Song: "(Don't Let Them) Cool Off"
Artist: Peter Bjorn and John

I didn't think anything could dethrone "Second Chance" on the new PBJ record, but "Cool Off" has the right blend of Thin Lizzy, use of the phrase "one trick pony," and movie-montage groove to do it. Around the 50th time I listened to this song this week -- finally through the best speakers in the house (as opposed to the car, mostly), Katie came down the hall: "You're obsessed, you know that right?"

CHASE:
Song: "Black Night"
Artist: The Dodos

Besides the new Peter Bjorn and John album, I've been listening to The Dodos primarily this week. This song reminds me of the type of track I'd pick to lead off a road trip mixtape. Maybe that's why I've been listening to this song a lot lately.

ECON:
Song: "Peaches En Regalia"
Artist: Frank Zappa

DUNN:
Song: "Luck Be a Lady"
Artist: Frank Sinatra

OATESS:
Song: "Damn These Vampires"
Artist: The Mountain Goats

I just received this album in the mail today. If I had listened to the album more carefully, I would surely have chosen a song that more subtly displays my incredibly discerning taste. But since I can't, this is a pretty good one.

Otherwise, I was happy to learn that "All Eternals Deck" refers to Tarot cards. When I learned of the album's name, I had initially envisioned a deck (as behind a house, or on a ship) full of immortals. While my imagined scene was strange and intriguing, I'm happy the album is about Tarot cards. How would one make an album about a lot of deities standing on a deck, anyway?

MARK:
Song: "Boris the Spider"
Artist: The Who

I was raised on the Who. This song was a favorite in elementary school. I loved then, and still love now, the contrast between falsetto and deep growl, and that dominant base line.

In January a local band, the Electric Blankets, played a few Who covers (I Can't Explain, Pictures of Lily, and Boris the Spider) which ended up being clearly the best part of the show. Jack's track last week reminded me of that.

Cherry on Top

2011-04-10T12:51:00.006-04:00

Tony, Katie and I trekked out to Norfolk yesterday to attend the Virginia Press Association awards banquet. I think the trip re-energized us to think about reporting and ways to reach out to the community. The drive back to Waynesboro was filled with conversation about journalism and our roles in Waynesboro...or wherever this industry takes us.

I figured it'd be a good time to update other Sad Bears about some of our work here. I've now surpassed my one-and-a-half year mark at the paper...Tony and Katie have now been here for almost three.

The News Virginian performed extremely well in 2010, winning (for the second consecutive year) the VPA's top honor for The Borders Within series by myself and Tony.

We took home the VPA Public Service Award. Charlotte Hall, a retired editor of The Orlando Sentinel and former managing editor of Newsday, judged the community service competition:

---

Of “The Borders Within” Hall commented: “Tony Gonzalez and Chase Purdy spent more than a year … developing contacts, gaining the trust of newcomers and even learning Spanish to facilitate their reporting.

“The results were a series of stories that revealed the humanity of newcomers and contributed to greater community understanding.

“In one case, their reporting also righted a wrong, as they showed how immigration red tape had dangerously divided a family."

Read the rest of the review at The News Virginian.

---

Every member of our staff won a VPA award this year. I walked away with 10, including first-place honors in breaking news writing, multimedia feature and feature writing portfolio. Tony snagged 10 awards as well, including first-place finishes for investigative reporting and public safety writing. Katie brought home a war chest, including several first-place wins, for her work on the production end of the paper.

I'd be interested in hearing about some of our other accomplishments or what projects we've been working on at Purdue, The Effingham Daily News, Crain, Ohio University, University of Arizona, et al.

The legend of the Halbatroatess

2011-04-09T03:56:00.004-04:00

Archiving my inbox, I stumbled across an old e-mail, with the timestamp of "Mon, Mar 5, 2007 at 12:45 PM". The title is "The legend of the Halbatroatess", written by that venerable Iowan, Robert E. Ogden, Esq. Read along with this video, and the mysteries of the universe will be unlocked.

On a lofty night, when the moon sang to the sea, there emerged, bourne of evil supreme, the hatefish. Once the hatefish had devoured its fill of beastflesh, it stalked to find a mate in the cloudy morn. It discovered it's prey: the wild, tooth-beaked horns of the southern-indochinese albatross. The two mated severely and ferverously, and the spawn was the fearsome Halbatross. The Halbatross is part man part albatross, and all hatefish. The Halbatross knows no measure of sympathy, and can devour entire civalizations of dark-skinned peoples without a second though and a laugh on its fetid breath.

And one day brought a time and a place where the Halbatross desired a mate. It sought the strongest of the cyborgs, a legend of mythical import, to bear its loathsome offspring. It sought J. Oatess, the master of the race of men-borgs, the strongest and most ruthless killer the night had known. And in the folds of the black evening, the Halbatross came upon its prey, and took him with zest. The great cyborg did not protest; oh no, he had been feeling randy in the first place and was glad to give himself to the hungry Halbatross. Their lust was shameful, but they dove headfirst into one another with abandon.

Several thousand years later, as an indirect and questionably linked off-shoot of this fateful eve, there arose from the bloody waves a creature so foul and loathsome, so deplorably despicable, that William Shatner was forced to bear his own children. There are no words to describe the horror of what had become; the horror of the great and mighty Halbatroatess. It was a deformed and hideous menace, a plagued leper so fitful that one could not lay eyes upon it without having a spontaneous seizure-orgasm-enema. So it let out a throaty groan, and its hooved foot, only one, mind you, stamped and mashed through flesh and bone. Many a man-creature was cleanly severed and many a loin was brought into the belly of the Halbatroatess. Only God knows what chaos the Halbatroatess has wreaked on one fateful nacht or another. Of the carnage left in the repugnant wake of the Halbatroatess, there is little more to be said. It munched the hatefish from the sea and snatched the albatross from the air. It mated with both of them and the Halbascrotles were bourne, unholy little bastards, to plague the earth long after the Halbatroatess had glutted itself on flesh. The fruit of the loins of the Halbatroatess still scourges the earth to this day.

#039

2011-04-08T02:00:00.002-04:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

Note: This mix is two-weeks old. Amazing what March Madness and people going on trips (T + C to Chicago, Jack to MI) can do for you forgetting to do stuff. So this might not reflect current tastes, but it's what all respondents were listening to... on March 22. Enjoy.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand"
Artist: The Who

I found this album (The Who Sell Out) used on CD for like five bucks a week or two ago. This is an album full of weird songs, but this one takes the cake (well, aside from the one where Roger Daltry talks to his tattoo). Don't ask why, but there's something endearing about it. I guess that could go for the entire album. This isn't the mod-punk Who, that's for sure. Don't expect any anthemic choruses or raucous playing on this one. It sounds more like a Kinks album (like Village Green) than anything. It's a "concept album", I guess, what with all the fake commercials and radio jingles and such. Mostly, though, I think it was just Pete Townshend's excuse to put all these weird songs on an album. Don't get me wrong — it works, somehow. Maybe because all the songs are about weird things, like "Odorono" and "Armenia City In The Sky" and "Heinz Baked Beans." Like I said, it works. But I don't have any idea why.

TONY:
Song: "I Want to be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart"
Artist: The White Stripes (R.I.P.)

Unless subconsciously, my recent attraction to the White Stripes has nothing to do with their officially calling it quits. I've queued up "De Stijl" and their self-titled debut on the iPod and hit shuffle, which I never do, and it's been enjoyable while cooking.

CHASE:
Song: "Welcome Home"
Artist: Radical Face

Been listening to this song for the past couple of weeks. Seems fitting.

ECON:
Song: "Baby Missiles"
Artist: The War on Drugs

These guys have reportedly been making pals with Animal Collective, and the influence shows on some of their other tracks. This one, however, will have you thinking Bruce more than anything else. I checked them out because they'll be in Pontiac to open for Destroyer next week.

DUNN:
Song: “Eye of the Tiger"
Artist: Survivor

OATESS:
Song: "Big In Japan"
Artist: Tom Waits

It's one of Tom Waits's catchier songs. What's with the paintings in the youtube slideshow?

