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Last week’s announcement of this year’s Lollapaloozaline-up was met with a remarkably positive reception from the internet masses, a surprise to someone like me. You see, when Perry Farrell resurrected the traveling show, most people who care for public opinion generally opposed the somewhat sugary lineup, complaining it was too commercial and lacked the raw energy from its original early-to-mid 90s talent.
Due to lack of sales and likely poor public opinion (for the record I liked the return of Lolla since I am huge Incubus and Queens of the Stone Age fan), Farrell decided to keep the Lollapalooza brand name alive by instead turning it into a stationary festival like the ones made popular by Reading, Glastonbury, and Coachella here in the U.S. in 2005. Chicago was chosen as the city to host the event and has since remained the site for the festival. While the logistics of the concert have been an issue, every year it has grown in popularity, and just by looking at this year’s lineup one can see why (Kanye West, Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Rage, many, many others). Simply put it stole all the thunder from Coachella and its organizers Goldenvoice, but only for a brief time.
Just two weeks before showtime, the folks at Coachella announced a major addition to their weekend, the purple one himself, Prince. Last minute additions don’t get any bigger. and while i for one second do no think that Prince was added to keep their brand name bigger than the resurrected Lollapalloza, it has to be said it was pretty perfect timing for Goldenvoice to show of their big swinging dicks and proclaim their status as king of the mountain.
The question is why is it so important to be number one in this field? it’s like sticking utilizing scientific and economic resources just to stick a flag on the moon.
In the midst of this new pathetic arms race, many (and i mean that in relative terms) are complaining in the All Points West message boardabout how Coachella and Lollapalooza and Bonaroo and whoever are putting this festval to shame. I suppose it’s a reasonable concern. The Goldenvoice organization has been quoted as saying there wont be any more additions. It seems right now paople are paying $100 a day just to see Radiohead, and they want to see a gazillion bands play simultaniously instead of just about 40 over 3 days (i happen to like the lineup; i’m going myself, but i woldnt mind Broken Social Scene!). and, of course, remains the question of Jack Johnson, but that remains a national controversy rather than just a NJ travesty.
I would say you should not to believe the “no more additions” rhetoric since about a 5-6 hour drive south, the Virgin Festival will take place on the same weekend, and they have already teased the buying public with their superstar headliners.
I typed all this nonsense to bring up my main brief point: Lollapalooza was criticized for being softcore compared to their past, but now these megasize festivals are packing tons of acts under the guise of “indie” or “legendary.” The majority of these acts are about as mainstream as it gets. Having Rage at Lollapalooza is not innovative; they toured their “rare” performances all last year. many of the big acts can tour by themselves; there isnt any room for small acts with large potential.
The appropriation of the word indie for capital gain is hurting these festivals a bit, but there is sure a lot of money to be made. I do want a few more acts to be added to All Points West only to avoid seeing fans of only Radiohead. It will be like last year’s poorly run Rock the Bell’s, by far the most pathetic turnout for a rap concert. Hopefully organizers can learn from this display as soon as possible
- the black keys’ new album. don’t know what it’s called, but we’ve been hearing about this ad-nauseum because, aside from them being a good band already (I’ve only heard random songs here and there) the new album was produced by
King Midas himselfDangerMouse. Sadly, I do want to hear this, as if I’m going to point out DM’s intricate touches on the record. the Black Key’s new album is being overshadowed by a person who’s not a member of the band, but i bet they’re happy sales for the record will increase five-fold. - the raconteur’s new album leaked earlier than expected on i-Tunes. C’mon Steve Jobs, get your shit together! you’re just trying to one-up the rest of the internet trash by getting the leak out before the rest of them. I’m curious on two fronts: just how many people purchased the album online while it was available, and how many people really want a new raconteurs album. that’s one side project i cant get with. you’d think Jack White with a bass player would kill, but it shows just how much White thrives on simplicity. On a side-note, i used to buy albums all the time before the release date through mom and pop shops, so this was a feel good nostalgic story for me.
- REM’s new album is their best in years, and Michael Stipe is gay. Apparently everyone already speculated Stipe was gay to begin with, making indie/alternative rock media just another US Weekly. I do want to hear the new album, Pitchfork says it’s their best since New Adventures in Hi-Fi. My research skills tell me “What’s the Frequency Kenneth” wasn’t on this album (the last REM song i liked), so i have no idea what it sounded like. and their new song sounds like Stipe is likely to die at any moment. hopefully the next single is better.
- Fluxblog likes one of the new Janet Jackson songs. doesn’t surprise me at all. i liked one of those Kanye produced songs from the last album that was unsuccessfully marketed for the 106 and Park crowd. So I do agree that Janet sounds better when she’s “sweet” as opposed to Janet if she tried to convince me she would be my personal blow-up doll. why is she pretending to be Mariah Carey? MC is insane-crazy but it works for her at least (even though she wont sell many copies of her new album). Janet just wont learn from the mistakes of Michael.
Babel might the one movie of all movies ever concieved the was the least deserving of all its High Praise. That was seriously one of the biggest piece-of-shit movies i ever had the displeasure of watching. and to think i was missing on parts of the Georgetown-Pittsburgh game because of it. The most interesting storyline was the Japanese one, and even then I had the misfortune of looking at some girl’s hairy bush (at least that was kind of funny). I wonder what if they made that part as its own movie; i’d imagine it would only work as a short film with just the parts that were shown.
What was Cate Blanchett thinking when she decided she would take part in this? did she owe someone a very large favor, or was she just doing it to get a more desirable role in the future? this is how you under-utilize an otherwise great actor. Brad will do anything, but this is below his standard, the dumbest movie he’s done since Meet Joe Black. The Mexican border scene was just trite. I almost hoped the little girl would die just to see if the lady gets the death sentence for whatever Homeland Security law she may have broken, and how that’s totally not fair and oh how those kids were so cute and blonde! and whatever other ideas and images were thrown at the audience.
Blood Diamonds wasn’t all that either. Leo was cool, but was embarrassing in that “accent.” Jennifer Connoly was attractive as always, and at least she wasn’t as annoying as her part in that movie with the dude from Gladiator where he was super-smart but a total sociopath. the only redeeming performance was that of the guy who played Solomon Vandy. The movie felt like an after school special with the applause for our hero in the end of the movie.
avoid Babel at all costs; and I guess you can watch Blood Diamonds if you want to assure yourselves that contributing to the economy of the diamond industry is always a bad idea, but i’m sure if you have that idea floating in your head, you probably don’t need Leonardo DiCaprio to convey that for you.
i would start off with a common cliche like “do pepole really like that song?” but what’s the point really?
i hate to sound like that guy who complains about “horrible music,” but c’mon folks! i’m not so convinced the public is all for this song! i’m not sure if Flo Rida is one guy or a group (i hear many voices in that song) but that opening verse sounds like Nate Dogg, but devoid of that good gangsta music!
who’s responsible fo him/them having the number 1 song on i-tunes? that song is on like all the time. my cousin wanted to buy it yesterday, but it took a some snark and eye-rolling to talk him out of it. he instead bought “party like a rockstar” (i can only do so much).
anyway dude is corny in ways i cant convey in text. he should go away in a couple of months.
there’s something miserably appropriate regarding today’s glum weather. it’s as if we used up all our happy points for the entire month of February just to see the Giants win the only game that matters.
i’d gladly trade an extra week just to have that same feeling I felt last night. it was palpable. all you ever ask for as a fan is that two-minute offense scenario where your team controls their own destiny - not missed or made field goals from the other team, not penalties, certainly not bad referreeing.
wait, did Eli really just escape that sack…hold up how did Tyree hold possession of that football…his helmet? WTF?
It sounds silly to say, especially rearding this is sports we’re talking about, but Eli had absolutely no intention of losing this game. They beat the best team in the NFL, no questions asked. we are now entitled to talk shit until next September, when they do this all over again. That’s why they play the game, that’s why we watch.