MARK:
Song: "Sudden Organ"
Artist: Yo La Tengo

Years past, probably in a Galloway dorm room, Julie played this for Sean and I.

This Happened

2011-04-07T22:26:00.002-04:00

Vanessa left Beirut La Pita, a local Belleville dining spot, for an appointment, while I stayed behind to box the uneaten food and pay the bill. While walking to her car, this happened: Vanessa fell in a pothole and lost her shoe. While recovering, dusting herself off, replacing her shoe, etc. (she did not just stumble, but actually fell down... all the way down), a woman approached her with a religious tract. Still stooping to put on her shoe, Vanessa explained that she was a Christian and suggested the woman keep the tract to save paper. It was a sizeable tract (filled, no doubt, with good advice alluding to the good-Samaritan, who would, no doubt, help a sister should she stumble...or fall into a pothole.) The woman responded, "How do you know?" This conversation went on for a few moments, as Vanessa's shoe was now in place and she felt comfortable enough to defend her faith to an absolute stranger. Finally, the woman conceded the point: "Yes. You look like a Christian." The encounter was abruptly terminated by an African-American woman honking her horn, as the two were apparently blocking her exit from a parking space. Also, Max (that's our Dachshund), peed in Vanessa's side of the bed this morning: a gesture expressing his frustration at our marital intimacy. He peed on it; it's his now. Given the previous story, I am much more inclined to accept this form of societal structuring.

Sweet

2011-03-20T23:18:00.007-04:00

Awesome first weekend of basketball, despite the fact that Michigan State was eliminated on the first day for the first time in three years. (And, yes, I felt a little like this kid when they lost. Not because they deserved to win, but because they could have been so much better this season).

Anywho, a look at our leader board tells us that it's still pretty close. Here's the top ten:

01. Chase (50 pts)
02. Mark (47)
T-03. Will (46)
T-03. Jared (46)
T-05. Jack (44)
T-05. Tim (44)
07. Zach (43)
08. Tony (42)
T-09. Joe (41)
T-09. Sean (41)

Just for the heck of it, let's take a look at how many Sweet 16 teams each person still has left, along with their final four picks. An asterisks next to his or her national champion:

Chase — 11 (Kentucky*, San Diego State, Kansas, ~~Kansas State~~)
Mark - 9 (Ohio State, Connecticut, Kansas*, ~~Pittsburgh~~)
Will - 9 (Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas*, ~~Pittsburgh~~)
Jared - 9 (Ohio State, San Diego State, ~~Purdue~~*, ~~Pittsburgh~~)
Jack - 10 (Ohio State*, Connecticut, Kansas, BYU)
Tim - 9 (~~Syracuse~~*, Duke*, ~~Purdue~~, Wisconsin)
Tony - 7 (North Carolina, ~~Texas~~, ~~Purdue~~, ~~Pittsburgh~~*)
Joe - 8 (Ohio State*, Connecticut, ~~St. John's~~, ~~Notre Dame~~)
Zach - 8 (Ohio State, Connecticut, ~~Louisville~~, ~~Pittsburgh~~*)
Sean - 10 (Ohio State*, Duke, Kansas, ~~Pittsburgh~~)

As you can see, Butler's win over Pitt basically ruined everyone's final four. Only one person in the top ten (and, indeed, only one person in the whole pool) still has all four final four teams left.

But I won't brag.

Third Round Roundup

2011-03-18T22:15:00.008-04:00

At the end of the second round we now have a pretty tight leader board forming. Here's the Top 10:

01. Mark
02. Chase
03. Tony
04. Will
05. Jared
----------
06. Zach
07. Tim
08. Drew
09. Joe
10. Jack

Madness

2011-03-14T21:10:00.009-04:00

| THE MUSIC | THE ANNOUNCERS | THE RIVALRIES |

It's March again, and you know what this means: No, not spring or nice weather (at least, not for those of us that live in the Midwest... not quite).

No. Actually, I'm talking about brackets. College basketball, of course.

This year, we here on The Sad Bear are doing something for it, and we want you readers to challenge us.

This isn't because we think we're smarter than you. In fact, most of us probably aren't. I, for example, am picking that team wearing green to go to the Sweet Sixteen despite the fact that Sparty has had a terrible, underachieving season this year and can't hang on to the damn basketball. Chase is working on the misguided notion that Kentucky is going to beat Ohio State and go to the final four. I'm sure Mark has been dreaming about Arizona winning the the national championship even before he found out that they were a No. 5 seed.

In other words, we're mostly homers. But we still like basketball (most of us) and even when our team gets upset in the first round we still love watching every single game.

So, if you think you can beat us, join our group on the NCAA's "official bracket challenge" (trademark, probably). Even if you don't think you can beat us (you probably will) and know nothing about basketball (really, you have a good chance), you're invited.

Send me an email at jackhitts [at] gmail [dot] com by Tuesday and I will officially invite you to the group.

#038

2011-03-08T01:17:00.013-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "(I'm) Stranded"
Artist: The Saints

Stumbled across some "No Thanks!" tracks the other day, and this one hit the spot. Something about Aussies and loud music just feels so right.

TONY:
Song: "Can't Seem To Make You Mine"
Artist: The Seeds

Analysis can only harm The Seeds. So I'll just say that while in New York, I saw a man that looked like Peter Manto, and love of this song is the greatest connection that he and I share.

CHASE:
Song: "Everyone's s VIP to Someone"
Artist: Great Ceasar

ECON:
Song: "Underground Sound" and more
Artist: Adventures in Stereo

The stone-washed female harmonic vocal styles here prompt an immediate comparison to those of fellow Glaswegian Frances McKee of the Vaselines. But Adventures in Stereo deals in a different kind of rawness -- the right angles and minimalist appeal of the Vaselines wash away into a pillowy aural landscape where Pet Sounds instrumentals meet the Wall of Sound. I haven't heard the whole album yet, but the sampling leads me to expect something that shares inspiration with projects like Elephant Six's Major Organ and the Adding Machine, while drawing on the listenability of 60s psychedelia. Note: This YouTube clip features several tracks (in order I assume) from their self-titled album debut, starting with track one, "Underground Sound".

DUNN:
Song: “99 Luftbaloons"
Artist: Nena

OATESS:
Song: "Big In Japan"
Artist: Tom Waits

It's one of Tom Waits's catchier songs. What's with the paintings in the youtube slideshow?

MARK:
Song: "Blue Eyes"
Artist: Destroyer

"I sent a message in a bottle to the press. It said, 'Don't be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves...'"

I'll try to make this my last Destroyer post for a bit. I read that he's touring with the eight-piece band with whom he recorded the album. So that should be, you know, awesome.

It's raining here.

2011-03-06T12:50:00.006-05:00

Since the beginning of the week, I've dipped into the writings of men such as Clifton Daniel, James Reston and Tom Wicker. Introduced to this cadre largely from the works of Gay Talese, I've found myself browsing many of their pieces, and those of other prominent 1930s writers, on seemingly ancient newspaper fronts. The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Charles Lindbergh landing, etc.

It's become a sort of rewarding form of catharsis I'd never forecast for myself -- looking back through these old accounts, beyond the curtain of new journalism and into the industry's rich history. The details in some of these stories have left me speechless. Literally, without speech. In many ways, this silly "discovery" is almost as exciting as my most recent accomplishment, having made my way through all nine seasons of The X-Files (see: brilliant).

I decided to begin today with a newspaper (I say this with full transparency: I normally wallow in bed on the weekends until around noon). I didn't anticipate it to become a three-hour experience, but, in hindsight, it was completely worthwhile. If you're interested, I'd suggest giving these a read:

* Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns to Drug Therapy
* Discovered: The Happiest Man in America
* Hairnets, Yes; Fried Foods, No
* Off the Catwalk, the Battle for Hermès
* For the Brewers’ Axford, It’s Closing Time
* Fan Helps Game Designers Open Doors in Virtual World
* Now Just a Muggle, With Song and Dance
* The Billionaire Who Is Planning His 125th Birthday
* Nightshade Is Growing Like Weeds

I've omitted the good stories I've read so far today about the conflict in Libya. It would appear that much of their coverage has been updated online since press time yesterday evening.