As for me, i’ll gladly bask in this peculiar afterglow for maybe a week. Maybe I’ll go to their ticker tape parade. after that, it’s time to retire the Giants cap, t-shirt, and whatever regalia I drape myself in every Sunday, sometimes Mondays, and every once in while on Thursdays and Saturdays. Baseball is coming up, and the Yankees have to take care of that other New England franchise. being a fan is having to put yourself through annual misery, just like today’s weather. At least the sun shines in the summer.
PS. Fuck Boston.
yeah, i bought the cheapest camera around. i’m still broke, and my old crappy camera malfunctioned some time ago. the last one was a Sony, and I vowed as a consumer I will never support them again. that camera was one disappointment after another. but yeah, back to this one. i had a week of activities to try it out with mixed results. but it’s not like i’m some real photojournalist or anything, although i’d like to be one in another lifetime.
this is supposed to be the Fiery Furnaces. yeah, i technically may be fibbing, but i swear that’s them. kick ass show, admittedly i’ve only heard a handful of songs from them. and i have to believe the Jersey hipsters there were in the same boat, save for a few “true” fans. i tried taking pics from every conceivable section of the backroom, it was too packed to maneuver myself upfront, and that’s literally the best shot. i was there for the music, anyhow.
that’s my friend Joe and his wife Gaby, and that’s their first dance and Mr. and Mrs. The pics are pretty good when you’re up close and personal.
my sister Naty and her friend Annie. at Medieval Times, where adults go to either accompany their young ones, or get tipsy and watch dudes in horses. Good times. It’s interesting to point out I would have never even considered going to MT as far as 5 years ago, most likely because of some false pretension (or more likely i was just very negative all around). but of course in the company of good people, all is worth it. but the friggin pictures sucked. we sat in the last row of our section and this is pretty much how all resolution came out:
confession: i only paid like 30 bucks for the camera after gift cards, so who am i to complain?
That’s a picture of Valentina The Niece, just for the love of it.
i smelled victory in my fantasy football league. i was convinced my opponent was not on my level; our cumulative point totals indicated i was the clear favorite. i debated such intricacies as whether to start Santonio Holmes instead of Chris Chambers, or the upside of starting Bet the hitman Favre in a dome game.
I paid attention to the weather. but the weather screwed me.
I was jumping for joy when i saw my opponent had two players playing in Foxboro this weekend, convinced that Tom Brady would do just enough to win the game. he did. but my opponent subbed Benjamin Watson in favor of someone else. he still had mike nugent kicking field goals and that paind off for me.
i benched Roethlesberger and apparently wasnt having a good game until the end when he started racking up stats and TDs in a losing effort against the Jags. he had 3 TDs, i believe.
Favre threw 2 picks and his total yards were not as impressive.
and for whatever reason, i didnt check the weather update for Bufallo’s game at Cleveland, and that bit me in the dick. Lee Evans doing next to nothing.
So I hear Tom Brady adn Tony Romo screwed their owners this week. well, that’s the breaks.
what i cant understand is how Reggie Wayne and Joe Addai didnt fare well agains the Raiders! Both players carried me this year; even when one didnt do well, the other would make up for the lack of stats. Sadly for me, they both came up with below average numbers in a week that truly mattered.
oh yeah, MY competition had LaDanian Tomlinson on his team. he’s a beast.
much like other internet trolls, i gawk at hot news reporters/weather chicks. and a time-tested fact is there’s no better place to get your perv on than Latino news programs.
i know there’s no way to sound creepy while writing one of these douchy diatribes, but i’ll do my best to keep it subtle. Mary Gamarra is by far the hottest chick doing this whole “telling the weather and looking damn good talking in front of a camera” game. the reasons and visual evidence:
- she’s classy
- she’s classy
- she’s classy and looks very fit
hello, not many people in this world can wear a dress like that and not totally skank it up, in public or in television. she seems accessible (i’m probably fooling myself here), like i might have a chance with her (haha). the consensus seems to be that Jackie Guerido is the baddest chick in the meteorologist game. but in my humble opinion, there’s stench of snottiness with her good looks. plus we all cant be like Don Omar and have easy access to her. plus i don’t like her more recent bangs. and she looks like she can let herself go in a few years. I can picture a whole bunch of ho-males like the ones in Hot Chicks and Douche Bags following her around and leaving their nasty stench on her, leaving her even more repellent.
back to Mary. i want her to have my children.