It's raining here, and it couldn't be better.

Going to NYC

2011-02-23T22:32:00.002-05:00

In light of our departure tomorrow (already!?) for New York City, an excerpt from a recent travel chat between Chase and I:

Chase: so the bus departs @ 7:30. it takes 2.5 to get [to Washington D.C.], then we need to find parking, call cab, get to the bus stop. I think we should leave by 4. we'd get to DC proper at 6:30 (if no traffic problems) -- and it would leave 45 minutes to call cab, get to stop (usually 20-25 minutes). It'll still be too close for comfort, but i think 4 is the latest we should leave

Tony: One thing: where's the bus stop?

Chase: downtown

Tony: because GMaps says the fastest way to DC is 2 hours and 50 minutes ... not 2.5.

Chase: oh shit

Tony: AHEM

Chase: hmmm...i always feel like it's just an hour and a half

Tony: I know you assume it's about 45 minutes to DC, but ...

Blues Masters

2011-02-20T18:53:00.004-05:00

Among many gems I've turned up this month by listening through my dad's old Chess Blues Masters records, and reading the liner notes, is the fact that Little Walter did in fact die from injuries sustained in a fight.

But perhaps the best insight provided by those notes came from a record that I almost didn't bother to read up on:

If your girl or boyfriend has any soul at all, John Denver, Andre Kostelanetz, Rod McKuen or Barry White don't stand a chance against Sonny Boy Williamson when it comes time to select a disc or two of fuck music for that special moment in your horny little life. He is the stone master of the low down, go down, and the get down.

On ... "Sad To Be Alone," he blows a chorus that grabs the belt buckle of your jeans and pulls your pants down to your ankles. This is not merely my opinion. The erotic potential is exemplified by the fact that last week while playing the tune on the jukebox in my living room with the front door open, by the time Sonny Boy had finished his harp chorus, outside my door were three bill collectors, the mailman, a door-to-door hockey puck salesman, the neighbor from across the street, my sheepdog Zero, and a 4-year-old girl, all willing to pay for the privilege of dry humping my jukebox. - Cub Koda

With that, my recommendations from a handful of Chess Blues Masters Series recordings:

(For one playlist, click here.)

Sonny Boy Williamson: "Keep Your Hand Out Of My Pocket" and "Santa Claus" (ode to Wolf)
Little Walter: "Blue Light"
Muddy Waters: "Honey Bee"
Howlin' Wolf: "I Asked For Water"

Alternate personality

2011-02-18T09:05:00.004-05:00

Looks like a little change in personality?

This is the new single by Radiohead:

A far cry from the Yorke of years past?

#037

2011-02-17T01:17:00.001-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "To Bring You My Love"
Artist: PJ Harvey

I haven't heard her new album (yet... I'm going to get around to buying it, eventually) but until then I've been really getting into some of PJ's older stuff. To Bring You My Love has some powerful stuff, especially on songs like this where she just belts it out and plays that dirty, dirty guitar. Also, Beefheart fans among us would be advised to check out "Meet Ze Monsta," which sounds like a metal cover of something on Trout Mask Replica (an influence on the album) or a precursor to Mule Variations-era Tom Waits. ("Big In Japan," anyone?)

TONY:
Song: "This Charming Man"
Artist: The Smiths

I've been dipping into the "Left of the Dial" compilation a lot lately. It's like eating your 1980s vegetables and like a lesson in where today's indie folks came from.

CHASE:
Song: "Back It Up"
Artist: Caro Emerald
So I'm a faithful follower of Charles Apple, a freelance visual journalist who used to work as the graphics director at The Virginian-Pilot and the Des Moines Register. These days, when he isn't finding new Star Trek collectibles, he's traveling to far away places in Africa to teach design and graphics to media groups.

I ran across Caro Emerald while reading one of his recent blog entries. Man, Emerald is damn catchy...and pretty popular in the Netherlands right now. Or so I have read. She's a jazz vocalist with a modern pop twist, and if you liked this song, you should check out some of her others (they're quite...errr...visually pleasing). Here's another. Some of her sounds remind me of that great French animated film from a few years back, Les Triplettes de Belleville (give a listen to the popular song from that movie if you want to hear the similarities).

ECON:
Song: "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"
Artist: Of Montreal

DUNN:
Song: “Any Way You Want It"
Artist: Journey

OATESS:
Song: "Kiss The Devil"
Artist: Eagles of Death Metal

Who will kiss the devil on his tongue? I will kiss the devil on his tongue!

MARK:
Song: "rapping 2 u"
Artist: Das Racist

A song where they prove they're actually good and not just a novelty act ("they called us joke rap... we kinda weed rap"). One of the things I love about this group is the way they take standard hip-hop fare and put a slightly goofy spin on it that ends up sounding awesome (in this song, check out the background, high-pitched "what?").

And they're really clever. "Stock is rising–wait–don't scalp the tickets yet / older white women say I'm very articulate."

KYLE
Song: "Nude as the News"
Artist: Cat Power

Eds. note: This is not from Kyle. It's from Vanessa, his wife and another friend of the Bear. I think they worked together on this one.

The truth is, I rarely listen to new music. There are a couple of newer bands I've added to my will-love-forever list, but basically, I don't deviate from that list. I've been listening to the same stuff since high school. I know there's a lot of good new music out there, but I don't care. The bands I love mean so much to me that I can't imagine anything else moving me again, not like that anyway. Maybe I just wish I could be sixteen again. When you're young, everything seems so immediate, so passionate and I think that translates into how young people listen to music (at least, this is how it was for me) . Instead of listening for all of the musical nuances on an album or wondering how they mixed a track to get it to sound a certain way, I used to "feel" the the album as a whole. I thought about what it meant or what the writer was going through at the time. I thought about the person making the music. Like "Oh my gosh, I know what she's talking about. I feel that way, too!" I guess I'm just more mature now. Maybe music was a bit more honest when I was in high school. I was moved by bands back then. They weren't trying to move me though, they just did. This all seems very ridiculous, I know, but there's no way to ever listen to new music that way again. How can I trust a band to move me now that I'm not so naive? How can I be sure that I won't be let down when the album is over? Well, I can't be sure. Getting let down sucks. I stick to what I know is good and moving. So, this song, is a staple from my past. I still remember hearing this for the first time. It meant so much to me at the time. Cat Power wrote this song about having an abortion. I didn't know that at the time, but something about it seemed haunting. Like "Oh Comely" or something. She was very good. Early Cat Power still hits me. Sorry this is so long.

Pedals

2011-02-15T21:35:00.008-05:00

Damn. I miss my Big Wheel. - Chase

Edit:

Damn. I miss my handlebar streamers. - Tony

#036

2011-02-12T21:16:00.002-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "Oh"
Artist: Sleater-Kinney

I think Janet Weiss stole the main drum like for this song from classic 50's Phil Spector songs like "Be My Baby." (Which, BTW, is not a bad thing.... it's a very good thing, the drumming in "Be My Baby" is badass) Only Janet somehow manages to make it even louder than the guitars on this song, which is no small feat. Also love the vocal interplay here: Carrie does the verses and Corrin the chorus. And, oh, what a chorus: " Nobody lingers like your.... HANDS on my HEART...." coupled with that cool whirring guitar line that I can't do justice to with words on a page. It sounds almost like a synthesizer but I'm pretty sure it is not.

Basically, it all adds up to my favorite song on an excellent album.

TONY:
Song: "Natural Disaster"
Artist: Headphones

I bought this record for $1 in Baltimore simply because of it's album cover, figuring I'd chop it into a handmade book cover, then discovered a pretty interesting indie/electronic record inside. One thing I've noticed is how some of the songs are exceptionally slow, if not inconsistent, in tempo, which is sort of unnerving when listing on vinyl. But I'm pretty sure it's intentional, and not just my turntable. Wikipedia tells me that band members are formerly of Pedro the Lion and Fleet Foxes. I think they're pretty solid, and this song reminds me of the famed Lake Zurich Middle School South juggling club, "Natural Disaster."