On a similar note, i’ve noticed Karla Ramirez is one of the hosts in that awful morning program Despierta America. For those Who don’t know, Karla used to host Control, another Univision show, about 7 years ago, i think. and she looks great. supposively she had a kid. good for her!
for the last couple of weeks i’ve been thinking about going back to Ecuador, like its something i need to do before i get to be too old to really appreciate what it is to set foot in a place before i consider it to be just a place for “vacationing” i know that my tia Paola just visited; my cousin Ricky, my brother Ivan and our friend Simon are visiting during the new year and I am insanely jealous.
I can only blame myself. i was asked by my brother about 3 or 4 years ago to tag along with him, and I simply said no. I wish i had an explanation for this. I think it was because i thought it would be too boring, that in the end i would still be dependant on my uncle and aunts with day-to-day situations (walking around, sightseeing, transportation, etc.) Ideally i want to go by myself. obviously it would be super-rude to go to Ecuador without touching base with relatives, so i guess i wanted to avoid it altogether.
I wonder why it is that now i’m having these thoughts. my financial suck-ness could not get worse in the matters of surplus cash, so even a domestic trip i would consider out of the question unless i didn’t mind being broke for a month. the immigrant in me pictures a reverse diaspora where many like me, who have lived most of their lives in another country, would like to come back for a couple of weeks and see what comes of it. but ultimately there’s a huge apprehensiveness (is this even a word?) on my part. Ecuador never really belonged to me or vice versa, the same way I don’t necessarily belong here, even though I am a U.S. citizen. For anyone who might think I’m weird for this, i believe Nationalism as a concept is something of a farce, a tool used for political purposes only to let you down in the long run.
I had a dream last night where my brother Ivan’s sister was here in the States on military leave or break (confusion sets in when i couldn’t identify what country she was fighting for). She had just come from Iraq and found her way to Pennsylvania. My brother insisted we go visit her. By the time i woke up, I never did get to see her. Yet I have this mental image of what she may look like, and at this point it is hard as hell to illustrate that into words. To me it’s just a face, it may be a memory of a picture I may have seen some years back.
that dream makes so much more sense to me now than it did eight hours back.
i feel so awful.
i received a phone call the other day, a number i did not recognize. i was obviously way out of character since i answered the call, rather than opting for my normal behaviour of letting it go to voicemail. its a lady, and she’s only speaking in spanish.
she asks for someone else. i tell her she has the wrong. she continues to see if there’s someone around who goes by that name, but i tell her this is my cellphone, and she’s definitely got the wrong number.
she attempts to explain to me her reason for calling. i think she was referred for a job or something. i’m not really trying to hear it, seeing as how at this point of the night, i decided i was gonna be a big asshole. She asked for my name. I tell her “Alex.”
She keeps going on and on about herself and to ask if I knew this guy. I keep telling her no. I dont know why i just didnt hang up the phone at that moment. For a moment i thought i was just entertaining a prank call, and hoping soon enough i’ll find out who this caller was. She asked for my name again.
I told her my name is verga. and i clicked her off.