CHASE:
Song: "Maps"
Artist: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Memories of playing Rock Band. The video was created by a deranged person, so ignore it.

ECON:
Song: "The Gaudy Side of Town"
Artist: Gayngs

Destroyer's Kaputt sent me looking for tasteful re-imaginings of 80s soft rock. Relayted delivers.

DUNN:
Song: "Electric Feel"
Artist: MGMT

Naomi here. Jon has the flu, I have been pretending to be him all week. I submit to you all this groovin' tune that always picks me up at work. It's not a song with which Jon is familiar, but the song I was going to submit as a joint, well-loved-by-the-Dunns piece was "Don't Stop Believing." The best video had an obnoxious ad, however, and I felt it would ruin the flow of the mix.

OATESS:
Song: "Sing Me Spanish Techno"
Artist: The New Pornographers

Aside from some entries in Sadbear mixes, I haven't listened to a lot of interesting new music lately. Here is another older song.

MARK:
Song: "Red"
Artist: Okkervil River

My favorite Okkervil River lyrics.

#035

2011-02-04T21:00:00.004-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "LET'S BUILD A HOME"
Artist: THE WHITE STRIPES

Their break-up shook me a bit more than I expected despite the fact that they haven't put out a justifiably brilliant record since Elephant. Hence my selection this week. (That badass version of this from Conan has been taken down by the NBC fun police. Sorry.) Anyway, this is maybe the one band I would've killed to see live. It feels weird to write "R.I.P." since they're not physically dead or anything, but still.

TONY:
Song: "'JED'S OTHER POEM' (BEAUTIFUL GROUND)"
Artist: GRANDADDY

Discovered this song, mostly because of its video, back in Koon Dorm during sophomore year. Then I lost it. Then I got turned on to Grandaddy. Then a week back I was wondering what happened to that "old computer music video," and I was humming it and thinking about it and started to realize that it might be by Grandaddy, and it was.

CHASE:
Song: "EVERYDAY"
Artist: ROGUE WAVE

When I first found this cover, I didn't expect I'd like it much. I was wrong. It made it on a couple of mixed tapes I've really been into.

ECON:
Song: "TIGHTEN UP"
Artist: ARCHIE BELL AND THE DRELLS

KYLE:
Song: "YULIA"
Artist: WOLF PARADE

Not a very inspired pick, I know. We've been over and over Wolf Parade. However, it inspired a new thought in me this week: whatever happened to the space craze? Sure, we "beat those Reds" and landed on the moon. Hurray for us. But how is it possible that the craze stops there? Is it over? Mission accomplished, let's go home? It's space! I know NASA is still buzzing around up there, but it seems to have lost steam in the public consciousness. Anyway, that's one thing I appreciate about this song (and Dan Boekner in particular). This song seems to think space is still interesting and worthy of metaphor, and I agree. Incidentally, check out the comments to the video. Who are these people?! Yeah, Dante, the whole hell thing...that was a hoax too...certifiably.

DUNN:
Song: "HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF"
Artist: DURAN DURAN

I have a high fever, just finished lecturing, and now have to write a letter of recommendation for myself. Maybe my choice will not make sense later.

OATESS:
Song: "SPEAKING IN TONGUES"
Artist: EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

I watched this shortly before arriving at Hillsdale. I learned it is OK shortly thereafter.

EVAN:
Song: "MARRY ME"
Artist: ST. VINCENT

Can't really stand the studio version, but this live version is stunning and moving.

MARK:
Song: "BAY OF PIGS"
Artist: DESTROYER

At the end of December I happened to see on the Club Congress website that Destroyer was coming January 4. I had fairly recently checked their upcoming shows and not seen the show listed, so it was a very pleasant surprise. That sent me on a big Destroyer kick. On January 4 I discovered that they had wrongly listed the site, and the show was actually on March 23. No matter. I haven't stopped listening to Destroyer since.

This was the title track on an EP he put out a year or so ago. I remember listening to it when it came out and being bored. Then I saw that "Bay of Pigs" was going to be the closing track on Kaputt. So I went back and listened again and found it was actually incredible.

That buzzing synth at like 4 1/2 minutes got me jazzed, and then I wondered why it never came back. But that pulsing beat stays, and the airy whatchmacallit sound. I love the ambiance of the whole track, and I love the pop song that breaks out seven and a half minutes in. The lyrics are, of course, weird and inscrutable and picturesque. The following lines make me laugh: "So now I live well / I live in the mind / I'm still slinging mud in the towers all the time / I took a walk / and threw up in an English garden / nun da da ha da dum ha dum..." and so forth.

I gather this is the album version. The background singers who show up just after the ten-minute-mark aren't on the EP version. Also the EP closes with two extra minutes of ambient sound to match the opening. Other than that the two versions seem pretty much identical.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR:K.R. McEneely
K.R. is a grad student at the University of Illinois, where she is studying library science. She went to Hillsdale College before that, and now she lives in Chicago and likes to make stuff and read stuff.

Song: "GENERATOR 2ND FLOOR"
Artist: FREELANCE WHALES

I was originally going to go with some good yellin’ music, but there’s something aggressively whimsical about Freelance Whales, something I can’t resist (something that may make you, dear reader, want to punch them in the face). Maybe it’s the harmonium.

Anyway, “Generator Second Floor” doesn’t have the best lyrics on the album, but it’s a great mix of macabre and carefree noises. It’s a little insidious, a little perky, and kind of sad (if you actually watch the music video, feel free to call it creepy). It’s perfect for the bus or for multitasking. And if your dog is anything like mine, he will hate it.

What does "shoo-in" mean?

2011-02-02T20:36:00.002-05:00

Someone had said to me, a few weeks ago, that the Patriots might as well mark their names on the trophy, because they were so obviously favored to win the Super bowl, to which someone else responded "they're a shoo-in".

I took this to mean that it was a given that the Patriots will win (no longer a live possibility), and that the term "shoo-in" is used to describe someone or something who is a surefire bet to win a competitive event.

Just a few days ago, I misspelled the term as "shoe-in," and I imagined it should evoke an image of a shoe brushing something in a certain direction, probably past a certain line, or into a goal. Hyphenated words, when made up of two real words, are not marked as misspelled, but, although I had used the term, I later had the impression that I did not know the meaning of what I had written.

A quick internet search leads to many conflicting opinions about the spelling of the phrase. Some would say "shew-in" or "shoo-in." Someone said that the proper spelling is "shoe-in" because "it just makes sense to me." Bullshit.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED, as we learned to call it in college), traces "shoo-in" back to 1928, when it was used to refer to a fixed horse race. Following that usage, "shoo-in" refers to a horse that is going to win a fixed race.

Though intuitively meaningful, the phrase that "the Patriots are a shoo-in" is infelicitous, unless the speaker means to say that the Patriots will win by underhanded means. The Patriots, though the failed, would have had no relationship with a "shoo-in", because at no point were they supposed to win by someone fixing the game.

The OED gives little history for this incarnation of the term. One which appears closer to current use simply means "A certain or easy winner; a certainty, a 'walk-over'." Now I had never used the term "walk-over," so it can't well be used to elucidate any term, let alone "shoo-in," in my native vocabulary, but perhaps its history will shed some light on the term in question.

The OED's most salient entry is about "walkover." Now a 'walkover' is quite different from a 'shoo-in'. A walkover is someone who, as in a foot race, because of a general lack of competitors, needs only to walk over the line in order to win. "Walkover" refers only to some competitor who will easily win, but not because she is unbeatable, but because there is no qualified competition.

On the contrary, a "shoo-in" is someone who might win through foul play. On the account of the OED, the shoo-in is not guaranteed to win, but if he does, it is because of a shoo-in, namely a fixing of the match. The secondary usage involves something equivocal.

In particular, the present day usage of "shoo-in" does not distinguish between winners who win because they're overpowering and winners who win because they've been fated to win by the relevant gamblers. Perhaps those who use the term don't know what they're saying, or perhaps they know enough that we shouldn't bet against them.

NYT and Julian Assange

2011-01-30T02:36:00.007-05:00

The executive editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller, wrote a piece in today's Sunday Magazine detailing his newspaper's work with WikiLeaks. It's nine pages long, but I thought it was a great read.

Here's a passage from the story that I really liked:

"The Guardian, whose readership is more sympathetic to the guerrilla sensibilities of WikiLeaks, was attacked for being too fastidious about redacting the documents: How dare you censor this material? What are you hiding? Post everything now! The mail sent to The Times, at least in the first day or two, came from the opposite field. Many readers were indignant and alarmed: Who needs this? How dare you? What gives you the right?

Much of the concern reflected a genuine conviction that in perilous times the president needs extraordinary powers, unfettered by Congressional oversight, court meddling or the strictures of international law and certainly safe from nosy reporters. That is compounded by a popular sense that the elite media have become too big for their britches and by the fact that our national conversation has become more polarized and strident.

Although it is our aim to be impartial in our presentation of the news, our attitude toward these issues is far from indifferent. The journalists at The Times have a large and personal stake in the country’s security. We live and work in a city that has been tragically marked as a favorite terrorist target, and in the wake of 9/11 our journalists plunged into the ruins to tell the story of what happened here. Moreover, The Times has nine staff correspondents assigned to the two wars still being waged in the wake of that attack, plus a rotating cast of photographers, visiting writers and scores of local stringers and support staff. They work in this high-risk environment because, while there are many places you can go for opinions about the war, there are few places — and fewer by the day — where you can go to find honest, on-the-scene reporting about what is happening. We take extraordinary precautions to keep them safe, but we have had two of our Iraqi journalists murdered for doing their jobs. We have had four journalists held hostage by the Taliban — two of them for seven months. We had one Afghan journalist killed in a rescue attempt. Last October, while I was in Kabul, we got word that a photographer embedded for us with troops near Kandahar stepped on an improvised mine and lost both his legs.

We are invested in the struggle against murderous extremism in another sense. The virulent hatred espoused by terrorists, judging by their literature, is directed not just against our people and our buildings but also at our values and at our faith in the self-government of an informed electorate. If the freedom of the press makes some Americans uneasy, it is anathema to the ideologists of terror.

So we have no doubts about where our sympathies lie in this clash of values. And yet we cannot let those sympathies transform us into propagandists, even for a system we respect."

Makin' it big

2011-01-27T19:03:00.002-05:00

Hey we beat Blanski, despite his ______________ (fill in the blank).

#034

2011-01-26T22:53:00.001-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "MASSIVE NIGHTS"
Artist: THE HOLD STEADY

I want to have some massive nights with Craig Finn.

TONY:
Song: "PEOPLE YOU KNOW"
Artist: TAPES 'N TAPES

Cliche album cover aside, I like the latest, "Outside," from Tapes 'n Tapes. It seems they still know how to bash and how to build songs that shift gears in captivating ways, but their more mellow stuff may be improving, like "People You Know."

CHASE:
Song: "LONG TIME"
Artist: CAKE

This pick was a no brainer for me until I ran across a couple of new Peter Bjorn and John songs. Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm really digging the new CAKE album Showroom of Compassion. The band has managed to keep their groove over the years, holding true to the geeky lyrics and sounds my ears crave.

ECON:
Song: "CRUISERWEIGHTS"
Artist: THE EXTRA LENS

A project of John Darnielle.

KYLE:
Song: "BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG"
Artist: THE PRETENDERS

It's been a while since I contributed. But I'm not dead, wanted to let everyone know. I've been grad schooling, changing apartments, and digressing into 80's music. Okay, I'm not really digressing, I just never knew I liked 80's tunes. I do. Especially The Pretenders. I chose this song, honestly, because its a hit and I don't know much else of their work. What I do know is that Chrissie Hynde's vocals are mesmerizing, and her presentation offers an interesting take on femininity, as does a lot of the music from the time period. How can Chrissie be both hard and soft at the same time? Tough and passionate? Punk and indy, in the parlance of our times? Like a western and a Wes Anderson movie balled into one. And I'm finding more and more that I appreciate the restraint evident in the music (though not perhaps in the clothes).
Guilty pleasure confession: "I'll Stand By You" does something to me.

GOAT:
Song: "UP THE WOLVES"
Artist: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

EVAN:
Song: "I LOVE YOU TOO"
Artist: DEAD MEADOW

I just recently started listening to Dead Meadow again, and it reminded me of how deeply and intensely I love this band for their obscenely loud, dense, whirling, and dreamy sound. Regardless of the fact that referring to their lead guitarist's singing as fucking abysmal could be considered complimentary and their songwriting at times veers outside the realm of what is often thought "tasteful", when they simply sit back and play, focusing on primitive, pentatonic improvised rock that is equal parts hammering and heavenly - it's really something special. At their best, they manage to give stoner rock grace, classic rock ambience, and psych-rock balls.

MARK:
Song: "SWIMMING"
Artist: BREATHE OWL BREATHE

This song, which I think is as pretty as any released last year, pulled me through papers.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Laura, of Tucson, Ariz.

Laura, a former senior publicist at Penguin Books, runs Storyteller PR and spins great music for Tucson's independent local radio station, KXCI. Mark met her at the Dead Western Plains 7" release show. Laura likes excellent cheese, wants to learn viticulture in Spain, and does not think highly of Dave Eggers.

Song: "THE LIMIT TO YOUR LOVE"
Artist: JAMES BLAKE

James Blake is hands down my favorite 'discovery' from 2010. The way he warps and extracts sounds from 90's hip-hop samples makes me all tingly inside. His live performances involve him both mixing in front of his computer, AND busting out on a guitar or bass. I love what he's done with this Feist tune. He stays true to mood of the original, but the pulsing background and restrained voice distortion adds a creepy, floating-around-lost-in-space, vibe. Loves it.
Blake has released a lot of singles and EPs in the last 2 years, but his debut full length drops in February.

(for more Blake, check out this and this)

Songs We Remember

2011-01-23T13:13:00.006-05:00

I recently ran across a friend's blog where they had compiled the top songs that reminded them of their parents / childhood. The results were pretty interesting, so I thought it'd be fun to do the same thing here.

Chase
“Graceland” by Paul Simon
“Sunshine Superman” by Donovan
“Sister Rose” by 10,000 Maniacs
“Love Potion No. 9″ by The Searchers
“Apache” by The Shadows

Going into this, I had no idea what I'd list. It's a pretty even mix of my mom's taste (Paul Simon and 10,000 Maniacs) and my dad's.

All of these songs were heard in one of two places: in my dad's car as he sped down a Louisville interstate, erratically flying around cars...or in my front lawn during the summer months, when my mom would set up the speakers to play music out the upstairs living room windows.

Tony
"Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix
"For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel
"Raspberry Beret" by Prince
"Territorial Pissings" by Nirvana

Jack
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band
"Sloop John B" by Beach Boys
"Tangled Up In Blue" by Bob Dylan
"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon
"Moondance" by Van Morrison

My dad weaned me on country and blues rock while my mom was way into Van Morrison and the Paul Simon. In reality, this list could be 25 items long but nobody wants to read that.

Econ
"Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles
My earliest extant memory of pop music is "Yellow Submarine." I heard it on the radio above the washing machine in my parents' house when I was "just five years old". I remember asking my dad what song this was, and he went on to say he liked the Beatles, but that some of their songs are about drugs.

"Let Me Be" by The Turtles
Until I was asked to put this list together, I'd all but forgotten about the Turtles, a deplorably under-appreciated American rock outfit that cites the Byrds and Kinks as influences. (Side note: Today I learned that they released a Village Green-inspired album called Turtle Soup, to which Ray Davies loaned his production skills.) As a family, we listened to "20 Greatest Hits" countless times. The Turtles are also known for "Happy Together" and for their covers of "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Eve of Destruction".