For those who dont know spanish, verga is like the rudest, nastiest way of saying dick or cock. it is like supernasty, and i never used that word towards anyone in my life. the only times i ever used that word was when i referring to it in a joking way when my brother used it say when playing videogames or watching sports.
which is why my brother was very surprised when he heard me saying it. and he made me feel pretty bad about it, pointing out how inappropriate I was.
after the phone call, my bro mentioned that maybe we did know who the call was going to, which i guess is a possibility, but i doubt it, i dont really communicate with much of my extended family at all.
just at this moment i did one those reverse look-up things where you enter a phone number and a name popped up! i feel like a such a creep for even doing it, but the name that appears is one i dont recognize. it is a name of a woman and it is definitely of Latino origin.
i suck as a person.
to much of the internet nerd world’s chagrin, OiNK is no more. for the unaware, OiNK was this invite-only BitTorrent site that can get you any music album imanigable. Want some non-released Prince album? go to OiNK. that sort of thing.
I never received an invite, nor did I ever ask for one. OiNK always intimidated me for some reason (says how much of a pussy I am, even behind a monitor). Sadly, I always believed your music catalogue had to meet a certain standard to be invited to Oink, and as much as I like the music I have, I couldnt stand behind it. I dont own much of anything obscure, and at best I could only fill up half of a 30 gig Ipod.
I learned of this news I think on Tuesday. And I new public opinion would be huge, but never to this level. There are arguments of how this will set precedent of how information will be distributed all over the internet (as if music should be treated as information. just because you can store it on a disc, it doesnt mean music can be likened to some spreadsheet you did at work). It’s all very sci-fi to me, which is the interesting part, what is intriguing of the story. The fact that Allen Ellis, the young creator of the program, was arrested over this hints at images of a police state (a clown version of at the very least). I obviously dont agree with this. But when he says he is totally guilt-free of the amounts of money up and coming bands lose by having their music pirated all over the world is just ridiculous. I understand Oink (and any other filesharing site) contributes in a word-of-mouth sort of way, but we’re talking about the livelihood of many people. If they were born to play music, let them have a chance to make this their profession! Let them make some money off this!
The idea of music-solely-as-art is a tired one. If I want to lend someone a book, thats fine, at least someone contributed to their economy. but when you arent even given a chance to compete in the marketplace, that’s akin to a monopoly. and they end up more broke than how they started out.
We’re all guilty, I suppose. I freely download music and pretend I’ll support them when they go on tour. There’s only a handful of artists that have my unwarrented consumer loyalty, and even that number is shrinking! I had a conversation with a girl one time and she snickered at people who purchase music off ITunes. I couldnt believe it. She made it seem the act of buying a song for 99 cents was ludicrous. We buy shirts, dont we? If we want to watch a movie in a dark theater, do we not fork over those 10 bucks? I suppose if we could download a pair of jeans, we would do so. But just like internet porn, it will never be the same as copping some ridiculous colored tape with 5 hours worth of humping.
Besides, some Oink copycat must be around already. I wish I could go to some sort of demo site just to see what OiNK looked like. So stop crying, everybody! We’ll survive this, just like we survived all other internet deaths (napster, audiogalaxy, whatever).
he’s certainly reaped the benefits of his media-respected image. unfortunately, his become quite the egotistic maniac.
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/10/08/tiki-barber-i-miss-football-i-still-have-a-lot-left/
in a recent interview with Chauncey of Steppin Out Mag/Howard Stern fame, Tiki expressed his regret of early retirement:
“I miss football. I want to be out there playing on Sunday afternoons. I miss the stage. I also miss the guys a little bit because they were my close friends for so many years. In fact, I ran into Jeremy Shockey on the street the other day and I said to him, ‘Damn, I forgot how big you are!’ He gave me a big hug and said he missed me too. It was great. If I wanted to come back and play football next year I could. I know I still have a lot left.”
Of no coincidence is the Giants are riding a three game win streak. Not too long ago when the Jints were losing he was trashing Tom Coughlin, citing his retirement on his lack of desire to play for him. He also questioned Eli Manning’s leadership (which I happen to slightly agree with, but he was way out of line considering he no longer plays for the team).
Last year, he explained his intention to retire on the weekly punishment his body endured during th football season.
As a fan, I certainly respected his decision to retire if he was looking out for his well-being. He has a family to live for, and his post-football options were looking good for him, especially in the media field. He had spots in Fox and Friends, the Today Show, and a cohost gig for Football Night in America (or whatever that show i refuse to watch is called). But these new “revelations” look totally bitchmade. If he wanted to skip training camp, he should have done it the Strahan way; we all know he has enough clout for that.
I hope he goes to the Eagles. Wouldnt surprise me one bit. Good luck to him.
like many a football fan living in the US, I’m in a fantasy football league. We toil for about three hours through what might be the most boring experience imanigible, the fantasy draft, to talk shit and make sure our rosters are up for the competition.
I’m pretty satisfied my offensive roster:
Joseph Addai, B Roethlisberger, Reggie Wayne, Roy Williams, Willis McGahee, Santonio Holmes, are pretty much the core, whether I opt for the 3 WR/1RB combo, or a 2/2 split.
I’m caught up in a disappointing 2-2 record thus far, and it seems that both of my losses can be blamed on my lack of production in the Tight End and Kicker positions. I had to dump both of my original picks for both positions in favor of the Steelers kicker and the Panthers TE, whose names escape me at the moment. Week 3 was good for them, which meant an asskicking victory on my part.
Last night, however, my cuse returned. My TE didnt do jackshit, and the Steelers reached the endzone twice, with a couple of turnovers in other drives. Bummer to the tenth power. Woah is me to find my opponents players in both positions: Tony Gonzalez racking up points, and his kicker perfect from two 40+ yarders.
I did a lot of shit talking in lieu of last Sunday’s match, pretty confident I would be the victor. Shit, I had delusions of grandieur, with aspirations of the playoffs, maybe the Superbowl. My goal was to reach Week 6 with a 4-1 record, before I had to do some major shuffling of my lineup. You see, a big portion of my roster has their bye week in Week 6, and I was hoping to possibly throw the game and not have to deal any of my players. Now I see something must be done, and some of my players I may have to sacrifice for the good of my team.
Fuck me for taking this so seriously.
so, the “people” have decided. Barry Bonds number 756 will have an asterik and donated to the Hall of Fame as such.
I’m upset because it makes a mockery of the Hall of Fame. If you want to rip Barry, that’s fine. Even his skin is not as tough as he may project himself to be. Eventually all the naysayers may succeed in breaking him down to nothing. It has happened before, and it will keep happening.
But after that ball left the park, it became a baseball artifact whether you like it or not. it belongs in the Hall unmarked, or in Barry’s hands unmarked. If Marc Ecko wanted to brand it or grafitti it, he can do so, but he also had the right to keep it then.
It is no longer the Barry Bonds ball, but the Marc Ecko ball.
Will the same reaction occur when he approaches 3000 hits? Probably not, but I guarantee some other jackasses will try to gain exposure by trying to bring Barry down.
I wanted to drink Sparks. I was curious, never having drank it before. But gotdamn, I had like 4 of those bad boys last night (and a shot of vodka, inexplicably).
it’s now 6:20 in the morning and i’m towed up.
it won’t be a good day, i’m sure of that one thing.
i think i have been up since 5:30 because i dont know what to do with myself. i drank a few of those yesterday, watched a bit of “Akira,” went to my sister’s place to watch the Yankee victory (1.5 games behind now!). i know on my way home i bought some club soda, i’m looking at it right now, so that means i felt it’s totalitarian power last night, Sparks that is. went to bed relatively early.
i have to stop treating my body like a science experiment. i’ve come to the conclusion i’m indestructible like Bruce Willis in “unbreakable,” i might feel the pain, but i’ll never die or break a bone or something to the effect.
now thats something i need to change in my life.
take what i’m doing right now, for example. one might think that the act of writing in-of-itself is not lazy at all. but of course i’m doing it doing work hours, where i’m supposed to spend my time doing other things.
my daily routine goes something like this: do some work, procrastinate, do some work, look through some sites, send out BS mails to people telling them i’m bored, looking for things to do in my off-time, actually do some work, talk with coworkers, talk some more, talk about pointless things like the whole Britney Spears non-story, never ever trying to discuss politics with those who you work with because you know that will only get you into some sort of problem, and try to find ways to kill that last hour.