"Surrender" by Cheap Trick
I probably didn't hear "Surrender" until I was in junior high or high school. My brother and I got really into it, and subsequently my dad, who is unceasingly amused with youngsters who take a liking to the music of his time, told of how he once phoned in a request for "Surrender" to a Big Rapids, Michigan, radio station. He was told by the on-air host that the song had been pulled from rotation at the request of "the city fathers," who were concerned about the lyrics' supposed drug references. Ironically, the lyrics are from the perspective of baby boomer kids who are bewildered that their parents are more sexually and psychedelically unhinged than they are. Anyway, by the time some 25 years had passed, WBRN had loosened up enough to give this song frequent airplay. Just about every time we were working at the warehouse, we would hear this song and crank it up.

"Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and the Wings
Again, my dad can be credited for my acquaintance with "Band on the Run" and "Mr. Blue Sky," but I don't have any standout memories surrounding them, so I will let them speak for themselves.

"Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra

Snowballs and Stairway

2011-01-22T03:46:00.008-05:00

Econ sent me a few videos he founds on his computer as he was trying to clean up his hard drive. I took the liberty of uploading this one. Note the end of the video and the BUZZ 102.5 signoff. Forgot how much I loved that station.

I also have what I believe to be archival footage of the Dawn of The Hellbatroatess (aka, the very first instance of the drunk Jon laugh).

Now, the REAL question is: Has the Genitive Bullshit video survived? I would probabaly pay money to see that video again.

Okay, maybe not, but I would like to see it and others like it. Anyone got it?

Fun Day at Sea

2011-01-09T22:40:00.001-05:00

"The storm is over" -- written on a truck in Nassau, Bahamas

In November, Katie and I went cruising for the first time, thanks to my cousin's choice of a destination wedding in Key West. We sailed on the Carnival Fantasy. Just more than a month later, I'm still looking to share 3 things connected to the trip -- the photos above (more on Facebook), some "cruise journal" excerpts, and the actual cruise journal itself, which was a custom made little book that I decided to use for the cruise and ended up having a lot of fun filling with little scraps and maps. More on that below. First, though, we go to the "fun ship" journal:

3:20 a.m. 11/12/10

Nassau
Woke before the alarm, donned pants to receive the room service. Morning stretch. Prep for land.

Nassau is a schizophrenic little island. Pure touristy ham and cheese on many streets, but funky bustling little city just a block or two away. We dodged the hawkers of cab rides and braids to embark on a New York Times-inspired historical walking tour. We saw a church, government buildings (pink), the jail-turned-library, a fort, and a water tower. The trashy cars and lack of sidewalks defined our travels on foot.

I took many neat photos and enjoyed the "little things." Like the lettering of old signs and hand-painted signs and the red school children uniforms. I liked the wonky cars and the friendly waves between merchants that seemed to show that Bahamians really do love everyone.

12:08 a.m. 11/13/10

Freeport
Our health is deteriorating after a night of little sleep and only sporadic naps to compensate. Our alcohol supply is diminished. My scruff is scruffier. We were off the boat by 10 a.m.

Freeport presents a tourist's nightmare of industrial overtones and a cruise ship pier far flung from island attractions. We probably enjoyed the container ships and oil refineries more than most.

2:20 a.m. 11/14/10

Key West
Our best day off the boat and an even better one for newlyweds Chris and Joy. Fort Zachary Taylor State Park was an excellent beach wedding venue with a scenic vista and easy access to some clear, warm ocean water. I was happy to hike up my dress pants. We also shot two cool Polaroids with the rich blue backdrop. The wedding went off without a hitch. The reception lunch kept up the fantastic day on "Bone Island," as everything from the chips to the fritters and red snapper to key lime pie were superb.

10:56 p.m. 11/15/10

Home
We're home now but still wobbling around as "cruise lag" continues to stump our brains. Our last fun day at sea was a lurching affair.

At dinner we ordered escargot, which Juan enjoyed and Dad tolerated. But it required a second round (chocolate-covered, we joked) to get Mom to try the little snail dudes. She said she'd be OK if they were like buttery sausage (Jaun's description) but balked quite a bit. Then she chewed and chewed on 'em.

My "Geek Book"
One of our favorite bookmakers is erinzam, from whom we've bought a handful of creative little repurposed books and such, including one in which she used a 1955 Bowman baseball card for covers.

I decided last-minute to take along a geek book for the cruise, and it proved perfect for my pocket and easy to wrap up. Once back at home, I went wild one night trimming down our maps and receipts and business cards and doodles and notes so they'd also fit, and now the little book is bulging. This little project has me thinking of other things to be keeping in notebooks.

Albums extravaganza 2010

2010-12-31T18:00:00.003-05:00

I was planning on putting this up earlier, but it works out well that I have New Years' Eve off and have time to compile this. Here are the favorite albums of a few Sad Bears. I'm sure you've already read way too many lists but please humor us for this. We like lists way too much.

Feel free to berate us/debate us in the comments. Lists after the jump. (And happy new year. Don't party too hard out there while you watch the NHL Winter Classic!*)

*I realize that I will probabaly be the only person actually watching this. Deal.

CHASE
10. The Walkmen - Lisbon
A bit more upbeat than some of their past work, this album snagged me on first listen. The Walkmen having become a reliable group to turn to when I'm rummaging for music to play.

09. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I feel a little like a sellout listing this album. Maybe I am...but I guess I don't care. "Power" is the best song on this album.

08. Vampire Weekend - Contra
A good second album for Vampire Weekend, though, regrettably a little more mature and less self-assured than their first. At any rate, I appreciated their calls back to the beats of Paul Simon on Graceland.

07. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Less hoppin' than their previous albums, I liked hearing this side of Hot Chip.

06. Wavves - King of the Beach
Probably the album I've listened to the most this year. Tony introduced me to it over the summer and its remained my consistent music while driving for work.

05. Wolf Parade - Expo 86
Didn't care much for it at first. But numerous other listens roped me in. This is a good edition to the already impressive Wolf Parade discography.

04. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Loved this album. These songs helped me get through so many stories at the end of long news days. Great stuff from the Gorillaz. It took a few listens to feel comfortable with so much guest artist work but I think they did a good job of keeping a seamless flow into different emotions

03. Beach House - Teen Dreams
Beautiful, spacious and expressive. Work from Beach House's new album grabbed on first listen to one of their songs placed on a mixed CD for me. At times it can sound a little forlorn, but definitely not a bad thing in this case.

02. Spoon - Transference
This album is probably the best of the year. The control Spoon has over their music is amazing, and their consistency to produce so much goodness this year is shadowed only by The Arcade Fire's sense of place and time. (Also: best album artwork of the year).

01. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Basically neck and neck with Spoon, The Arcade Fire comes in first on my list because of (as I think Tony may have mentioned before) their interesting position in our lives. If there's a band that speaks to our generation -- I think The Arcade Fire might be it. This album, and it's fantastic array of songs, have been with me in all my important, potentially life-changing, decisions this year. I remember speeding down I-10, south from Phoenix toward Tucson, this summer with Mark Perkins...and this song was blasted as I made one of the biggest journalism decision I've ever made.

Favorite songs on this album: "Sprawl II", "Modern Man", "Rococo", "We Used to Wait." -- too many to list in a 'favorite songs' category.

TONY
I've been mudbog busy these days, but here's some stuff:

Arcade Fire, Suburbs
I like the Arcade Fire because I can be critical of them and hate some things about their music without it really taking away from my overall enjoyment of what they're up to. Alongside bands like The Walkmen and Grizzly Bear, and maybe Beach House and MGMT, I think they're building "the sound" of "these days."

Wolf Parade, Expo 86
Grew on me, big time.

Wavves, King of the Beach
I'm still convinced there is genius going on here alongside the hipster silliness and awkward album art. I'm also glad I can still listen to stuff like this, on like volume level 11, while driving. Moment of brilliance is at about 1:10 on "Linus Spacehead."

Beach House / Walkmen / Grizzly Bear
I'm awash in this stuff, better late than never.