Shockingly enough, the day goes pretty fast.
But it’s this sort of complacency that has me all hot and bothered (i know the term doesnt aplpy at all, but i felt like using it anyway). Instinctively all of us are Gallileos becoming all scientific and shit about how to kill every dam second of the day doing the most minimal amount of work possible, just enouigh to not get fired. Just typing these words make me look like i’m not slacking off. And I italicized!!!!
I’m upset with myself, really. I need to change.
Moving on…
I’ll be seeing Girl Talk tomorrow!!! I may be going with someone on a blind date. That’s probably not the best place to take someone you dont know at all, but i might not care if she has any fun at all, i want to hear some pop music!
Oooohhh and the Pipettes are coming to town next month. Imma be there fashow!
I’ll certainly talk about those topics when I get the chance.
PS. Good luck to the Yankees this weekend against the BoSox. A sweep might not be enough to knock off Boston for AL East lead, but every win is important, we need that wild card.
PS part deux - good luck to Rutgers football tomorrow!!!! So far they’re 2-0, ranked 13th in the nation. And as far as I know this is their longest streak of weeks being nationally ranked. Go RU!!!!
so, my sister got married last weekend.
that is to say, she’s been married for a year. it happened in Vegas, as a matter of fact. So she got married again, but she did it properly. With authority. She went all out.
a few differences from last year’s wedding to her wedding 2.o. I wasnt there. I regret it. I heard it was great fun. Theoretically it would have been more along my line of preference, too; it was small and in a place where fun finds you. But alas I wasnt there. This year I was there, and there must have been something like 300 people, maybe more? can’t say. And I could have never imagined how much fun this wedding was going to be.
It was nutso. Pretty much from the beginning people started drinking. As soon as the ceremony was over, me and a couple of others snuck back to the limo to drink some warm brews. No shame whatsoever. In the limo, my brother Ivan got drenched with champagne (by mistake, granted) Everyone kept putting ice in their warm beer like we were still in high school.
At the reception hall (very professionally run, by the way) everything was ready for us. Any and every drink was available. The food was excellent. the hosts were very helpful and always looking out for you. The only thing we had to worry about was the heat outside while taking pictures, but that was nothing a little Henessy or Johnny Black couldnt take care of.
anyway enough of the rant. it was crazy, a lotta fun, people got drunk, i took some embarrassing pictures. congrats to Naty and Nick.
i used to have a job where we had to endure the local lite station 106.7 lite FM in NY, where they play some Barry White songs, a couple of Rod Stewart joints, and a hodgepodge of crappy singers like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston (SHE’S NOT SO BAD REALLY, AFTER A WHILE YOU JUST FAIL TO SEE WHATS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HER), and The Eagles.
I did acquire a liking for Michael Buble, but i have to face my own demons when it’s all said and done with that mini-obsession.
I work in a new place and all we listen to here is 103.5 KTU, which for the unaware is a mixture of what might as well be dance-lite music. They shuffle among 80s freestyle (TKA, george lamond), plenty of madonna, destiny’s child (i dont mind this at all), almost every song from Timberlake’s Futuresex/lovesounds album, and some classics.
They play Xtina Aguilera’s “genie in a bottle” like its brand new.
They play Toni Braxton’s “Not man enough for me” (or whatever the song is called) once a day. It’s true. I’ve kept count.
I once interned at a record label. Aside from hearing new songs from label talent before anyone else, you usually heard a leaked album from some rappers upcoming effort. And they wondered why sales were down.
I volunteered for the CMJ Music Marathon last year. I figured I would hear some pretty cool music in the production room, but i mostly heard the crappy new Public Enemy album, and the most recent Beck (the ones I quit caring about).