Hip Hop
I don't think I could ever be a hip-hop poser because I'd never come across as trying hard enough to know what the hell is going on. But this year more than before -- thanks in part to Top 40 and hip-hop radio while on road trips -- I came to hip hop unlike ever before. I just find myself needing the beats when I turn to the iHome, etc. This goes for Beyonce, Janelle Monae, old J5, Kanye, and sometimes the vocoder.

JACK
I recently made a list of all the significant albums that came out in 2010. I split them into two lists: Ones I heard, and ones I didn’t.

They were roughly equal, maybe 20-25 albums in each category. Now, for obvious reasons, I’m not going to be concerned too much with albums I did not hear. I did not hear them for various reasons. Mostly, I wanted to but could not because I couldn’t find them at the record store (Superchunk, for some reason), or online (Black Milk), or I just couldn’t afford it when I did happen to go to the record store (Neil Young). Sometimes, I had no real desire to hear them or spend money on them after listening to a few songs (looking your way, Sufjan).

So I’ll leave those albums alone for the time being and focus on the list of albums I did hear. Because, I realize in looking at this list (which is bigger than the other) that very few albums stick out as ones I loved and listened to on repeat.

This often says more about me than about the quality of the album. For example, I like the Arcade Fire’s latest epic, but I did not play it on repeat — as in, cuing up song one as soon as the final song ended — at all.

I did that on a select few albums. And really, isn’t that what matters when you’re discussing an album you find to be the best of the year? Something you loved enough to want to hear ALL THE TIME? No offense to Arcade Fire (which I really like, by the way... in fact, I am listening to and enjoying it as I compile this post) or Sufjan Stevens or Kanye West (please don’t diss me in a song) but I can’t justify naming an album my favorite of the year if I didn’t absolutely love it — no matter how notable or groundbreaking it is. Sorry. Them’s the breaks.

10. Hot Chip — One Life Stand
As I've said before, Hot Chip has always been able to deftly tow the line between heartfelt love song and tongue and cheek humor as deftly as a wide receiver's footwork on a sideline pass. On this album, they score a huge touchdown, although they lose some of the big beat firepower they have had. These songs are about watching Wheel of Fortune and falling in love and, although they have less club-ready sex appeal as songs from The Warning, they songwriting is all the better for it.

9. Wavves — King of the Beach
Stoner love songs and Beach Boy mimicry buried behind a cacophony of jangly fuzz guitar.

8. Big Boi — Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Ridiculous title, awesome album. I think it's a tad long for Big Boi to handle without Andre 3000 (17 songs, a few too many), but the first three quarters of the album he proves exactly why he's been the underrated member of Outkast for all these years. Check the swagger on "General Patton", the smooth flow on "Turn Me On" and "You Ain't No DJ" and tell me this is not so.

7. Spoon — Transference
Solid, tight, catchy. Vintage Spoon. Not quite as good as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga but a down album for Spoon still beats 99% of all existing music.

6. The Roots — How I Got Over
Someone (maybe Christgau?) called this a nostalgia album. That's pretty evident. Not in the sense that it sounds like The Roots are trying to turn back the clock sonically. It's more lyrical and thematic — almost every song on here is uplifting, and not in a cheesy way. Black Thought rhymes a lot about the past and how he arrived at the present. There's also the requisite religion ("Dear God 2.0") and love ("The Fire") songs, but the main theme is evident in the title track's chorus: "Out on the streets/Where I grew up/First thing they teach us:/Not to give a fuck/That type of thinking can’t get you nowhere/Someone has to care." This is what "mature" hip-hop sounds like.

5. No Age — Everything In Between
More tuneful than Nouns, but No Age still know how to rip shit up. The thinking man's noise-punk-garage band. I think they're getting older, too: Much like How I Got Over, there's some heavier shit at stake here. I think. Lyrics are still a little muffled. But the general idea I get from songs like "Glitter" and "Common Heat" is still a feeling of alenation. They're just more mellowed-out about it. But, again, they still know how to shred. As I've already stated, "Fever Dreaming" has no decipherable meaning, it's just fucking cool.

4. Caribou — Swim
Mesmerizing from start to end. Psychedelic (sotra-)electronica for the ages.

3. LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
"Dance Yrself Clean" is a tease on this album. That is, it's the only balls-to-the walls dance number, really, on the album. But that's okay, because the other songs have the emotional and musical strength to make up for the fact that they don't quite have the backbeats that many people look for in an LCD Soundsystem song. I could listen to songs like "All I Want" and "You Wanted A Hit" all day long.

2. Beach House — Teen Dream
I just like the vibe of this record, despite the fact that it's not exactly original. Who cares? It's catchy and I like how it sounds.

1. Broken Social Scene — Forgiveness Rock Record
Winner and still champion. I'm surprised I never got tired of these songs after listening to the album on repeat this whole summer. But I still find each one exciting every time I play it.

MARK
1. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
I should probably write “one man’s opinion” and “favorite, not best” and make some allowances for different tastes, acknowledge that many people who know more about music and listen better than me do not like this album at all—and some of these people like other things that Sufjan has done in the past. I should do that. I will not. I am convinced that Adz is better—and Sufjan is better—than anything else in music right now. More, the combined superiority of every element of this album so surpasses everything else that came out this year that comparison feels almost silly. The rest of these albums are good. Adz is great.

Incomparable lyrics; Sufjan’s evocative voice; craftily employed, complementary background singing; organic and wildly artificial sounds; fantastically catchy beats and harmonies overlaid with an awesome mess of perfect fuzz and noise and furor—all these set it apart.

Consider the intricate way Sufjan lays out his album: the gorgeous, haunting opener gets blasted aside by the sci-fi psychosis of the following two epics (the bridge of “Too Much” where the hisses and buzzes and racket just pop over flutes and strings is a key to the album, I think). This neurosis gives way to the simple beauty of “I Walked.” Three lovely, angsty tracks follow. Closer aside, “Vesuvius” is the album’s most comprehensive track. “All For Myself” functions as a gorgeous, highly multi-tracked display of Sufjan’s unique and powerful voice—and also as a catch-of-breath before the final two-track, thirty-minute push. What I love here is how “I Want to Be Well” offers a kind of manic reconsideration of where wanting it all for oneself has led. Finally, the twenty-five minute closer recaps the album (pretty to ugly to angsty to catchy) before the final summation: “Boy, we made such a mess together,”

There’s much more to say about this album—about how it is a profound examination of personal suffering and the isolating tendency of the sufferer to see only himself and his own suffering, about how consciousness displaces place in his previous work, about the way the album can’t be experienced fully without dipping at least a little into the mad art of Royal Robertson—but I will stop myself here. The Age of Adz is, as I have said, a perfect storm of Dan Deacon, Fuck Buttons, Philip Glass, and every aspect of Sufjan Stevens’ varied discography. The rest of my albums on this list are just favorites, but this is the best album of the year.

2. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
I have without a doubt listened to this album more than anything else this year. At no point was it ever the album I was listening to most, but from the moment I picked it up in early March until now it has remained among the four or five albums I’ve listened to most. I listen to it when I unwind, when I’m excited, when I study, and especially when I drive. My early obsession with “Rhinestone Eyes” and “Some Kind of Nature” gave way to “Glitter Freeze” and “Stylo,” followed by “Melancholy Hill” and “Superfast Jellyfish,” and, now, “Sweepstakes” and “Welcome…”

3. The Walkmen – Lisbon
Three months ago I wrote of Lisbon, “I already feel like it’s gonna be one of those albums that I can’t separate from a point in time. It’s going to be: first-semester grad school. New place. No close friends. Lisbon by the Walkmen.” Lisbon is inextricably linked in my mind with Bows + Arrows. Both feature signature opening lines, badass second tracks, loser lyrics, and contemplative closing tracks. I won’t try to say which is better, but I will say that Lisbon sports an optimistic bounce that pleasantly contradicts the lyrical pessimism, as well as they grim way I characterized it when it came out.

4. The National – High Violet
A fragile thing.

5. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
This album hits very many of my music pleasure receptors during its hour.

6. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
Except for the piano closer, Kristian Matsson sticks to his acoustic guitar and voice. Though it’s not John Darnielle in the bathroom with the boombox, The Wild Hunt is a minimally produced album that allows for no distractions and no excesses. Matsson has one of the most affecting voices in music today, and his lyrical imagery equals Dan Bejar’s, only Matsson’s lyrics often make narrative sense too. I should mention that his recent five-song EP, Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird, is just as good and can be viewed as a complement to the Wild Hunt (there’s an electric guitar!).

7. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
With the benefit of turning this stuff in late, I have to say that I absolutely agree with Chase about Arcade Fire possibly being the band of our generation. Their three monumental releases span and in many ways define the past decade musically.

8. Titus Andronicus – Monitor
A brilliant mixture of Americana, Civil War memorabilia, and New Jersey. Maybe the best black sheep album since Black Sheep Boy (“there’s only one dream I keep close / and it’s the one of my hand at your throat”). Best guitar hook of the year. Best drinking song of the year (“And the walk home is gonna be a real shit show / I’ll be picking up half-smoked cigarette butts all up and down that road”). Best mixture of piano, guitar, drums, fiddles. Some of the best melancholy horns on the year (see also “Stranded” by the Walkmen). The vocals begin as an impediment but unfold into the perfect tool for their needs. Ugly and beautiful, this album is a feat.

9. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Although “Monster” is the most blistering track I heard all year, the opener, “Dark Fantasy,” best encapsulates the album. The chip on the shoulder is there (“What the fuck do I know? / I’m just a Chi-town nigga with a nice flow”), as well as his characteristic need to display emotional vulnerability (“me drown sorrow in that Diablo / me found bravery in my bravado”). There are ridiculous pop culture shout-outs (“too many Erkels on your team / that’s why you’re Winslow”) and some obnoxious lines (“You ain’t got no Yeezy, nigga?!”).

Nicki Manaj’s opening monologue introduces the album as the true history behind a fairy tale “made up centuries ago.” The centuries-old, universally known myth turns out, of course, to be a litany of injustices committed against Kanye West. This album is all about Kanye. If sometimes—okay, often—that’s insufferable, the album still stands as a hip-hop, pop masterpiece. Relatively speaking, this isn’t a heavily autotuned album. Kanye wisely relies instead on various background and guest vocalists to do most of the singing—as in the way the choir and the Mike Oldfield sample punctuate the flow of Kanye’s verses in the opener. The song and album are far from perfect, but they do certify that, for now anyway, Kanye West is the king of pop.

10. Breathe Owl Breathe – Magic Central
Breathe Owl Breathe have always skirted borders between cute and cutesy, catchy and irritating, compellingly quirky and definitively obnoxious. And let me first say that for a six-and-a-half minute stretch beginning with the third track and continuing through the introduction of the fifth one, Magic Central falls quite solidly into the latter, regrettable categories. Fortunately the other forty minutes on this album more than make up for those rather irritating moments. “Own Stunts” expresses the melancholy cheer inherent in Micah’s voice. “Icy Cave Dancers” is a perfect folk-influenced pop song. “Swimming” in particular could have fallen into a sentimental, quirky mess but, thanks to restraint, stands out as the most catchy and poignant song on the album.

Soul On Fire

2010-12-11T02:59:00.004-05:00

Tonight I listened to Eagles of Death Metal at work. We missed deadline by 45 minutes because a coach conveniently "forgot" to call in his score. "Forgot" despite the fact that he remembered our rival paper to the North, who we had to call to get the damn boxscore.

I edited 60 inches of obits and a 60 inch murder trial story and listened to J. Devil preach it and it made me wish I was back in college where I could be allowed to drink, blow things off and make poor decisions with relativity no consequences.

Then we went to the bar and had shots.

Yes, one of those nights.

#033

2010-12-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "Friends of P."
Artist: The Rentals

Sadly, this might be the best thing any member of Weezer (current, or now, in the case of Matt Sharp, former) has produced since Pinkerton. And it came out in 1996.

Either way, I'm down with P. Return of the Rentals is such a fucking gem. I think we can all concede that he was the backbone of Weezer. Rivers can sit on it, especially without his high harmonies in the background of the early songs.

Shoulda been you, Matt. Shoulda been you!

TONY:
Song: "Inoculate the Innocuous"
Artist: The Unicorns

I can't vouch for every moment of this song, but I love the opening and I've been exploring Unicorns and the related work of Islands -- all ushered into my world by one Nick Laffey, of Des Moines, while in Minneapolis.

CHASE:
Song: "Killa Bees"
Artist: Wu-Tang Killa Bees (RZA, U-God, Inspectah Deck, Suga Bang Bang, and Blue Raspberry)

ECON:
Song: "Dust Cloud"
Artist: Bear In Heaven

EVAN:
Song: "I Saw The Light"
Artist: Spoon

Transference is really, really growing on me, as is Spoon's overall aesthetic. They're so overtly catchy and simple, but the strange and subtle details - hitting certain notes and hooks on off beats, "wrong" tones and sounds, unusual imagery (even Biblical at times), etc. - make immense differences and set them apart. Britt Daniel is really something special among pop songwriters.

MARK:
Song: "Power"
Artist: Kanye West

Some ambition for Silliman. It's not my favorite song on the album, but, short of posting "Runaway", this video best reflects what Kanye's trying to do on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

I have a kind of running comparison between Kanye's Fantasy and The Age of Adz running through my head and no time to really sort them out. The short version: both express personal suffering in overtly epic ways, but while Sufjan is self-conscious about it, Kanye is not. Kanye West actually seems to think that his problems are equal to or a result or a symbol of the sins of the Western world. More on that another time.

#032

2010-11-28T19:04:00.004-05:00

A weekly sampler of what we're listening to (new and old), and what we think you might like, too.

{LISTEN TO THEM ALL}

JACK:
Song: "The Champ"
Artist: Ghostface Killah

Only Ghostface can rhyme about David Koresh, Mick Jagger, Kangol hats and hysterectomies in the same song.

TONY:
Song: "Hey Alex"
Artist: Bradley Turk

I genuinely like what Brad sings about and how he plays -- a la Daniel Johnston and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone -- and this is brand new to YouTube.

CHASE:
Song: "Crown on the Ground"
Artist: Sleigh Bells

What I want right now is to be at a concert and let loudness like this wash over me. I'd jump.

ECON:
Song: "In My Time"
Artist: Kurt Vile

Pavement doesn't seem so lazy after all.

EVAN:
Song: "Fables"
Artist: The Dodos

Not too much to say about it, just like this song and the Dodos in general. That and the fact that vibraphones rock my goddamned socks off make this song full of goodness.

MARK:
Song: "Piano Fire"
Artist: Sparklehorse

My friend Wes (of ...music video?) passed this fantastic album on to me a couple weeks ago. I've been listening to it fairly constantly since then. I love every aspect of this song. That distorted acoustic guitar, the guitar wail, piano, driving drum-beat, Mark Linkous and PJ Harvey's killer vocals, even the obscure lyrics (well, okay, I love some of the images: "fiery pianos washed up on a foggy cost" and so forth," "I can't seem to see through solid marble eyes," etc.).

Real Simple Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T10:40:00.009-05:00

Pulled mostly from Real Simple magazine, our Thanksgiving menu:

Turkey
Sweet potatoes with pecans and parmesan
Brie and chive biscuits
Green beans with bacon vinaigrette
Homemade cranberry sauce
Black forest pie

Lauren is in town from NYC. We're up late, snacking on bananas and sipping coffee. Chase will soon be down here at 444 Wayne. And we might be submitting our pix-as-we-cook to the New York Times.

--
Addendum by Chase: We made it at least once.
--

East Boogie outtake

2010-11-23T00:52:00.004-05:00

If you want to read about my excursion to East Saint Louis today, please read here and look at this website.

As an outtake/addendum that that little anecdote, while I was driving around that sad city, I had a certain Midnight Oil song stuck in my head, the product of going to the Saint Louis record store right before my aimless driving. Rather than explain it any further, just watch the video and imagine how strange it must have been to hear this song while driving around that urban wasteland.

Three Years Old

2010-11-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Today, The Sad Bear turns three.