Office or work music sucks.
this post will not contain any pictures. but you will just have to trust that i indeed have the mother of all pimples on my butt.
i feel it at every moment, everywhere. when i walk, when i sit, especially when i get up from seating. i’m afraid of going to the gym. when i pretended to do squats earlier today, i felt the pimple expanding.
i tried to look at it in the mirror, it was in such a specific spot i could not catch a glimpse of this monstrosity. but i can feel it; it’s tangible if i reach for it from the back and and around the front side. it’s that big.
i’m wondering if this is even a pimple at all. i was sitting on my ass a lot during the weekend from the long nights. i know i sat in a somewhat uncomfortable position often, looking for my comfort zone. i can’t remember if this thing was on my body yesterday, i do remember making a comment about it last night.
as i type this i’m sitting in a holy uncomfortable chair.
i can’t wait to rid this thing of me.
The Black and White cookie, one of my favorite snacks of all time, is oddly enough not even a cookie at all, in the traditional sense. it’s a cake; its fluffiness and mouth-drying texture are signifiers to it being not-at-all a cookie. the only cookie-like quality it retains is its round, flat shape. It tastes pretty good with chocolate milk. matter of fact, this is what i had for lunch today.
in true american form, the very idea of the black and white cookie conveys its divisive nature; it almost challenges you to choose a side, which one do you prefer? The Black or the White? Jerry Seinfeld once commented about the cookie as “two races of flavor living side by side,” offering up a sort of cynicism of American Utopia (can we all just get along?) Clearly, he was just joking. It is impossible top eat the B & W cookie without having an opinion on which side tastes the best.
Upon eating my lunch this was the very idea that concerned me. Every time I consume the yummyness that is the B & W cookie, I am reaffirmed with the opinion that the White half is the best. Now, I know that all I’m discussing here is a sweet, but for all intents and purposes this opinion twists my whole world around. In any comparison of things black and white, I (almost without hesitation) always bet on black, so to speak.
better music: black or white?
i have always supported the notion of black people being innovators in the arts, while whites appropriate these styles to make them their own. not a knock against my white brethren, who although not technically creating rock & roll, have become the face of rock music all while continually pushing the genre. but if the question was rap versus rock, the answer is as simple as reciting the words to Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice:” blacks all the way baby.
better athletes: black or white?
totally subjective topic, but the fact of the matter is the impact of black athletes in professional sports is still today like no other issue that has affected sports.
while there are certain merits and some justification to the wide-eyed appreciation of white basketball players before blacks would be heavily involved in the league, the choice can be compacted into name dropping. Jordan. Hakeem. Shaq. Kobe. Dr. J. Oscar Robertson. Lebron. Whoever. All these people have contributed to the globalization and increased profitability of the sport.
Tiger Woods, who is certainly not white, is the dominant player in any sport.
Barry Bail Bonds is going to break the record, people! Admittedly, steroids is a non issue to me and I am not convinced that just by taking steroids Barry has been able to do what he has done. If so, then Jason Giambi will be playing 10 more years chasing the record himself.
The English Premier League benefits from the black talent the league showcases week by week, something other international leagues of the world’s greatest sport still do not embrace
black chicks or white chicks:
This is clearly a matter of reference. but just looking at the entertainment industry we can make some definite comparisons. The hottest chick in the game by far in Beyonce. The hottest white chick is …. AngelinaJolie? Jessica Biel? Some random porn star would probably be a better match-up against the like of Beyonce, but it doesn’t come close to Bey’s grip on the title of hottest chick on the planet.
slang?
no even worthy of discussion.
tastier part of the B & W cookie?
for whatever reason the black fudge is always creamier in contrast to the hardened frost of the white … frost (icing?)? the black part comes off almost like a cupcake, which is definitely not a good thing (just thinking of those crappy cupcakes i used to eat during someone’s birthday in grade school makes me want to hurl just a tad). The white part is frosted icing, almost invoking snow (in my humble, moronic opinion). it’s texture compliments the cakey cookie.
so to tally up: black wins in some important cultural institutions, except the B & W cookie. Such an inconsistency in my life obviously is mindboggling, and it inspired the most pointless, yet poignant post of my life.
